We were a little apprehensive about booking this cruise because of the mostly negative reviews by English speaking cruisers on this site. However, the timing of the cruise and the itinerary suited us very well and we went ahead and booked. We boarded in Genoa and the experience was very encouraging. Boarding arrangements were like a well-oiled machine, no waiting, no fuss, polite and efficient staff. The ship itself is like most other cruise ships of this size, perhaps a little worse for wear but basically clean and well appointed. However, one issue throughout the cruise was that there was an unpleasant sewage-type smell in our cabin and in various other parts of the ship from time to time. I don't know whether there was some problem with the ship's sewage system or what caused the smell but it was the only significant negative aspect of the cruise. Our balcony cabin was pleasant, slightly larger than many that we have had in other cruises and well furnished. Disappointingly, there was no tea or coffee making equipment in the cabin but this seems too be the norm in cruise ships these days. This problem was overcome by having a pot of tea delivered every morning by room service (at no cost) when we woke up. Our experience with food on the ship was very different to the negative experiences of some other reviewers. Breakfast was excellent with a large choose of food from various cuisines and an excellent salad and fruit bar. Crispy bacon was also available and that was very pleasing for me. Lunch too was very good in the buffet with a great range of food options, again, especially the excellent fruit and salad bar. Dinners were of mixed quality but overall the food was good. We were placed at a table with three other English speaking couples - one Australian and two from New Zealand and they were excellent company. Service in the dining room was good although we never seemed to get to know our waiters in the way that we have in other ships. The cruise excursions were mostly good.

First stop was Civitavecchia but we have been in rome so often that we chose to stay on board. We had a very interesting excursion around the city Palermo ned then on to Tunis. tunis was a disappointment - we went on the tour of the souks in the Medina and the tour guide steered us into too many shops selling carpets and other businesses where I imagine he gets a kickback on sales and this took up a lot of our time and we found it boring. Palma in Mallorca was next - beautiful city and a good tour guide. Valencia turned out to be an elegant and imposing city and we spent a very pleasant day there. However, because English speakers were minority on this cruise we were put in a bus along with German speakers and the tour guide constantly switched between English and German which we found very tedious. Marseille was next and we had arranged to disembark there to continue our holiday in France. The ship continued on to Genoa. Overall this was a very good cruise and our experience was quite different from the negative experiences of some previous reviewers. I will happily sail with MSC again.