Joined the ship in Rome which was smooth and effortless. Ship is lovely and clean, balcony cabin was par for the course albeit cupboard space a bit tight for 17 days, shame our maid lacked the little touches, like ensuring we had the correct number of towels. One rather annoying feature of our balcony was the regular cleaning of the ship outside which washed all the flakes of paint and dirt onto our balcony (3 times), which made it unusable for a day until next cleaning.

The buffet was a bit of a disappointment due to its idiotic layout and lack of choice for things like salad. The hot food was mostly luke warm at best but always had something edible if you could be asked to walk around the many counters to make sure you didn't miss something. It was always pretty much packed and the noise level reminded one of the school canteen. The main restaurant was good and the food lived up to expectations. However we had a waiter with attitude who didn't want to top up your glass until the last night, and serving became rather chaotic on many occasions with pot luck as to what meal they delivered until corrected after a lengthy wait. It was also disappointing that dress codes were often flouted without challenge and no adherence to hand cleaning on entry.

Entertainment was patchy but then trying to do anything in 5 languages always presents a challenge but announcements do get tedious after a while. As for the cruise itself we loved the places we visited, as these ticked off quite a few from our bucket list. Would we use MSC again, unlikely. Too big, too crowded, too many rude europeans.