It started with the farcical embarkation protocols they have in place at Cozumel, Mexico. Their documentation states boarding is from 12 noon. We arrived to find a line of people on the pavement of s busy road. One person was trying to check people’s information and the line just continued to grow and spill out onto the street. Why only one person ??? Once we got through that road block we were directed to go through to the dock where 4 more people finished the check in process but then we still couldn’t board until 1.30pm. What a shambles. The disappointment continued. Our cabin was tiny. A lot of the staff were very disinterested with a few exceptions, the worst being on the service desk. The food was mediocre and the Entertainment even worse. Some of the public areas including the library stink of cigar smoke. Everything from drinks to excursions are priced exorbitantly in Euros. We found the food in the dining room uninspiring except for the formal night when the kitchen seemed to have made an effort. The fact that they charged even for ordinary water in the dining room as well as in our cabin seemed petty. The entertainment onboard was definitely B grade compared to other cruises we have been on. Their version of Masterchef was boring. The same few old movies were looped continuously on the TV in our cabin. The library stank of cigar smoke. Except for Havana which was a wonderful place to visit, the other ports were pretty boring unless you are a water baby who loves the sun and surf. The only reason to subject yourself to this cruise line is they are the only ones that offer a 2 night stopover in Havana, Cuba and that was worth putting up with the rest.started with the farcical embarkation protocols they have in place at Cozumel, Mexico. Their documentation states boarding is from 12 noon. We arrived to find a line of people on the pavement of s busy road. One person was trying to check people’s information and the line just continued to grow and spill out onto the street. Why only one person ??? Once we got through that road block we were directed to go through to the dock where 4 more people finished the check in process but then we still couldn’t board until 1.30pm. What a shambles. The disappointment continued. Our cabin was tiny. A lot of the staff were very disinterested with a few exceptions, the worst being on the service desk. The food was mediocre and the Entertainment even worse. Some of the public areas including the library stink of cigar smoke. Everything from drinks to excursions are priced exorbitantly in Euros. The only reason to subject yourself to this cruise line is they are the only ones that offer a 2 night stopover in Havana, Cuba and that was worth putting up with the rest. Read Less

Chose this cruise for the Havana Stay and that didn’t disappoint but MSC Opera did! The ship looks good, clean and well kept public areas. Our cabin was ocean view fantastica experience, cabin was small but had plenty of storage space, bed was comfortable (still not sure fantastica means.) Dining - breakfast in dining room and in buffet both poor - cold eggs, cold bacon and the same everyday. Dinner - in main dining room service was good Rene & Louis did their best, but the quality of the meals was disappointing... every salad was serve soaking wet, moussaka had no aubergine, spicy Carribean pork had no flavour (considering one of our ports was Montego Bay you think they could have pick up some seasoning.) Only the fresh pasta and pizza dishes were well prepared and tasty, but on last day there were no dried chillis - and when asked the servers in pizzeria just shrugged. Service - most of the staff looked exhausted and they seemed very overworked (I’m an experienced cruiser and have spoken to staff on other cruise lines, yes I know they all work hard) but, we were told of 14 hr days, with few days off during a nine month contract. So service with a smile happened very rarely. Entertainment- I found the stage shows to be okay, the acrobats were very good. Considering that they needed to make it appealing in any language. Activities - the amination team dressed up and jumped around a lot. We enjoyed the jazz style guitarist. Spa - had 2 steam rooms, 2 saunas but they were both for male and females ? Not idea why not for single sex use. Spa services overpriced as usual. Gym equipment old, and poorly maintained. No I would not go again, food offerings poor, no wow factor. Read Less

We took a cHavana cruise on dec 2018 starting and ending in Havana. As the trip included new-years eve it was very expensive. As we entered the ship we immediately understood that it was a big mistake - you will see why: 1. Onboarding The ondoarding process is all on paper, No sea-pass or Card that is actiavted once you are registered. That has to be done on a Kiosk - so you have to queueu. We had booked a Wellness package with a bootle of champaign on the first day and water every day in our room. Of Course it did NOT work. The Steward did not know what that was and argued that it would NOT be part of the package. After goind the the documents we luckily had printed and two days of discussions we had been granted it. OK, that is not important one migth think, but why dod you have to argue for items that hed been sold? 2. Cleanness The cabin was dirty, bathroom full of hairs (we had to clean it) and there had been no soap or shampoo. The buffet area is very, very veeery dirty - I mean dirty!!! The flow is flled with French fries, sodas, water - all Kinds of stuff. You Need to clean your shoes when you leave the buffet. 3. Size of the cabin The cabind are very small, the balcony is 4' x 10' so that only 2 persons can sit on a chair. Having regular breakfast here is very difficult as the small table provides space for two cups and two plates only . 4. Food This is one of the worst parts. Niot only that they do NOT use any seasoning it also is either warm or cold. A medium steak is well done and dry. The bread was rotten - you could NOT eat it 5. Entertainment If you are used to modern Entertainment - bad luck for you. You will be listening to east-europe-trying-accent Songs or classic opera. That is basically it. If you are lucky you have a fairly good salsa band in one of the bars. 6. Complaints. You may try - it will not change anything and the staff will avoid you. We felt sorry for the People that performed as they had been frustrated by their Management. Summary: We paid a hell lot of money or the worst cruise ever. I have lost 6 pounds, had lack of sleep and can only warn you: If you are used to NCL, RCCL or Celebrity do NOT take MSC!!!! Read Less

We booked this cruise for our honeymoon which wasn't even acknowledged. We were very disappointed. I got food poisoning on my third day on the ship. I only ate on board so it was definitely from the ship and I had also seen people prior to me getting sick walking around with bandages covering where drips had to be inserted for people who had food poisoning. The ship did not enforce the use of the hand santizers. People just walked past the staff spraying them. I had to remain in my room for 24 hours and was given 45€ credit as I was cabin bound. I therefore missed a hole day of my honeymoon and wasn't right for a good few days after. When we approached reception at the end of our stay we produced the letter stating we has 45€ credit due to me being sick which we received from the doctors surgery on board. We had so much hassle to get it honoured with the reception staff stating they had never seen it before. This wasn't our first time dealing with reception staff we had to deal with them on our second day on board as our card had ran out of money. We had a total of €80 gratitudes by day two which can be paid at your own discretion ...we dread to think what our bill would of been by the end of the week. We also had to deal with them as our Wi-Fi package wasn't working. The female staff at reception were so rude and so unhelpful. Our cabin attendant on floor nine was an absolute pain. He thought nothing of knocking on our door at 10-11 pm at night. The entertainment was awful. The acrobats were good but that was about it. The excursions on board were very expensive too. We would not recommend this ship. Read Less

Not really impressed with MSC Opera, so I would not recommend it to any of my friends. “Anytime Dining” means 8.30pm – any other time seemed to be an inconvenience (fortunately we were not assigned to one of the two sittings for evening meals – 15 minutes late and you are turned away). Average staff member was good, but the more senior ones have the poorest customer facing skills. Best avoid the Maitre d’ and his second-in-command in the fifth deck restaurant who both have severe attitude problems towards their customers. Some good meals served, but mostly average and very small portions. Carvery in buffet area good. The picture of the burger shown above the counter bears no resemblance to the inedible pile of stodge served up. Only four running machines in the gym – one of which was out of order much of the time. Constant nagging to buy additional packages and massages. Coffee poor across the ship poor, except for the speciality coffee shop on the 5th deck. Can take a long time to disembark The balcony cabins seem to creak when the boat is in motion. Toilet flush was intermittent. An erroneous charge of nearly 100UKP on our credit charge bill was removed after waiting for nearly two hours. No apology; just advised that the bill had been corrected. In fact, “sorry” does not seem to be in their vocabulary even when a member of the crew rams your ankle with a large trolley. One member of the Excursions team simply ignored us as we spoke in English. You must pick a room away from the noisy pool deck and nightclub – we were lucky here. Look after the table football ball – there is a 30 Euro fine if you lose it. Whilst it is obviously challenging to get any internet service whilst at sea, it is pointless paying for other than the basic social apps service – no signal and interruptions prevent you using your allowance. The other liners we docked against just looked so much smarter........ Read Less

Our first cruise, we knew we were compromising some of the things we had been tipped off about, but wanted to spend time in Havana over the Xmas holidays. You don’t have to fly with MSC via Madrid, we booked directly with Virgin. Generally we were pleased. The ship was very clean, some of the staff delightful and food and drink packages good value, although by the end of the cruise we couldn’t face another 3/5 course dinner or cooked breakfast ☺️ We didn’t appreciate the ship did a bi weekly round trip, although it gave us plenty of time in Havana. Belize was charming, Roatan an experience, but Cozumel is a dump, it didn’t help that our trip to the pearl farm was cancelled - apparently due to possible storm - and we didn’t look forward to returning the next week! I wouldn’t get off the boat again! MSC should rethink, especially with such little time spent in the Cayman Islands. Costa Maya was much more pleasant. Montego Bay is nothing special! Our waiting staff Sunny and Analise were a delight and our cabin attendant John was very efficient keeping our room clean with fresh towels daily. Some of the reception staff and one of the Maitre Ds were quite abrupt, not handling our issues terribly well. Another receptionist Patricia was excellent. It felt as though the Italian guests were more favoured. We saw a couple of shows which were entertaining but didn’t care for all the noise and activities around the pool. Xmas songs were played constantly throughout the trip! Read Less

Saw this 2 week cruise as a deal before Christmas. Unusual itinerary so decided to go. Where to start!? We flew to Cuba on Air Europa, via Madrid. Never again...a party plane, with duty free booze on sale, with the obvious results and no interference from the crew...they hid! Opera was a huge disappointment. Multi lingual, very noisy, and lots of other nationalities, Spanish and Mexican especially, for whom it seemed this was their first cruise and who were determined to enjoy everything on offer to the detriment of other passengers. Corridor noise was an on-going problem. Evening theatre entertainment was spoiled by constant noise. The volume level around the ship was higher than on any others we have cruised!! Opera itself was hugely expensive...ships tours extortionate, alcohol for sale on board was 3 times the prices ashore! Everything on the ship seemed geared to getting money...tips expected, and asked for, everywhere. The staff rarely cracked a smile...there was an on-going challenge to make the security guards at the head of the gangplank grin just once...failed! Reception was hopeless---it took 5 visits and 2 safe changes before a working one was produced. Food in the restaurant was often cold, repetitive and orders were mixed up, with the staff then arguing that the meal presented was what we had ordered! The buffet was a permanent scrum, with hand sanitiser occasionally available. Milk, coffee, butter, menu items, ran out and were not replaced, despite officers walking around supposedly checking for potential problems! Time and motion did not exist. What other ship has the captain trying to sell ship's tours on his midday report? The ship picks up and puts down people in all ports visited. And it took 3 different safety drills to get one lot of a new intake of passengers to attend. On previous ships we have been aware of recalcitrant non-attendees being brought before the captain, and in one instance thrown off the ship! Basically this is an Italian ship, with a multi-lingual crew, (impressive, but generally unhelpful),who operate to a Mediterranean standard. The shows are geared to a multi-lingual audience - one 45 minute slot each night for pure opera and 2 singing and dancing shows. That means no lectures, no bridge, no singles support, no quizzes etc etc...anything which necessitates a specific. language. There were about 20-30 other Brits on this cruise,and they all said "never again". Having cruised over 40 times with various companies, we have learned our lesson, and will now avoid MSC generally Write another review Read Less

Beds are comfortable and the room was very clean. Elias who was our cabin steward was very friendly and helpuful. Too bad the rest of the cruise crew had a terrible attitude, they were all super rude. The food at the buffet was ok, but they don’t serve a lot of options. The restaurant food was terrible, bland and small servings. The staff at the restaurant was super rude, and had a terrible artitude, up to the point we avoided asking for things. If you have a food intolerance forget about this cruise, they don’t take questions about what they are serving. We traveled with 3 adults on wheelchairs and they had a lot of trouble moving with them around the ship because cleaning carts blocked the hallways and we got yelled at when we tried to move them. One of the elevators did not work for almost 2 days and that one was the one we could reach. We asked for assistance and they completetly ignored us and they told us “we didn’t need the service” I wouln’t recommend this cruise if you have trouble moving arround. The entertainment was poor, and we could hear the music in our cabin until 1 am. Overall I think this cruise was way too expensive for the service and quality of meals. I wouldn’t recommend this ship to anyone unless you want to pay to get yelled at. Read Less

We chose the Cruise as it fitted in with the UK school 1/2 term and was going to some interesting ports. We booked over a year in advance, big mistake, the flights got altered leaving us with a 2.5 hour transfer by coach each way. No negotiation, no alternative except to lose our deposit and rebook doing our own flights. By the time they announced the flight details the cost of flights had risen and little was available, leaving us with no option but to continue. Not a good start, a delayed flight and by the time we arrived to check in after a 2 1/2hr transfer and a less than smooth airport transfer to the coach even the photographer had gone home. Which was just as well as we where wet and bedraggled having had to paddle from the bus to the embarkation desks, we were nearly 3 hours late. Next they some how managed to transfer our 2 bags to the other MSC ship departing that day. We did alert them as to not having our bags before we left port and by 10.30pm it was apparent they had no idea where they where. Next morning we where told they were not on board either ship and were searching the port(we had had a MSC transfer from Nice to Genoa). Nothing offered apart from emergency wash bag, male briefs and socks. There was nothing in the onboard shop of any use, so we headed to the nearest shopping mall at the first port of call for basic essentials for our party of 3. On arrival back on board the HRO had us escorted to her office and told us the bags were on the other ship and we would get our bags in 2 days. No apology, and she would not sanction our meagre purchases of 3 t shirts a pack of ladies pants, 2 bra's, swim shorts, costume, 1 pair of activity sandals and 2 pairs of trainers, 2 pairs of chino for my husband and son plus a European usb charger so we could charge a phone and a stick deodorant to share. I could not find a change of trousers so was left with little choice but to continue to wear my jeans. The bags turned up late morning of our 4th day. Some of the clothes stained from being left wet from the rain at the port. The ship rolled quite badly even though the sea was not that bad. It was made worse by the cabin ceiling creaking and groaning with each roll. The extra equipment for the table tennis, table football and crazy golf on decks 11 and 12 was held on deck 5. It would be so much more user friendly to have it at a nearby bar. There was only 1 set for the crazy golf too. Our Excursions; 1st trip was cancelled no explanation and was refunded to our account not to the credit card it was booked with, the second trip itinerary was changed but we where not told until the coach had set off. We only got to the 1992 lava flow site rather than much further up Etna which was hugely disappointing. We had only booked 2 trips as we felt the quality on offer was not that good, very limited. We arranged our own trip to Herculaneum while in Naples, a car transfer that went very smoothly and despite the rain was a good trip. The timings of the arrival in Valletta was very poor. We arrived at 3pm, the Cathedral and other attractions all closed 4.30-5pm. No thought had gone into the excursions, which we had not booked in any case. Sightseeing in the dark and it was pouring with rain again. We did see the evening Gun Salute from the battery which was good. Food; not great, cool to luke warm in both restaurant and buffet. Dinner, a strange variety of menu combinations, mostly was fairly tasteless with small portions in the restaurant and a distinct lack of vegetables or a salad course. Lunch was mostly the same fare every day. The only exception was roasted veal one lunchtime in the buffet which made a good hot sandwich.The Pizza was also OK but very busy and if you wanted salad with it you had to brave the main buffet or paddle to the burger bar on the opposite side of the ship. The buffet was manic, no table space at meal times and often only 1 side open towards the end of service. We ended up getting room service breakfast as it was the only way to be able to eat without a struggle, the 'hot' breakfast options just were not worth the fight. Even in the dining room getting tea was not easy and cold milk for it even harder. the food was buffet but the hot drinks waiter service. The only cold milk was on the buffet but no spare cup or glass to be had to help yourself. With room service we had to ask twice for cold milk even when cereal was on the order. The main buffet coffee was either stewed or cold/empty. The hot water dispenser max temp 79C, not hot enough for a tea and the orange juice was just horrible, decent juice is not hard to do. A fresh squeezed one I saw at the juice bar was 5euro. The water dispensers were luke warm and at least 1 ice dispenser not working. There were often no cups/mugs to be had either. We were on Aurora package that was an all inclusive drinks package but we only saw 1 red, drinkable, 1 white, not great and 1 rose served with meals. Only 1 bar open in the day, we never saw the crepe station open. They ran out of English tea on day 4 in the buffet. Big complaint to customer services, by the next evening they had restocked. Very few people were using the hand sanitizers and it was not being enforced. The lift buttons and stair hand rails were all sticky and grubby. The pizza area and bar on deck 11 flooded and was covered in water most days. The only way to get to the buffet without wet feet was to walk down to the rear most lift/stairwell inside the ship before going up. Our teenager never found the relevant program of kids entertainment. We culminated our holiday by being first off the ship at 9 am, another 2.5 hours by coach back to Nice airport for a 6 hour wait for a 6pm flight back to London Heathrow. All in all an experience not to be repeated. Read Less

I have a child and this cruise offered interesting places, at the right time, offering a kids club.. While the rooms were clean and neat and the food ok, the real downside was our noisy cabin right above a night club disco. They were unable to move anyone and as the bass was so strong and volume so loud I tried to have the music level lowered. There was lip service paid to my complaint, however on the second night I did have an ‘audience’ with the cruise customer service manager. For that night only the music was turned down. Then the next night up again. While asking numerous times to turn it down, this did not happen. Spoilt the cruise for me entirely... ‘yes madam’ ‘yes’ and then not being heard. My child had a great time with the lovely staff at mini club. Internet service was poor. I paid a lot of money for premium internet but audio and video were not available. It ran out quickly and the fine print tells you to stop it if you don’t want your allowance to run out. Then when it didn’t work again I was pressured into paying for more.. ended up costing about 150 euros fir 5 days... felt ripped off... Read Less