Thankfully near the End of this cruise. If you only speak English this is not the cruise line for you. Flights sat me and my partner in different rows. On Board food has been the most bland we have had on any cruise. Most of the time cold. I have being with 5 different cruise lines. Sports bar no English sports. Tv in cabin no English channel. Done a tour ticked the English box whole tour in French. Booked a deluxe drinks package they keep running out of the drinks we ask for. We have booked October cruise to Durban thinking of cancelling it after talking to a staff member as said it maybe worst then this one because it has a lot of sea days so can not get off for decent FOOD. HAVE met people on this cruise who after the first 2 days have ate all their meals off the ship. Read Less

Cruise period 22/1/19 - 5/2/19......We chose this Caribbean cruise because over a 2 week period it had a port of call virtually everyday and we hadn't cruised before on MSC. Main good points..... flight very good, met at Gatwick by MSC reps, bags taken at Gatwick, didn't see again until we were in the cabin. Great ship, Italian decor, art deco...very impressive. Bar/restaurant staff are excellent. We found the food very good. We had the Aurea package which gave you anytime dining, basic drinks package & access to a sun deck which was private and away from the normal deck crowds. Great water play area for kids, would keep age groups 3 - 12 occupied for ages. Very good water slide. Garden pool bar at the rear of the ship is the best, when leaving port, bit of DJ chill sounds going on, most brits liked this bar. Main bad points...... This two week cruise has 6 embarkations & disembarkations (including your own). This results in 6 days of people milling around, cabin suitcases everywhere. The cruise has people getting on and off in Barbados, Martinique & Guadeloupe .As a result there are several safety drills as new people get on which inhibits dining times etc. This ship caters for Italians, French & German before the British. All announcements are done in 4 languages and seem to take for ever, even in the theatre . Over two weeks it becomes very repetitive. All entertainment...musicians, pool & the theatre is aimed at other Europeans, most British people onboard thought the entertainment was poor. The only exception to this was the guitarist/singer in the La Locanda pizza wine bar area, Ive forgotten his name but he was excellent. By being stuck in this area with people talking etc was a complete waste of time, MSC should move him to any other area where he can be appreciated more, he is far to talented (and frustrated, you could tell) to be stuck in this area. They try to sell you the premium drinks package from day one, this works out to an extra 9 euros a day per person. For two over the course of two weeks that an extra £252 euros. You cannot buy it just for a week, you have to buy it for the length of your cruise. Besides the basic drinks package is good enough unless you want premium brands. The buffet for breakfast is extremely busy more than likely because it has to cater for many nationalities. It is large but is concentrated in one area which I think adds to the congestion bearing in mind when full there are 4,000 people on board, ships that tend to have separate buffets have less congestion. There is an option of breakfast in the restaurant but this closes at 9AM. Communication in the daily newsletter is poor mainly because this has to be printed in several languages. We were told in our newsletter that ALL guests had to attend another safety drill even though we had already done it. This drill was for new passengers only not ALL passengers, dinner was missed as a result. The cruise had a small number of people on board who I can will describe as unsocial. They were not from the UK, I think they were locals from the islands, boarded in Guadeloupe who it seems island hop for a week These people were constantly drunk, spent all their time in the buffet or at night were drunk in the club/disco. As much as I understand a certain amount of unsocial behaviour will almost be inevitable on a ship of this size, surely having individuals dropping drinks on the dance floor, breast feeding on the dance floor & having young children running around the club at 1AM is unacceptable. MSC take note, ban the kids from a nightclub, its an adult environment. I dare say thumping music for a baby of breast feeding age is not particularly good for it anyway. I can only say that my partner did not feel very secure in this environment, we did not go back. All in all the cruise was reasonably priced. If you don't mind a non British theme it will be fine, I did not take into account the amount of embarkations during the cruise or the number of locals who obviously island hop for a week...lesson learnt. If you do a MSC cruise out of the caribbean, I would say the Aurea level is a must. Would I cruise with MSC again, probably not, I will stick with more British/American cruises, at least they know how to say thanks if you hold open a door,or hold the lift, even a nod in acknowledgement....whereas the other nationalities need to go on a course in manners, .... MSC there a thought!! Read Less

Beautiful ship impeccably maintained and cannot fault the service. The Captains on MSC ships always seem to be conspicuous by their absence but at least he showed his face at Gala night. There were two gala nights the second on the evening we were due to disembark. Hence many did not bother to dress appropriately and very few wore formal attire - it is certainly not necessary to wear even a jacket and tie. Entertainment can be a little repetitive but the production shows are well produced and the singers and dancers are excellent. The premium drinks package was superb and the food provided in the main restaurant and in the buffet was very good - much improved from last year. My one real gripe with MSC is their reluctance to allow pre booking of seats on the flights to and from Barbados. This leads to many disgruntled passengers who do not find themselves sitting with their spouses/ partners. Seats are pre allocated so it makes no difference if you book in early at the airport - you get what you have been given. My wife for example is claustrophobic so always prefers an aisle seat - you would think that this would be an easy request to provide but on our flights on a similar cruise last year and again on this cruise MSC did not help. For this reason we will probably not book a similar repeat cruise next year - potential customers beware! Read Less

My mum booked this cruise for us to celebrate her 60th birthday she did it through cruise club I believe which included a chartered flight from gatwick. From check in to embrakation everything was done and arranged for us. We just showed up and followed the crowd and first first time cruisers I would highly recommend this. It took the stress out of everything; all transport was ready and waiting for us when we go off the flight and our luggage was delivered to our rooms. I'm 25 and mum is 60 this year and I can say the Preziosa does caters for all ages. From a baby care centre to a toddlers water park; a teenagers gaming room and entertainment for young to old adults there is something for everyone. The ship is huge and there is plenty to do and differently environments to explore. From the calm and relaxing garden pool to the fun and interactive main pool. The massive and varied buffet to the more up scale dining experince of the golden lobster. From the relaxing spa to the modern gym. And then there is the night life there is so much to do and not enough time to do it all!!! The ships facilities are just fanatic and that was the general consensus from old and new cruisers was that th ship was beautiful and expansive. The bars and lounges are stunning and have so much entertainment included from performances, tributes and dancing!! There was also the Casiono to play at or the Galaxy disco to party at into the early hours of the night. There was also a selection of shows to watch which were amazing however mostly dancing and singing due to the fact any spoken act may be lost due to the language barrier. I loved that there were many languages and nationalities aboard however some of the other English guests didn't like it so much especially if they had been aboard other English or a arrival owner ships. I have to give a special mention of the animation team and dance instructors; they were just fantastic I felt so welcomed and included even if mother had gone to bed early and I wanted to dance the night away! There was always someone to talk to or to dance with in the Green Sax or performance and dancing to enjoy in the safari lounge. The entertainment team also provided afternoon activities and trivia by the pool from 3/4pm everyday as well as free fitness and dance classes. All of the staff aboard the Preziosa were so poliet, helpful and always had a friendly smile to offer. The dress code was pretty casual though I did dress in going out dresses every night for diner and dancing because I don't get to do that very often at home as I work in the evening. And though there were many causally dressed people I did not feel out of place or too dressed up at all. There are also a few themed nights including a tropical party and gala night where the entertainment teams are dressed accordingly and host different events around the ship including on the deck in the warm evening air and under the stairs. Other facilities that we used were the Spa where my mother and I both got candle massage; which was just wonderful. One of the best massages I've ever had and was persuaded to have another one. They were done by a Indonesian woman who had amazing skills. We also bought the digital package and so took full advantage of the photographers on board every night. It felt a bit posey and if your shy is maybe not for you but your see plenty of other people getting them done and I have some wonderful and beautiful shots that I love. As for the food and drinks I was amazed at the options and variety; in the buffet there was everything from pizza, chips and burgers to oriental. There are also always heathly options available which were very tasty. The other bit I loved was the dessert section which always had something delicious on! The food in the golden lobster was also lovely there was plenty of options every night and didn't have the same menu twice whilst on board. There was only one night that the whole table wasn't fussed with limited options but most nights we struggled to choose. A few of the nights we ended up being served the one we ordered and the one we didn't chose by the waiting staff just to try them. Fantastic service as well as great food. When talking to other guests the reviews about the food were mixed. Apparently it's not as good as else where but I live off microwave meals and packaged food (whilst I do hate and must change!!) so having so much choice that was cooked for me that was tasty was amazing!! Now onto drinks...we had the all inslusive package which included all non premium spirits, wines, draught beer and soooooo many delicious cocktails avavlible all over the ship in majority of the bars! The package ended up paying for itself and then some once we totalled it up. So it's worth getting if you like a couple of drinks a day and a drink with dinner. It's even more worth it if you want to drink all day! Whilst talking to other guests it was the itinary that encouraged them to book this cruise; and i must say it did not disappoint. We visited 12 different island in 14 days and sailed through the night so no days were wasted. We went off the ship almost everyday and booked on to excursions via the ship before we left. As it was our first cruise and first time to the Caribbean we went a bit over board with the excursions. Most of the tours started around 9/10am and we're back between 2-4pm so we still got some time on the ship on the in the afternoon. There was only one every early one and one afternoon one so we had a good variety and were able to still enjoy the ships facilities and activities. The excursions were quiet expensive starting at £38 and going up to £127 however with the excursions booked through the cruise you have the guarantee if something goes wrong the cruise has to wait and make arrangements for you where as if you do it on your own you don't have the same peice of mind. So the best excursions that I would recommend to do is: All exclusive beach day - Gaudaloupe Hot springs and falls - Dominica Dolphins - St Kitts & Nives Stingrays - Antigua & Barbuda These ones are good: Norman island snorkelling - British virgin isles Beach and turtles - Martinique Nutmeg and falls - Geneda Rum distillery - St Vicent & grenadines These excursions were okay but wouldn't recommend or do again; Maracas beach - Trinidad & Tobago - pretty beach but rather expensive for what you get St Martins tour and beach - St Martins - didn't go but mum said I didn't miss anything Beach tour - St Lucia - quiet commercialised and locals bit pushy As it was our first time to each of these places we are both glade we did what we did however if we're were to go back we would either stay on our favourite islands and explore more or if we cruised here again we could do a bit more on our own and maybe save some money. One other thing is that I left my phone on one of the excursions (Tortala - British Virgin Isles - Norman island snorkelling trip) and though it was not initially found and I thought I lost it forever it was found and though I have not been reunited with it yet they shall hopefully be picking it up tomorrow and sending it back to me. This gave me great faith in the companies that MSC had chosen to do excursions with and also MSC themselfs and how they dealt with the issue quickly and kept me informed. So Yes I would recommend this cruise liner and tour to everyone. If you have cruised before don't expect the same experince keep your expectations relative and if you never had you won't be disspointed. Read Less

We recently returned from a cruise on this ship, We chose the ship because of the itinerary as there were no days at sea. Although some of the reviews prior to travelling made us a bit dubious we always like to make our own mind up. Ship was beautiful & clean; although there were far too many smoking areas and a lingering smell of smoke in some places. When sat upstairs in the Eldorado bar the smoke from the casino drifted up. Lots of entertaining areas although unfortunately the entertainment throughout the ship did not live up to our expectations having cruised with several other lines this ship was way behind with its offerings and distinctly Eurovision. We found no entertainment at all which would appeal to us and did not venture into the theatre for any of the shows which were provided by "in house" entertainers. Went to the Galaxy disco on occasion and found that the DJ was unaware of what to play that would appeal to the British passengers and played out of date music and when we made requests he was unable to understand or provide what would keep us interested.. As soon as It was apparent that French or Italian passengers were in the disco music changed to suit their preferences. First night after having requested a table for 4 (total in our group) we were placed on a table for 8, this was rectified on the second evening so no big issue with this. Had an all inclusive drinks package as part of our deal , however we had to ask in each bar what was included and what was not which became tiresome! Only Heineken beer (not advised of this prior to travelling or in any documentation) included even though practically all the other beers were the same prices, this didn't make sense as a beer in one of the cocktails (which were 8 euros) was included in the package. On other lines you get a price and anything under that is included so you know where you are, staff did not seem to know what was included and what was not. Food distinctly average although we were always able to find something to eat. Portion sizes small, you are able to order additional dishes in the main dining room and for people with normal appetites we would recommend that you always order the extra dishes. MSC have employed a British chef who walks around the restaurant introducing himself stating that he has been employed to bring in menus choices that will appeal more to the British clientele! Embarkation process at the beginning of the cruise very good, however when disembarking and embarking in each port on most occasions there was only one person on the gangway causing queues and delays, Service good from all staff. Excursions that we organised with he cruse company were good apart from the catamaran trip where we were told our meeting time was 09:15am, on attending we were then told that the catamaran had broken down but would be repaired later in the day so to meet again at 12:15pm, on meeting at the later time we were advised by the company hosting the trip that the time was always 12:15pm meaning that we deliberately mislead by the ship's excursion teams. Majority of the trips we did we organised ourselves using local taxis which were cost effective and good. Although not in our cabins much there were no English speaking channels available apart from CNN and after two weeks this also became irritating. Used the gym on several occasions , although it is a big area there were not enough of the popular machines available especially taking into account that people ignored the instruction to only use individual machines for 20 minutes and the fact that staff used the gym despite having their own gym available and did not move for paying guests. Rooms were clean and tidy but wardrobes small and in the wrong area. I would say that none of these issues were big but having several small issues on one crusie has made myself and the rest of my party decide that we will not travel with MSC again as our first choice and will in fact try and avoid them completely if at all possible. Read Less

My husband and I are from the USA, and boarded the Preziosa in Guadelope. Our taxi dropped us off outside the main gate with all our luggage about 12:15pm, and the guard would not let anyone with luggage (new passengers) enter until 2:15pm, even though on many of our cruise documents it said board at 1pm!! It was very hot, with no water or restrooms. This was the worst part of the trip. The rest made up for this slight inconvenience. We were then finally escorted to the Yacht Club check in, where we were greeted by a friendly staff with cold towels and prosecco. The Yacht Club is definitely worth the splurge. The service, location, rooms and food are all excellent. The majority of the guests do not speak English, luckily most of the staff does. The staff was very accommodating to this, for the international guests. All of the announcements, shows and information was broadcast in at least 4 languages. During the shows it became very tiresome. The shows ranged from very good (My Life in Music and the Mask), to what is this (Woodstock) and horrible (the crew talent show, and Ghostbusters). The Yacht Club areas are beautiful and service always was excellent. We had a very attentive butler, Oliver, who would escort us off the ship to get a taxi, even when not booking though a ship sponsored excursion. We had breakfast most mornings in the 18th floor One Deck, where there was a small buffet and also eggs made to order or omelettes. For lunch we were on shore. For dinners we ate at the Yacht Club restaurant on deck 15 aft, a very long walk from the front of the ship. The maitre d' Pepe was fantastic, and ran the room. We never had any wait for anything, and he would notice immediately if something was not to our linking and correct it. The casino is very small compared to the Seaside or the newer NCL ships, but casino staff friendly. There were no blackjack tables or craps, and only penny machines, and the on board currency is Euros. The main public areas were always very clean, and not much of a wait at any bar for a drink. In the evenings, there a several different bars providing live entertainment with lots of variety and drinks for everyone. There is a bar that makes smokey drinks and molecular cocktails that was a show on its own! For excursions, we booked two with the ship, the St Lucia Catamaran to the Pintons, and in Martinique Rum distillery with lunch at La Bambou. Both were excellent and a lot of fun. We will go on MSC again, but would probably choose one of the newer ships, as we enjoyed the technology upgrades on the Seaside, like the wristbands, app, and location of Yacht Club restaurant. Read Less

We've cruised on many different lines (Regent, Celebrity, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Cunard and were somewhat leery of MSC due to some of the reviews we had read and reviews we had heard from friends. Despite that we took the advice of a friend and decided to try the MSC for two reasons. One they had a great itinerary....7 islands in 7 days, no days at sea. Two, they had something called Yacht Class which gives you your own personal part of the ship with a private dining room, private pool/hot tub area, private bar/lounge and even a butler. The bulk of this review will concentrate on our experience with the Yacht Class part of the MSC Preziosa. Embarkation - One of only a couple of things that I will complain about on this trip. We arrived around 1pm to coincide with what our instructions were. There were already around 50-75 people waiting to get allowed into the registration area. We were not allowed in until after 2pm, with a crowd of easily 200-250 others who were all made to wait in the hot sun for 1-2 hours. Once we got in to the registration area, our butler met us and the process went quite quickly. We were escorted to our room and everything was rady for us. Ship - This was the largest ship we have been on with approx 4000 guests. Because we stayed in Yacht Class I can't really comment on how crowded or not crowded the ship was. In Yacht Class, there was never any issues with seating in the dining room, around the pool (One Pool) or in the Top Sail lounge. We really felt like we were on our own ship within ship. When we did wander around the rest of the ship it certainly seemed to be nicely laid out, always clean. The main pool area is quite small and during the day, most of the lounge chairs were taken. At night, on the odd occasion that we wandered from bar to bar, they never seemed to be too crowded. It seems the fan favorite was The Green Sax which always had a pretty good crowd.....probably something to do with the live music that was played in that particular bar. One small negative was that all announcements were made in 6 languages, but I guess that's what you get being on a very international cruise. I our itinerary began and ended in Guadeloupe. Along the way we picked up a few hundred Brits in Barbados and around 1800 Europeans in Martinique. I would estimate that probably 60-70% of the passengers were from Europe with a huge French, Italian and British influence. From what we were told, the crew needed to know at least English as one of their languages. So as English speaking Canadians, we never had a problem with language. Cabin - Cabin was very good....see my full review below Dining - As part of Yacht Class we ate in the Palmeraie restaurant, reserved strictly for Yacht Class. I would rate our experience in this restaurant as an 8.5/10. I'd give the food a 7 out of 10 and the service a 10 out of 10. There was plenty of selection, the food always arrived hot. Selection was good and changed every day. We ate all our dinners there and a few of our breakfasts. When we were on the ship we tended to eat our lunches at the Yacht Club pool area. There was a decent selection of sandwiches, pasta, salads and you could always order a burger or pizza if you wanted to. Back to the service...our main server for the week was Joyce Anne from the Phillipines and she was incredible. Always attentive, very engaging and always with a smile. Her assistant, Ric, was also excellent. Both of them spoke were good English, so never a language barrier. After our first night, we were always greeted by the Maitre D', Giuseppe (known as Pepe). He along with the Head Sommelier, Filippo, made our dining experience truly incredible. Pepe and Filippo always had recommendations for food and wine and they always hit the mark. Entertainment - Because we tended to eat dinner each night around 8pm, we rarely were available to see either the early show or the late show. We did get to one show, the "Crew Has Talent", which was ok but not great. A couple of the crew could really sing but the "comedy" act was terrible. We didn't get to any other shows but heard from friends on the ship that they were hit and miss. Casino - As an avid Craps player, I rate the Casino a 0........ie no Craps. Also, there was only one "quasi" BlackJack table. The reason I say quasi is because they used a deck with no 10s and some slight variations to the normal BJ rules. There were a couple of roulette tables which were usually crowded, and one Texas Hold'Em table game. The rest of the rather small casino was made up of slot machines. Also, the casino is very smoky......allowing smoking at all tables and slots. Worst casino I have ever experienced on a cruise. Gym/Spa - We made use of the gym a couple of times. Although we didn't use the weights or attend any classes, I would say the cardio equipment was quite good and there were plenty of machines available. We did not take advantage of any of the spa services although friends of ours did and loved the massages they received. Service - I've pretty well detailed our experience with the service on the ship. Again, commenting as a Yacht Class passenger, I will say that the service we received from our room steward, Butler, Palmeraie dining staff, Concierage were all top notch as I've already commented. I also want to say that the staff that worked in the Top Sail lounge and around the One Pool area were also top notch. I'd like to point out that we had especially excellent service from Anna (from the Ukraine). Always knew what we wanted and when we didn't, she would make some recommendations. Ports/Shore Excursions - We arranged our own Excursions in three ports St. Lucia - arranged through Rainforest Adventures - A Zip line, Aerial tram and a hike. All in all, a very good tour (8/10). Terry and Junior were excellent guides. Barbados - arranged through Viator Tours - A Glass bottom boat, snorkel with the turtles. It was a relatively cheap ($35USD each) tour otherwise we would have been disappointed. The boat literally took us a couple of hundred yards off the shore of Carlisle Beach) for a short swim with the sea turtles and then a short swim to see a sunken shipwreck. Also, there really wasn't any glass bottom to speak of......a very small piece of glass, maybe 3-4 ft in diameter to look through. Once we finished the boat portion of approx 90 minutes, then we got to relax on Carlisle beach with lounge chairs and an umbrella included in the excursion price. Grenada - Again organized through Viator - An ATV excursion on either one person or two person ATVs. In a word, this excursion was fantastic. There were only 4 of us on this tour so our guides, Lyndon and Sasheem (not sure of the spelling) gave us a private off-road tour of a decent chunk of Grenada. We rode for about 2 hours or so, spending 90% of the time off-road. We had a short 20-25 minute break at a beautiful beach so the tour was around 3 hours in length. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes some exhilarating adventure. For the other ports, we just tended to get off the ship and wander around. In Trinidad we hired a cabbie to take us around for about 90 minutes and saw some of the island that way. In St. Vincent we took the ferry (which was right beside where our ship docked) to Bequia, a beautiful, tiny island an hour away. The 1 hour ferry ride tends to be quite rough so if you can't handle rougher seas, don't take the ferry. We only had an hour on Bequia due to the ferry schedule, so it wasn't really worth the 2 total hours of ferry time for the 1 hour of time on Bequia. So to summarize, besides the poor Embarkation experience, the crappy casino and a couple of ports that weren't great, the rest of our experience was amazing and we would definitely consider another MSC tour.....as long as they offered Yacht Class. Read Less

Wanted to find an itinerary that suited everyone. We were a group of 6 adults with 3 children and wanted to leave after xmas. We flew with Air Transat (cruise and flight package) embarked in Guadeloupe for a 7 day cruise which included Tortola, St-Maarten, Dominica, St-Kitts, Antigua and Martinique. We had 3 balcony staterooms on deck 11. The ship is nice, many bars and lounges. Elevators were always slow. Our rooms were clean and our steward was efficient and pleasant. Wide variety of food at buffet, lots of fruit, veggies and salad .It can be hit or miss but it pays to circle the buffet as the dishes are not always replicated on both sides. Dining-room food wasn't too great, plate presentations need to be improved. You must purchase regular water to drink, no water pitchers available. Didn't like the wrapped hamburgers that were available. We didn't purchase any excursions with the ship. We managed visiting each island on our own. Fort de France has a beautiful botanical garden. Read Less

From the first there were high hopes that this would be the ideal cruise. We carefully selected our cabin, paid for an upgrade from the Bella Class and were told we would have drink tickets available. Our luggage was tagged for our room and we were at the ship early. Happy to be allowed boarding somewhat earlier than the listed time our passports were scanned and the luggage scanned and sent to our room. We went through the next phase of having our photo taken for the ID (again matching our passports and clearly assigned our cabin.) When we reached the registration area, amidst the chaos of what felt to be pushy sales for drinks packages and upgrades we already paid for we were soon told "we have no record of you." We pointed out the impossibility of this - having our luggage already aboard and heading to our selected room. This had to be mentioned twice to be clear: we had a room, and clearly the computers would have indicated a problem during the early phases of ship access. Fix It Note: Your computer systems should be integrated. This is a clear failure to enter consistent data or a failure in the database. The second case is quite rare. Imagine how we felt to be offered an "upgrade" to a different room for our troubles. That would be so helpful. Oddly the "upgrade" did not seem to consider the following items: A) Our carefully chosen room that was not directly under dance or performance deck. Our "upgrade" had us under an activity deck so that we would hear people running along the deck, amplified it sounded "like a heard of wildebeest." B) We checked our access cards - which were in the new suite - and as surprising as this was since we were "not in the system" we also found that our access status was "Bella" class. One might be shocked that this "sudden" upgrade seems to have been a shift of our cabin denying the upgrade we paid for. Obviously our expectations of having the 12 drink tickets evaporated. I am left to ponder if the offered tickets were placed in the original cabin. C) Assured our luggage was to be forwarded, and feeling the need for my medication (asthma inhalers) I went in search of our luggage after a few hours. There was no effort to reroute our luggage to the new location. If I were to guess why - "we weren't in the system" so they didn't know where to look for it. It didn't make it easier for me to manhandle our luggage to the elevator when I found it only to find two elevators on service and two elevators consistently packed with people. This effort made me unhappy. That failure was not welcome - but at least I could take my medication. The dinner service was scheduled for 9:30 in the evening. It seemed light fare and we were hungry, and I was disappointed to have the sales pitch for drink services and alternate food offerings during dinner. Due to a change in our plans, since I was already ill with a cold, we requested an earlier dinner seating the next evening. Summary: at the end of Day 1 things felt like this was a shakedown cruise and people didn't really know how things were scheduled. It may be possible that the drink tickets were not delivered by the agency we booked with but the "not in the system" and room upgrade that wasn't an upgrade were not hopeful. My thoughts - "It can only get better." For the cruise: The cabin and the ship were clean, though I felt perhaps the ships stabilizers could be better. Aside from the pitter-patter of small feet in combat boots overhead some of the ceiling tiles creaked and any loose hangers in the closet would rattle. The buffet was not up to my expectations. Perhaps I expect too much but the offerings of pizza and burgers were not to my taste or to my body's acceptance. This persisted with other offerings I sampled over the cruise. I like food, and having to resort to salads (the salad bar was good) for my lunch left my wife bemused. Over the course of the week we also sampled the breakfast buffet. The comments as follows: Bell Pepper Omlette - "where is the Bell Pepper?" This was the same for the cheese omlette to the point that I went to another region of the buffet to find cheese to put on my cheese omlette. The "custom omlette" station had too long a line to sample the custom made omlettes but my experience with the others was not leaving me inspired. Some of the fresh plates from the rack were not clean. I know that is a difficult element to master when people grab ten plates at a time. We did get an earlier seating for dinner by the next day. (Yay!) We also had excellent company at the table and Jayland was eager to please. We learned then that we could order more than one appetiser, entree and dessert. That information would have been useful the first night and I don't understand why we were not told. The portions were still a small so we took to multiple orders. There were some disappointments and the meals were hit and miss. This included a shrimp bisque a couple of days in where my wife found one shrimp that would fit on my baby finger-nail. While I liked the onion soup the cheese on some form of plaster-hardened bread was hard to cut through. The other couple at our table agreed. We were again offered to buy steak and lobster. It felt like this was being used to leverage sales of the T-Bone steak and lobster. We were offered to purchase a wine for the New Years Eve dinner. Oddly, even though this was the first time we were offered we were told all but two sparkling wines were sold out. We noticed those wines were readily available at the bar on other evenings. This is at odds with logic - why were we not offered the new years selections earlier, and how can you be sold out of something you still had a supply of? Inquiring minds want to know. The room service was good, the shower clean, the water hot, with enough storage for our goods. In St. Kitts the room program did mention in the fine print that photo ID would be needed. After a number of stops where it was not needed this change caught me by surprise since I was not reading the fine print in detail. While there may have been an announcement it did not come across the speaker in our cabin and by the time I opened the door to hear what was being said in the hallway the message was in German. My German is way too rusty. We got off without photo-ID and had trouble getting back on. What would have been good? Having a SIGN by the exits saying "for this port you need photo-ID to get back" and maybe a person to check before they get off the ship. What else left me disappointed? Oh, one or two more things: I went to Medical - and staff were trying to stop me from going there. All I wanted was a blood pressure check (give me the cuff/stethyscope and I would do it myself) and the nurse practitioner didn't inspire confidence in that she didn't know how to find "blood pressure" in the menus and had to be shown. My wife went to the spa for a full package (massage, manicure, pedicure, facial) and she came back with a wound on her nose. The facial should not take off the face. "You can cover that up with makeup" doesn't cut it - the charge was for a first class service, there is no room for error on that. Yes, it healed by the end of the trip but it never should have happened or the charge should have been withdrawn. I was not impressed by the entertainment, either. Perhaps we were picky but we had been on another cruiseline and found there that the instruments were played on key, the singers had a greater dynamic range for vocals in pitch and rhythm and the dancers could dance in sync. I feel the decor of the Safari Lounge needs a revamp on top of that. Smoke - open casino smoke would bleed into other areas of the ship, making it hard to move to the other end of the ship without changing floors. The open smoking on the upper deck did on occasion waft to our balcony, and I did see someone toss a cigarette butt overboard - regardless of the rules it was disconcerting to witness. The Final Costs, on the last day I was surprised by the automatic tipping built in (10e/day/person) and thought this was included in the package price. Maybe I was wrong, but I felt I needed a drink. Waiting fifteen minutes to not have anyone take an order we changed bars. At the next bar I ordered a 6e gin and tonic from a menu and was presented with wonderful gin and tonic with a bill for a 7.50e ... and while this was corrected I could only ponder through the trip how many times this had been done to me, recalling that we were supposed to have drink tickets. Have I missed any details? Probably a few. Little things, like the MSC special access ramp that I couldn't use one morning at 9am scooting back to the ship with some cough medicine for my wife. There was nobody on the ramp coming off or going on, but it was for the yacht club members... so I got to wander the distance to the next ramp in the morning shower that happened overhead. A crisis it was not, but the ramp was idle. All in all, no single thing is worth crying about. Even all the things summed up are not a crying shame. However, it all adds up to an experience that does not match the effort to deliver a prime service. The restaurant food should be five star, room assignments should not be lost, the buffet should have a higher quality of food, the entertainment needs a boost, the Safari Lounge needs a makeover and the Nurse Practitioner needs better human relations training as well as practice record keeping on the computer Read Less

This cruise was chosen purely because of the itinerary. POSITIVES: - The ship was lovely. - The cabin was lovely. - Food was great. - Drinks package was great value. - ALL of the wait staff and bar staff were soooooo lovely and friendly. They were also very attentive and professional. NEGATIVES: - Do not get a photo package unless you like fully staged studio shots (with fake Greek columns in the background) - Do not go on a shore tour. It is so easy to arrange your own little trips with the many people selling their services when you get of the boat. - The music on the ship is all very beige....like elevator music. There is good music available, but you have to look for it. - Communication with staff from the photo place, the Customer service and the Shore tours were incompetent and could not answer questions in a logical way. You have to be prepared to argue about EVERYTHING because the customer service motto is to blame the customer for anything that is wrong,rather than try to help them. - If you get injured on a shore tour (as my husband did) and have to get rushed to hospital, do not expect ANY support from MSC. They are useless....all of them. - The "desk" staff are rude. They do not know how to ask if you are ok after having a head injury. Of course all the lovely waiters and bar staff had perfect skills at doing this. If everything goes ok, MSC are fine. But the minute you have a problem, like being hit in the head by a mast off a boat, their complete lack of procedures, consistent stories about payment of hospital bills and just a simple check-in process after returning to the boat from hospital are inadequate. MSC "desk" staff seem to have a policy....it is not my department, it is not my responsibility, I do not know how to do that, my supervisor can help with that. We had several problems on the cruise with photos, shore tours and head injury and we did not come into contact with ANY staff that seemed to have a clue how to deal with people. LOVED all the destinations. Read Less