A very different experience to all other cruises I have ever been on...

Positives? Fantastic cabin steward. Other staff generally very good. Very healthy food. Clean, spacious room. Free upgrade from an inside cabin to a balcony. Staff spoke multiple languages, often up to 6+ (wow!) - this does, however, also mean it takes 10 minutes to introduce evening shows etc, as everything is repeated in each language. There really should be only one language for the cruise. Impressive, if non-sensical evening productions - some members were lip syncing (disappointing), and yet when they actually sang, it was mind-blowing! Costumes were out of this world and certainly rivaled any seen on Broadway.

Negatives? Very poor communication between MSC and our cruise agent, which meant we either received conflicting information about the cruise, or no information at all. Our dining reservations were not in the system upon embarkation, which meant we were refused from eating at the restaurant the first two nights. MSC also sent us to the wrong pier (Pointe Simon), and once we arrived and found we were at the wrong port, we had to trek all the way across town with our luggage to the correct terminal. Not impressed. Other issues included inflated excursion prices compared to those listed on-line - though we tried, we were unable to book excursions prior to boarding (MSC website glitch) and the cheaper on-line prices were not honored once we boarded. Difficult to track down staff at breakfast (eg. for help with dietary requirements). Food was the same every single day (very blah, though a lot of fresh fruit) and some items ran out and weren't replaced. We were told on three different days that our balcony would be washed, so we removed everything from the balcony in preparation - it wasn't washed until the third day, which was very frustrating having to bring everything inside each day. A special delivery of champagne and chocolates was ordered for our room and was to be there when we arrived - it wasn't, and we had to call reception three different times until it was finally delivered. Read more