We have recently returned from the MSC Musica repositioning cruise from Durban South Africa to Venice. We have cruised with MSC previously so are perfectly aware of some of their 'foibles'. The main reason we chose this cruise was for the wonderful itinerary - we visited Reunion, Mauritius, The Seychelles, Aqaba, Suez Canal Transit, Katakolon, Kotor & Split.
We had hoped that over the years maybe MSC would improve but sadly things were no better and in some cases worse.
Embarkation at Durban was extremely poor - long queues going from desk to desk. Once on the ship we thought that was it, but no, more queues to get pre-paid drinks vouchers - I would have thought that these could have been delivered to the cabins or even put electronically onto our cabin card.
The cabin - we had an aft balcony cabin on deck 11. The cabin was equipped with all we needed, but it was quite small, the cupboard and drawer space (for a long cruise) was a bit of a squeeze. The bed was comfortable. The bathroom was tiny and a bit worse for wear - the water in the shower either scalded you or froze you - there was no in-between. The TV never worked until we were In Europe, although we reported the fault several times. Our cabin boy did his best, he had 22 cabins to look after on his own and was often still working at past 10 pm at night - he definitely was not a happy boy.
Our greatest disappointment was the balcony of our cabin. We had booked this cruise long in advance to secure a balcony cabin over the wake of the ship. However, there was inadequate information on the MSC website, as the balcony had no overhang above and therefore no shade or protection from the fierce sun. This made the balcony unbearable and unusable for much of the day.