Virtuosa is a very beautiful ship so it is a shame the cruise was not the experience we had hoped for. Embarkation was crazy. Before even having a Covid test we were in numerous queues (at least 4) to show different documents. If you were positive you may well have passed it on to several people before even getting on the ship. Why not take a test and return to your car until the result and then check in as normal? This may not have been in MSC's control.

The first couple of days were a complete disaster. The service was dire with queues to get into the dining restaurant on the first morning of 20 minutes and the second morning 45 minutes. We spoke to many unhappy people. We informed Guest Services who didn't seem overly bothered. Getting bar service was a challenge at times and again you waited far too long. We upgraded to Aurea package which had a private sundeck and whirlpool but it took us over a day to find it. No-one told us the name of it, only that it was on the 19th deck. It was worth having, as much quieter. Again the bar service was very slow.

Speaking to other guests they seemed to think they were understaffed. We were also told there were 4,500 guests. Apparently it can hold 6,000+ but it felt very crowded with the number of guests there were. Dread to think what it would be like at full capacity. Read more