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Out of all the cruises I have been on, I would rate this as one of the top ones.
Being Canadians we all enjoyed the cruise. Languages spoken frequently on board(Italian, Spanish, German, English, French, Russian amongst others).
Staff where very courteous & helpful. Dining staff & cabin staff were excellent.
We booked our excursions & drink & water packages online a month prior to cruise. I don't recommend anyone do this, we where shocked to find out they had no record when boarded. It took two days to get straightened out. Staff did credit us for all we used until everything was straightened up. Other guests also had the same problem as us, indicating it wasn't an isolated problem.
Coffee is not included in the dining room(added charge, along with water, unless you bought a water package). Tap water, tea, and coffee are available 24 hrs in the Bora Bora Cafeteria although it is not mentioned on the website. A variety of juices are available at no extra charge at breakfast only.
My wife & I bought water packages, cocktail, pop, and espresso packages. Cocktail & espresso packages cannot be used in the dining room. Which needs to be addressed by MSC. Also with the espresso package you are limited to only about 6 items on the menu(which was pointed out by 3 separate servers over the course of the cruise). My wife used some for hot chocolate 3 times & was denied twice by two separate servers on other occasions.
Use caution with the water packages. They are costly(26 euros for 14 1.0L bottles). You can buy a 6 pack of 1.5L bottles in the terminal(Barcelona) before boarding for 8 Euro. Unless you drink lots of water, be careful how much you buy as they are not refundable. Canadian & American guests get 7 free bottles of water for the week and the beer package includes 7 water bottles too. We used two bottles at every dinner(took back to our cabin what ever was left & kept cool in the mini bar fridge). I recommend taking a bottle/person or more in a backpack for every excursion(especially if walking in high heat for extended periods of time).
Ship services are well organized for the most part. Embarking & Disembarking the ship are well done, organized & efficient, compared to other cruise lines I have been on. The excursions are well organized, efficient & very reasonably priced, when compared to what other cruise line companies charge.
Dining is top notch. Italian flair, which is understandable. Being European myself it was enjoyable with enough variety. Young teens may find the menu a little exotic for their tastes, but it a good opportunity for them to expand their palates.
The buffet is OK, but I would rate it as 2.5 out of 5. Have enjoyed better buffets on other ships with more variety & changing the items offered daily. MSC buffet is basically the same every day and in 7 days, gets boring really fast.
The kids clubs offered on the ship are great for kids under 12. My boys are 14 & there was confusion about the club offered for them, spoke to two different individuals & could not get anyone to give me a straight answer. Kids ended up giving up & just hung out at Club 33 with all the other older kids, their age & older & had more fun. Seems like that's what all the older teenage kids were doing anyway.
The theater shows were outstanding, my wife & I enjoyed every one of them. Better than shows I experienced on other ships, quite surprised. They were like a combination of ballet, gymnastics, and cirque de soliel with a Vegas flair.
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