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It was our second time on the MSC Poesia for a Jazz Fest at Sea cruise. The MSC Poesia is a pretty ship nothing spectacular but very clean and well maintained. The 11-day itinerary was excellent and so was the jazz performances. We were part of a group for the Jazz-Fest at Sea.
Our cabin was very nice and clean. The bed was comfortable except for the very small pillows.
However, the service on this ship is one of the worst we have ever encountered.
The staff (with the exception of Hannah in the Pigalle) was rude, did not understand English and every time we ask for something, we felt it was an imposition to them.
One night we ordered 2 Manhattans and after 15 minutes we asked the barman if we were ever going to get our drinks. It turned out that our drinks were given to someone else (who, by the way had ordered Martinis !!). As we were inquiring about our drinks at the bar, the person who had been given our drinks brought them back, took a sip (!!) and declared that it was not their drinks (duh..). But wait... the barman wanted to serve us those same drinks ! Unbelievable !
During our 10 days aboard, we had to point on the menu what we wanted because our waiter in the dining room barely understood English and most of the time brought the wrong food. An average of 3 hours was not uncommon to finally be served. Even on the 2 Gala nights, the food was bad and tasteless or extremely salty.
Thank God, our sommelier Mr. Luigi, who is a charming man with an exceptional knowledge of wines, made our culinary experience bearable.
We could not wait to disembark that ship. But what a disembarkation ! It took more than 4 hours and we almost missed our plane - some members of our group did and had to be put on another flight.
To top it up, the ship accounting department used our credit card as a DEBIT card ! so upon our return home, we discovered in our bank account a charge for nearly $200 - that being a standard banking rule when you use your debit card abroad !
We have notified MSC of their mistake and asked for a refund of that bank fee and after nearly 3 weeks now, we still have not heard from them. We do not hold our hopes up on that one !
We definitively will not sail on MSC again and please don't tell us that the way their ship operates is the "European way", it is not ! We sailed with other cruise line European Style and never encountered anything like this.
Please avoid that cruise line, especially the Poesia, at all costs.
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