We sailed on the MSC Opera as a reward for my husband's work as being a top agent in his real estate agency. We have sailed many times before but not ever on MSC.
First, the good stuff. The Opera was an extremely elegant, well-maintained ship. It was truly like being in a world class resort instead of a cruise ship. The staff was almost all Italian but most spoke fairly good English. The lounge entertainment was excellent, and this is where we spent most of our time. The pool deck was spacious and beautiful. Our cabin steward was the best we've ever had and deserved the entire tip that they automatically added to our bill.
Now, unfortunately, for the bad stuff. The whole cruise was chaotic. We were late leaving. We were late for every port and spent only two hours in San Juan at night due to poor planning on the cruise line's part. We were four hours late disembarking and missed our flight because they forgot to radio the port that we were coming in and we had to wait in the canal for them to clear a docking area for us.