My wife and I have been on over 25 cruises including many of the Celebrity and Holland America ships as well as Cunard, Princess, and the older Home Line. Only one time on a Carnival Cruise and that still remains our worst experience.

First the simple things.

Embarkation and debarkation were by far the easiest and best organized of any of our cruises. We arrived at the pier a bit early (10:45) since we did not want to wait for the Courtyard shuttle and caught a cab direct to the pier. At 11:05 they opened the doors to security and registration. By 11:10 we were escorted up to the ship level at the terminal and at 11:20 we boarded the ship. We did have a bottle of vodka and sherry in our carry on bags. They went through the scanner with no issue what so ever. Again it is a case of if you don't flaunt it and it is for cabin use only I don't think MSC has an issue. They do collect the boxes of alcohol that people buy in the ports and hold it for you but it appeared that if you were only bring back a bottle in your beach bag there was not a problem. Some have said that if you buy in the ship's duty free you can bring a bottle back to your cabin but we don't know that for sure. Read more