I was a bit apprehensive about booking this cruise having read a number of poor reviews about MSC. I think this cruise line is the marmite of the industry, guests either love them or hate them. However we wanted to go to Israel and Cyprus so took a punt. I will try to be as objective and honest as possible in my review.

We had a two-day stay in Messina before joining the ship On the first night Etna erupted for the first time in over 20 years so we did wonder if this might be an omen! We were due to check in at 1500 on the Sunday and duly arrived in plenty of time at the cruise terminal along with at least 200 other guests. We were therefore quite miffed to find the terminal was closed, the Italians waiting with us, many quite elderly, were very annoyed and showed it in their inimitable excitable way. Huge arguments were taking place understandably as we were all there waiting with our luggage in 27degrees of heat. Then when the terminal was eventually opened utter chaos ensued. Our Italian friends find the concept of queuing completely alien to them and the crush at the desks was a sight to behold. From there I regret to report that things went downhill.

However the good bits first. We boarded the ship to be very pleasantly surprised by how opulent the vessel was. It is an exercise in marble and glass and was gleaming and clean. A further pleasant surprise was in store when we found our balcony cabin on Bellini deck - all the decks are named after famous Italian composers which we felt to be a nice touch. We were on deck 10 where nearly all the balcony cabins are located on this ship. The suite was the largest we have experienced and really nicely set up with a sitting area, dressing table, walk-in illuminated wardrobe and plenty of drawers and cupboard space. The bathroom was another revelation with a bathtub and shower, I did wonder how one would manage in the bath in high seas but I did not get the chance to test this. What we did not know at that time but were soon to find out that, in my opinion, this vessel has a serious problem with regard to the balcony cabins on the starboard side. These cabins are all below the swimming pool deck and while this was never a problem during the day, at night it was horrendous. Between the hours of 2am and 4am each and every night we were woken to the racket of the crew working on the deck above. The noise of sun loungers being dragged along and stacked and all the other associated noises of deck cleaning made sleep impossible and we spent much of the cruise catching up on zzzzzzzs. Our cabin steward advised us that we were not in the minority with this complaint and that it was a problem on every trip. There was no point in asking to be moved as all the balcony cabins were full. Read more