I'm writing this review to provide a more recent updated review of the MSC Musica. Overall the ship is beautiful and the cruise was okay...actually better than I expected in most areas with some needed improvement in others. Let me start with embarkation. Embarkation was awful, utter chaos! the blame for this should be shared by MSC, cruise terminal tax personnel and rude/inconsiderate passengers. Arriving at the terminal (San Soucci) early does not mean you will board the ship before people who show up at 4 pm as MSC does not provide any control or guidance when you arrive at the terminal. In truth, a MSC rep at the entry kiosk will instruct you to have a seat until check-in begins. That's a problem because early arrivals naturally begin sitting near the the entry kiosk awaiting entry, however, sometime around 3:30 pm MSC begins accepting luggage at the other end of the terminal, right where the later arrivals are sitting! Therefore the later arrivals turn in their luggage before the earlier arrivals and then begin lining up at the entry kiosk where the earlier arrivals were sitting earlier! Some of the earlier arrivals did not appreciate this situation and began cutting the line to get back to what they believe was their rightful place. MSC personnel did not intervene. Now that check in has begun, cruise terminal tax personnel set up a booth to extract a port tax of $20 cash per traveler, this also created a bottleneck of frustrated and rude passengers. A few passengers were not prepared to fork over the cash...more delay and frustration. Once on board, all was well again. My room was ready and my luggage was already at the door. The room was very nice and I forgot about the embarkation fiasco. FYI, very few Americans were on this cruise and French was the primary language on the ship and on the most of the islands on the itinerary. I actually enjoyed the challenge until I was told that a "behind the scenes" tour of the ship would not be accommodating English speakers! My wife was not too happy. We would have went anyway but at 39 euros each for tour of the ship in French was not worth it to me!

The food in Le Maxims restaurant ranged from good to excellent (when some dishes arrived, they were warm, not hot) We opted for the second seating....never again! I'm simply not used to starting a 5 course dinner at 930 pm. (my fault) The buffet was very good, the fresh hand tossed pizza was awesome! I would give it an excellent if MSC would provide the free juice dispenser for all meals not just breakfast. Passengers can enjoy all the coffee and tea they like but you will pay for any other flavored water.....my wife and I consumed much tea. LOL We would have purchase more soft drinks and other items if MSC would have charged in US dollars not Euros as stated on the website, tickets and brochures!

The ship's staff were all polite and friendly. My cabin housekeeper was incredible, invisible but always available when needed. Overall, my wife and I had a good time. I hope this helps.