My husband and I have recently returned from 10 days on MSC Fantasia. We had a lovely time on a beautiful ship but we won’t be returning to MSC and I thought you may like to know why.

Firstly let me give you some important details. I am a British 44 year old woman and my husband is Dutch and 51 years old. We have no children and have previously cruised with P&O, NCL, Princess and Costa and booked this cruise purely because we had a last minute opportunity to go on holiday and this fitted within our schedule. I must also add having sailed with Costa three years ago we had decided not to book another Italian boat because we found it too noisy and the onboard activities not stimulating enough. That said the food was excellent and as MSC was offering such a good deal on a balcony cabin we thought at least we would have lots of delicious pasta to enjoy.

We embarked in Genoa and once on board found the boat to be beautifully decorated and the cabin extremely spacious and comfortable. Everybody on board was a delight and looked after us perfectly. Due to the 3000 passengers travelling with us being made up of 90% Italians the entertainment was obviously geared more to their taste. If you like dancing there are numerous dancing classes every day, the odd game of bingo and a couple of cooking demonstrations narrated in six different languages. We like to read and were very grateful for our lovely cabin as there was nowhere on board that had a quiet chair to curl up on and ‘lose yourself’ in a book. None of this, however, is a deal breaker, unlike the food which was very disappointing. Read more