The good things about this cruise were that the embarkation and disembarkation were very efficient. The side trips were reasonably priced and the ports of call were interesting, but the transfer to the buses could have been better organized. All language groups were herded into lounges and the theatre and then sent to the buses which was a nightmare. Our planned visit to Tripoli was cancelled after we had docked. Eventually, we found out that this was because the passengers did not have Arabic translations of their passports!!! which left 45 air conditioned buses standing empty alongside the ship for several hours, and frustrated passengers not knowing what was happening. Passengers received a refund for the cancelled side trip. For English speaking guests the cruise was uncomfortable. The language skills of the Italian waiters and cruise entertainment staff was extremely limited, and reluctantly spoken. You could count yourself very fortunate if you had a waiter from the Philippines, they were excellent. Travelling with over 2000 German speaking guests did not help the ambience for the Australian and New Zealand passengers who dutifully queued in line at buffets and for the elevators, only to be pushed aside, and I mean pushed! The food onboard was varied, and plentiful but oh! why could it not have been served hot....even the soup was lukewarm. The bread onboard was excellent and varied, and fruit and salads were plentiful. But the meat was invariably overcooked, and servings of vegetables were poor. The biggest disappointment was that we could not make a cup of tea or coffee in the buffet area except when meals were being served. Tea and coffee had to be purchased outside of meal times. Our experience with other cruise lines has been that tea and coffee were always available somewhere on the ship without charge.

The entertainment shows were of reasonable standard but the acts were repeated night after night in different costumes and became boring. Take plenty of reading material with you if you are a reader, as English books in the library onboard were very limited. I play Table Tennis, and there was an excellent table on the ship. BUT, it was situated in the childrens playground with 2" raised rubber mats across part of the deck and a metal pillar at one end of the table which made it extremely unsafe. It would be very easy to twist an ankle. I am surprised that the ships insurers let them get away with this (if they know about it?) especially as they have table tennis tournaments as an almost daily activity, played in this area. The cabin was comfortable, and the cabin staff pleasant and efficient. Overall, I don't think we would cruise again with MSC, when other cruise lines do it so much better. I think that if they are planning to attract more passengers from Aust. and NZ they will have to lift their game and attract some entertainment staff who actually have a personality and are willing to speak some english with a smile.