My partner and I sailed on the Armonia to visit the Baltic Capitals. The ship itself is beautiful, very well appointed and spotlessly clean. It was my first time cruising and don't think I would sail with MSC again. The food on board was very boring and tasteless. I heard American passengers state how they had Lobster and Fillet steak regularly on other cruises - but certainly nothing like that on the Armonia. Just the same chicken, fish and lamb done with various bland dressings/sauces. The pasta was good but just done with the same tomato sauce. The pizza offered at the grill on deck 11 was disgraceful - you would expect top class pizza from an Italian ship - what we were offered was too hard to cut with knife and therefore mostly inedible!!! The drinks on board were expensive but I suppose that is normal on a cruise. However having to pay for bottled water at the evening meal was a bit much, although it was available free in a machine on deck 11 at lunchtimes.

The excursions are really expensive. It is much better to do your own thing if you can - there is normally transport organized by MSC from the quayside to the city center at most ports. The only time it was best to take an excursion was at St Petersburg where doing your own thing would have been a bit risky.

The cabin stewards were lovely - ours named Edwin was Indonesian and could not do enough for us. Most of the bar staff were lovely too - always smiling and helpful. Our main criticism was the staff at the accounting desk - they were very downright rude, unhelpful and would much rather talk amongst themselves than serve passengers - who were afterall "just a nuisance". Sometimes you felt quite intimidated standing there. We asked reception for early morning calls several times as the excursions did leave early. None were ever received!!! Luckily we could set a mobile phone to do this as well, otherwise we could have missed some trips as the ship's time was always being changed from country to country. Read more