This was our 2nd cruise with MSC, having previously sailed on the Divina from Miami around the Caribbean in early 2014. We were attracted to the port intensive itinerary with no full sea days throughout the whole 14 day cruise. Embarkation in Barbados was rather unusual in that there was no one from MSC to greet us upon arrival at the Port building and none of the usual queues of people expected when embarking a cruise ship. Port officials simply pointed to the ship and told us to take our cases up to the ship to embark. Upon reaching the ship our cases were taken for screening and we had to battle with passengers trying to get on and off for excursions whilst we handed over our passports and paperwork to security. After a few minutes we were welcomed aboard and 10 minutes later we had our cruise cards and were ready to find our cabin. A good start.

The reason for the rather unusual embarkation procedures was explained to us by a waitress as we ordered our first drink on board. Only around 100 passengers were embarking in Barbados, the remaining 3,000 would embark at the weekend in either Guadeloupe or Martinique. More on that later.

The ship, its outside decks and the public lounges are all in good condition and there are a good variety of bars on board. Due to the itinerary there were plenty of loungers available and the pools were relatively quiet until mid-afternoon. We ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet most days and the food was pretty good. Dinner in the main restaurant was a bit hit and miss. Our balcony cabin (11169) was a reasonable size and well maintained by our steward, although I had to request a change of bed linen after 7 days which is poor. Read more