The ship was very nice, great service in the cabins, shops, and dining rooms, very talented entertainers, but my overall experience was that the entire ship is designed to extract as much money as possible out of its customers. Cheaper rates mean they'll get their money elsewhere. This is *not* a complaint about MSC's excellent staff, but about the company and its policies.

For starters, it seemed like you had to pay for everything: internet connection, extra food and drink in the shops, fitness classes, etc.

While the customer service staff was very friendly and professional, their consistent answer was always "no". They wouldn't refund pre-paid drink coupons. They wouldn't reimburse you for logging into the internet cafe computers, thinking it was the same as the wifi login you'd already paid extra for. They wouldn't reimburse you for failed phone calls when the call disconnected after a few seconds. They wouldn't reimburse for the internet connection when it was such a bad connection that some sites just wouldn't work. Going to customer service was an exercise in futility. Read more