We chose MSC to go away for Christmas largely because of the price. Having said that we paid over 3k for 11 nights, so not exactly a bargain. Where to start? Well we arrived at Milan Linate airport with no delays and only an hour and a quarter flight from London, brilliant. We found the MSC rep at the airport who told us to wait outside for the coach transfer. Well we waited and waited, a coach arrived with the ships name on, after an hour or so, we asked if we could get on, or was minus 1 and freezing. However we were to,d that we weren't ' on the list' so the coach left only a quarter full. After a further hour, we were told by the rep that we were waiting for another flight, which had been delayed. I.e. Eventually arrived 2 1/2 hours after us. We got on the coach and had a 2 hour transfer to Genoa. We finally saw the ship and thought, thank goodness we are finally here. But...no. We went into the departure hall and were presented with a ticket, number 26. No explanation. We Sussed out that every 100 or so people are given the same number and then wait got a digital display to show that number and then they all go en masse to a roped off area. Talk about chaos. We waited again and...very very slowly. Inched our way to the rope. You then go to a desk where they take ticket number 26 and you queue en masse again for security. This took about 2 hours.

We arrived on the ship shattered and fed up. We had been ' in transit' after leaving home for around 17 hours by now. Please remember it's only an hour and a quarter flight..,..the ship itself was nice enough, but compared with Italian designers, think Versace rather than Armani. Cabin was nice, very clean and comfortable. Food in the buffet was dire. Italian chefs are supposed to be among the best in the world... really? Most of the buffet food was not hot enough and some of it downright cold. Some also looked pretty disgusting, it's all served in huge sort of dishes which made a lot of it look like slops, but they did have hamburgers and hot dogs and chips at lunch and dinner lol. The food in the main restaurants was better but the service was terrible. We had the late sitting, 8.30, but we were generally still waiting for desert at 11.30 ish. Entertainment was ok, very geared to the 5 million Italian people who seemed to be on the ship with us. I would never say, ' I don't like Italians' I wouldn't assume to know all of them of course, but the ones on our cruise with MSC were awful. They let doors go in your face, stole your chair, obnoxious. They also roamed around in packs with no spacial awareness or consideration for any other guest. They were awful. The trips were ok, very expensive and not worth the cost. Casablanca is awful, dirty and a real dangerous feel about it, would never go there again.

The speciality restaurant, Asian, was nothing special but better than the buffet obviously. Read more