This was our 17th cruise. We have been on RCL, HAL, NCL, Celebrity, CCL, and Costa. Until this trip I thought "who in the world could complain about a cruise?" Well, I found out.

MSC did a lot of things right. The Poesia is the most beautiful ship I have ever been on. Everyone comments on how clean it is. Since all the ships I have been on were very clean, it is hard to imagine without seeing the lengths MSC goes to...the tiniest details of the ship are constantly being cleaned. Kudos to the housekeeping staff. Our cabin steward team, James and Marin, were outstanding. Sadly, they are the only two people on the ship that were consistently friendly. The breakfast buffet was equal to the other cruise lines. They did a nice "Party Under the Stars" on Tuesday night. We did not get sick and had no problem with vibration. The sewer smell people spoke of in the forum was only a faint whiff twice, both times in the evening. We have noticed this on other ships, the Norwegian Wind was notorious for it and it is not a deal breaker for us. Some of the food was very good. My husband loved the Italian Meatloaf and the chicken stir fry. I liked all the soups and the salads, while not photo quality like the other lines, were good. The roast turkey was excellent. The pizza at night was pretty good. The shrimp cocktail on gala night was good. The robes in the room were great. The bed was comfortable and the first night James came in and ASKED if we would like more pillows, and we did. He and Marin kept us in ice the whole week. They were great.

The room was the smallest balcony cabin we have had. There is only an armless chair and a hassock. I get up very early and read and missed a sofa or at least an armed chair. One really strange thing. I brought my laptop. I had been warned in advance to bring my own Ethernet cable as they don't have wifi in the cabins and it is $15 to rent a cable. I did. The Ethernet connection is under the TV while the only electrical outlet is on the vanity, the opposite corner of the cabin. I had to put the laptop on the bed. I must say they have reasonable Internet packages and the speed is not bad. Read more