For my wife and I, this was going to be our 4th cruise and looking forward to the holiday immensely. First impressions were good, nice modern ship, facilities good etc. We had also booked a cabin with a balcony and boy was that useful when you needed to escape the noise.
How short lived our impressions were. We arrived in the morning and following embarkation, we went to have a buffet lunch. The best way of describing this experience was a feeding frenzy, people of many nationalities pushing and shoving. When we were able to get some food, there was then nowhere to sit. Now, this was typical for all buffet meals. Thankfully, we found another restaurant where it was possible to order breakfast and lunch which was much more pleasurable and indeed quieter.
Evening meals are taken in an allocated restaurant. We selected an early sitting which was very wise since people who took the later sitting were still eating come 11.00 p.m. The food was poor and lacking imagination. There are formal dress requirements, an absolute joke having gone to the expense of buying a dinner jacket which fitted me. So, having gone to the trouble and expense of buying/taking a dinner jacket etc, you can imagine how annoying it is to see other passengers arriving at the 'formal' dinners in shorts and T shirts. An absolute joke! Typically, Cruise Ships do charge a bit over the top for excursions, but MSC take the biscuit. My advice is don't take any excursions, there are many alternatives and a lot cheaper. When we arrived at a port, MSC even had the audacity to charge for shuttle buses, up to 10 euros.