The Ship: The Poesia is a well-reviewed ship so I won't repeat many details other than to say it's big, considered one of the medium size cruise ships of recent construction : 16 decks, 294 meters long and 32 meters wide. Max passengers 3,000. 2 main restaurants, 2 specialty restaurants, 2 self-service restaurants. 1,275 cabins, most outside with balconies. It was the itinerary that made this cruise unique.

Embarkation: Kind of a pain. My daughter and I flew from Naples, Italy to Munich and then to Hamburg, where all the arriving Poesia passengers were met by the MSC ground hostesses and escorted to one of three buses. After what seemed a long time sitting in the sun, the buses finally moved for the one hour trip to the Kiel cruise terminal. Once there we joined the hundreds of passengers waiting to board. There was no MSC Club or web-express priority boarding so we waited a good hour before our number came up. Once in line, everything moved fairly rapidly and when we worked our way up to the check-in counter, an officer took our tickets, registered my credit card, and said we were good to go. Another walk up to the entrance platform and we were aboard. We were greeted by an officer and a steward took us directly to our cabin and showed us how everything worked.

The Cabin: We had cabin 11155, cat. 11, on the 11th deck, in the mid-section. The cabin wasn't huge (about 17 square meters) had two comfortable single beds, with a light blanket and two comfy pillows each. There was a two-person couch, desk and chair, minibar, small oval table, and a wardrobe with three doors, one of which had drawers and the safe. The carpet was clean and free of stains. There were two large mirrors, one in front of the beds and the other over the desk. The hair dryer was in one of the desk drawers. Our suitcases fit under the beds. Above the minibar was a flat-screen TV with satellite channels in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. In addition there were shipboard channels advertising excursions and the onboard shops, spa, etc. The interactive TV had a webcam showing the view from the bridge and a channel with a so-called "scan display" which showed the ship's current position, wind direction and speed, outside temps, weather and sea conditions. The bathroom was adequate with storage space above and under the sink, a toilet, and a medium size shower stall with containers for soap and shampoo. The shower curtain was secured on one side and did not impede movement in the stall itself. We always had four fluffy white towels (two bath and two hand), two facecloths, and a bathmat, as well as two nice robes. A sliding glass door led out onto the small balcony which was equipped with two plastic wicker chairs and a table. The cabin steward changed the towels twice a day as necessary and the sheets/pillow cases every third day. Being an MSC Club member, we had fresh fruit in the room which was replenished two or three times. We did not use the minibar. Even though the cabin was on a high deck, we did not feel any discomfort even when the seas were rough a couple times. Vibration was non-existent and I felt only the slightest movement on the worst days. Read more