Just completed a 7 day cruise on MSC Magnifica 10/9/2010 , departing out of Venice, Italy. This was our first cruise with MSC, and I would never recommend MSC to anyone unless you are traveling with children or you desire a no frills , kids everywhere, short port times cruise.

Venice is a wonderful departing city, once you are on the ship. We booked our own airfare from the US to Venice, then stayed 2 nights in Venice pre cruise. We stayed in the Cannerigio district, near the St. Lucia Train Station, very close to the port.

We were informed that MSC has a bus that takes its guests from the Piazza Roma bus station to the ship, so we proceeded to carry our 3 bags of luggage each to the bus station from our hotel, a distance of about 2 city blocks. However,you must carry your luggage over a large bridge with many steps to reach the bus station, which was very taxing and I would not recommend to anyone. Read more