We are experienced cruises who have never had a serious complaint about any of the cruises that we have ever done (including Costa) because any cruise is a good cruise. However, that attitude was before we got aboard the MSC Magnifica in Venice on Oct 23, 2010.

We had heard some bad reviews of MSC but we are not overly fussy, had an open mind and were looking to get to Istanbul so we chose this cruise sandwiched between a Royal Caribbean Eastern Med cruise and an NCL cruise trans Atlantic from Venice to NYC.

My wife and I could hardly contain ourselves as we boarded the MSC Magnifica in Venice and took in the beauty of the ship as we were escorted to our cabin by a white gloved member of the cruise staff. This was a very nice touch we have never seen on any other cruise line and the beauty of the ship was stunning at first glance. We quickly did a tour of the entire vessel to ensure that they had not just walked us through the nice parts on the way to the cabin and to our surprise the entire ship was stunning. Unfortunately that was the last good impression we had of any aspect of MSC. Read more