The Goal: My husband and I wanted a cruise that would take us to Egypt over the holidays. He has always wanted to see the pyramids, but we were not keen on spending a lot of time in Egypt, so a cruise offered the perfect opportunity. We have been on several conference type cruises and did a 3-day Disney cruise once as a family. This was our first time to cruise longer than 4 nights and also our first 'international' cruise. (i know the Caribbean cruises we've taken stopped at ports outside the US, but we've always boarded in FL) We did not want to be on a ship for longer than a week, so this limited our options -- basically to one -- MSC Magnifica.

We had read a lot of negative reviews here, but decided that we would go and just make the best of our time on the ship and spend as much time as possible in the ports. We are frequent travelers to Europe, so were mentally prepared for cultural differences and language barriers ....

Finding the cruise port was pretty straightforward -- we boarded in Venice by took a water taxi from our hotel to the bus terminal where we caught a shuttle to the ship. The boarding process was actually quite simple and seemed well organized. There were tables set up in the waiting area where you could purchase excursions, drink or spa packages etc .... Once on board, we found our cabin easily and had lunch at the buffet. Read more