First time on MSC, and never again! Have cruised Carnival 7 times and never had a complaint. MSC offered us a balcony cabin on deck 11 for a price comparable to an interior cabin on any previous cruise, so I jumped on it.

I am Canadian, the thought of a European influenced cruise appealed to me. I know there's this whole issue between Europeans and Americans and I see both sides have their issues, but coming from Montreal, I figured I could embrace some of the cultural diversity and it wouldn't affect me as much. I have read a lot of reviews about the bad food, arrogant crew members, rudeness, etc., and tried to keep an open mind, they just don't always do things the same way, I have been to Europe several times and experienced it firsthand. So here is how it went... from my perspective.

My sister and I had signed up for the Express Check-In and it went very smoothly, we easily jumped ahead of many others this way, the express line had only about 3 people ahead of us and we were on the ship within minutes. We boarded at about 12:30 and were told that our cabin was ready... what a nice surprise! We went directly to our cabin and found it to our liking, but they had omitted to separate the beds for us, however that was rectified upon meeting our cabin steward before leaving for dinner the first night. We saw her one other time the entire week, but have no complaints about cabin service, it was routinely well done. Although no towel animals on MSC, she did arrange our bed clothes in little arrangements on the beds on several occasions, which was a cute touch. We asked for more pillows, so had enough, but they were lumpy and hard, linens nothing to write home about, and thin polyester comforter would slide off during the night, definitely not superior bedding. Read more