My wife and I are Americans and we are in our late 40's and early 50's. We have been on dozens of cruises over the last 20 years or so. And every cruise we have ever taken, we have always brought our children. As we did on this recent cruise with MSC, but our children are now teenagers and enjoy cruises just as much as we do. Now that you understand that my family and I are very experienced cruisers, let me tell you about MSC. Like those of you that are reading my review, I too read reviews before we left on MSC just a few short weeks ago. There were some good reviews and there were some bad reviews. There were many reviews that complained about everything including the smallest of details. In my experience, you'll never make everyone happy, so try your best to do your best. If only MSC had that outlook, I probably would not be writing this review. There is so much wrong with MSC that I honestly don't know where to begin. But I will not dwell on the little stuff and just describe the big stuff that is simply just awful. For those of you that have been on cruises before, you will agree that a cruise experience simply represents a high level of service with a matching high level of quality. On MSC, neither quality nor service simply exist. The food is down right awful. And I'm Italian and this is supposedly an Italian ship. On a positive note, the daily pasta dish and the daily risotto dish were usually good. But that's it. There is no veal scallopini, no meatballs, no sausage, no peppers, no Italian cheeses like sharp provolone and all the rest, no garlic bread, no Caesar salad, no salami, no Marsala, Picatta, Parmigiana, no shrimp cocktail, no calamari, nothing!!! Where is all the Italian food? I don't know. Instead, every evening they would serve some fish dish that smelled so fishy, they probably only served it to get the smell out of the kitchen. In summary, the food was down right awful, gross and disgusting. Sorry to use such words, but I have no other way to describe it. And the waiters could not care less. They don't speak English. They have no clue as to whether you are satisfied or not. I have never seen such indifference from the dining room staff. Should you order a bottle of wine or an alchoholic beverage, it literally took about 30 minutes before it arrived. Hence, service is non-existent on MSC and the only quality here is low quality at best. Here are a few other nuggets of info:1.two nights in a row I work up with bites on my arms and legs. I asked the cabin steward to swap out the mattress because there were bed bugs. She did thankfully and I was no longer a midnight buffet to the bugs living in that particular mattress.2. I suspect the MSC Fantasia must have cost millions to build, yet the elevators are missing a thousand dollar software package that regulates their operation. It is almost comical watching all 4-5 elevators going up or going down all at the same time. It took forever for the elevators to arrive and when they did, they were consistently full of people since everyone was waiting for long periods of time regardless of what deck your cabin was on.3. Unless you are traveling with small children, DO NOT chose 1st sitting for dinner. There are countless little kids and babies, usually crying, screaming and carrying on in unison during the entire meal. We were literally surrounded by screaming children during dinner. And it must be a European thing, because the parents just let them go on screaming, with not even the slightest bit of discipline or courtesy for those around them.We chose MSC to save about $1,000. On MSC, you get what you pay for. We will never again cruise on MSC. Next time, I will gladly pay more and go on Princess, Holland American, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, Costa and even NCL (which before this cruise, was my other worst cruising experience). For all of you that have traveled on NCL, MSC is a new low in cruising. Stick with Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity, Holland American and even Carnival. For those of you looking for the very best, choose Crystal. Crystal is the most expensive of all, but you will not be disappointed. Even Disney Cruise Line is top notch and more expensive than most, but Disney does everything 1st class, but it is only for those traveling with smaller children.Sorry MSC, but I suggest you take a few lessons from the other cruise lines. As I said earlier, any worthy cruise experience needs to offer high quality with exceptional service. MSC offers neither.