We were a 3 generation party of eight with five children that just returned from the Poesia Thanksgiving cruise. We are frequent cruisers and have sailed on seven different cruise lines.

Embarkation: We arrived to the port around 2:30PM to a mostly empty terminal. We rented a car at Budget and dropped it off very close to the cruise port. We were on the ship within twenty minutes of arriving. We didn't pre-register online and had no issues.

Food: After reading reviews, we were expecting Golden Corral buffet food and were pleasantly surprised by all the food service. MDR dinner was very good every night. We ate of off the Italian side mostly. I have a 'no steak' rule on cruises because it normally is never good on any ship. Even my picky eaters enjoyed the dinners. Service was also good. Lunch buffet was standard cruise fare--mass quantities of OK food. MDR lunch was very good so if you don't like the buffet, try that. Breakfast was also pretty standard. When going to the buffet go the the aft elevators and come up at the backside of the buffet to avoid the lines. We did this for breakfast every day and never waited. The pasta station at the front of the buffet was excellent for lunch. My boys said the late night pizza at the buffet was the best they have had on ships. I thought is was pretty good myself. We didn't do any room service. Desserts were so/so. Not as much chocolate as we would like but we went up to the pool deck for late night gelato when we needed a fix. This was very good and affordable--$1.50 for a single scoop is Dairy Queen pricing. There was free soft serve available all day on either end of the pool deck also. Read more