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Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

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Poor

MSC Sinfonia

St. Barts

Firstly the itinerary was excellent - including Suez Canal, Dead Sea, Seychelles, Mauritius and the highlight for me Petra, however Seychelles and Mauritius were marred by engine trouble which left only a few hours in each port, such a long way to go for such a short time. 

We found the excursion prices quite reasonable (may be other writers' have not been on Cunard and seen their prices).  We always use the cruise excursions for the security of if we are late back its MSC's problem, not ours.  On a couple of occasions the ship was late sailing due to late returning passengers.  Organisation of the disembarkation for excursions was hap hazard, there was even talk of scuffles between passengers where not enough transport was available in Seychelles.

The food on the ship was at best poor both in quality and presentation.  There was only one meal where we thought 'wow this is good' other than that it was no where near our expectations for an Italian ship. MSC chefs must be trained in how to make high sugar content deserts so bland, even the tiny portions of jelly had colour but no flavour. Mice would have died of starvation if they had to live off the pathetic portions provided on the cheese board at the evening meal!

Service was variable, many of the staff needed more training in their duties.

Cabin service was good.  We had one of the smaller cabins which had a balcony.  Not overly generous in space but adequate.

There was always a substantial queue at the Guest Services so there were many unhappy customers.  I heard plenty of people with issues such as wrong bed layout, fittings not working and one very, very, angry American but in the most the complaints seemed to fall on deaf ears at the Customer Service. 

We took advantage of the Internet and laundry packages available to book before the cruise - warning these are not available within 4 days(?) of departure or on the ship itself.

Internet was barely usable at times, even near populated areas.

The guest speakers were the worst we have ever experienced though the Cruise Director Stephen was by far the best Director on any cruise we have been on.  His lectures on how scams worked were an eye opener.

Moring Bridge lessons for beginners were very good.

Boarding at Venice would have been a joke if it were not so serious, we arrived at the terminal (long walk from water taxi) at about 12:30 and were left in an overcrowded, hot, terminal building and only got on board towards 17:00.  By the time we dropped our bags and freshened up we missed the first sitting and the staff were exceptionally unsympathetic to our plight.  No explanations or apologies were offered.

In summary it would take a lot to persuade us to travel with MSC again.

Excellent Itinerary.  Cruise let down by poor food and service

Ancona to Africa Romantic Cruises Reviews

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