Price and itinerary was the drawcard, but the cruise was just awful. Cold food with no flavour. No entertainment except for dancing and pool games. No movies or tv except if you paid for them. Treated like cattle on embarking took 2 hrs. Bistro closed at 2oc. Didnt get on till then. Room was dirty when we finally got in. Service at night in dining room was terrible took nearly 2 hrs and food was cold. The whole ship got sick with a cold virus. No news from outside world. Only cruise information was at midday from captain that was so quiet you couldnt hear it. Theatre shows were really bad, except for one the Witches show. Three tenors were amazing as well. Crew cast female singer was really bad. Same entertainment in same bars at same times every night. One female singer in piano bar was worse than me and thats bad. Need i go on....if you were to ask anyone who was on this cruise i know they would be of the same opinion not many happy travellers on this cruise. Italians dont have any idea on organisation of any activity. Shower would scald you one minuite then freeze you the next. I had a bad experience with a loose chair seat b4 this cruise only to find more tgan 50% of the chairs in bistro were loose. Upon complaining i was told yes we know madam but if we took them all out to fix them ee wouldn't have any chairs left and our saftey officer is not around. So they were prepared to be sued for an injury. Go figure.... Read Less

MSC SINFONIA CRUISE ITINERARY – DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA TO VENICE – 20 APRIL 2018 – 14 MAY 2018 GOOD COMMENTS 1. The whole of the ship was always clean and tidy 2. Medical Centre – Unfortunately I had to attend the medical centre. The consultation by the doctor was excellent and thorough. The Medical Centre was well organised and very busy. (It was difficult to find as we followed the signs and then suddenly they stopped so it took some time to find which isn’t ideal when feeling ill). 3. Cabin Attendant – I Ketut Suastika did an excellent job. Waiter in the main dining room in the evening – Warnaya looked after us well despite having very little help when his assistant left the ship in Mauritius (our second stop) as he was at the end of his contract. No one replaced him. With having no help to serve the food it was constantly cold including the plates the food was served on. English breakfast in the main dining room was constantly cold every morning. After 6 days we spoke to the Maitre D’ (Luigi),see below. He arranged for the Head Waiter, Adrian, to take my order each morning and ensure it was hot when served. They both did an excellent job following my complaint. 4. A leaky sprinkler in the cabin caused problems for a few days but was dealt with promptly and caused us no hassle as they worked on it when we were out of the cabin. BAD COMMENTS 1. As mentioned above after complaining about the food in the main restaurant being cold Luigi took this complaint over and dealt with it. At the beginning of the cruise I sent 3 evening meals back to the kitchen. Food was placed on cold plates so when served the food was too cold to eat. Our initial complaint was made to Reception on Sunday, 22 April, when we were assured the matter would be dealt with and we would be kept informed. When the situation remained the same and we had had no information, we went back to Reception on Thursday, 26 April. It was then that the receptionist called Luigi and he took our concerns over. 2. Self Service Restaurant – Deck 11 – Awful choice of hot food at lunchtime – mainly stews (these were cold). After 20 plus cruises including MSC, Celebrity, Thomson, Princess, Royal Caribbean, NCL the Sinfonia ship is the worse self-service restaurant for choice and quality of food. The only positive comment I could make is that the cold meat, salad and bread was enjoyable at lunchtime along with the desserts, although again there the choice was very limited. 3. We found the hand sanitiser machines empty regularly. These should be a priority to avoid illness. This was reported to Reception on 22 April, they said they were aware of the situation, but nothing changed during the cruise. 4. Entertainment – The entertainment was no comparison to other ships. Poor male singer. The Cruise Director was conspicuous by his absence – we never saw him around the ship like you do on other cruise lines. The shows seen on other cruise lines are very professional but the shows here (especially the singing and dancing shows) were very poor in comparison. 5. Having mentioned previously we have been on 4 MSC cruises over the years and also with other companies but feel Sinfonia is the worst managed ship out of them all. There was an attitude which was at times all too apparent – we wondered at times if crew were being trained on this long cruise and so were not working towards the level of service we have come to expect on our previous cruises. Quite frankly some staff did not seem interested. For example, newspapers were available on board. We ordered one to be collected from reception at 8-45am. When we went to collect it at 9-30am it had not been printed. We were asked to go back in an hour. It was 2pm when we returned, and it had still not been printed. We eventually got it at 3pm, six and a half hours late after three visits to Reception. 6. People arriving back from the Petra trip which was organised by the ship missed their first-sitting slot in the main restaurant so therefore we had to eat our evening meal in the Self Service Restaurant only to find one half of the self service restaurant had been closed off and not in use. There was nowhere for people to sit to have their meal, this situation should have been anticipated. 7. The last 2 evenings of the cruise the bars had no stock of tonic. The last night of the cruise the bars had no stock of Bitter Lemon, Cider, Coke or Sprite. Obviously not enough had been ordered. 8. The “Daily Program” did not contain enough information compared to other cruise lines. It was virtually the same every day. 9. We had 11 days at sea and were looking forward to having 3 full days in Katakolon, Kotor and Split to find these stops were for half days only. This was very disappointing but no doubt due to half days in port being cheaper as opposed to a full day costing more. The itinerary did specify this but it was still a big disappointment. As previously stated this was our fourth cruise with MSC. Whilst we could not say that it is our favourite cruise line, we have never encountered problems such as these before. Read Less

We chose this cruise to celebrate birthday and anniversary milestones as we had not had a long vacation in years. I cannot recommend MSC to anyone. The actual destinations we visited were amazing but the overcrowding on board, the poor quality of food and entertainment spoilt our holiday. The problem seems to be the management have completely lost touch with what is happening around them and have forgotten the nature of their business. The ship was extended to accomodate more guests but restaurants,theatre and swimming pools remain the same therefor overcrowding and especially over 24 days is so unpleasant! The food was so poor and airconditioning so cold in many areas that peoples resistance to infection was lowered and hence so many people fell ill with bronchitis, stomach disorders and flu - even the ships doctor fell ill. Theatres had to be visited at least 30 minutes prior to the show in order to get a seat and excursions took sometimes up to an hour of queuing to finally get going - so unfair on the many senior citizens on board. It was well noted by many guests that the staff are badly treated working long hours with very little time off, All in all I will never do another cruise with MSC! Read Less

We were looking for a one-way travel itinerary and chose a cruise over a one-way air-ticket. It served as a family vacation for 24 days and was worth the experience. The only thing to keep in mind when doing a long crossing is that most of the passengers are retired and that there are not many children on board, however the team at the Mini-Club are fantastic and have an action packed program for every day. This allowed us to have some "Mommy and Daddy" time which was a treat. Dining was good, with a new dish option every night as well as any-time pizza was always a winner with the children. The photo service is fantastic and well worth buying a photo package. The photographers were professional and friendly and produced some fantastic shots. There was a variety of daily activities and the atmosphere was pleasant. We enjoyed our time on board and will seriously consider doing it again. Read Less

We wanted a LONG cruise and this was it❣️ The embarkation process went smooth. The fact that we could check in online, made it easy The ship is awesome and has everything you can think of Our cabin was very good and we had enough space not to feel cramped. All the food was excellent. The food from the dining experience was good - although the service was slow (but it was not the waiter’s fault). Some of the entertainment was excellent, especially Roelof and the lady concert pianist The artists from the Manhatten Lounge was terrible on the other hand. The service from some of the staff from customer care was not very friendly. Sometimes, some of the staff clearly ignored you while standing in the queue. The ports and shores were beautiful but the excursions were extremely expensive. I would LOVE to travel on a long cruise again Read Less

We wanted to do a longer cruise. We started in Durban which we knew so only did a half day in Durban. Embarkation and disembarkation at the beginning and end went smoothly however at the different ports it was a little chaotic. When you have more than 4 buses going perhaps you could call two at a time rather than 4. The ship was lovely and clean. Our room which had a big window was spacious and comfortable. The food was very good and was always available. The restaurants were clean and waiters very friendly. I did feel a little sorry for them when the ship was running out of wine within the first 10 days. The waiters took the brunt of the people anger and when asked for the manager he was never available. However saying that they did supply us with more expensive wine that was available that wasn't for the vouchers that we had pre-booked. Entertainment was good and plenty of activities. Found quite a lot on before 10am - breakfast the talks and gym - so we missed a few of the talks which were extremely interesting. Excellent service in the cabin, at the pool and in general the crew was fun and always polite. The excursions were great and very informative. Pity Montenegro and Split were such short stops as they were really beautiful. I would definitely go again in fact trying to decide on the next route. Thank you for a great experinence!! Read Less