Booked thru Transat Holidays..big mistake. This ship was pretty much the same as any other ship..no WOW factor. Our inside cabin was quite pleasant. Locate at the front of the ship and down a small side hall, it was nice and quiet. Our room steward kept it nice and tidy and even laid out our jammies when he turned down the bed. Was disappointed we didn't actually meet him/her. The food was terrible. The buffet served the same dishes as the dining room. Our dining room waiter was great, tried to accommodate as much as possible but when the food is awful he could only do so much. Can not recommend this cruise line. Have been on over 15 cruises and this way by far the worst. Good points, embarkation and disembarking were very good. Not mass confusion and easily handled. We took a couple of excursions, which were quite good. Read Less

I chose this particular cruise because of the ports of call, and no ‘at sea’ days. Booked well over a year in advance, I started reading reviews on many different sites and was becoming a little concerned but thankfully fretted over nothing (surely couldn’t have been worse than my P&’n’O experience earlier this year. Onboard announcements were in a number of languages, English being first, and all were clear and informative. There were many Italians, French, Spanish, German, American, Australian and few British passengers onboard, I actually liked having a great mix of cultures. The ship was well laid out, from the sun terraces to the lounges. Very easy to navigate. There was always something going on in each of the venues therefore no overcrowding, always able to find a seat. The same with the sun decks, never an issue finding a lounger, and, as it suits my requirements, out of the way with nobody stuck like glue next to me. If I was to have one gripe it would be that I did book this a year in advance and requested late sitting for dinning and a table for 2, but was given early dining with a table for 10!!! I personally do not like seating for dinner with strangers (personal preference. Therefore, I ate in the buffet restaurant each night, and can say that the food in the evenings and throughout the day was plentiful and really tasty. I’m not really one for the theatrical shows so can’t comment, but I did go to a number of the venues onboard and the performers in each were a bit ‘iffy’ hence my grading for entertainment. But I was quite happy sitting at the bar in the piano lounge, or up on deck at the pool bar. I did one excursion in Dubrovnik, Game of Thrones Tour, and found it extremely informative, not only with regards to the show, but included a lot of history about the city itself. I found the staff on the ship really friendly and helpful, the bar staff were impressive (I do like it when they remember my drink and save me asking for it Read Less

We chose MSC as it tends to be cheaper than other cruise lines. We have used another 2 company's previously and MSC were on a par with them. The food was excellent and staff friendly and helpful. Would defiantly recommend. We went on a couple of excursions organised by the ship which were excellent and good value for money. The bars and restaurants were all beautifully decorated. This ship was amazing. We had two gala nights which were amazing and one white night equally as good. The pool area was well maintained and the bar staff were very quick to clear tables. Our waiter in the restaurant was fantastic and couldn't do enough for us. I must say their drinks package was also good value for money. The cabins had plenty of storage space and suitcases can be stored under the bed. All in all a very enjoyable and relaxing experience. Read Less

I'm pleased that we didn't read some of the previous reviews because we may not have booked this and then we would have missed out on an amazing time. The ship was brilliant - we were on the all-inclusive drinks package (part of the deal we picked up via a newspaper) and this entitled us to a very wide range of unlimited drinks , including cocktails and most spirits/liquers. Also a wide range of ice-creams. The buffet was open 20 hours a day for anyone concerned about portion sizes in the restaurant (we thought that they were fine and the quality was very good). We used the buffet for breakfast every morning and found the choice (and the view from the window) excellent. The staff through the cruise were all very friendly (and the 10 euro a person a day grat charge covers all tips - cabin, waiters etc - there is no need to tip again) All the trips and travelling went smoothly from the flights from Gatwick to Venice, to an amazing two night stay at Hotel Gabreili where we paid to upgrade our room to a lagoon view - well worth it (especially to see Poesia sail past our window!). We loved seeing Bari on our own - an easy 20-minute walk into the town and then a leisurely wander around - a lovely gentle first day. Olympia we took the tour to the site (just wished we'd agreed with the tour guide a time to meet her back at the site entrance and then we could have gone round at our own pace and not had to hear the commentary in English and French) The trip to Magna Grecia was fun (wine and olive tasting, a Greek plate and dancing Mykonos saw us on another guided tour - this time of the island, and then we were pleased to have some time in Mykonos town at the end. Athens was a 'cheat' - we have family living there so had our own personal tour guides. Albania - we took the coach trip headied 'Albanian Riviera' - mistake! If you have motion sickness this trip may not be for you! We hadn't realised that it involved long spells of driving through mountain roads (very twisty and turny) but the trip and stops were interesting. Dubrovnik on a Friday was very busy but we enjoyed time on our own getting a reasonably priced taxi there and back. And finally back to Venice for a few hours before our flight- we didn't realise that we could leave our bags at the boat, which would have been helpful, and instead took them to a luggage office Piazzale Roma and then got a taxi back to the airport.(worked fine but would probably have been easier to leave them at the ship) Would definitely go with MSC again (although we sometimes found it hard to get answers from them before we travelled) Read Less

We booked our first cruise with MSC (a party of 4) in August as we were drawn to the fact that there were no sea days and most of the ports looked appealing and were places we wanted to visit However I can honestly say I don’t think we’ll be rushing back to book again anytime soon! First for the good bits:- Price - the price is very competitive when you look at other cruise companies. Ship – the ship, MSC Poesia, was beautiful, very well maintained and spotlessly clean. Our balcony cabin on Deck 9 was clean, tidy and well equipped. The housekeeping team looking after us were excellent, clean towels every day, whether we asked for them or not, and the cabin itself was perfectly adequate for our needs. The ship has many lovely bars (most of which we didn’t really visit) and & beautiful Theatre. The drinks package – we opted for the all inclusive alcoholic drinks package and this was in all fairness excellent – there was a huge range of soft drinks, teas, coffees, wines, beers and most spirits and liquors and of course cocktails. The only thing that let it down was the very limited choice of wine available with this package (although it did include processo). The ports – the ports with the exception of Albania were all lovely. We did book one of the excursions in Mykonos and found this to be a very enjoyable and well organised experience. It is worth saying that the excursions are very well priced in comparison with some of the other cruise companies such as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, but we could have saved a significant amount by booking this ourselves and utilising local transport and services. Embarking – We arrived in Venice late morning and found getting on the ship to be a very easy experience. We had a transfer from Marco Polo Airport and were at the ship, via organised transfer, in about 20 minutes. Here there was no queuing and we were on the ship and being offered a welcome drink in no time at all. The staff – the staff throughout the cruise were mostly very friendly – the bar staff in the bar on deck 5 were especially delightful, engaging and very friendly Now for the bad bits:- The food – OMG I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many green beans in all my life – they seemed to be served with just about everything. The food in the upstairs self service buffet restaurant was in my opinion better than the food in the restaurant, however most of the food was over salted, bland, overcooked, forgettable and at times very strange – think musky octopus or black broiled blackened salmon!. The portions were very small and on a number of occasions we had to ask for bigger portions or two starters!. It got so bad that after the first few days we did not eat in the main restaurant. The food in the self service restaurant was slightly better, although nothing to shout about and the food in this area didn’t seem to change from one day to the next so by the end of the week I never wanted to see another pizza (or green bean!) ever again!. There was however a salad bar and a fresh fruit bar (although the fruit was the same served all week). Breakfast was a much better experience and we enjoyed in the restaurant a freshly cooked omelette every day which was lovely. Disembarking was a slightly different issue! – we had a de-brief a day or so before which was very well organised and informative so that we would know the procedure for disembarkation. However on the day itself it was organised chaos!, not helped by the fact that all of the announcements were in many languages and seemed to take some time, there were no staff members present in the bar allocated to us for our disembarking and there was then a mad rush when everyone seemed to be trying to get off the ship all at once!. Finally one point of concern is that we did complain whilst on board about the quality of the food in the main restaurant and completed the form required for the post cruise email survey, which amazingly to date we are yet to receive. They must only email guests who have no issues!!! Read Less

I was quite concerned after reading several bad reviews that were very negative about the MSC Poesia. After returning from a cruise on the MSC Poesia in September 2018, I can honestly say that the bad reviews are not all accurate in my view. Allthough there are some things that may bother you if you choose a cabin in the wrong area of the ship, like next to lifts or above the engine room, you cannot criticise the entire cruise just because of that, as your experience is reflected by the location of the cabin you chose. We were right at the back of the ship and found it fine apart from a vibration that you could feel when the ship was moving. You get used to it quite quickly. If youre prone to sea sickness, I can add that the weather has to be terrible before you will actual feel bad. We experienced wind of almost 50 km/h and we had people in our group that were prone to sea sickness, and no-one got sick..I found that the centre of the ship is slightly more stable than the front or rear so if you are worried about this, choose a cabing in the middle somewhere. I think the poor reviews are probably from people that are used to constant 5 star treatment, and wanting to have staff treat them like Royalty. If thats what you want, you will probably not be happy with this cruise, even though we thought the service was very good. The cruise was well priced, the ship was spotless and the service was good. We found that we did not enjoy the formal evening dining and we preferred the cafeteria, which we frequented all the time as there was such a good selection. This was not that the food was terrible, but because we preferred dishing up for ourselves, and to eat what we felt like. We took an all inclusive beverage package which worked you well as the pricing on board is expensive. There were several complaints that the staff did not speak English, which we found not to be true. I don't whink we encountered one staff member that could not converse in basic English. In short, I could probably complain about one or two things, but they are just that..One or two small things that we did not allow to affect our experience on the rest of the cruise. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and will be doing one with MSC again. Read Less

After reading bad reviews I was hesitant to take this cruise but my mother and I had a great time without any issues with the ship, staff or excursions. We chose this cruise because of all the ports and it was a good time for us. My mom and I booked our cruise without any problems and we had the drinks package as well as a few excursions making a nice mix. Embarkation went well it was actually pretty easy. After getting to the terminal we left our luggage and sat for about an hour in the terminal, went through security and were let onto the ship in a pretty quick process. We were on board at 1230 but couldn't get into our room until after 2pm. The ship did however offer a buffet lunch which had a large variety of foods that were very good and plentiful. Our room was big enough and we kept our lugging in the closet area out of the way. The drawers were little but large enough we did not have to live out of the suitcase. The ship itself is dated and does not have a huge atrium or reception area but it is very clean and easy to navigate. The pool area was large enough and I could always find a lounge chair. The formal dining was very good, the portions are small but most European meals are on the small side. We didn't watch the shows preferring to stay on the balcony and watch the world sail by us at a leisurely pace. The service was very accommodating especially our steward Bruno he was very thoughtful bringing us ice twice a day without fail. The service from all staff was with a smile The bar staff were busy but got to all customers in a timely manner and were always professional. The gym was good and had enough equipment but I wish the staff would have kept people to the 20 minute maximum on the machines some people would hog the treadmills/ellipticals by resetting their times so it looked like they weren't on that long. The ports in Italy, Greece, Albania and Croatia were very good. I would have liked more time in Croatia but we had a good time on our own touring the old city. Albania was a big disappointment to a lot of people but I loved how proud the people were of what little they had. The country is up and coming and I'm glad I supported their tourism effort. The highlight was seeing dogs round up and walk goats down the national road amongst the cars. The Blue Eye Springs is not what most people would call a big attraction but for Albania it's huge, the spring itself is small with a rushing river leading to and from and that's about it. They do have a restaurant which we sat at almost the entire time, after you see the spring there isn't much else to do at all. The excursion on Mykonos to the beach is just that the beach is all there is with no bars (open early at least), shopping or way to get out of the heat. My mom suffered for this I love the beach and heat so I had no problem, please be aware of the heat. The beach is crystal clear but pebbly not sandy, bring water shoes. We spent a little time in the town of Mykonos after the beach and that was nice. We also took the shore excursion to Venice after the cruise and it was hot, when you're meeting the water taxi you have to stand in the sun, again uncomfortable for my mother not a problem for me. Our only issue was actually with the other cruisers. Some were very rude, let their children run all over the ship without supervision and acted like the food would run out if they didn't take all they could at one time. I saw one person berate a bar server because she tripped over a toy his son had left on the floor. He berated her for almost breaking the toy, really! All in all it was a great cruise and we would do it again any day. Read Less

We booked this over a year before sailing. MSC would not let us bolt on a couple of days in Venice and the return flight home was too early to have an excursion, so sadly we did not get chance to go into Venice, although you did get to see the edge of it on the sail away. I also had to chase the flight details and paperwork information a couple of weeks before departure as I had not received anything. And, I could not check-in online as the flights had been booked as a block booking, but luckily we did manage to sit together on the flight, unlike some others. The embankment was long winded but no problems. You are greeted with a drink and staff trying to sell you extras. We at this point upgrades our drinks all inclusive package so we were less limited and could use the mini bar in our room. Or cabin was very well presented, very compact, but luckily we had a balcony. The decor was very nice, and the bed very comfortable. We chose 2 sitting (the my-time dining was booked up when we booked the cruise) the time was 9.30, if I had known it was so late I would have booked the 8pm seating Time. So as the waiter service was so very slow, the portions are small, and we were usually got our mains by around 10.30. The waiters seemed very thin on the ground so even getting a drink took ages. Because of all this we went to the buffet restaurants some evenings as we didn’t want to eat that late. There are drinks waiters I the buffet restaurants, but it was very hard to get their attention, so was easier to get your own drinks up at the bar. All this took the edge off the cruise experience for us as we love dressing for dinner and chatting with our table companions at the end of each day. The food is lovely throughout the ship. Did not try room service so cannot comment. The evening entertainment...... one show was more than enough for us, it reminded us of a school panto, very amateur and a bit laughable at times. And Some others did agree! The daily activities...... for us, there was nothing of interest at all, again disappointing for us, as we do like to participate, and as dancing or taisting wine etc, seemed to be all on offer, we did get a bit bored at times. And I did not know of any entertainment team so cannot comment on them is there was. The bar staff, once you got their attention, were generally very polite. Luckily we found A very welcoming team of bar staff at The Mojito bar on Deck 13. The coffee selection is lovely. There is no English speaking channels on the TV, only euro news. All other languages are catered for though. And EVERY announcement in person or over the tannoy is repeated in FIVE languages..... this was very tedious. The Tender was badly organised and Long winded. There is a written booklet of brief information on the excursions. And nothing was mentioned about Dubrovnik NOT taking Euros in most of the shops and restaurants... that proved very anoying when we wanted to get a gift and a drink. We did not travel with children. The shops...... watches, bags and jewellery, whisky......that’s about it! A Very poor and expensive selection, and confusingly all situated around 2 decks. There are loads of bar areas which made the ship layout very confusing, even after a week we were still having to work out how to get to the areas we wanted. We spent more time walking through the main restaurant than we did sitting in it, to get to the main area of the sip. The disembarkment at the end was very slow, but luckily for us, we found out from talking to another passenger, that our flight home was at 12.55 instead of 3.55 which is what our info said! Good jod I didn’t book that quick gondola trip! All in all we had a relaxing chilled break with lovely food and drinks, we met some lovely people, and we got to see Dubrovnik, which we will return to at some point. This is my 2nd cruise with MSC (the first was just over 20 years ago) and I will not be choosing them again. I would not recommend it for the English as it is more geared up for the europeans.... Read Less

This was our (2 adults + 1 11 year old child) first cruise on MSC, previously we had been on 2 cruises on Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas, but this time we were struggling to find an Itinerary that we fancied in the summer holidays, and the RCCI prices were quite expensive, so we looked at other cruise Itineraries and found MSC, which had some good Itineraries, leaving Venice and vising some interesting places like Athens & Olympia. The price of the MSC cruise was very good for a Fantasica Balcony room and they had a promotion on with a free drinks package for all of us, making it an AI cruise, the price was nearly half the price of the equivalent from RCCI at the same time. We flew to Venice from the UK 4 days before the cruise, as we wanted to visit Venice, which was great, but expensive, we were relieved to join the cruise to stop paying extortionate prices for food & drink!!! When we met the ship in Venice, she was very impressive, similar size to the Indy and looked great. We boarded easily, I had already checked in online, so it was just a case of dropping off our cases and having our documents checked, which was quickly done. We boarded to a waiting glass of juice, there was the joining the cruise picture which we avoided as having dragged 3 large cases across Venice, we didn't look our best!!! there was not much info on what to do next but we had a quick chat with a member of staff trying to sell us the drinks packages and she said our keys would be in our cabin, so we went straight to our cabin on the 10th deck. We had a quick walk through the ship to explore on the way to our cabin, the ship felt very bright and lively, with funky decoration and furnishings, places like the zebra bar etc. On entering our cabin we were very impressed, the cabin felt larger than the equivalent cabin on the Indy, the furnishings were very clean and well maintained, it just felt a little bigger. There was plenty of wardrobe space, cases fitted nicely under the bed. We had a comfy sofa which became a good sofabed for our son, the cabin staff came in every night for the turn-down service and made his bed up. The bathroom was a good size, olky downside was there is a shower curtain, so bathroom the floor got easily wet, I was used to a proper show door which kept the water in better. The balcony was a good size, which had 2 chairs and a small table, the sides were closed in so was very private and gave an amazing view. The restaurants were good, the quality of the food was very good at the main restaurant 'Il Palladio' that we were allocated, we ate at 19:15 (earliest sitting), quality was very good but there was not allot of choice on the menu, usually 3-4 mains & starters, often recurring on other nights, but with children they will provide hot dogs/burgers etc. We paid E$15 per person surcharge extra 1 night for the Florentine steak which was very nice and worth the extra in the main restaurant. The buffet restaurant 'Villa Pompeiana' on the 13th deck was good, but I found it difficult to make a 'full meal' in the evenings, it was ok for snacks, but the nights we went in to eat, we gave up and went to 'Il Palladio' instead. The Pizza area was always popular, breakfast was good, lots of choice for cooked breakfast, tea's, coffee & juice, lots of cereals, fresh fruit and baked choices.I also found the Buffet restaurant best at lunch time, they had a really good 'ethnic' section, so during the day they would have BBQ ribs, Rice, Rosotto's, Casseroles etc, this would be much better suited to the evening offering which was generally limited? The quality of the food was always good, but could be abit bland and did not have as much variety as I expected, especially for an Italian ship. These is a Sushi restaurant, but it was quite expensive when we checked, so we did not bother, The entertainment was good, we went to the shows after dinner at 21:45, the show performers were the same everynight, usually around a theme like Romeo & Juliet/Little Red Riding Hood/Hollywood etc, the shows were great fun and the cast really put the effort in, they sometimes had a few performers in, like strongmen/acrobats etc. One thing I noticed is that MSC did not appear to have any visiting acts, like RCCI had comedians, magicians, tribute bands etc, but the shows were very good and well performed, but did not have the variety that the occasional visiting performer give. The free drinks package worked very well, a good thing is you could get a drinks for everyone with 1 card, on RCCI you had to produce each card per drink, but on MSC 1 card could get us 3 drinks, which was much easier. We had all the non branded beers/spirits/cocktails/milkshakes/smoothies etc.The package also gave free Gelato which was great, having paid fortunes in Venice!! As we had a young son, we did not spend that much time in the clubs/bars, mainly just having a quick drink after/before the shows on the way to the cabin, most bars had a singer/musician and some of the show performers joined in the dancing. The bar areas did appear to have allot more space/seating areas, I think this is because the Poesia did not have the big Atrium the Indy had, so it felt allot more space was available for general seating etc. There were 2 large pools on the ship, both were salt water, which my son did not like, so was a disappointment, he was used to fresh water pools like on the Indy, by the end of the cruise they did not look very clean. There were 2 jacuzzi's at each pool, these were very busy and allot of people stayed in them along time, particularly teenagers, where the MSC deck crew had trouble moving them on. There were less activities on board, there was table football and table tennis, but they were always busy, also there was a tennis court, but we never used this. There were less organised activities compared to the Indy, but being only 7 days with 7 ports, that did not bother us, I wouldn't recommend MSC for transatlantic with 7 days at sea! my son missed the climbing wall and wave rider, also now they have slides, but none of this on the Poesia. The Itinerary of the cruise was the main reason we chose the Poesia, leaving/returning to Venice, we visited Bari.Olympia (Katakolon), Mykonos, Athens (Piraeus), Sarande, Dubrovniok. We enjoyed all the ports apart from Sarande, which did not feel great, lots of beggers and not allot to see and do, we kept to the front area as it did not look very welcoming. We did all the tours ourselves, usually getting off the ship and joining a local coach/taxi, the MSC tour prices were very expensive, for example we got a coach transfer to Olympia from the port for E$28 for all 3 of us, when MSC wanted E$35 per person for the same trip, so do your research on the excursions. There were allot of families on board, so the age of the passengers felt much younger than RCCI cruises we had been on. Allot of the comments I had read about MSC was that UK & US passengers do not like they are not catered for, as a UK passenger I agree, we are very much in the minority, but that's fine by me, it is a very European feeling ship, with lots of different people and languages, which made it interesting Overall, we had a great holiday, RCCI are slightly better IMO, but not by much, and at nearly double the price of MSC, MSC were much better value. I would recommend MSC, but just research that the ship has the facilities you want, as there is less to do on board, but what MSC do, they do well, I will definitely consider them for our next cruise. Read Less

We have done Celebrity and P&O before. Enjoyed both of them. We took two cabins as our 4 children were joining us. food was OK. Dubrovnik, Venice , Mykanos were good destinations, Sarande not worth getting off the boat for - dirty, full of beggars. Entertainment was comedically bad but became repetitive.Their musical version of Red Riding Hood consisted of lots of thrusting of sparkly codpieces. Truly awful experience with an aggressive vibe from several members of staff while on board. Many ignorant, many rude, a few stood out as very pleasant. Many could not communicate in English. One member of staff explained they were so short staffed they would bring mechanical labourers from below decks to work as wine waiters in the restaurant. Shambolic Main issue was early on the holiday overhearing the Photographic department manager make a racist comment in italian targeted at my two sons as they passed him. I challenged him and was given a weak denial. I advised him I would contact his manager. I did this the following morning. A half baked investigation took place and customer services told me he had provided them with a (totally different) explanation that they had decided to accept. Shame no-one bothered to check the CCTV. Contacted Customer services when back in the UK - only contactable by email.You will then receive an email by return telling you that that customer services will try to get back to within 28 days,,,,,Yes that's right 28 Days. Customer services repeated the vague conclusions given previously. Received the same 28 day email when I contacted them again. I was offered a discount if I booked another cruise I wouldn't propose to tell you how to spend your money. I would not go back if it was free. Despite the most unpleasant experience I ever had on a holiday I have tried to rate cabin/ dining etc as fairly as I could Read Less