This is our 4th cruise, second with MSC and we were a bit disappointed, the first one had been in 2008 the 1st time the company came to South America, and being also summer with Argentinians and Brazilians on holiday we can say it was full but never as crowded as we experienced last week and the standard was much higher. In Fantasia, forget about having a good breakfast or lunch if you don t go to the restaurant, the buffet was impossible, crowded with bad mannered people (and this is a surprised 46 year old writing, not an elderly lady from more educated times) finding an empty deck chair was another story and don t you dream about swimming as the three small pools (2 outdoor and 1 indoor) were packed with children and people who pushed their way into the pool on those hot afternoons after re embarking.

The restaurant for dinner was nice but you could not move your chair an inch or the waiter would not be able to serve you so near were us from our neighbor table. The food was good but far from what we had on our first MSC experience. Everything came down in standards. The only exception is the show, it was great every night, I think it is the best team in the whole cruise. We were expecting the chocolate night party or the ice sculptures that we have seen on MSC and other companies. Forget about that or having lobster one night as we are expect on a cruise. Forget about getting many things for what you pay as MSC expects people to pay extra for everything. We took all their excursions knowing they were too expensive but were too lazy to organize something different with other guests and paying for the excursions was easy. Mind you, some of them were good but others depended on who was your guide. Some guides were disastrous, and just took you to places where they could get a commission, like the one in Katakolon. One little suggestion in summer: for the price of the tours they should give you a glass of fresh water, what do you think? In other countries, they even give you fruit, drinks, beer, and here not even a glass of water in a 40/50/60 € tour of 3 or 4 hours! It was a shame when elderly people had to walk to buy their water under a 40 C sun.

The multi nationality mix may be tiring for the many languages spoken all the time , which was not an issue for me but it was when the Asian people, who were many, did not care about who they pushed or which photo they ruined!! Another issue, the photograph prices, but that s typical in a cruise, I guess. Read more