We just returned home from a fantastic European vacation that included 7 wonderful days aboard the MSC Poesia. Before our cruise I had scoured the internet to find any info I could about the ship and the entire MSC line. Admittedly, I was pretty nervous about our trip because of some of the negative comments that I read. I quickly realized that my concerns were unnecessary.
The ship is absolutely immaculate, and the maintenance crew is working around the clock to insure that it stays that way. Embarkation took 20 minutes from the time we stepped out of the water taxi until we walked into our cabin. We were on the starboard side on the D'Annunzio deck. At this point I will go ahead and address the only real negative of our cruise. The sewer smell is there, but it did not keep us from enjoying our balcony. When you first step out you will smell it, but within 30 seconds I didn't really notice it anymore.
I can't really comment on the children's activities. Our kids didn't really enjoy the kids club on our first cruise so they had no interest in even trying it this time around. FOOD - This seems to be the hot topic in regards to MSC. In a nutshell, we loved the food. We ate in the buffet for breakfast and lunch. The selections were varied and tasty. Being a former waiter, I have always leaned heavily on the waitstaff at restaurants to recommend what to order. For dinner we were lucky to be assigned to table 627 in Il Palladio and had Ionut Ciaobonu from Romania as our waiter. Every night he would expertly suggest the best dishes and which ones to avoid.