My husband and I choose this cruise because a group of our friends were going on it to celebrate the New Year. We have been on over 30 cruises but not on MSC so we wanted to celebrate the New Year with our friends as well as try a new cruise line.

I live in Miami so it was easy for me to get to the port on Uber. Embarkation was very smooth. Although my documents said boarding was at 2 pm I got there at 12 noon and was able to board the ship. Very short line to board. One of the things that was different from other cruise lines that I did not like was that I could not pre register my credit card before getting on the ship. Once I was on the ship we had to go to a machine to register the credit card.

My first impression of the crew when I got on board was not very pleasant. All the bar staff was piled up at the entrance of the ship trying to sell drink packages. I asked for a map of the ship and the daily activities and they did not have one available. Seemed very disinterested in helping. I went to the buffet to have my lunch and wait for my cabin to be ready (at 2 pm) and the staff on the buffet acted the same way. Again all they cared about was selling drink packages. This gave me a very bad impression of the staff. They must have had to meet a quota because that is all they cared about. Read more