My wife and I boarded MSC Poesia in Venice on October 24th for a trans-Atlantic cruise of 18 days. We had booked a suite, cabin 15022, and at check-in we were ushered quickly to a special private check-in area with champagne and canapEs. We were told that if we needed anything, anything at all during the cruise to simply dial 99 and it will be taken care of. We were then escorted to the head of the security line and boarded the beautiful Poesia. Our luggage was tagged for us dockside and promptly dilevered to our cabin. At dinner the first evening we meet and fell in love with our waiter Murat and assistant waiter Onur, both from Turkey and very polite and eager to please. Learning their names and learning how to say thank you in their language made all of the difference in how they treated us. You get what you give. We were assigned a table for two at a window, table 536, in the Fontane dining room. We had the early seating at 6:15 pm. We had pre-purchased a drink package that included unlimited wine-beer-mineral water & soda at lunch and dinner. We told Murat that I enjoyed red and DW enjoyed white and from our first meal there were always 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of mineral water at our table when we arrived for dinner. Empty bottles were quickly replaced without having to ask. Any wine that was left at the end of our meal was tagged and presented again the next night. We saw some people take their wine bottles back to their room after dinner and I do not know if this is connected but they always complained about how hard it was for them to get wine service with their meal.

At dinner you were always given a choice: 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 2 soups, 2 pastas, 4 entrees (including vegetarian), 3 sides, a cheese plate and 4 deserts (including sugar free). If one was not happy with the daily choices one was always offered standard chicken, beef, pasta and vegetarian entrees. 85% of the dishes were simply outstanding and of those 10% were inspirational. The other 15% were "take it or leave it". One night we did dine in the specialty restaurant L'Oblisco. My filet was the best I had ever had and absolutely huge, at least 12 ounces of beef done to a turn and masterly seasoned. DW was disappointed with her entrEe, I forget what it was and the entire meal was a solid 7.5 out of 10. We could not get back to Murat and the Fontane dining room fast enough.

A pizza station was open every evening in the cafeteria but it was not sampled by us. Midnight buffets were daily events. If your are sailing on Poesia this winter I would ask to be re-seated in Murat's area if possible and tell him Curt and Amy Jo sent you. If you can't swing it for dinner, lunch is open seating and you can get him them. Read more