Embarkation was an absolute nightmare! We arrived at the port around 10:30 (the time MSC advised us to be there)...but due to delays in disembarkation, our embarkation took FIVE hours. Having chatted with other guests, I understood this to be very abnormal, though, as I was assured this process rarely takes more than 2 hours. Still, it would have been nice of MSC to offer all guest a foot massage voucher as a token of apology.

Food: You have no excuse to go hungry on a cruise...free food is available 24 hours a day! The breakfast buffets are amazing! And don't fill yourself with the pizza and burgers though, as the dinner experience in the 'fancy' restaurants are well worth experiencing...marvelous food, and perfect portion sizes.

Drinks: We were advised to buy drinks packages because of the discount this offers, and so we did. The only disadvantage of this was that our drinks tokens would not count in the in-bar specials of 50% off that get offered...I just don't understand why this would be the case. Still, it was worth it to not be doing a ZAR-USD conversions in your head each time you buy a drink....just say what you want and pay with your pre-paid drinks token. Read more