After discovering this site and reading the reviews of the Poesia and other ships in MSC's fleet, I was wary about my December 27th cruise as it was too late to cancel and switch to another line. As others have said, many of the complaints are justified but perhaps it's also due to cultural differences.

EMBARKATION: Smooth. We arrived quite early for our 7pm departure, around 1pm. We basically walked right in. I had no problem with the port. Our cabin was ready for occupancy. It was a nice touch to be escorted to the cabin but the escort did hang around for a tip. He kept asking "is there anything else you need?" after showing us the cabin. Since gratuities are included, this behavior needs to be corrected. I gave him a few dollars but I said to myself "no more" if it happened again. The only people I choose to tip outside of the daily gratuity is room service.

FOOD: MSC is definitely not concerned with the dining experience of passengers! The problem is MSC creates a "feeding frenzy" by having strictly set dining hours. When lunch is cut off at 2pm, it's cut! I witnessed people reaching for serving spoons in the buffet line and the tray of food taken away! They weren't even allowed to serve themselves! When you could get food, you tended to grab even more than you would normally grab to make sure you got something to eat because, if you had late dinner seating at 8pm, there basically was nothing else to eat! The pool grill and ice cream were cut off at 2:30 everyday. The only other option was sushi, which required a fee and ended at 4pm, or room service - 1 sandwich selection of tuna fish (which was a smear of tuna on a hamburger roll), a couple of salad selections, a cheese plate, fruit plate. All cold foods. Tea and cookies were available for 1 hour most days - they did not specify you could get a sandwich but it was a bite-size sandwich that consisted of cheese and shredded carrots or 1 slice of meat and 1 slice of cheese. Dinner - Took a minimum of two hours each night as we only had 1 waiter vs. 2 or 3 like other cruise lines. We did get water, coffee, and tea with no problem. No ground pepper on your salad unless you ground it yourself. The quality of food was up and down like other cruises but lacked selection. There was a set menu for an American dinner and an Italian dinner. I got the impression the first night they didn't want you to mix the menus: our waiter said to order from one menu or the other. You felt uncomfortable asking for more but they seemed to relax that after a couple of nights. We asked for an additional entree only one time. Many reviewers complained about the beef - it is tough if it's well done. You will need to order it medium rare or medium in order for it to be palatable. Steak portions were whole steaks, not slices as were served on the Mediterranean cruises. The beef filet I had New Year's eve dinner was actually quite good. Breakfast - Ugh! Eggs were either undercooked or overcooked. Omelettes not cooked to order in buffet - precooked with a cheese filling that was tasteless. Potatoes were the pre-formed triangles they serve in school cafeterias. Sausage links were OK but bacon was undercooked and swimming in grease! We dined in the dining room the day of debarkation - that was quite good but you must specify how you want a fried egg cooked - they tend to cook them as "sunny-side up" if you don't tell them specifically. Lunch buffet - interesting. You will find dinner leftovers mixed in dishes (I've never seen cole slaw with green beans before!) Undercooked pasta dishes were frequent. Salad bar had a variety of interesting ingredients but that may be a cultural difference. Carved meats tended to be good before they got cold on your plate. And that was a big problem - food on the hot buffet was not hot. The warmers need to be turned up. Most food, even in the dining room was lukewarm! Desserts were just OK. The midnight buffet was generally good, with some "interesting" selections. They do need to organize the arrangement of food to cut down the length of people in line. Food was repeated and you didn't know until getting down the line. Optional dining restaurant: The area was used for a third dining room since the ship was completely full so there was no other option for dinner except for a short dinner buffet (less than 2 hours), room service, or pizza served in the buffet area (which was actually very good and the only hot food eaten on the ship!). Read more