We chose the MSC Seaview for a family vacation. We embarked at Barcelona - the process took about an hour, but was fairly well organised. Our bags arrived in our room an hour after embarkation. Our balcony cabin was well designed and comfortable, though a little small. Closet space was adequate (plenty of hangers too btw) though smaller than most hotel rooms. The bathroom was well laid out, with a couple of shelves for toiletries and holders for toothbrushes etc, so my hanging toiletry bag, which I bought after reading tons of tips on this site, was totally redundant.

The ship itself is brand new of course, the atrium is glitzy and the crystal stairs are the ultimate photo-stop, with just about everyone pausing to take a picture. We were assigned the Silver Dolphin restaurant for dinner, with a 22:15 seating which was a bit late for our son, and we went there only a couple of times. The Marketplace buffet was good enough for us, it had plenty of food options including fresh fruit and salads. We chose the All-inclusive Restaurant & Bar drink package, so beverages were never a problem, and we also got some delicious Venchi gelato as part of the package - so overall it was great value.

There are plenty of things to do on the ship, we never got bored. The water-park and the slides are awesome, so is the zip line. The games arcade area is nice, we tried some of the games and bowling. There was a "fun pass" promotion for the arcade games and zip line that we opted for (30 Euro extra credit for a 70 Euro fun pass), so price-wise it was good value. We saw 3 shows at the Odeon theatre, Bizarre, Animalia and Fantasia, and these were pretty good, especially the acrobatics. While I registered my son for the Mini Club, he never actually used it, preferring to enjoy the water slides and games arcade instead. I used the gym twice,and as a regular gym-goer, found it to be quite well equipped except for kettle-bells, which I sorely missed. Read more