When our family decided to book the MSC Seaside we were all very excited. Family coming together from all over Florida, Nevada, and Maryland. We had 9 cabins and were a party of 16, in which we had 4 young teenagers. First let me say the ship is absolutely gorgeous, state of the art, with an upscale feeling. Lot's of bars, lounges and choices to dine (some are at an additional charge). The crew was amazing, anxious to please and make sure you were happy. We had a balcony on Deck 13 and found it to be very comfortable, however my sister's cabin next door was laid out a little differently so it made her access to the closet very difficult. The distance from the sofa to the closet was a matter of inches, so you could not stand in front of it. My bed was by the closet and we had no problem with access and more than twice the space between. The beds are VERY hard and they have no way to add a topper to soften them. We found the elevators warm and slow but for the most part tolerable. Our biggest disappointment was the food. It was tasteless and boring. The Buffet served the same things everyday. In the MDR we found that the food was always cold. The only way to get a decent meal was to buy the upgrade or go to the specialty restaurants. The MDR could not figure out how to seat us all together until we finally insisted and showed them how to put the tables together. We had the Teppanyaki on the last night and it was amazing. My niece loved the Butcher's Cut. We did brunch there one day and it was the very good and relatively inexpensive. We also felt that we did not have enough time in ports. The distances between Phillipsburg and San Juan are a hop skip and a jump. They could have stayed later. I find that with most cruises today they don't want to pay for being in port so you never get to experience the night life of the port. It's 128 nautical miles from Nassau to Miami, it doesn't take from 5 pm to 5 am to go the distance. I have done many cruises over the years and long for the time when the food was special and the time in the ports was maximized. All that being said, vacations are what you make of them. Our family was together, and we enjoyed that time. However, MSC will not see me again.