This was our first cruise on MSC. My wife and I are both retired and experienced cruisers (32 and counting), mostly with NCL and Celebrity, also Holland America years ago. I will try to be brief, but could write pages on this Cruise from Hell. One passenger I met had three legal pages, single spaced, with complaints.
Check in was a nightmare. We paid for priority boarding, but the lady just let everyone Q. Most cruise lines give you cabin key cards, take photos, check passports all at the first point of contact. Not MSC, first they check your passport, no scanner, by hand took at least five minutes for both of us. Then as we board, they take our picture. We are told it will be about two hours before our cabin is ready and our key card will be on the bed in our cabin. We go to the bar for a drink, but we have no key card, therefore it's a hassle to get a drink. When we go to our cabin, the door is OPEN and the cards are on the bed. Anyone could have come in and taken our cards. Oh, and the cabin number was printed on the card, not the last two or three numbers like on NCL and Celebrity, so if lost, someone could go to the cabin and steal whatever they find. I did mention this to an officer and they thought it would be a good idea to not print the full cabin number, you think?
The food was constantly cold in the dining area. I will say our servers were great and tried their best to get us hot food, but they should not have had to go to extrodinary lengths to do so. Regarding the food, it was typical cruise food. Our chef was from India, so one would think it would have some taste. I have really low expectations about dining room and buffet food on ships today, it's my opinion that the bean counters are in charge of the menu, and of course they want passengers to dine in specialty restaurants.
The cabin was fine, nothing to write home about, but comfortable.