I should point out that this was my first cruise although my wife has been on several, including another MSC cruise. We scheduled this cruise about a year in advance and purchased the cheapest cabin available. We figured we would be on excursions everyday and didn't plan to spend much time in the cabin so no need to get a fancy one.
We flew from the US to Barcelona two days before the cruise and did some touring.The morning of the cruise we went on a Freemasons and Knights Templar tour in Barcelona through Barcelona Occulta Tours which was excellent - lots of hidden history in that city.
Embarkation took a while and nobody really explained what was going on. It seemed a bit chaotic but eventually we got on board. Luckily the staff is multi-lingual and answered our questions.
I thought the cabin was a good size for what we paid and the bathroom was nice, although the airplane-like toilets flush loudly.
We saw the Palace of the Popes. Our guide Cecil was great.We paid to go onto the bridge which was nice.
We saw a pretty cool temple. It was unfinished because the island was invaded by the Carthaginians.