Despite my friends and work colleagues telling me to stear clear of this company, the Itinerary was the thing that I required...Venice and Greek Islands. I had booked a late flight back after the cruise so I could go on the Venice Excursion...All booked last year. The embarkation process was a nightmare with people pushing, shoving like animals. No organised lines. 4 hours to get from the embarkation point to the boat...150 feet!!..I booked a balcony cabin on the 11th deck and it was tiny. This was the fantastica experience. there was nothing fantastic about it. The shower cubicle was tiny, whole cabin tiny. It is amazing what PHOTOSHOP can do with a picture. The boat was filled with thick smoke as the Italians and Germans smoked in restaurants, bars, pool decks, corridors, lifts, everywhere despite notices. The buffet would have failed food and hygiene standards as the food was usually luke warm if you were lucky. People behaved in an appalling way, snatching food, pushing in, expletives in whatever language. The boat holds just under 3000 people and less than 100 were English speaking. Because of this, MSC cancelled one of our trips and gave them out to other nationalities because their guide couldn`t speak English. When I wrote a complaint to the head of the excursion team (Stating that the terms and conditions say that smaller groups will be placed with multilingual guides and I also stated that MSC had made an assumption that none of its UK citizens can speak another language - I speak portuguese) the complaint, though handed to her in person, was LOST....REALLY!!...The entertainment was worse than you would get at a cheap holiday camp and lasted half hour. All announcements were made in 5 different languages with English being last...unfortunately we couldn`t hear the announcements as other loud nationalities would start shouting and talking after they heard their announcement. So, I ended up paying £2800 for a week on a floating ashtray with rude people, terrible food, no excursions and didn`t even get to see Venice as the boat arrived late and the excursions people would not advise me how to get to the city centre and instead made me and my friends sit on a concrete bollard by the coaches for an hour before realising they had forgotten about us. we then spent 11 hours at Venice airport....I IMPLORE ANYONE THINKING OF USING THIS COMPANY - PLEASE DON`T...you will regret it....they are not ready to break into the UK market. Perhaps when sailing from Southampton, they are different but I have been on numerous cruise lines and I have never encountered such a shambolic company. Even the ship itself looks ugly...like a giant old tower block. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...