This was our second cruise with MSC. As we live in Southwest Florida, it was wonderful being able to arrive early to begin the embarkation process. Once we used the self-service machines to load money onto our board account, we wandered around the ship a bit before grabbing lunch at the buffet. The buffet was chaotic and the food was not to our tastes. My husband is European and I am American and we dined at the buffet at least once, if not twice, a day during our entire seven-night cruise and we both found the food to be bland and unappetizing. Food that should be warm was room temperature and food that should be cold was room temperature.There also always seemed to be an unpleasant smell radiating throughout the buffet dining room. The one positive, however, was the wait staff working the buffet were usually friendly, despite the everyday chaotic work environment.

For the price of our balcony cabin on deck 9, the room was more than adequate. Our cabin steward, Marion, was so kind and friendly! We found that on both of our cruises with MSC, the cabin stewards are the hardest workers and the friendliest staff onboard. Practically every cabin steward would greet us, morning or evening, with a smile and greeting. The only issue we had with our cabin was a nauseating smell that we sometimes encountered. MSC should replace the cleaning agents and soaps with a citrus scent to help. We encountered a few rough sea days and the sewer smell certainly did not help with motion sickness.

The pool area was large and clean but crowded. Many guests would leave their towels on the sun loungers for the entire day, without ever having used the loungers. The ship only had two hot tubs and they were also always crowded.The dance lessons by the pool were entertaining. We also went to the theater five of the seven nights. We found most shows entertaining, but compared to our cruise last May on the MSC Musica, the entertainment was not as enjoyable. On every night but one, we dined at La Pergola restaurant and Amil was our waiter. He was fantastic! However, most of the food was very bland. We would recommend choosing the salads, Indian dishes and ice cream. Read more