We took a one week cruise on Magnifica out of Venice late March this year. I've only been on one cruise before with P & O out of Southampton - it was my husband's first cruise.

Check in was diabolical! We did MSC Express check in online only to find that so had most of the other passengers and there were only 3 desks for us and around 12 for everyone else and their organisation in the terminal was non-existent. It was 4 hours from the time we arrived until the time we checked in, and 2 hours was spent standing in a queue watching parties who had not done Express check in being put in our line ahead of us. Numerous people complained but the staff were not very helpful. I am going to write to MSC to complain. They are hoping to base a ship in Southampton next year so they need to know that if they treat their UK passengers in this way they won't get our custom.

Now, the price we paid was great, and the ports of call were very interesting, plus the ship is beautiful and everywhere was kept spotlessly clean. But the bad points I'm afraid were numerous! Read more