Having read some of the previous reviews I was a little worried but the other reviewers must be real fuddy duddies ! The Musica is a Cruise ship run by the Italians and hence is aimed at families and is noisy and excitable. The food was great and extremely plentiful (all you can eat breakfast and lunch buffets which cater both for fussy children and adults who want different food each day). They don't serve tea every 10 minutes in Italy but free afternoon tea was available each day. Dinner dress code was observed by some and not others - who cares, chill out ! The cabins were great (we had an outside double and a 4 berth inside for the children opposite) and the public areas lovely. The shows in the theatre were very good and catered for all tastes through the week (from Show songs to a Rock magic show).

Embarkation was slick - we were on board with all excursions and drinks packages bought within 45 mins - by 12.15pm and luggage was at the cabin by 2pm. The drinks packages were good value €109 for 4 bottles wine, 14 soft drinks and 14 litres water - we bought 2 for 6 of us (3 adults/3 children), €67 for 12 cocktails, €23 for 10 soft drinks/milkshakes (all +15% service). The excursions we took were excellent (Olympia, Athens and Santorini caldera)

The only gripe I would agree with was the high cost of the shuttle buses - in each port the local buses all leave from just outside the dock for €1-1.5 per person and at Bari (which is quite pretty) you just walk. The only other problem was Americans on the excursions who were always late returning to the bus and held everyone else up. All in all a fantastic holiday which I would highly recommend