Having sailed on the Magnifica's sister ship , the Orchestra back in June (with very mixed results), it was with some trepidation that my wife and I and two friends headed off to Venice to join the newer Magnifica. In fairness to MSC, the Magnifica turned out to be a far more satisfactory experience, although as you will read later, MSC still have some work to do to get anywhere near the level of say, Royal Caribbean, on a few levels.

GETTING THERE.

We flew Aer Lingus, Dublin to Venice on the morning of the cruise. Having weighed up the various transfer options, we went for the safe one and booked return taxi transfers. As it was pouring rain when we landed, this turned out to be a good decision and an even better on for the return trip, as I will go into later. Our flight was late so it was about 1215 when we arrived at the MSC Terminal. Read more