We departed on 3/5 for venice and arrived in Venice on 3/6..We were booked for 2 nights at the Hotel Villa Laguna on the Lido and right on the vaperetto stop..It was a great location and a beautiful all suite hotel set up more like a bed and breakfast with incredible low rates..We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and highly recomend it...on the 8th we took a water taxi to the port,which was not the easiest thing as my cousin uses a wheelchair but we managed and the water taxi driver and MSC crew were extremely helpful.we approached the terminal and it looked a little confusing but were met right away by a young lady from the cruiseline and witihin minutes she had our tickets and had us where we need to be to check in..the whole process took abot 15 minutes and then we had a priority bording # since i was msc club...My mom and cousin in the wheelchair were taken ahead and were the first to board..We were on the ship by 11:30 and were able to go to our cabins and put down our things..cabins were very niceley appointed for inside cabins...nice bathrooms , good linens, storage space and firm comfortsble matresses...we set out to hit the lunch buffet and thus began our 8 nights of eating like pigs...the buffet food was excellent..needless to say we ate so much at lunch and afternoon tea everday that we never were really that hungry for dinner...we ate mostly the italian offerings and found most foods to be very fresh and not overly spiced or salted.there were so many good dishes but a few to not miss were the lasagne, the eggplant parmigiana, the rack of lamb, the grilled swordfish, the young pick, and the leg of veal...the soups were delicious and the smoked fishes(marlin and tuna) that were offered as appetizers on a few nights were amazing. a few in our group were not adventerous eaters but were gladly brought grilled chicken breasts or salmon filets at their requests which they said were very good..The desert were mostly cake and ice cream and sorbets but were excellent..i had never had sorbet before but am now an addict..The pear sorbet was amazing... The port sof call on this itinerary were changed due to unrest in egypt but we didnt even miss egypt..athens and izmir were substituted and were great ports..we did a private tour to ephesus in izmir and loved it and a ships tour to the acropolis in athens and enjoyed it as well..the other ports are all easily walkable right from the ship..we especially enjoyed the friendliness and cleanliness in Rhodes, Katakolon and Dubrovnik and enjoyed coffee and light deserts at sidewalk cafes in all three places..Rhodes had some wonderfully affordable shopping as did Katakolon... The shows on the ship were great..They ranged from a chatlie chaplainesque magician(hysterically funny) to a classical concert with tenor and saprona and string trio..The saprano was amazing..The acrobatic parts of the shows were hard to imagine that we were on a ship and the costumes of the dancers and stage sets were also great visual entertainment..We looked forward to the show every night... The service on board was excellent and we found all the staff that we encountered to be very friendly except for 1 cashier at the casino ,who was very unpleasant and we thought the cruise director, Santos, left much to be desired..the entertainment team were great fun and we enjoyed participating in all their events.We were sad to leave on the last day as all of us had a great time..Some in our group were not happy with not being able to get free coffee all day and night and the way water is handled as well but they came around as they realized they enjoyed everything else..I noemally use the steamroom ,sauna but at 16E a day i chose to skip it this time and really didnt miss it..I did workout a few times in the gym ,which was a little small but had very nice eqiupment...The ship itself is gorgeous and immacultae at all times..had a great indoor heated pool area and great outdoor tables and chairs to enjoy the springlike weather we were blessed with...This was my fist non caribbean cruise with msc and despite the differences that are with sailing on them in the caribbean I would not hesitiate to cruise with them anywhere in the world..We all had a great time and look forward to our next MSC cruise