I travelled with my Husband and 2 good friends who we have cruised with before. We were all slightly worried as we had read quite a lot of negative things about MSC....but we all decided that the £699 cost of the 11 night cruise with a balcony, VIP lounge at Gatwick and a bottle of champagne was too good a bargain to miss.We had read that the drinks were high - but as we had all travelled on the American lines we thought they would be the same and knew that we would have to add the 15% service charge (which we do hate and wish they would stop this practice). To help with this we packed either a 3 lt box of wine or a litre of spirits into our respective cases and hoped they wouldn't break and we would end of smelling of achohol all holiday...they didn't so we had a nice enjoyable pre dinner drink every day on our balconies!! and saved a fortune in bar bills....we purchased a half litre of house wine with evening meals and this was 7.99 Euros + 15% so that wasnt TOO bad!! the beer was dear and I refused to purchase any type of soda as I thought 2.7 E + 15% a right cheek!!The ship and cabins were lovely, the buffet at lunch time was brilliant a real variety of food...breakfast was good but we found the food all a little cold...we had cabin service of a continental breakfast ever morning on the balcony and it was lovelyWe had lovely waiters in the Red Velvet resturant and changed from early to late sitting with no trouble as we thought early sitting was a tad too esarly at 6.30, we found all the staff pleasant and helpful. The itailians are a race of people that push and shove...but as they say 'when in Rome....'... I found after 1 day of being quite shocked at their behaviour(especially in the lifts) it was good to just push and shove as well...it made a nice change from all the bloody polite queuing that UK and USA passengers spend hours doing!!The shows were really good - a little on the short side but that was OK. Pools lovely...we hate having to put up with kids on holidays especially in the pools..so we loved the adult pool areaThe ports were all mainly nice (didn't like Casablanca tho smelly and dirty!!) Maderia was really lovely. We did not do any tours (apart from Rome) and would say DO NOT purchase the shuttles into ANY town as you can get them MUCH cheaper at the dock...i.e - people were paying 8 euros return to Malaga/Barcelona town and it was 3.5 Euros return on the dock!! that is robbery MSC - sort it outAll in all I found for the money this was the best value holiday I have ever had....I have been with most other lines and although P & O suited us as they are geared into the British taste - I still think the Fantasia was the most stunning ship I had been on I would defiantely rather go on a MSC for a cruise for at least half the price of the competitors!!