Excitement as we see the ship docked in the harbour from our airplane,we get off the flight and make our own way to the ship 'MSC Opera should be an easy task for a fluent speaking Italian, so it was, but did it in English. Catch the 'autobus' to 'Piazza Roma' then take the 'people mover' to the 'porto' great!. We purchase 2 single tickets to Piazza Roma and find out that there are 2 different carriers ATN and ATC, ATC being the slower of the 2 and ATN being the express, ATN 5 euros and the ATC we learned later is the cheaper one. But 5 euros each is not bad, 25 minutes later we are in Piazza Roma and looking for the People Mover, it was literally 50 yards and just around the corner. Cost 1 euro and 3 minutes later we were at the gates of the port. We walked into the port and went to the reception tent that MSC had set up near the gate. We were picked up by bus and taken to the ship, easy peasy. Total cost 12 euros for both of us, a Taxi would have cost us 45 euros and that was a 7 seater to share with others. Profiteering if ever I saw it!

Check in, I'm not looking forward to at all, but no, it was a dream, nice and easy and slick. 'Tickets Please'...Credit card swiped, photo taken, passports checked, cards issued get your complimentary welcome drink of OJ and get on board we were done in 15 minutes. Had a good look at the outside of the ship...looks good I thought, that will be the Italian styling!

Obligatory boarding photo on the way..'smile please' beautiful. Through security and at last we are on board! first impression...well kept and very nice and clean..we read about the impeccable cleanliness prior to travelling, they were not wrong. Hmmm lots of mirrors everywhere. Off to the room... Read more