I am sure some of the views on these forums, reflect what some might have thought a cruise today would be the same as in the 1950's!!! Today the ships are on a huge scale, and the clientele far removed from that era. The flights to Venice and from Genoa were on time, and the P&O team at each end were superb, baggage checked in and then the next one sees it - it is in the cabin. Cabin steward was good, polite, although we kept it tidy so all he had to do was re-arrange / new towels etc. There were two beach towels in the cabin, and more available in the ' spa ' changing room - which would answer a previous complaint in a review- that persom did not look far enough. We dined in the Cinnamon Restaurant, and thought the choice and standard high.We did try the White Room, and yes £25 cover charge, was it worth it, YES for a one off experience, as we were able to dine outside, the ambiece was superb, and a few foodie extras thrown in too, service was brilliant, the food was exceptional, really enyoyed it, we lingered and whay not. The ship is big and it took the week to find one's way around, the ' observation deck ' at the front front on Lido deck was not listed in the leaflet, found it by chance - and a great viewing area. The Theatre is very good, on two deck levels, ( far better than on the Oceana- just a minor point ) we went to the two ' Headliner shows' good singers, and how they change the costumes so many times in seconds is beyond me !!! well done. The '' 4 Tunes '' four guys singing in harmony were outstanding, again we managed their two shows. Ports of call - Kotor by tender- and a trip up the mountain, the 25 bends are NOT for the faint hearted. Rome - we did the Tuscania village trip, beautiful countryside, a very relaxing morning, good wine too at the olive grove farm, and olive oil to purchase too. Corfu & Corsica - suggest just go on foot around the towns, the walk up to the old fort in Corfu, and lunch there was a highlight. P&O do offer very good value for money, the prices on board are in £'s and in my opinion the drinks prices are very reasonable, this is my 2nd P&O cruise. My suggestion - avoid the buffet restaurants, just people not knowing where they are going or what they want- food quality fine though. We did NOT enjoy a might in the Beach House resaurant- menu disappointing. We chose freedon dining- which is ideal, and usually had a table for two, but no problemd sharing as we did from time to time. Afternoon tea in the Saffron was of a high standard. We did use the ' adults ' only oasis pool - although as slightly out of school holidays few children on the ship. The sun loungers are close together and there IS the towel on the sunbed syndrome, which P&O DO need to address. Would I use P&O again - certainly yes, would like to try the Britannia when she comes on stream.   Read Less

We just finished our fourth cruise with MSC. The first was in 1999 when few Americans had heard of MSC. We loved it! The cuisine, the shows, the demographics, the waiters, came together for a very European experience. Since then we have always particularly enjoyed our cruises with MSC. But this time things were very different. The cruise we took on the Armonia was largely in the Adriatic. The ports were fine and so were the excursions. So we enjoyed that part of it. The shows are still slightly wacky, fun and decidedly non PC. Enjoyed that too. The food, however, was substandard. I have been on quite a few cruises with different companies and this was the worst. It is a deal-breaker. Presentation was lovely, dining rooms too, but most of it was either overly-salted or utterly tasteless. How can anything so pretty taste so bad? We took to eating in the ports of call or ordering extra courses to see if there was anything we would want to eat. We are definitely not finicky eaters. It was clear that MSC is cutting corners. Part of what a passenger looks forward to on the cruise is the food. Not here. Also, no midnight buffets, everything including ice cream on deck had a price (didn't used to be that way), virtually no activities onboard. Passengers were left to entertain themselves with cards and board games and an occasional dance class. I have never been on such an uninspired cruise. I used to love going on MSC cruises. Not going with them again. Uh uh. Read Less

we had sailed on msc from quebec city to ft. lauderdale 2 years ago and the cruise was excellent in all respects. in oct. we sailed from venice on armonia and the ports were great but the ocean view cabin was so small or the minibar was so large that you had to climb over the bed to get out on one side of the bed.the food was below par and i do not get the marketing idea behind charging for water,iced tea and coffee at dinner in the dining room. this was the lowest ranking cruise in our experience with several cruise lines. needless to say it was our last cruise on msc. Read Less

The cruise left from Venice and took us to Ancona, Corfu, Santorini, Athens, Argostoli, Kotor, and back to Venice. We arrived early at Venice port, about 12.00 noon, and boarding was very quick and efficient, within minutes we were on board. We had lunch at the buffet and then went back to town, as the ship left only at 7pm. For this, it is essential to bring your passport or ID! From Venice Port, the people mover takes you to Piazzale Roma for 1 Euro. Our cabin NR. 8033 was an inside cabin in the front. Very quiet, could not hear anything from our neighbours or the ship's engine, the only noise came from the Armonia lounge below, which was quite loud, but there was not program there every evening, so it was bearable. We had the Allegrissimo drinks package for EUR 23 per day and person, and we had a lot of fun with it. For breakfast, we ordered cappuccino and freshly squeezed orange juice, instead of the normal coffee and juice available at the buffet. With meals, we always had a glass of wine (or two...), and for sundowner, we always enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine on the deck. For sure this package saved us a lot of money, highly recommended. We had breakfast sometimes at the buffet and sometimes at the main dining room. Lunch mainly at the main dining room, much nicer. Dinner always at the main dining room, late seating at 9.30pm most evenings, which was quite late (even 10pm on the Santorini day). The quality of food was excellent at the main dining room, so-so at the buffet. We did not participate in any of the organized excursions, we made our own tours: Ancona: a nice town, from the ship it was only steps to the old town. Nice walk there. Corfu: we walked into town, it took us about half an hour, this can be a hot walk. On the way back, we took the city bus for EUR 1.50. It leaves from the old port and takes you straight back to the cruise port, easy to use. The bus stop in front of the cruise terminal is inside the port area. Santorini: you need to get numbers for the tender boat, make sure you get them early, at 9am. Once ashore, we took the cable car to the town of Fira for EUR 4 per person. Nice walk in Fira. We walked back to the port, but it was not a nice walk, the path was sometimes blocked with donkeys, and it is quite smelly. I would recommend to take the cable car also for the way back. Athens: about half an hour's walk to the metro station, from there it is a short ride (6 stops) to Thissio, at the foot of the Acropolis. The metro fare is EUR 1.50 each way. Argostoli: tender boat to get ashore. If you want to leave the ship early, you need to get numbers again, but we were not in a hurry here, for disembarking at 10am it was not necessary. The tender boat dropped us off right in the center of Argostoli. Don't miss the huge sea turtles near the fisher-men's boats! Kotor: the pier is a few steps away from the old town. Very nice walk there. Read Less

We go away in August every year to celebrate our anniversary - next year we will go somewhere cool! Last year we were on 7 day med cruise with RCI and was not too happy. There were many eastern european first time cruisers who obviously did not understand the ways of cruising. Was it a coincidence that we went on code red for norovirus? This year we were away for 12 nights and had many more established cruisers and no overall health issue. Lots of kids though so it was not unusual to find all the buttons in the lift pressed. For the first time we used anytime dining and it worked very well for us. Every morning we would check the entertainment and book a table so were able to avoid the queues that built up. Cabin was standard bit I had to request an egg crate for the bed. The entertainment was fairly typical except that the 'humour' of the American comediens that the US passengers found hilarious completely passed us by. There was music everywhere in the ship - more than we have experienced elsewhere and it was of high standard and good variety. I thought that there was a slight reduction in the quality/variety of food since our last trip with Princess. There was also no farewell party - could not remember whether this was a new development. The first couple of days it looked as if it was all 'no'. No more coffee mugs with coffee card, no more wine packages, no more towel sculptures - not a great loss but the occasional one was pleasant. No compaints about general presentation of ship. Usual problem with chairs in prime position on deck being reserved. For some reason one of the ports of call had been deleted from the itinerary - another cost saving feature? The port shuttles all appeared to be run by outside companies and were very expensive indeed - I remember when they used to be included. Our main gripe was the transfer to the airport at the end. Again it was very expensive - more for the 2 of us than a private taxi but we decided that the convenience might have been worth it. We ended up arriving at chaotic Rome airport more than 1.5 hours before the check in opened and, there being nowhere to sit had, literally to stand around for the duration - never again! In summary a middle of the road ship, the large number of pax were not evident except that the theatre filled up a couple of times so there were no seats for the late show. We will continue to sail with Princess when the itinerary is appropriate but would always prefer the smaller ships. Read Less

This was our second cruise. Our first was for our honeymoon in 1979 with a cruise line that is no longer in business. We have not been interested in another cruise. It really is not our preferred method of seeing the world. Our good friends invited us to join them. The cruise started in Venice, which we have visited before, but Venice is a town that one can enjoy multiple times. Once on board we were absolutely shocked at the elegance of the ship. We have heard that ships are now floating cities. We now fully understand that comment. We entered our room, which was a Verrandah, and once again was shocked. The room was spacious and luxurious. We spent a lot of time on our private deck, including several in-service breakfasts. We were on our deck, drinking wine, and listening to Venetian music when we sail out of the port. We will never forget that. The rest of my comments are probably not new to people who have been on a cruise or cruises recently. The ship has huge staff who is dedicated to making sure you are happy. The food at the buffet and other venues were nothing short of fantastic. We particularly enjoyed the ethnic food of the particular port we were visiting. The entertainment every night was superb. We couldn't wait for the nightly show. Not only was there first class entertainment nightly in the theater, but a string quartet played each day, there was a fantastic piano bar, and live music at the pool. The computer classes were informative and valuable. The procedure to disembark at each port were very organized. We did not experience any snags and there was very little wait (the ship was at about 22,000 people). The cruise director and activity director were very informative, articulate, and knowledgeable. All of the shore excursions we booked were flawless and awesome. Yes, they were expensive, but worth it. We were comfortable, safe, educated, and thoroughly enjoyed each trip. It was very hot every day. When we returned to the ship, staff was waiting with ice cold water, lemonade, and towels. Wow, was that special. We are educators who live on a budget. This cruise was a financial stretch for us. We both feel money well spent. We will always remember this cruise. We loved this cruise so much we booked The Midnight Sun Cruise with Holland America this summer. Read Less

Having read a lot of reviews regarding the MSC Magnifica, we decided to go on the cruise with an open mind; and on the whole it was a very enjoyable cruise. The ship does live up to its name and is constantly kept clean and tidy, the staff work very hard and are always pleasant. We stayed in a balcony cabin, though not as large as some we have stayed in it was big enough for 2 with enough room for our clothes and space under the bed for the cases. The room was kept clean though the balcony was not swept during our cruise. We mentioned this to reception and it had a cursory clean. The food on board was quite good, there was a lot of choice on the buffet breakfast and if you wanted to be waited on you could use the restaurant. Lunch in the buffet was very much the same every day unless you found the "ethnic" section this changed every day from Indian to Chinese etc. with pasta each day. Evening meals were of the Italian style (what else it's an Italian ship) and were varied each day served in 5 courses. Entertainment was provided in several venues, music and dancing, easy listening and a show in the theatre. The latter again being of the Italian style did seem a bit dated very much like the (Sunday night at the London Palladium)singers dancers and acrobats. The days did lack a bit of interesting entertainment leaving you wandering around on sailing days, though this was a winter cruise so may be in summer it will be different. This was a Christmas cruise but other than Christmas songs being played all day there was very little to tell it was different from other days. The parts we did not like were personal dislikes so you may find that these are things that you do like: Embarkation was very poor they dealt with our cases very well as soon as we arrived; we made our way to the upper level of the terminal without any explanation what to do and were given a ticket with a number on. At this point you need to join the line to check in and get your cruise card; you can register your credit card then to save time later. We still had our number and were told to wait until it was called. The ship is tantalising looming through the window but you can't get on. We waited 2 hours with no refreshments until our number was called and we could go on the ship. Having gone through the process I think I would have left the cases and gone round Venice until last moment and not had the problem of waiting in the terminal. The smoking policy we found to be quite unacceptable and the rules against it are constantly flouted with no action taken by the staff. you can smoke freely in the casino so if you don't smoke this is a no go area meaning if you want to traverse deck 7 you will need to go up and down via deck 6. On deck 6 in the Topazio bar there is a section on the port side for smoking but this is not divided off so the smoke fills the room and some of the shops. you are requested not to smoke in rooms and on balconies, but nothing is done to stop it I had a cigarette stump and ash landing on me from balconies above, not very nice. Again nothing was done about it. Smoke gets into the corridors from rooms, according to one guest in an inside cabin, the smoke from next door filled their cabin as there was no way to ventilate it. Children have a lot to do during the day but some are left unattended at night running around unchecked. Parents of some children encourage them onto the dance floors in the evenings, making it very dangerous to dance in case you knocked one of the children over onto the hard floor; so in a lot of cases you just give up and leave it to big soft dads standing on the dance floor grinning at their precious little darlings spinning round and sliding across the floor. But it was about 4 families who spoiled it for others keeping babies up until the early hours of the morning. A lot has been said in other reviews about the price of drinks and tips but we knew this before cruising and it was not a surprise. The cruise is not as expensive as some other lines so the price of drinks was compensated for. If you are a big drinker there are all inclusive packages you can use. The prices were not a lot different from other cruises and hotels I have stayed in, though the prices in the shops on board were over priced so I don't think they had a lot of custom. All in all it does seem a bit of false economy and if they lowered prices they would have a lot more sales. Would I sale with them again? Yes if the price and package was right. Read Less

We have just returned from a 10 night Cruise on Azamara Quest from Venice to Athens with a pre cruise overnight at the Antony Hotel. We have previously sailed on Fred Olsen, Ocean Village, RCI, Cunard, Princess, and P&O and were looking forward to 5*+ "Boutique Style " Cruising. Air Arrangements - KLM via Amsterdam - great service from KLM and would fly with them again. However, the non direct and timing of flights arranged by Azamara added unnecessary frustration and travelling time - on disembarkation we left the ship at 9 am with a flight time out of Athens of 16.55 and eventually arrived in Manchester at 9.30 local time - 14 1/2 hours after leaving the ship. Such travel arrangements would probably be a deal breaker in the future. Due to the late flight and as we did not want to participate in the Athens excursions available through Azamara we took the opportunity to book a room at the Airport Sofital at a cost of 96 Euros, checking out at 2.30pm. Comfortable room and facilities including a pool and nice lunch in the bar. Pre Cruise hotel stay - Antony Hotel - Venice - 10 minutes from the Airport and 10 minutes from the Port. Good location to get the the Port the following day. Friendly staff, comfortable lounge. Basic but clean room. Dinner expensive and the lamb chops inedible. Embarkation. Left hotel by coach 12 noon and arrived at the Port 10/15 minutes later. As we had been fortunate to have been upgraded to a suite we were able to take advantage of immediate priority check in. However, embarkation was chaotic with no order, reminiscent of a rugby scrum with no regard to health and safety. Embarkation was a little delayed as the Ship had been subject to a deep clean due to Norovirus being on board. Once on board we were directed to Windows Cafe for Lunch and our cabins became available around 2pm and luggage promptly delivered. Norovirus - a small number of cases were reported during our cruise but probably no more than one would expect to see in the general population. However, the situation was well managed with food served from the buffet rather than self service until about 2 days before disembarking. I personally preferred being served and once self service was reintroduced I felt that Windows Cafe became more chaotic. Due to the Norovirus no table menus were available in the bars or coffee shop. We had a daily update from the Captain with regard to the status of "GI" - it would have been preferable for the update not to have been received during dining hours! Cabin - Club Continent Suite - Deck 8 - spacious and clean with a bathroom with a bathtub. Lots of wardrobes and storage and a balcony. Whilst Butler service was available we are not particularly demanding people and did not take advantage of Suite delivered afternoon tea, evening savouries or suite dining other than for some breakfasts. I did enjoy the complimentary Brandy and Gin which we had exchanged from the normal Whisky and Vodka. Whilst we did enjoy the spaciousness of the Suite we probably would not book one over a Veranda Cabin due to the differential in cost. Food - all excellent albeit we did not eat in Discoveries, preferring the more relaxed atmosphere of Windows Cafe. We ate in Aqualina twice and Prime C once - food and service all excellent. Entertainment - limited day time entertainment other than a number of trivias and a limited number of craft sessions. Whilst Azamara Cruises are destination orientated it would have been nice to have seen more ship board activities. Evening entertainment was ok but not as good as other lines we have been on. Bar/Lounge Facilities - all excellent in an evening but again in the day time lacking with no inside active bar where you could just sit and relax until 5pm. Lunch and Dinner complimentary wine - excellent and free flowing. Beer package excellent value. We particularly enjoyed the "Looking Glass" Observatory bar with live music. Excursions - we didn't participate, preferring to do our own thing. Ports - all excellent and would have looked much better in kinder weather. Particularly enjoyed Venice, Dubrovnik and Corfu. Complimentary shuttle services when required. Spa/Gym - nice facilities with small outside area including heated pool specifically reserved for Suite Guests. Gratuities - Dining. Bar and Housekeeping - included in Cruise Fare. Spa Gratuities extra. Value for money - this trip - excellent. Regular pricing quoted on a trip for next year (Veranda Stateroom - Greek Islands - August) we feel expensive at almost '£3000 each for 11 nights and would not be prepared to pay. Overall Experience - Enjoyable trip with like-minded people. Mix of Nationalities - British, American, Canadian, Australian, Chinese. Excellent value for money. Excellent food and service. Nice relaxed feel to ship. 5*+ experience? Having considered our overall experience on a similar trip on Queen Victoria last year including direct flights we feel that Cunard have the edge. However, we have signed up for the "Open Package" giving future discounts and we will be back subject to itinerary and costing. Read Less

Some of you may be familiar with the sci-fi cliche of the evil parallel universe where everything good in our universe is evil over there (and presumably vice versa). This is what doing back-to-back cruises on Carnival and MSC feels like. However, at this point in time I'm still not certain which universe is the evil one. It was almost uncanny. Virtually everything that was good on the Carnival ship was evil on the Musica, and vice versa. The Musica was beautiful and stylish - the Carnival ship was gaudy and tacky. The service on the Musica was pretty terrible, while on Carnival we were treated like gods. The main problem with the Musica is not that it is a bad ship, nor that MSC is a bad cruiseline, it's just that the multi-lingual nature of the cruise makes it difficult to engage with the ship and feel at home. This affects the service in particular - the lack of a single common language makes it difficult for the staff (who mostly speak English quite well) to connect with some of the passengers so I guess they just don't bother connecting with anyone. Add to that the appallingly low-brow daily entertainment (just watch Italian TV game shows to get an idea) and it's no wonder this ship gets lots of bad reviews. However there is much to love about the Musica and the itinerary on our cruise was just about perfect. Cruise with a group of friends and you'll probably love it, or if you (like us) are just using it as a means of transport and somewhere to eat and sleep then you'll be quite satisfied. Read Less

Prior to booking our cruise on MSC Magnifica we read the reviews here on Cruise Critic and to be honest, we were very concerned whether this cruise was going to be a good one or not based on the many negative comments left about this ship. I was convinced before we ever left home that this was going to be a miserable cruise. We had been on two Carnival Cruises prior to this one and both of them were very enjoyable. Neither was perfect and we had our little complaints about this or that on both of those cruises but overall the experience with Carnival was very good and if you read the reviews about Carnival Cruises, generally those reviews reflect that most everyone does enjoy cruising with Carnival. So after reading the mostly bad reviews for the MSC Magnifica we were sure that we were going to be greatly disappointed. Getting from the airport to the cruise port was much easier than anticipated. Plaza Roma where you are transported to is a madhouse, but it's a manageable madhouse if you plan ahead and my wife had prepared for this trip very well, so she knew what to do and where to go to do it. She had bought us the necessary boat pass to get us to our hotel on Lido Island because we had arrived a day early. She knew how to get us to the People Mover which got us to the free MSC shuttle bus. Going through their boarding process was no different than any we had experienced on Carnival which is to say, not too bad and the wait wasn't too long. Upon arrival on the ship, a steward took us straight to our room. On our Carnival Cruises we were left to find our own rooms and sometimes that can be a bit confusing as you wind yourself around the maze of rooms. Not to worry on MSC, they take you straight to your room. The ship was clean and it was kept clean the whole cruise. The crew were even painting the ship in every port, keeping it nice and white. The ship was quite compared to our Carnival Cruises. The Lido Deck on Carnival is always crowded and noisy. MSC Magnifica's Lido Deck was quite in comparison. We found many private places to sit and read or to get away from any of the crowded areas. The food on MSC was no better or worse than our two previous Carnival Cruises. We thought the MSC food was very good, prepared fresh and their selections of different types of food was okay. Some of the food they present isn't exactly American-style food but hey, you're on a European Cruise and you should expect changes in the types of food served. Why do we Americans always think that everyone should cater to our specific needs? We are not the only people who live in this world and it's easy to see why some other countries refer to us as "Ugly Americans" because we seem to want what we want and we want it now. A cruise should be a time of relaxation and a time to learn new things and to leave the anxiety behind and just enjoy life as it comes our way. I agree with other reviews that MSC seems to nickle-and-dime you for everything. Americans and folks from Canada get free water vouchers for dinner, your choice of flat or fizzy water. It's a huge bottle so you have plenty. No they don't serve coffee after dinner but for us we didn't really care too much about that. Other countries have to pay for their water at dinner. At lunch you can eat on their version of the Lido Deck Buffet and get free coffee, tea and water. Yes, they serve the tea and coffee in blue plastic mugs. So what? It doesn't affect the taste of the coffee or tea and the plastic mugs kept the drink hot longer than glass cups. Less breakage for the cruise line too. Not an issue for us. The food was varied and tasted good. And at dinner we sat at a table with 3 other couples and we all had a great time talking and enjoying our wonderful dinners. Each night the food selection was nice and was based on some area of Italy so they were giving you a taste of food from various parts of Italy. The shows each night in the main theatre were entertaining and good. MSC doesn't badger you about taking photos at every stop, at every occasion like Carnival does. Each port-of-call was fantastic. All the stops we made were different, exciting, fun and enjoyable. We didn't take any of the ship's offered excursions. We just went our own way and did what we wanted to and that worked out just fine in each port. My wife had planned ahead for each port and what we were going to do and that worked out great without having to spend the extra money on MSC provided excursions. Getting tickets for public transportation in each port was easy and almost painless. Use of the different types of money in each port wasn't too difficult. Our shipboard experience was great. We enjoyed the cruise immensely and would definitely use MSC again. The ship was full of people from everywhere. Australia, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain and who knows where else. Just listening to all of the different languages might tick some folks off because they weren't speaking English, but most of the time when you spoke to these other people, they would speak English back, so at least they know more than one language, unlike most of us one-language Americans. Everyone always spoke or nodded. All of our contact with the crew was positive and they all spoke English as did almost everyone we talked to in any of the ports. I'm sorry if alot of Americans don't like MSC Magnifica, but we have very little to complain about and we loved our cruise. We enjoyed every minute of it. Read Less