We woke up this morning back in Southampton and pulled the curtains back to see Queen Victoria going past with a tug fore and aft. Hello Old Friend!

Final packing and up to the buffet for breakfast and then we went straight down to deck 6 where the disembarkation gateway was open. Our bags were waiting in the hall and it was all very straightforward. We rang Airlynx Cruise Parking and they were already outside waiting with their minivan. We really recommend them. They drove us straight to the rear of the car and helped us unload directly into the boot.

Got home by about 1130 and found the house all in one piece and nice and warm. Always good to come home to,

We started off on this holiday, just looking forward to a week of rest and being catered to. In all honesty we had no great expectations of MSC, of the ship, of the ports and of the likely weather. We were quite prepared for the fact it would be cold and rainy and we’d choose to stay in the cabin rather than get off!!!!! In fact we’ve been blessed by the weather because it has been dry and even sunny throughout. We found ourselves taking our coats off quite often . The ports were all great and well worth visiting. I think our favourites were Rotterdam and Le Havre but we also loved Hamburg and Bruges. I’d certainly do the itinerary again this time of year. It was a real eye opener.

As was MSC and the Poesia. Did it help that we scored the lovely balcony cabin? Yes it was so nice to be able to see outside and given the clement weather, have the balcony doors open. Another critical factor was the fact that we’d been given Diamond, top tier, status as a result of the match with Princess. I would certainly urge you to do the status match with any loyalty programme you are a member of, if you ever cruise with MSC. Their programme is very generous and there were lots of little touches as a result that made us feel very special on board. There is a page for Status Match on their website and you simply send them a screen print of the status you are matching with. I think it took about 24 hours to get it set up.

We had heard the food was monotonous and not the best. In our experience, the buffet food was on a par with most other cruise lines. There was a big variety of dishes including fresh pizza and pasta. There wasn’t the range of cold cut sandwiches found on Princess or the sushi found on Cunard. There wasn’t free ice cream which you get with both those lines. But the organisation was good, service was good and we enjoyed our meals up there. The food in the main dining room was not quite as good as Princess or Cunard, but not far behind. There was a steak option on 3 of the 7 nights as a free choice quite apart from the fillet steak always on offer at an extra price of 22 euro. We never needed or wanted to take that up.

There were some differences that might be deal breakers for you although they weren’t for us. There was 1 gala night on our 7 night cruise. The dress code for that was Dress to Impress but the guidance notes made it plain that could mean designer jeans and a collared shirt or it could mean black tie. In fact there were very very few in black tie. So if that sort of glitz is important to you, you might not like this. There were more sort of theme nights than we were used to. The big night is White Night where you dress in white and there’s a big party. Again some did, some didn’t.

All gratuities are included in the fare. So, you don’t get the sometimes obsequious service you get on ships where tipping comes into play. We met our steward twice. He was perfectly friendly, kept the cabin immaculate and delivered anything we asked for but he wasn’t very visible. MSC do not offer an evening turndown service so no pillow chocolates. We quite liked the fact that when we came back to the cabin after lunch it would be all made up and that we could relax knowing no one was coming in unless summoned. Room service is available but other than breakfast, you have to pay for it. There are no self service laundries or at least there weren’t on Poesia. This would be an issue on longer cruises.

The drinks packages are well priced and if you like to have quite a few drinks, they would be worth it at around £36 per person per day. This would give you 15 drinks a day up to a max individual price of 11 euro per drink. We didn’t take one because of the port intensive itinerary, and because we knew there would be several events where we’d be given free drinks, we had a free bottle of prosecco and because….. well…. I guess we just don’t drink enough. LOL I may have to read that again. Anyway, the fact is, we were perfectly happy with one or sometimes 2 cocktails a night at 9 euro each, or a beer at 6 euro or wine at about 8 euro for a large glass. We got free coffee and mineral water in the restaurant and the mineral water was unlimited so we often took a bottle back to the cabin with us.

We really liked the ship and the MSC style. The evening entertainment was absolutely excellent and we loved the fact that there was a production show every night. Often with circus style performers as well as singers and dancers. The costumes were the best we’ve seen at sea. There was also a lot of live music and we liked the fact that there were so many open space venues that you could wander through and enjoy . It felt spacious. It was lively but never raucous. Obviously given the weather we didn’t really experience the pools or the open air cinema.

What didn’t we like? The daytime programme was a bit “light” which didn’t matter to us at all because of the port heavy itinerary. Not sure what it would be like on a trip with a lot of sea days. I’d have to ask that question. Certainly nowhere near the Cunard offering, but not worse than Princess where nearly all the activities are thinly veiled opportunities to sell you something. There were craft sessions, sports, quizes…. napkin folding, dancing lessons…

We’d heard that the multi-lingual announcements were tiresome. In truth, it wasn’t all the time by any means and we didn’t find them bothersome. I mean… what are you going to do when there is a big mix of nationalities on board? We have heard that there are problems with children being allowed to stay up late and running amok around the ship. Maybe because of the time of year, maybe because of the itinerary, we did not observe this. There were children on board but they were not in any way obtrusive. It may well be that in the height of school holiday season this is a problem but we never cruise in June or July so ….. dunno.

In short, we had a great cruise, really great, and we will not hesitate to cruise with MSC again if a good itinerary and price come our way.