Family cruise and booking in the am! Woo Hoo!

This will be our first cruise on MSC! We've cruised RCCL, Norweigan, and Carnival. This is our first time cruising as a family. We will have a 3.5 year old when we go. Here is to hoping everything works out well...Camps are good. ..We all enjoy ourselves.... Excellent food is a must to this foodie. LOL I've read several reviews but of course everyone has an opinion!! :)

This will be our first cruise on MSC! We've cruised RCCL, Norweigan, and Carnival. This is our first time cruising as a family. We will have a 3.5 year old when we go. Here is to hoping everything works out well...Camps are good. ..We all enjoy ourselves.... Excellent food is a must to this foodie. LOL I've read several reviews but of course everyone has an opinion!! :)

My experience and observations are that MSC food is generally very good to excellent but the English translations in the menu are terrible. Cross-checking across a few other languages sometimes helps, sometimes not.

Most complaints therefore appear to be related to not receiving what one expects: "This is not X", or "This is the worst X I have ever had". If one learns to be flexible and adapt to an entirely new English food language it helps. Asking the waiter what is good is also a very sensible strategy.

Remember that the overriding theme is Italian and that it is authentic Italian rather than derivatives of Italian food found in other countries. For example, pizzas have thin crispy bases with very simple toppings, pasta dishes will be mostly pasta with very simple and sparce sauces.

The regular U.S. cruise line staples are on the right hand side of the menu while the 'real menu' different every meal is on the left. I always make a point of ordering the item least comprehensible as part of my MSC education.

I am sure you will enjoy but be prepared for a totally different cruise experience unless it is the Divina which has been permanently adapted for the North American market.

My experience and observations are that MSC food is generally very good to excellent but the English translations in the menu are terrible. Cross-checking across a few other languages sometimes helps, sometimes not.

Yep, that's what we usually do as well. Unfortunately, we don't speak much Italian, but comparing the English, German and French translation is already very useful.

In general, the Italian dishes and seafood are very good. Some of the meats are not that great.

Thank you for the feedback!! :)

I think that if you stick to the Chef suggestion in the MDR you have an overall good experience. We love cooking and had a nice enough time, some dishes were soso, some others quite good. Just don't expect 3*michelin food and enjoy the italian dishes.

I think that if you stick to the Chef suggestion in the MDR you have an overall good experience. We love cooking and had a nice enough time, some dishes were soso, some others quite good. Just don't expect 3*michelin food and enjoy the italian dishes.

How many people on this forum are used eating 3* michelin food. And if so, I do not think you will get Michelin star food on most mass market cruise lines.

Plus, this is my own opinion, I would get bored, eating Michelan star food everyday. But eating nice kind like home cooked Italian (or Asian) food, that I can eat everyday. Sorry, this was just very OT but it triggered me.

I'm just worried they're going to be (like I've ecoerienced with Italians) that there's no way you can be allergic to something as stapled as tomatoes! I'm already having nightmares of how hungry I'll be as I'm gluten intolerant, allergic to tomatoes/red wine/peppers and only eat chicken or turkey. Does MSC prearrange all salads at the buffet?

I'm just worried they're going to be (like I've ecoerienced with Italians) that there's no way you can be allergic to something as stapled as tomatoes! I'm already having nightmares of how hungry I'll be as I'm gluten intolerant, allergic to tomatoes/red wine/peppers and only eat chicken or turkey. Does MSC prearrange all salads at the buffet?

MSC cater for gluten free diets as many Italians are Coelliac. I. Enliven though you will need to go to the MDR to have a better chance of them organising this for you. You need to tell MSC in advance of your food intolerances.

As for salds at the buffet, they have a reasonably big salad bar and most of it is single ingredients, so you choose what you want and add on whatever dressings you want. They will have some things prepared but definitely not all. There is also plenty of fruit. There is always plain chicken available at dinner. Just talk over with your waiter what you can eat and the chefs will work around that.

You are not going to have a huge choice with those restrictions, but they will cater for you - I guess you're used to not having a wide variety in your diet anyway.

I am lactose intolarance and some other food allergies, each night after dinner the waiter came to me with the menu from the next night so that i could choose the dishes i liked and they would prepare them for me without the things i am intollerant are alergic for.

The next night my food was served from a different part of the kitchen then the food of the rest of the restaurant, even had my own waiter.