Just got off this cruise yesterday, we had an okay time, it wasn't the best or worst, MSC has definitely made the cruise more UK friendly with kettles in the cabin, proper scones for afternoon tea etc.
I can offer assistance to anyone who maybe is booked on this with answers to questions about the ship or anything to put your mind at ease about the experience etc.
Embarkation- This was handled extremely well, roll up at the terminal, hand over your bags and we was on the ship within 20 minutes- they didn't ask to see our travel insurance documents, but did want the negative test results and boarding pass- so anyone stressing about the insurance, get it for obvious reasons, but they did not want to review it on this occasion which seemed strange to us.
Food and Drink- The menu had again been tailored to what they felt British people want, roast dinner on the menu each night, chicken Kyiv, Apple Pie, the food was small in quantity and also bland in taste, we have cruised MSC twice before and enjoyed the experience, we later learned the dining staff is new to the ship which explained some of the chaos with the service we experienced, We struggled to obtain drinks as we were constantly told 'that's not available or 'we don't have that' so they tended to push you towards 'Pinot Grigio' which was the cheapest wine they had, we could have got by with the basic drinks package if it had not been included as part of our package.
Entertainment- Lots of singing, dancing and general theatre type shows, average to good quality, they had a British comedian who wasn't to our taste, lots of recycled jokes from more famous comedians, the older people seemed to enjoy it so maybe we're just from a different age group, The singing was okay, but we both felt Princess and Celebrity had better entertainment.
Cabin- As people mention they are smaller than most, and storage is pretty bad, we had a standard balcony on deck 10, Mid-Aft - when the sea was moving we really did feel the movement, this was our fault as we booked the 'Bella' package so we had no choice over location, bed was firm to hard and pillows not the best, I prefer a firmer pillow as an example.
Bars/Lounges- the ship was only sailing with around 3500 pax we understood, it was almost impossible to get a seat at some venues such as the Sky Lounge as there are so few places to get a drink during the evening, the English-style pub was always popular but just didn't have a nice ambiance. The Virtuosa lounge is right on the main promenade and this was where they held most events such as the silent disco and the White party so it was noisy and busy each night. If this ship was sailing full then we could only fear how crowded it would feel.
Disembarkation- We chose to self-assist disembark and were told we needed to register for this on day 6 of the cruise, in reality, nobody checked and there were about 500 others queuing to get off, so I would say this is the easiest way to leave the ship, we was off within 30 minutes and in the car heading home up the M3 whilst everyone else was still eating breakfast.
Overall MSC feel there is a demand for UK-centric cruises from Southampton but this is not something we would repeat, they will do the same with the Grandiosa next summer but we for sure will not be on board!!
