Same cruise, we did not use the indoor pool space. I do not see how a solution can be found with few indoor jacuzzis for 5000 people so we did not even consider them. Used the jacuzzi on Dec 18 aft and did not have any issues getting in or staying as long as we wished. We also used the slides and were consistently amazed to see that nobody was on them for the first hour or so each morning (they opened at 8:30). We are morning people.
I agree that the ship was crowded, but given the timing and the embarkation port we expected it. People seemed impatient everywhere, from embarkation to debarkation, cutting in line and just being rude. I guess two decades of living in NYC came in handy. The stop in Ocean Cay was short. What was planned to be a full day ended up severely shorter with docking completed after 2pm. We were one of the first hundreds of people to get off the ship and when we were walking back at around 4:30-5pm we were amazed to see people were only them getting off. By 6:30pm a mass of people was making its way back to the ship and the gangways were hammered. That was the time when we thought of leaving the ship again but we wisely chose not to. I think MSC could improve the procedures for getting on and off the ship but we have seen a similar mess on other cruise lines.
No complaints about the MDR. The service was excellent in the Waves consistently for our Early Dining (5pm) seating. We also had breakfast and lunch in the the MDR rather than the buffet. Buffet seemed busy at 9am, but that was also the time when the restaurant breakfast was over so it became the only option. Despite this, you could always find space in the back of the buffet.
Agree that the sanitizing stations at the Waves entrance were not functioning for most of the time, but after three years with the virus we learned to walk around everywhere with a small bottle of sanitizer. The welcoming hostess also had a sanitizing spray bottle that one could avail to.
We had the opposite experience with the customer service. When one of us had the pants dirty due to seating on a chair with soot, we called the front desk and they offered to clean them free of charge. They even called back to check if it was done satisfactorily (it was).
No foul smell in our balcony cabin 9th floor aft but noticed the smell on some of the corridors.
With a full ship, MSC offered the shows three times each evening (7pm, 8:30 and 10pm?) Agree that the magic shows were lame but found the singing and dancing shows (one was a Christmas show, one a collection of Broadway pieces and one a collection of songs connected to various european countries) to be quite good. It does not help if large groups let kids as young as 3-4yrs to sit by themselves with their friends, but MSC could only be blamed for not enforcing the age limits for the shows.
Overall, we went on a Christmas cruise that was conveniently departing from the same city we live, and of course we expected crowds. We liked it and would do it again.
