MSC Melody 4-15 July Review

Here is the first instalment of my recent cruise on the MSC Melody in the med and Black Sea. I'll post the remainder later in the week.

Please feel free to ask any questions you want to, as I'm aware a few of you are due to sail on this ship soon

Background

I’m a single European woman in her forties who has travelled extensively in the last 30 years. This was my eleventh cruise with MSC although my first on this ship. I normally travel alone and enjoy a laid back, relaxing cruise experience and tend to spend more time onboard than ashore. I chose this cruise as I wanted a trip to the Med that lasted longer than 7 nights. I was however somewhat apprehensive about the age and size of the ship before I sailed.

Getting There

I made my own flight arrangements with BA and flew out the day before the cruise as I felt it was too tight time wise to fly out on the day of the cruise. I stayed in the Bristol Palace Hotel in Genoa as I had previously stayed there and found both hotel and location on the beautifully arcaded street Via XX Settembre to be very good. The hotel itself is furnished in renaissance style with lots of beautiful antique furniture around but with very modern plumbing. The restaurant is only open for breakfast but the bar/bistro does a very nice dinner at a reasonable price...

Embarkation

Check-in was at 12.00 and I arrived a little after that due to a slight delay in my taxi arriving and then the driver taking me to the wrong part of the port where the very much larger Fantasia was docked. This was soon sorted out and as soon as I got out of the taxi, 2 of the ship’s crew that had just come ashore immediately offered to help me with my luggage and show me to the embarkation hall which was much appreciated. Both refused to accept a tip for their assistance.

After dropping of my luggage, the embarkation procedure was relatively swift. The melody is a fairly small ship so much fewer passengers waiting to board. As a member of the MSC Club, I also had priority boarding and only had to wait about 10 minutes before embarkation was completed and I was able to board the ship. As is customary on all my previous MSC cruises, I was escorted to my cabin by a cabin steward wearing white gloves...

In the following days there were further embarkations in Rome and Athens and I think Istanbul also. This is quite a common feature on MSC cruises

Ports of Call

On this particular cruise, I rarely went ashore preferring to stay onboard and relax instead. However I did notice that port times were often fairly short and differed from the published itinerary in our official documentation. This was further compounded by late arrivals on occasion

Rome – tickets said 7.00 to 18.00 but all aboard time in the Daily programme was 16.00 sailing at 16.30. There were 6 excursions on offer, one that allowed you to do Rome on your own at 44E, one half day at 45E and the 4 full day ones ranged from 75-122E per

Athens – should have been 13.00to 18.00 but daily programme was for 14.00arrival and departure at 19.00. We were slightly late in arriving and well over an hour late in departing as some of the shore excursions returned late. 3 shore excursions available ranging from 30 to 60euros

Yalta – should have been 10.30 to 17.00 but the programme advised 12.00 to 18.00. We were still late in port, no doubt not having fully made up the time lost in Athens.4 excursions to choose from ranging from 49 to 56 euros

Odessa – this should have been 07.00-12.30 but ended up officially being 0.800-13.00 but again we were a bit late in arriving. Only 2 excursions available at 55 or 59 euros.

Istanbul – should have been 09.00 to 16.00, but was changed to 12.00 to 18.00 as a result of some technical difficulties experienced during the previous at sea day.4 half day tours available ranging from 42-60 euros

Messina – meant to be 13.00 to 18.00 but was changed to 14.30 to 20.00. 5 half day tours ranging from 40 to 49 euros.

Sorrento - meant to be 08.00 to 13.00, but was changed to 07.00 to 13.00. In reality we did not arrive until 08.00. First tender was for those on excursions, the remainder of passengers got to board a tender depending on the ticket number allocated (they started issuing them from 7.00am, so those that got up early and queued got on the second tender). First tenders did not start departing until well after 08.30. 4 tours ranging from 25 (walking tour) to 69 euros (Capri Island)

Genoa – meant to return to port at 10.00 but this was changed to 08.00 although I think we were a little bit late in to port. For those not disembarking at this port there were 4 tours ranging from32 to 60 euros.

Ship

The melody is the oldest and smallest ship in the fleet at 36,500 tons and takes a max of 1600 passengers (with all bunks occupied), almost 1,1oo (lower beds only). It was built in 1982 but not acquired by MSC until 1997. None of the cabins have balconies and there are no promenade decks. The only open spaces are to be found on the pool deck and a few little areas at the rear of other decks.

There are 7 passenger decks in total, 4 of which are mainly cabins.

2-bahama – just a few cabins at the front of the ship

3- Restaurant – main Dining Room and medical centre

4 – Oceanic – Only cabins

5- Continental – Movie theatre in the centre and rest cabins

6- Premier - reception, Tour Office, Purser and Cruise Directors office in the centre – rest of deck cabins

7- Lounge – main show lounge, disco, further lounge/bar, photo gallery and shops and casino

8- Pool – Indoor (magrodome) pool and terrace with buffet, Outdoor pool, library, Beauty salon, gym, Massage Rooms, Coffee Shop; outdoor terrace; outdoor pool (small) and 2 hot tubs.

Generally I found the ship to be in reasonable condition for its age and like all MSC ships, spotlessly clean. The interiors were somewhat dingy and I missed all the light, white marble, glass and polished metals that are so typical of the rest of the fleet. I also found the Reception area stuck in the middle of one of the decks full of cabins rather strange, especially as the typical (usually beautiful) atrium was not there. There were not that many lifts and those that were there were quite small and slow. They also did not indicate which floor you had reached, so this sometimes led to confusion with people hopping out too early. There are plenty of stairs although they do not all go to all decks, requiring you to have to walk along to the next flight to continue your journey.

Despite its lack of size and lots of public areas, the ship never felt crowded even on sea days and we had every cabin occupied but not completely at full capacity. Unlike the larger ships it was always possible to find a seat in the buffet or get a sun bed by the outdoor pool, without having to get up at the crack of dawn to “book” one with a towel or belongings and some passengers insist on doing.

Cabin

I booked a category 9 ocean view which was supposed to have 2 lower beds or 1 queen. I asked for it to be made up as a queen. However when I entered I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the cabin, it was so much larger than I had been expecting. The queen bed was actually one bed and not 2 twins put together, so no annoying “join” down the middle. It was also nice to see a lovely baby towel elephant sitting in the centre of the bed (first time I’ve seen this on MSC). There was also a 3 seater sofa bed that would easily sleep 2 and one pull down bunk. There was a coffee table with a bowl of fruit (think this is now only provided to MSC Club members), a 4 drawer unit with a mirror above it and a bit of a weird shaped wardrobe that had loads of hangers and was very spacious, if somewhat awkward to reach the far side of. There were also 3 further drawers in the wardrobe and a small safe (which I could not get to operate – some of the buttons seemed worn out from over use). I was very disappointed to discover that only suites on this ship have a mini bar/fridge. I did miss that quite a lot. My steward did fill my ice bucket twice per gay automatically... Power outlets are very sparse with only 1 110v and one 220v socket beside the mirror. There were 2 reading lights on either side of the bed (both on or none on) which were fine, but there was also a small light above the sofa and below the bunk. You definitely could not read by this a sit was really more of a night light.

The bathroom also brought a nice surprise as well as a disappointment. I had a full sized tub which I had not been expecting with a shower over it. Although it had a shower curtain, it did not seem to attack me at any time! The hairdryer was one of those useless wall mounted hose types. Fortunately I had found this out before sailing and had brought] my own with me. The bathroom was very spacious but had no cupboards at all. There were also no little racks by the sink or by the bath. There were just 2 glass types wall mounted flat dishes or soap. There was one long narrow shelf that ran the full length of the bathroom above the sink and below the mirror that could be used to hold all your toiletries. It had a 3 inch deep lip on the front to prevent anything falling off, although tings did to tend to slide all over the place on the shelf itself. The only toiletries provided are 2 small bars of soap, 2 small bottles of shampoo and 2 shower caps. No bathrobes are provided (unless you are in a suite or are a Black card member of MSC Club). 2 large bath and 2 hand towels are provided and changed twice daily.

My cabin steward Miguel did an excellent job of keeping my cabin spotless. They use a system whereby the hang the red do not disturb notice on the outside of your cabin door in the morning and evening. When you go out and want them to clean your room, you turn it over so the green side is showing. Not very high tech but works fine and I was never disturbed whilst in my cabin.

My heart sank as I was reading your post :( I am planning the shore excursions very carefully and if the time changes as much as it did with your cruise I could be in a bit of trouble.

To me it looks like the changes basically force you to take their tour excursions. Especially Rome with 2 hours less. That is a lot for Rome because of the travelling time.

I hope this does not happen. I will be very disappointed if it does. Has anyone else had this experience with Melody?

Thank you for explaining what is in the bathroom. This will mean I now take my own soap, shampoo and conditioner.

As I am on the cheapest nastiest inside cabin I am not expecting a safe. Their brochure says that not all rooms have safes.

What did you do with you money/passport etc? Can you give them to the purser?

I eagerly await your next post.

Mairi, sorry we didnt get to meet up - my fault for not following up, lots going on at home before we left.

I'm sure we must have passed each other many times on board, although I was rarely out on the sun deck - too hot for me! I did keep an ear out for a scots accent.

I too thoroughly enjoyed the Melody and ports. My partner and I went off at each port independently (after lots of research on these boards) but did one ship tour in Yalta. I'll jot down some notes and post shortly.

Interesting that we had two Captains, or was it just to get us to buy two lots of photos with the Captain! ;-)

Carol.

Mairi, sorry we didnt get to meet up - my fault for not following up, lots going on at home before we left.

 

I'm sure we must have passed each other many times on board, although I was rarely out on the sun deck - too hot for me! I did keep an ear out for a scots accent.

 

I too thoroughly enjoyed the Melody and ports. My partner and I went off at each port independently (after lots of research on these boards) but did one ship tour in Yalta. I'll jot down some notes and post shortly.

 

Interesting that we had two Captains, or was it just to get us to buy two lots of photos with the Captain! ;-)

 

Carol.

No worries Carol, I had a pretty manic time too before sailing.

Now funny you should mention the 2 Captains thing. I didn't bother going to the first cocktail party but did see photos of him in the gallery with other passengers. On the last gala night I was a guest at the captain's table for dinner ( it's an automatic perk if you have a black card with the MSC Club) and when I was introduced to him prior to dinner along with the author officers, I recall thinking that he looked differently from what I was expecting. Looking back the Daily programmes I see we had Paolo Russo at the start and Michele Longobardi at the end. I think I can come up with an explanation for this. Michele told me that he had only just joined the melody that week from the Fantasia. presume they have a short handover period between departing and newly arriving captains.

My heart sank as I was reading your post :( I am planning the shore excursions very carefully and if the time changes as much as it did with your cruise I could be in a bit of trouble.

 

To me it looks like the changes basically force you to take their tour excursions. Especially Rome with 2 hours less. That is a lot for Rome because of the travelling time.

 

I hope this does not happen. I will be very disappointed if it does. Has anyone else had this experience with Melody?

 

Thank you for explaining what is in the bathroom. This will mean I now take my own soap, shampoo and conditioner.

 

As I am on the cheapest nastiest inside cabin I am not expecting a safe. Their brochure says that not all rooms have safes.

 

What did you do with you money/passport etc? Can you give them to the purser?

 

I eagerly await your next post.

Hi Donnasperls

I hope you have better luck with arrival times than we did. That said, a lady who was at my table with her 2 teenage daughters managed to DIY all ports without any issues. The only one that she didn't really do was Athens as she felt the time was too tight to do on her own and instead wandered around Piraeus. They certainly managed to get in to Rome and see a fair bit in the time they had. Messina, Yalta and Odessa the ship docks close to where you want to go. Istanbul is only a 10 minute taxi ride to the Asian (more interesting side). I got a taxi just outside the port gates (5 minute walk from the terminal) and initially declined all offers from drivers, saying, I had a map and just wanted to go for a walk. One however offered me a special rate of 5 euros to take me to the Spice market which I'm glad I accepted as it would have been a very long walk in blistering temperatures. The lady and her girls tried walking and wasted a lot of time wandering about the not so interesting European side before getting in a taxi. For Sorrent - make sure you check the daily programme the night before and check what time they will start issuing the tender tickets and then get someone in your group to get up sharp and go down to q for the tender tickets. You don't all have to go - they will issue mre than 1 to you - you just tell them how many you need.

As for my valuables, I locked them away in one of my bags which I kept out of sight under the bed. Not the most secure and I definitely would have preferred to have been able to use the safe. However I had absolutely no concerns over the honesty of my cabin steward. I must have dropped some small value coins that had rolled under some furniture and he placed them on the coffee table for me. Another day I dropped a very valuable piece of jewellrey (very careless of me) and again he left it on the coffee table for me to find.

Just a small part tonight as I've now returned to work. Will complete the rest by the weekend

Bars and Lounges

There are 7 bars and lounges all located on either the Pool or Lounge Deck. Some had set opening times whilst others varied depending on port times and/or At Sea days. Some also have live music at various times. Full info is in the Daily Programme that will be delivered to your cabin each evening, for the following day

Calypso Coffee bar – this normally opened 7am to 11pm, although opened earlier on days when there was a very early port arrival time. It is located towards the back of the pool deck. Normally I love to spend time in MSC’s coffee shops as they are usually a great focal point for people watching and a great place to relax with comfortable seating. This one however was a bit sterile, all white tiles and not a lot of ambiance with wicker seats and tables. It did however still have the very full range of coffees (including a lot of liqueur ones) as well as providing a full bar service and vitamin drinks. I found it fine for a quick cold drink after having been sunbathing but not really a place that I wanted to linger with a book and a coffee. No live music in here.

Goombay Bar – usual opening times 6.30am to 1.30am (although also opened earlier on days we had early port arrival times). This is situated towards the front of the pool deck and is the bar for the Riviera terrace (Indoor Pool and Buffet area). A few passengers drink at the bar, but the vast majority use the waiter service to have drinks at the tables and chairs whilst eating buffet meals. It has a full bar service including coffees and teas. The area is a bit warm during the day as the presence of the magrodome makes the entire area a bit like sitting in a green house. The actual bar itself is set a bit further back than the rest of the Riviera Terrace, so doesn’t have as much glare or heat as the rest of the area. It had live music at lunch time and throughout the afternoon and evening (Upbeat fairly modern. Two different acts that alternated throughout the day/evening)

Tiko-Tiko Tropical Bar – seemed to open around or just before midday. It was evidently located on the pool deck but I never found it, neither did anyone at our table. We eventually came to the conclusion that it must show under a different name on the deckplan and we therefore came to the conclusion that it was located out front on the open air sunrise terrace of the pool deck.

Blue Riband – piano & Martini bar – this mostly opened 5pm to 2am. It was located mid ship on the pool deck and was my absolute favourite place to hang out in the evening. It was a delightful little lounge that had great live music. An Italian pianist and vocalist who played a wide range of well known international songs called Luigi who encouraged passengers to singalong or make requests and a very talented classical duo consisting of a pianist and a very talented Russian violinist. There was also a seating area immediately outside this in the passageway between the Indoor and Outdoor Pool areas that was served by the bar staff from this lounge.

Junkanoo – beer Bar and Lounge. - opened from 8.00pm until late. This is situated at the rear of the lounge deck. Was only in this once but found it a bit dark and dingy and not to my taste. It had live music every evening but I can’t comment on what it was like.

Club Universe – usually opened 7.30pm to 1am. This is the main show lounge and is located at the front of the lounge deck in front of the casino. Unfortunately unlike the remainder of the MSC fleet, the melody does not have a separate theatre for the evening show so these were held in here a lot. I was hugely disappointed to discover this as the evening show is usually one of the highlights of my evening on a MSC cruise. The main problem was that for those on second seating and therefore the second performance of the show, it was very difficult to get a seat as those on the first performance tended to remain in the lounge for the remainder of the evening. Sight lines were poor unless you managed to get a seat at the front (highly unlikely unless you were on first dinner seating). They have tried to overcome that by installing a few flatscreen TVs around the lounge but the camera angled on the stage was not great with the image tending to be a bit blurred and the colour a bit weird. Also with it not being an actual theatre, people carried on talking throughout the show which made it difficult to hear and concentrate. They did hold 2 of the 3 classical concerts and the flamenco show in the Riviera terrace instead. This was a bit of an improvement as they covered over the pool to use as a raised stage and rearranged the seats in theatre style rows. This made it far easier to see and there was no problem in getting a good seat regardless of dinner seating. However there was still a bar service and people also used the area to walk through and there was some noise that distracted from the show. When the show was not on in the Club Universe, there was also live music.

Starlight Disco – opened 7.30-12.00pm but for some weird reason not every night. According to the Daily programme it only opened on 3 out of the 11 evenings. It is located towards the back of the lounge deck. I was only in it once during the day on an At Sea day to find somewhere quiet to read my book and it seemed nice enough although fairly small.

'Blue Riband – piano & Martini bar'

If you were in there most evenings then we must have passed each other - it was our favourite place for a cocktail or two, we sat inside at the far end away from the bar usually - Luigi called me the lady from Wales in his lovely accent. He was so entertaining (with the ladies especially!)

Restaurants and Food

Breakfast – You can choose from continental served in your cabin but needs to be ordered before 3am), buffet in the Riviera Terrace on the Pool Deck (time varies depending on port arrival time but always 3 hours) or a la carte breakfast in the main dining room ( again varies depending on port times but only open for 2 hours. If you can’t wait for your caffeine intake there is early birds coffee served half an hour before the breakfast buffet opens. I only ate in the buffet once for breakfast (forgot to set my alarm) and it was OK. Not a huge amount of choice, although unlike on the larger MSC ships, I had no problem finding a seat. The choice in the main dining room was reasonably extensive with a variety of fruit juices (low quality carton type rather than fresh squeezed), fruits, cereals, variety of bread, rolls and pastries (I particularly recommend the pain au chocolat – avoid toast as they don’t make it like you’d expect – stick to the fresh bread, rolls etc). You can have eggs pretty much anyway (the omelettes are very nice as is the scrambled eggs), bacon (bit on the crispy side for British tastes0, ham, sausages, potatoes of the day 9usually sautéed), grilled tomato. They also have smoked salmon which you can have on its own or with cream cheese and a bagel. You can have pancakes too and they also have yogurts.

Lunch – I noticed this ship doesn’t have a pizzeria or grill in the open air on the pool deck as the rest of the fleet has, so the choice for lunch is the buffet (times vary but open 3 hours) or the dining room ( 2hour variable slot). I only ate in the buffet the first day as there was no dining room alternative. The buffet area is relatively small but has 2 sides and queues were not a problem. There was also a station just before you entered the room where the buffet was laid out, with a variety of fresh fruits being chopped up throughout the buffet opening time. I’m not a fan of buffets at the best of times and I’d say this one was just ok. Again easy to find a seat but what I particularly didn’t like is that all the tables and chairs are under the magrodome in the indoor pool area and with the outside temperature in the thirties and very sun, it was like eating in a greenhouse. There is air conditioning but it doesn’t do much good in this area. I liked the fresh fruit though – very nice selection. Lunch in the dining room has a selection of 6 courses available – appetizers; salad; soup; pasta and rice: main; dessert. Meals at lunch time tend to be more international than in the evening. I particularly liked the variety of soups especially the chilled consommés and fruit soups (very varied and absolutely delicious). Appetizers were invariably good and very varied. Pasta was always good too, although the rice dish which was usually some kind of rice salad, which could be a bit bland or dry on occasion. Main courses would always include eggs (e.g. omelette. Eggs Benedict; a fish dish; meat and a sandwich (which could be on ciabatta, foccacio or just bread) they always have hamburgers, cheese burgers etc available too. Desserts always include the ice cream of the day as well as sugar free alternatives and fruit is also available. On the whole I enjoyed most meals. Sometimes the food was warm instead of hot. I was less keen on the chicken dishes, simply because they do not use boned pieces and I can’t be bothered trying to get the meat off the bones, especially when it is smothered in a sauce.

Afternoon tea – is served 4-5pm. They have a selection of teas (Prince of Wales; Assam; English; camomile; peppermint and a few other herbal & fruit infusions) Coffee is also available. The cakes, and biscuits are Italian and may not be what Americans or the British are used too, but very nice. They also served dainty little sandwiches and filled rolls.

Dinner is served in the dining rooms at allocated tables. There are 2 sittings; I chose the second at normally 8.30pm as the first at 6.00pm was too early for me. On days when we had a late departure time, dinner was half an hour later. Dinner also has 6 courses available which are less international, with the food from a different region of Italy each night. They also have “always available” grilled salmon, chicken or steak and spaghetti Bolognese. We had 3 gala dinners in the 11 nights we were onboard. I was seated with 6 other British people, 1 couple, 1 solo and a lady with 2 older teenage daughters. We all got on very well. Both our waiter and assistant waiter were lovely and did a great job of looking after all of us. I found the quality of the food and its temperature to be better than the other MSC ships I’ve been on. Perhaps the smaller ship and fewer passengers make it easier to produce good quality food still piping hot. I heard almost no complaints from other English speaking passengers about it either. Like lunch my favourite courses were the appetizers, soups and pasta although I also enjoyed the risotto too. Most main courses were either good or excellent. I rarely had a dessert but when I did, usually the ice cream or something lighter. Unfortunately for me, crème brulee never made an appearance on this cruise! Midnight buffet /snacks– there was only one Midnight buffet – the Buffet Magnifique on the evening of the last Gala night. Every other night snacks were served in the bars and lounges. They looked nice enough but I was always still to full from dinner to try anything.

AmoMondo,

Thank you for your reviews. It has been great so far but it is obvious that you did not have such a great time on the Melody as others.

I know that you will probably answer this question as you finish the reviews but I thought that I would ask.

I was planning on spoiling myself on one of the sea days and having a "spa" day. I can see that you were able to get packages.

I was planning this on the Melody as I thought there would be a lot more to keep me occupied on the Fantasia on sea days then on the Melody. However, from your review this might not be the way to go.

Can you please provide me with your opinion on the best way to go here? Also do you have any links to packages as there do not seem to be any on the Australian site and I can't find it on the UK or USA site either:confused:.

Thank you for your great reviews. I am now very glad that we are going on the Fantasia second :o

Hi Donnasperls

Well to be fair, I definitely did not like the ship as much as the others but the service and friendliness was much better than anything I'd experienced before, so overall it was still a good experience for me. Would I choose the Melody again...probably not because I work horrendous hours and get by on less than 6 hours sleep most days and have seen a lot of Europe already, so usually for me a cruise is about spending a lot of time onboard relaxing.

As far as your spa day is concerned, you'd be better doing it on the Fantasia as the Melody doesn't really have one! The melody has a beauty salon adn a couple of treatments rooms. The manager of the salon is very nice as is the Cuban hairdresser and 2 Balinese therapists. There is no thermal suite, so if you went for a spa day, it would need to just be treatments only. The Fantasia has a lovely spa area with a great relax area, vitamin drink bar and has a sauna and steam room as well. There are far more treeatments available on the Fantasia (basically more equipment - on the melody ieverything has to be done literally by hand)

Packages are detailed in their annual brochure and vary by ship. They really do save you money compared to buying them onboard. On the UK site you can download the annual brochure and a seprate one on the Aurea Spa treatments available which helps make sense of the packages. Here's the link.to give you an idea. Hopefully the Australian site has a version in Aus $ but if not it will give you a good idea of what's available so you can ask your TA. If you do buy a package you don't have to say which date you want the treatments until you get onboard. You can also split them over different days. Best to take your voucher to the spa on the day you arrive and get booked up, that way you have more chance of getting exactly when you want.

http://www.msccruises.co.uk/brochure/download-catalogue.html

.P.S. one of the Melody packages says it includes 3 tanning sessions and 1 thermal suite - ignore that they don't have either of them - I should know I bought that package! Manageress made it up to me with a 60 minute facial instead which was fine by me as I would not have taken the tanning sessions in any case, so it was a reasonable trade off.

I was contemplating a cruise aboard the Melody on April 5, 2011 because the itinerary seemed interesting and conveniently dovetailed with my travel plans to Europe.

However, when I accessed and read the recent Melody reviews at this site, I decided it would not be worth the cost of the cruise to suffer through what these reviewers experienced. Absolutely horrible. I wrote to MSC asking them what the heck was their problem that food and service should have to be as described in these reviews. Let's see if I get a response.

Meanwhile, I can only conclude that if a big MSC fan like AmoMondo has reservations about repeating her Melody cruise, I am sure it would be wise to avoid this ship at any cost.

p.s. Don't you think cruise reviews ought to be submitted as a review for publication in that section of this site?

p.s. Don't you think cruise reviews ought to be submitted as a review for publication in that section of this site?

Absolutely and I always do. I will do that tis time when I fnally finish. I'm posting this as I do it because their are a few posters here who are due to travel soon and gave me the impression they'd rather get some of it sooner than wait for a while for the whole thing.

BTW food is very subjective and the food on the melody was not horrible quite the reverse. (well except for the fruit juice which was pretty awful).

I think the old small ships are somrthing that appeals to you or don't - there appear to be a proportion of the crusing population who just love them and they are undoubtedly friendlier with more personalised (and in my recent experience) outstanding) service. For me though stuff like spas, theatres and balconies are more inportant to me than the ports, so I'll be sticking to Msc but their larger ships in the future.

AmoMondo. We are happy with the MSC product and really enjoyed the Opera last year.

I knew there was a reason I left the 2011 MSC Mediterranean brochure unopened for several days - I just felt it was going to be expensive (not that expensive for with the early booker discount)!!! Within 30 mins I was on to the my agents to cost a cruise on Melody for next year to a Med itinery that we've not done before on the dates we need.

Would you add any comments to those you've aleady made? We book the cheapest OS we can - any comments on best location; fore or aft and are there any restricted views we should be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Gelbel

I'm deliberately not looking at the brochure as I still have another cruise in Oct and am trying Costa in January, so that is definitely more than enoughand I know if I look I'll be tempted! Mind you with the pronto early booking price and my % discount on top of that.......

I've been meaning to finish off the review all week but work has been abit hectic again. I'm off to Madrid with my very excitable 16 year old niece tomorrow for the weekend , so I fear it is going to be a bit longer before I get the last bit done.

However to answer your questions re cabin. Not sure if any will have restricted views as lifeboats are quite high up on this ship. Muster stations are on the pool deck, so maybe the deck could be affected but they don't have any cabins.

I was on the Continental deck. The one above premier was more expensive and frankly don't see the point of that. You are directly under the lounge deck so have main show loung, bar, disco and casino above you - not good in my opinion. I also don't see any advantage in being beside reception. My cabin was 2/3rds of the way back (about half way between midship and aft) an there was a lot of vibration from the engine. The worst culprit in the cabin was the pull down bunk (which I clearly din't need bing on my Todd). So It rattled all night long. So I'd say if you don't need bunks because of the number of people in yuour cabin, pick one midship or furthe forward and with no pull down bunks.

The ship is pretty stable despite being small. Cruise Director told me that being an older ship it has a much deeper draught than the Fantasia and Splendida which are very top heavy and sit relatively shallow in the water, so little old melody copes better with rougher seas (according to him anyway) than her newer bigger shiner sisters!

Forgot to add that you don't get much of a view from the tiny little portholes in any case.

Thanks AmoMondo - getting the magnifying glass out to make sure we avoid a cabin with a 3rd bunk. Glad to hear about middle to forward being best - we like to get as far forward as we can.

Let's see what the TA comes back with. I'm getting really exciting - booking is sometimes the best bit!!!

And the deal's been done - forgot we get MSC discount too. So good was the price I've purchased the 24 hr AL package!!!

We have got a sofa bed cabin as forward as we could get (have an actual cabin no. too - well as guaranteed as MSC will guarantee a cabin).

What a lovely end to a working week.:D

Best make a new ticker for my profile now. :cool:

You'll be fine with the sofa bed. Mine was a 3 seater so a nice area to relax in, when in the cabin. The cabin's are so much bigger on the Melody than they are on the Lirica class ships. My outside on the meloday was about the same size as a suite on the Opera/Lirica but didn't have quite as mych storage as the suites have.