MSC Armonia Reviews

Had a very enjoyable cruise and a great intinerary. Don't believe the negative comments. I am English and have to say that I was embarrased by some of the moaning Brits. One in particular when asked what was wrong with the cruise said everything!! Absolute rubbish. The ship is very clean and the service good. We had an outside cabin and it was great. The only criticism is the 7 euros per person per day cabin charge and 15% on all drinks. It does seem a little excessive to charge both however you know what you are going to be charged before you go.

To MSC Cruises, Iglu.com and General Media. At beginning of this year my friend Rebecca and I decided to have a girly holiday somewhere in Europe, when we received an e-mail offering the MSC Armonia Cruiser to Greece and Montenegro. After some research we decided to take the risk and get on board on 14 October in Venice. What a good decision we have made, for the price we paid for this holiday we received a lot more then was promised, not just speaking about the route as Greece and Italy chosen points were amazing, but also for the good environment on board, the food offered, the crew attendance and professionalism, the cabin size, cleanliness and comfort, the entertainment, the fairly priced bar and shopping, etc … etc… etc… It was impressive to meet the same crew who worked hard till late every night with a big smile on their face every morning, also what an amazing gala buffet was offered to us… In other words… What a pleasure to be part of your big family for at least one week! We can’t say that all was perfect as we didn’t have a good excursion experience in Athens; therefore the public relation office team helped us with kindness and again with extreme professionalism. In resume, the overall experience was just great and for sure we will recommend MSC Armonia to our family and friends. We can affirm that the good experience in MSC Armonia will be forever in our memories and pictures with big compliments to all MSC Armonia staff and management. Congratulation for the good service and effort and thank you very much to all of you who contributed to the success of our holiday!!!!! 

I would recommend MSC Armonia for a really relaxing and enjoyable cruise. We got a great special offer from Iglu Cruise, which meant we got a lovely cabin right at the front of the ship. Our cabin had a large picture window and we had fantastic views of the sea and of each port. The staff were very helpful and the staff member who looked after our cabin gave us excellent service. The ship was large, with a number of lounges to choose from, and the open air decks meant we were able to make the most of the good weather while on board. We really enjoyed using the card tables in the library, and by the lively atmosphere in there, so did others! We did experience a touch of bad weather, but apart from that it was smooth sailing all the way. We will definitely use MSC and Iglu Cruise again.

We had a lovely week with our 2 children (ages 6 and 4). The staff were wonderful with our children, the kids club was great and we thoroughly enjoyed the great combination of rest and adventuring. We thought the food was excellent too. We were quite surprised by the number of complaints we found from other British people and were told we obviously had low expectations by one person! Complaints seemed to consist of things like "the waiters dont wear white gloves when they serve you"?! We would love to do a cruise again one day and for young families, we recommend this totally.

We have just arrived back from MSC Armonia Adriatic Cruise (Venice – Ancona – Corfu – Santorini – Piraeus (Athens) – Argostoli (Kefalonia) - Kotor – Venice) and absolutely loved it! We booked this cruise because of the itinerary and after reading some of the reviews on the Armonia we were wondering whether we had made a massive mistake however, we enjoyed every minute. The staff were helpful and friendly, the ship was pristine, the food was fantastic and the entertainment was fabulous (and mostly in English)! We arrived in Venice Marco Polo Airport and greeted by an MSC rep who showed us to the MSC information desk. We were quickly transferred to a coach and taken straight to the cruise terminal. Check in was extremely organised and easy. Each party was given a boarding number our number was 4 and we were on the ship within half an hour of boarding starting. When we boarded we were escorted to our room which was an ocean view outside room with a large window (only the suites on the Armonia have balconies). The room was comfortable with a double bed, dressing table, mini bar and T.V. There was plenty of wardrobe space and hangers for all of your clothes. All rooms were cleaned, tidied and towels changed twice a day with a turn down service at night. The food in the formal restaurants was fabulous. The only little thing was that there was not 24 hour food available – for example lunch finished at 2 p.m. and there was no food until afternoon tea at 4 p.m. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and midnight buffet was served every day. The buffet restaurant was a bit disappointing and could get very crowded during mealtimes but we just went to the formal restaurants for breakfast and lunch instead. The Grill and Pizzeria/Pasta bar were also very good but again could get crowded during peak times1 We were on the second sitting (9.15 p.m) for dinner. After thinking that this might be a bit late we were grateful for the later sitting as it was nice to take your time getting sorted after a spot of sightseeing! Everyone was given a formal restaurant to attend for dinner (if wanted) we were given ‘La Pergola’. Each night a six course meal was served with about 3 choices for each course although you didn’t have to choose all six courses! Drinks were reasonable at about 2.70 euro for a soda, 6.50 euro for a cocktail, 4 euro for a large beer and 7 euro for a carafe of wine – remember the 15% service charge on each drink! Drinks packages were offered throughout the cruise and we decided to get the cocktail package which gave us 12 cocktail drinks for around 66 euros. Each evening you were given the ‘suggested dress’ for the next evening on the daily programme. This ranged from casual (men – sports shirt, trousers, jeans women – dress, pant suit), informal (men – jacket and trousers no jeans women – informal dress or pants and blouse, gala (men – tuxedo, dinner jacket or dark suit and tie women – dressy outfit, cocktail dress, formal gown). Generally people dressed up for the two gala nights men mainly wearing suits, shirts and ties and women long dresses, heels. MSC Armonia is one of the smaller ships within the fleet however, the facilities on board were good. The spa and gym could get very crowded during sailing times as could the swimming pool. We went during the school summer holidays (August) and there were plenty of children about! However, they were not a nuisance and we sunbathed away from the swimming pool area on the deck above to avoid the noise. There were plenty of sunbeds and towels were provided for use outside. Ports of Call Ancona – easy walking distance to the main town from the cruise terminal – a main shopping street with a fantastic food and clothes market – cathedral which is worth a visit. Corfu – about 20 min walk to the Old Town for the port which was very well signposted – MSC offered a 15 euro per person bus service to the town however the walk along the seafront was lovely – visit the old fort but be aware on a Sunday it closes at 3ish. Santorini – our best destination – gorgeous setting - great photos! After much research on the internet we were a little unsure about how to get around Santorini. We read reviews that the buses were sometimes irregular so we decided to book an MSC excursion to Fira and Oia which also included a visit to a winery. We were really glad for the excursion as it was nice to be taken around and told lots of interesting facts! The ship docks in the ocean therefore you are taken on a tender boat to the port area. As we were on an excursion we were taken to the old port but if you decided not to get an excursion you are taken to the Fira port were you can ride a donkey or get the cable car up to Fira town. We got the cable car down to the port area – no queue at all to get on board and there were 3 ships in dock at the time! We returned to the ship to watch the sunset it was gorgeous! Piraeus (Athens) – very very very hot!!! We walked to the metro station from the cruise terminal about a 20/30 minute walk. The metro was OK to find but no signs to help - look out for the pedestrian bridge about gate number E6 cross over the pedestrian bridge from the port side. A day pass was 3euro and could be used as much as you wanted over a 24 hour period. Make sure you validate your train ticket on your first trip or else you could land a 90euro fine. We went on the metro to the Acropoli station and the Acropolis was a 5 min walk from there. Make sure you visit the Acropolis as early as possible to avoid the crowds. The Acropolis was 12 euro to enter but this ticket price also allowed you to visit other sites such as the Temple of Zeus. We arrived at about 8.30 am and it was great however by 9.30 the excursions started to arrive… it was chaos! We also visited the new Acropolis museum which was fascinating only 5 euro – lots of artefacts and glass flooring were you could see down into the buildings and areas which they had found. Argostoli (Kefalonia) – easy walk into the town – lovely sea front walk – beautiful town – enjoyed wandering around the streets and seafront! Kotor – easy walk into the walled old town – again enjoyed exploring the old town and getting lost within the alleyways! Venice – disembarkment day – all had to be out of rooms at 7.00 am – given coloured baggage tags to attach to your suitcases – each colour related to a time for disembarkment and transfer to the airport – times were booked based on your flight times - everyone was off ship by 11.30 am ish but transferred to the airport at 3 pm. Long day!! We decided to go on a MSC excursion to Venice as our flight wasn’t until 5.40 p.m. MSC took care of our bags at no extra cost – without the excursion the port will charge 5-7 euro per bag. We were transferred to St Marks Square without any fuss by boat and allowed to explore at our leisure. Venice is a very easy city to walk around we visited Rialto bridge and walked along the Grand canal. Overall a very enjoyable holiday – we will definitely sail MSC again!

3/6/11 - Venice - Ancona - Corfu - Argostoli - Kafelonia - Santorini - Kotor in Montenegro - Just got back off this ship - nice ship and very clean - good size cabins - we had one on deck 8 at the back of the ship - outside cabin - its like having your own balcony with it being at the rear of the ship. Restaurant main dining - Marco Polo is fine but limited choice on the menu's - be wary of times - first sitting is 6:30pm not 7:30pm as advertised - outside the main dining the food was very poor - lukewarm and basically burgers/hotdogs/pizza/pasta (only 1 type) - there isn’t anywhere where you can get something to eat 24/7. If anyone is going on msc and wondering if all inclusive package is any good - it is - it saved us an enormous amount of money - prices are very very expensive - eg Smirnof Vodka and Coke was - 5.30 euros for vodka and 2.50 euros for coke = 7.80 euros for 1 drink - ordinary measures. Loads of choice on the all inclusive package including all the cocktails and bottled beers and some very nice wines - well recommend it - also includes everything in the mini bar including the snacks. If your disembarking at Venice its chaos - no-where to wait you have to go into Venice - MSC will safeguard your bags at a cost of 8 Euros per piece....they offer an excursion at 30 Euros each so get you off the ship at 10am and into Venice and return - nothing else except safeguard your bags - they don’t tell you that you can get the public water taxi for 13 Euros each (return) worth doing this as it takes you straight into San Marco and you can get it at the port. Everyone is taken off ship by 11am anyway. Excursions are extremely expensive so do your own thing - in Montenegro if you want to go to Jaz beach its 20 Euros each way in a taxi it takes about 40 mins - they want 37 Euros each for the excursion. Take a brolly as in Kotor the weather can change in an instant due to the mountains, the entrance and departure is spectacular if you’re in Athens and done the monuments etc there is an open top bus tour - which they don’t tell you about. Santorini - is by tender - the price for cable car is 4 Euros each way.

I found life onboard the Armonia for the 20 days of my cruise an excellent experience. The food was just incredible, fortunately I am able to limit my intake otherwise I would have put on loads of weight! The staff were very friendly and helpful. In fact they were more entertaining than the 'Entertainment Team'! The theatre events were well varied to cater for all tastes and the activities throughout all the cruise were very good. Although I didn't want to join in everything, it was still entertaining watching others. This was my first cruise and I found it just wonderful and would certainly take another cruise with MSC or indeed I would try any cruise line which offered the itinerary which I found attractive. Roll on the next time!

I absolutely loved the Armonia ...spotlessly clean and beautifully kept. No ghastly fluorescent upholstery and carpets ...everything was elegant. I had a fabulous week cruising the Adriatic. There is a very Italian feel obviously but this adds to the experience...great cruise line for those who want a more relaxed environment. The evening entertainment was great - very visual as they have to account for so many languages onboard. I booked two more MSC cruises after my journey on Armonia. Enjoy!

We went on our first cruise on this ship in April 2009, it departed from Venice, it is very nice, full of Italian style, the inside cabin was not very spacious but adequate, there are no hot drinks making facilities in the room, the food was good, but drinks where only free with meals and had to be paid for the rest of the time, however, I heard that this has now changed. The ship was full of Italian teenagers as the Italian government subsidise them to go on a cruise in April, we didn’t have any bother with them, but some people on our table said that they got door knocking and phone calls early hours of the morning. The beds are very hard, fortunately there was a quilted bedspread which I folded up and put on top of the mattress. Our waiter Josepie was lovely, very handsome and funny; in fact I wrote on the comments form that he should be made captain!!! The entertainment was ok, but nothing spectacular. At the end of the cruise we received a bill for about £200 for tips, we and a lot of other passengers where not happy about this, so they set up a facility for complaints to be made and we were asked what we thought would be a fair price to pay and received a new bill. Although we set sail from Venice, we didn’t get to see any of it as there was no time before the cruise and after the cruise ended there were no facilities to leave your luggage at the airport, so we asked and got a transfer to an earlier flight as there was no point hanging around an airport.

This was my first ocean cruise and I loved the Armonia! It's a little disorganised, as I guess you might expect from an Italian company, and the atmosphere is definitely very relaxed, with lots of families and children around. I think if you like your cruises formal and very structured this is probably not the ship for you, but if you want a relaxed cruise with friendly staff in a pleasant atmosphere, I would highly recommend the MSC Armonia.