Mediterranean Holy Land, 17th September 2012

My friend and I have just returned from a very enjoyable cruise in the MSC Poesia. The ship is beautiful, very clean and very quiet. Could not fault the cabin and cleaning staff. The food was very good and a great improvement on our last trip with MSC. The pool area was lovely if a little noisy at times. Evening entertainment was generally good but entertainment in some of the public areas could have been better. The inclusion of Opera singers was a great hit with everyone and added a lot to the enjoyment. Organisation was extremely good with no hiccups on embarkation or dis-embarcation. On the downside though, some of the additional charges on board were unacceptable. A 12 dollar a day added for service was cancelled by many of the cruisers we spoke to, who wanted to tip personnel themselves although we were told it was against company policy to do this. Also the 15% surcharge on already expensive drinks in the bars was excessive. The biggest problem we had though was in receiving no information atall about ports we were visiting. There were no maps and no information regarding transfer costs from the port. On two occasions we used a shuttle bus provided by MSC but found it took us literally from one side of the port to the other and we still had a fair distance to go to reach the places of interest. The journey time was 5 minutes and we were charged 11 dollars, the flyer had said it was a twenty minute journey. These little things caused a lot of comment amongst everyone on board and spoilt the mood somewhat. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday but I felt that it did not have such a friendly feel as some others I have been on. They do offer good value for money and obviously have to make it up in other ways. It has not put me off travelling with them again.