MSC Poesia
This was the second time on MSC for my wife and I. A couple of years earlier we were on the MSC Opera, at that time their newest ship. They had just brought the ship over to the Caribbean and they were not experienced with the US market. They had just learned that Americans expect coffee and water 24X7 for free, but the coffee came in small plastic cups. The food at that time was really good and Italian. The entertaining was their great feature. As the announcements were done in four languages the entertainment had to be different and it was. They worked mainly with music and acrobats - but in great quality. Also they had some great line dances just before lunch at the pool area ---> so I earned my lunch. Wine was relativly reasonalble, but the jogging path was more like a joke, it was filled with lounge chairs and people. Probably Italians are not jogging. The only problem we had with the ship was that the balconies (we had booked a balcony as we were on our anniversary trip) were added later and you got wet from salt spray when the ship was on its way.
MSC had for this year some themed cruises, like Baseball, Big Band, Comedy, and a Latin Music cruise. They were at first more expensive than others, but then were offered at a great price. My wife and I decided that we liked the Latin Music cruise as we are really bad dancers and they offered free dance lessons. So we booked a balcony and got a really nice balcony and the cabin and the rest of the ship showed the nice and contemporary Italian design. I loved the dance lessons, they were like "Tango for Idiots" or "Salza for Dummies". I really love the entertaining on MSC, for me it is more like Club Med than Carnival or other cruise lines, they had 12 entertainers helping the cruise director.
I prepaid the wine package (if you buy a package of house wine it is just 10 $ a bottle) and a bar beer package at a great savings also. For the food I must say that it was no longer 100% Italian, some days yes, others not. The food was more on the level of Carnival this time. But please note, my taste might be different from yours and the chefs change on cruise ships.
Sometimes on smaller and older ships I found food that was better than expected as they jad yound agressive chefs who wanted to show what they could do. So I was twice on the Legend from Royal Caribbean, a relativly small and older ship. I had each time a different chef, one was from Switzerland, one was from Germany. In my opinion their food was only second to the Queen Mary 2, better than on the newer and larger RCL ships I have been on. One ship from Carnival, a small ship without balconies that is leaving on 4 and 5 day cruises out of Tampa is my favourite Carnival ship, it is old, but nicely redone and has an area 21 + in the back of the ship, where you can sleep or read a book and watch over the water in the back. This ship is the Carnival Inspiration. It also had the best Maitre Di, George the Greek, I found on any ship so far. I hope he is stil there. I was twice last year on the Inspiration for a weekend trip out of Tampa, the first time with the chamber of commerce and the last time just my wife and I to relax. The last time he was not on board, but stayed in Tampa for an operation in a local hospital.