A fascinating discussion, thanks to all the contributors. I read it because I have sailed on Cunard, Royal Caribbean and MSC, each twice, but I have the Costa Favolosa Brazil-Barcelona repo cruise, mentioned above, coming up in just over two weeks. For reference, I am English but have also lived in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey - I am fairly international!
I did two classic trans-Atlantics, Southhampton - New York, on the QE2 and QM2. My take-home from those is that Cunard is a US-idea of what a British cruise line should be but I found it shockingly American - and not what I expected at all. I had to use US-English to communicate the simplest things to the staff and the menus were the classic things that Americans expect on a cruise. I felt like a fish out of water.
Which brings me to Royal Caribbean. I knew to expect a US cruise experience and that is what I got in heaps. What I did not expect was the endless hard-sell and up-sell every moment of the day. I spoke to an English lady who said it was her 60th cruise with RCI and asked her how she coped with the endless sales pressure. She replied to say that she was now immune to it - 'desensitised'. How awful!
MSC, I found both amusing and chaotic because of the mix of cultures of the guests. There was not a day that went by without incident due to cultures not understanding each other. I loved MSC's pizzas freshly made all day outside the buffet, just like those I had when I lived in Italy - so I will miss those on Costa. What I didn't like on MSC was, when going to the MDR for breakfast or lunch, being forced to sit with strangers in the order you arrived. If I asked for a table for 2, we were told to stand aside and wait - often for a long time. We preferred the buffet for this reason in the end.
I will be taking my elderly mother on the Costa Favolosa. She has very high standards from her younger days when she worked in a very expensive restaurant. She will like the Italian theme but she won't tolerate tepid food on cold plates. They will be sent back. I fear for this.
Neither of us have enjoyed any of the shows on any of the ships we have been on. We do however enjoy live music of practically any type, so I am hoping there will be some good live music on the Favolosa as an alternative to the show.
We have separate 'inside guarantee' cabins (not yet allocated) therefore I can book a drinks package for myself but I doubt it would be worth it for her. However, nowhere can I find Costa's current drinks prices for wine in order to compare. Nor can I find the minibar prices.
Hoping there are contributors to help us before our first Costa cruise. I should be able to add my own lines to this thread after it.