REVIEWS, REVIEWS, especially from.....

[camofwilliamsburg]

Hi Tom and Gerry. Happy anniversary. Glad you had a good time. Our time was wonderful but 10 days went too fast. ( then we took another cruise on JOS after: paled in comparison to POESIA.).

 

Everything about POESIA was first class. From embarkation (fast and easy) and being escorted to our cabin( at about noon), to getting our luggage very early in the day, to being greeted by staff that remembered us from Orchestra..... each moment on board POESIA was a delight. The food was great. Each dish we tried and raved and passed around the table--then ordered more for each person. The waiter never minded and at times just knew to bring more. We had our ice tea waiting for all of us at the table. I could not find one complaint. LOVED LOVED LOVED it.

[StitchesToo]

Returned a few days ago from a 7 night Christmas cruise on the Poesia. I have previously cruised on Disney and Princess. Here are some opinions:

 

- I thought the ship was well designed and very attractive public rooms and cabins. I heard there was a waterfall, but didn't see one -- I think I saw where it would be, but they didn't have the water running.

- They really are into keeping it clean; there were people polishing and cleaning all the time - I even saw multiple workers addressing what I guess were scuff marks at the entrance to each cabin - we didn't even see anything to be addressed but they were at it for hours

- I wish they'd take some of that staff that is cleaning and have them help out in the dining rooms and buffet area. We experienced very slow service. Our main server in the dining room said he had a lot of tables to take care of. Interestingly we only had 4 people at a table for 8 so it could have been even worse for him! The food arrived okay, but getting refills on iced tea was next to impossible and getting milk with coffee (instead of creamers) took 30 minutes! The next day I warned the server right away that I would want milk with my coffee after the meal. I still had to wait.

- In the buffet area, we never had anyone bring around water or iced tea as I experienced on other cruise lines. On the other hand, there also weren't people always coming by to ask if you wanted to purchase a cocktail.

- The timing of the food service was adequate, but not as nice as the cruise lines that offer more options. At least for me.

- We missed our dinner early seating due to an excursion on one night, so we went to the buffet for dinner. I think a lot of other people had the excursion conflict too. There was only 1 buffet line open and we waited in line for literally 45 minutes!

- I wasn't impressed with the food. On the positive side, I thought the quality of the beef was better than I had on Princess. But most of the meat and chicken dishes could have used seasoning. (I don't do seafood.) I used a lot of salt, pepper and lemon to add flavor. Had pork marsala one night and the marsala sauce had very little flavor. Had spaghetti with tomato sauce as a side dish one night and it tasted like just canned tomato sauce. Also, they only had risotto one night of the six nights that I was in the dining room and it was with shrimp and tomato sauce so I didn't try it. I asked if they could do a risotto another night and was told no. (I know some people have raved about the food so I guess people have different tastes or maybe it was different sous chefs or something like that.) Oh....but I tried several vegetarian dishes that were tasty!

- The shows in the theatre were wonderful. The beginning of the show on the first night was just a silly skit from the 'entertainment crew' and at first I thought it was the show and I was scared! But the actual shows were great. I particularly liked the gymnasts and juggler (not your average juggler, this was special). Also there was an extra show one night at 10:30 or so that was a tribute to Michael Jackson. It was excellent. The crowd went crazy with it.

- They offered a nice variety of music throughout the cruise, including opera singers, rock, salsa, and a nice trio that included a pianist and violinist. There was more as well.

- We had a category 6, the cheapest balcony, on the 8th deck in the rear of the ship. There was some rumbling sounds and trembling from the engines with our cabin location. Not all the time, but some of the time. One of the ship personnel told me they have 5 engines, so maybe it depends on how many are in use. She also told me that some people complain about the sounds and trembling, but it didn't bother me. It was just like white noise to me, but just letting others know who might be more sensitive.

- I was impressed with the adequacy of drawers and closet space in our cabin. It wasn't a big cabin, but there was enough closet and drawer space to keep everything put away and organized. Ditto in the bathroom which had glass shelves and also shelves underneath the sink. The shower head controls for temperature and water flow were great. I also liked the decor and color scheme. Some of the drawers were sticky. There is a small flat screen TV and they use it to send messages and let you look at your account which was convenient. The beds were comfortable.

- We never got any towel animals or fruit in our room. Our steward asked the first day if we wanted ice and I said yes. He asked again two other times if I still needed ice every day. Both times I said yes. It made me feel a bit wierd like I was putting him out to provide ice. :confused:

- There were fewer excursion choices than I was used to from Princess cruises and you didn't find out the time of your excursion until the night before. We had one excursion get canceled due to not enough people and we found out a few days in advance and were able to arrange an alternative. Another excursion got canceled at the VERY last minute due to a technical difficulty. I assume this was with the operator. (This was the glass bottom boat in the Bahamas.)

- I found the front desk staff to be VERY nice whenever we had questions. In particular they were awesome when I had a problem with my laptop and was unable to use half of the computer time I had purchased. I asked if the money I spent towards this package could be applied in the area where they provide computers. This wasn't possible because they purchase the airtime from a different company, but the MSC associate said she'd make a note of my situation and see what they could do. I discovered when I got my account statement that they had completely removed the charge for computer time even though I had used half of the minutes.

- I was very pleased with the casino options. They have a separate room for Texas Hold'Em and use real cards and dealers. The regular casino included a craps table which you don't always see. Also a variety of slots that accepted coins (not just electronic). Although they were not loose by any means!

- There was some confusion and communication issues. We received one handout that listed the wrong port/date combinations. We received a notice one day that they would be cleaning the balconies the next day and to close your drapes if you wanted privacy.....then 3 days later I was just about to take a shower and saw a guy walk across our balcony, opening up all the connections between the balconies because they were cleaning....but we never had gotten a notice for that :eek:.

- FYI, the Le Moulin Rouge is the same thing as the Pigalle Lounge. This threw us off at first. The daily flyer was referring to things being held in the Pigalle Lounge, but the ship map handout didn't show a Pigalle Lounge; it showed Le Moulin Rouge.

- I thought the overall service was okay, but not as good as I've experienced on Princess or Disney. Two examples - a man at the buffet asked for a teaspoon for his child and was told they didn't have them. I knew they were available because I had seen someone else get one, so I said so. The staff member then went and got one for the guy. Example two - a boy who looked to be about 9 or 10 couldn't get into his room and asked a passing staff member for help. The staff member said, "It's not my area; go to the front desk." This is not meant to critique the entire staff. There were many staff members who were ABSOLUTELY wonderful!!! I just think that the service culture isn't there yet for some of the staff. One person remarked that it is as if some of the staff don't see it as 'their ship' but are just focused on their specific assigned tasks.

[mafig]

Thank you for your very helpful review!

Finally someone has given me a good description of the category 6 balcony cabins. I was wondering if it was terribly small ....it seems that if we booked one, the two of us would survive.:p Also, I read in reviews where there was a lot of vibration on Orchestra in the aft, but wondered about Poesia.....if we book, we'll make sure we're forward. Thank you!

Beverage service is not a biggie for us in the buffet, most of the time we're used to getting our own drinks.

Just an aside about getting back late to the buffet. That happened to us once on Volendam. All the tours seemed to come back around 3:15 or so and the buffet was supposed to close at 3! However, there was the Hotel Director getting the buffet back up and running, opening lines, making sure the hungry were fed:).

There were still larger than normal lines, but Holland America recognized the problem and did something about it!

Thanks again for the thoroughness of your review. It answered a lot of my questions.

:)

[charliemikeoh]

I have to second the family objection to the magician. We knew going into it that his show was based on a vampire and we simply do not "do" vampirey things. (No, we don't even have television, so my children don't see it there and they are homeschooled, so they don't read books at school either.) Haing said, that I "screened" the second half of the first show to see if it was something mild we could take the children to anyways. It did not appear to be terribly disturbing so we opted to bring the children (ages 3, 5 and 7) and stay for the second show.

Unfortunately, I missed the first half of the show, where the magician seemingly drinks a cup full of blood. We were a group of eight trapped in the middle of the row in the lower center section and could not reasonably leave without grave disruption to our fellow passengers and the performers, so we had to stay (with our hands over our children's faces at times).

This was, of course, no one's fault but my own since we did understand the premise of the show before we chose to go. But if I had it to do all over again, we would have gladly missed that one show. Too bad since the tricks were quite stunning and unique but the presentation was offensive to us. Just my two cents worth on that...

Trying to finagle another trip on 01/09/2010. Bobar and Obendus --- are you sailing that week???

[bobar]

yes that is our week...come join us....unlike when i last sailed 2 yrs ago on msc and saw nothing but bad reviews and had a great time, this time i am real encouraged that we will have an even better time as we are seeing such positive reviews.!:cool:

[obendus]

Trying to finagle another trip on 01/09/2010. Bobar and Obendus --- are you sailing that week???

 

Yes, that's our week to cruise 'MSC' style!

The reviews are mostly favorable... I can't perceive anything to be so significant as to ruin a week where one is pampered on a cruise ship.

[camofwilliamsburg]

I think the right kind of people are booking on MSC. These people are looking for something different and not a booze cruise. I am so happy to read such positive reviews. I have been cheerleading msc and others have been so negative to me. I am so happy that more and more are cruising MSC and then reporting back with positive feedback. To us, after 15 cruises, MSC is still tops in all areas. I do agree the Vampire show was a bit 'dark' and strange, but I enjoyed the illusions and took the theatrical part with a grain of salt. It was nicer than just doing the illusions. That is not msc style. This was full theater, which is MSC style. Sorry your kids were upset by it. We are adults and enjoyed it.

[obendus]

We missed our dinner early seating due to an excursion on one night, so we went to the buffet for dinner. I think a lot of other people had the excursion conflict too. There was only 1 buffet line open and we waited in line for literally 45 minutes!

That's something to keep in mind when booking excursions... our upcoming cruise (Jan 9th) has some 'exotic' port times, that may present difficulties with dining. Thank's for the 'heads-up'.

There is a small flat screen TV and they use it to send messages and let you look at your account which was convenient. The beds were comfortable.

Big pluses in my book!

 

Thanks for your review!

[Flinstones]

I prefer the ports on the Jan. 9th sailing, but the arrival times in port was the deciding factor in choosing the western itinerary. Hope I'm not sorry.

[bobar]

that's weird because we chose the 9th over the 16th because of the port times...just the way we like em

[wilson76]

Sorry guys this next paragraph is an aside. Little to do with Cruising on Poesia.

 

BigHead - You read me wrong there. Not meant to be condescending to the deck staff. My comment came simply from observation. Several attempts to communicate in english with different deck cleaning staff all failed. Not a big deal. English is one of many; no better, no worse. You mentioned cleaning linens - Staff involved in cleaning rooms have interaction with passengers and, as a result, I'm sure have multiple languages as a requisite. Every staff member we encountered in the cabins spoke some degree of english (and likely german and italian too). Why the difference? Likely the same reason MSC Poesia is registered in Panama - $$$$. I don't think it is derogitory to any individual or group to say that it is more costly to hire bilingual or trilingual people to do the same job. Is it an education issue? Only to the degree of education it requires to learn another language.

 

With respect to the magician show, anyone who has kids (and anyone who never has had kids can not conceivably have a worthy opinion on this issue) understands that censorship of what your children are exposed to is, a lot of the time, a feeling. Its not a line in the sand. There are not categories of "approved" and "censored". Scooby-doo and the Blair Witch project deal with spirits at two completely different levels, and somewhere in between most parents get uncomfortable. The only purpose for the comment was to say that my "spidey senses" started tingling in that show and we took our kids out. Period. Maybe not for others. My kids certainly didn't know why we were leaving. Its just a responsibility you feel you have to your kids.

 

Anyway. Great Cruise. Great company. Very friendly staff. I would cruise again with them in heart beat.

 

Sorry for the philisophical tangents

[palaemon]

Thank You! Thank You! I kept reading all these negative comments and I was hoping it was mostly "point-of-view" type stuff.

 

I am really looking forward to my Western Caribbean cruise 06Feb-13-feb on the Poesia.

 

I have a question about the entertainment.

 

We don't want to miss the "cirque du soliel"-type show, and we have late seating for dinner.

 

Will late seating interfere with the entertainment?

[Flinstones]

I think there are two shows every evening. If you have late seating then you should plan to attend the early show before your dinner.

[palaemon]

Thanks. I was hoping there were 2 shows.

[bobar]

yeah we get out of this miserable cold and sail in 4 days..cant wait...i will post a very honest review when i return:cool:

[TNGALOHA]

We were on the Poesia for the Christmas cruise and we had a blast.

Let me start by saying that this was an absolutely fantastic cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Our embarkation was bad only because the man we went thru to get checked in was about 80 years old and had no idea how to work a computer. I don't fault MSC for that I fault the port for that, they should put their people thru training before sending them to the trenches.

 

We renewed our vows on Dec.21st. for our 30th anniversary and it couldn't have been better.

The staff was absolutely wonderful.

 

We were told by our travel agent that we would be having an open bar with dry snacks.(ie: potato chips and pretzels). Were we ever surprised to see the "dry snacks". They were small petit fours with everything from cheese to salmon to caviar on them. They were fabulous.

The bar staff and waiters were very attentive to our every need and whim.

 

Our party planner Marianna was there for most of it and also the head of the Group Entertainment department was there also thru most of it. We were all treated like royalty all afternoon.

 

They let us come in and the grand-kids got to decorate the room before hand for the party and the staff were very gracious and helped them out. I really couldn't have asked for anything more I don't think.

 

Our cake was the Italian wedding cake and it was so good. I highly recommend it. What we didn't eat at the ceremony they brought to our tables for dinner and everyone got another piece.

To give you an idea of how far above and beyond that they went for us, we had forgotten our cake knife and server on the cake plate. When we told Marianna the next day she hunted it down had it cleaned and delivered it to our cabin that night. I was very impressed with that as I figured they were lost for good.

 

The food was absolutely fabulous and the service couldn't have been better in the dining room. We got good service for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room. We eat at the buffet a few times and absolutely loved the food. And the Midnight Magnifique Chocolate Buffet was absolutely fantastic. The sculptures were magnificent and the food was great. Yes there were many people with big huge plates of food that they left on the tables. In fact we saw 1 couple take 2 huge plates and try one thing and complain about it and left the food there. Such a waste.

 

The only other problem we had was with a few and I do mean a few very nasty and obnoxious American(yes American) passengers who felt that they were being cheated because they had to get up from their chairs and go get another drink. Most of them were so plastered they couldn't walk. Most of the time all anyone had to do in our party was wave and a bar staff was right there to take their order.

 

These same people were very noticeable around the ship. One of the men even tried to come to dinner in the dining room with his swim trunks on for the first formal night and got very nasty with the Maitre'd for not letting him in the dining room.

 

As far as the ports went we knew in advance of the times that we would be in port and were happy with that. The nice surprise was that the Captain got us into port early on almost every port so we got to have extra time in each one.

Again, in my opinion, above and beyond the call of duty.

 

As far as activities went, they had them all day long it just wasn't announced every 5 minutes what was happening. The crew treated you like grownups and if you wanted to do something it was up to you to read your daily program and figure out where it was and at what time.

 

As far as the staff being rude--I never saw that at all. One of the couples in our group was in the karaoke bar and the Captain walked thru and Tammy was in awe that he actually stopped and talked to her and her husband and had a picture taken with them.

Many of the staff on board were on the Lirica 3 years ago and on the Orchestra in Jan. when we were. It was great to see Laverne again and to think she recognized us immediately when she say us. She was kind enough to sit and talk with us for quite a long time while she was on duty. That was so special to me to think that she would do that.

 

The ship was super clean, the crew was always cleaning it. The ship was very easy to get around in and was absolutely beautifully decorated. Real marble and Real wood everywhere on the ship not the fake stuff on some ships. And the brass---OMG it was always so shiny and beautiful.

 

We had a superior balcony cabin and it was plenty big enough for the 5 of us. We always had an extra grand-baby in our room at night.

 

Yes the pools closed down about 7 pm. and yes the pool guys put towels on the chairs very early in the morning,they also let us know that if the towels were folded and the chair tops were laying on the towels that it meant you could use those chairs. They were not being saved for anyone they were just putting the towels there for your use. I thought that was a very nice touch since we usually had 6 grand-babies with us each time we went to the pool and it saved me time getting each of them a towel and then finding a chair for them to share.

 

The night shows were absolutely fantastic. We went to all of them except the Las Vegas review one. I had seen that on the Orchestra and didn't feel it was appropriate for little kids. I personally didn't see the magic show but the kids went with my husband and they just loved it. My daughter said it was a little weird and dark but that it was ok and she is even worse about censoring things for the kids then I am. They also had a Tribute to Michael Jackson show that was fabulous. It brought the house down.

 

I would highly recommend this cruise line to other people. I would however let them know that they aren't going to be pestered every 2 minutes to buy a drink and that they won't always be hearing announcements about the hairy chest competition, the belly flop competition and bingo and etc. on the intercom all day long. If this is what they cruise for then they won't like MSC but if they are cruising for a more refined, classy, and a much cleaner ship then MSC is perfect for them.

[Flinstones]

Congratulations on your 30th anniversary. A milestone. So nice to read a great review. Thanks for sharing. I'm sailing on Poesia on Jan. 14th. Wow, that's next week. Lucky me.

[rashmi2999]

We are going on Poesia Jan 23...hope they do the MJ tribute again! Thx for the great review :)

[Dryraiin]

I am wondering what cruise everyone was on that they had such a much better experience than us. I wish we were on that cruise! We did the Christmas Cruise with my husband, parents, and brother, and the price was right, and my parents had done Costa and enjoyed the Italian atmosphere, so we went for it. Embarkation was easy. The room and ship were lovely. we were a category 10 balcony-and it was very nice. The service from the room steward wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding. I didn't see my steward for the first 2 days. She did a good job, but just never introduced herself or anything like that. Overall I would say good and unobtrusive. Our dinner waiter was good, our breakfast and lunch waiters disappeared and never returned. I typically only was able to get 1 glass of water a meal. But other than that, staff everywhere was generally friendly and helpful. The biggest issues came with the food and some initial issues with the beer package we purchased. I'll start with the food. I think that we are all pretty easy to get along with in terms of food, we eat a huge variety of foods, ethic, southern, etc, and have traveled quite extensively, and we thought the food was absolutely the worse thing ever. The shrimp in the risotto were mealy. The fish and lobster all were overcooked and excessively dry. The pasta was way past al dente and was disintegrating on our plate. The spaghetti bolognase was flavorless and rubbery meat. The tuna carpaccio my mother had, had gone 'off' and was disgusting. We looked forward to getting off the boat in order to get good food. Also, there is no food between the hours of 2:30 and 6:30 (unless you had early seating), except room service, which was a complete joke for cruise room-service. 5 or 6 salads, a tuna salad sandwich (mayo and tuna on a hamburger bun) and a dry brownie. I didn't stay up for the midnight buffet so I can't speak to those. All in all, I feel like the food was just incredibly inconsistent.

 

The other thing about this cruise and cruise line that was an issue for us, was that it felt like it was excessively disorganized. We tried to purchase bottled beer packages for 4 members of our group. (great deal-$38 bucks for 14 bottles-but it turns out they have a bad selection of beer-another issue) First off-I tried e-mailing their USA customer service to get more info and they never responded. Twice. So then I called-and the woman said I had to purchase it ahead of time and couldn't get it on the boat, but that I could get the wine package on the boat. Ok. So could i purchase them over the phone or online? Of course not. I had to FAX in a form. FAX. I feel like that's completely the stone age in terms of cruise lines. Ok, so I faxed the forms. And then we discover they dont take Discover. ok. Finally got it worked out. Got our confirmations, says we will get the coupons in the cabin. Sounds good. We get on the boat and we're early-so we're assuming that they're not there yet and we'll get them later. Well, we disembarked and they never came. So I called reception-reception told me to go to any bar with my receipt and pick them up. I went to a bar-they told me no, those should have been in my room. Ok. So finally a bartender took pity on me and told me his manager was going to be there at 6pm and to come back and he would help me sort it out. So i came back at 6pm and we finally discovered that the purchased ahead coupons would be given to us by our waiter at dinner. great. Dinner is at 8, and I actually wanted a beer before dinner-but ok, I will wait. Went to dinner and met and asked our waiter-he had NO CLUE what we were talking about. Finally got the head waiter and he told us someone would be coming around eventually with our coupons and give them to us during dinner. The person came around finally-but the issue is that NO ONE knew the answer. I feel like they need to explain this whole process to their staff so that they can answer the question and not create this confusion. Another issue with these pre-purchased packages, is the wine package. On their website you can buy a dinner wine package for 10 bottles for $95 bucks for "house" wine. You apparently can't buy that on the boat (though the customer service lady on the phone said you can) and the only thing you can get is the other wine package for $150. So a significant difference for us. The head waiter could not even tell us what "house wine" coupons would be so I'm still curious what you would get if you pre-purchased that wine package.

 

So yes-a portion of our unpleasant experience is completely specific to us and things we wanted to do. But once we got the beer tickets we were happy, and put that whole incident behind us. The main issue still remains that the food was not good (at least at our table). The pool towel thing that people wrote about earlier-also a pain and my poor mother got yelled at for taking someones towel (the day that they weren't all out on the chairs). The lines for the buffet were awful-it was a poor design on the ship, so there's nothing that could be done about it now. Overall, I guess with such a good price, and kids sailing free (805 kids on the Christmas cruise) something has to give, and I think that was food quality and service.

[dancemum]

I am sorry you had such a bad experience but we loved the cruise. We found the food very good and there was a great selection. For a ship that is feeding 1000's of people I think they did a great job. We have sailed other cruise lines and found the food to be worse than on MSC. I found the buffet lines were set up the same as they are on other ships. I think the problem with the lines for the buffet was not the set up but the passengers. People would stand in front of items debating and having conversations on what it was and did they want anything. Move on. We ate in the restaurant for breakfast and lunch a couple of times. Yes it is slower paced there but that is how it is in Europe. They sit down and enjoy their meals with family. They dont eat on the run and rush off. Remember this is a Italian ship. You are on vacation relax and enjoy it.

 

We ordered the wine package with dinner and did not get disappointed. We had a selection of at least 6 red and 6 white wines every night to choose from and they were all quality wines from either Italy or California. No 'house wines' in the lot.

 

We did not buy the beer package but when you can order a bucket of 4 beers (with many choices) for under $12 I dont think you can complain. Other cruise lines charge alot more for the same thing.

 

Personally I do not need to have food 24 hours a day so I did not find a problem with not being able to eat in the afternoon. I have a teenage son and he did not complain once that he was hungry or looking for food. Both my teenage kids found plenty to eat and we all loved the food.

 

I also think you will find that if you go on a cruise at Christmas time on any ship there will be alot of kids. It is the time for families to be together and the kids are off school. If you want a cruise without kids then go when they are in school. Complaining about the number of kids on a cruise is crazy. On the whole I did not find the number of kids overwhelming and for the most part (not all of them) they were well behaved.

 

I really enjoyed my cruise. It was the most relaxing vacation I have had in a long time. I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the ship. I am glad no one was asking me constantly to buy a drink in a coconut (they dont have coconut drinks) and I am glad there were no loud obnoxious games going on. My kids, husband and myself have all cruised before with different lines and found this the best cruise we have been on. Any cruise line that can make teenagers and parents happy is a good cruise line for me.

[charliemikeoh]

As promised, I finished and posted my very-detailed review of our awesome experience on the Poesia (12/10/2009-12/20/2009). I'm posting the link here rather than the full text because it is so thorough. Thankfully, we were on the week before --- is the "805" kids number accurate for the Christmas cruise, or was that an over-exaggeration?!?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=61254

---Chris

[TNGALOHA]

As promised, I finished and posted my very-detailed review of our awesome experience on the Poesia (12/10/2009-12/20/2009). I'm posting the link here rather than the full text because it is so thorough. Thankfully, we were on the week before --- is the "805" kids number accurate for the Christmas cruise, or was that an over-exaggeration?!?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=61254

---Chris

 

I would say that was pretty accurate. Matteo Mancini, the head of the Kids club said that there were 800+ kids on the ship. (17 and under). The nice thing was that you weren't overrun by kids all the time. I have been more overwhelmed by kids on ships when there were only a couple hundred onboard.

[dancemum]

As promised, I finished and posted my very-detailed review of our awesome experience on the Poesia (12/10/2009-12/20/2009). I'm posting the link here rather than the full text because it is so thorough. Thankfully, we were on the week before --- is the "805" kids number accurate for the Christmas cruise, or was that an over-exaggeration?!?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=61254

---Chris

Thanks for the amazing review and I agree with you completely. We were on the Christmas cruise and enjoyed it completely. We have sailed on other lines and now consider MSC our favourite. We are hoping to sail with them again next year and hopefully bringing friends along for the great experience. I have said it before on other posts but this line is all about elegance and class.

[Capricruiser]

Charliemikeoh, you wrote an excellent and comphrehensive review. Thanks so much. I also appreciated your comments regarding the hard work performed by the crew members. We don't thank them enough for all they do to make our cruises what we're hoping for. I'll be on the Poesia in June for its cruise from Kiel to Iceland and now am really looking forward to a great ship.

[obendus]

As promised, I finished and posted my very-detailed review of our awesome experience on the Poesia (12/10/2009-12/20/2009). I'm posting the link here rather than the full text because it is so thorough. Thankfully, we were on the week before --- is the "805" kids number accurate for the Christmas cruise, or was that an over-exaggeration?!?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=61254

---Chris

 

Wow! Great review... well thought out and written.

Thank-you.