Back from Musica and Poesia

[canadafamily]

We are a party of 4 from Canada that traveled on back to back cruises first on the Poesia and spent one night in Venice then sailed on the Musica. The comments below are to provide some insight on what well seasoned North American travelers feel about the cruises.

 

Check In - On both cruises, the check-ins were well done with minimum delay. Outside of being pestered by the usual photographers, which we politely declined, we were on the ship in no time. No complaints here.

 

Rooms - We had a balcony room, more towards the front of the ship, and felt little motion or noise. The room are small, but despite having clothes for 17 days on board, we had absolutely no problem accommodating our stuff. The luggage bags fit under the bed so that saves a lot of room. There are plenty of drawers and lots of room in the bathroom. The bathroom itself is small, with a shower, which is standard with most cruise rooms unless you move up to a suite. The balcony was glorious and we used it every day. When the pool area was too hot or noisy or crowded, we just headed for our room. It was nice to have that option. They were able to open up the balcony divider between the 2 rooms so we could enjoy the view with our friends.

 

Excursions - We arranged a private guide, George Leitosis, in Katakolon as per good reviews on CC and he was very informative and we spent, in fact, 2 days with him since we had the Katakolon stop on the 2 crusies. We went to Olympia, the museum, a winery and over to his house to pick oranges from his tree. We took the ship's tours in Athens, Corfu, Istanbul, Izmir, Matera, Alberobello and Santorini. We enjoyed all tours, some more than others. The only one we were disappointed in was Istanbul. The mosque and museum are so close together that you can take a taxi on your own and do it yourself. They loaded the day with a carpet demonstation, jewelery demonstration then to a shopping area. We did not want to spend more than half the day shopping and that is what happened. Dubrovnik can be done on your own. Take a private taxi to the gate (10E) and walk the wall (15E). One of the best days we had. If you like ruins, do not miss Ephesus, Matera and Olympia.

 

Staff - We cannot say enough about our waiters. They were attentive, helpful and courteous. Our cabin stewart on the Poesia was more attentive than the one on the Musica, but there were no real great concerns. The waiters in the breakfast and lunch dining rooms were not as friendly, but we had not problems getting our needs met.

 

Food - This seems to be the area that most people are concerned with. In general, I would not say that it was a 5* hotel, but we loved the food. I don't understand why people say that the food was the same at the buffets every day??? In fact, they offered the same salad bar fixings, stews, rice, hambugers (I would never try these on a cruise). If you look beyond the typical North Amercian cuisine, we tasted delicious fish, octopus, procuitto, melons, stews, swiss chard, paella. I think that you get the picture that the food is indeed international and caters to more adventerous diners. We marvelled at the variety and choice of the food and if we didn't care for something, we just went up and got something else. As I said, we never tried the hot dogs/hamburgers/pancakes type of food. Breakfast consisted of lots of fruit, a delicious museli cereal, a hard roll and some ham and cheese. We never tired of it the whole week. We never tried the eggs and if you are looking for an IHOP's type of breakfast, this is not the place to come. The ice cream at dinner was delicious.

 

The joy of the ship, for us, was embracing the other cultures and finding joy and humour in the other passengers. The Poesia was more international and we never felt at odds with the langauge barrier. The Musica was a little more English and for that reason, we liked the Poesia better. We tried Bingo once, but having the numbers called out in 5 langauges was just too much!

We went to the shows every night and thought that the Poesia shows were better. We did not stay up late as we were in port early every day and we were up very early some mornings. We heard from others that the discos and bars were hopping to all hours of the morning. We had no diffiuclty getting off the ship on port days and found the disembarkation one of the best we had. We were on the RCC last fall and it was the worst I have ever seen.

 

In general, if you are looking for a sanitized, North American cruise with 5* dining and English spoken on the ship, this is not the cruise for you. If on the other hand, want to expand your horizons, eat very different and international food, visit excellent ports of call, enjoy learning more about other people and cultures, this is the cruise for you. We read the terrible reviews on CC and were hestitant to book, but on reflection, we had a fabulous time and are glad we made this choice.

[Gilllizzie]

The joy of the ship, for us, was embracing the other cultures and finding joy and humour in the other passengers.

In general, if you are looking for a sanitized, North American cruise with 5* dining and English spoken on the ship, this is not the cruise for you.

 

Thanks for a great review. We are booked on the Poesia's Christmas Cruise, and have been a little troubled by some of the reviews we have read, but reading this has meant I look forward all the more to my holiday.

[cruising babe]

At last a positive post about the Musica - I was getting a little anxious with the number of recent negative posts. We are due to go on the Trans Atlantic cruise in November and even though we have cruised with MSC previously on the Opera and Lirica I was beginning to wonder if standards had slipped or that the Musica was a duff ship! Thank you for your review it has eased my mind and your thoughts and comments express exactly how we felt about our previous experiences with MSC.

[Sharonmunich]

Thank you for your positive posting. I, too, am sailing on the Musica in November and am looking forward to it, especially after reading your review. Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise.

[Seago2]

Thanks for your review! Glad you had a good time. I mloved my Lirica cruise, too.

 

Just want to say that I love eating "puckburgers" on cruises. They are what they are, I yam what I yam, and I loooooove 'em.

[sea-explorer]

Glad you had a good time. :)

 

Daft question for you, which won't really solve anything apart from my curiosity.. (and perhaps that of a few others)..when you were on the Poesia, were you limited at all in the amount of food courses you could have?

 

When I sailed on her last month, I tried to order the full regional menu, but was told I couldn't!!! There were too many courses. (There were 5 including the sweet.) I was told I could only choose three from starter, soup, salad, pasta/risotto and main. Did you encounter this at all? I'm unsure if this was the Ship's policy (I didn't encounter this when I was on the Lirica) or just our waiter.

 

Thanks.

[canadafamily]

On the Poesia, there was absolutely no restrictions on what and how much you ate. In fact, we were offered more than one entree. The waiters were helpful, courteous and in fact, a lot of fun. We found after a few days, we limited the number of courses as we just couldn't eat that much!

[cabrfam]

Thank you so much for your review. My DH and I are 10 days away from our Med. cruise on Poesia and from all the bad reviews you'd think this was the worst decision of our lives. We are of the frame of mind, like yourselves, that you go for the experience and not just one thing. If we wanted to eat out of this world food and get catered to hand and foot, then we would have paid for that on a luxury line. We chose MSC for the itinerary and not it's extra's on board. I really am confident that we will have a good time, as this is our 10 year anniversary gift to ourselves. :D

[sea-explorer]

Thank you canadafamily. I had started to suspect it was just our waiter. At least I can chalk it up to experience & will know for another time, and maybe it will put some other posters minds at rest. :)

 

cabrfam...enjoy your cruise. :)

[vjmatty]

The joy of the ship, for us, was embracing the other cultures and finding joy and humour in the other passengers.

In general, if you are looking for a sanitized, North American cruise with 5* dining and English spoken on the ship, this is not the cruise for you.

 

Thanks for a great review. We are booked on the Poesia's Christmas Cruise, and have been a little troubled by some of the reviews we have read, but reading this has meant I look forward all the more to my holiday.

 

We are on the Poesia for Christmas this year also.. you should join our Roll Call :cool:

[JUKSINKENT]

Having finally managed to twist my husband's arm in regard to cruising, and having read some adverse comments about our chosen ship, the Poesia, I was understandably somewhat nervous when the day of embarcation arrived. I hadn't cruised for some 20 years and as he was a first-timer I was very anxious that he enjoy the experience. Thankfully my fears were totally unfounded, and I am somewhat perturbed that this wonderful ship had been bad-mouthed previously. Admittedly, although the embarcation process was very smooth we did experience a bit of a snafu in that one of our suitcases went missing for a few hours and was delivered late to our cabin.

 

After that it was smooth sailing all the way, the service and the food could not have been bettered. The ship is very beautiful, very stable, and the cabin could not have been more comfortable, once we got used to ducking past the upper bunks. The sound insulation is excellent and we never heard any noise from neighbours or from the corridor.

 

We had opted for first sitting and were placed with very congenial English-speaking table companions with whom we also socialised in the evenings in the wine bar which provided an excellent Jazz quartet (our special love). The drinks service there was first-class. The wine package at the table which we had paid for before departure was excellent too and well priced.

 

We went once to the theatre, but were not interested in the other entertainments offered. We did not do any of the late-night things as it was hard enough to get up each day to enjoy the new places on the itinerary. At all of the stops we did our own thing, taking local taxis to get to the main interest spots. Our companions who did organised tours complained of being rushed.

 

It all went so quickly and we would have liked more time at sea, so next time we will make sure of that. As it was we had very little time out on deck. One niggle was that as non-smokers we had to dodge the smokers on the decks, and we found it hard to escape. The majority of the passengers were Italian and the noise level on deck and in the self-service restaurant could be quite high especially because the children were on holiday and there were plently of them. The only one unpleasantness was when I got told off by the deckchair steward for touching the stack of chairs - he needs to go to Customer Service School.

 

I would recommend not using the self-service for breakfast and lunch even though the waiter service in the alternative restaurant makes the meal that much longer. Lunch especially was a bun-fight but that may have been due to the number of children on board. Teatime was impossible. Although the ship is so big and there were a lot of people on board, it never seemd crowded, except at lunch time in the self-service restaurant. The ship is kept spotlessly clean, and we have the highest praise for the serving staff.

 

It was a memorable trip and a holiday to remember. Sailing out of Venice on a beautiful ship on a golden autumn afternoon is something not to be missed.

[JUKSINKENT]

See above

[AmoMondo]

Thanks Juksinkent. So glad to hear you both had such a wonderful experience and I know exactly what you mean about sailing out of venice - it is truly memorable. I must say that everything you describe is the same of my experience on msc's smaller and older ships the Opera and Lirica. i have been thinking about trying one of the newer larger ships buit with a lot of the adverse comments was coming to the conclusion that there must be specific issues MSC have with the bigger ships that they don't have with their smaller ones, otherwise I just could not understand how some of the psoters were describing the same cruise line that I've nejoyed so much over the past 3 years. After reading your comments, I'm reconsidering my view on the larger ships as it sounds like i can basically expect the same as what I'm used to

[aussie_aussie_aussie]

We are also travelling on the Poesia for Christmas, and had become worried about the number of negative reviews. We certainly are excited to read such wonderful reviews and are now reassured we made the right choice when booking with MSC. We look forward to posting similar reveiws when we get back to Australia. Happy Cruising to you all.

[Rustee]

Being also from Australia we are currenty in Venice departing tomorrow 15th for 12 days on the Poesia.

Having read the various reviews both positive and negative we are looking forward to tomorow and the

11 days following with nothing but positive thoughts. Upon our return aussie aussie aussie we can give you

an Australians point of view of the ship and cruise. Today Saint Marco square was flooded we walked

around the square on boards and loved every minute of it. Enjoy your cruise.

[NHBob]

In general, if you are looking for a sanitized, North American cruise with 5* dining and English spoken on the ship, this is not the cruise for you. If on the other hand, want to expand your horizons, eat very different and international food, visit excellent ports of call, enjoy learning more about other people and cultures, this is the cruise for you. We read the terrible reviews on CC and were hesitant to book, but on reflection, we had a fabulous time and are glad we made this choice.

 

As I prepare for my first MSC experience (Lirica, 12/3 Deep Caribbean, Big Band), I'm pleased to see this and other positive comments on this thread, after reading so many negative ones. I suspected that the above quote might be the case, but then I'm biased, having enjoyed living in Italy for a short period and visiting many times. I'm really looking forward to and hoping for some authentic Italian regional cooking, as opposed to what passes for Italian here in the US at chains like Olive Garden and Uno.

 

At this point, my only reservation about MSC is their trend, like other lines, toward ever-bigger ships, as Lirica and Opera are about my upper tonnage limits. This is one reason why so many of my recent cruises have been on Crystal's smaller ships.

 

I'll try to post an objective review in early '09.

[nouveaunail]

just told by my agent to view this site......not really familiar with the jargon....what is roll call......and how do you view it? My husband, and 2 kids, ages 10 and 5, as well as myself....will also be on the christmas cruise in Italy....the reviews are great to go through....and i am not worried 1 bit about how great it will be.......thanks, paige

[kikibazz]

The wine package at the table which we had paid for before departure was excellent too and well priced.

 

Thanks for your review. I am sailing on the Poesia next month. I was just wondering if you could give any more infromation about their wine packages?

[sea-explorer]

just told by my agent to view this site......not really familiar with the jargon....what is roll call......and how do you view it? My husband, and 2 kids, ages 10 and 5, as well as myself....will also be on the christmas cruise in Italy....the reviews are great to go through....and i am not worried 1 bit about how great it will be.......thanks, paige

 

A roll call is where people on the same cruise gather together to chat & share ideas etc. The MSC roll calls are here:

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=524

 

(They can be accessed from the forums main menu page.)

 

Thanks for your review. I am sailing on the Poesia next month. I was just wondering if you could give any more infromation about their wine packages?

 

A poster did provide some information on this a little while ago, here, if this helps. :)

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=852175