I would agree with most everyone that this was a clean ship. Vacuuming halls, polishing hand rails, room attention was all excellent. I did see food spilled around the buffet area under tables where people sat but the buffet lines were clean and well maintained. One trick we realized is that when it is nearing time for the eating to end (during buffet times), the stewards will stop bussing the table and leave you with your dirty plates. You are not forced to leave, just forced to stay with your mess.

The food was pretty good, however, some of the pasta dishes and soups were very salty. Dinner portions somewhat small but we never left the sitdown dinner time hungry. Baked Alaska was wonderful.

Food lines in the buffet were non existant, instead replaced with people trying to squeeze in and figure out where to start. It was not well organized, although there were four separate places to get "started" on the food lines. Salads were plenty as were choices of entrees and burgers and the like. Chefs were visible during these times, urging us to try their pastas and spaghetti meals.

The purser staff was not very friendly. A few went out of their way to help - one Italian man at the pursers desk was kind and actually smiled. The others were snobby and acted like they could care less if you were helped. I asked for $20 in ones to use for tips for servers and porters. I was told NO. In some sort of broken English, they could not oblige me (a woman). One of the men behind the counter was counting a stack of probably 50 ones and when I pointed it out, they suddenly could not understand me or thought I was speaking alien.
I asked one of the men in our party to see if he could get some $1 dollar bills. He came back and was able to get ten for me. This was within a few minutes time.

Trying to get information was not easy. One of the room sheets said that liquor bought on board would be delivered to your room the night before disembarkation. However, the receipt shows it must be picked up at the duty free shop.

The entertainment staff was fairly friendly and urged passengers to get involved. Some of the games were meant to be fun but wondered if it was embarrasing for the participants. Silly hats and the like to answer trivia questions or song titles. I won and did wear what I believe was a sun hat. The extravaganza shows in the evening were entertaining and lasted less than an hour. I figure this was to allow more time for us to buy expensive drinks.

Our room staff person was NOT friendly and never smiled. He introduced himself on the first day and that was about it. He filled our ice bucket and did not leave clean glasses but did take out dirty ones. So had to order glasses and was brought juice sized glasses. We did not use the mini bar but had a $9 charge on my bill. I went to the pursers and asked to wait while they checked into it -ten minutes. After 15 I gave up. He said there was a receipt and if I had taken it- there would be a signature. I saw the ticket and he said it was done at 6:30 pm. I said, that could not have been me since at 6:30 I was getting a hair cut. It was taken off the bill finally.

The beauty shop was nice but when I went to make an appointment, they don't tell you the extra charges there would be. It looks like $30 for a haircut. But it was $30 and $37 for styling. The shampoo lady asked if I wanted conditioner. I said sure. Little did I know that it would cost $5 extra. Somewhat a waste since the following day I was going to snorkel. But she did give a good head massage worth $5. They were all very friendly although English hard to understand.

To use the spa facilities (sauna etc) an appointment is necessary. The exercise room had great equipment and was used by many - free.

Not sure if I would sail on this cruise line again. There are way too many choices and Carnival has been at my home port for years and I've traveled on them twice and always pleased.

A tip charge of $84 was put on our bill automatically. It did not say who got it.

I would suggest that they have English speaking people make the announcements, Spanish make the Spanish, etc. It was hard to understand announcements of the words from the Italian woman speaking English.

Do not cruise with MSC if you are American and are use to Carnival, etc. You will want to throw yourself overboard after the first day. The staff sucks. The food sucks. The entertainment is a joke. People working cruise are idoits and rude people. Nothing to do during days at sea. No organization for anything and when it appears organized, it takes only minutes to fall apart. Very difficult to get water and tea. You have to pay for everything. Get use to having no cups or glasses for even water because they can't get clean ones out fast enough. Only two drink machines and 2 ice makers on the ship so figure on long lines and no ice. Stay away. Spend your money on Carnival or other major lines. This one is no good.

Ship very impressive and luxurious. Spotlessly clean at all times. Cabin staff helpful, and efficient. Cabins imaculate. There it ends. Fabulous theatre greatly under used. We saw only three decent shows in the 17 Nights. Entertainement, would be better compared to Butlins. Entertainment team treated passengers as if they were imbeciles. The officers around the ship and assisting with getting on and off at the ports were extremely rude and unhelpful. As for the food it was appalling. Customer Contact Manager admitted it was the cheapest food they could buy as it reflected the price you paid for the cruise. Could be described as basic 'pig swill'. Lots of passengers had gastric problems throughout their holiday. However Four Seasons and Chinese Restaurant food was high quality, beautifully presented, but full prices had to be paid. No supplements were given for not being able to eat food provided in cruise price. Serious Health and Safety issue with deck chairs on sunbathing deck. As usual all chairs and relaxing areas were taken up by the well known nationalities that do not pay attention to signs saying Do not Reserve Sun Beds. It is a great pity this fabulous ship, does have the professional staff required to pay attention to detail instead of accountants screwing the customer for every single penny. Bottle of water in cabin $4.50 per single bottle. Disembarkation was an absolute and utter nightmare, we have not spoken to one other person that would travel with MSC again after their experiences from 16th December 08 to 2nd Jan 2009

This is in many ways an excellent vessel.Very well ventilated but mamy passengers developed head and chest colds.On other cruise lines we have used there are dispensers offering antiseptic type creams with staff showing you when and where to use them.These seemed very limited ,unfilled and unused.Theree was also a general lack of litter bins.The seemed to appear in large numbers just before an inspection of the ship by the US health authourities as it was its first time in American waters.
We travelled on it from Genoa to Fort Lauderdale over Christmas and New Year.We don't know what happened to Christmas Day although there were a few trees place on strategic places there were no Christmas festivities as we know them-no turkeys,mince pies,crackers and paper hats.
The ship's food was like the "curate's egg" some good some not so good.
We generally ate breakfast on the buffet deck where the food was fairly bland but plentiful.There was certainly no need to go hungry.
The ship's staff were fairly friendly and obliging but in most cases very inexperienced.We were told that many of the staff had been transferred to another MSc vessel that was being launched that week.
The food in the restaurant where we dined in the evening was usually well presented but often cold when it should have been hot but we had a good pair of waiters at our table who worked their socks off to keep us happy as did Luis Lobato the senior Waiter or Maitre 'D. Exras which we usually found free on other cuises ,like ice cream,were charged for.
Ship staff seemed to be inexperienced and were frequently unable to assist guests with their enquiries often they too seemed frustrated and the accounts department did not seem to know what day of the week it was let alone how many days there were in a week.
The on board entainment was juvenile and would not be rated in any youth club.Adult males dressed as women with balloons for boobs going around assaulting the passengers in a sexual manner is not my idea of an evening's entertainment.I understand the Director of Entainment arrived at the same time as we did and openly and publicly admitted he did not know how things were done.There was talent but not used to the best advantage.Generally there was a show on each evening lasting about 30-40 minutes.Classical music,piano concert,opera,acrobatics.The ship's crew was multi national as were the guests and all on board announcents were given out in six different languages boring to say the least.We think that by New Years Eve some one on high got the message and a party was arranged on top deck with free"champagne" but such were the numbers up there that there was insufficient seating room.The entertainment was a disco and there was an abundance of funny hats and whistles.
Getting off the boat was a nightmare.We were asked to vacate our cabins by 7 am but it was 11.30 am before we started our crawl to the deck.
We had an overnight stop in Miami and the hotel booked by MSC had seemed many better days.We arrived on the coach at 12.55 pm and were finally allocatted a room at 4.35 after rejecting our first room which was already occupied.We know it is not customary to have breakfasts in the US hotels but on this occasion a "breakfast" of frozen muffins and coffee were on offer between 8 and 9 am. "FAWLTY TOWERS"had nothing on it.
One explanation was "you get what you pay for".Another was this was the first time the MSc had done the route Genoa to Fort Lauderdale.
However whatever the reasons we doubt if we and many other passengers will be using MSC in the future.

We would like to say how much we enjoyed our cruise on theMSC ORCHESTRA we have cruised about twelve times including the QE2 but this was the cleanest ship we have been on. The staff were very obliging and courteous we had some first class attention from the medical staff when my wife had an accident on the sun deck without charge.We enjoyed the evening shows even though they were very short.We have had better food but we have had worse [a lot]. Considering what we paid for this cruise Ithink it was great value for money I hope msc come up with the same next christmas

Just returned from first ever cruise with MSC Orchestra having gone with a group of 10 family friends. The ship itself is beautiful...........very very clean and the staff are forever cleaning throughout the day. Cabins too were of an excellent standard. Did not use the same towel twice as rooms were cleaned morning and evening. My family and I tended to use the restaurant for breakfast too as the buffet area was usually like a circus and chaotic with people piling food on their plate like there was no tommorow. We had lunch in the restaurant too and again much quieter and civilised as opposed to the buffet lunch which was too loud and jam packed.
Being an Italian ship with predominantly Italians on board i cant say that i encountered any rude behaviour although i did find they were obnoxious, demeaning and very rude to the waiters who tried their best. Our waiter (Indonese) was very polite, patient and could do little wrong. The dinner was excellent too. It was nice to have a formal sit down meal every evening and thank goodness we had the seating at 7.00pm!It would be death by food to eat from 9.30pm onwards which is the second seating given the amount of courses on offer!! Being vegetarians there was always something to eat but I do think they could improve to give more variety.
I did feel that from the minute you got on the ship they wanted you to spend your money especially with nil drinks being included.........the only free drinks were tea/coffee (breakfast and 4.00pm only) and water at lunchtime. I thought it was outrageous that tea/coffee was not free throughout the day. The very least they could have done was provided a complimentary bottle of water in the cabin on the first day but even that was chargeable!photographers were always in your face but saying that you got used used to it and it was good fun seeing the results in the photoshop!!!!didnt buy any though as at 19 euros didnt think it was worth it.
Do not go on the excursions...........complete waste of time and money........my sis and I went to Pompei in naples and it was a fat waste of time........we were clockwatching within an hour.so boring. best to site see yourself and get taxis as much cheaper.
Entertainment was good in the theatre each evening but got boring at times.
They do make you suffer on the day you leave as you have to vacate cabins by 7.30am and dont leave the ship until 10.00am which is extremely tiring.
The destinations, Naples (v dull), Sicily (v dissapointing), Tunis (good shopping in the Madina) Palma, barcelona and Marseilles were beautiful out of the 6.
On the whole........this was our first cruise experience and cant really fault it with the exceptions of the above.

We booked the cruise but could not be supplied witha direct flight to Genoa. We agreed to a flight to Nice with a MSC transfer to the port in Genoa, the flight was with BA and had 60 people on board. After waiting at Nice airport for some time we phoned the company providing the transfer to be assured that we would be collected shortly. After another wait we attempted to re - contact the company but noone answered the phone and it did not connect to answer machine.We remained in the departure hall as we had been instructed to do and checked not only each representative but passengers luggage for a MSC label.
Eventually we did manage to contact the transfer company who stated we had missed the coach that had picked up other passengers from various flights BUT at terminal two. We had landed at terminal ONE. We were running out of time as the ship sailed at 16:30.
We were told to get a taxi and argue who pays for the taxi later. This was the only option open to us but the taxi needed to be paid in cash and the fare was 550 euros. Fortunatley we did have the cash but it was a very unusual that we would carry this amount.
We arrived at 1600pm and just made it onto the ship - so stressed!!
We went to the reception/information desk which is manned by Italian crew members. I have never met such aggressive,rude,ignorant people . Instead of being,apologetic or sympathetic to our plight that was no fault of our own. One male receptionist even insinuated that we were attempting to obtain payment dishonestly.
We contacted the London agent on the Monday and the Head Office in Naples fully refunded the taxi cost within 24 hrs.

However, we did enjoy the cruise and I would say that all the none Italian staff we really great.

I would give the shopping trip in Tunis a miss as it was an organised Rip off.

Okay, were do I start.You will have read the previous reviews so you probably know what we are going to say.Cruised with Princess last year, FANTASTIC! Thought we would try the Med with MSC.As the kids went free (had to pay for flights though) we gave it a go. Got to Genoa,usual airport chaos nothing different there.Got to port, bit of a dump.Saw the ship she is without doubt beautiful.Thought ;this looks good'. Entered the terminal, again things lwent smooth enough.As we walked through there were people lining the way with different drinks packages etc. Bough two soft drinks packages for the kids 56 Euros, consisted of a book with ten tickets each. One thing, any and every opportunity a photographer was in your face. Got on board, cabin staff from Bali and Indonesia area all very pleasant.Cabin spotless no complaints there.THEN, it goes down hill FAST!! Our kids are 16 and 14, they are very easily pleased but MSC managed to fail in the entertainment department on every level. No activities for them even though they did advertise a teenagers club no one from the staff ever turned up. The food. Buffet very reasonable a wide range of food to suit every taste.However evening meals, dreadful and very little of it. Buffet closed in evening so only other alternative was to pay in one of the two restaurants. Basically if they could charger you for anything then they would. Coffee served at breakfast but thats it, you have to pay the rest of the time. All in all very very poor.
Now lets talk about the Italians, if I ever meet another one it would be too soon.Their behaviour was shameful. Loud, rude, brash and no manners in any way whatsoever.We met a dutch couple who echoed our views. The 'I ties' will not queue for anything and are quite happy to barge their way to the front. We visited 6 places in all. Here are the places to avoid if you choose to gamble on MSC and it is a gamble. Dont go to Naples DUMP, dont go to Tunis, even bigger DUMP. Palermo very nice, Palma very nice, Barca very nice, Marseille beautiful.So all in all very disappointing and then when we got off you are literally dumped onto the quay and left to your own devices. WE WILL NEVER EVER SET FOOT IN THAT COUNTRY AGAIN.My advice to anyone considering a cruise, stick with the big three PRINCESS, ROYAL CARRIBEAN OR P AND O. Believe me you will not be disappointed. One last point, due to the dreadful time we had we asked for the service charge to be removed and the staff at the accounts desk 'ARGUED WITH US!!!Asking us WHY! WHY! Anyway said enough I think people can see we are soemwhat annoyed.

The ship was beautiful. We had a three hour wait to get on. The food was not good and the staff was not friendly or helpful. They could not understand you. They ad no activities while in port. We know they close down the stores and casino but in port they shut everything down. They had no decaf coffee except instant. The buffet closed in the PM . No free icecream. They never did the lifeboat drill until next morning than after everyone went to eat breakfast. What a disater!! Your cabin key had your number on it,if anyone got a hold of it they could get in your room. We missed the show the last night because we never got our food until 10;30PM.We truly wanted to go on this ship in April with a group but I can't recomend it. I hope it gets it act together because we would really like to go on it the future.

Just returned from a very disapponiting Christmas Cruise on the Orchestra. Our expectations were high as we had only ever cruised on Thomson cruise ships previously. The ship itself is luxurious but the lustre soon dimmed.

The food in the restaurant was of poor quality, rarely hot, poorly presented and very disapponting. The cafeteria was quite good but this was not available in the evenings only the fixed sitting restaurants.

I was concerned about the lack of hand gel available to passengers when entering the restaurants and cafeterias. There was more than one entrance but the gel was not available at all but then even when it was most people did not use it. Similarly on entrance to the ship it was often not avaialble and again not many people seemed to use it - a Novo Virus waiting to happen. I must add that I was amazed at the number of people who left the ladies toilet without washing their hands - there were actually signs in the loos advising you to use a paper towel to open the door!

The entertainment was very poor in my opinion as it was very repetative with a 30 minute show in the theatre each evening and while this was professionally done it was similar each night - acrobatics, dancing and magic. There were some classical shows which we enjoyed and music around the bars but again repetative.

There were a group of entertainers who thoroughly enjoyed themselves but the so called passenger games were so bad and embarrassing for participants and those watching although there was no shortage of eager participants from the Italian and German passengers - it was just the same people every night.

There was little or no entertainment during the day.

Service was poor and the crew and waiters were mainly Croation and lacked the lovely friendly approach that we have enjoyed in the past from the Phillipino crew on Thompson ships.

We had a lovely cabin with a Balcony and spent more time there than we would have wished as there was virtually no entertainment during the day even when we were at sea.

Smoking areas posed another problem in that the lounge where we had to gather for lifeboat drill was all smoking so people sat there in their life jackets smoking. I am not prepared to be exposed to passive smoking any more so this compulsory exercise was not located in the right venue. A further bar had a smoking and non smoking area so again was out of bounds to us and a sign on entry to the Casino said smokers are welcome here.

Drinks and tours were quite expensive but there was a good selection. There were free shuttle buses at most ports but of course the passengers were not informed about this and we only found out after we had either purchased tour tickets or purchased shuttle bus tickets sold on the ship for 3 or 4 euros.

There were several passengers who were on their first cruise and have been put off cruising again by this experience. It was almost unanimous from our group of two coaches that there was great disappintment in our cruise some were crying and upset and we were all counting the days to get home. Not the way we had hoped to spend Christmas this year.