MSC Poesia

Our first cruise... what a disappointment! Don\'t get me all wrong... the ship and the cabins are beautiful. And cleanliness is first class. After that... a landslide. No one speaks english... or they forget as soon as a problem arises. The only decent food was the hamburger and fries we ate for 6 of the ten days for lunch. The workers were seemingly always being disiplined in public by supervisors. Back to the food... terrible. We even had an Italian gentleman (passenger) say to us \"please don\'t rate Italy based on the food or rudeness on this ship\". MANY others with former cruise experience, told us that this had been a terrible experience when compared to other cruise lines. As a military retired couple, we try to be fair, and again must say that the ship and basic staff work hard to maintain a cleanliness... and the exercise room up front is wonderful. But please learn some english, try to smile and above all... learn to cook and have food more abundantly available. Oh... and please keep the \'under 18 aged group\' out of the lounges after 9:00 pm.

Been on over 20 crusies, this was by far the worst in my life. First crusie I\'ve ever taken that I was miserable and angry over, as we\'re the majority of the other guests on the ship. Beautiful ship, horrible service/no service, few on the ship understood english, which seemed to be the commmon excuse for not getting served or getting served incorrectly/poorly. Food was unacceptable for a cheap diner, guests referred to it as the diet cruise as the food was unpalatable or unavailable. Internet barely worked, CNN and HLN was about it on the \"satellite TV\", spaghetti and meatballs from a can was the primary meal, no grand buffet at night (principally cheese and tomato or cheese and cucumber sandwiches). Juices availabe 1 hour a day, buffet\'s only open when dining room was open, no working grill or \"after meal hours\" dining. No entertainment around pool area during day, never saw or heard from an entertainment director. Couldn\'t get water served two nights in the maining dining room, friends got food poisioning the first night, and the air conditioning was turned down so low in the rooms and on the ship that we sweated the entire trip and couldn\'t sleep at night. Also had erroneous charges to everyones bill that the ship acknowledged was a mistake, but forced everyone to complete credit forms to get the credit. In the case of the $80 they charged me for internet service that I couldn\'t access, they wouldn\'t credit me because they said they are only the middleman to a third party service. I love to refer friends and associates to great vacations, this will be the first time I take a serious interest in seeing that no one I know ever spends $1 with this cruise line.