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just home from Poesia


ksmccadam

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My family of four just returned from Poesia. This was our 3rd cruise and we have 2 kids 12 and 14. Overall I would our entire family gave this vacation an 8 out of 10. Firstly, the ship is beautiful. We had 2 rooms on 12th level and the rooms were spacious and balcony was great. The rooms were kept immaculately by our steward.

 

The entertainment staff worked non-stop. The highlight was definately Richard who amused us at the pool and in the lounges in the evening. The shows were pretty good - the acrobats were great. It was nice to see the entire entertainment team at the Michael Jackson show. The only drawback was the non-existent activities for teens.

 

We had no problems with the service. In fact one night we were in a lounge and my husband wanted to tip the waitress (which we did throughout the trip) and I asked if she had any change from her tips and she said she had been given only $1 for the whole night...but she said it with a smile and no attitude. She was humping drinks for people all over our area and we did not have to wait for them and its a shame that people can't extend a little gratuity.

 

The food was edible. I had read these thread for a month worrying about the food but was able to find something at each meal. We ordered room service every morning and got great coffee and lots of croissants and rolls. We ate at the buffet most days and one day in the dining room. The biggest disappointment was that we purchased the 10 bottle DOC package of wine prior to the cruise expecting the try italian wines, but when we arrived the wines were all cheap wines from the US...NOT what we purchased. So we adapted and bought good wines from Italy in the wine bar and the wine was delivered to our table and had the US wines as our second of the evening :)

Our dining room waiters were slow to warm up but once we engaged them in conversation they were good...

 

We saw no line cutting, did not wait for elevators and just about everyone we met was very friendly. Most people only shared one complaint and that was about the food. We were not going to let that ruin our trip!

 

My recommendation is to go on the cruise with an open mind and be ready to make adjustments when your expectations are not met. This was the key to our family having a great time.

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Glad you had a nice time. As for the food, you said you ate mostly in the buffet. I do believe if you ate in the dining rooms you would have had a different experience. As for tipping for drinks, unlike other cruise lines, the drink prices include TIP and Tax! There is no need to tip again.

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I was unclear - we ate in the buffet at lunch (3X)- ate in the DR at dinner every night. We feel it is appropriate to tip in any situation as the "tip included" rarely is enough. We were very open minded about the food but is was simply okay - like I said, not enough to ruin our trip

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Glad you had a nice time. As for the food, you said you ate mostly in the buffet. I do believe if you ate in the dining rooms you would have had a different experience. As for tipping for drinks, unlike other cruise lines, the drink prices include TIP and Tax! There is no need to tip again.

 

Tip and tax are included on every cruise line. Nothing special about MSC here, Cam.

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Tip and tax are included on every cruise line. Nothing special about MSC here, Cam.

 

Actually it used to be different - not sure if it is now - at least it was to NCL. NCL adds a gratuity onto the drinks (in addition to the daily rate). When we were on MSC last year there was no gratuity added to drinks (I guess it was part of the daily rate). I thought I read that MSC was changing that though.

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We were very open minded about the food but is was simply okay

 

I agree. There were a few thing that I really liked (the lamb stew, the ossobucco) and some that were pretty bad (the halibut) but overall the food was ok. Not really any worse than our other cruises, except for maybe the desserts. . .I think they need to work on those.

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I totally agree with this review of the Poesia. We were on the same trip and the ship is very clean and staff was nice. Our rooms were kept clean, but I just wish there was a little more storage (could not be that I brought too many clothes)icon10.gif

 

The food was good for breakfast and lunch. You could always find something at the buffet. Dinner, however, was another story. Yucky.

How does an Italian line screw up eggplant? I did have steak some nights as suggested on this board and it could have walked off the plate! Medium, I think not.

 

We did end up going to Cozumel.....big suprise there, but we also missed the Cayman Islands due to rough weather??? Heard other people docked that day???? We were watching the boat travel on the big screen and when it started turning away from our destination, we asked the front desk what was happening and they had not a clue....they brought all these people to look at the screen and no one had a clue. It was quite comical.

Within 5 minutes an announcement came over the speaker that we were not going to that port. Since we had already paid all of our port fees prior to departing, do we get that back????

 

Overall the trip was ok, but you definately get what you pay for. If you can afford to pay a little more for a better cruise line, go for it. If not....bon voyage!

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