is anyone going on the opera feb 16th?

sorry i do know (i have posted) about the roll call thread. however, no one has answered yet and i thought maybe if someone was reading the msc thread and not knowing about the roll- call maybe this might send them to it.

cheryl

Hello dis2cruise,

I have been occasionally looking at the roll call board but must have missed your post. Good to see we aren't alone. We cruised on the Lirica last Feb and had a great time, love the itinerary. This year is mostly the same except they changed Antigua for St Lucia, love them both. Have you sailed with MSC before?

thank goodness I thought my family and I were going to have the whole ship to ourselves lol!!

this is our 1st with msc we have cruised with rccl

and princess in the past. Couldn't pass up the opportunity of the savings on an 11 night cruise.

cheryl

double post

Hi Cheryl,

We just booked the Feb. 16 sailing on the Opera. My name is also Cheryl. :) I was a bit apprehensive about MSC as I'm a travel agent and have cruised a fair bit and have heard some negatives about MSC but I feel better after reading the reviews here. Should be a great time.

Cheryl

Hi Cheryl:

It's Julie Kummerle from the "other place" - seems to be a bit more info here than there...but I'm just posting everywhere to get as much info as possible.

For other repliers: What is the age/gender of your kids? Ours: Payton (daughter) 10 (going on 13); Trace (son) 8 (going on 8).

You know after searching and reading whatever I can find - the reviews are pretty much balanced - maybe a little heavier on the negativity - but it just appears that these naysayers expected a more Americanized experience. A factor of our excitement is the whole new experience of cruising on an Italian Cruise Line. My husband is from Germany and no one can tell you better - Europeans can (at times/and not all) be a bit "pushier" than the Americans - but it's simply a cultural thing and I'm sure they probably think some of the things we say/do are just plain rude as well.

As for the negative reports about the food...we've (husband and I) have only been on one other cruise and I was expecting fantastic food every day/night - it was average. We love to fine dine often and our kids are accustom to good restaurants - however, our expectations are that it will be okay - maybe good/maybe bad...we are planning on enjoying the cultural food when in ports so this is really not a huge problem for us. When you consider how many people they are preparing food for while onboard it's probably darn good...and the fact that I don't have to plan/cook/clean up afterwards will make anything taste gourmet!

I'm so excited and look forward to making more new friends before we get onboard!

Julie