Which ship/itinerary? MSC Musica (Venice) or Voyager (Barcelona)?

[Conanc]

Hi,

 

We are looking at booking our first Mediterranean cruise in October. We have only sailed on Caribbean cruises in the past, mainly with Royal Caribbean. We are looking for opinions on which ship/cruiseline and itinerary is recommended. Venice is appealing to us, however, the port times and shore excursions with MSC are not as extensive as they are with Royal Caribbean.

On the flip side, there are balconies available on MSC, and unfortunately because we'd be booking so late, there are only inside cabins available on Royal Caribbean. Any thoughts or advice?

 

Thank you!

[leoandhugh]

One thing you should do is go to these CC threads for MSC lines and read some of the reviews of their ships and their service - mixed at best and they are still struggling with english speaking personnel. the Musica is brand new having been christened by sophia loren just this past week, so she will be sparkling, but it takes a while to get a crew functioning and up to speed. MSC is an old italian line with mainly freighters until the last 10 years. They are now attempting to challenge long established lines in this hemisphere, and recently hired Rick Sasso who had been CEO of norwegian to show them what needs to be done to be viable over here. one thing to be prepared for with them is lots of announcements in 4 or 5 languages and a majority of passengers whose primary language is other than english. but then you may be ok with that; just do your homework.:)