Anyone Cruised on MSC Orchestra

SydneySwan

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We are contemplating doing the MSC Orchestra 10 day cruise from Lisbon to Lisbon on September 26. Cruise critic reviews are poor for this boat. Does anyone have personal experience of MSC cruises or this boat?
 
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We are contemplating doing the MSC Orchestra 10 day cruise from Lisbon to Lisbon on September 26. Cruise critic reviews are poor for this boat. Does anyone have personal experience of MSC cruises or this boat?
I haven't but we talked with someone who was, dodging donkey poop going down the steps at Santorini. Very memorable. They were Aussies. They said that the boat was heavily Italian oriented including language and also passengers . They were enjoying it though as it made a change from the usual passenger type. I don't know which ship they were on. This was a few years ago.
 
Not Orchestra but I've been on another MSC cruise in Europe. I found entertainment better than other maintream lines (appreciating the variety instead of just music/shows), the ship was impressive for the time, but admin was 'typically Italian' i.e. not so great if needed/exceptional circumstances arise (but that's fortunately not a major part of a cruise). That was the only significant negative for me.

cruisecritic being American based means lower ratings when not US aligned. e.g. the fact you need to pay for water when dining in line with Italian custom and other differences like multi-lingual announcements means they'll get marked down by those who like things to be the way they're used to. Menus are similarly Italian based e.g. pasta is a main dinner option each night - but with local specialities, again different from the usual US standard. Similarly, activities are different because of the multiple languages onboard instead of just English speakers.

As long as you're happy to go to Italy and have it be Italian (instead of just like home) you'll be fine. However, if you do want it to be like US mainstream cruise lines then you may prefer the traditional US choices more.
 

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