Halloween Cruise

Overall we had a nice trip, with a few little oddities along the way.  We were a family of 10 traveling in 3 balcony cabins and one inside cabin.  Cabins were nice, good size.  Our cabin steward was excellent, very attentive, friendly.  

Food we found to be pretty good, there were a few dishes that we didn't overly care for, but thought the variety was nice, food was cooked well.  Overall I wasn't happy with their desert choices, just weren't things I cared for. Best dish all week IMP was the Chicken Marsala.  We had no problems with seating in the buffet, people were always packing the front, but not venturing more towards the back.  I didn't mind the food choices, though I ate a lot of hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza.  There was a turkey dish one day I enjoyed.  Breakfast overall was fine.  We seemed to have an omelet station appear on one day of the cruise, but then never saw it again.  We didn't dine at any of the specialty restaurants, most times when we walked by them in the evening they were pretty much empty.  

Bar service could be sketchy, often we sat with the bartenders ignoring us and then having to wait for a server to take our drink order instead.  Margaritas were some of the best I have had and was my drink of choice for the week.  Really would have preferred a soda card for the kids as that is much easier to use instead of them worrying about paper vouchers.  

We did have issues with our debit cards/credit cards.  My mother's and mine both blocked our cards as being stolen when MSC attempted to do a charge.  Though MSC did allow me a phone call to the bank to clear things up.  I did purchase the teen card for my kids to use, which just help them keep track of playing video games, etc.  The bowling in the sports pub really could have been cheaper and we never saw anyone playing. $7 a game is ridiculous, and MSC would get back some of their expense if they had made it between $2-3 a game instead.  Their extra food was also a bit expensive and we didn't eat there.  

Staff overall was friendly, though I will honestly say this had to have been the worst cruise I was on in terms of rude passengers.  The foreigners were just down right rude, I never encountered a rude American, but others not so much.  From pushing their way onto the elevator before you could even get off, pushing you out of the way at the buffet to get something, cutting in line.  I have never seen people with so little manners.  

Shows were good, though very short - 30 minutes. Though between Wonderland, Pirates and Witches of Paris they felt like the same show, just different costumes and music.  Some in our party thought they were awful, while others enjoyed them.  The Starwalker show was the best and really would have better if they combined more elements from the other shows into it.  They also could have done away with the songs done by the other male/female singer.  I missed some of the comedy shows that we have had on other cruises.  Day entertainment was minimal, we did go to a few trivia games, though that is were we met our rudest employee.  We had our group of 8 and he was saying they needed to be no more than 6, we were telling him we were sitting together, but not everyone really wanted to play.  He told us to make sure we sat there and shut up.  It upset my brother in law so he left, then his wife got mad and left along with my mother.  

Overall we enjoyed the trip, getting on and off the ship was fine, no problems there.  I would consider sailing again, but the price would have to be pretty excellent.