We chose this cruise for the itinerary and are very glad we did because going to Greek islands and Jerusalem was amazing. And we were satisified with the room, service and food received.
Perhaps there is not many activities inside the ship but we hardly had time to stay inside the ship anyway (and like I said, we booked it for the itinerary, not for ship's activities).
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Athens Cruise Port is a bit confusing (there are 3 cruise terminals), but once we found the right one, embarkation was quick. Only thing I didn't quite like was the way they did the safety training - everyone embarking that day is required at about 5/6pm to go to the cabin to watch a video, call a number to confirm you watched it and then go by stairs (lifts will be blocked at this time) to check-in at your muster station. I would have preferred to be directed to the muster station right at embarkation (like in my previous cruise) to avoid going up and down.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food in MDR was pretty good, there were several different options every day, and all "mediterranean seasoned" (meaning nothing spicy, which we don't like), so we were pretty happy with the food. They assign tables and dinner times, so there was not much chance to meet new people at dinner (which I really enjoyed from my previous cruise) and it felt we were always rushing to get to dinner on time.
We would only use the buffet for afternoon snacks/late lunches because it was such a mess (aka, rude people) at busier times. Food there was fine and pizzas were the highlight in my opinion.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
We got the Aurea thermal pass in advance to have access to the solarium (and avoid the nuisance of chair hogs). We ended up using the solarium just on the sea day but we used the jacuzzi in the Aurea spa area almost every day, so I think the pass was worth it.
We didn't take part in the other activities (bingo, dance lessons etc).
Entertainment
4 out of 5
We enjoyed the theater shows but didn't get to see much of the other performers as we would not go to bars/disco where the others would be playing.
Children's Programs
Group of adults, no children.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Everyone was very friendly and we loved that we found crew from our country in every single team. We thought it was amazing how MSC have multiple languages within the staff and in their announcements, in order to better serve passengers from every nationality.
There seems to be many new staff though, and there were some occasions where we felt things could have been better instructed/organised (especially in regard of exiting the ship at some ports - we faced pretty long queues some days).
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Layout was fine and ship was clean throughout but the restrooms in the public areas could use more constant cleaning.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We liked our balcony cabin on the mid 12th floor. Despite it being below a bar seating area in Lido deck, there was hardly any noise given that the Lido area is closed at night. We were also close to mid lifts, which was convenient except to go up to the Lido floor (only lifts on the aft/fwd go all the way up).
In regard of size, our first impression was that it was too small for 3 adults (2 twin beds + pull out sofa bed) but we brought many magnetic hooks and clips, and everyone used packing cubes, so it was fine.
Ship tip
Avoid the buffet if you don't like crowds, get the Aurea pass (in advance) if you didn't book an Aurea room, bring magnetic hooks and packing cubes, and enjoy meeting people from many nationalities (both crew and passengers).
Good weather, good food, lots to see, shops everywhere and easy-ish to get around. We embarked and disembarked here and stayed a few days after, so we took the hop-on-hop-off from the Port to the hotel and started sightseeing immediately.
At times we felt there was lack of organisation/clear instructions for tourists (eg, multiple queues for hop-on buses at the Acropolis without any indication of which goes where).
Better book an excursion with the cruise line to get priority exiting the ship. We didn't because thought it would be easy to walk around (which it was) but we had very little time to see things given the time we were able to get the tender to the island (after 11am).
The views here are nice, but there is just too many people, huge lines everywhere, and selfie takers or people with tripods blocking the narrow streets. Also, lack of clear instructions for tourists (eg, the bus station to Oia seems like a parking lot for tour buses so it's easy to dismiss it and pass by).
We did the excursion to Ephesus (booked with cruise line). The tour guide was lovely and it was interesting to see the ruins of an ancient city that is referenced in the Bible. We didn't like that it was so crowded (because all excursions go at the same time) and that we were not given time to see some parts as we only had little free time near the exit. However the tour company made us waste 1 hour going to a rugs shop and a leather shop (where nobody bought anything anyway), and I would have much preferred to use that extra hour at the Ephesus site.
We did the excursion to Jerusalem (booked with cruise line) and this was the main reason to have booked this cruise/itinerary. Only after booking the cruise we found out that Haifa is not actually close to Jerusalem (Ashdod Port would have been closer) and that we would have to go through 2 hours in a bus each way. Our tour guide was amazing but it was a very long and tiring excursion day (over 10 hours, starting at 6:30am) and we couldn't see everything because there is so much to see in Jerusalem. The city is extremely crowded and it was a very hot day. It was worth it but we still want to go back and stay in Israel longer.
We had to wait for almost 1 hour in a huge queue to exit the ship here and get the shuttle. I was told later that it was the local authorities that took a long time to authorise our entrance, but all passengers were obviously frustrated (and many were cutting the lines), we felt the ship staff could have given us more instructions and better organised the lines to exit and to get shuttles.
When we finally got to the town, we just walked around. It was nice but not that much to see, there is a small old castle and the promenade.
This Port was cancelled due to weather and we were taken to Rhodes instead, which we were actually very happy about because the time we would have in Mykonos was only a few hours in the evening in our last cruise night, but in Rhodes we got to stay the whole day and explore the island with the hop-on-hop-off bus. Rhodes is beautiful, we really enjoyed it.
We were self disembarking (thought it would be easier as we would stay in Athens for a few days), but there was not clear information about how to do this (meaning, time and venue to wait to disembark). We then found out that this Port didn't allow self-disembarkation so were told to wait for our group to be called anyway, but at least we could wait in the bar area, not in a long queue.
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