I have sailed a few times on MSC and have to say I have never seen a show that was in spoken Italian. Any show I have seen contained NON VERBAL entertainment which they have to do to appeal to a multinational range of passengers. The entertainment team (mostly visible on deck during the day) ALWAYS announced in 5 languages in my experience. Now with only 20 Brits on board, would you expect English to be the first announcement? This is an Italian shipping line and naturally, Italian will always be the first language announcement. I can fully understand your annoyance at the behaviour of the children but this is down to the parents. I sailed on a RCI ship from Southampton and I can honestly say the behaviour of the children on that ship was appalling! Children of 10-12 were heckling the commedian in the theatre at 11.45pm (including some heeavy duty swearing!), unescorted British children I may add!!! (Just one example of what they got up to!) I absolutely blame the parents but yes, I do think staff should step in BUT, would you? You might get a consequence you weren't expecting!!! It's a shame that this put you off because I personally think the product is excellent value!

Quite right it is up to the parents, BUT we witnessed the situation when staff did step in and were physically abused and assaulted by these parents!

Unfortunately this is a situation we have to face increasingly. I too have seen staff and other passengers trying speak to very unruly children and they received abuse from the parents (and the children too!!!). This was on an RCI ship which sailed out of Southampton. Unfortunately this type of behaviour and the parental abuse that follows is not restricted to Italian ships. I have also seen this situation on land based holidays so it really can happen anywhere. A visit to any local supermarket will bear me out! All I really want to say is that badly behaved children are not solely on Italianships, and let's face it, it is the parents who are badly behaved really! I believe this to be a problem on all cruise lines too and feel it is a great shame that people are sometmes forced to book holidays on ships which are for adults only or to book land based holidays to hotels which refuse to accept children. I do hope the public and staff who intervened in this case brought criminal charges against the parents concerned. I certainly would!