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Heart of the Meditteranean on the Melody |
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Reviewed By: Smith, Letchworth Garden City on 14th Jun 2009
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| Cruise Line: MSC Cruises |
Times cruised before: 10+ |
| Cruise Ship: MSC Melody |
Sailed:
June,
2009 |
| Destination: Mediterranean |
Age: 65+ |
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We have just returned from a seven day cruise out of Genoa on MSC Melody. The ship visited firstly Porto Fino where it did not stop due to 'weather conditions'. There was no intent to do so as the sea was like a mill pond! Next stop was Toulon a pleasant port for wandering ashore. Then came Olbia, Sardinia (grim and closed on a Sunday) followed by La Goulette (for Tunis & Carthage), Catania, Sicily; Salerno, Italy and our favourite Ajaccio, Corsica. The Italian ports were torrid, noisy places whilst our visit to Tunisia was a refreshing eye opener. The guide who took us to Carthage was more interested in our spending money in curio shops.
Melody surprised us in that it is a very smart ship and well maintained. We had a mini-suite which was very comfortable (and affordable) with a window that opened. We are so called MSC Club members having been with the line before ~ but when it came to giving us 5% off our on board spend (as per their blurb) the Accounting Office, hiding we suspect behind their poor English. The multi lingual thing is a bind and their cruise director Maddy speaks loads of languages, but very fast and is difficult to understand on the loudspeaker system.
The shuttle bus at Salerno was 6 euros each, so no way is it a courtesy one! We enjoyed the cruise overall ~ but beware the aformentioned pitfalls. The business over the discount left a sour taste and means that we will not consider MSC again. One other thing ~ make sure you fly into Genoa airport, MSC's preferred airports are NIce & Milan which are a long,long way ayway.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| The food was pretty good in the main restaurant, much less so in the informal buffet on the Pool Deck. Breakfast was particularly poor | | Entertainment | |
| As for most multiligual ships the shows are visual. The usual array of dancers, jugglers etc | | Shore Excursions |  |
| We only went on one, thankfully. They are very expensive and poor value for money. Typically drive one and a half hours each way for an hor at the site. | | Staff |  |
| Staff were fine | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities | n/a |
| A lot of noisy, hurdy gurdy stuff took place on the back deck but we did take part. | | Cabins |  |
| We were vwry happy with cabin ~ tons of storage space. TV was very limited however | | Overall Rating | |
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