8-Day Cruise to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico on MSC GRANDIOSA

Mediterranean Cruise departing Barcelona. Check In is from the dark ages. NO electronic information screens. Lounge is full with no beverages. Complementary half cup of water. You are given a card with a number. A faint announcement every 10mins. All the checking in you did at home is out the window as everything is repeated including your photos. MSC do not recognise any person with a hidden disability. The App you use on board is a mystery. Food in any restaurant is average and usually luke food. The Market Place is better but a stampede all of the time. No directional flow control at the numerous buffet counters. The noise everywhere is intense. You will not find a quiet spot to have a peaceful read with the exception of your cabin. The ship is very clean and the staff are pleasant and helpful. Early morning walks on the decks is a great way to chill before the mayhem.

Overall it was fine as it was very cheap and you get what you pay for. It is very crowded, people are loud and there is music almost everywhere on the ship. There are a lot of parties which is nice if you want that, but there are not a lot of places to relax. It is more of a party/booze cruise then a luxery vacation but that is to he expected for this pricerange.

The entertainment besides the dj's is average and the service is okay. It is very targeted towards Italian and Spanish tourists and that also reflects in the entertainment that is provided. A lot of spanish music and not that much live music, mostly just dj's.

We stayed in a room on the 8th floor, right on top of the galleria and we heard loud music every evening starting around 21.00 or 22.00. This wasn't great if we wanted to sleep early. Just bring some earplugs or stay on a higher floor.

This was our 5th cruise and first with MSC. We've been on P&O and Celebrity and enjoyed both. My expectations of MSC were not great due to reading reviews but I was keen to try this ship. Even though my expectations were low the experience was worse than expected.

Our cabin was dirty when we arrived and the bathroom was full of hair in the shower and under the toilet. There was also a brown stain in the middle of the duvet sheet! We had to request 3 times for the bedding to be changed. Each time they said they would send someone straight away but after 4 hours nobody came. We asked again and 3 hours later still nobody came and by this point it was getting late and we didn't want to be sleeping using this dirty sheet so we requested again and finally someone came to change the sheets! The bed wasn't very comfortable and both myself and my wife had a couple of bites on our legs after the first night. I understand these could have happened elsewhere and not from the bed so can't say for definite where we got them.

Hardly anyone washes their hands in the public toilets, including staff! A crew member even used one of the cubicles and left without washing his hands. I never saw anyone use the hand gel stations and staff never asked or encouraged people to use them or to wash their hands like they do on other cruise lines.

A lot of other guests were very rude, selfish and impolite throughout the cruise. We were regularly woken up at 2-3am by people talking and singing loudly whilst walking past the cabin. Many people smoke on their balconys often so when we opened our balcony door the smell of smoke would fill our cabin. There are lots of smoking areas all over the ship which was surprising so it was even more surprising that so many people smoke on their balcony! The smoking areas were located down the entire left side of the pool area so if you're a non smoker you've only got the right hand side if you want to sit or use a sunbed near the pool. All seating around the Horizon bar is smoking and also in the casino. Our cabin was on deck 9 and we could even smell smoke when walking past the rear stairs!

I enjoy using the casino when on cruise ships but it is unbearable for a non smoker so I only used the casino once for less than 10 minutes during our cruise which was during the day on a sea day as this was when it was a bit quieter.

They encourage you to pay for water on the ship so much that the free water has a bad taste to it. It's what I would imagine toilet water would taste like.

The buffet was chaos all the time especially at breakfast. People constantly pushing in front of others and leaning over each other to grab food. I witnessed a guest pick up food, put it to their nose to smell it and then put it back where they got it from!

I didn't like the lift system they use as we would be waiting several minutes for lifts most of the time. When trying to exit lifts other guests would regularly block my exit or try to push their way in because they couldn't wait a few seconds to let someone off.

The gym was surprisingly small with very little equipment compared to every other ship I've been on.

This holiday has put me off cruising and we wouldn't use MSC ever again. By the half way point I was looking forward to going home.