The Italian charm of MSC Cruises

MSC Cruises cover most corners of the world As part of our occasional series profiling the big cruise companies, SeaView’s cruise expert David Simpson gives the low down on MSC Cruises and all who sail in her.If you want your cruise to be spotlessly

clean, extremely comfortable and brimming with Italian atmosphere and cuisine, then MSC Cruises might be the cruise line for you.
What you won't find is the ‘olde worlde’ style of cruising that many people still imagine it to be.
But its 11 ships are elegantly furnished and built with an eye for detail, while its cruises are competitively priced.  A 12th vessel, MSC Divina, will arrive in May 2012.
MSC has seemingly arrived from out of nowhere to become the fourth largest cruise line in the world – with a mix of modern ships and one or two classic liners offering Italian-style cruising. It has, however, spent 50 years working towards this ‘overnight success’, starting way back in the Sixties.
It is now the largest privately owned cruise line, and the Aponte family has ploughed a fortune into creating a fleet of eye-catching vessels that can been seen in ports from Northern Europe to South America – and many places in between.
Its prime cruising area, however, is the Mediterranean, with cruises targeted at the European market.
With so many different nationalities on board, announcements in Italian, French, Spanish, German and English are regularly heard at disembarkation points - although at all other times they are kept to a minimum.
Southampton became MSC’s new base for UK sailings in 2011, with MSC Opera heading to northern and western Europe. The ship will be performing an encore in the summer 2012.
As well as operating a wealth of different itineraries, MSC also offers a variety of cruising options and prices.
A good-value one-week cruise kicks in at a little over £500, and tries hard to make life a little easier for hard-stretched families. Children up to the age of 18 travel for free as standard, and for summer 2012, every child in a family cabin on a Mediterranean cruise will be given £100 to spend.
MSC is also offering an all-inclusive drinks package for £1 on selected cruises.
On two of its ships, however, MSC Cruises has created a completely different, high-end environment. The MSC Yacht Club is an exclusive, virtually all-inclusive world of air-conditioned suites featuring LCD televisions, internet access, Nintendo Wii consoles, SPA baths and marble bathrooms. Oh, and skilled butlers trained by the International Butler Academy.
The hibernation of families and keen pricing makes the winter a popular cruising period for retired travellers. But come the summer, families and their young children are out in force, especially on the latest ships, which boast many state-of-the-art entertainment features.
While this can be great for grandparents, other silver-surfers should beware.
MSC has built a strong reputation for good food. Dining tends to follows a traditional cruise schedule, with two set sitting times in the main restaurants accompanied by a variety of optional food venues. Some of these offer fine dining for an extra charge, others are more basic choices for those evenings when you want to dress down and grab a pizza.
Evening entertainment comes in a wide variety at a good standard, from smoochy dancing to disco,  and classical concerts to jazz – as well as Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics.

Summer cruises with MSC tend to be family-friendly events