My husband and I sailed on the MSC Poesia in early December from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Martin, St. Thomas, Nassau and back to Ft. Lauderdale. The ship is absolutely gorgeous and immaculately clean -- with a real Italian ambiance. We found the layout of the ship to be nearly perfect. There were plenty of lounges, bars, restaurants and sitting areas scattered all over the ship. With this arrangement, no specific area was overloaded with passengers, so it gave us a feeling that the ship was not full, even though it was nearly sold out.
 
The MSC Poesia has two specialty restaurants, Kaito Sushi Bar and L'Obelisco. We actually ate at L'Obelisco twice because the food was fabulous. It offers diners a very pleasant atmosphere, as the restaurant is located at the very back of the ship with huge floor-to-ceiling windows for viewing the ocean scenes. Otherwise, the cuisine on the ship in the dining rooms and buffets was very good with a wide variety of choices. Don't think that all you get is pasta on this Italian ship -- nothing could be further from the truth.
 
A special surprise for us was Il'Grappolo d'Oro Wine Bar, with an excellent menu of wines from many different countries, and of course, specialty wines from Italy. Here, we also attended a wonderful wine lecture and tasting session.
 
Our balcony cabin was spacious with plenty of closet space. The crew was great -- very friendly and quick to respond to our requests.
 
We certainly would not hesitate to sail with MSC on the Poesia again. Actually, we look forward to it!