MSC Cruises review: Poesia - Alaska - June 2026

This was our second cruise with MSC and the only line we’ve cruised with. The first cruise was with Seascape- out of Miami -around the gulf basically. Granted I understand Seascape is a bigger ship and newer?

I’d say though, other than the scenery and a few specific staff, this cruise was less impressive, beds were hard and very uncomfortable (even after asking for a bed topper it was still not comfy), food was very disappointing, at the buffet, at the dinner restaurant and at the very expensive Butchers cut. The food was altogether bland, the diversity of options was underwhelming and the intense need to have a varied international menu, sadly inauthentic and lacking even natural seasonings, salt itself couldn’t remedy. I’d have to say, Seascapes food over all was significantly more enjoyable.

The ship was mostly clean but honestly, there was moldy, mildew smells in various places, glass everywhere continuously was covered in fingerprints, children hand smears, and streaks by some sort of mystery substance, and various places around the ship just seemed old, in a worn out way, not an endearing vintage type way.

This rating is not the lowest solely due to the staff, the port experiences, the scenery and especially the Hoonah humpback whale pods. Understanding other ships and lines of people we’ve known did not see the extensive number of wildlife we did, is in itself a worthy aspect to the cruise.

The crew, I’d speculate 90 plus percent of those we interacted with consistently were in a word, lovely. Their care, kindness, attention to detail and enthusiasm for the experience was by far my favorite part of the “ship” itself.

Compared to the seascape, the Poesia was disappointing as a ship. The shows were decent but were not to the caliber of Seascape, to no fault of the staff.

Lastly, the Auerea experience was not worth the “experience” and the thermal spa was sadly not much of a thermal spa. The advertised experience was not as advertised but in comparison to the Seascape thermal spa it was barely that. We were specifically expecting certain amenities, such as an expresso machine in room, and higher quality amenities, rooms, experience, and none of those were a reality. While there, either myself or my husband and I went to the spa almost every day, there were sections not working, towels everywhere, as people just left them hanging constantly and the staff wasn’t sure if they could be removed. The water wasn’t out all the time and unlike the Seascape wasn’t infused. Lockers in the bathroom were not plentiful and or not locking. The area did not have ample room for the number of spots sold, there were no heated seats (which I’m pretty sure were advertised) there were no warm showers anywhere (even though one did say it was warm) the whirlpool was so small three people could barely fit, it beat you to death and people stayed in it for 30 minutes or more constantly.

Finally, the overall experience was mostly wonderful due to specific staff, such as our room attendant, some servers and bartenders on the floor by the zebra bar, near the Yaght Club dining area, and some buffet staff -such as Francis - who I recognized from Seascape and he remembered every day after that. The main waiter we had in the dining room did his best and was very kind, though we didn’t go there 3 or 4, out of the 7 nights, because it was a bit chaotic feeling and the food just wasn’t anything special.

Without those staff members, the scenery and the ports however, sadly the ship experience overall was underwhelming.