We chose this cruise for the ports of call and to see Iceland - a 17 night transatlantic from Kiel, Germany to New York City. A beautiful ship- great staff - a mozzarella making station - great your choice dining at which tables for 2 were plentiful - However, an absent Captain, a wannabe Cruise Director, passengers embarking and debarking at every European port - a FLOATING BUS - Our welcome aboard party was at sea , Day 10 , heading from Iceland to Canada. There were 2 gangways for everyone to use other than the specialty Yacht Club who had their own, and the poorest managed ship we have ever been on - No such thing as nickel and dime to death here - It is many Euro & Euro to death - If you did not take the MSC cruises or shuttles, they did not tell anyone about city run free port shuttles (Southampton), the Hop on Hop Off next to the terminal in Rejkjavik, or the change of plans and routes. My wife and I do not drink wine or beer. We were told that we could only get wine or beer on board when in St John, NB, Halifax because that was the Canadian law- they did not tell us that MSC was too cheap to pay the port taxes for spirits consumed . At the service desk I was told that we would not receive a 3 day rebate on our paid beverage package and to drink what they had available MSC contracts everything out .- even the individual bars are in competition with each other. That is why there was hounding every day to purchase everything on the ship, including the full sized gymnasium & equipment and the exercise room - we do not classify the shopping in the promenade mall, spa, drinking and eating in the specialty restaurants. The giant tv at the very little used Lido pool showed a continuous loop of the Northern Lights 24/7 for 18 days. The greatly used solarium pool was dumped out for 24 hours for a 2 hour ice sculpture on a sea day - The staffing on board was well below the numbers on smaller ships we have been on - The MSC management team tried to keep selling the fact that they had all kinds of activities all day long and were extremely busy running them. We do not consider 1 activity an hour on the whole ship (4500 passengers) as being busy - heaven forbid on a sea day that there be trivia to interfere with the promenade shopping and their daily specials. The most mismanaged ship we have ever been on because if most things on board are contracted out - then the contractors are to blame not MSC. This is the first time I have ever taken the time to send in a review and this comes 3 months after we got home - If this was our first cruise - we would never be doing another - MSC does not even get to the bottom rung of our ladder - We were either mis-informed, uninformed or purposely lied to by the Sr Management on board of this Cruiseline and this particular Cruise. Never again. - MSC Meraviglia should be called - MSC Fregatura - (Stiffed or Ripped off)- North Americans must know how this company operates - This was not our first rodeo as you can see on my signature - It was our only cruise we have had something to complain about and put it in writing for a first time.