The booking process is much as you say either direct with MSC or via a Cruise Travel Agent, you pay

Although I still really like the look of both Celebrity and Princess my preferred timber cruising gear option is a Yacht Club Cabin on either the Fantasia or Preziosa. I think this will ensure that our first cruise is an amazing experience.
timber cruising gear I'd be really interested to hear the thoughts of anyone who had sailed on either off these ships, especially in a Yacht Club cabin or if anyone timber cruising gear has any comments or tips regarding the MSC ships or the ports they visit.
Hi Glen... I'm glad you went with my suggestion of an MSC Yacht Club cruise as I don't think you'll be disappointed. As you will probably have noticed I am not so happy with their stance on solo passengers right now but hopefully that will be resolved when they have another management shake-up.
I've sailed with MSC but not in the Yacht Club but Pete has written an excellent review of what it was like which is located here Life at the front end of MSC DIVINA and he'd probably be the best person to answer any questions you might have.
With the exception of late deals (for obvious reasons) lines typically take a deposit and ask for the rest so many weeks before sailing. Your TA will advise if you decide to use one, or perhaps you plan to book directly with MSC?
Increasingly there's less difference in price between biking direct and booking with a TA, ditto between different TAs, but it's always worth shopping around. I mentioned in my previous post that CruiseDot timber cruising gear are pretty good - just do a comparison and you should know.
The booking process is much as you say either direct with MSC or via a Cruise Travel Agent, you pay a deposit now with the balance due usually around 57 days before sail date. When you have booked you will get a reference number, what you do then is check in on line for the Cruise.
You go to the MSC Web Site and looked for the 'Booked'Tab and on Line Check In. Fill in the boxes and they you enter details of your flight arrival, departure times etc. You get a print out and thats your E Ticket sorted.
Just had a look at the Preziosa Itinerary. ITs exactly the same as an MSC Cruise we did on Divina in Oct 2012. I wrote a very comprehensive review including near the bottom full details of how to DIY each of the Ports visited. timber cruising gear If you want to read it, click here:
I've sailed on MSC on 3 separate occasions - ok, but not fantastic. However if it's your first cruise and you've chosen Yacht Club then I'm sure you'll be very pleased. One word of warning though, any Italian ship leaving from an Italian port is bound to be full of very noisy, timber cruising gear boisterous Italians. Just be prepared.