First time with MSC what can I expect

Good Morning Fellow Cruisers

My wife and I are relatively seasoned cuisers with Royal Caribbean and through a birthday present we are about to embark on our first one with MSC at the end of November on the Splendida going round Europe for a week. Can anyone offer advice on what we can expect from the company by way of comparison to RCL

Any comments and advice would be gratefully received

We have sailed MSC twice, next April will be our third. Our first experience was not quite as satisfying as we compared to our experience with RC or Carnival. The passengers and thus the environment is different, not saying it is worse just different.

Things we liked:

The shows/entertainment-overall this was much better than any cruise we had been on.

Cabins-again some of the nicest we have been in, love their balcony rooms, especially the aft balconies. Room was spotless.

Clean-They take spotless to an art form.

Design-The ships are classic, very nicely appointed.

Drink packages-We splurged for this, and it was worth it.

Things that are comparable:

Food-about the same as any other ship we have been on. The MDR was pretty good, the buffet had a lot more variety, but overall I felt it was below average.

Decks-unless you are in the Yacht Club, expect to have to troll for deck chairs.

Things we did not like:

Service-bar service was not great, except the coffee bar, they where great. Overall you had to go out of your way to get attention.

On-Board Activities-If you are used to RC or Carnival activities (trivia, lido deck games, etc) they are a big disappointment.

We where better prepared for our second cruise and we enjoyed it much better. The European cruises will skew further away from the North American cruise lines, but we love the variety.

Good Morning Fellow Cruisers

 

My wife and I are relatively seasoned cuisers with Royal Caribbean and through a birthday present we are about to embark on our first one with MSC at the end of November on the Splendida going round Europe for a week. Can anyone offer advice on what we can expect from the company by way of comparison to RCL

 

Any comments and advice would be gratefully received

Make sure you do the status match and if you are diamond or above with RCI you will be a Black member ( the top level) in the MSC loyalty club.

Here is a link to the info and application system

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/MSC-Voyagers-Club/Voyagers-Club.aspx

here is the list of perks

Good Morning Fellow Cruisers

 

My wife and I are relatively seasoned cuisers with Royal Caribbean and through a birthday present we are about to embark on our first one with MSC at the end of November on the Splendida going round Europe for a week. Can anyone offer advice on what we can expect from the company by way of comparison to RCL

 

Any comments and advice would be gratefully received

Dining:- you will find that dinner is 6 or 7 courses , though not big portions , usually a choice of three items per course.

you can have as many or few courses as you like. you can also have more than one selection from each course if you want, if you don't like what you are given they will replace it with an alternative from the menu without nay fuss.

you will not be given any free drinks with meals , unless they still do vouchers for water to USA guests.

I recommend one of the two Al inclusive Allegrisimo drinks packages.

Entertainment- This is mainly visual so no language problems occur

there will be live music in most bars and lounges in the evening

be prepared for announcements, of which there are very few , to be in 5 or 6 languages including the lengthy introduction to the theatre entertainment.

Bar service tends to be discrete and you may have to catch the eye of a waiter rather than them pestering you all the time.

You may have to be patient when dealing with reception staff as they are using their second or even third language , some people have written that they are rude, but I've never found them anything but very helpful on all 15 MSC cruise I've been on.

Tipping is discouraged and if done must be very discrete as they can loose their job if they fail to hand in any tips they are seen to receive,.

It's all now done through the daily service charge.

Have a great cruise

I'm on her next week so any questions ask away and I'll try to get answers for you.

Pete

We've not cruised with RC but cruised MSC last year. The ship was beautiful and so so clean.

The food was ok. We cruised Europe so lots of pasta which I love. I eat a mainly Mediterranean diet but DH doesn't so less suitable for him.

Drinks package and cocktails were amazing. Excellent value for money and what a great balcony cabin.

We also found it easy to get deckchairs. Sun for me , shade for DH.

My advice would be go for the drinks package ( no limits and includes speciality coffees , water and soda) and have a balcony cabin.

I'm sure you'll have a ball. Enjoy. Ciao.

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Good Morning Fellow Cruisers

 

My wife and I are relatively seasoned cuisers with Royal Caribbean and through a birthday present we are about to embark on our first one with MSC at the end of November on the Splendida going round Europe for a week. Can anyone offer advice on what we can expect from the company by way of comparison to RCL

 

Any comments and advice would be gratefully received

Several threads on the same subject.

.....there may be others, but this is mine

.....there may be others, but this is mine

that's a trifle rude when asking others for help.

it doesn't take much effort to search the forum with a term such as "first time"

here's what you get

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2329898&highlight=first+time

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2379516&highlight=first+time

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2396439&highlight=first+time

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2290694&highlight=first+time

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2343166&highlight=first+time

just a selection of threads I got in very short time

Pete

PS i'm not sure you actually deserve my time but ever helpful I decided to spare some

I think you should expect what you pay for. In other words, my bet is you paid significantly less to sale MSC then royal Caribbean. Therefore it's only fair to keep your expectations in line with what you paid. I think you should expect a very good value for the dollar spent. Have a great vacation :-)

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Chunkymunky,

I'm a lifelong U.S. citizen, have sailed numerous times this decade and my cruiseline of choice is RCCL. I just returned from a northern Europe cruise on MSC Splendida and had an equal or better time on this cruise than any other cruise, ever.

I submitted a very detailed review to the CruiseCritic website today. It hasn't posted yet, but I'll post a portion of it below. Most of the CruiseCritic reviews for MSC Splendida are negative. My experience was excellent, and so vastly different from what I read here that I now suspect some of them are planted by competitor cruise lines. Things that I read on this forum, such as the rumored pushing & cutting in lines, and heavy smoke smell, and rude employees SIMPLY DID NOT HAPPEN on my cruise. This is the first time in my life that I'm disappointed in CruiseCritic for providing such misleading information. I almost cancelled my cruise because of all the negative things people had posted... and it turns out not to have been accurate at all. I'm pretty sure my next Florida cruise will be on MSC Divina instead of the usual cruiselines, based on my quality experience on Splendida.

Here's the bulk of my review:

"As a lifelong American, I enjoyed my European cruise on MSC Splendida VERY much. It was a peaceful, comfortable, cultured trip which I wasn't expecting due to reading previous negative reviews.

I didn't encounter hoards of people who refuse to "queue". And although very sensitive to cigarette smoke, it wasn't a problem on Splendida... in fact, it was the LEAST-smoky casino of any cruise ship I've been on. (This is my 7th or 8th cruise, and all previous sailings were on Carnival or Royal Caribbean.)

I was surprised that the ship NEVER seemed crowded at all. Almost all the room categories were sold out a month before sailing, so I'm not sure where everyone was. Fastest embarkation (Hamburg) that I've ever experienced on a cruiseline.

We had a beautiful balcony cabin on the 10th floor, near the back of the ship. Nicer quality, nicer color schemes, and a better bathroom than my previous cruise experiences. The electric plug-ins are European but 2 of the 4 desk outlets also accept American 2-prong AC plugs. The balcony dividers can be opened upon request if your family/friends are in the adjacent cabin. Outstanding room. We purchased the lowest-price balcony (Bella class).

The evening shows were singing & dancing. It was the same 8-or-10 performers every night, just like Carnival, so it got a bit boring and I skipped a few shows. I will say that these performers were definitely a higher caliber than Carnival's. Their dance/language training was obviously more sophisticated. (Of course, Royal Caribbean is still the best entertainment at sea, in my opinion, because I prefer the broadway-style musicals.) I'm not sure if Splendida's emcee was the cruise director or not. He didn't waste a lot of talking talking about himself... he just got right to the point, introducing the evening show. He spoke in English first, brief and succinct, then repeated it in 4 or 5 other languages.

Other things that were also superior than my American cruise experiences:

--No annoying announcements or sales pitches over the intercom. Awesome.

--There was always room in the hottubs. Maybe it was due to cooler temps during our week.

--The atmosphere on board was noticeably calmer than the rowdy Carnival cruises or crowded noisy Royal Caribbean ones.

--The itinerary was ambitious, and the ship allowed more time in each port than they had previously advertised.

--The wine bar gave unlimited delicious free appetizers when you purchase a bottle of wine.

--I noticed the age-group was a bit older than my former cruises, which is probably why everyone seemed so well-behaved.

--Didn't have to tip extra to anyone or feel obligated to provide financial support to MSC employees. MSC instructs passengers not to tip extra. $9 tip/day is billed to the cabin. The room attendants did their job efficiently. The table servers were johnny-on-the-spot and didn't get overly social, but conversed briefly if we engaged them. There was always someone waiting to serve us if we needed anything.

--Formal dining room gave free bottled water to American passengers. (Each evening, you have to sign the receipt for $0.00).

There weren't many stores on-board. MSC didn't try to make this cruise all about their company. It was such a noticeable difference in attitude! I really appreciated not being exposed to a hard-sell throughout the cruise.

Actually, I do remember the buffet being too crowded a couple times. We took our breakfast to our room twice. Buffets on American ships have the same problem.

Only 2 disappointments:

--Wi-Fi was sometimes too slow to use in the cabin. It was noticeably better in the public areas, and Guest Services confirmed that. You absolutely MUST log off the Splendida system when you're done, THEN turn off your device's wifi, otherwise data might keep consuming.

--The formal dining staff didn't do a song/dance on any of the nights. It's okay... it's sometimes a bit of a "Dance, monkey, dance!" on the American cruises & their waiters probably hate being circus performers.

I would definitely cruise with MSC again. No hesitation at all. Overall, I still think Oasis-class and Freedom-class ships (Royal Carib) are the best, and the Caribbean climate is warmer, but passenger behavior was better on MSC, and the European port destinations are obviously classier and safer than the poor Caribbean islands whose economies are dependent on the cruise industry."

Things that I read on this forum, such as the rumored pushing & cutting in lines, and heavy smoke smell, and rude employees SIMPLY DID NOT HAPPEN on my cruise.

That was a very enjoyable post to read, Styxfire.

Never happened on any of my cruises on MSC either. I'm always amazed at the "smokey" references. I don't smoke - I enjoy the casino and have never had a problem spending the evening in there.

You listed a lot of the things I enjoy on MSC which keep me coming back to them. The bang you get for your buck far outstrips the other cruiselines I've tried. I cannot, for the life of me, see the attraction in Celebrity, and that's having tried one of their suites! :confused:

Thanks for your review styxfire its very helpful to read someone enjoying MSC.

We have been on 2 MSC cruises, being the 1st one a bit disappointing because we had some "setbacks", but the 2nd was awesome and we are going for a 3rd in less than 2 months in Splendida.

We are European and the MSC "children for free" policy has a lot of weight in our cruise choice, because when travelling with children all the costs add up pretty fast.

I like very much the American lines (only been to RCCL and NCL), but MSC also has its perks, and we hope to keep travelling with them and also know all the others... only going often we can compare better :) (have to convince hubbie :cool:)

The much, the merrier!

We were on MSC Divina in June. We have cruised 9 times with RCL, 1 with Carnival and 1 with NCL. MSC was the best cruise for us despite all of the negative reviews we read beforehand. We loved the cultural differences. The shows were by far the best of any of our past cruises. I did not like the food but the rest of my family did. Food is subjective. Initially we did not like the layout of the buffet or ship. But it was not a deal breaker. Our cabin was not that clean but we managed. The public areas of the ship were constantly being cleaned. The price was excellent. Family of four and we only paid for one. RCL tends to be on the higher price side for us. Carnival and NCL tend to be too much of a party ship for us. MSC felt like more of a family atmosphere to us. We would love to cruise MSC again.

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We also are to be new cruisers to MSC and are very excited!. We are Elite and Diamond on X and RCCL. We think it is time to expand our horizons and have booked Seaside for 1/18. We are very happy for the status match and not too bummed out about their new private island not being opened as scheduled.We are mainly going for the ship and will keep an open mind. Also we took our GC on Disney cruise last spring and it was a great cruise but I think they have overpriced themselves and we are looking for alternatives. I sure hope we are not disappointed!

I think you should expect what you pay for. In other words, my bet is you paid significantly less to sale MSC then royal Caribbean. Therefore it's only fair to keep your expectations in line with what you paid. I think you should expect a very good value for the dollar spent. Have a great vacation :-)

 

 

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If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

We tried our first MSC cruise a few weeks ago. This following a superb cruise on Celebrity. We had already booked another cruise on Celebrity before we boarded Splendida.

There were many ways ( not all! ) in which we felt Celebrity to be superior. But the price difference is also huge. We were smart enough to keep that in mind.

We had a great cruise and decided we will sail MSC again, as long as it remains good value for money.

Make sure you do the status match and if you are diamond or above with RCI you will be a Black member ( the top level) in the MSC loyalty club.

 

Here is a link to the info and application system

 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/MSC-Voyagers-Club/Voyagers-Club.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

here is the list of perks

Thanks for this advice - we have just enrolled and gone through the status match and have gone in at Black level, so looking forward to some of the perks

Chunkymunky,

I'm a lifelong U.S. citizen, have sailed numerous times this decade and my cruiseline of choice is RCCL. I just returned from a northern Europe cruise on MSC Splendida and had an equal or better time on this cruise than any other cruise, ever.

 

I submitted a very detailed review to the CruiseCritic website today. It hasn't posted yet, but I'll post a portion of it below. Most of the CruiseCritic reviews for MSC Splendida are negative. My experience was excellent, and so vastly different from what I read here that I now suspect some of them are planted by competitor cruise lines. Things that I read on this forum, such as the rumored pushing & cutting in lines, and heavy smoke smell, and rude employees SIMPLY DID NOT HAPPEN on my cruise. This is the first time in my life that I'm disappointed in CruiseCritic for providing such misleading information. I almost cancelled my cruise because of all the negative things people had posted... and it turns out not to have been accurate at all. I'm pretty sure my next Florida cruise will be on MSC Divina instead of the usual cruiselines, based on my quality experience on Splendida.

 

Here's the bulk of my review:

"As a lifelong American, I enjoyed my European cruise on MSC Splendida VERY much. It was a peaceful, comfortable, cultured trip which I wasn't expecting due to reading previous negative reviews.

 

I didn't encounter hoards of people who refuse to "queue". And although very sensitive to cigarette smoke, it wasn't a problem on Splendida... in fact, it was the LEAST-smoky casino of any cruise ship I've been on. (This is my 7th or 8th cruise, and all previous sailings were on Carnival or Royal Caribbean.)

 

I was surprised that the ship NEVER seemed crowded at all. Almost all the room categories were sold out a month before sailing, so I'm not sure where everyone was. Fastest embarkation (Hamburg) that I've ever experienced on a cruiseline.

 

We had a beautiful balcony cabin on the 10th floor, near the back of the ship. Nicer quality, nicer color schemes, and a better bathroom than my previous cruise experiences. The electric plug-ins are European but 2 of the 4 desk outlets also accept American 2-prong AC plugs. The balcony dividers can be opened upon request if your family/friends are in the adjacent cabin. Outstanding room. We purchased the lowest-price balcony (Bella class).

 

The evening shows were singing & dancing. It was the same 8-or-10 performers every night, just like Carnival, so it got a bit boring and I skipped a few shows. I will say that these performers were definitely a higher caliber than Carnival's. Their dance/language training was obviously more sophisticated. (Of course, Royal Caribbean is still the best entertainment at sea, in my opinion, because I prefer the broadway-style musicals.) I'm not sure if Splendida's emcee was the cruise director or not. He didn't waste a lot of talking talking about himself... he just got right to the point, introducing the evening show. He spoke in English first, brief and succinct, then repeated it in 4 or 5 other languages.

 

Other things that were also superior than my American cruise experiences:

--No annoying announcements or sales pitches over the intercom. Awesome.

--There was always room in the hottubs. Maybe it was due to cooler temps during our week.

--The atmosphere on board was noticeably calmer than the rowdy Carnival cruises or crowded noisy Royal Caribbean ones.

--The itinerary was ambitious, and the ship allowed more time in each port than they had previously advertised.

--The wine bar gave unlimited delicious free appetizers when you purchase a bottle of wine.

--I noticed the age-group was a bit older than my former cruises, which is probably why everyone seemed so well-behaved.

--Didn't have to tip extra to anyone or feel obligated to provide financial support to MSC employees. MSC instructs passengers not to tip extra. $9 tip/day is billed to the cabin. The room attendants did their job efficiently. The table servers were johnny-on-the-spot and didn't get overly social, but conversed briefly if we engaged them. There was always someone waiting to serve us if we needed anything.

--Formal dining room gave free bottled water to American passengers. (Each evening, you have to sign the receipt for $0.00).

 

There weren't many stores on-board. MSC didn't try to make this cruise all about their company. It was such a noticeable difference in attitude! I really appreciated not being exposed to a hard-sell throughout the cruise.

 

Actually, I do remember the buffet being too crowded a couple times. We took our breakfast to our room twice. Buffets on American ships have the same problem.

 

Only 2 disappointments:

--Wi-Fi was sometimes too slow to use in the cabin. It was noticeably better in the public areas, and Guest Services confirmed that. You absolutely MUST log off the Splendida system when you're done, THEN turn off your device's wifi, otherwise data might keep consuming.

--The formal dining staff didn't do a song/dance on any of the nights. It's okay... it's sometimes a bit of a "Dance, monkey, dance!" on the American cruises & their waiters probably hate being circus performers.

 

I would definitely cruise with MSC again. No hesitation at all. Overall, I still think Oasis-class and Freedom-class ships (Royal Carib) are the best, and the Caribbean climate is warmer, but passenger behavior was better on MSC, and the European port destinations are obviously classier and safer than the poor Caribbean islands whose economies are dependent on the cruise industry."

Thanks for sharing your thoughts as it's extremely refreshing to read a positive review from a US cruiser.

I agree that many of the reviews on CC prior to our sailing gave me cause for concern too, that were completely unfounded IMHO. I would wholeheartedly agree with your summary of the things that were superior to US cruise lines such as the lack of announcements or sales pitches (bingo bingo, art auction, etc which are all attempts for you to part with money!).

Like you, we will have no hesitation on sailing with MSC in the future (we already had another sailing booked before we sailed on our first one, but are now looking at others) and again agree that RCI Oasis class are great, but the prices are no longer attractive enough to make me want to shell out the airfare to travel from the UK to Florida to sail on them.

Over the years the food quality on RCI has declined and so the pressure to eat at extra cost in the speciality restaurants (which is one thing MSC don't have the wide choice of - not on Splendida or Fantasia anyway) is now so great it adds to the cost of your cruise. RCI always milk this by constantly increasing the up charge for these venues.

Whilst the food quality on MSC may not be Michelin star rated (what mass market cruise line is?), you will not starve and they are no worse than RCI, P&O, Carnival and Celebrity IMHO. The desserts and fresh pastries on MSC blow RCI out of the water!

Also the cost of beverages on MSC are not as outrageous as on RCI where $12 before 18% gratuity is now the norm. So if you don't have beverage package, you still won't break the bank as far as I can see, and the choices are huge. As I mentioned in my review, the little touches of being served a drink accompanied by some 'nibbles' be that olives or chips (in most cases both!) is wonderful and not provided by many other US based lines due to cost cutting.

My review can be found here

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2413856