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Musica: Tips, Hints and Recommendations?


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Howdy, my CC friends! We've got a family of 12 (all ages) taking Musica out of Venice in July. This will be our first MSC cruise. I haven't seen much information recently on the Musica, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has any tips, secrets, etc. on the ship. We will be in an Aurea balcony, and appear to have one of only two cabins on the fore of the ship. Our group is very used to cruising, and we are looking forward to the "European flavor" of MSC.

We plan to get a private tour up to the Dolomites pre-cruise (mostly for our history buffs in the group), and will be staying at the Paganelli for three days post.

Any updates, tips, and/or recommendations on the Musica would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

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My family and I are sailing on the Musica the beginning of August from Venice to the Greek Isles. This is our first MSC cruise and also would like information from those of you who have sailed MSC previously.

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I am going in 2 weeks . Hope to answer some questions after.;p

 

I sure hope you'll post your impression of the Musica after your cruise. We're scheduled to board her in 4 weeks so your input and advice will be very much appreciated. Have a great trip.

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Ourexperience with MSC Musica (11 nights, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Greece)

 

FOOD

The foodin the buffet (breakfast/lunch/dinner) was good, sometimes very good. Pizza andpasta were available every day (still they changed the types of pasta),otherwise there was a good variety of food. Big selection of sweets. Verycrowdy during the peak times – it could take up to 10-15 mins to find a table.Twice we ended up eating with someone else (as we were travelling with atoddler, not many people dared sitting with us:). Staff in that area washelpful and friendly – still during the peak times it was better to go andorder drinks on my own. There were coffee / juice machines for free as well.

The food in the dining restaurants (we were assigned to L'oleandro) was anextreme disappointment. It tasted like bad school-canteen food. Some of themwere basically uneatable. You could often see people not eating some dishes atall. Soups (all of them) were either too salty or tasteless. On one gala night,we were encouraged to order a special signature dish created by one of Italiantop chefs for MSC. It looked so bad, that the waiter offered to replace it withsomething else, as soon as he brought it to the table. My wife is a vegetarian– these dishes were either disgusting or tasteless. Just to clarify one thing:we do eat everything and are open to new tastes etc. The most ridiculous wasthe “three cheese selection” - it consisted of three pieces of exactly samecheese. The waiter wasn't able to explain what type of cheese it was. The ladywho was sitting with us did order the “cheese selection” many times and apartfrom Gala Evenings, the result was always the same. Waiters don't seem to beinterested in anything. Forget about having some individual requests (even suchbasic things like medium-rare steak). We asked once for a glass of milk for ourchild – we were told it was a “big problem”. You need to wait really long toorder a drink (apart from the beginning). On one occasion I asked for anotherglass of wine during the appetizer and it was delivered together with mydessert.... Honestly, if you won't get any interesting company on the table, gostraight to the buffet on deck 13 (or Japanese restaurant). The dining room isa waste of time. We didn't eat lunch out there but we spoke to other people whodid try it and they all ended up eating their lunch and breakfast in thebuffer.

 

DRINKS

Allegrissimodrink package was included in our deal when we booked the cruise. That wasanother disappointment and MSC didn't mentioned anywhere that nowadays there isAllegrissimo and Allegrissimo Premium. The latter covers Allegrissimo PLUS somedrinks that used to be previously in Allegrissimo (e.g. MSC Signature Drinkslike Coco-Loco). Of course, you can upgrade to Premium once on board (extra22euro/day). They were very pushy with advertising Allegrissimo / AllegrissimoPremium and selling their drink packages to everyone during lunches andbreakfasts.

Anotherissue was the quality of the drinks. I did have really good memories from MSCSplendida, so I was looking forward to order drinks on this cruise. Most of themwere semi-average – these were either very, very strong or extremely sweet. Abartender in our student club at uni prepared better mojito then those guys...

 

STAFF

Staff wasgenerally very friendly and helpful. Or to express it in a better way: you couldobserve two extremes: people who were extremely helpful, going above andbeyond, and people who were just rude and behaved like passengers were only aproblem. We were travelling with a toddler and they always came to help us(well, apart from the dinning restaurant). Our room steward was also veryfriendly and helpful. And that's it. The reception desk staff was rather rudeand unable to help with basic issues (unless it involved paying them somemoney...). You can see that staff morale is really low. They basically didn'tcare. One day I needed to wait because the lady at the reception desk wasfocused on discussing the booking of her next flight back home to Ukraine...

The otherproblem was English. OK, as you can see from my grammar, I am not an Englishnative speaker. Still, even I couldn't communicate with them. It took my wife15 minutes to explain the lady at the reception desk that we would like to havea cot for our child (something that was supposed to be there already). Our roomsteward wasn't able to explain what to do when our door lock stopped working(in the end, I needed to go to reception to report that). Waiters: usuallyunable to provide any information about drinks, dishes, some of them froze whenI used word “coke” instead of “coca cola” or “Pepsi”. Be careful with makingany digressions, comments etc. It may be met with confusion. I don't want toimagine how would they communicate to the distressed passengers during anevacuation.

 

ENTERTAINMENTAND ON-BOARD EVENTS

Lots oflive music. Musicians/singers were engaging with the passengers (especially theMexican duo in Blue Velvet). Still, after couple of evenings you could observethat some of them were playing the same songs all over again and again. Still,the live music was a positive experience.

Shows inthe theatre constituted another disappointment. The theatre is rather small andthere is not much they can basically do there. The setup of the scene wasalways the same. Most shows were “songs and music only”. After attending three ofthem, I stopped going there (my wife still attend all of them).

Loads ofdance classes – another positive aspect and loads of events on the pool deck(another plus).

Theentertainment team was visible everywhere. I would also expect some themesrelated to our cruise, e.g. a Greek theme when we arrived in Greece etc.Instead we had an “Oktoberfest” (of course, you would need to pay extra forthose beers....).

Dresscode – loads of people didn't bother. Still there was no logic or explanationto it, e.g. one day we had “white evening”. It would be nice if MSC wouldinform us about those themes before we boarded the ship, so we could preparerelevant clothes.

 

 

POOL DECK

It wasusually hard to find an available sunbed. Still, it didn't mean that most of thosebeds were in use. Actually, it happened very often that only half of them wereoccupied and the rest were simply “booked”. I've seen an Italian family thatleft their stuff on five beds and went for lunch. The staff didn't seem to bebothered with that (although officially there is “20 mins rule”). The sameapplied to people smoking outside the designated areas, e.g. while sitting onthe edge of the swimming pool. The “Pool attendant” was actually happilychatting to one of those guys. Interestingly, those breaking the rules werealmost exclusively Italian families (it includes allowing non-potty trainedbabies to use main pool or jacuzzi)

 

 

 

 

 

GENERALIMPRESSION

MSCMusica is older than MSC Splendida and you can see that everywhere. It'sdefinitely not as impressive. Still, it's clean and everything was working.

Unfortunately,my main impression was that they were mostly focused on getting my money. Iknow – it's a business at the end of the day. Still, even RyanAir does it in amore subtle/gentle way. They are not displaying any prices in the Photo Shopand most of the shops. It was almost pathetic: as the members of Voyagers clubwe were invited for a meeting with the Captain. The Captain didn't show up.There was no „thank you for being a returning customer”. Instead they wentstraight to convincing everyone to book the next cruise. Another example: announcementon the Gala Evening. The excited Cruise Director was updating passengers on the„highlights of the evening”. These highlights were: 1) photo shop was open 2)special offer on excursions 3) special deal in the casino. That's it. Nothingabout entertainment, dinner etc.

Oh, and Ialmost forgot about their pathetic savings. E.g. in the buffet they won't giveyou a teaspoon, unless you are travelling with a child. Still, they do offeryogurts in small pots... After long discussion I successfully got my teaspoon...Or I asked two waiters for paper napkins (to clean our sons hands). I was toldthat they don't provide them anymore and I can get them from the toilet (i.e.toilet paper).

 

We didbook that cruise mainly because of the interesting itinerary, timing and price.

So, ifyou are looking for cheap cruise, especially if itinerary is interesting, thengo for it. However, if you want to celebrate a special occasion (e.g. honeymoonor anniversary) – stay far away from MSC Musica.

 

TRAVELLINGWITH CHILDREN

As we didtravel with our 19months old son, we can share some experiences in that area.

MSC doesprovide cots. You need to remind them about this. We waited for our cot until10PM on the embarkation day. The state of those cots is terrible: holes in thelining, broken parts (honestly, you would throw it away if it was yours). Theroom steward tried two different cots before he manage to provide a workingone. Highchairs were available in all eating areas. Staff was very friendly andall wanted to play with our son, which was really nice.

Food: thechild menu in the main dining area was a joke. Food was tasteless, no variety.In the buffet on deck 13 they had something called „Kids corner”. It'sseparated with colourful plastic barriers and you can entry it through a gatethat is 130 centimetres high (so, it's „only for children”). Still, the heightof the tables with food hasn't been adjusted to kids, so an adult would need tofollow them anyway:):)

Gettinghot milk/hot water in the dining restaurant is a „big problem” as I was told byour waiter.

If yourchild is messy – don't hope for any paper tissues. I was told that I can getpaper tissues „from the toilet”.

Pool:theoretically, only potty trained children can use pools and jacuzzies. Asmentioned earlier, it's just a theory, after seeing so many Italian familiesbreaking that rule, we started doing the same. There is a baby-pool on deck 14but it was shut down for the entire time of our cruise.

Baby/toddlerplay area: MSC made a deal with Chicco and they arrange a baby-play area ondeck 14 – parents can go there to play with their babies. The opening timeswere strange: on „Port Days” it was open three times a day, while on „At Sea”days it was open only twice (9-11, 20-21). No seats for parents provided. Theplay room is on deck 14 and in order to access it, you need to go out. So, itcould be an issue in a windy or rainy weather... I need to admit that therewere loads of toys but I got impression that whoever design it didn't have anyexperience with babies at all. It wasn't fully baby-proof (power sockets; TVwiring hanging just above the toys). Still, better that than nothing. There isan option to leave your child (1-3) with their staff for an hour in the playarea (parent will be given a pager).

 

Chiccooffer: you can rent some Chicco stuff for free: pushchairs, baby carriers etc.We wanted to use pushchairs but they were all in terrible state (missing orbroken parts) – completely unstable. One parent told me that baby carriers weregood.

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Ourexperience with MSC Musica (11 nights, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Greece)

 

FOOD

The foodin the buffet (breakfast/lunch/dinner) was good, sometimes very good. Pizza andpasta were available every day (still they changed the types of pasta),otherwise there was a good variety of food. Big selection of sweets. Verycrowdy during the peak times – it could take up to 10-15 mins to find a table.Twice we ended up eating with someone else (as we were travelling with atoddler, not many people dared sitting with us:). Staff in that area washelpful and friendly – still during the peak times it was better to go andorder drinks on my own. There were coffee / juice machines for free as well.

The food in the dining restaurants (we were assigned to L'oleandro) was anextreme disappointment. It tasted like bad school-canteen food. Some of themwere basically uneatable. You could often see people not eating some dishes atall. Soups (all of them) were either too salty or tasteless. On one gala night,we were encouraged to order a special signature dish created by one of Italiantop chefs for MSC. It looked so bad, that the waiter offered to replace it withsomething else, as soon as he brought it to the table. My wife is a vegetarian– these dishes were either disgusting or tasteless. Just to clarify one thing:we do eat everything and are open to new tastes etc. The most ridiculous wasthe “three cheese selection” - it consisted of three pieces of exactly samecheese. The waiter wasn't able to explain what type of cheese it was. The ladywho was sitting with us did order the “cheese selection” many times and apartfrom Gala Evenings, the result was always the same. Waiters don't seem to beinterested in anything. Forget about having some individual requests (even suchbasic things like medium-rare steak). We asked once for a glass of milk for ourchild – we were told it was a “big problem”. You need to wait really long toorder a drink (apart from the beginning). On one occasion I asked for anotherglass of wine during the appetizer and it was delivered together with mydessert.... Honestly, if you won't get any interesting company on the table, gostraight to the buffet on deck 13 (or Japanese restaurant). The dining room isa waste of time. We didn't eat lunch out there but we spoke to other people whodid try it and they all ended up eating their lunch and breakfast in thebuffer.

 

DRINKS

Allegrissimodrink package was included in our deal when we booked the cruise. That wasanother disappointment and MSC didn't mentioned anywhere that nowadays there isAllegrissimo and Allegrissimo Premium. The latter covers Allegrissimo PLUS somedrinks that used to be previously in Allegrissimo (e.g. MSC Signature Drinkslike Coco-Loco). Of course, you can upgrade to Premium once on board (extra22euro/day). They were very pushy with advertising Allegrissimo / AllegrissimoPremium and selling their drink packages to everyone during lunches andbreakfasts.

Anotherissue was the quality of the drinks. I did have really good memories from MSCSplendida, so I was looking forward to order drinks on this cruise. Most of themwere semi-average – these were either very, very strong or extremely sweet. Abartender in our student club at uni prepared better mojito then those guys...

 

STAFF

Staff wasgenerally very friendly and helpful. Or to express it in a better way: you couldobserve two extremes: people who were extremely helpful, going above andbeyond, and people who were just rude and behaved like passengers were only aproblem. We were travelling with a toddler and they always came to help us(well, apart from the dinning restaurant). Our room steward was also veryfriendly and helpful. And that's it. The reception desk staff was rather rudeand unable to help with basic issues (unless it involved paying them somemoney...). You can see that staff morale is really low. They basically didn'tcare. One day I needed to wait because the lady at the reception desk wasfocused on discussing the booking of her next flight back home to Ukraine...

The otherproblem was English. OK, as you can see from my grammar, I am not an Englishnative speaker. Still, even I couldn't communicate with them. It took my wife15 minutes to explain the lady at the reception desk that we would like to havea cot for our child (something that was supposed to be there already). Our roomsteward wasn't able to explain what to do when our door lock stopped working(in the end, I needed to go to reception to report that). Waiters: usuallyunable to provide any information about drinks, dishes, some of them froze whenI used word “coke” instead of “coca cola” or “Pepsi”. Be careful with makingany digressions, comments etc. It may be met with confusion. I don't want toimagine how would they communicate to the distressed passengers during anevacuation.

 

ENTERTAINMENTAND ON-BOARD EVENTS

Lots oflive music. Musicians/singers were engaging with the passengers (especially theMexican duo in Blue Velvet). Still, after couple of evenings you could observethat some of them were playing the same songs all over again and again. Still,the live music was a positive experience.

Shows inthe theatre constituted another disappointment. The theatre is rather small andthere is not much they can basically do there. The setup of the scene wasalways the same. Most shows were “songs and music only”. After attending three ofthem, I stopped going there (my wife still attend all of them).

Loads ofdance classes – another positive aspect and loads of events on the pool deck(another plus).

Theentertainment team was visible everywhere. I would also expect some themesrelated to our cruise, e.g. a Greek theme when we arrived in Greece etc.Instead we had an “Oktoberfest” (of course, you would need to pay extra forthose beers....).

Dresscode – loads of people didn't bother. Still there was no logic or explanationto it, e.g. one day we had “white evening”. It would be nice if MSC wouldinform us about those themes before we boarded the ship, so we could preparerelevant clothes.

 

 

POOL DECK

It wasusually hard to find an available sunbed. Still, it didn't mean that most of thosebeds were in use. Actually, it happened very often that only half of them wereoccupied and the rest were simply “booked”. I've seen an Italian family thatleft their stuff on five beds and went for lunch. The staff didn't seem to bebothered with that (although officially there is “20 mins rule”). The sameapplied to people smoking outside the designated areas, e.g. while sitting onthe edge of the swimming pool. The “Pool attendant” was actually happilychatting to one of those guys. Interestingly, those breaking the rules werealmost exclusively Italian families (it includes allowing non-potty trainedbabies to use main pool or jacuzzi)

 

 

 

 

 

GENERALIMPRESSION

MSCMusica is older than MSC Splendida and you can see that everywhere. It'sdefinitely not as impressive. Still, it's clean and everything was working.

Unfortunately,my main impression was that they were mostly focused on getting my money. Iknow – it's a business at the end of the day. Still, even RyanAir does it in amore subtle/gentle way. They are not displaying any prices in the Photo Shopand most of the shops. It was almost pathetic: as the members of Voyagers clubwe were invited for a meeting with the Captain. The Captain didn't show up.There was no „thank you for being a returning customer”. Instead they wentstraight to convincing everyone to book the next cruise. Another example: announcementon the Gala Evening. The excited Cruise Director was updating passengers on the„highlights of the evening”. These highlights were: 1) photo shop was open 2)special offer on excursions 3) special deal in the casino. That's it. Nothingabout entertainment, dinner etc.

Oh, and Ialmost forgot about their pathetic savings. E.g. in the buffet they won't giveyou a teaspoon, unless you are travelling with a child. Still, they do offeryogurts in small pots... After long discussion I successfully got my teaspoon...Or I asked two waiters for paper napkins (to clean our sons hands). I was toldthat they don't provide them anymore and I can get them from the toilet (i.e.toilet paper).

 

We didbook that cruise mainly because of the interesting itinerary, timing and price.

So, ifyou are looking for cheap cruise, especially if itinerary is interesting, thengo for it. However, if you want to celebrate a special occasion (e.g. honeymoonor anniversary) – stay far away from MSC Musica.

 

TRAVELLINGWITH CHILDREN

As we didtravel with our 19months old son, we can share some experiences in that area.

MSC doesprovide cots. You need to remind them about this. We waited for our cot until10PM on the embarkation day. The state of those cots is terrible: holes in thelining, broken parts (honestly, you would throw it away if it was yours). Theroom steward tried two different cots before he manage to provide a workingone. Highchairs were available in all eating areas. Staff was very friendly andall wanted to play with our son, which was really nice.

Food: thechild menu in the main dining area was a joke. Food was tasteless, no variety.In the buffet on deck 13 they had something called „Kids corner”. It'sseparated with colourful plastic barriers and you can entry it through a gatethat is 130 centimetres high (so, it's „only for children”). Still, the heightof the tables with food hasn't been adjusted to kids, so an adult would need tofollow them anyway:):)

Gettinghot milk/hot water in the dining restaurant is a „big problem” as I was told byour waiter.

If yourchild is messy – don't hope for any paper tissues. I was told that I can getpaper tissues „from the toilet”.

Pool:theoretically, only potty trained children can use pools and jacuzzies. Asmentioned earlier, it's just a theory, after seeing so many Italian familiesbreaking that rule, we started doing the same. There is a baby-pool on deck 14but it was shut down for the entire time of our cruise.

Baby/toddlerplay area: MSC made a deal with Chicco and they arrange a baby-play area ondeck 14 – parents can go there to play with their babies. The opening timeswere strange: on „Port Days” it was open three times a day, while on „At Sea”days it was open only twice (9-11, 20-21). No seats for parents provided. Theplay room is on deck 14 and in order to access it, you need to go out. So, itcould be an issue in a windy or rainy weather... I need to admit that therewere loads of toys but I got impression that whoever design it didn't have anyexperience with babies at all. It wasn't fully baby-proof (power sockets; TVwiring hanging just above the toys). Still, better that than nothing. There isan option to leave your child (1-3) with their staff for an hour in the playarea (parent will be given a pager).

 

Chiccooffer: you can rent some Chicco stuff for free: pushchairs, baby carriers etc.We wanted to use pushchairs but they were all in terrible state (missing orbroken parts) – completely unstable. One parent told me that baby carriers weregood.

 

 

when did you go that it was warm enough to use pools? :(

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