Mpls35

Where did you port in Jamaica? We are interested in Blue Hole- so glad you loved it! Sounds like you'd recommend Dr. Fun. We are in Falmouth with RCI. Can I ask what it cost? Thanks!

 

 

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We docked at Ocho Rios. Dr Fun is your guy!! He and his two helpers were the absolute best. It was $50 per person. Best thing we did all week by far. It’s not for the faint of heart- you have to be able to walk up the falls. They helped me a lot. Many times they would just pick my son up and carry him (he’s 10 and not very agile). Wear shoes that will not come off! I had a lot of issues with my Sandals coming off whenever I jumped.

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Just a quick question about the shops.

 

Did you notice if any of the shops had a decent selection of Lego? We were on the Preziosa in August and the shop had a selection of about 15-20 small and medium sized sets which we thought was pretty good for a cruise ship shop. Our son is turning 8 on our cruise in March and while we're planning to celebrate when we get home it would be nice to be able to purchase something for him to open on the day without having to haul it along. I think you said your son was not a big Lego fan, but I was wondering if you noted the selection onboard.

 

We already bought the exclusive cruise ship set on our last cruise but we're hoping they might have something he doesn't already own.

Yes I was impressed with the LEGO selection! There was at least that many sets on board in the logo ahop. Someone else’s review said you could “earn” sets in the kids club by completing different activities; don’t know how that works.

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Wow! My son was nagging me about those lobby elevators all week, I had no idea they were even a thing but he kept insistent they were! I can tell him he was right!

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My parents went once last week. They were pretty unimpressed. Breakfast is only 8-930 in Seashore restaurant. Service was slow they said and the food wasn’t much different than buffet. They were able to order their usual latte.

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Hmmm. As I mentioned in a previous comment on MSC. IF coffee's that HARD to come by after din-din as well as water WITH meals in the MDR, I'd definitely have second thoughts about MSC. Maybe like another poster here remarked. 'MSC just needs time to adapt to the American market'. Yet, I've read here many who say that this 'European air' might be right up their alley? I guess the old saying goes,' Don't knock it till you try it' fits. After all, MSC IS a multi-cultural cruise ship.

 

 

 

Mac

I don’t think I stressed this enough- I was most surprised by the fact that MSC is indeed a multicultural cruise! It felt like over half were European. I really enjoyed this. I don’t believe I saw a single inebriated hooligan (there were lots on our NCL cruise!!) The food and habits were obviously indicative of Italian culture. They don’t drink coffee with dinner. They don’t eat cereal. The coffee was amazing (I remember NCL’s was inedible!) Pastries were good. Dinner was long.

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Also do you know what other brands of handbags they had on the ship? (To purchase) [emoji3]

 

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Guess bags seemed to be predominant and they were on sale at one point.

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Thank you for the review. Could you supply more information about the thermal spa area? Is there a large area with lounge chairs inside the spa for relaxing and reading? Is there a pool inside the spa, or is there only a hot tub? Are there lounge chairs in the outdoor portion of the spa and is there any shade in that area? Many thanks for your help.

There are two areas for lounging inside (other than the salt room); there are 3 heated stone loungers and then three regular loungers, then a second area with maybe 8 loungers. There are probably 12 loungers outdoors, no shade. Jacuzzi tub outside and the large rectangle jacuzzi inside. No pool.

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I am loving your review so far ! It is a good thing that you remembered to pack your patience ! Yikes !

 

Hopefully things got better as the week went on .

 

Were you plagued with the horrible sewage smell like others have posted ? This freaks me out a little bit .

 

I am looking forward to the rest of your review . Thanks for sharing ! And the baby on the bed is absolutely adorable !

Thank you! I didn’t smell it, my parents did. But it was just a passing thing. We travel for ports and weather and not the ship, tho this sailing taught us we better like the ship a little If weather isn’t great!

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[quote=Vacationdreamer

It was fun! But over too soon! Maybe 10 minutes? So I went to sign up DS for the FI simulator and they said he was too short. I said okay we will do 5D. He does have autism after all so this change in plans was not welcome! In my encouraging him to try something new, the staff heard me say “hey, I’d do it!” And he rang me up for it too. I just went along with it. During the thing it was fun. We were fighting monsters in New York subways. I was wearing a black skirt and gave the crowd a nice Marilyn Monroe moment when the fans hit just right! Yikes! My husband watched in the video screens and laughed.

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How long did it take to disembark the ship?

About 30 minutes

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If we booked this ship again it would be because of ports and price. I was really enamored with how nice everything was. I could see the majority of staff was trying really hard. August from Bali was a super star, as was everyone we saw in the halls. My husband said If all things were equal he would prefer NCL because of the my time dining. I remember posting a similar review of NCL and thinking it was cheesy, but I didn’t care because we were happy doing family time.

I don’t want to discourage folks from the kids area- it looked awesome! A kid with ASD is harder to accommodate and I don’t expect the moon. We’re lucky that we like hanging out with him.

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Embarkation wasn’t awesome. We chose express walk off but were startled by having to be “off the ship” by 7:30. We called (!) guest services and actually talked to a person who said we indeed had to be OFF the ship by 7:30. My husband, who is less patient than me, said: so, if we show up at the exit with all our bags at 8:00 you won’t let us leave? GS says yes. I get it- it’s a message to the masses- get off. So, we met at breakfast at 7:00 and hustled into line at 7:25. Stood in line for 10 minutes when the announcement about the government shut down and border patrol came up!

For me my photos sum up this ship. It was all photos of my family in pretty parts of the ship!

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[quote=Vacationdreamer

My husband said the Coke was room temp- but our room steward brought ice twice a day. We tipped him up front.

5D was $8 Kids, $10 adults.

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Interesting.

 

 

 

Did they have olive oil on the table for dipping? That's the European thing to do.

 

 

 

Funny how the bread is hard to get, given that they make a big deal about it on the menu. Of course, they make a big deal about the 20 hour buffet on their website, too.

Only on Italian night! Even though one other time they put out the little olive oil plates.

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I only noticed the odor problem right outside my cabin, 15115, but not In it and didn't notice it in any public areas. This appears to be a great ship for young adults and people with young children

They were having a great time and overlooked the problems with the elevators and odors as they were having too much fun. MSC had better fix these issues if they want to attract an American passenger base. We also had a problem with the lunch and dinner drink package but it was resolved quickly. It all depends on who you talk to. Guest Services was very busy all week. I either went first thing in the morning or late at night and was always helped. Bob

Truth, Bob. I was on with extended family and we were there to be together and didn’t worry ultimately about the service issues, even if we noticed them! I hope you enjoyed your two weeks and thanks for all your work getting together all that precruise info!

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I think when I'm on the Seaside in a couple months I'm going to grab a seat by customer service with a few beers. Listening in on all the irate people at customer service might be the best entertainment on the ship.

Exactly.

FWIW- I heard someone complaining about this this week. It is the “nonno” butter that ppl were skeptical of. In the buffet the staff assured an irate man who was insistent it was margarine in disguise that it was in fact unsalted butter- something not popular in Italy. We ate both without noticing the difference! For goodness sakes people get a grip!

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Forgot Cozumel- again with the not great weather. We had prepaid Playa Mia, I’ll post a separate review on ports but you can cancel 24 hours in advance. Wish we would have!!!!

We did go to the big grocery store at port- that was fun and fruitful! We bought a six pack of beer and wine and tons of souvenirs for the folks watching our cat and moving our cars during inevitable snow emergencies- vanilla, marinades, all kinds of good stuff for ridiculously cheap. We saw lots of MSC staff here stocking up. I could barely carry my bags onboard but nothing was confiscated.

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Interesting....based on photo of outside movie area....Looks like not alot of wind protection nor straight on seating..... On Princess and Carnival....more glass on the sides and the outside area where movie seating is on a lower deck (lido decks) and more seating options . Just wonder how effective this will be??

Exactly- I saw no one watching movies ever. Also we talked to a couple seated directly below on deck 15 who said they could hear everything from the movies. They heard the Beast speak, lol.

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Another off-putting moment: our waitress Anna stopped us abruptly one night as we were getting up to leave. She said “hey, I need a favor from all of you tonight. I need you to fill out this comment card to tell my boss how well I’m doing!” My parents pretty much turned and left but I stayed behind. I knew she was trying hard and I think her issues were just adjusting to “American” expectations. So I said I’d fill out the card. I mean, I can always find nice things to say right? She was sweet. So she gave me a card and I said I’d take it with me to fill out and return it tomorrow. She said no, you must turn it in now. I said no, we’re headed out, I’ll do it tomorrow. She thought for a moment and said “okay, I’ll give it to you earlier during dinner tomorrow.” Bingo. I really believe all the staff we met were working their tails off. They just need guidance and help from superiors. Once the dining room manager came to us and apologized for Anna’s slow service bringing us coffee. He said it was because the bar service is really slow. I made sure to tell him I didn’t think it was her fault. Water was refilled once during dinner, to be fair. We commented that it seemed like Anna was too consumed with bringing orders out; this should be done by junior servers. Then she could help with things like ketchup requests (just don’t ask!)

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Last sea day was spent unable to keep tabs on people because I ran out of data! So when you buy the streamer you get a set amount of MBs. But you can register two devices. If I had known that I would have only bought one package because I just wanted it to text. So I let my sister login to mine and share my data. Somehow, unbeknownst to her, her device used half of my data in one dinner service. You have to be super careful! Our other account had lots of data left but we couldn’t deregister my husband or sons device To do so. There was an option to extend your data for a day at a time for less than what you originally paid.

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We had our own schedule we followed- after our early dining we would usually meet upstairs in 16 for soft serve before putting the kids to bed. My crew usually went to sleep or watched a movie in our room. A couple times my parents went to the show- they are not show people!- they thought it was cheesy. They preferred sitting in the lovely spaces listening to the excellent live entertainment. There was a great acoustic Sam Smith like guy back by the Piazza.

Which brings me to- Shopping! I like to shop. I didn’t come with high hopes, NCL had practically nothing. MSC had better stuff. Perfume and makeup that seemed to be about what I’d pay on the mainland. A cute clothing store with adorable dresses in the 150ish range. I actually lingered on the Lacoste purses which were in the $60 range. Seaside march was good price if you’re into that- those chocolate ship replicas were $20, my sister got her baby a very cute Chicco brand $10 ship bath toy.

We also liked to convene in the arcade for air hockey. At $2 it was a good deal and fun for all.

Here’s another fun thing we did at night- if we couldn’t sleep my son and I would sneak out to the basketball court!

There were movies at the Miami Beach pool at night, tho they didn’t seem to be crowd pleasers. Spider-Man, Beauty and the Beast, can’t remember the others. My parents would have liked a movie theater. I never saw anyone watching the movies. Mostly due to weather. Here’s the end of the movie one night:

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Tuesday was Italian night and apparently some people were mad because there was no announcement. This didn’t affect my group as we weren’t into this kind of stuff. I did wear a white dress on white night, but didn’t make it to the party. Actually I think a lot of night activities were cancelled this week. I swear I have no idea where the people were. We didn’t go to any of the shows, and none of the bars were busy. The only time unnoticed crowds was on bad weather days when there was a sale on jewelry in the shops. The thermal area was a bit full on the first sea day too (full meaning about 8 ppl in the jacuzzi and all 8 loungers in the salt room full).

On the topic of crowds, because the weather wasn’t great we always found loungers. I even snagged one of the coveted lounge beds by the Miami pool when we were in the Bahamas and the sun actually came out for like 2 whole hours.

My parents like to read, so they enjoyed the SeaView lounge. There were some books and newspapers. They got a lot of coffees here and were happy. None of us gamble.

My parents, I should note, are 70ish, somewhat limited mobility, and haven’t cruised in over 20 year’s when they went on a converted Greek freighter without stabilizers or fancy things like queen beds. (Their twin beds hung off the walls with chains). They had terrible motion sickness. I think they enjoyed their time on this ship, but weren’t impressed by long waits at dinner or the fancy Swarovski stairs. My mom was interested in the arts and crafts classes- oh man. They were SO BAD. “Mosaics” was not ceramics but cut up pieces of paper glued to paper vases. Another day was picture frames- also construction paper based. They went to Bingo for a gag and said it was also very cheesy. I’m not a fan of the cheese factor and I’ve found it to be strong on each cruise I’ve been on. No matter- we like to do our own thing! We brought lots of games, cards, etc and camped out for hours in the comfortable spaces in the sports bar.

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My sister got her hair colored for $44. Blow dry and style was 30+ more, so she declined that. She didn’t like her color, even though she liked her stylist. She went back the next day and he offered to do it again, but by then he only had early morning appointments left. She couldn’t do that with the baby, so she asked for her money back, and for once they came through and immediately credited her account. My mom got her hair cut for like $30, and I thought it was really cute! Sister also got mani/pedi which she liked. Prices were all really good!

Forgot to mention Baby Care- hours are 11-1 and 5-8. Staffing seemed short. She got a satellite phone to call if there were issues; one night she did get a call that baby was crying too much :(.

Day two was Grand Cayman and a tender experience. It did take awhile, there was some sitting around and waiting in lines. I’ve only tendered once before so I don’t have much to compare it to. We commented that we were glad we only had to do it once.

My poor sister was hauling around an 18-month old in an ergo carrier and had tried to find a stroller in Jamaica to no avail. Luckily she was able to find a decent-sized baby store in Cayman and $140 later was the proud owner of a Caymanian umbrella stroller.

We took a cab to public beach where the sun actually came out for a whole hour- woohoo!

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Another weird technology glitch- on day one they gave me a paper card to tote around that said thermal spa. I almost threw it away, but that piece of paper is your entrance to the thermal area. They collect it when you enter to determine how many ppl are in the spa. You get a slap bracelet to wear inside.

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I realize I’m painting a less than ideal picture. Many of the big issues happened to other members of my party. My issues felt small in comparison to my admiration of the ship in general, and the fact that I was on vacation and it wasn’t 20 below zero outside!.

Here’s a high point- the spa! The $129 service I got was wonderful. I especially liked that I got my facial in the same room as the massage- no need to move. And I thought the Thermal spa was worth the cost- the precruise cost that is. There’s a nice locker room with lots of new white towels. Your card opens and closes the locker. Which means you have to keep your card with you in the spa, kindof annoying.

There’s a Finnish sauna and a “soft sauna” (not as hot). There’s a salt room that was really popular. The large jacuzzi was great. Then there was something called a Geyser Kneiff- super weird. Couldn’t figure that one out. There was a bright light sensory steam room and a dark sensory steam room. They were my favorite, along with the snow room. There were several hot and cold rain showers too. Then there was an entrance to the “private” outdoor deck and jacuzzi. I say “private” because it wasn’t blocked off from the public- anyone can enter. In fact, the first morning when I was out wondering around I walked right into the spa thermal area from outside. Whoops.

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