Itchy&Scratchy

Grand Cayman

Ocho Rios

Sea Day #1

Ocean Cay the printed map was VERY DIFFERENT from the map in the app. There were no food trucks on Sunset beach. downloaded map from the app Ocean Cay.pdf

I have a couple of minutes, so I am going to post dailies real quick.

they've been down for several weeks. For our last week's cruise as well...

yes, they made loud announcements about it as well.

you aren't exactly selling it, you know, lol. 🙂

neither are they enforced on Princess or RCI. The only time our embarkation time was enforced was freshly post-pandemic in Nov 2021 on Harmony. I actually found embarkation and debarkation on Seascape in POM to be quite ordinary (though, not in ports of call). Zero complaints (except for me not knowing how to order wheelchair assistance for my dad). Imagine my shock when I saw a guy at MDR on Seascape who was wearing rashguard and trunks to dinner. I was surprised because cruisecritic reviews usually state that people dress up a bit more on MSC than they do on other, more Americanized, cruise lines. Not this dude, though. 🙂 We are usually quite casual, but we do not wear swimming suits and trunks to dinner at MDR.

Last week our MSC tour was scheduled for 9:30 and was over an hour late. Other tours started 2 hours late. People were very upset.

the real Italian experience I "enjoyed" on our MSC cruise was real Italians completely ignoring the queue of people at the buffet bar and literally barging in right in front of you to place their order. They spoke Italian, pretended not to understand the unhappy people in line, and, worse yet, yelled out to their companions at the nearby table to see if they also wanted something from the bar.

but what I mean is - when I pay the same money for a Princess cruise, I have excellent food. Are we blaming the inferior food quality on MSC ships on cultural differences? or on difference in price?

we were late last week. Everyone blamed it on the harbor master. We had an MSC excursion which was supposed to start at 9:30, but it didn't start until an hour later. Many people on other MSC excursions were delayed by 2 hours. I booked an MSC excursion because I've read on here about people not being let off the boat until much later.

the boat captain made us sign another waiver.

to make a fair comparison, we sailed on RCI's Allure in June and on Oasis during Spring Break (Easter week), and it was not as disorganized and crowded as our Thanksgiving cruise on Seascape. Also sailed on a full Enchanted Princess and Regal Princess during Thanksgiving, and it was not chaotic and disorganized. that's the thing.... No matter how little or how much we spend on RCI or Princess cruises, we always get top notch service. Even though we are always in the steerage class. This MSC cruise wasn't all that much cheaper than our previous or future cruises with Princess, Carnival and Celebrity, but we felt that the $400 difference in price just isn't worth the aggravation with the stupid elevator system on Seascape, with standing in line for an hour to get back on the ship in a port of call only for the buffet to be closed already, or dealing with the manual searches of ALL the beach bags of all the passengers in Jamaica. On our cruise someone passed out while waiting in line to get back on the ship in Jamaica. It was extremely hot inside the ship where we had to wait to be searched. The crew didn't even care. We've been cruising for years, but we've never experienced anything like that before.

Not sure what cultural differences have to do with lower quality of food and customer service on an MSC cruise. We didn't enjoy food on an Norwegian cruise, does that mean we wouldn't like Norway? 🙂 And why wouldn't people who enjoy Princess and Celebrity cruises want to spend a few weeks in Italy? What does this even mean?

yes, they have deeper pockets, but they are not spending the money on those pockets on passengers. 🙂 Many people on our cruise (on FB) said it was going to be their first and last MSC cruise. And not only due to food.

Before I forget and move on to food, we used a USB night light in the bathroom overnight. This is a photo from our previous cruise, but it worked the same on Seascape. I think @Essiesmom said it wouldn't work if the bathroom light wasn't on, but it did. You have to use your cruise card in the door slot in order for the power to come on in your room. We tried a different card, but it didn't work. 🙂

Extremely weak magnetism on the doors, but the walls were better. I was unable to stick the sheet magnets to the door, and the only ones that worked were these: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pen-Gear-Magnet-Set-10-Count-Multi-Colored/400812925?athbdg=L1200&from=/search I glued them to the back of the gnome figurines I purchased separately (fall themed) and used the figurines as "magnets". However, magnets that have a magnetic sheet coating only stuck to the cabin walls. I previously used them on the RCI and Princess ship cabin doors without a hitch.

10056 Bathroom. Overall size was good. I loved the sink! I would have liked to have 3 shelves instead of two, but we made do. The shower stall was abysmally narrow. I am 5'6 but I couldn't bend to wash my feet and it wasn't wide enough for me to pull up my knee up. My 6'1 DH felt even more awkward. Shower water temperature fluctuated a LOT during the shower going from warm to hot to luke warm. My mom complained that their shower head kept sliding down the pole and out from its position.

Deluxe Balcony Cabin 10036

We made it to the buffet after noon, but it was still early enough to find a place for 5 people to sit together. This success was intermittent throughout the cruise, since the buffet was quite a zoo during popular times, since Seascape has only one buffet for the plebs like us. 🙂 Our cabins were ready a short while later, so we headed down to leave our carry on luggage there. One of our suitcases has already arrived. My parents and we ended up having the same cabin attendant. We had 10056 and my parents were in 10036. 10056 Closet space was adequate for us - we didn't bring a lot of clothing and stayed very casual on this cruise. We stuffed the suitcases under the bed for the very first time, because there was simply no other space for them. On Princess we can store them in a closet due to a better cabin layout. On Royal they sort of fit between the wall and the bed. Sofa bed. It stayed this way throughout the entire cruise. It was ok. Don't touch the minibar. 🙂 You can ask your cabin attendant to empty it out if you need a cooler. My parents did. TV had a few channels. None with any modern movies - only some black and white old stuff. You need to choose your language on the home screen - some people on our cruise didn't realize it until they complained about it on FB. The switch in the middle with a small blue light on it is your balcony light. We brought a USB splitter as well. We loved the balcony! It was very big compared to Princess Royal class. When we arrived, our balcony door handle was very broken, so we asked our cabin attendant to inform Maintenance, and they came right away and fixed it. Very impressive! What I didn't realize is how far from the water we would be.

This was our very first cruise on MSC. Some things we liked, some things we didn't, and some things we hated... All in all, we had a nice cruise - we all know that cruising is better than not cruising, but we'll choose MSC again only if the price is significantly cheaper (and I mean - significantly, not just by $200-500) because we don't want to deal with their shortcomings again, unless it is done at a sizeable financial advantage. I will post menus, pictures of food and cabins, our opinions, dailies, etc. just not all at once. Please bear with me, because I have a full time job and have to deal with work backlog. Plus, the kid is sick, so.... 🙂 I'll start at the beginning - with the hotel. We flew to MIA airport and stayed at Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon. We really liked this hotel for 3 reasons: location, free coffee in the lobby (my mom was very happy!) and free breakfast. The hotel looked very nice, the rooms were adequate and clean, staff was polite and professional (except the shuttle driver), so all in all - a very nice hotel to spend before the cruise. We had two identical rooms with 2 queen beds. The beds were a little hard, so I didn't get a good night's sleep, despite the Benadryl and melatonin. I also use ear plugs, so if there was any noise from the airport or the street - I couldn't tell you. Neither my DH, nor DS complained about the noise. My parents had the room with the windows facing the opposite side, and they didn't complain about anything either. the bathroom had a night light in it, which I find to be a very nice touch. When we arrived later in the evening - around 8 pm, we got checked in very quickly, and discovered free coffee and hot chocolate in the lobby. Both my kid and my mom were very happy with this development. There were several eateries within walking distance, which was a huge plus for us, since my dad has mobility issues. He can walk a short distance, but he is in a lot of pain. So, we chose to walk over to Panda Express which is behind the hotel, about a 3-5 minute slow walk away, along with some other fast food places. Dinner at Panda Express was ok. Publix, CVS and Walgreens are across the street if you forgot essentials. A sign in the hotel room bathroom also says - if you forgot something like a toothpaste, brush, etc., we got you - complementary! We checked out Publix and CVS in the morning, since we had plenty of time. Publix is very small compared to ours. CVS had lots of things. We didn't really need anything. Free breakfast was nice, but there wasn't anywhere to sit for all the people, so DS and I got some food and headed back to the room. They had some pastries, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, sausages, bagels, make-it yourself waffles, fruit, some other things, juice and coffee. Unfortunately, they ran out of coffee and we couldn't find anyone to ask to refill it. But the food was nice, so no complaints. We ate just in case MSC would make us wait till 1:30 check in time. View of the Blue Lagoon from the window. We then headed to the port around 11 am. Took an xl uber (5 of us, 3 suitcases) for $27 plus tip. MSC didn't make us wait outside as their emails say. We got into the building right away, got checked in, pictures taken (they ignore the photos you upload into the app), got our cards, and went to wait in a huge waiting room lobby. Group 21. Wait till they call you, which honestly wasn't very long. I estimate about 30 minutes until they called our group in, but after that it took some time to shuffle up the walkway in to the ship in a very-very-very long line of people. Crew zipped by with people in wheelchairs, and I regretted not ordering one for dad. I didn't know how. It's easy with airlines - you just order it when you are booking and when you are checking in. But with MSC - not clear what the process is.

yes, last week on Seascape the only place that had hash browns was the kid's part of the buffet. I don't know why. It's just weird to me. People were crowding all over it just trying to get some hash browns. They were very good.

I am so sorry, Morpheus is correct - I meant to say starboard (right) side, not port side. The smoking section is in front of the Loft Cafe, then as you move forward you will pass a large hot tub, then you will see this area: and will keep zigzagging until you reach this locked door: and then you walk back.