Bagbklyn

They will give probably give your friend a credit but now waive the fee.  Happened to me on a cruise with Verizon and my parents and they gave me a $30 credit which was better than nothing.  They did state that they should have put the phone on airplane mode and they were absolutely correct.

I'm booking Staybridge suite MIA with 5 people in August.  A kitchenette and breakfast are included.

We loved Horizon. Did 8 day Southern 3 years ago. Actually we're doing 8 day Southern on Celebration this summer.  Once a month they have an 8 day going to the ABC islands so we jumped on it. Good look. I'm sure either choice will be fun

In August, when we went on Harmony they were strict with the earlier times.

On 8/21/2019 at 10:47 AM, chrislo said:

My family and I just returned from an amazing trip on the August 10th sailing of the Horizon.  We sailed to La Romana, Grand Turk, Curacao and Aruba.  This was our 3rd time doing this itinerary but we still found something new to enjoy. 

The reviews for the Horizon in the months leading up to this trip were not very positive with many complaints about overcrowding and poor food quality.  We did not experience any of this.  Our only small issue was temperature.  Our cabin (Spa cabin 12218) was very warm but I was prepared with 2 small fans which helped circulate the air in our cabin.

We had faster to the fun and arrived at the port around noon.  Check in was fast and we were in our room within 15 minutes.  The longest part was walking up the gangway, it felt like it went on forever.  This was our first spa cabin and while we didn’t really use the spa facilities we though the cabin seemed bigger than the regular balcony cabins.  We also loved the location.  We had the 1st cabin nearest the door to deck 12 waterworks.  Our hallway was empty except for people staying in one of the cabins near us.  During the day you could hear banging from kids running around outside but with the exception of 1 night it was quiet. 

We did not eat any of our meals at the Lido buffet, so I can’t comment on that.  We had reservations for the steakhouse 2 nights and we were never disappointed.  I had risotto and lobster both nights while my son and husband got the filet mignion.    For appetizer my husband had the lobster bisque which he said was good and the bone marrow which he thought was outstanding.  We also had JiJi’s 2 nights and as always the food was good and way more than we could eat.  The other nights we ate in the main dining room.  We had YTD and used the Hub app to make our reservations.  No matter what time we ate a table was ready before we could even walk there from our cabin.  No complaints on the food or service.

For our first stop La Romona in the Dominican Republic we did a Carnival excursion Catalina Island Beach Break.  With all of the trouble in the DR lately we thought it best to stick with a Carnival excursion and we brought a cooler with us filled with water.  I filled 2 zip lock bags with ice and that kept our drinks cold during the day.  We had use of free chairs and an umbrella and the beach was very clean with crystal clear water.  There were the usually vendors selling shirts and other souvenirs but they weren’t pushy.

In Grand Turk we did the Carnival excursion Underwater Power Scooter, Beach Break and Lunch.  We did this last year and had so much fun we decided to do it again this year.  While it was still fun we just didn’t enjoy it as much, maybe the novelty of the power scooter wore off.  Next year we will try something new but if you haven’t done the power scooters I highly recommend you give them a try.

Up next was Curacao.  This is our favorite stop and the 3rd time we are visiting here.  Since we knew what we wanted to do here we rented a car from Advance Carrental for $75 which included all insurance, unlimited mileage, GPS and a phone if we got lost or wanted to return the car early.  We picked up our car right outside the port gate and set off for our favorite beach Playa Jeremi.  This is small local beach with no amenities but some of the clearest water with great snorkeling and no crowds.  We spent a few hours in the water before deciding to head back to the ship.  On our way back we decided to stop and check out another beach Playa Porto Mari.  This beach had chairs, umbrellas and a restaurant with food and drinks but the best part was the wild pigs that wandered the beach.  Since I can’t resist the change to pet some pigs we stopped here for another hour before finally getting back on board the ship at 7:30.

After such an active day we decided to spend a relaxing day at the beach in Aruba.  We took a taxi to Palm Beach this year after visiting Eagle Beach the last 2 times.  It was nice but I think we will stick with Eagle beach just because it is closer to the ship.  We rented 3 chairs and a small umbrella for $55 dollars and set up to relax.  Unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there and since we were still tired from the last 3 days of activity we decided to just head back to the ship and relax there.

We spent our last 2 days relaxing on deck 11 overlooking the main pool.  Overall, the Horizon was our favorite ship.

We were on the same cruise and enjoyed it very much.  I think you summed it up pretty nicely.  I have taken multiple Carnival ships in the past and the reviews had me a little skeptical.  The food was great and the ship made me love Carnival again.  I feel I can recommend Carnival Horizon with no hesitation.  Cruise director Mike was great. Staff assisted me when I was trying to carry multiple cups for my family.  There weren't long lines in the lido deck.  I think by having the same food at different buffet stations helps tremendously.  In the Aft portion of the buffet is it slightly different but not by a lot.  It was truly a great cruise!!!

Yes, there were free movies in the room on the TV

I'm also booked on Seaside in March 2018. I booked this cruise back on the Divina in April 2017. I was in the same boat as you as not having an invoice. I called MSC and they said they can't speak to me since I purchased it on the ship and it automatically gets transferred back to the travel agent. I called the travel agent with the booking numbers and they said they couldn't get it. I called MSC back and said this is very frustrating I just want a D@*n invoice. That when they told me sales doesn't have access to it and she transferred me to a different department which I believe was the travel agent line. They were very helpful when I told them the situation and once I verified sailing, conf# and D.O.B I had my invoice with 30 seconds emailed to me. I think it boils down to how their system is setup. I believe the stops aren't being changed as much as people think. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the information on the vouchers and about printing everything out prior to the cruise.

Just a quick question...and I apologize if it's been discussed before but you wrote:

 

 

I did a status match prior to the cruise but still got the regular color room key card.

 

 

What is a "status match" ?

If you have a certain status on a different cruise line or hotel brand MSC matches your status. It's a pretty nice perk. The daughters love the chocolate covered strawberries.

Communication - It may have been me but I don't they communicated well at all. What I mean by this is that you really didn't know what activities they had for the day. The daily planner was there but after that the cruise director wasn't always on the overhead system stating the daily activities. On other cruise lines it use to annoy me but I kind of missed it.

I had the fantastica drink package that included 12 free vouchers for everyone in the room. I read that some went to the casino to get the pre-paid package and some received it in their cabin. I asked the cabin attendant about it and he said he didn't have it. I said fine, I will ask the crew and the cruise critic meet and greet. They looked at me like I had 10 heads when I asked about the vouchers. They said go to the receptionist desk. I went to the reception desk and they told me to go to the casino bar that is upstairs. I went there and the bar was closed. I went later that night and they had the vouchers. I didn't get my vouchers until the evening of the 2nd day of the cruise.

I did a status match prior to the cruise but still got the regular color room key card. I had to show the voyagers desk my email and they made a call and updated it and then I went back to the reception area and they printed out a new gold card. Do yourself a favor and either print out everything or have it accessible via email.

I told my daughter that where was going to be cooking on-board for kids in the kids club. It turns out that they played with flour and trough it up in the air and it got in the girls hair. Yup, really fun times :(

Conclusion - You can take everything I said with a grain of salt. It's just my opinion and I have highlighted some points that I like and more that I didn't. I think a cruise is a cruise is a cruise. In life and work I always say its all about expectation. If I told you the elevators are like NYC mass transit then you set your expectation to such. Setting your expectation helped me immensely and I have to thank cruise critic for that.

One would think with the review that i'm never going to sail MSC again. It's the exact opposite. This is the first cruise that I actually booked another while I was onboard. I think MSC wants to makes a big splash in the US and they're trying. The pros of the cruise outweighed the bad. A lot of the cruise experience had to do with the other cruisers onboard. Even though many didn't speak the same language it wasn't a problem. Go in with an open mind and enjoy it.

PS: Many people on the last day were kicking themselves for not getting the photo package. You don't need 100 pictures but the price of 10 pictures surpasses the price of the package. MSC is losing money on this package but a lot of passengers thought it was a gimmick and there was a restriction. Any size picture, of anyone staying in your cabin including your family and embarkation photos (100).

Oh I almost forgot- Do not, Do not if at all possible take National, Alamo or Enterprise back from the cruise. Many will ask why? We got off the ship by 9:30. We didn't get on the shuttle until 10:50. Here's the problem and it may change or may not. MSC is docked at the second to last dock. This means that the Alamo/Enterprise/National shuttle sometimes or for us most of the time went to the other docks first before coming down to MSC.. To get on the shuttle you had to show your reservation and then the driver would allow you to come on board. This was the worse part of the cruise for my family and I. We felt like we were begging to get onboard. People were thanking the driver because they were waiting for so long. Alamo doesn't have enough buses to support the busy weekends going back and forth to the airport. I was about to take an UBER and come back for the family but that was going to be $25 and said it would take 30 min. I was also in the process of making an reservation for dollar or avis just so I can get to the airport after almost 90 min. The other companies came more often so if it's a few dollars different take the other companies. This might change if boats are re positioned but I doubt it. I should have put this in the MIAMI port section but I think this pertains to guest that are on MSC.

I hope this review helps anyone that may have had questions. Again a cruise is a cruise. Enjoy and have an open mind. If you have any questions I will try my best to answer.

Ben signing off!!

I asked the room attendant if we can leave by 8am and he said no problem. Traveling with a 6 and 3 y/o I told him it would be rough to be out by 7am. He said sure no problem. I think it doesn't hurt to ask.

I dont know whats wrong with ham on Pizza and they do have every day choice in menu.:confused:

I have no issues with ham on Pizza. Serving it on a kids menu is the problem. My daughters are 6 and 3. I don't think they've been to a party that served pizza with ham on it.

On the formal night the every day menu wasn't available. Squared that away with another poster who was on the same cruise. He said 5 out of the 7 nights every menu was there. The 2 nights I went to the dining room were the formal nights

Okay . . . Loved the kids club review. It was worth the wait ! Thank you for sharing the copy of the program . It seems to be very Easter specific , but one question please. . . Can you tell me anything about the Unicef parts ? Is this some part of the worldwide charitable organization ?

 

TIA

Yes it is part of UNICEF and all the kids get a certificate. What they don;t tell you in advance is that you need to send the kids to the UNICEF art& Craft because if ties into the UNICEF parade. so if you over looked those other parts and tried to bring your child to the parade they can attend but would be out of place. Looking at it now. The family activity time should be called "pick up your kids when we're done time" Also, I didn't see any smurfs. Maybe someone else did but I didn't.

The ship. I have to tell everyone the ship's appearance is good. It puts all the other boats I have been on to shame. Again this only pertaining to the lines I have been on (Princess, NCL, CCL and RCCL. I couldn't find a rust spot on the exterior of the ship from the day of embarkation to disembarkation. I remember walking the life boat deck and saying ah ha I found a spot. I swear to you a crew of painters going to take paint elsewhere on the shop were walking and one of them stopped and painted the door hinge. The mirrors were cleans and so were the windows and glass. I remember being on-line at the kids club and another passenger was like even the glass door for the kids club is clean. You would expect to see fingerprints every where and that wasn't the case.

Fellow cruisers know that as you walk around a cruise ship you will find an empty bottle here, empty beer can there or pizza crust over there. Some cruise ships look like hangover morning. That wasn't the case on this boat and I think it has a lot to do with the demographics of the passengers. The ship was very clean and no complaints from my end.

Bathrooms- I'm picky with bathrooms. When I go to to Vegas I judge a casino/hotel by how nice their bathrooms are. My wife said the ladies bathrooms were fine. It wasn't the case for the mens lavatory. Speaking to other male passengers we felt the same way. I believe it has to do with the fact that there weren't any urinals in the men bathrooms. This means everyone used to the toilets which means either the boat was really rocking, only Men drink to get drunk or everyone should be a shamed of themselves and go and update your eye glasses or contact prescription. I almost felt like have the bathrooms had to be pressure washed. Again, i'm picky so it can just be me.

Layout - The layout of the ships doesn't make any sense in my opinion. There's countless pools and no maps in the elevator. I think passenger flow is critical to ship layout. When you get on a ship you make reference points and you use that for the rest of the week. The problem is that some of these reference points aren't accessible from the right/left side or front/back(Kept the terms simple). Sports club for example is on the right side of the ship and so are the photos. On the deck plans it shows it but you have to remember which side its on. Specialty restaurants impeded the natural flow of passengers. Once you get use to it . Its easier but still not easy to navigate. Going to the gym from one leave makes you feel like you're going to the yacht club because there's signage every for it but that wasn't the case. The theater was very comfortable. Broadway can learn a lot from MSC. I could have fell asleep in those chairs and my kids never became restless since the chairs were so comfy.

Elevators- I read so many reviews about these elevators and how rude people were and passengers wouldn't let people get off before entering. Let me tell you the reviews were spot on but here's why. It has to do with the layout of the main elevators and the elevators themselves. The elevators banks are close but far. Something so simple make such a huge difference. MSC puts mirrors about the elevator banks arrows. What tends to happen is that people look at the reflection on top oft he elevator and think the elevator is actually going the opposite direction. Many people get on the elevator and instead of look like a food end up taking the ride.

Secondly there elevators are wacky. A lot of time the elevators will close on your before opening back up. Its as if the sensors don;t work sometime and it has to close on someone to actually make sure a person is there blocking it. We were on the 10th flr and tried to use the "secret" elevator as much as possible. By the end of the cruise I cracked a joke in the elevator while it was packed. I said to my daughter that our secret elevator isn't such a secret anymore. Everyone got a good chuckle out of that.

Third - The way the elevators are situated you have to stand back and centrally located to all the elevators. When you're waiting for the elevator its like hatching your bet and committing to these 2 or those 2. If you bet wrong by the time you get to the elevator if you aren't quick it will close. This is why people are always rushing to get on . They're afraid of missing it. Unless your standing in front of that lucky elevator you're rushing to get onto one. People aren't being rude. They're just trying to catch the NYC Subway(MSC elevator). We took the stairs often. Even with our 3 year old it was easier dealing with the stairs.

Slide - Disclaimer* I don't condone telling lies. The slide is a joke for younger kids. My daughter and other kids her size said it was slow. When I went down it was pretty fast for me. I'm 6'0 210lbs. I made a big splash at the end and kids and even the pool attendants loved it. Here's where my disclaimer comes in. For the kids club or this they don't verify the age. Do your 6 or 7 y/o a favor and say that they're 8. The age restriction on that thing should be 5 y/o. Its a travesty that they say you have to be 8 y/o to ride it. If your child has the height let ee ride. Again, just my opinion.

4-D - My daughter loved the 4-d show. Its best to get the package for $60 as it applies to the entire cabin for all activites excluding arcades. Unfortunately, all the chairs weren't working when we were onboard. Try to go to here on island days. At sea it tends to be busy.

F-1-The f-1 experience is a lot harder then it looks and it made me nauseous. Being 6'0 it was difficult for me to get into and it was manual shift. Many people just stayed in one gear the entire time.

Bowling - I think out of allels in spanish but the the activities included in the package this was the most fun. Only 1 lane was open when were on-board. IT best to go here right after breakfast as the bowling alley itself is open 24 hours. The sport bar open up at 11. We went there around 10:15 and had the sport bar and the bowling lane all to our self. Im not sure why the sports bar isn't closer to the top of the ship.

Arcade. There's 2 areas for arcades. One is on level 16 by the simulator and the other is by the casino

Casino- I have to tell everyone I love the casino for one fact only. It's non-smoking. I will tell you why. On every other cruise ship you can smoke in the casino. This was always bad for me because I would tell the wife i'm going out for a late night snack and then I would come back smelling like cigarettes and she would say how much did you lose? Now, she had no clue :D

Cabin - We looked out and hand 10128. Which was a handicapped accessible room. This felt like a palace. Especially with 2 kids. The family loved it . Like others have said the beds and the pillows are so comfy. The curtains are something that is overlooked on other cruise ships. The curtains were truly black out. We really couldn't tell what time of day it was or if the sun was out or not. Its also great that the balcony doors are sliding as we slept with them open every night. The TV channels in Spanish but the cartoons were in English so that was a plus for the little ones. You can also see your account balance for everyone in the cabin on the screen. One nice think MSC had was liquid soap for the hands. This was a nice feature since we normally bring out own liquid soap from home. In my opinion the liquid soap in the public smelled and felt nice than then ones in the cabins. I did ask on day one for the cabin attendant to clear out the mini bar. He cleared it out and put in on the counter. I had to move it because that defeated the purpose of clearing it out so the kids wouldn't eat it. Now it was right in their face. Also, like others have said the cabin could be prepped a little better. Some parts of the cabin was out of sigh out of mind. You can see that dirt has been accumulating there for a while and hasn't been touch. The room attendant did a great job but I think if he had a team or assistant, MSC would be able to take up, that extra notch.

Next up communication or lack there of...

Everyday there's family activities. It's one of those things you can skip but you will feel bad once you pick them up and they ask where were you? All the other kids parents were there. While these activities sound great, getting the family involved for so many activities was a lot. Sometimes 4-5 times a day. In between you the camp would either be closed for lunch or dinner. You can sign up to have them go to dinner from the dining room or to have dinner with the camp. Dinner was in the buffet for the kids. My kids never went so I can't comment on it. My 6 y/o said that most of the activities was dancing , face painting and drawing. The 3-6 and 7-11 share the same room but are just sectioned off. They did most of the activities together and only separated for certain activities.

Everyday my kids can back from the kids club with some face paint on their face. The family activities were good in the theory but didn't really make sense. It could have been that there were too many kids but it was just too much for them to handle. They had tons, tons and tons of lego's, arts and crafts and and white t-shirts. Kids decorated this through out the week.

My daughter is very observant and said when the kids acted up at camp everyone was hushed or everyone had to be quiet. My daughter said a lot of kids were put into timeouts. Personally I didn't agree with this. I've seen it myself on Carnival were kids aren't listening and when the parent comes to pick up the child the counselor would speak to the parents and let them know if this behavior continues the child can't come back. It seems like there was no truly authoritative person in charge. While the kids club wasn't a zoo it could have been better. The daily planner says it is subject to change as they give it out on the first day of the cruise. I think this is a problem in itself. The daily planner doesn't make reference to the kids club. If you lose that sheet you can have to go back to the kids club to get the planner for the week. one cruiser was like the best thing to do is to take a picture of it with your phone so you always have it. This worked wonders when they stuck to it. Normally my daughter was the one updating us with the changes. Something as simple as a dry board outside the kids club to let you know the activities for the day. They have a family water balloon fight and didn't have enough balloons. They have a make your bunny family arts and craft and didn't have enough crayons. After one event that finished at 3:30 my daughter wanted to go to the kids club. The staff said oh it doesn't make sense since camp closes at 4:30 and you will have to come at 4:15 anyway. Luckily that was the last day of the cruise and I made that her last event with the kids club.

My daughters didn't have a bad time at the kids club. They just didn't have a great time. We wanted to get rid of them and they were indifferent to it. I think if the staff can just a little more open and understanding that family activities while great doesn't allow your child to acclimate to the kids club if you're forced to see them every 2 hours. Its like dropping your kids off to nursery school and coming in every 2 hours to give them a hug. The 3 y/o is like I want to go with Mommy and Daddy and the 6 y/o is like what are you guys doing? Can we go to the slide, 4-D or bowling. Stay in camp kid and leave us alone. She goes fine I will stay in camp if you get me virgin pina colada. Mind you at Carnival it was like can please act like you have a family and spend time with us.

The part I liked about the MSC kids club is that the kids got paraded around the ship and weren't locked up in the club all day. The talent show was cute but due to miscommunication you have to go a little earlier than the time its says for the practice so you can be considered as a spot on the talent show. Again, the talent show reminded my of cruising in the past. Having video of all the kids on the pool deck or the stage singing is priceless. Especially when they get older to blackmail them ;p. Now how can I complain about a service that is being offered for free. Easy, they have the capability of doing better and can easily fix it. Send the director of the kids club onto other cruise lines and just be a spy and find out how the other lines do it. I have the daily activities for the kids club for the week we sailed. This forum makes it so difficult to upload photos. I will try shortly.

Update: I was able to do it. Everything that is in bold is a family event. What isn't on the kids club planner is the time the club is closed. You learn that the hard way when dropping them off and make your plans and find out they're closed for like 2 hours and also for dinner if you didn't make reservations. Don't get me wrong they're entitled to close but at least communicate at the beginning of the day or on theplanner.

Next up the ship!!!!

Just off this cruise, and Classic Favorites available at least 5/7 nights. I know because my mom ordered the Ceasar Salad each time we ate in the MDR.

Ok, maybe your on to something. The 2 nights that we ate dinner in the dining room were the 2 formal nights. Maybe on those nights they didn't offer the classic favorites. I stand corrected if this is the case. I guess the 2 nights I went I happened to be unlucky.

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And it was still there every night on our cruise departing on April 1, 2017. I guess the term "Classic Favorites" is a term that confuses people.

I thought I was crazy. I hsd to ask my wife. They had it other languages but no color. I hope I'm wrong but it looks like the dinner menu has changed. I met another family who had the same issue and had to call the maitre'd over and the end result was the maitre'd told the passenger we will make whatever you want. There was no color ink on the dinner menu. Breakfast and lunch had the color menus.

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Kids Club - Doremi - I have to start off by saying the few reviews I read were contradicting each other. From my kids loved it, to my child wanted no part of it. So I went in there with an open mind. The 1st strike as some remember was no signing up all the kids at the muster station bracelet station. The reason is because the same staff that put the bracelet on are the same staff for the kids club. So, 8:00pm embarkation day putting the girls down after a long day of traveling and glancing through the Daily program(Yeah I know very original. That's what its called) and I see kids club registration 2-5 and 8-11. Don't quote me on the times but I think that is when they were. When I went up to the kids club you had to sign a waiver for the kids. The sign up process was pretty simple so I had my hopes up.They wanted to know who would be allowed to pick up and drop off the kids on the waiver.

The next day the kids wanted to go to to the kids club. I made sure to take my room keycard to sign them in. The next day was Bahamas so we stayed on the boat. I went to to sign them and felt really good because I Was being a good eagle scout. I did the registration last night and I have my keycard ready. I went to drop them off and they said you have to sign the sheets over here. It kind of took my back. I was like OK this is just a backup plan. While looking at the sheet I saw time in and time out. I was like oh, I guess this is the process we are using. I slipped my card back in my pocket while flipping it around like a credit card. You know Mr.Suave. They were like oh bye Daddy. I said take care and then I was like, "ah hah" the wife isn't going to catch me out there for being a dope. I asked them about a phone. They looked at me like I had 3 heads and said oh. If you want one of those you can go to the reception desk and pay to get one. I said oh, you guys don't give one and they said nope. :(

Sidebar - I don't know if they weren't ready for the influx of all the kids because it was easter week but the sign in and sign out process was horrible. They never checked for ID's. My daughter just asked me what I was typing and said make sure you tell them it took so long to sign in and out. I'm waiting for MSC to send me to surveys. I don't want to complain, I want to make them better and give some constructive criticism because a lot of it is easily fixable.

Here's the pick up process. Come in and find you childs name on the sheet that you signed in 2 hours ago and remember the time because it can be 2 or 3 pages back. At the same time tell them you child's name and they scream for them. Now if you have a smart @$$ daughter like mine the 6 y/o going on 30 she ignores the call because she's enjoying the activity she's doing. The 3 y/o quickly ran out and we are look from the outside for the 6 y/o in the sea of kids. After 2 workers are calling for and she finally finishes her activity she finally stands up. Turns out she was 10 feet in front of us and we couldn't see her. So as you can see in my signature I have been on CCL, RCL, NCL and Princess. I have only used CCL kids club and plan to use RCCL in august. I can only gauge the CCL kids club but CCL does it right. I used it before the upgraded to camp ocean I believe..... For some that don't know you use your key card to check the kids in and out. This serves 2 purposes. 1st it make sure you are allowed to pick up the child and secondly it makes for a quick sign in/out process. Also, while the kids are at the camp they must where name tags. This makes such a huge difference because kids can learn each others names and staff can learn their names.

I have to break the kids club post into different post. It's a lot

Wow, my review of the dining room would have been different. They didn't have those options at all. My daughter loved the lasagne and wanted it every night. Unfortunately the classic favorites wasn't on our cruise and the dinner menus were on paper that were in a dinner sleeve if that makes sense. Not sure if the menu switched in conjuction with the fantastica package. Just a thought

That is strange re no everyday menu choice as this was available when we were on the Divina in January. There was a section on the menu with these options

 

 

 

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Restaurant - I want to preface by saying I never made it to lunch but the menu did look good. It didn't change and the time was from 12-1:30. We skipped dinner in the restaurant the first and then went the last night. Both of the nights we went the food wasn't our cup of tea. I was expecting to be overwhelmed with different pasta choices. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The kids menu is sub par. Meaning they make pizza with ham? Really? Out of all the toppings you can choose to give kids you choose ham? My kids only wanted the french fries. What I will say is that the food at our table came quickly and when we got our appetizers the girls were getting their meals. I will say that MSC did take into consideration children under the age of 1 who don't have teeth. My very first cruise with my daughter she was almost 1 on carnival was horrible. She lived on horizon organic milk for kids. Everytime on carnival I asked for something puree they would tell me the closes thing they had was mac and cheese. Kudos to MSC for thinking about kids or even Elderly cruisers with no teeth At my table I didn't suffer from the water demon. My waiters kept on filling it up but, I did hear other people on the boat complaining about the asking for water multiple times.

Everyday menu - Okay call me snobbish if you want but on other cruise lines (CCL, NCL, RCCL and Princess) I have been on there's always been an everyday menu. I have no idea why MSC doesn't have any. What they do have is a priced menu for shrimp and steak and other things that I chose to ignore but not an everyday menu. That being said we had early seating and just a word of advice. The earlier you get there for dinner the quicker you will be served. Now the bottleneck for me came when it was time for dessert. It just took for ever and dragged on and the 2 nights we said we were going to skip we didn't because we felt bad for the kids. They didn't enjoy their dinner so we kind of threw them a bone but it cost us time.

Breakfast - I think this was the best meal out of the entire cruise. Please do yourself a favor and try to make it to the dinning room for breakfast. Service is great, the staff seem like they're rested and tend to smile more and they're responsive to your needs. Food came quickly even though they only got it right only half of the time. They fixed the error quick enough that they rest of your breakfast was still ok. For example forgetting a hash brown or the toast. What I did notice though is that they don't stray to much from the menu. For example can you make an omelette with ham, bacon and sausage. Sorry, we can put the sausage on the side. Really? Its the same kitchen dude. Just reach over and throw it in there. Its not that hard.

Next - Kid's club. Prior to my cruise I didn't find out too much detail about the kids club. I hope to fill in the gaps for some of you that have concerns and questions. Just a quick preview. I'm not impressed with it but it did bring me back to the yester year of kids club. When cruising was different. Stay tuned

Did you attend the official Meet & Mingle? Did you sign-up for it and did they send an invitation to your stateroom?

 

Thanks

I did go to the meet and greet and the invitation did come to the stateroom. Unfortunately I arrived late because there was a family activity with the kids club that conflicted with the meet and greet.

Anxious to hear more ! Thank you for sharing !

 

Can you tell me what muster station tags for the kids are? I thought they just had kid sized life vests?

They have to get tags that have their name and cabin number and muster station which I wasn't in love. Stop it, you getting ahead of me. Kids club is like 3 post away [emoji51]

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Buffet- Let me give you a background on my eating habits. I'm not a 5 star Michelin guy or do I like to eat at Olive Garden. With that being said buffet was edible but I expected better. The pasta wasn't out of out this world either. For the life of me I couldn't find an omelette station. There might have been one unbeknownst to me. Every night they had a meat and seafood and also a vegetarian option. I must say I'm not a seafood eater but to my taste buds the seafood options were good. My option of good means I can't taste the Brooklyn canal they were pulled from. [emoji3]. They always had rice pilaf and some sort of poultry or fish.

I feel like I was neglecting the other meals. Breakfast was edible also. They had the runny eggs and also pre made omelette. The omelettes were different every day and the last day was omelette with salmon 🤢. I'm not a seafood eater so this made no sense to me. Sorry, I digressed. They had bagels,waffles(pre made), French toast(pre made) and pancakes which you can see the cook making in huge batches. They also made chocolate pancakes. These options are available daily. Please if you love croissants do yourself a favor and have a ton. The pizza oven turns into a pastry oven during breakfast. Dunkin' Donuts has nothing on them.

Kids corner- I think this comes into play for breakfast. It's great that they have this the only problem is that it's all the way at the back of the buffet. Ok, I get it kids scream and make a lot of noise but for good sakes you might as well tie the food to the anchor and make us climb down the chains to get it. Ok I may be exaggerating a little bit on the chains but it's a walk. The issue is once you get food for the kids you now have to walk back to the beginning of the buffet for adult food as I like to call it. The food I spoke about in the last paragraph. The kids option always had hotdogs,eggs,French toast, eggs, potatoes and different cereals. The distance to the kid corner was too far for me to justify after the 2nd day of the cruise. Especially by 12:00 when it would let me know great work, you reached 6000 steps.

Buffet Etiquette- There's a huge problem with the buffet. A moron designed. I'm no interior designer but all it would have taken is to watch hgtv or something. On the forums many people said oh the different cultures are rude. It truly isn't that it's just the buffet is setup functionally when there's a lot of people. So your probably like what is he talking about.?There's no simple sign that says line starts here. Since MSC gives huge oval plates at the buffet that means people can keep piling on while they move through the different stations. I was in line once and a women on a motorized scooter screamed people are so f@c!ing rude on this ship. Well..... she was actually the one at fault because she came from the opposite direction not where you take your plates and utensils. A simple line starts here would change the entire buffet experience.

Staff Etiquette - MSC wait staff can do better. They weren't horrible. They just didn't go that extra mile that would make you want to go to the reception desk and increase the gratuity amount you were giving them. This goes for all the staff. I will focus on buffet staff. On other cruise lines if I was holding 2 cups they would offer to hold it for me and bring it to the table. I'm holding 4 coffee mugs of water at the staff are like excuse me sir I have to pass. They didn't refill the just stations timely and get this. In the steerage, (hope I spelled it right )kids corner they didn't have enough staff to clean up the table. Out of all the sections this one should have the most staff. It was also a game of cat and mouse to find out which machine had OJ that wasn't watered down(out of mix).

Please excuse my typo's. On my iPad on JetBlue trying to do it while it's fresh. Still more to come and just so everyone's knows I did put a deposit down on a future cruise while on board. You have to get through the bad to appreciate the good.

Next up restaurant!!

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Hello,

I just wanted to return the favor since the forum was so informative for me. Just so you know my wife and I are in our late 30's and we're traveling with our 2 daughters 6 and 3. I've been on multiple cruise lines except Disney so I'm not comparing it to them.Let's get to it.

Embarkation- very simple for us . We arrived around 3:00 and it moved very quickly. Just like everyone said on the boards I really don't know why they don't take your CC while checking in. You have to go to the kiosk on board which was very quick and I think an unnecessary step. However,they took everyone's pic at checkin. This which I believe took more time. Especially trying to get a 3 yr old to stand still after a day of traveling and they wouldn't allow me to hold her for the pic.

Muster station tags for kids.-We got on the boat and the first thing they did was shuffle us to a line and we had to wait like 10 min just to get muster station tags for the kids. At this point you don't sign up for the kids club. They should have just made it a one stop shop.

Pizza - Being born and raised in Brooklyn I must say the pizza is the best at sea. The one in the buffet that is. Just be aware the pizza change during the course of the day. Pineapple, bacon, ham pepperoni and sausage. That's just naming a few.

Burger & Fries - I was surprised here because it being an Italian ship I read the burgers were good. The were good but, the fries are even better. Everyday they had a different type of French fries. Sweet potato fries, curly fries, waffle fries, crinkle cut, and potato wedges. There were other types but I can't remember the names for all of them

Buffet will be up next stay tuned.....

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Also, does the social package block phones that have the ability do wifi-calling? Not sure if anyone knows the answer to that. Thanks in advance

While not clear marketing the website does say 2 for 1 deal on select cruises. I think the only way to confirm the 2 for 1 is to call them directly. Just my opinion. At the end of the day I don't think you will find any cruise this cheap.