Just got off Poesia Western - My Lengthy Review

So, I just returned from 7day Western Caribbean on the Poesia and I felt the need to share. I have been browsing this site for about a month prior to my cruise and reading (mostly) horror stories about MSC. So I decided to finally join the board and give my 2cents because honestly I don’t know why the reviews were more negative than positive.

I have been on several cruise ships in my time so MSC wasn’t my first. I went into the trip unbiased regardless of all I had read and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Embarkation:

I guess this all depends on when you get there, be it if you show up when its slow or you show up at the same time as a bus load from the airport. Needless to say, I arrived at the terminal at 12:45pm, the process was so quick and smooth that I did what I had to do and was in my room by 1:05pm. The fastest ever!

Room:

Again, can’t complain here. I paid last minute for a guaranteed spot (no specific room) and was given a balcony room on Deck 11. Fine by me! Room was a decent size for a ship room, tastefully decorated. Balcony was a good size and having a fridge in the room (minibar but plenty of room for your own stuff) was a nice perk.

Staff:

The male and female steward that cleaned my room daily were so nice. Friendly, always with a smile, saying hello when I would see them in the hall. They were very polite and did an impeccable job keeping the room spotless and refreshed, always doing so while I was out or at dinner.

Dining Room waiter was a bit slow as others have said, but in looking around, some of his tables we large and people took their time. So not really his fault. Keep in mind, it’s a European company and in Europe meal time is a slow time to enjoy with your family (possibly why they don’t rush, but that’s just my thought)

Random Staff (buffet people, bar staff, front desk, etc) all were eager to help. Although not always having a smile, they were polite and concerned if you had an issue and always were willing to help.

Food:

Dining room food was good. A lot of authentic Italian dishes that were made true to their regions. Most of the food was tasty and I really have no complaints. I did expect a little more in the lines of Italian pastries for dessert but you cant have it all! However, although I always managed to find something good to eat on the menu, the choices (as compared to other lines) are limited. They offer the usual American fare or 3 dishes of the evening, which seemed like enough to me. Water and Iced Tea, Coffee and hot tea, were all free with dinner, you just had to ask.

Buffet food was good too, always a selection and (more times then not) most of the same that was on the dinner menu for the night. As for not having food all the time, I cant believe people complained about that. Lunch was avail every day past 230pm and grill items until 4-430, pizza even went til about 5pm. Do people get so bored on a cruise that they just resort to eating nonstop? Being able to eat something from 12-5pm is long enough for me. (they even had tea/coffee and pastries or finger sandwiches) from 4-5pm most days. True, the first line was long but if you walked to the back (as others said) there was no line ever. As for the MANY comments of line cutting, NOT ONCE did I see someone cut in line while waiting to GET TO the buffet, I did however, see people pop in here or there because they did want to wait at the beginning for something that was at the end, and I don’t blame them (and in the times I was there no one seemed to mind).

Sun Deck/Ship:

Ship was gorgeous. Tastefully decorated and spotless (no piles of dishes and trash laying around like ive seen many a time on Carnival) The deck chairs were plentiful. Yes around the pool directly was very crowded but I never lay there, to loud (usually on any ship). The casino was nice, didn’t pay out much lol or I just have no luck. Bars and lounges were plentiful and the ship had lots of elevators all over the place, little waiting when I used it.

Ports:

The process getting on an off was a breeze and no pressure ever for annoying pictures. The times I went on shore excursions the meeting places and guides were very organized and smoothly run. And its true, 9 times out of 10, they turned a blind eye to alcohol, or when they did tell you to check your alcohol, no one really did. We visited Key West, Cozumel (no Playa del Carmen lol) Skipped Cayman due to weather, Montego Bay, and Nassau. One thing I noticed that I hadn’t on other lines were the fact that someone (or two) from MSC go on the excursions with the groups, maybe to not leave anyone behind, not sure but was nice to see (they could do this on other lines and maybe I never noticed but I thought id mention it).

Shows:

Went to a few, were pretty good, a cirque du soleil like with acrobatics, strong man, etc. Pretty cool to see when you remember they are doing this on a moving ship. The Michael Jackson show, however, I thought was awful and left after the 3rd song. It seemed very poorly planned and thrown together. Nothing like it could have been (in my opinion).

Disembarking at the End:

Good and Bad here. The bad, the fact you have to leave the room by 7am to push your way into an overcrowded lounge to get pushed and shoved all around with no announcements and no order what so ever. The good, however, was that once the doors opened and the people started to leave it was a super fast procedure. I was in a cab home by 745am, not bad at all! (FYI: I chose the self assist which allows you off the ship first and you carry all your own luggage) .

All in all i thought it was a great time and i'd definately go again!

One other thing to mention that i forgot was the time changes, ive never been on a ship that did this and at times it was a little confusing

It sounds like your experience was very similar to ours. I do want to comment on this for anyone cruising in the future:

Disembarking at the End:

Good and Bad here. The bad, the fact you have to leave the room by 7am to push your way into an overcrowded lounge to get pushed and shoved all around with no announcements and no order what so ever.

Even though they ask that you vacate the cabin at 7AM you can still go to the buffet for breakfast and relax there until your color is called. I think they serve breakfast until about 8:30, but we were off the ship before that. We had yellow luggage tags and were about the fourth color to be called.

It sounds like your experience was very similar to ours. I do want to comment on this for anyone cruising in the future:

 

 

 

Even though they ask that you vacate the cabin at 7AM you can still go to the buffet for breakfast and relax there until your color is called. I think they serve breakfast until about 8:30, but we were off the ship before that. We had yellow luggage tags and were about the fourth color to be called.

I agree with you on that one. We have been on several cruise lines and we have experienced the same type of disembarkation each time. We were Lilac 3 so were toward the bottom of the list. We sat in the buffet until they were closing it down before we went to our designated area. I don't remember seeing any pushing or shoving as some one else reported. Once our color was called, we disembarked and found our luggage rather quickly. We had prebooked a taxi for the airport, so once outside our wait wasn't bad at all.

I have been on these boards for a year now trying to tell people that it is quite a charming experience on MSC. I am so glad you found that out for yourself .... I love it so much we are doing Poesia again for a great 10 night in Nov. if you want some port info and share some excursions( prices get lower with more people) pls let me know through an email.

thanks for the nice review. Looks like another feather in the msc cap. It's nice to read reality & not the hateful disertations of a few.

lou

vijoge...about waiting in the buffett, etc....we had tag number 1 gray, self assist so we were first off the ship. and we also had all of our bags with us, so carting 4+ luggage around the ship, to the buffet etc, was next to impossible...besides, since we were first off, we got a letter under the door telling us to meet in Zebra lounge at 645am

I was on the same cruise and had a great time. Most of the food was very good. There was great wine service at the wine bar. We ordered our wine here, and had it delivered to our dinner table.

after reading all the post above..i do agree with a lot of the positive things written.. HOWEVER..... there are some negative things that i found on the MSC POESIA this past week

customer service....just terrible

i am an avid cruiser..royal, celebrity, princess, ncl..etc

the customer service on this cruise was terrible. The staff for the most part did not care if you had a problem. The excursion department was the worst and the reception staff couldnt answer any questions.

Most of the bar staff were rude and i felt that i was bothering them when ordering a drink.

On a positive note..our server in the dining room was very nice and our cabin steward was very nice too.

Kids programs were not very good.. Not much going on for kids on the ship. Just lots of hanging out.

It is a shame about the terrible customer service...

Like the others said about..food, cleanliness, entertainment and ports were all very good.

BUT because the customer service was SO BAD..we will not be returning to cruise on a MSC ship again.

jjpugs

I agree with you on that one. We have been on several cruise lines and we have experienced the same type of disembarkation each time. We were Lilac 3 so were toward the bottom of the list. We sat in the buffet until they were closing it down before we went to our designated area. I don't remember seeing any pushing or shoving as some one else reported. Once our color was called' date=' we disembarked and found our luggage rather quickly. We had prebooked a taxi for the airport, so once outside our wait wasn't bad at all.[/quote']

 

Out of curiosity, do you remember what time Lilac 3 was called?:confused:

Out of curiosity, do you remember what time Lilac 3 was called?:confused:

I would say that it was approx. 10:30, which we didn't mind since our flight did not leave until 1 P.M.

Thanks for sharing the reveiw. I was on the Orchestra last year and wrote a similar review.

This year I went on Costa and missed MSC. Though the food was a little better the beautiful and clean MSC ships were much better than the tired Atlantica. Also, we loved the MSC shows and enteratinment team!

My DH and two kids (both 5) and I sailed March 27th and despite our hesitations, we went and loved it. I agree with all positive comments. JJpugs, it's too bad you had a bad experience with cs. I delt with those folks a couple times and they were helpful and courteous to me. I agree that the kids club left a lot to be desired, but this is the first time our kids have ever gone to kids club (or on a cruise), they did fine for a couple of hours on a couple nights. They wouldn't have wanted to stay longer than that though.

We would sail MSC again next spring break and are disappointed they won't be in the Caribbean during that time. I guess we're going to try Carnival.

BTW, we were Lilac 1 and yes, it was about 10-10:30am that they called us. Disembarkation was a breeze though.

Although we absolutely love MSC cruises We were perturbed on our last one in March where they were knocking on our door to get out on our last night at 7:30 am. The stewards were idiots as they lost out on a large extra tip. Never had this happen to us on any cruiseline including MSC, it was certainly a turnoff.

We ate breakfast in the dining room at 6:00 a.m. before returning to our rooms and picking up our luggage. We did have to get up earlier, but I knew that we could not carry our luggage to the dining room or through the buffet line.

I am also confused at the bad reviews. We truly had a good time on the Poesia!