Had a GREAT time on Seaside!

Short version, Seasideis by far the best ship I've ever been on. I would book again in aheartbeat.

About me:

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• 28 year old female, traveled with my husband and family
  
• American
  
• Past cruises include 2 Carnival and 1 Royal Caribbean (RC was Harmony of the Seas when it was brand new, about a couple of months old - i.e. I've sailed on a brand new ship twice now and can compare the experiences)
  

Aboutmy booking:

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• Booked in Jan 2016 (yep..2 year wait for this cruise. My anticipation was high)
  
• Originally booked an inside cabin on deck 9. We got a surprise upgrade to a balcony cabin on deck 12!!!!!
  
• Booking included free drink package
  
• Purchased a spa package for me and my mother so we had access to the Thermal Spa for the whole cruise
  

Instead of writing paragraphs about my generalexperience I'm going to list the most common complaints I read prior tocruising and share my experience/opinions. Hopefully they'll help alleviatefears since no one seems to have anything positive to say.

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• Service is terrible.
  

Yesand no. Our room steward was very nice, remembered our names, and greeted usfrequently. Having any sort of conversation was really hard though, he couldhardly speak English, but that doesn't make his service bad. For example, heasked how we were sleeping which was bad timing for him because I was actuallyhaving terrible neck pain (I woke up crying that morning) from the pillows andbed. I made some short comment about sleeping so-so and that my shoulders werehurting, but that overall we were fine. I figured there was nothing he could doabout it, no need to complain to him. Boy was I wrong! He immediately calledthe head of the floor and had a special menu of pillow options brought down andthe one I picked totally fixed my problems!!! So five stars and hugs to ourroom steward!!!

The spa staff were the hardest to communicatewith (knew the least amount of English) and we got different and conflictinginformation depending on who we talked to. That got frustrating fast, but afterthe first day we figured out the routine and bypassed the staff completely.After that we had no problems at all and really enjoyed the spa.

The bar staff was AMAZING. They were my favoriteand the best at speaking English. Since I spent the most time with them ofanyone, I am overall very pleased with the service experience.

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• Bathroom and the room in general is small
  

Definiteyes to this one. Barely enough room to put your elbows up in the shower withoutbanging into the walls and my knee hit the sink while sitting on the toilet.But consider, I experienced these things only a couple of times a day and theyamounted to maybe a total hour of inconvenienced time within a 7 dayspan...absolutely not a big deal. The people complaining are not wrong, spaceis tight, but at the end of the day it did not ruin my trip, only a few minutesof it here and there, and by ruined I mean that I frowned.

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• Bad entertainment
  

So Ido have to agree with this one pretty wholeheartedly but I also didn't give ita full chance. I love shows. They are a big deciding factor between ships withgood shows. That being said, we did not book Seaside for MSC's entertainment,we booked for the ship itself. We went to two theater shows in the beginningand called it quits. The first was something about a wizard. That was just bad.The second was more acrobatics and that was entertaining but I was glad whenthe half hour was up. Then there was the comedy. The comedy group on Seaside iscalled Beer Prov and they do, you guessed it, improv. I think Who's Line Is ItAnyway is a great show so I don't have anything against improv but these guys werereally not funny. But I only watched one night and in their defense the crowdparticipation sucked. I think with different audience members on stage it couldhave been a good show. But because that first one was so bad we never botheredto go back. Interestingly, my husband and I happened to be reading in a tuckedaway corner and one of the Beer Prov guys was close by. Another couple came upto him and started a long conversation that was really interesting (I know,rude to eavesdrop for over an hour, but it wasn't intentional!) about howcomedy works and crowd dynamics. They specifically called out the show wewatched as being a rough night. Anyway, I just wanted to say that he soundslike a really great guy who knows his stuff and maybe we were a little tooharsh based on one show. So to wrap up, since we weren't expecting good showsor entertainment it wasn't a huge disappointment that there weren't any. Wewere all perfectly happy to gather in the sports bar with our favorite bartender and laugh the night away there instead. I know they did the typicalcruise pool games and activities on the top deck but we were hardly ever upthere so I can't speak to those.

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• Bad food / Crowded buffets
  

Ithought the food was amazing. I was never ever hungry and will be dreamingabout their pizza for the foreseeable future. We had dinner in the dining roomevery night except one when we did the Japanese specialty restaurant. Thedinner portions are a bit smaller than what I've had on other ships and intypical American restaurants but I was so full from buffet snacking that itdidn't bother me at all. Everything we had was delivered quickly and was hotand delicious! Our waiter was awesome even though he did have some troublecommunicating every now and then. We were all buddies by the end of the weekand he really made the dinners more enjoyable. Two thumbs up for the diningroom experience! Now the Japanese restaurant...that was a little disappointingbut only from the show aspect. We did Yamaguchi's Teppanyaki experience. Thefood was some of the best I've ever had and worth every penny. Our cook was agood cook but a terrible showman. He dropped his tricks often, couldn't speak Englishat all. He kept acting like he was telling a joke and everyone around the tablehad to smile and laugh awkwardly since we didn't know what was going on. I justexpected a little better from a Roy Yamaguchi restaurant. Again, the food wasspectacular though. Totally worth visiting.

Back to the buffets and their crowds. We usuallywent to breakfast around 10:30, just before it closed at 11 and lunch around1:30-2ish. At those times it was not crowded at all. We walked around easily,found tables easily (even on cold/rainy days when everyone had to be inside),and there were always new and tasty things being offered. The only time I wasannoyed in the buffet was the morning we disembarked. That was super crowdedand it was 6am and I was not the happiest of people.

Those were all the major complaints I canremember, anyone have others they'd like me to offer opinions on?

Some tips:

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• If you're on any of the main decks, you are literally feet from at least 4 different bars. If your bar is crowded then walk across the hall to another one. I can't tell you how many times we were in the crowded sports bar watching a game and the bar was slammed so I walked down a flight of steps right outside the door to the completely empty casino bar and was served right away. Don't be lazy. If you're waiting for drinks it's your own fault.
  
• My favorite reading spot inside the ship was in the main atrium, level 2 (because we can't stray too far from the level 1 bar!), right side if you're facing the big screen, and all the way in the back. It's tucked back in the corner, it's quiet, has little traffic, and a great view out to sea.
  
• My favorite outside spot is on deck 19, at the Miramar Bar. It was never crowded, there was shade and sun, half is smoking (which I'm sensitive to) but it didn't bother us at all.
  
• News Cafe. Key Lime Pie Martini. You're welcome.
  

Loveloveloved this cruise, would sail again in aheartbeat! Happy sailing future Seasiders!

Thanks for the info, glad you had a great cruise!

Thank you for your review. Sounds to me that a positive attitude goes a long way!

Thanks for sharing! Great to hear you enjoyed your cruise. :)

I saw one video where people were standing at Teppanaki. That can't be right, can it? You did have seating?

I saw one video where people were standing at Teppanaki. That can't be right, can it? You did have seating?

Huh, no I didn't see anyone standing. We were all seated but they were a little awkward. Bar height chairs with nowhere to prop your feet so they were just dangling which isn't very comfortable. I probably would have been happier standing :-)

Glad you had a great time, and nice to hear some positives instead of all the complaints over on the review site.

Thank you, @waterlove1234! What a great review and so positive. I love how you took the negatives you’d read about and addressed them one by one. If you don’t mind, I’d like to probe a bit about the language barrier. Can you explain that further? For example, did you get the impression that these people couldn’t speak anything other than their native language, or was it just that they didn’t know English? I ask you that because my wife and I have cruised twice on Costa Cruises, and while some of them don’t have great English, they do speak other foreign languages. This is important to me, because I am fluent in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Norwegian. Usually if they have been taught at least one of the major European languages, I can get by. My cruises have often featured a lot of people from the Indian subcontinent, so I can’t say that my Hindi, Urdu, or Bangladeshi is very good, haha. Of course, I don’t know the provenance of your steward and the other staff members you interacted with. Also thanks for the tips about the bars, that’s a really good practical tip! I’m usually too worn out after dinner to go to the shows, but I will keep what you said about them in mind. Thank you so much again for your great review!

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what times are the shows?

Thanks for sharing your experience!

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Thanks for your review!

I’d like to probe a bit about the language barrier. Can you explain that further? For example, did you get the impression that these people couldn’t speak anything other than their native language, or was it just that they didn’t know English?

I'm glad you found it helpful!

Personally, I got the impression everyone struggled a bit with communicating with staff regardless of what language they spoke. That being said, I don't think you'll have any problem communicating given that you can speak so many languages. I often saw the crew laughing and talking with passengers in other languages, but I have no idea if they switched back and forth. I can hardly identify which language is being spoken so take all this with a grain of salt. Hopefully someone who has more knowledge of languages and has been on Seaside can give you a better answer!

what times are the shows?

Spread out through the evening. I think starting around 4ish and then there were 3-4 half hour shows peppered through until 8ish. Then Comedy show was at 11, I believe. Not 100% on those times, didn't keep the programs.

They repeat the same show 3-4 times a night. One night they flip flopped between two different shows.

Thanks for sharing, a good and honest review!

Tony

Great review ! Thank you for sharing ! Did you do the water slides and if so what were your impressions ? Did your group get the Fun Pass for the Bowling , Formula One simulator and bowling ? And lastly , did you feel there were enough afternoon activities offered?

I love the positive attitude you took with you on this cruise . You definitely had some issues that could have taken your review in a whole other direction, but you chose to have a great time , and you did !

"Wewere all perfectly happy to gather in the sports bar with our favorite bartender and laugh the night away there instead. I know they did the typicalcruise pool games and activities on the top deck but we were hardly ever upthere so I can't speak to those. "

I'm betting this favorite bartender was Paul. He was fantastic, as was all the staff in the Sports Bar. This was our go to hangout on our cruise Jan 6th-13th.,

"Wewere all perfectly happy to gather in the sports bar with our favorite bartender and laugh the night away there instead. I know they did the typicalcruise pool games and activities on the top deck but we were hardly ever upthere so I can't speak to those. "

 

I'm betting this favorite bartender was Paul. He was fantastic, as was all the staff in the Sports Bar. This was our go to hangout on our cruise Jan 6th-13th.,

 

We were on the Seaside Jan. 6 sailing, and were so happy to see Paul in the Sports Bar.

We had met him on the Divina, and thought he was such a wonderful person. Amazingly, he remembered us, so that made it even more special!

Great review. Now for most important part of cruising- is there a butter or not? We are loosing sleep here.

Great review. Now for most important part of cruising- is there a butter or not? We are loosing sleep here.

[emoji3]

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I'm pretty sure we already have the answer but did they serve any complimentary food in the sports bar? Also, what kind of offerings were on the buffet for late night options?

What was your time of exiting ship from leaving your stateroom to walking through customs? Did you self assist?

Thank you for the positive review.. We are sailing our very first cruise on Seaside this Sat Jan 27/18. I was a little worried after reading all the bad reviews.

Thanks, waterlove, for your balanced review.

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Excellent review/report.

Keith

Great review ! Thank you for sharing ! Did you do the water slides and if so what were your impressions ? Did your group get the Fun Pass for the Bowling , Formula One simulator and bowling ? And lastly , did you feel there were enough afternoon activities offered?

Sorry, I'm not going to be helpful to you at all! I didn't do any of the slides or any of the arcade activities. We're super frugal and since we splurged on dinner one night and we rode the zip line once, we didn't bother with any of the other things. They just seemed so pricey (but again, super frugal!) The zip line was fun though! It looks slow when you're watching it but it feels faster! and you can use the handle to turn yourself all around for an amazing view!

As for afternoon activities, we didn't participate in any of those either but there seemed to be quite a few. They did arts and crafts on sea days and walking by those looked fun. They had bingo games and casino tournaments, the usual standard stuff up at the main pool. I wasn't ever bored (I definitely was on Harmony), there just seemed like lots of places to wander around to so I never got antsy.