First Time MSC Cruisers - MSC Poesia

I wanted to take a minute to post our impressions of MSC as first time MSC cruisers. We have cruised with Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Holland America and Norwegian over the last 25 years. Over 20 cruises with the most recent, before this one, Carnival Conquest in November, 2016. We are RCCL Emerald which easily became MSC Gold. We are from the midwest and in our mid 50's. I am a do-it-yourself vacation planner and prefer to vacation often and inexpensively without going too cheap.

So these are my impressions (along with some of hubby's) with the above background. So many cruise line and vacation spots would not be so successful if we did not all have different wants and needs. I should point out that I began this journey with extremely low expectations for this cruise based on MSC reviews and the price we paid. Hopefully my impressions will help others as they plan.

After a year of planning and many years of dreaming, we made our first trip to Italy in April of 2016. Rome and Venice with a side trip to Pompeii. We loved it and it was not nearly as expensive as I had dreamed so I began planning Europe trip #2 for April of 2017. I work in a school district so spring break works best for me but I am allowed vacation at other times. My husband enjoyed Rome and Venice but got burned out on all the "old stuff" and thought a cruise would be nice but not necessarily to Europe. I found a 6-day cruise, with a balcony for less than $1,400 total. When I showed hubby the difference between a Caribbean and European cruise in April, he was happy to choose Europe. I was happy too. Flights round trip Detroit to Genoa and return from Venice were not much more than a flight to Florida during spring break.

What I liked about MSC:

Price. We opted for the Bella Experience with a balcony cabin on Deck 9. (We could have had an inside cabin for less than $1,000 total but I thought a balcony for this type of cruise would be best).

Itinerary - We were able to travel to six cities in four countries - all for less than $1,400 for our room, food and transportation. MSC made it very easy to get off and on at the ports and there were never long lines.

Ease of booking. I know that many people have indicated problems with their website but I did not encounter any problems. I did call with one question and the phone was answered quickly and my question answered.

Status match - easy to accomplish and while I did not get a lot of perks, the fresh fruit in my room upon arrival was nice. I received a lot of discounts, free hour in thermal spa and some other things we did not use but it was nice to receive. I received the status match after booking and they immediately took 5% off of my cruise fare without me needing to ask.

Purchasing extras in advance: I purchased laundry (20 items) to try to keep me from over packing, internet, water at dinner (no charge) and a soft drink package as I knew we would not be on the ship enough to make an alcohol package worthwhile for us. It was nice having these things paid for before we left home.

Embarkation was a breeze. Best ever. We had been assigned a 2:00 time but went to ship after leaving hotel around 11:30 with no problem. We were the only ones dropping our luggage and they immediately took it and showed us where to go. We went through a short line, waited in a waiting room for less than 5 minutes and were then shown to another waiting room for less than 5 minutes and we were on the ship. They had a place to drop your hand luggage if you did not want to lug it around with you until the rooms were ready. I did not have much with me but I have had a lot in the past and I thought this was brilliant.

Not everyone embarking and debarking at the same place - I think this may have led to the lack of crowds. Many people were getting off the ship for sightseeing as we were getting on.

Buffet - No crowding on embarkation day. Easy to find a table and eat. I have never experienced this on the first day. It was a relaxing relief. Breakfast served until 11:30. Lunch at 12:00. Pizza all day and night. Great pizza. Ate at buffet for dinner one night as dining room menu was not to our liking and there was a lot of variety, many items from the dining room menu.

After lunch snacks begin. Always something available. Servers coming to table for bar orders. Never had to wait long for someone to come. Plates were cleaned away quickly. Always could easily find a table.

A lot of areas throughout the ship to sit and relax. No place seemed crowded.

Balcony was nice size and starboard side was perfect for viewing Greece, Montenegro and Croatia as we went in and out of port and as we traveled up the coast. The view heading into Venice as we passed the head of the grand canal was breathtaking Saturday morning. Much nicer than a caribbean cruise where all we ever saw was water.

The bathroom was a nice size with a shower curtain instead of the doors or some lines. Never had water on the floor and did not feel cramped in the shower. On my last Carnival cruise, I could not figure out how to not get water on the bathroom floor. It was wet the entire trip.

Ship was lovely. Well maintained and the small size made it easy to get around quickly.

Casino was small but never crowded and not smoky. We played a little each night and broke about even by the end of the trip.

I did not feel that anyone was trying to sell me something all of the time. No one was pushy. No sales announcements that made everyone go running. Stores did not have a large selection but that was OK with me.

No announcements all of the time. Only the occasional announcement, in five languages, when necessary.

What I did not like about MSC:

Dinner in the dining room. I know food is subjective and the food was not bad, we are just not huge seafood eaters (midwest meat and potato people) and portion sizes are very small. This was my first cruise ever that we ate a dinner in the buffet. However, we were not surprised and not disappointed. We did not starve. I would have loved to try the Japanese restaurant but the menu's in the dining room after the one night we headed to the buffet were good enough that we chose there rather than the Japanese restaurant. I would try that next time. The food looked amazing.

We were seated alone at a table of four. I know that there were not a lot of english speaking travelers on our trip but we would have loved to have others to talk with at dinner. We requested early dining and received late which we did not like but expected based on our Bella status. I just wish we had been informed ahead of time, like some other lines do, that we did not receive our request.

Entertainment: I read lots of reviews and entertainment was pretty much what we expected but it was not very good. We skipped night two and when we stuck our heads in the show room it looked like most people skipped it too. It was very empty. The rest of the week was better but not like entertainment on other lines. However, it was worth what we paid and I understand how difficult it is with the many languages and if they had catered entertainment to one language, we understand that it would not have been ours.

My husband hated that there was no English language television except for CNN International. It was the same at our hotels in Genoa and Venice and he knew it would be like that from the year before but he still hated it. With lack of things to do on the ship, he would have liked to be able to watch television in the cabin. There were movies to purchase and we got a 50% discount for gold status for movies but we were too tired at night to commit to a long movie. Weather was too chilly to spend time outside in the evenings. I do not know if this was the reason they did not offer movies outside or if that is just something they don't do. There was a screen.

Disembarkation. The process actually was very well handled and there was never long, crowded, pushing lines I have experienced on other ships. However, I would have liked the option to self disembark. I packed lightly so that I could easily handle my luggage off the ship and to and around Venice. Because of our Bella status, we had to wait until 10:15 to get off the ship and I would have loved an extra two hours in Venice had we been able to get off right away.

Would we cruise with MSC again - absolutely. Would we take our friends and family - no, I think they would not like it. They are more traditional "Caribbean cruisers" and would want that experience. We love Europe and I have picked out a cruise for next year that we will take, if the price gets better. Right now too high for me. If not a cruise, we may try a week in Greece. We loved Corfu and want to see more of the country.

Thanks for the review.

We are off on a Med cruise shortly on MSC Splendida so I enjoyed your review very much.

We travelled on Poesia from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale and of the four MSC ships we have been on this is our favourite so far, followed by the Orchestra which is a sister ship, followed by Divina then Opera.

One thing we have noticed on some of our 15 cruises is that the food is either good or not so good depending on where the head Chef is from, on the NCL Jade we did a B2B from Venice, week one the Chef was from Jamaica and the food was Brilliant, the second week we had the same French Chef who had been on our previous Jade cruise and the food was as bad as the other cruise.

Also the Captain can be a factor of the cruise and depending on how he or she manages the crew the morale can also be noticed among them in how they deal with people.

Choice of food can also make or break a cruise for people, my other half does not eat Pasta, Boiled or Fried Eggs or Fish ! so sometimes it can be a challenge but she has never gone hungry on a cruise.

Good to hear that you like MSC.

Hi there. We were on that cruise too and it was our first MSC cruise. I thought the itinerary was amazing..loved Rome, Corfu, Kotor and Venice. I wasn't too amazed with Split in Croatia and thought it would be like Dubrovnik. I echo your thoughts about MSC dining and entertainment. The shows were farcical (but we were able to giggle through them with a few drinks in us and the kids loved them). The food..well..it is a huge contrast to food on DCL (the other cruise line we have been on). No finesse and bland. The buffet was fine I thought (if you just need something to eat quickly). We didn't starve but wasn't impressed with the food in the restaurants.

In terms of service, I feel MSC can strive to offer a more polished and professional service. A few issues encountered: no laundry bag in room and had to request one many times to get one, the benefits of aurea package (diffuser and spa welcome cocktail) - i had to ask for these (i would not have been given them if i didnt ask as other aurea people missed out), told we had not done the safety drill and received a note demanding we attend the next day (we has attended!! And taken photos!), the spa got our appointment times messed up by making an error when inputting the appointments times. Oh and the TV was broken..had to report this on 3 days for something to be done.

Thank God the alcohol was included, the kids loved the kids club and the places we visited were great. As that made our holiday. Also the ship was beautiful and I liked the events...formal some nights, fun on others, and relaxed on the majority. Staff were very pleasant (esp bar services staff)

We have rebooked next year on MSC ..different ship to Poesia. Mainly because of price, itinerary choice and better reviews of the Divina. If there are issues next year, it will be time to move on to a different cruise line.

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We were fortunate and had no issues on the ship. I never saw our room steward and have no idea who he was but I always had clean towels and he took my laundry and brought it back to me so I was happy. We only needed customer service one time and there was no wait and they took care of my minor issue. Staff throughout the ship was very nice.

My final take on this trip was that if I want a "Caribbean cruise" experience, I need to book with my usual cruise lines and I will have more food that we like, more entertainment, more crowds, and more time on the ship since we have been to those ports may times. If I want a cruise to new and exciting places at a reasonable cost, MSC in Europe is a great choice.

Dviina I believe now has food more accustomed to American tastes.