MSC 1/24 sailing with our 5 kids - VERY satisfied customers!

I don't post on these boards often...I tend to cluster-post around cruise time, which is typically once a year. But I know several of you are looking for a good deal on a cruise, and I know MSC is getting a horrible rep, so I wanted to post my experience here. We were so happy with our experience that we are considering another 7-day on the Orchestra before it leaves in May, AND already have our TA looking for us for next year on the Fantasia.

I need to put a disclaimer out first. We have 5 kids - at cruise time they were 4mos, 2yo, 3yo, 4yo, and 5 1/2yo. MSC offers "kids sail free" - 2 kids under 17yo per 2 paying adults - you do have to pay some fees for the kids - I think it came out to around $44 per kid for us. My mom and dad went with us, paying their own room fare, but we paid the taxes for all 5 kids. We each had an OV quad cabin, and they let the baby stay in our cabin with the 2 other kids as she was so small. Our family total (DH and I plus the kids) was around $1000! For a stellar 7 night Caribbean cruise!!! I am not sure if that can be matched or beaten anywhere, and it seems like we may not find that same deal again (we have already been looking for next year). Somehow, we were able to find a sale (I originally found it through jetblue airlines cruises but our TA was able to match it) where we got an OV cabin for an interior price - $389pp. It was the last week in January, which seems like a good time price-wise to cruise as it is before the winter break price jack-ups. DH and I have cruised several times previously on RCCL, and my parents have gone on carnival, but we have never cruised with the kids.

Our MSC experience was awesome. Before boarding, all we heard about was terrible service and horrible food. We had already paid in full and couldn't cancel without losing money, so we went with an open mind. However, we had nothing but the best service. Perhaps it was because we had 5 young children in tow, but everywhere we went we were greeted with smiles. Even the passengers seemed delighted by our kids, which is not always the case on land. I often feel I need to apologize for having a large family becasue by definition, we are loud and we take up a lot of space. However, my kids ARE well-behaved, and cute (although I admit I may be biased there!). Food was more than adequate. Yes, dining times are long, frequently taking up to 2 hours. Each night, dinner has up to 6 courses, although you are always free to order more or less. Our kids food came out promptly, and they often had their dessert well before our main course. But once they were fed, we allowed them to have small toys (a mini etch-a-sketch) that kept them quiet and us free to eat. The menu was varied, including some things we had never heard of before, things we had heard of but never tried (fried frog legs, squid rings), common things (steak, salmon, chicken, lasagna, spaghetti), and just plain ole delicious italian fare. My one complaint - not enough salt - but that was easily remedied at the table. The kids menu had some American fare (hot dogs, pizza, spaghetti, breaded chicken tenders), and some different things that the kids (and adults) tried and enjoyed (squid rings, cheese croquets which were like mozzarella sticks in pancake form, fried rice balls, veggie fritters, etc). After the first night, water pitchers were always available at the table, and refilled promptly. Our kids had chocolate milk ready and waiting each night. Our server and his attendent were always accomodating with requests and eager to please. We ate nearly all of our breakfasts in the dining room too. Lox was available, as were eggs any style (except omelets), pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc. We did encounter some minimal language issues here, but none of it was ever horrible. The buffet was ok, but we preferred the dining room. Food was fairly typical buffet fare, and I was not super impressed with it. However, for lunches, there was plenty of variety, including a large salad bar, grill with hamburgers and hot dogs, pizza, pasta, etc. I think the food overall was definitley comparable to RCCL. I was not impressed with RCCL buffet either. my parents said they had several made-to-order options on carnival's buffet, which would have been a nice addition. Some nights in the dining room I thought were far better than RCCL.

Our cabin steward did an incredible job of keeping our rooms clean. There are no towel animals or chocolates, but there was fresh fruit each day. (Several other staff (mostly dining room and bar it seemed) had a stash of tiny dark chocolates in their pockets and were frequently handing them out to our kids!). We had the minifridge emptied so we could keep some of our own beverages in there. It was a tight fit with 2 adults and 3-5 kids, but we made it work. (even though 2 slept with my parents, we kept most of the clothes in our room).

Nighttime entertainment was UNBELIEVABLE! I know several people have complained about it and I can not fathom why. The cirque de soleil type acts were impressive, as were the magician and jugglers. They had the typical song and dance reviews that are common on RCCL and I thought they were comparable. They also had 4 singers - 2 opera singers, and 2 who soloed the other acts and they were downright impressive. We did not participate in much of the daytime entertainment, but the team was young and enthusiastic. There are multiple pools on the pool deck, one of which has the entertainment stage. You can be close to the action if you want to participate or further away if you want to avoid it, but still enjoy the sun and water. There is one tiny childrens pool and a few 6 ft salt water pools. The pool deck is surrounded by about 4 feet of tile on each side and they let the pools overflow, so anyone with young kids like us can simply sit on the pool deck and get wet that wasy. My little ones LOVED that. Pool chairs are like any other cruise line. If you want a good spot, you need to steak it out early. however, if you think you can reserve a large number of chairs simply by putting some towels out on it, you will come back to find others sitting in your chairs with your towels on the ground underneath. We remedied this by having one of us stay with our chairs if it was that important that we had some in a certain spot (i.e. on sea days). Otherwise, there were plenty of chairs and plenty of deck space if you did not need to be in the main pool area.

Our 3, 4, and 5yo particiated in a few of the kids programs and seemed to enjoy them. Keep in mind if your kids have cruised on other lines they may not be impressed. There is only one play area, with a slide and small rope climbing area. No water slides or jungle gyms or rock climbing walls if you are used to those things. There is mini golf. I did not view the indoor play areas, as I was usually with the little ones while my husband dropped off the older ones, but they seemed to enjoy the coloring and activiites. The kids did a scavenger hunt, several parades, a tour of the bridge with the captain. There are hours available all day with a few one hour breaks in place so you can not drop your kids off and leave them all day. Our kids mainly stayed with us, but did go a few times in the afternoons while the younger two were napping. I have heard several people complain there are no activities for "older" kids - 7-12 range - not old enough to really be by themselves, but too old for the "baby" stuff. I can't really comment on this.

ok. This is long enough, so I will stop here. Feel free to ask any other specific questions if you have any.

J

thanks so much for the kid oriented review! i really appreciate it as we are going on the orchestra in a few weeks with our 2 year old twins. what is there to do with two year olds? you mentioned having a two year old, was the two year old happy with sitting on the pool deck and splashing in the water? also, do you think it would be ok to take a small dvd player to dinner for the last hour of the dining experience? i never do this, but i saw someone do it at a restaurant before and the kid was as good as gold and the dvd player was not loud at all and it kept the kid pretty busy while the parents ate? my twins were great on our last cruise, but if the dining is longer than an hour, i am afraid they will become anxious. any other ideas on what to do with the twins during the dining? also, what did you guys do on port days? did you do any of the excursions through msc? how was beach day in cayo? were there umbrellas to shade the kids? how did you all get around in the ports with all of the children...thanks so much for the info.

So glad to hear that you had a great vacation. This will be our 5th cruise...3rd with the kids and my parents. I have read both positive and negative posts since January, and I am very optimistic about our cruise March 7th. We have cruised Norweigen, Carnival, Costa (2 times) and now with MSC. We have enjoyed every one of our cruises, and cannot wait to go in the next 2 weeks. It sounds like you had a very enjoyable cruise with good staff and good food. That is really all I need to be perfectly happy, and the fact that everyone has said how wonderful the entertainment is and how clean and beautiful the ship is will be icing on the cake...thank you again...Melissa

Glad to hear you had such a great cruise.

We have an OV quad cabin on the March 21 cruise. Were you in cat 4 or did you you have an obstructed view. I've read quite a bit about the obstructed cabins, but not much about the pianoforte deck(cat 4). Any more info on your stateroom would be greatly appreciated.

what is there to do with two year olds? you mentioned having a two year old, was the two year old happy with sitting on the pool deck and splashing in the water? also, do you think it would be ok to take a small dvd player to dinner for the last hour of the dining experience? i never do this, but i saw someone do it at a restaurant before and the kid was as good as gold and the dvd player was not loud at all and it kept the kid pretty busy while the parents ate? my twins were great on our last cruise, but if the dining is longer than an hour, i am afraid they will become anxious. any other ideas on what to do with the twins during the dining? also, what did you guys do on port days? did you do any of the excursions through msc? how was beach day in cayo? were there umbrellas to shade the kids? how did you all get around in the ports with all of the children...thanks so much for the info.

I think the DVD player would be fine at dinner, especially if you bring headphones or keep the volume low. The overall volume in the dining room is loud, and I doubt anyone other than the immediate tables near you would notice. However, I guarantee they will all notice if your children are screaming! The table next to us had kids (maybe 18mos, 4, and 8ish?) and all three were out of control every night they came to the dining room. The 18mos old screamed and carried on the entire time. We overheard the mom comment at how rude it was that our kids were "playing" at the table, yet we had numerous comments from staff and other diners on how polite and quiet our children were. Wonder how many of those comments she got???

I would bring anything you can think of that is small and quiet to entertian your kids. What are you planning on using on the plane? Other ideas for dinner if you find it doesn't work is to take turns with your spouse having one of you go in and order (you can find the menu outside the dining room so the other one knows what is on the menu) and have the waiter bring out the first few courses and the kids food, and THEN you come in with the kids. Or order fewer courses. Or order off the kids menu. We did this a few times as their food was fun and good too. I don't think you are supposed to take food out of the dining room to your room, but we had oe night where our 3yo just simply melted down. She was overtired and had a cold, wasn't interested in eating at all, and could not keep it together. So DH took her to the cabin, and I asked our waiter if I could take the rest of his food. he gave it all tome, inclding dessert, with the dish covers on it and I took it to him after we were finished.

Our 2yo dd LOVED the pool deck. She was upset that she could not go to the children's center with her 3yo sister as they are convinced they are twins (3yo was a preemie - so they are close developmentally and size-wise). We would sit on the deck and splash in the overflow water. We also let her jump in a few times too, but we tried to keep this to a minimum as she is still in diapers. We used a swim diaper and noone said anything to us though. She also liked the covered play area, although it was small and some areas were bit difficult for her. We played mini golf a few times and they all liked that. Honestly, there was so much to look at that often we would entertain her simply by taking a walk around the ship.

Definitely bring a stroller, either a compact double if you have one or two umbrellas. We have a phil and teds e3 and two chicco umbrellas (the c6 I think). They were fine in the hallways, on deck if we needed to use them (although we didn't use them too much on the ship) and on shore. We of course brought car seats for the plane and cabs, but ended up not using any of them (except for the infant seat) in the Caribbean. Cayo was a nice beach. All 5 of our kids were more than content to play on the water's edge and in the sand. We brought some cheap sand toys for use there and Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel and left them at the beach in Cayo. The chairs there did not have umbrellas, but our blonde hair, blue-eyed, fair skin girls were fine with spf 50 (reapplied often) and rash gaurd tee shirts, even in the full sun all day. AS for the rest of the ports, we did not do any of the ship's excursions. in Key West we docked at a Naval base so all of us had to take a trolley into town. We got off with our strollers and chose to walk to mass at a local Catholic Church as it was Sunday, then strolled around town before heading back to the ship. In Cozumel, we did Mr. Sanchos, an all-inclusive beach club that was perfect. There were unlimited drinks and Mexican food (DELICIOUS), gorgeous beach and ocean for the kids, as well as a small (but cold) pool. We took a cab there, using the rare seat belt for the infat car seat, and buckled the older kids or held them on our laps....not ideal but really no other option as there were only a few seat belts that were even usable so the car seats wouldn't have worked. In the Caymens, we tendered ashore and did some shopping before spending the rest of the day on the ship by the pool.

Let me know if you have any other q's. Enjoy!

J

FOURunderFOUR, Thanks for your review. We will be sailing on the 7th. I saw your question on the Key west boards. Did you make it to ST.Mary of the star church? We were planning on going too. Glad you had a nice time.

Glad to hear you had such a great cruise.

 

We have an OV quad cabin on the March 21 cruise. Were you in cat 4 or did you you have an obstructed view. I've read quite a bit about the obstructed cabins, but not much about the pianoforte deck(cat 4). Any more info on your stateroom would be greatly appreciated.

We were in 5037 and 5039, which I believe are cat 4. The rooms were small, especially with 4-5 of us per room, and at times all 7 of us in one room, but perfectly adequate for us with young kids. We had the upper births for our children, and were a bit concerned before the cruise because they are so young, but it worked fine. We kept our bed (bottom) pushed together, so when the upper births are open, they are over our bed slightly, with a small open space in the middle (be careful sitting up in the middle of the night!). Our 2 yo fell out of her bed twice during naps, but landed on our bed both times and was fine. Our baby slept in a suitcase on top of the vanity chair bench next to my side of the bed. There is plenty of storage. We kept all of our suitcases under the bed, and hung up as much as we could as there were plenty of hangars in addition to the ones we brought in our suiter. There was a tower of drawers and open shelves for clothes storage, so each one of the 7 of us had a drawer (for undies, socks, etc) and a slelf for folded clothes. We used the big shelf over the safe under the life jackets for all of our bathing suits, cover-ups and sun screen. The bathroom was small but had plenty of storage.

Let me know if you want to know anything else specific.

j

FOURunderFOUR, Thanks for your review. We will be sailing on the 7th. I saw your question on the Key west boards. Did you make it to ST.Mary of the star church? We were planning on going too. Glad you had a nice time.

Yup. we docked at a naval base, so everyone had to take the trolley into town. They dropped us off near Mallory Square, I think. We walked (maybe 1 1/2 -2 miles??- about 35 minutes or so at a fast pace) to the Church. Mass was at 10:30 I believe. We got there a few minutes after 10 and the 9am mass was letting out. We ran into the school principal (AMAZING woman) and she opened up the school for us to go to the bathroom. We let the kids run around on the school grounds before going inside to mass. NOTE: The church gets PACKED and several people end up standing, so if you have kids and want to make sure you get a seat, you might want to get there a bit early. I think we ended up going in around 10:20 and got one of the last pews. DH had to take our 3 yo out for some air (she is a preemie and has chronic lung disease and was a bit riled up and having trouble breathing). It took him about 5 minutes to weave through the crowd to get outside and there was no way he was getting back in!

Enjoy your cruise.

J

Thanks. Maybe we can find a cab. If not we'll enjoy the nice weather.:)

Yup. we docked at a naval base, so everyone had to take the trolley into town. They dropped us off near Mallory Square, I think. We walked (maybe 1 1/2 -2 miles??- about 35 minutes or so at a fast pace) to the Church. Mass was at 10:30 I believe. We got there a few minutes after 10 and the 9am mass was letting out. We ran into the school principal (AMAZING woman) and she opened up the school for us to go to the bathroom. We let the kids run around on the school grounds before going inside to mass. NOTE: The church gets PACKED and several people end up standing, so if you have kids and want to make sure you get a seat, you might want to get there a bit early. I think we ended up going in around 10:20 and got one of the last pews. DH had to take our 3 yo out for some air (she is a preemie and has chronic lung disease and was a bit riled up and having trouble breathing). It took him about 5 minutes to weave through the crowd to get outside and there was no way he was getting back in!

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

J

Were you never worried about the ships railings? I noticed a couple rails where they were very spaced apart? Tell me your observations. We have children going with us too. Never worried about this before.

Misand

We usually bring the Nintendo DS.. but last time she just wanted to sit there and watch the people.

My dd thought the waiters were amazing-

WIth 5 kids under 6 years old, you may not have the time to do it, but you ought to consider massaging your review and submitting to Member Reviews for publication there. The kids free aspect of MSC is important and one of the key selling points. I'm sure others with children will be interested in your experience.

By the way, if having a bunch of little kids in tow ensures good service and food, there may be a few people here who would volunteer to bring your crew along with them on their own cruise... just for insurance.

p.s. Isn't it time you changed your user name to FiveunderSix?

Owl61--- I do believe I saw some humor in your post!! I am SOO glad to see that!!

I thought it was very funny... you can have a second career..;)

Hey- I am all for massaging ANYTHING... LOL

Hey- I am all for massaging ANYTHING... LOL

I love when you talk dirty. I hope you and the family have a great cruise.

four under four,

thanks so much for the review and all of my questions answered. was there a place to take the kids to play? my twins cannot go to kids club but i think someone told me that i could take them to a place on the boat to play in a "jungle area"? thanks so much for the info.

Owl61---

 

Hey- I am all for massaging ANYTHING... LOL

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :p

four under four,

 

thanks so much for the review and all of my questions answered. was there a place to take the kids to play? my twins cannot go to kids club but i think someone told me that i could take them to a place on the boat to play in a "jungle area"? thanks so much for the info.

Yes, they will definitely be able to enjoy the kid's area. Here are some pics.

Hi FOURunderFOUR,

Glad to hear you had a great time on your cruise, we will be sailing on the Poesia in Nov with a 4 month old and a 4y.o so I just wanted to clarify when you said you only needed a infant seat in the Caribbean? Was that on an excursion or taxi drive? So you had no problems with not having one at any other ports?

Thanks for any help you can give :)

Hi FOURunderFOUR,

 

Glad to hear you had a great time on your cruise, we will be sailing on the Poesia in Nov with a 4 month old and a 4y.o so I just wanted to clarify when you said you only needed a infant seat in the Caribbean? Was that on an excursion or taxi drive? So you had no problems with not having one at any other ports?

 

Thanks for any help you can give :)

We used the infant seat at all of the ports, mainly because she sits more comfortable in it than it the stroller (by itself) we were using for her. We used ONLY the infant seat on taxi's as most of the ones we used did not have any (or very few working) seat belts, so we did not bring the car seats for our other kids off the ship. Cozumel is the only port that we actually took a cab, other than in Fort Lauderdale, when of course we used all of our car seats. We did not do any ship excursions. HTH.

J

WIth 5 kids under 6 years old, you may not have the time to do it, but you ought to consider massaging your review and submitting to Member Reviews for publication there. The kids free aspect of MSC is important and one of the key selling points. I'm sure others with children will be interested in your experience.

By the way, if having a bunch of little kids in tow ensures good service and food, there may be a few people here who would volunteer to bring your crew along with them on their own cruise... just for insurance.

p.s. Isn't it time you changed your user name to FiveunderSix?

Thanks for the humor. I could actually write a lot more but not sure how much is necessary. yes, I do need to update my name, but I use "fourunderfour" on several boards, so it is easy to remember. By the time I get around to updating, it may need to be changed to sixUNDERsomething, so I'll just wait until then :)

Thanks for the humor. I could actually write a lot more but not sure how much is necessary. yes, I do need to update my name, but I use "fourunderfour" on several boards, so it is easy to remember. By the time I get around to updating, it may need to be changed to sixUNDERsomething, so I'll just wait until then :)

So Owl61 thinks you need to change your name? I wonder how long Owl will stay 61? Maybe long after he is 62, 72, 82? :) Or maybe it is just his lucky number like mine is 42.

So Owl61 thinks you need to change your name? I wonder how long Owl will stay 61? Maybe long after he is 62, 72, 82? :) Or maybe it is just his lucky number like mine is 42.

Or maybe he was born in '61, in which case it will never need to change. ;) :)

Were you never worried about the ships railings? I noticed a couple rails where they were very spaced apart? Tell me your observations. We have children going with us too. Never worried about this before.

Thanks

Were you never worried about the ships railings? I noticed a couple rails where they were very spaced apart? Tell me your observations. We have children going with us too. Never worried about this before.

Thanks

are there any specific ones you are asking about? several people have mentioned this but i honestly do not recall ANY that concerned me. Of course we never let our kids climb on any railings, but i also don't remember them standing by any that worried me.

Did you get a postcard of the Orchestra with your cruise documents? If you look at the picture, I think the railings at issue are on the very top deck at the back (okay I suppose I should say aft) of the ship. Someone said they were aound the mini golf course. It would be a bad fall to the deck below but it does not look like you would fall off the ship. Similar railings appear down by the lifeboats, but my guess is those are on top of a solid wall that is couple of feet high in the muster area.

Can anyone tell me anything about volleyball?