Seaside Cruise with children

We cruised MSC Seaside in a Fantastica Balcony room 11111, March 10-17 with my family (wife, daughters aged 3 and 7)

I would consider ourselves moderately experienced travelers, with this being only our 3rd cruise (Med cruise on MSC Preziosa, NCL Escape last year), have traveled oversees a couple of times and have been to all inclusive resorts about 10 times.

I will try and make this as brief as possible, with still giving as much info as I can. I will say that we thoroughly enjoyed the boat, our experience and our time. So much we have booked the same cruise again for next year.

I didn't know what to expect on this trip due to many of the negatives reviews and complaints. Speaking to a couple of staff members throughout the ship, they did admit that things got off to a rocky start but they have been working hard at correcting their issues. This was also echoed at the CC meet and greet. I think it's great to know that in such a short time they have corrected so many of those complaints I read about that they are a company who strives to be better, and listens to their customers. The complaints I am referring to include:

- limited selections at the buffet - this buffet (for breakfast and lunch) was no different than any I've experienced before. It always had something different than the day before, but also kept the staples on the line

- horrendous smell throughout the boat - we definitely smelled it and it wasn't pleasant, but it was minimal. The only place I could say I smelled it for sure was the kids waterpark area. I didn't seem to smell it as bad as the week went on

-crazy busy elevators - there were times when they were busy, but overall I found them to be very quick. They have two banks of 4 elevators each in the forward section, and in the midship, as well as two more viewing elevators overlooking the back of the boat

- no storage in the rooms - with 4 of us in the room we seemed to fit in everything we had. We found ways to use every little corner. The closest had 24 hangers.

There have been some much better day by day reviews so I will highlight the things we thought were great, the not so great and answer any questions people may have.

The Great

1. The ship is beautiful - there is lots of open spaces and the atrium has a very inviting feeling. Every corner and space are very unique, it was nice to explore the ship. The infinity bridges and bridge of Sighs were very unique

2. Outdoor seating - we love to eat outside and enjoyed being able to do so at the buffet

3. The food - we try and eat with our kids more times than not, and ate in the MDR every night. We really enjoyed the food. There were a many items that we loved (risotto, swordfish and shrimp skewers, steak, pasta and meatballs, eggplant Parmesan) and a couple that we didn't (ossobuco, french onion soup). There was a kids menu, and they would sometimes order from that and sometimes they would order off of the adult menu

4. the waterslides - the kids really enjoyed using them, none of them were "extreme" but all were fun - get your waterslide bracelet on your day of embarkation as the line is huge on the first sea day

5. the jungle pool - we spent most of our pool time here as it was never over crowded, gave the kids shade in the sun and had a bar right next to it

6. Our cabin steward Richard was awesome. He knew our schedule, was always friendly and did a fantastic job

7. try the wine and cocktail bar outside the specialty restaurants, it was very quiet and a great atmosphere

The not so good....

1. kids club - I only have the kids club from NCl to compare to, but my daughter did say she preferred last years over this year. I had high expectations for it because both of our children love lego, and I thought that would be the theme. The lego seemed to only be the decor, and something they did in free time, which there also seemed to be a lot of just "play time" or activities which didn't get the children involved (they took the kids out to the pool deck to dance the maccarena, but didn't teach them the dance, they also had the dj in the club but just had him playing music and they said to dance). We tried to get our daughter at the club for as much time as she wanted to on the first day to meet other kids but the only person she met was someone she met at the pool on embarkation day (kids club closed). Everything in the evening also seemed to be late for us. We had an early dining in the MDR at 6pm. The kids club took the kids to eat at 7pm-8pm, usually had a free hour from 8-9, then started their evening theme night at 9pm. Our kids went and ate one night and it was hot dog and hamburger night and enjoyed it, but didn't want to go back. It was just too late for them I think. Overall they wanted to go when certain planned events were on (arts and crafts, haunted house, pirates vs sailors) but between those it didn't seem to engage the children enough to have them running back to the club.

2. Chair hogs - I know it happens everywhere, but some chairs were taken but unoccupied for hours. I saw one attendant take away towels when someone mentioned it to them, but he was gone when the original people came back and minor argument ensued. On NCL, the attendants were very consistent with this, putting stickers on chairs every hour and if they were still unoccupied in another hour they opened. The enforcement on Seaside was almost not existent

3. MDR staff - our two servers were very inattentive and inconsistent. They were not bad but were just not great.. They would always take the orders correctly (mostly) and bring you your food, but never came back to see how everything was or if we needed anything. One meal I got my first glass of wine while I was eating the entree.

None of the above points made a negative impact on our cruise. We realize everything is not going to be perfect, that there is room for improvement, and if you asked us, those would be it.

We did meet all the senior staff at the CC meet and greet, which was very nice. One person we spoke to was Danelle (sp?), the director of guest services. In speaking with her she told us she was going to send us something to our room, and after calling twice throughout the week, we did not get it. It didn't sit just right with us as she didn't need to promise us anything, but she did, and then did not follow through. Again, it didn't ruin the vacation, but surely doesn't follow the under promise and over deliver philosophy.

It seems like I have wrote a novel, hopefully you can get something from it. If I come up with more ideas afterwards I will add it to the post.

It's a great ship, with some growing pains, but try it and you will love it.

Thanks for the review... Commend you for your open/flexible attitude and glad you enjoyed the ship and overall cruise.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for your review, could you compare to the preziosa ?

We are on the seaside April 21st and did the preziosa 2014- which we really enjoyed. The negative reviews of seaside of course have been a little concerning, it would be lovely to hear any comparisons.

Many thanks

Kylie

Thanks for your insight into the kids club! I am going to go in with very low expectations! I know my girls were excited about the Lego theme too! Oh well hopefully they will enjoy spending some time with mom and dad!

Thank you for sharing this very informative review ! I have a few questions . Did the kid's club staff permit your children to stay together or were they separated into 2 different age groups ? Also , were there any times when they permitted the parents to stay and enjoy the kid's club areas. I am aware that they schedule family activities during the day at various places on the ship, but what I am asking about is the possibility to go into the club with the children and perhaps play Legos with them .

Thanks for being willing to share kids club information . There is not a lot of information about it out there .

Thanks for your review, could you compare to the preziosa ?

We are on the seaside April 21st and did the preziosa 2014- which we really enjoyed. The negative reviews of seaside of course have been a little concerning, it would be lovely to hear any comparisons.

Many thanks

Kylie

It's a little difficult to make many direct comparisons as our Preziosa cruise was in the Mediterranean and 5 years ago. The Preziosa cruise also had a rolling embarkation so there wasn't any formal beginning and end to the cruise and daily program. I can say both ships seemed very clean, had great food and very happy staff. We were also concerned with all the reviews, but we kept telling ourselves that we enjoyed our last one with them and we were not disappointed.

Go in open minded and you will enjoy your cruise.

Thank you for sharing this very informative review ! I have a few questions . Did the kid's club staff permit your children to stay together or were they separated into 2 different age groups ? Also , were there any times when they permitted the parents to stay and enjoy the kid's club areas. I am aware that they schedule family activities during the day at various places on the ship, but what I am asking about is the possibility to go into the club with the children and perhaps play Legos with them .

 

Thanks for being willing to share kids club information . There is not a lot of information about it out there .

No, they did not let our children stay together when they were separated, but there were some activities (watching Kelly and Khloe) where they had both groups together and they were allowed to sit next to each other.

We were able to play Lego with the kids on the first night as it was orientation and registration. After that I do believe there were specific times to have family play. They definitely did not allow parents to go in the club at any time to play legos.

I brought home the two most recent weekly sheets. I will dig them out and post them.

The kids club staff were great and accommodating to most requests.

I was on this sailing and I would agree with everything. I really enjoyed the MDR as well and found the food more memorable than what I had on the Royal Princess back in April 2015. The food must contain decent ingredients too because I only gained 1-2 pounds post cruise which sort of surprised me.

We were out early in full force to get our chairs but we actually used them. I did notice some chairs unused for quite some time which would definitely be annoying if you were trying to actually use a spot. I think the monitoring approach would be a fair way to go.

All the pre-cruise complaints I read were overblown. Then again, a server on the ship joked about how people will complain about anything... even the lighting... and it is true. I just don't dwell on these sort of things. The only thing that really irked me on the trip was that I found most of my negative encounters with other passengers were European. This is petty but things like barging in front of us to get into elevators (we had a stroller), walking into the elevator before people get off, cutting disembarkation lines or even buffet lines. etc etc. I don't want to dwell on it but it gave both my wife (who is foreign herself) and I a bit of a different opinion on European travellers. Given that I have never left North America, this was my most European encounter and I just expected friendlier people (and yes we had friendly encounters).

Another slight negative, the singer in the atrium played the same songs every night and did multiple sets every night singing those same songs. A server actually pointed this out which I didn't think was very professional but, it is what it is.

It's a little difficult to make many direct comparisons as our Preziosa cruise was in the Mediterranean and 5 years ago. The Preziosa cruise also had a rolling embarkation so there wasn't any formal beginning and end to the cruise and daily program. I can say both ships seemed very clean, had great food and very happy staff. We were also concerned with all the reviews, but we kept telling ourselves that we enjoyed our last one with them and we were not disappointed.

 

Go in open minded and you will enjoy your cruise.

Many thanks- it will be the same for us - last one in med 4yrs ago. But yes I keep thinking we really loved our last one and plan to do the same!

thanks again

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Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the review. I appreciate hearing the family point of view. My kids are similar ages at 4 and 7 so I will have to plan for late nights. Is there any extra charge after a certain time? Like on Carnival there is a charge after 10 pm for the kids club. I’m just wondering in case they really want to do one of the later thing. Thanks.