Fresh off the boat (MSC Seaside) Bill

I had a great time talking to all of the Cruise Critic members and seeing them at the gathering. I will have my review pictures and a couple of video. Right now I need to unwind. Three and a half drive through Miami took it out of me.

Bill

Looking forward to it.

I know the Canadian issue with traveling from Canada to the USA to get a cruise. Went on a Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral few years ago. Had a 5 hour drive from New Brunswick to Portland Maine, then flew to Orlando through New York. Did this as it was FAR cheaper to drive to Maine USA, do one night park & fly than it was to fly from Canada.

Looking forward to your review and photos.

Keith

Here’s my review of the MSC seaside and I’ll try and keep itbrief. The ship itself is really nice it’sobvious that the theme is chrome ,mirrors and smoked glass throughout the entireship. The ship can be confusing getting around.MSC really makes it easy with their MSC APP. As far as it goes I did not have any sewer smell thorough the ship andin the room or throughout the ship itself so I think the problem has been takencare. What it comes to the languagebarrier I did not have a problem with that. I was amazed that the staff as bilingual and many different languagesand the crew had no problem understanding English. I believe that they are holding classes forthe crew below deck for English, if so my hat’s off to MSC. Embarkation was very smooth. The only issue I had is dealing with a creditcard this could be taking care of at the point of checking and instead of goingon board ship deck five and looking for a kiosk.

This created and little bit of a problem, having to wait for open kiosks to putyour credit card information in.

When it comes to the food and dining I have to say I waspleasantly surprised. It is hard to feed 6-8 thousand people and they did avery good job on preparing their food for their guests. The buffet had a variety of food and thebreakfast buffet did include fried eggs scrambled eggs sausage links in sausagewhich was not on board the ship in the early stages. They also had a carving station for ham forbreakfast. Lunches were pretty good andthe selection of food I consider to be good. I did not eat in the buffet during the evening so I cannot comment aboutwhat food was served in the evening at the buffet.

While most of our dinners were in the MDR, I was very happywith the food and the service that I received there. The New York strip was probably theoutstanding dinner of the evening it was cooked to my pleasure it was verytender and was very flavorful. Our waitersan assistant both were very good and sometimes quite humorous which made theevening a lot of fun. There is one issuethroughout the ship and that is the lack of personnel on board to servedrinks. In my case this is understaffedand this needs to be we looked at by MSC. It was very slow trying to get and drink using a portable kiosk it madeit difficult.

I was in cab and 14081 and I was really surprised on howsmall the cabins are. The bathroom andshower itself was probably no bigger than my RV that I have. It was difficult to try and take a goodshower using a handheld shower head. Although the room is small it did serve its purpose, typically you do notspend a large portion of your day sitting inside your cabin. You will use your cabin later in the eveningsto wind down and go to bed.

We had the opportunity to do a meet and greet with other cruisecritic members that were on board with a captain. I had the opportunity to talk to the cruisedirector and ask him he if they pay attention to the crews critics review andhe assured me that they do. He alsoexplained this is how they can make changes throughout the ship based on theirinput from the cruise critic members and their reviews.

One thing I would strongly suggest is that you go toWal-Mart and buy a small fan that has a clip on the bottom and uses in yourroom it will really help the air circulation and make you sleep better.

I do not have any children therefore I cannot talk about thekids clubs or their wrists bands but I do know that family’s I used thewristbands for the children were very pleasantly happy about it. I do have to touch base about the childrenthat were on board. There were a lot of children and I think this is due tospring break. Children from the ages of1 to 2 months all the way up to 15 and 16 year old there were some childrenrunning around unsupervised and the course there were children that were beingsupervised a lot of the kids took over the hot tub so it made it difficult toget in and relax. I will say that I willnever book and other cruise gain in March again due to spring break.

The entertainment on board lacked entertainment. This was so bad that we had to walk out of acouple of the shows we found them to be boring lack of entertainment andoverall not appealing to watch. Maybe Iam used to taking cruses with Las Vegas style entertainment that you wantto stand up and clapped and cheered for the hard work of the staff that put ittogether. This was not the case withMSC.

Getting off of the ship was just as easy as getting on the ship. You can elect early departure, but must beoff between 7:00-7:30. Each cabin is givena color tag with time to depart. But let’sbe honest you can get off at any time. Your bags are put in a section by color which makes it easy to get your baggageand go.

If any cruise that you take you will find little issues hereand there but these issues can be overcome by taking a look at the cruise thetime you spent onboard and the length that you were at sea. Overall did I have a good time; absolutely Ihad a great time what I sell MSC again probably not. I’d typically do not sell the same ship backthe back; I give some time before going back. I am looking at going on Celebrity X andexperience their cruises

Please feel free to ask me any questions that you may have Iwould do my best to answer them.

Take care, enjoy your cruse it will be over before you knowit, have fun get out and meet the peoplethey are great and this is one of the perks about cruising you can meet people from other countries Ihad a great time.

Bill

Love your thread title, Bill! :D

I think the following needs highlighting for those who are yet to be convinced (unless they really don't want to be!)

As far as it goes I did not have any sewer smell thorough the ship and in the room or throughout the ship itself so I think the problem has been taken care.

Love your thread title, Bill! :D

 

I think the following needs highlighting for those who are yet to be convinced (unless they really don't want to be!)

Just waiting for somebody else to come on and say “well there was a smell reported on another thread” probably where someone broke wind after having brown lettuce and stale egg sandwiches !

Just waiting for somebody else to come on and say “well there was a smell reported on another thread” probably where someone broke wind after having brown lettuce and stale egg sandwiches !

Thank you for giving me the biggest belly-laugh I've had in a while! :D :D :D

Actually, I'm still laughing as I type. :')

Love your thread title, Bill! :D

 

 

 

I think the following needs highlighting for those who are yet to be convinced (unless they really don't want to be!)

I have read lots of good news regarding the smell the last week!!

I do require a few more clean sailings before I declare fixed though. There were 2 weeks in February where I thought they may have it under control and then...WHAM! The sewer smell was back with a vengeance.

If (notice I said if) the smell does return in the reviews, should I highlight the review and state that “ I think the following needs to be highlighted for those who are yet to be convinced (unless they are unwilling to believe this ship has a problem)”??

Seems rather unnecessary.

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I await with bated breath for your official announcement ! To be fair I don’t think you would need to make an additional one as you latch onto any thread that mentions a mere whiff of unpleasantness. If that is your thing then crack at it. Me I prefer a glass half full rather than a toilet half full. To each their own I suppose.

Lol ... good one ;-)

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Way to funny thanks for the laugh needed taht

I have read lots of good news regarding the smell the last week!!

 

I do require a few more clean sailings before I declare fixed though.

 

 

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Thanks ever so much. I always love to hear opinions from those who have experienced the topic in question...wait a moment, you haven't!

Two things: Who decided that you would be the one to "declare fixed"? and what are your criteria for same?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Easy.....I was replying to the jab directed at me. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well.

What I think about the sewer smell on the seaside shouldn’t matter to anyone, but apparently because this is a concern to me, I’ve been set up as the whipping boy.

Just because many claim the problem doesn’t exist doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.

That’s ok, whip on me- it’s better me than someone who is easily offended :).

Happy cruising and may the smell elude you (Ha- that’s a great meme idea) :)

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I need some help,,I have two picture and I can't seem to get them posted to the thread,,Help any ideas?

William ... You could pot them on to a f b page if you have one and then copy and paste them into the reply box here, usually works.

Here is a link to a photo taken with all of the cruise critic family that were on the MSC Seaside sailing 3/10-3/17 with the captain

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipO5kqGKVRNmb53OPOO0eWRD7ARHmV0NQby-mu_w

Smell is not fixed. I was on same cruise (3/10-3/17). It is alive and well, in the jungle water park area/water slide area. It's pretty pungent, but the kids love that area, so we still hung around in it. One if my trips to the water slide I had to laugh, because the operator at the top of the slide was using his shirt to cover his nose. At the top of the slide, the sewer smell gets mixed with the smell of diesel. It's a bit much up there.

BermudaBound2014 I have to say you take all the barbed comments in good spirit and stick to your guns. Respect !

Smell is not fixed. I was on same cruise (3/10-3/17). It is alive and well, in the jungle water park area/water slide area. It's pretty pungent, but the kids love that area, so we still hung around in it. One if my trips to the water slide I had to laugh, because the operator at the top of the slide was using his shirt to cover his nose. At the top of the slide, the sewer smell gets mixed with the smell of diesel. It's a bit much up there.

We were onboard as well last week. If you look up at the funnel you will see several orangy/yellow accordian hoses. I think this is the temporary fix to keep the smell from being drawn back into the clean air returns. Sorry for my non technical terms. I don't know these things, just something I noticed. Will try to add pic as I did take one in that area and you can see them. That being said we only smelled an odour a few times but it was never overwhelming to me. I didn't spend a ton of time in the aqua park except when we rode the waterslides. Most noticeable was when we embarked on deck 6. I called it dirty diaper smell. MY parents had an odour around day 3. They put a few cups of water down the drain by the toilet and that fixed it up.

Here is the pic.

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