No MSC for me!

[threeputt]

I have cruised for several years and have been on several different cruise lines. This was the first time we have ever sailed on MSC, and my travel agent told me that it might be different than we are used to...she was very prophetic. The Poesia is a very nice ship and our cabin steward did an excellent job cleaning our room. We seldom saw him and he was in and out quickly. That was the good news. The food on this ship was a big disappointment and the service in the dining room was the worst I have ever experienced. The menu usually featured three entrees from one of the regions of Italy and then had one "USA" option. The waiter was totally inflexible about making any changes or substitutions on the menu, and one day he told me that anytime he tried to make a change the kitchen staff gave him a hard time. On the two formal nights, the menu offered a more typical formal menu. The first night I ordered "Prime" rib and the meat was totally overdone and was tasteless. The next formal night I ordered a fillet medium and it came out well-done. I sent it back and the next one came out raw. My wife ordered lobster tails and they were so over cooked that she could barely get them out of the shell. The self-serve restaurant upstairs was not much better. They had very limited serving hours and when the times were up they snatched the food up so fast it would make your head spin. They never served any food during the hour or so before the first serving in the dining room and a lot of people had just come back on board and wanted a snack. The whole attitude on this ship was European and the staff did not seem to care if you had a problem. We went to Grand Cayman one day and it took an excessive amount of time to tender ashore. In their defense, there were six ships in the harbor and the dock space for tenders was limited. When we got back to Ft. Lauderdale it took forever to disembark. The problem was that there were high winds and apparently the ship shifted and the gangplank broke. That is an understandable excuse for delays in disembarking, but the ship's staff never made any announcements about the problem for a very long time and many passengers were getting extremely frustrated. I have had several wonderful experiences cruising, but this was not one of them.

[patchdadog]

"The whole attitude on this ship was European," most shocking: they are a European ship!

No food before dinner!- My mother must have had them do this! She always said I should not eat before dinner.

A "USA" option on an Italian ship, beware... I would not go to a German restaurant and order the sushi..... Were they really that bad? or were your expectations off?

[weilhung]

"The whole attitude on this ship was European," most shocking: they are a European ship!

No food before dinner!- My mother must have had them do this! She always said I should not eat before dinner.

A "USA" option on an Italian ship, beware... I would not go to a German restaurant and order the sushi..... Were they really that bad? or were your expectations off?

Well lets consider their expectations , good food, good enterntainment,no attitudes and somewhat speedy about getting off the ship in your ports.

They failed them, good food isn't too hard,being organized isn't either,bad attitudes from the staff,warn them and 3 strikes and your out. Time will tell if MSC makes sailing it out of the USA it will take a little while for the word to get around about their poor service.

Everybody wants just a good experience and they seem not to be able to produce it!

[AshNicole331]

Not to sound rude, but didn't you do a little research before booking your cruise? We're finally leaving on Saturday (woo hoo!) and I've known for quite some time about the buffet hours...it's talked about frequently on this board. It really shouldn't have come as a surprise.

 

That is a bummer about the food though. Seems as though no one has yet to have a good lobster...we're just going to stay away from that one since it seems that the general consensus is that the lobster is no good. It's a shame...DH loves lobster.

 

I've also read many times that they tend not to make a lot of announcements - I think it likely has to do with the fact that they have to make announcements in several different languages. Maybe that could be the reason for the lack of communication?

[familyof4cruising]

Not to sound rude, but didn't you do a little research before booking your cruise? We're finally leaving on Saturday (woo hoo!) and I've known for quite some time about the buffet hours...it's talked about frequently on this board. It really shouldn't have come as a surprise.

 

That is a bummer about the food though. Seems as though no one has yet to have a good lobster...we're just going to stay away from that one since it seems that the general consensus is that the lobster is no good. It's a shame...DH loves lobster.

 

I've also read many times that they tend not to make a lot of announcements - I think it likely has to do with the fact that they have to make announcements in several different languages. Maybe that could be the reason for the lack of communication?

 

 

I still have time before I leave. There are more negative than positive which is making me nervous.

 

What are the hours of the buffet does anyone know?

 

Could you PLEASE report back after your cruise?

[DawnAtSea]

I still have time before I leave. There are more negative than positive which is making me nervous.

 

What are the hours of the buffet does anyone know?

 

Could you PLEASE report back after your cruise?

 

I my honest opinion the food is not that bad.... not great... but not bad. I assure you... you will never go hungry. If the food sucked that bad, then why did I see people going with overflowing plates of it? The cafeteria is crowded and congested, more of a design flaw then anything. Everyone has stated the buffet closed before dinner, however I walked by about 4:30 or 5 pm and there was still salad, hotdogs and hamburgers... etc still available. If you have anymore questions you can email me erindawn5@hotmail.com. I just disembarked on Saturday.

[Sinjin]

Isn't this the 3rd or 4th time someone said the gangplank was broken when they docked? This makes me wonder why they keep giving this excuse. Is this one like the excuse that they have to go to Cozumel every time because of the weather? hmmmmm Something is fishy besides the lobster.

[scoshe]

I still have time before I leave. There are more negative than positive which is making me nervous.

 

What are the hours of the buffet does anyone know?

 

Could you PLEASE report back after your cruise?

The reviews last year were alot worse than this year. We spent spring break on The Orchestra and had a great cruise. I guess it shows that with 3000 people on the same cruise, everyone is destined for a different experience.

[UKBayern]

The whole attitude on this ship was European and the staff did not seem to care if you had a problem.

 

What do you insinuate by that? You make it sound as if being European means one has an attitude problem. I think I am not the only "European" who will take offence. What is the correlation between the first part of the sentence and the second? By the way, there are more than 40 unique countries in Europe with totally different attitudes and culture.

 

I personally do not like the American style of service. I am nobody's "honey" and I do not think it is a waiters' business "how I am doing tonight". I know when I go on Royal Caribbean that the waiter is trained to be pushy and insincere, suck up to me and call me by my first name. Do I go round the boards saying that the cruise was crap because the staff had "an American attitude"? No, I know what I booked. You knew you were going on a Italian cruise line with Italian staff and Italian food that caters to Italian guests. I know if I try to order a steak and fries in an Asian wok restaurant they are not going to perform in a way I would like either. "Good food" is different for everybody.

 

You have tried MSC, and it was just not for you. Too bad, just go on an American style cruise line next time. I would not try Costa if I were you, that is an Italian cruise line too.

I do find it strange that all complaints on these boards about MSC or Costa seem to be from Americans. They seem to expect those companies to be a Carnival or RCCL clone, whilst European cruisers know they are not. I withhold judgement about the quality of food or service until I have tried for myself. I know a lot of people who are enthusiastic about them though.

 

Weilhung: in your profile is nothing about your cruise experience. I gather you tried their "poor service" at MSC for yourself that you have such a strong opinion?

[mkazmer]

We sailed with MSC on the Poesia the end of January - we are very experienced cruisers - our cabin was great, our room steward was great, the ship is beautiful and very clean, the entertainment outstanding - the crew in total was excellent - we didn't mind the limited food hours and we usually don't eat in the buffet anyway - the pizza was very good - BUT the food in the dining room was TERRIBLE -

 

This was our second and last cruise with MSC - we thought the food would be better - we love the European feel of the ship - but we just can't get past the quality and preparation of the food. We are lovers of all things Italian - just not the food on this ship - and did I mention that we both got sick after eating the final gala night dinner??? So...draw your own conclusions - we will continue to enjoy cruising - just not on MSC - our opinion only FYI

[camofwilliamsburg]

Well I am American and very sad to admit how poorly the Americans treat the service people. They expect them to be a slave to them.... European style is laid back, not in your face, respecting your vacation time and not to bother you at all times. You will notice no one bothered you every few minutes around the pool pushing drinks. You will see that the cabin steward will do his job but does not wander around the hallways waiting for you. You will notice a smile goes a long way. We loved loved loved the food. So much that on our last Poesia cruise which was Nov 30- Dec 10 we sat with others who also LOVED the food. WE shared some wonderful items that our waiter suggested everyone get and then brought more for the table. I have gone on Celebrity and got stuck with the worst waiter ever. Should I say NEVER AGAIN...and the food was terrible each night that we even went to Muranos and that was TERRIBLE...lack of choices and lack of taste and the scallops in my dish were gritty. I judge a cruise line by this: WHat did they do about that problem if you did encounter a problem. On Celebrity they just shook their heads and did nothing.

On my last Poesia cruise the crack in the middle of the bed made for a hammock each nigh. I asked the cabin steward to fix it and for 3 nights he tried many things and checked with me. I know someone who had a poor cabin choice ... their choice too not MSC. It was noisy and next to service area. They asked if something could be done. A rubber cushion was placed on the door to prevent it from slamming. This still did not work so they moved these people. That is customer service.

When you say the food did not have enough choices....there are tons of choices. The entree choices were at least 4 if not 5 per night which included veal, lamb, chicken, duck... and they always had the stars and stripes menu for those unadventurous eaters. That included a chicken breast, steak, and salmon. What more do you want? Each night there was a different type of salad.

We loved it and will continue to praise them in light of all the negativity.

Not only did we love it, but after 9 RCI , MSC is a very strong favorite.

[hat776]

I know I'm repeating myself. On MSC in the Med the pax are in the majority Italian. Now, Italians are notorious for being critical as regards their food. We found the found to be good and we all enjoyed it. The Italians all seemed satisfied.

Believe me, they would have made themselves heard it they weren't.

Maybe the food in the Med and in the US is different.

I'm not used to the American way of waiters being so friendly but I wouldn't dream of complaining. Nor would I complain about the American custom of serving the water with so much ice.

[UKBayern]

European style is laid back, not in your face, respecting your vacation time and not to bother you at all times. You will notice no one bothered you every few minutes around the pool pushing drinks. You will see that the cabin steward will do his job but does not wander around the hallways waiting for you.

 

Yep, exactly my point. On our last cruise on RCCL, our cabin steward drove us absolutely crazy. :mad: It was really annoying. You would be walking towards your cabin and he would suddenly pop up from nowhere as if he was lurking in the corridor waiting for guests. He wanted to know at least twice or three times a day if we were happy with his services, as if he needed compliments all the time. He stood in the corridor blocking our way to or from our cabin, talking to us for minutes on end (sometimes as much as 30). Most of the time it was about him, about his family and the political situation in his country. Telling by the remarks he made, it was obvious that he was looking at our personal things and maybe even going through our stuff. He knew things we sure did not tell him. He even said a couple of times that he was going to come and visit us in Germany, as if we had invited him :confused:.

 

It was just impossible to shake him off, and it made me feel kind of uneasy. :o Towards the end of the cruise we peeked around the corner of the corridor if we saw him and started running to the cabin from there. It was a blessing if we saw him talking to other people, because then we could maybe make it to our cabin "safely". We own a hotel, and if any of our staff did this to any of our guests, they would be fired. I expect people skills from anybody in the service industry, you are able to feel if somebody is interested in a chat or not. If people have to nearly start begging to please let them go, and they start running if they see you, well.... And yes, we notice personal items in peoples' hotelrooms when cleaning too, but we are discrete enough not to mention that to our guests.

 

You know that if you start complaining this person is going to maybe lose his job whilst it could be the policy of the cruise line that they are trained to behave like that. When we talked to him about it, he really thought that his behaviour was what all cruisers wanted. We could not get through to him to relax, that everything was fine, that as long as he just briefly touched up our cabin once a day we were happy, and that if we had a question or problem we would come to him. It took us a couple of days to convince him that Europeans do not want a bucket of ice 3 times a day in the middle of the winter.:D

[Deckhandoug]

Yep, exactly my point. On our last cruise on RCCL, our cabin steward drove us absolutely crazy. :mad: It was really annoying. You would be walking towards your cabin and he would suddenly pop up from nowhere as if he was lurking in the corridor waiting for guests. He wanted to know at least twice or three times a day if we were happy with his services, as if he needed compliments all the time. He stood in the corridor blocking our way to or from our cabin, talking to us for minutes on end (sometimes as much as 30). Most of the time it was about him, about his family and the political situation in his country. Telling by the remarks he made, it was obvious that he was looking at our personal things and maybe even going through our stuff. He knew things we sure did not tell him. He even said a couple of times that he was going to come and visit us in Germany, as if we had invited him :confused:.

 

It was just impossible to shake him off, and it made me feel kind of uneasy. :o Towards the end of the cruise we peeked around the corner of the corridor if we saw him and started running to the cabin from there. It was a blessing if we saw him talking to other people, because then we could maybe make it to our cabin "safely". We own a hotel, and if any of our staff did this to any of our guests, they would be fired. I expect people skills from anybody in the service industry, you are able to feel if somebody is interested in a chat or not. If people have to nearly start begging to please let them go, and they start running if they see you, well.... And yes, we notice personal items in peoples' hotelrooms when cleaning too, but we are discrete enough not to mention that to our guests.

 

You know that if you start complaining this person is going to maybe lose his job whilst it could be the policy of the cruise line that they are trained to behave like that. When we talked to him about it, he really thought that his behaviour was what all cruisers wanted. We could not get through to him to relax, that everything was fine, that as long as he just briefly touched up our cabin once a day we were happy, and that if we had a question or problem we would come to him. It took us a couple of days to convince him that Europeans do not want a bucket of ice 3 times a day in the middle of the winter.:D

 

That much attention would have made us uncomfortable too:eek:

[komo]

I'm really sorry to read that the quality of food on MSC has not changed over the past 5 years. I am European - Hungarian - and what MSC tries to sell as 'European' - at least concerning food - can only be experienced in low-budget reataurants. I cannot understand their mentality: their ships are state of the art and graceful, but for me it firstly seemed that Far-Eastern waitstaff is despised by Italian officers and Italian waitstaff, and it shows... I heard that MSC America's CEO was Rick Sasso (ex-Celebrity) - I just can't understand why he cannot introduce the quality - regarding food at least - what can be experienced at Celebrity.

[RD64]

I have only been on one MSC cruise...the Opera in 2006 in the Caribbean. While I did have a few isues with the cruise, the quality of the food was and still is the best I have experienced.

 

The pastas were always very good, and the exotic risottos (Pumpkin and truffle oil, lemon, etc.) were quite simply amazing. Then there was the pesto pasta served at the St. Patrick's Day buffet....mmmmmm. If you are going expecting Olive Garden Italian then you will be disappointed.

 

I am Italian by background, and the food reminds me of that served in my grandmother's kitchen in Italy. I do have to say that beef is not the best. Why? Because that is how it is cooked in Italy too.

 

North Americans (I am one too) should go with an open mind. If you are expecting a typical NA meal, then by allmeans go on Carnival or RCL. Choose MSC for something outside the box.

[daffodil]

I'm sure many people will agree that the last comment is so typically American that we hope they all stick to their own more downmarket cruiselines where they can be as obnoxious as they wish.Pity they all have to be tarred with the same brush , there are some more well mannered Americans ( I hope)

[AmoMondo]

Worth checking out the food and entertainment at your first port-of-call.

You may be there longer than you planned :D

JB

 

Good one John!

[hat776]

I've only been on the Splendida in Europe. EVERYONE was satisfied with the quality of the food - a few said the portions were too small and were told they could order more.

It's such a pity that things seem to be so different in the US.

I saw a programme from the Food Network on Italian food. It was from America. One chef was showing his most popular breakfast - linguine tossed with eggs and cheese while hot.

Another had those machines that flatten the dough for a pizza, he then put sausage meat and flattened that and put it on the pizza dough.

It's not my idea of italian food but I wouldn't dream of criticizing the Americans.

For heaven's sake - this is a cruise forum .

Most people are friendly even if we'll be disagreeing on something. After all if everyone agreed it would be very dull. Those who resort to insults are spoiling things for the rest of us.

[Deckhandoug]

We are cruising with MSC BECAUSE they are not main stream America, we want to experience the Italian style.

[boca7]

Love your attitude, based on what you are expecting you will have a wonderful time. Life s short, cruises are shorter, why in heavens name does anyone carry on petty grievances, you chose this trip & paid for it so make the best of it, personally I have been on almost all of the lines including Regent & Crystal, I have enjoyed them all & feel that MSC does a fantastic job.

[boca7]

In reply to comments on hat776, please remember that Italy has a multitude of regions all specialixing in different cuisine & then are the wannabe`s. Coming from a Southern Italian family most od our meals were with red sauces, having toured Italy in all regions was an eye opener. Every region has their own specialties & I haven`t tasted anything that wasn`t outstanding, certainly a great experience. I wonder at times what my parents from Sicily what have said.

[MTL=CRUISEFAMILY]

We are cruising with MSC BECAUSE they are not main stream America, we want to experience the Italian style.

 

THAT'S IT IN A NUTSHELL

 

It is an italian cruise, good or bad, agree or disagree with how things are done onboard. If you go in with this understanding and have done your research, you wil have a fine time.

[mafig]

I read your review. The limited food hours might be the "Italian way." Also the food may be unfamiliar to some. However, I've been to Italy several times and I thought the food delicious. I've never heard of Americans going to Italy and complaining about the food (well, maybe undercooked eggs for b'fast;), but that's not really Italian).

 

Is rude, curt, cold, unfriendly service the "Italian Way."???? I don't believe so.

 

I think what people are complaining about on this board is the "MSC Way.":(

[MTL=CRUISEFAMILY]

I read your review. The limited food hours might be the "Italian way." Also the food may be unfamiliar to some. However, I've been to Italy several times and I thought the food delicious. I've never heard of Americans going to Italy and complaining about the food (well, maybe undercooked eggs for b'fast;), but that's not really Italian).

 

Is rude, curt, cold, unfriendly service the "Italian Way."???? I don't believe so.

 

I think what people are complaining about on this board is the "MSC Way.":(

 

Although I have only cruised twice and both times with MSC, does not make me oblivious to what goes on around me. My wife and I traveled to many places and experienced many different cultures.

 

I notice that in your signature you have not sailed MSC, and are relying on posts for your information, and what seems to be your belief that MSC is horrible. Having stayed in resorts many times, I promised myself to never again do that. You beg for service, the food is lackluster, and I dont enjoy lying on a beach for 8 hours, yet the price for these al inclusives are far superior to the cruise we took.

 

After speaking to other people on the ship, they pretty much expressed some shortcoming or another from other lines as well.

 

Unfortunately some, I REPEAT, SOME , of the italian way will not apeal to all. Yes, italians are not the most service oriented, so how can they instill this to their staff?