msc magnifica never again

[PegMcNeill@aol.com]

returned from venice to istanbul cruise on this ship on Sept 11. The ship is lovely, our balcony cabin was great but the rest of the time on the ship was a nightmare. Of the 3000 people on the ship, about 30 were Americans , there were some other nationalities but the most of the people on the ship were Italians, mostly families. Don't get me wrong, I love Italy and Italians. Grew up in Europe and spent lots of time in Italy and I speak basic Italian. However, the Italians on the ship for the most part were extremely rude and obnoxious. No matter where you stood in line on the ship -- the cafeteria, for an elevator, to disembark -- three or four people pushed ahead of you or inserted themselves in the line ahead of you. Once it took three attempts to get on an elevator to our cabin even though we were at the front of the line because we stepped aside to let the people in the elevator off and five people barged ahead of us, filled up the elevator, and then yelled "basta". Once we had gotten up early to get tickets to disembark in Dubrovnick which was supposed to happen in order of the ticket numbers and the minute the crewperson opened the door to allow passengers off, thirty or forty people just pushed into the line and elbowed us out of the way. Dinner too was misery. We asked for the early sitting (although other Americans said it would have made no difference) which was 7:30 pm. we had a lovely table in the dining room and on one side a lovely Italian family with three children one of whom was only 16 months old. On the other side, however, was a family with two toddlers under 3 who screamed at the top of their lungs throughout every dinner. The father's idea of dealing with this was to give them glass glasses to play with which were then thrown down on the floor and broken. The parents made no effort to distract or quiet the children who were no doubt exhausted or to take them out of the dining room when they cried uncontrollably. I would have taken this as just bad luck for us if the same behavior hadn't occurred throughout the dining room. Children also ran wild elsewhere on the ship, it was impossible to swim in any of the pools or sit in a hot tub, children ran screaming down all the halls. I don' t have a problem with sailing with families or with children -- I have two of my own -- but letting kids basically take over a ship is inexcusable. The MSC crew did absolutely nothing to stop either the pushing by adults or the behavior of the children. And so while I remain a fan of Italy and the many people I have met there, I am afraid I would discourage anyone who asked from sailing on this ship. What a huge disappointment. PS we tried to avoid the unruly lines by having breakfast delivered to our cabin (this worked) eating a sit down lunch in the dining room (sometimes worked, sometimes full of tables of kids who alternately yelled and ran around the dining room ) and hiring private guides (this worked) at most of the ports.

[ikelmay]

Sorry things didn't work out - there's plenty of choice in the cruise world so maybe a more american oriented ship would suit you.

[Working 2 Cruise]

Sorry things didn't work out - there's plenty of choice in the cruise world so maybe a more american oriented ship would suit you.

 

Even that wouldn't satisfy her... I've heard really good things about MSC, and I do want to try them... She probably would like Crystal better! :p

[PC168]

Yeah. When we were on the Musica, there was a table in about 10 ft apart from us, they have a little guy about 2 years old (we call terrible two), he was constantly crying and screaming in every evening, some nights, the parents let him running on the floor by himself to make him happy and their table is next to the kitchen entrance and we kept watching and were thinking one day accident will happen. I strongly believe they were not NA.

[PC168]

PegMcNeill,

 

Sorry to hear that MSC cruise didn't work out for you.

 

Just before we went, we did a lot of research regarding to MSC Med. and we expected most of the details, we totally ignored all these issues and enjoy as much as we could. For the elevator, we experienced the same, at first, we were uncomfortable, we as "common courtesy", we waited and let the people come out first, then we go in. Often the people inside the elevator would not, I say would not move to the back and let more people in, they stand there and look at you and basically hinting you are not welcome to come in mean while there are spaces at the back, after the first day and we noticed this didn't work on MSC ship, we just pushed in, I am very sorry to do this as this is not polite in our cultures, but if you are too nice, you will never be able to use the elevator. and we ended up taking the stairs a lot.

[AmoMondo]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience PegMcNeill.

 

I've occasionally encountered the "elevator" issue. Seems to be worse on the larger ships on Med sailings than anywhere else. There are 3 ways to deal with it -1. accept same manners don't apply as they do at home and "when in Rome, do as they do"! 2. Avoid the central bank of lifts - often if you walk forward or back to the next set they are much quieter 3. use the stairs. I mostly use tactic 3 as I eat too much and need to offset the calories but when in a long frock and high heels , I adopt tactic no 1 and assertively say "pemesso!" with a smile and walk in and out as required. If they don't immediately budge , I repeat the word louder and narge in or out.

 

As for the kids running amok/noise levels - second sitting is very good for few kids and as a European I like to eat late anyway.

[phbr]

We just got off the Magnifica last Saturday, and I can sympathise with the OP.

 

However, if all cruise lines were exactly the same, it would soon get boring. We heard very few people speaking English, and there were a few incidents of rude/aggresive behavior, but that is going to happen when you put 2800 passengers in a confined space.

 

All in all, we had a great time.

[billie5]

The OP's attitude seems to be the operative issue here. Take a look at

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1277631

for someone who seems to have been on the same, or similar, cruise, but with a very different attitude.

 

Not that I believe OP should be blamed for her view. I believe an individual's ability to deal with sensory issues reflects what one sees in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some people are unable to tune out various sensory distractions (like crying children) and others have no problem ignoring such distractions. The OP has done a service, IMO, by alerting those who have trouble dealing to find another cruise line (Celebrity comes to mind).

 

Bill

[engadineb]

Sorry to hear you didnt enjoy your cruise - we got did the same cruise on the magnifica the week before you and we had the same problem - i usually go with the flow but on our cruise too the same thing happened with the lifts so it was normally better to walk the stairs - we didnt like the fact that no-one controlled the children -not the parents or the crew- isnt the crews job to control running children but they were frustrated too with the lack of control. There were a few english speaking people but it was frustrating that all of the daytime activities were for the italians and no other nationality. Dont get me wrong - we did enjoy our cruise the ship is beautiful and the food in the dining room was excellent but MSC does have a lot to look at to keep teir customers happy.

[woodofpine]

OP's criticism or opinion is her's so it's valid insofar as she didn't enjot her cruise - sorry for that. But...

 

Her criticism is solely based on two things, neither of which the line has much if any control over;

 

1) She doesn't like Italian social-crowd conduct: She can profess love for Italy and Italians all she wants, her grievances are solely directed to the passengers and have zero to do with ship, crew, or product. For her, Italians are OK on the streets of Rome - but not on a cruise ship... Well, that's a possibly valid point - as to the individual OP - so don't book MSC or Costa, and perhaps don't go to large arena sports events or theater in Italy either...

 

2) OP had a 'bad kids cruise': That is largely a personal disposition too, but it can happen on any line depending on itinerary and (school) schedule.

 

So - it is mistaken for OP to say 'Don't Book this Ship'; that's wrong, the ship was fine. She meant don't book a cruise that attracts lots of Italians or youngsters.

[Capricruiser]

In checking Pegmcneill's other posts I see that her one previous cruise (aboard the Norwegian Dream in 2005) was also completely negative. Either a case of bad luck or she's a hard lady to please...

[cruisingcanadian]

"This was by far not my first cruise, I have sailed with Celebrity several times and also with Royal Caribbean." (this is a quotation from PegMcNeill's NCL cruise review).

Apparently she had not been satisfied with NCL and MSC but enjoyed the other cruise lines,which is understandable.NCL and MSC are considered among experienced cruisers the low-end cruise lines with the the least professional customer service,non-comparable to Princess,Celebrity etc.

I had been on 13 cruises,and the one on NCL Pride of America and MSC Splendida stand on the lowest end of them.As my motto is "there is never a bad cruise",I had a good time on all of them,but definitelly will never choose NCL or MSC again.

(No need to flame me,it is my personal opinion and experience).:rolleyes:

[ITMan]

I am interested to know how many of the people on here who are just writing off the OP's post as a whine have actually been on a ship (or even just to a Capital city - Roe/Madrid etc) full of southern Europeans? I am not for or agaisnt, but their culture is very different from the UK or USA and I have found that the OP's reporting to be pretty much factual! Their idea of manners is certainly very different!

[Gelbel]

NCL and MSC are considered among experienced cruisers the low-end cruise lines with the the least professional customer service,non-comparable to Princess,Celebrity etc.

Says who?. I am an experienced cruiser and I don't think MSC is low end for one moment.

 

But then DH and I have been in the hospitality industry and treat the staff with nothing the utmost respect. And in return we are treated with the utmost respect. Never has the phrase 'do unto others as you would do unto yourself' been so true.

 

Can't comment on NCL as I would not touch them - not the type of cruise for me.

[Capricruiser]

I am interested to know how many of the people on here who are just writing off the OP's post as a whine have actually been on a ship (or even just to a Capital city - Roe/Madrid etc) full of southern Europeans? I am not for or agaisnt, but their culture is very different from the UK or USA and I have found that the OP's reporting to be pretty much factual! Their idea of manners is certainly very different!

,

 

Well I've never cruised on Cunard so I can't compare MSC with a "Northern" European line, but I have visited London, the UK, and the USA on numerous occasions and think I am quite tolerant of British and American culture and customs, drinking habits, food, dress, etc. If someone choses to sail on an Italian cruise line then they should be cognizant of the fact that "it will be different." There are bad apples in every basket (and in every culture) so don't worry about the differences and enjoy the cruise I say!

[ikelmay]

I am interested to know how many of the people on here who are just writing off the OP's post as a whine have actually been on a ship (or even just to a Capital city - Roe/Madrid etc) full of southern Europeans? I am not for or agaisnt, but their culture is very different from the UK or USA and I have found that the OP's reporting to be pretty much factual! Their idea of manners is certainly very different!

 

I think most responding posters aren't writing the post off as a whinge, but are maybe making the point that the character of any cruise ship from MSC will be very different from a U.S. oriented line. This may come as a bit of a culture shock if you weren't expecting it, but it does pay to research the various options out there.

 

As to differences between north american and european cultures and attitudes, if you have ever skiied in europe you will quickly learn the art of defending your place in the chairlift lineup in comparison to the unnervingly orderly lines in the U.S. and Canada.

[woodofpine]

I am interested to know how many of the people on here who are just writing off the OP's post as a whine have actually been on a ship (or even just to a Capital city - Roe/Madrid etc) full of southern Europeans? I am not for or agaisnt, but their culture is very different from the UK or USA and I have found that the OP's reporting to be pretty much factual! Their idea of manners is certainly very different!

 

:D:rolleyes::D With all due respect, I get your point... ;) I cruised MSC Magnifica - and I enjoyed my cruise overall. Other posts of mine here also pointed out the less appealing aspects of 'southern charm'. But there's almost a virtue inverted 'more provincial than thou' tone to your comment. Sort of 'If you only knew, you'd be a biased reactionary too'. Hmmm... It's pretty much 'factual' that MSC is fundamentally an Italian cruise line drawing off that market base. I agree that Italians have a 'very different' concept of 'crowd control' (not). But heck, the ever so proper and dignified Japanese actually employ people to crush load the Tokyo subway during rush hour! Go figure... Does that support a condemnation of the Toyko subway system? Or Japanese children?? Japanese kids are good at doing their homework, apparently not so the OP.