6 things to expect while Caribbean cruising on MSC Poesia

[MTL=CRUISEFAMILY]

Many of you may be familiar with Cruise Radio a great site that offers broadcasts on a variety of ships

 

This is from their site, I thought it captures perfectly what an MSC cruise is for those wondering what to expect...

 

 

 

If you’re used to traveling cruise lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian Cruise Line, you’ll find that traveling an Italian line is much different but not in a bad way.

 

MSC Cruises seasonally repositions one of their ships in the North American market for five months. During those five months the cruise line goes through a transformation of catering to a primarily European demographic to American guests.

 

While MSC Cruises has significantly improved over the years in the market, you’ll still experience a few differences:

 

Food: The chef’s have to cater to a couple thousand taste buds. If you’re used to a lot of salt you’ll have to add it yourself. Expect a lot of pasta, breads, and pizza in the buffet area, aside from the general burgers and such. Meat and chicken are still served daily.

 

Entertainment: You can’t have a comedian in a dozen different languages, it’d take forever. Expect more visual entertainment like: acrobatics, opera, magicians, dancing, and well known world wide songs. They do have a “North American Voice,” who serves as the North American cruise director.

 

Service: European service and American service is much different. Though the cruise line is catering to the US market, you won’t find the workers coddling you, making towel animals, trying extra hard to get to know you, or being the warm friendly staff that you’d expect. I’m not saying that the service is rude by any means, more so straight and to the point. It’s a culture thing.

 

Language: MSC is a European cruise line so naturally it’s going to attract a lot of guests from around the world, while English is the primary language spoken on board, you can expect at least five different languages. Expect a longer lifeboat drill, general announcements, and activities done in different languages.

 

Port Lecture: The mass-market cruise lines have port shopping guides that will recommend certain shops for you to go to. This ship doesn’t have one of those because they think it cuts away from on-board revenue. A lot of people go to the Caribbean to shop for art, jewelry, and crafts. This ship is really missing the boat on this one.

 

Late departure: With guests flying in from all over the world, the ship leaves at 7pm to accommodate late arrivals. If you have a late dinner you can get some great pictures of the sail away from Port Everglades. Also be sure to stand on deck around 5p and watch the other ships leave port.

 

While there’s a couple of differences, the experience I had on MSC Cruises was great and I’d do it again next year.

 

Source: Doug Parker/Cruise Radio

[camofwilliamsburg]

In our "group" of people that joined us but did not hang out with us or eat with us, was a group of parents with kids with them. I had no idea how the kids club was and thought it was good from posts here. They did tell me that it was not. The hours are very limiting and the kids had to be with them most of the day and night not allowing the adults to eat any of their meals without the kids. it seemed like they were only open for 2 hours 3 times a day and ending at a very early time infringing on any night life for the parents.

 

I did not know about this, and was very sorry they did not research this more since they felt they go on a cruise to relax and even though with their kids, time away from them would be ideal.

[monicajay]

Many of you may be familiar with Cruise Radio a great site that offers broadcasts on a variety of ships

 

This is from their site, I thought it captures perfectly what an MSC cruise is for those wondering what to expect...

 

 

 

If you’re used to traveling cruise lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian Cruise Line, you’ll find that traveling an Italian line is much different but not in a bad way.

 

MSC Cruises seasonally repositions one of their ships in the North American market for five months. During those five months the cruise line goes through a transformation of catering to a primarily European demographic to American guests.

 

While MSC Cruises has significantly improved over the years in the market, you’ll still experience a few differences:

 

Food: The chef’s have to cater to a couple thousand taste buds. If you’re used to a lot of salt you’ll have to add it yourself. Expect a lot of pasta, breads, and pizza in the buffet area, aside from the general burgers and such. Meat and chicken are still served daily.

 

Entertainment: You can’t have a comedian in a dozen different languages, it’d take forever. Expect more visual entertainment like: acrobatics, opera, magicians, dancing, and well known world wide songs. They do have a “North American Voice,” who serves as the North American cruise director.

 

Service: European service and American service is much different. Though the cruise line is catering to the US market, you won’t find the workers coddling you, making towel animals, trying extra hard to get to know you, or being the warm friendly staff that you’d expect. I’m not saying that the service is rude by any means, more so straight and to the point. It’s a culture thing.

 

Language: MSC is a European cruise line so naturally it’s going to attract a lot of guests from around the world, while English is the primary language spoken on board, you can expect at least five different languages. Expect a longer lifeboat drill, general announcements, and activities done in different languages.

 

Port Lecture: The mass-market cruise lines have port shopping guides that will recommend certain shops for you to go to. This ship doesn’t have one of those because they think it cuts away from on-board revenue. A lot of people go to the Caribbean to shop for art, jewelry, and crafts. This ship is really missing the boat on this one.

 

Late departure: With guests flying in from all over the world, the ship leaves at 7pm to accommodate late arrivals. If you have a late dinner you can get some great pictures of the sail away from Port Everglades. Also be sure to stand on deck around 5p and watch the other ships leave port.

 

While there’s a couple of differences, the experience I had on MSC Cruises was great and I’d do it again next year.

 

Source: Doug Parker/Cruise Radio

 

 

I'd have to agree this is a fair description. They failed to mention that MSC has some of the best and cheapest drink packages in the cruise industry.

[GOLDENBONNY]

In our "group" of people that joined us but did not hang out with us or eat with us, was a group of parents with kids with them. I had no idea how the kids club was and thought it was good from posts here. They did tell me that it was not. The hours are very limiting and the kids had to be with them most of the day and night not allowing the adults to eat any of their meals without the kids. it seemed like they were only open for 2 hours 3 times a day and ending at a very early time infringing on any night life for the parents.

 

I did not know about this, and was very sorry they did not research this more since they felt they go on a cruise to relax and even though with their kids, time away from them would be ideal.

 

HA???:confused: We found kids club houres better than on other cruise lines... Why they could not eat? Kids even have dinner at kids club if they want to. We eat with our DD but only beacuse we love it , and afte she would go to club .

[camofwilliamsburg]

Then the person that told me this is a constant complainer. I do not bring kids so I was only reporting what she told me. She had a bad remark about everything and actually told me I was being catered to since we had great time, great food and great interaction with the staff.