MSC Preziosa Review

[Lynnog81]

Just back from a week on the Preziosa. First time cruisers so nothing to compare it too. Overall the ship was beautiful, plush and spotless. It was cleaned to the extent it was a bit OTT and could get slightly irritating, for example every other time you went to use a bathroom there would be somebody cleaning it. However a super clean ship is not a bad thing of course.

We had an inside cabin and I was pleasantly surprised and how spacious it was with ample storage. The beds were very comfy, shower was great and noise levels where almost non existant.

For meals we split 50/50 between buffet and MDR. Both of which the food was good; not bad, not amazing, but good. I would recommend going to the MDR for breakfast which is such a nicer way to start the day than the bedlam of the buffet. Buffet got very very crowded at times and I felt unless you got there at the peak time the choices began to dwindle rapidly as the time went on.

The staff in the MDR were very friendly and excellent at their job, in the buffet not so much. Overall I am on the fench about the staff, some where lovely and some where downright rude and ignorant which was disappointing.

We took out the €23 a day drinks package, which was unbelievable value. The selection was great and even if you dont drink I would still recommend it. Each night going to bed we would get 2 large bottles of water. These alone cost €5 each if paying. So for coffees/juices/water and ice creams alone it is still worth it.

The bar staff however where not tripping over themselves to serve you once they knew you had the drinks package as they do not benifit from the normal 15% service charge if you are paying for drinks. The package is advertised as 24 hour but it was by no means 24 hour (not that I was looking to drink for 24 hours). This was very evident at night time. Once the entertaiment was finished the ship was like a ghost town from about 1.00am and you were treated like a burden to staff trying to get drinks after this time. They advertise the nightclub opens until 3.00am each night. On two occasions we went up at 2.00am to be told it was closed and if we wanted a drink to go to the casino. And the staff were not one bit friendly about it.

The entertainment was ok. We went to two shows and both where excellent. Although there was entertianment of some sort in each bar every night it just seemed to be lacking any sore of atmosphere in my opinion. But of course it depends on what your into. Preferably it would be nice if they had some sort of english speaking rock/pop band that played todays hits. Instead its more grand piano, jazz, caberet style entertainment.

The pool areas were really good with an abundance of sunbeds. Constantly staff around to order drinks etc and plenty of entertainment throughout the day such as aerobics, dance lessons, quizzes etc.

We did have a number of bad days weather wise and I did find entertainment on this days non exisitant, it would have been nice to have a cinema or something on these days.

Overall we really enjoyed the crusie and are already thinking of our next one. I would like to cruise on a ship with more english speakers, as our cruise was probably 80% Italians and they have no interest in mixing or even trying to.

I would cruise with MSC again however I am hoping to try Royal Caribbean next time, just to compare.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[kautostar]

Thanks Lynne. I thought they had advertised a cinema on board. We are going on it on Friday and the kids were looking forward to the cinema.

[Lynnog81]

There is a 4D cinema/simulator ride. We had a go, costs €6.00 each was very good, but it only lasts about 5 minutes.

[Jazmyn49]

Where did you embark? What ports and what did you do ashore? Enjoyed your review and thanks for taking the time to post!

[kautostar]

There is a 4D cinema/simulator ride. We had a go, costs €6.00 each was very good, but it only lasts about 5 minutes.

 

Oh, no actual cinema so. I wonder is there DVD players incorporated in the cabin TV's?

[gerimay1964]

Hi Lynn

We were on the same cruise as you and really enjoyed it, the weather let us down a little though.. I do agree with most of what you say although maybe we were lucky because we found the majority of the staff very friendly. It did not bother us that most of the passengers were Italian as once again we must have been lucky enough to find almost all the Irish on board to be able to mingle with lol. As you say the disco did close quite early so it had to be the Casino for us for drinks and then they even moved us to the El Dorado Bar but that was after 3 am. Overall we had a fantastic cruise and for value for money (we had allegrissimo package) we would definitely sail with MSC again. We also loved RCL which we sailed with last year but feel that MSC has the edge for value for money.

[africanprincess]

Hi Lynn. Could you please tell me what the dinning times are as I'm getting two different answers online vs TA.

[Lynnog81]

The dining times are 7.00pm and 9.30pm. We had a late dining option. We went 4 nights , then other nights it just suited us to grab something a bit quicker in the buffet.

There was no DVD linked in with our TV. Perhaps this is something you can specifically request for children though?

We embarked in Barcelona. 1st stop was Marseille. Cost €15 to get the MSC return shuttle bus into town centre. I think there is an option of getting a local bus, looks like a 10/15 minute walk from ship to bus stop. When we got into town we just took a walk around the marina and then took the little tourist train around the town which brought us up to Nortre Dame Cathedral, was €7 each and good value. the quickest and easiest way to get around. It started to rain for us then so we went back to the ship, but would have loved to spend more time around the marina.

Next stop was Genoa. Was hoping to do Portofino, but again the weather wasnt great and I was not 100% sure how to get to the trainstation (plus talk of a train strike last week) so was a bit aphrehensive and just did a HOHO bus tour of city. Altough there was no hop off as such, it was a sunday and everything was closed. again after that we just walked down by marina. Wanted to go the aquarim but the queue was unbelievably long. Again it started to rain so quick walk back to ship.

Naples was next stop. got tram and train to pompeii. Nice sunny day. pompeii was good but i would definately recommend a tour guide. we just purchased the audio phones and we felt kind of lost as to where to go. Much bigger site than i expected. Naples was absolutely horrible, I definatley would not recommend spending the day in the city. A lot of people chose to go to Sorento which was on the same trian line as pompeii, possibley the better choice if you are not into history. we just didnt feel we had time to take both in as the ship doesnt dock until 11.30am on that day.

Messina - not much to see, quick stroll around the town square, which was pretty, then back to ship to sunbath, but again the heaven opened for the whole afternoon.

Tunisa, we just got off to have a look at duty free, got pictures taken on camel and back on the boat for , at last, a nice hot sunny day.

The best stop out of all and somewhere i have been before it Barcelona. So much to see and do, great city.

Any more questions feel free to ask!

[Skipper Tim]

The bar staff however where not tripping over themselves to serve you once they knew you had the drinks package as they do not benifit from the normal 15% service charge if you are paying for drinks.

 

The latter point is a common misconception. I have asked two waiting staff I got to know specifically on this issue, separately and independently for verification. Unless MSC have changed the system, since, waiting staff receive exactly the same benefit per drink from all pre-paid packages, including all-inclusive, as they do for 'pay-as-you-go' guests. Signing chits is not just an inventory procedure - the waiter's card is swiped too to ensure they receive the appropriate benefit. That benefit is not the full 15% service charge (in any case) but I didn't pry so far as to ask what it actually is.

 

I found that waiters were more, not less, likely to promptly come to take my empty away in the hope of another order than for non all-inclusive guests. I thought it was because they felt less money-grabbing knowing that I wasn't actually paying for each drink.

 

I agree service can be a tad inconsistent but this is generally the case in any service outlet and more a reflection of the different personalities which I prefer to the more uniform personality-free variety. I am one of those who will let the waiters on duty affect my choice of watering hole.

 

Thanks for the review!

[Lynnog81]

Im not sure Skipper Tim, as a non experienced cruiser Im sure you know a bit more about it. However it was a member of staff on the MSC Prezisoa last week that informed a friend on board that this was the case; as in no tips staff from those on a drinks package. He said out of the 4000 on board last week 2000 had a drinks package. He also said the French are most popular for never buying any drinks at all lol!! He did mention also that with regard to your €7/day service charge that the staff did not recieve any of this. I found that hard to believe and perhaps he was just hoping for a cash tip, but I would be interested to know what monies exactly in the form of service charges do the staff actaully recieve into their pocket.

[Skipper Tim]

Im not sure Skipper Tim, as a non experienced cruiser Im sure you know a bit more about it. However it was a member of staff on the MSC Prezisoa last week that informed a friend on board that this was the case; as in no tips staff from those on a drinks package. He said out of the 4000 on board last week 2000 had a drinks package. He also said the French are most popular for never buying any drinks at all lol!! He did mention also that with regard to your €7/day service charge that the staff did not recieve any of this. I found that hard to believe and perhaps he was just hoping for a cash tip, but I would be interested to know what monies exactly in the form of service charges do the staff actaully recieve into their pocket.

 

The daily hotel charge you refer to actually pays the wages - so they do in effect receive it but not as a tip. When the collected hotel charges do not pay the wages bill, the cruise line will make it up out of the goodness of their collective hearts. It sounds a little like the member of staff your friend spoke to was trying it on a little - yes asking for a tip.

[Lynnog81]

Totally agree about different personalities amongst staff and like myself I am not always cherry and happy every day at my work. I equally do not like the exaggerated fake over enthusiasim of varoius service providers. However there is no question that some staff clearly lacked any sort of interest in their job and came across as very unhelpful and rude as opposed to just having a bad day. For example I asked a member of bar staff on the first night where the nearest bathroom was and she literally snapped back at me uttering one word "down" and walked away. There is no excuse for that rude service in the business she works in and it made me avoid her for the rest of my week on board.

 

As I said in my intital review I am on the fence regarding the staff, for every not so friendly one I came across I equally met some extremely helpful and pleasant ones. It would not make or break my experience with MSC but would prompt me to explore different cruise companies for future holidays.

[Skipper Tim]

Totally agree about different personalities amongst staff and like myself I am not always cherry and happy every day at my work. I equally do not like the exaggerated fake over enthusiasim of varoius service providers. However there is no question that some staff clearly lacked any sort of interest in their job and came across as very unhelpful and rude as opposed to just having a bad day. For example I asked a member of bar staff on the first night where the nearest bathroom was and she literally snapped back at me uttering one word "down" and walked away. There is no excuse for that rude service in the business she works in and it made me avoid her for the rest of my week on board.

 

As I said in my intital review I am on the fence regarding the staff, for every not so friendly one I came across I equally met some extremely helpful and pleasant ones. It would not make or break my experience with MSC but would prompt me to explore different cruise companies for future holidays.

 

I am not trying to play devil's advocate but in the 'snappy no' situation you describe it could just be down to culture and/or limited command of English. Of course I was not there at the time. However, I lived in a large Spanish village once and their only directions consisted of either "down" or "up". Even in response to the sort of question "where have you been?" the initial answer would just be "down" or "up". I would give MSC and all service providers that latitude. Plus some cultures are simply more terse and straight to the point than others.

 

I have only experienced two other lines, MSC and Cunard. Only the staff's specific training sets them apart. Most experienced staff in the cruise industry have worked on many lines. They work one 'contract' (6-9 months) at a time and at the end of a contract they are essentially free agents. Much like in the UK several decades ago, if someone had had enough of one employer they would take their wages on a Friday and get a new job the following Monday.

 

As others have said, there is more in common across most mainstream lines than there is that sets them apart. If Cunard were the same price as MSC, I would choose Cunard at least some of the time. However, as a solo traveller, Cunard are near ten times the price of MSC! If Royal Caribbean were the same price as MSC, I would choose MSC because of the never-ending high-pressure salesmanship on Royal Caribbean. Again as a solo traveller, Royal Caribbean are around double the price of MSC, like for like, and so RC are no longer even in the running for me.

 

But that is me. Try other lines, as I will. However, I don't think I would want to be on a cruise ship of all or nearly all native English speakers again. That would take away most of my joy of travelling.