How long until your next MSC cruise??

[cruiseranger]

I had the cruises booked before the new "benefits" and reduction of discounts were announced, Dave. In other words, I'd chosen them as opposed to a knee-jerk reaction to the discount reduction.

 

 

 

In regards to the TA - Embarkation at Barcelona was beyond chaotic. I've never seen such disorganisation in 10 cruises with MSC! I heard that Genoa the previous day was as bad if not worse!

 

 

 

There were very many complaints about the food. Those in YC were very unhappy, I believe. For my part, I was very disappointed with how cold the food was. My previous cruises in the last couple of years had improved immensely in that regard.

 

 

 

The reduction in the number of crew was very noticeable and service was extremely slow at mealtimes. To add insult to injury, the maitreD' came to our tables on several nights to usher us out so they could prepare for the next seating. On one night, he arrived just as I was getting my cruisecard back from our waiter! My father was blowing fuses as sometimes we didn't receive our first course 'til 7pm at a 6pm seating. So for the mD' to come along at 8pm was a bit rich!

 

 

 

The immigration process, which took place on the day we arrived in St Thomas, was a disgrace. I believe that was the US Immigration's fault. Some of the crew had to stand in a queue for 5 hours (I'm not kidding!!). They were exhausted for the rest of the cruise as a result. Some passengers weren't called 'til 3.30pm or later which meant they couldn't leave the ship to visit the port! The process began at 8am and nobody knew how long we'd be waiting 'til we were cleared. Fortunately we were done and dusted by 11am but it felt like longer. Information was (as usual) non-existant. People queued for ages before discovering that the green card had to be filled in prior to access to the theatre where the process was taking place. Nobody had mentioned green cards - it was just luck that a smoking buddy of my DH gave him a couple in the smoking room and told him we'd have to fill them in. When we were called to attend, there was chaos and mayhem at the entrance to the theatre.

 

 

 

The shows were below par. There was a whole new group of entertainers who hadn't worked together beforehand. The Pirates show was cancelled 2 evenings running - once as a result of the immigration process being held in the theatre which took all day so the company couldn't rehearse. This meant that for 2 nights they had to hastily come up with something else. In fairness, they did a Beatles tribute with a woman and man sitting singing while a collage of Beatles images displayed in the background. That took a heck of a lot of work to put together at short notice!

 

 

 

Priority disembarkation was a joke! After waiting in the lounge for nearly 2 hours to disembark, we stood for an hour at the carousel waiting for our bags to appear. Others, with later colour codes, could be seen leaving the terminal before us. There were no seats anywhere for those who aren't able to stand for long periods (including my mother). It was after 11am before we finally left the terminal. Luckily, we didn't have a plane to catch so our stress levels weren't quite as bad as others'.

 

 

 

Having said all that, we had a fantastic time. There were more English speakers onboard - many of them from Ireland! - than I've ever experienced and we met some terrific people.

 

 

My wife and I were on the same cruise and I agree with pretty much everything Beamafar has said.

This was our 6th MSC cruise and the food was by far the worst we have had, with ultra small portions and poor cuts of meat / fish. The food was consistently cold and there were also a few courses less, with very few pasta, ravioli and risotto dishes.

The embarkation at Barcelona was a complete shambles and MSC should be ashamed that their organisation was so poor, or "their lack of organisation was so good".

St Thomas immigration was also a complete joke. We were not cleared until after 2pm and there were still announcements for stragglers after 4pm. All in all a lost day.

This is our 4th time clearing customs including the maiden Divina transatlantic a few years ago with Dave (hope things are good with you Dave, long time no speak) and we have always been cleared before 11am.

Don't know what happened this time, but considering the lack of organisation in other areas I would be very surprised if MSC were not to blame.

The shows in the theatre were not great, same old, same old, although we thought the entertainment in some of the bars was better than usual.

Wheeled our own bags off at Miami after the 3 hours of waiting last time and by the sound of things that was a wise move.

 

But all moaning aside, you get on with it and overall we had a pretty good time and as always with MSC, we got good value for the cost of the cruise.

 

We turned black members on this cruise, it's just a same the more important perks of that level have been taken away from us.

[Capricruiser]

Realizing that the Yacht Club experience is far different from the others, I can only comment accordingly. We thought the food in Le Muse was quite good and never served cold. The menus were much more international on this cruise and less Italian-inspired like the other MSC cruises we've had.

The US immigration at St Thomas was in fact a real pain for most of the passengers. We had an excursion booked so we were in the first groups and sailed right through (I'm US and wife EU) and were off the ship by 10:30 as I recall.

We thought the shows for the most part were very good, especially thanks to the singers and dancers. All in all we thoroughally enjoyed the cruise. My Black Card chocolate ship ended up in the garbage however.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Capricruiser