Just got back from MSC Opera Oct 8th cruise, my review

[Gauchos98]

Just got back today from Oct 8 MSC Opera cruise out of venice. I will give my review, in hopes it helps future cruisers with any questions, as i have found this board very helpful and hopefully this post will be of some use.

 

First off it was my wife and i who went on the cruise it was my 6th cruise (none on MSC before, but on NCL, Royal carribean and celebrity) it was my wife's like 10+ cruise (none on MSC before, has been on most major cruiselines.

 

Overall we had a great time, and were very impressed with the service/food/value (as this cruise was the cheapest we had paid for any of the other ones i had been on). we definately will consider MSC for future cruises.

 

We booked an inside room about 3-4 months ago, and were pleasantly surprised to find out we had ocean view room on high floor, not sure how that happened but we weren't going to complain.

 

Embarkation was a breeze, i would say it took us an hour to get from front door of cruise terminal to front door of cruise ship, bags were at front door of our room 2 hours later, not bad.

 

The SHIP : The Opera is a very nice ship, just reminded me of a slightly smaller version of newer cruise ships that came out about 2-3 years ago. It had all the essentials and was extremely well taken care of. Room was avg size compared to other cruises i have been on, and had a nice size window which definately made view better.

 

Meals: breakfast and lunch, we ate the buffet on top floor every single day, so can't speak for how sit down restaurant was for those meals. We were happy with the buffet, nothing spectacular, but lots of food options, for lunch hot pizza waas available every day, along with bbq food (i.e. hamburgers, fries) and a buffet with a slightly different menu every day.

 

dinner, we ate in the nice dining room every nite, and were very happy. both our waiter and asst waiter spoke perfect english so language was never an issue. Meals obviously consisted of lots of italian food, but other options were always available, every dinner, one had choice from 3-4 appetizers, a salad, 2 soups, 2 pastas, and 4-5 entrees and 4-5 desserts, obviously lack of food was never an option. They must of matched up seating by home address country, as we got grouped with 2 pleasant couples from US.

 

Entertainment: my wife (who is more into the cruise shows then me) liked just about every nites shows, shows included one night of magician, comedian/juggler, a cirque du soleil type show, vegas style show, italian singer and 2 dance shows. I made it through 5 of the 7 shows which is alot for me, the comedian and magician were used in every show, which was good move, nice break for those who had hard time making it through full show of dancing. We thought they did a wonderful job of having shows where saying interpreting things in 5 different languages was not necessary, which obviously could of been really tedious. One small negative is the theatre i think is a bit too small, every nite the theatre was full, and we had to get there 10-15 minutes early to avoid sitting in back row. also no drinks are allowed in the theatre.

 

 

The stops: we were very happy with the intinary of the 7 days cruise, and found most stops very interesting and different. One negative is they were 30 minutes to an hour late twice to two stops, which cut into the time on shore, luckily we still were able to see everything we wanted too, just had to cut down on shopping etc

 

Other random positive:

prices on the boat are very affordable, small beers were available for about $2.60, tip was included

 

tipping is optional, obviously we still tipped as we were happy with service, but nice not to have tip forced upon you as some other cruise lines do

 

relaxation room, my wife's favorite place on cruise boat, basically best view on ship, and room with lounge chairs playing relaxing music where people went for some peace and quiet.

 

good wine package which included bottled water every nite

 

few negative thoughts:

as mentioned by others, there is alot of smoking by passengers on this ship, smoking is not allowed in many areas of ship, like theatre, dining areas, but you definately notice the smoke when walking around the place, just be prepared for it, its not awful but definately noticeable

 

no american channels on TV, which i guess is expected considering its european cruiseline. they do have 2 english speaking channels, BBC and euronews, but a cnn would of been great.

 

Hopefully that review is of some help, we were very pleasantly surprised with our cruise and definately will consider MSC in the future. if anyone has any questions please let me know. thanks

[Gauchos98]

figured i would put these in seperate post, quick comments on port of calls on MSC opera Oct 8 cruise

 

Bari, italy: small city, easily can see all major sites in 3 hours mostly catholic churches. unless you are really into finding out facts from tour guides don't think off shore excursion was necessary. i think city tour excursion as about 35 euros, and people who did it at our dinner table said not worth the money, as all sites are walking distance

 

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece: My wife and I didn't get off shore excursion from MSC, but did it on our own. Olympia is about 30KM from the port, we ended up sharing a taxi with another couple, that dropped us off, waited for us to finish our visit and took us back , for 70 euros (so 35 euros per couple). got thru olympia in about 1.5 hours. tickets into ruins were about 7 euros each. There isn't a ton of signs with information about each ruin, so if you are type of person who wants to learn such facts a off shore excursion thru MSC might be of use. If you are type of person who likes to do visit on their own, i suggest taxi route, think excursion was about 35 euros a person thru MSC.

 

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey: took taxi again, same setup as olympia, taxi took us there, waited for us and took us back, cost us 60 euros total (30 a couple). ruins in ephesus are amazing, much more intact then olympia. Took us about 1.5 hours to get thru ruins, then spent an hour or so shopping. Be forewarned that most retailers in this city are very pushy which definately kept us away from most stores.

 

Istanbul, Turkey: took taxi again, same thing as other two sites, cost 60 euros for full day. Lots too see in instanbul, so definately get off boat as soon as possible, as it takes time to get thru palace, blue mosque and ayasophia (? spelling). Taxi also took us too grand bazaar. However, as we were warned prior by friends, taxi drivers in instanbul have more then just driving you around motives in there head, nothing bad, but just like to take you to stores that you really don't want to go too, or try to have a tour guide take you around. Because of this, i suggest if you plan on seeing sites on your own, just pay taxi one way fare, should only be about 20-25 euros. the palace, blue mosque and ayasophia (? spelling) are all within walking distance, so if you get dropped off at one of them you can easily go from one to the other to other.

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia: have to take ferry in to town, great small city. easily can see all the sites on your own in about 2-3 hours walking around. The city walls offer amazing views and admission was very affordable, bout 4 euros a person. great shopping too, and very friendly salesman.

 

Just of note, all the above places gladly took euros, only places that didn't take euros were the admission fees in turkey, Ephesus, olympia, however all these places take mastercard/visa, so as long as you have that you are fine.

 

OK hopefully that is of some use to someone, if anyone has any questions please let me know, as i am sure i missed something.

 

Thanks

[bigmike7]

Yo-

 

Thank you for a direct - no frills review of your cruise-

 

Your experience mirrored our "Lirica" Caribbean cruise very close - with the large exception of getting an outside when you had originally booked an inside-

 

We found MSC cruise experience to be very good as you obviously did-

 

On our cruise - we got to every port early - which was nice - and always docked - so no tenders - which was also nice-

 

Glad that you had an enjoyable experience-

 

Mike

[Benitad]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. We enjoyed Opera in the Caribbean in Feb/March, and I have to say it was positively memorable. We LOVED it! I only wish I could enjoy the Mediterranean version.

Benita