Magnifica Cruise Review Sept/Oct 2017

[Beamafar]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Beamafar]

So, we chose what we thought was the 2 piece salmon plate

 

 

...... then the vegetable spring rolls and chicken satay

 

 

......followed by Cantonese fried rice

 

 

DH had the pad Thai from the Black Card menu

 

 

..... and we finished with banana rolls

 

 

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[Beamafar]

Even after allowing us to swap out the items for the equivalent on the menu, we were asked if we would like anything else! To say we were stuffed after what we'd had is an understatement, so we passed on the offer! On our second visit we passed on the salmon appetiser, too, but I had the rest of the dishes again, this time without the egg on the fried rice

 

 

 

 

DH opted for the deep-fried ice-cream for dessert

 

 

 

 

He said it tasted like an HB (was Dale Farm in the UK) Brunch for those of you who know that particular ice-pop (ice-lolly)!

[Beamafar]

They didn't accept my wine voucher so I had the house white instead which was ok.

 

I didn't care for the banana rolls - I'd much prefer if they used a batter rather than the filo-type pastry to cook the bananas in. Having said that, we really enjoyed the food, overall. The service was very good, too.

[kernow]

Thank you for posting so much detail about the Oriental Plaza, the Black card menu sounds good to me but some of the other things you had look very nice too. Hopefully if we go twice in April they will let us do the same.

 

Julie

[little britain]

As there was nothing on this that appealed to me, I asked if we could select items from the main menu (we had done this before on our previous Magnifica cruise). No problem, we were told.

I can see that DH is going to be in fishy heaven. Let's see if I face the ordeal I had in Galaxy on Preziosa when I tried to swap out the fishy fishy!

[Beamafar]

I can see that DH is going to be in fishy heaven. Let's see if I face the ordeal I had in Galaxy on Preziosa when I tried to swap out the fishy fishy!

 

Hopefully not, LB. TBH, I've never had a problem in any Speciality Restaurant with swapping out items - including on a number of visits to Galaxy on both Preziosa and Divina and was sorry to read about your experience.

 

Julie ............ hopefully you'll be able to, too.

[Beamafar]

I mentioned before about our third "Elegance" (Gala) night menu and how we opted to pay extra for the T-bones. Well, here are some photos of the menus and a couple of items I chose from each of the others:

 

 

I had the sliced beef fillet - it was really good! I asked for a portion of the potato croquettes that come with the duck dish:

 

 

 

From this one, I chose the salmon sautèed in butter for starters, without the sides. It sounded delicious:

 

 

Unfortunately I had to send it back - it was so bad - dried out and tasteless. Our waiter brought it to attention of the Capitaine who came over to me to personally apologise - nice touch, I thought.

 

I had the prime rib for the main course which was so good, it made up for the fish

 

 

The following is the menu that had nothing that appealed to either of us (and DH isn't a fussy eater, unlike me)

 

 

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[Beamafar]

Now, I know that MSC intends to make the on-board experience more British on Magnifica when she returns to Europe next Spring, but I reckon the menus won't be hugely dissimilar from current offerings, which is why I'll post photos of some we had.

 

I'll start with the lunch menus - bear in mind that MSC have introduced a buffet area in the MDR for lunch and the offerings aren't listed on the menus, (menu items are served by waiters), so you have a wider variety of choices now. One particular item - which I'd bet my house on will be on the "British" itinerary - is this one:

 

 

Cottage pie! This is a half-portion - which I requested - as I'd had it before on another ship and couldn't finish it; the type of ground meat they used was unpalatable to me. However, this was delicious and I was sorry I'd asked for the smaĺler amount. This was the menu:

 

 

DH's Seafood cocktail:

 

 

I also had the sweet & sour pork from the buffet. MSC ships are the ONLY place I'd ever eat S&S - their sauce is not too sour, nor too sweet:

 

 

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[Beamafar]

 

From this menu, I had the chicken thighs

 

 

Very nice and tasty.

 

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[Beamafar]

 

I opted for the sirloin from this:

 

 

It was really bad - very tough and tasted like it had been boiled! The cheesecake, however, made up for it. It was so good, I ordered a second helping.

 

 

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[Beamafar]

Now for the dinner menus.

 

 

 

No photos of food from this, our first night onboard - perhaps I was tired?

 

Mediterranean Night:

 

 

 

Tapas:

 

 

I have no idea what the cure on this meat was - it was vile!

 

DH had the niçoise salad:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Beamafar]

The couscous dish:

 

 

Vanilla creme diplomate:

 

 

Baklava:

 

 

 

DH had the beef from this menu:

 

 

.......and I had the lamb, which was very good, albeit a little over-cooked:

 

 

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[1fifthavenue]

I can almost taste some of these dishes now, thanks Bea! Getting me excited for Meraviglia now :)

[Beamafar]

I can almost taste some of these dishes now, thanks Bea! Getting me excited for Meraviglia now :)

 

Bon Voyage, Tim. Hope you have a wonderful cruise. Looking forward to hearing your views of Meraviglia.

[danny8826]

Thank you so much for the great review and photos.

 

I have read very mix reviews especially the food part for the MSC Magnifica.

I have book the cruise out of Southampton in April and was about to cancel it due to all the bad reviews.

 

How would you rate the food and customer service from a scale 1 to 10 where 10 is the best?

[Beamafar]

TBH, I meant to come back and finish it, but I've a cruise coming up on her sister ship in a few weeks and my focus had shifted to that! :o

 

As I mentioned already, Magnifica will be more "British" next year so the whole approach will differ from my experience. However, I expect that there will be quite a few menu offerings the same. As an FYI, I've read that Yorkshire Tea won the vote by British people to be included onboard (though that may not be of any interest to you, Danny, unless you're an ex-pat).

 

Overall, I'd rate the food at an 8 - most dishes were very enjoyable, food was generally warm enough to hot but there were a couple of misses, too.

 

I found on this occasion a number of the crew weren't as friendly as I'm used to experiencing. Not quite sure why this was. However, we had great service in the MDR and the crew in the lounges/bars who were friendly really made up for it.

 

One girl in particular took it upon herself to make sure we were well attended after a rather nasty encounter with another crew member. We had ordered our (regular) drinks and when he returned with them, he handed my DH an orange juice. Now, DH doesn't even drink this at breakfast and he only ever drinks beer so we gave it back and asked where the beer was. He told us that that was what we'd ordered! When we insisted that we didn't, he turned it into a heated row - we kept asking him to just return it and get DH his beer. I'd never experienced such a scene, before, and couldn't believe the guy's attitude. Anyway, he eventually went off to change the drink. In the meantime, one of the other servers came over and asked if we needed anything so we told her what had occurred - I was pretty shaken by the incident. She said she'd speak to her manager and that there were other complaints about him. She reported back later that she had reported him, so we left the matter there. From then on, she took great care of us. I could rate service down at a 4/5 due to what happened, but it wouldn't be fair on the crew who were wonderful - especially in the MDR where they were fantastic! 10 out of 10 for MDR and 8 out of 10 for the rest - 9 for our cabin steward who did a great job of attending to the cabin, but was rarely seen, and then only from a distance as he always seemed to be at the furthest end of the corridor any time we came or left the cabin.

 

On the subject of the MDR, the assistant m'D was terrific (most aren't very friendly, Daniel was). On embarkation day, you are usually directed to the buffet for lunch. We always try our luck in the MDR as we prefer dining there. We gear ourselves up for the confrontation with the m'D and have our pleas ready in advance. However, none were needed. Apparently, there was no problem with embarkees having lunch in the restaurant (in Genoa, where the bulk of passengers embark, we heard an announcement over the tannoy advising people that lunch was available in both the buffet and MDR - this was yet another first for us!). Anyway, during lunch we got talking to Daniel and asked him about the table we had been assigned to for dinner. He took one of our cruisecards to see the table number and told us we'd be dining in Quattro Venti (breakfast & lunch were served in L'Edera) and that it was a 4-top. I made a face at that as I really didn't want to dine with just one other couple - a little too intimate and possibly problematic. Daniel said to leave it with him as the ship wasn't full so there was a good chance that we could get a table for 2. He told us to come to him at dinner time and he'd have it arranged. That evening, true to his word, he escorted us over to the asst. m'D in charge. We were asked if we'd mind changing dining rooms because he could give us a 2-top in L'Edera. We didn't mind at all! We were happy that they could facilitate us.

 

Speaking of the senior MDR crew, we came across the mD, Zeno, in the dining room one evening and DH recognised him from another cruise where he had been especially generous to us after a (very slight) let-down one time when we were in YC onboard Preziosa. Anyway, I approached him to let him know that we knew him from elsewhere and to thank him for being so kind to us before. He insisted on coming over to the table to speak with myself and DH. That night, there was a bottle of red wine and 2 glasses waiting for us in our cabin. It was the same wine that I'd had on the table that evening. Zeno had taken note of it and sent one to the cabin!

Edited November 6, 2017 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

 

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