Our Feb 10-24 MSC Seaside Cruise resulted in several "bests"

[mianmike]

Our recent experience aboard our 14-day cruise on the Seaside was special enough the cruise was worthy of some awards. Our cruise was Feb 10-24, 2018.

This cruise was number 18 for us and our second MSC cruise.

There were several categories where we had an unmatched experience. Below are our "Mianmike Awards":

1. Fastest embarkation. By far the fastest and most efficient we’ve ever experienced.

2. Best Captain. Captain Marco Massa was everywhere. He was personable, approachable and genuinely concerned for his crew and passengers. In talking with some crew members, we learned the captain often ate with the lower echelon crew in the crew mess hall. While eating with the crew he would ask if there was anything he could do anything to improve food or crew conditions. Crewmembers said this is highly unusual as most Captains spend most all their time with high ranking officers. At a public function the Captain asked my wife if everything was good with our cabin. She hesitated in her answer of “yes.” The Captain then “interrogated” her to find out why she hesitated. He learned we had no soap/shampoo dispenser in our cabin shower and the carpet needed vacuuming. He brought the Hotel director over who confirmed they were out of spare soap dispensers. The Captain said we could have his. We protested, but he insisted. Later that evening we returned to our cabin and found a new soap dispenser in our shower. The next day while posing for portrait photos, the Captain saw us and interrupted the photoshoot to make sure everything in our cabin had been fixed. We asked if our new soap dispenser had been his. Yes, it was! We told him no! We don’t need your soap dispenser. He said he just wants his passengers to be happy. The rest of the cruise we constantly ran into the Captain. He always remembered us and greeted us.

3. Best Cruise Director. Andre was great. We loved his lowkey attitude and his self-deprecating sense of humor. We don’t care for cruise directors who essentially demand crowd enthusiasm by constantly yelling: “oh come-on,you can do better than that!” or “I can’t hear you, make some noise!” In the photo below I'm thinking Andre must be talking about the viewership of his morning show.

4. Best Beverage Service. On deck 7 near the atrium we had a great waitress (Jeny) who took great care of us. Throughout the ship the overall the number of available servers was notable.

 

5. Most humid cabin. Our air conditioner didn’t work particularly well which led to a warmish and very humid cabin. We like to sleep in a cool cabin, but it was too warm to sleep well. The cabin’s humidity was so bad our multivitamins were dissolving. We didn’t realize our poor ac was unique to us until day 13 when we visited our friends’ cabin in the Yacht Club and felt how cool a cabin could be. Too late to get it fixed.

6. Best disembarkation (Tied with another cruise). Once our color was called we basically walked right through to customs.

7. Best last minute change of ports. Traded Freeport for Grand Turk. #winning! We really enjoyed Grand Turk, although we ran into a couple of real asses (I think they were probably from the Carnival ship)

8. Best chocolate martini (from Venchi chocolate bar) OMG soooo good.

9. Best improv comedy show. We grew tired of NCL’s Second City routine that was less improv and more the same skit comedy. Of course, improv is only as good as the talent of the performers, on this cruise the three performers were outstanding.

We had a marvelous and memorable cruise. I am already looking for our next MSC cruise and more award winning moments!

[BermudaBound2014]

Great report! thank you for sharing. You both look super happy :)

[nikkiw60]

Totally agree re Captain Massa! And his afternoon briefing was great!

Andre is also lovely not at all in your face!

 

 

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[Keith1010]

Very happy to hear how much you enjoyed the cruise.

 

Terrific report including the writeup and the terrific photos.

 

Keith

[thegraminator]

Great review ! Seems like it was a great time ! We also were blown away with Capt Massa and his approachabilty ! He is no phony, he's the real thing .

 

I see you liked the Improv Show. What was your impression of the other shows ? ( I realize this is objective )

 

I would also like to hear what you thought about the food ( again subjective ). Did you try any of the Specialty Restaurants ?

 

And lastly have they kept the cost of the zip line at $5 per single ride or is it back up to $10 ?

 

Thanks for sharing your experience !

[mianmike]

Great review ! Seems like it was a great time ! We also were blown away with Capt Massa and his approachabilty ! He is no phony, he's the real thing . So True

 

I see you liked the Improv Show. What was your impression of the other shows ? ( I realize this is objective ) We liked the other shows. Great costumes and visuals. Our least favorite show was the Frank Sinatra (Tribute?). I had somewhat of a hard time with the italian accents.

 

I would also like to hear what you thought about the food ( again subjective ). Did you try any of the Specialty Restaurants ? We are not foodies, we pretty much like 98% of cruise ship food so we're easy marks and thus liked the food. We did eat at Ocean Cay and enjoyed it.

 

And lastly have they kept the cost of the zip line at $5 per single ride or is it back up to $10 ? We didn't ride the zipline. Next trip!

 

Thanks for sharing your experience !

My remarks in purple.

[mianmike]

Totally agree re Captain Massa! And his afternoon briefing was great!

Andre is also lovely not at all in your face!

 

 

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This was our second cruise with MSC, both with Captain Massa and Andre. We hope our third cruise with MSC will include Capt. Massa and Andre.

[lcpagejr]

Great to hear continued positives about the Seaside.... It starts from the top and it appears Captain Massa's leadership and caring attitude is leading the way and showing results with the crew!

[windlicht]

Thank you for this great review!

I am happy to read that you enjoyed your cruise!

[sugarnyc]

Thank you! Good to hear!

[LisaLisa87]

Thanks for posting. This was so much fun to read! Maybe I'm the only one, but I can't see the photos!

 

 

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[suzyed]

Our recent experience aboard our 14-day cruise on the Seaside was special enough the cruise was worthy of some awards. Our cruise was Feb 10-24, 2018.

This cruise was number 18 for us and our second MSC cruise.

There were several categories where we had an unmatched experience. Below are our "Mianmike Awards":

1. Fastest embarkation. By far the fastest and most efficient we’ve ever experienced.

2. Best Captain. Captain Marco Massa was everywhere. He was personable, approachable and genuinely concerned for his crew and passengers. In talking with some crew members, we learned the captain often ate with the lower echelon crew in the crew mess hall. While eating with the crew he would ask if there was anything he could do anything to improve food or crew conditions. Crewmembers said this is highly unusual as most Captains spend most all their time with high ranking officers. At a public function the Captain asked my wife if everything was good with our cabin. She hesitated in her answer of “yes.” The Captain then “interrogated” her to find out why she hesitated. He learned we had no soap/shampoo dispenser in our cabin shower and the carpet needed vacuuming. He brought the Hotel director over who confirmed they were out of spare soap dispensers. The Captain said we could have his. We protested, but he insisted. Later that evening we returned to our cabin and found a new soap dispenser in our shower. The next day while posing for portrait photos, the Captain saw us and interrupted the photoshoot to make sure everything in our cabin had been fixed. We asked if our new soap dispenser had been his. Yes, it was! We told him no! We don’t need your soap dispenser. He said he just wants his passengers to be happy. The rest of the cruise we constantly ran into the Captain. He always remembered us and greeted us.

3. Best Cruise Director. Andre was great. We loved his lowkey attitude and his self-deprecating sense of humor. We don’t care for cruise directors who essentially demand crowd enthusiasm by constantly yelling: “oh come-on,you can do better than that!” or “I can’t hear you, make some noise!” In the photo below I'm thinking Andre must be talking about the viewership of his morning show.

4. Best Beverage Service. On deck 7 near the atrium we had a great waitress (Jeny) who took great care of us. Throughout the ship the overall the number of available servers was notable.

 

5. Most humid cabin. Our air conditioner didn’t work particularly well which led to a warmish and very humid cabin. We like to sleep in a cool cabin, but it was too warm to sleep well. The cabin’s humidity was so bad our multivitamins were dissolving. We didn’t realize our poor ac was unique to us until day 13 when we visited our friends’ cabin in the Yacht Club and felt how cool a cabin could be. Too late to get it fixed.

6. Best disembarkation (Tied with another cruise). Once our color was called we basically walked right through to customs.

7. Best last minute change of ports. Traded Freeport for Grand Turk. #winning! We really enjoyed Grand Turk, although we ran into a couple of real asses (I think they were probably from the Carnival ship)

8. Best chocolate martini (from Venchi chocolate bar) OMG soooo good.

9. Best improv comedy show. We grew tired of NCL’s Second City routine that was less improv and more the same skit comedy. Of course, improv is only as good as the talent of the performers, on this cruise the three performers were outstanding.

We had a marvelous and memorable cruise. I am already looking for our next MSC cruise and more award winning moments!

Agree with all of your assessments (with the exception of the humid cabin....but I always bring a battery operated fan just in case and the fast disembarkation....there was a delay due to crowds in customs)

We LOVED Captain Massa,,,Marco, as he told me to call him! We had him on the Divina and he was even more charming and accessable on the Seaside if that is even possible! My DH actually had an hour and a half "talk" with Marco over coffee. (There seemed to be some confusion among the staff about how some of the purchased coupons worked and as the Capt. pointed out, the "cocktail party" where they forgot to serve the cocktails!! LOL!)

 

Sorry to say that we hadn't talked to anyone who would book MSC/Seaside again (wish we had met you!) Initially we thought the same but upon reflection, we concluded that our cruise was lovely with wonderful Island visits (yay, Grand Turk) and that we will wait until the kinks are worked out and perhaps book some time in the future.

[suzyed]

Very happy to hear how much you enjoyed the cruise.

 

Terrific report including the writeup and the terrific photos.

 

Keith

Hmmm? I couldn't see the photos!

[suzyed]

Great review ! Seems like it was a great time ! We also were blown away with Capt Massa and his approachabilty ! He is no phony, he's the real thing .

Yes, loved the Captain!! Wonderful!

I see you liked the Improv Show. What was your impression of the other shows ? ( I realize this is objective )

I thought the shows were wonderful....some of the best at sea! Timeless if fantastic!

I would also like to hear what you thought about the food ( again subjective ). Did you try any of the Specialty Restaurants ? The food and service in the MDR was just ok. Some items good, some pretty bad (Onion soup)

We ate in all the Specialty restaurants...some twice. Mostly great, with one big hiccup in the Butchers Cut at brunch...DH never got his food. I loved the onion soup and the escargot in the French Bistro...the food was great there, although the noise/music from the atrium was intrusive at times.

We had pre-ordered the Trio and used it where it was allowed (not Tappenyaki). We had two Black Card dinners too (again, not at Tappenyaki).

And lastly have they kept the cost of the zip line at $5 per single ride or is it back up to $10 ?

It was $10/ride on the 2/10-2/24 sailing I was told. By the time I got there to do it, it was closed due to high winds.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience !

My comments in RED

[luvabargain]

Thanks for the review. Unfortunately I am unable to see your photos.

[Clarea]

Excellent report, thanks much!

[shukapaw]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this.

 

~Brian

[Beamafar]

Great to read a positive review of Seaside. ( I can't see the photos, either.)

 

Would love to have heard more about the couple of asses in Grand Turk. :evilsmile:

[nikkiw60]

Can see the photos and look forward to meeting you on Meraviglia !!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[sidari]

Also not able to see the photos on here or on mobile/Cell phone !

[Beamafar]

Also not able to see the photos on here or on mobile/Cell phone !

 

I tried on my (android) phone, too, as I thought it might be because I'm using Safari on my (IOS) laptop - no dice! Still can't see them. The downloading icon even went to 183%! :rolleyes:

[nikkiw60]

Well I could see them before but now I can’t!!

 

 

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[jocko4279]

Thanks for the report! Good to hear about the Captain, sounds like a down to earth , stand up guy. Need more of that!

[mianmike]

Great to read a positive review of Seaside. ( I can't see the photos, either.)

 

Would love to have heard more about the couple of asses in Grand Turk. :evilsmile:

I have no clue as to why the photos aren't showing. I can see them. It might be that I copied and pasted the photos into the post. I didn't know you could do that. Last time I posted photos I had to store the photos on another site and link them here. Does anyone know what I might have done wrong?

 

As for the "asses" in Grand Turk, if you could see the photos you would have seen two donkeys with a Carnival ship in the background. lol

[travelberlin]

Nice to hear you had a great time. Thanks for posting!

Ivi