Seaside Review 3/17-3/24 with kids

[Winemyst]

MSC cruise review

Last year my parents took our kids on the MSC Divina. TheyLOVED it. The kids (at that time age 3 and 6) came back raving about the kidsclub and begging to go on the MSC seaside. We decided to look at all cruiselines the week of spring break 2018 and compare prices. We looked at 7 night cruises NCL, Royal,Carnival, Celebrity, Princess going from any of the Florida ports and priced anoceanview room on all of them for a family of four. MSC was half theprice of the others. This is mainly because our kids sale free on MSC. So webooked an Oceanview Fantastica cabin on the Seaside. Now to be fair, aroundSeptember/October 2017 I found a 9 night cruise inside cabin on Royal for about the same price for the same week. Igave the kids the choice and they picked MSC Seaside because of the slides.

Now with the Fantasica experience we had the 12 drinkvouchers. Pre-cruise we booked the water package, wine package (7 bottles atdinner), VIP photo card and a spa package. We had no idea what wine was included and the spa package seemed toogood to be true ( 3 massages and week pass to thermal area for $249.) Thedescriptions were vague for almost all the packages so we were hoping for thebest and prepared to be disappointed.

In the days leading up to the cruise I read so many reviewsand started to worry that we would be disappointed. We are pretty easy goingtravelers and love Europe. It seemed like people liked the ship but there werelimited sun loungers and the food sucked. Now as background I have sailed NCL, Carnival (Liberty and can’tremember the other), Royal (Allure, Sovereign, Navigator), Disney (Dream),Celebrity (Equinox), the Big red boat (yep that’s right), and NCL (sorry can’tremember which ship). We typically avoid the buffet except for lunch, andmainly eat in the MDR. I would say the worst food I experienced was on NCL MDR,but the specialty restaurants were excellent. Every other ship was good to average,nothing to complain about. Celebrity’s food was excellent and we ate the Indianfood in the buffet every day for lunch.

Okay so arrival day – embarkation went smoothly, no issues.When we arrived we realized that it was the Miami Dolphins cruise. At first Iwas a bit nervous that they would take over the cruise, but we barely sawthem. Drinks coupons arrived in room. Wehad 24 alcoholic drinks coupons, 24 non-alcoholic coupons, water bottlecoupons, and wine coupons. This was justthe right amount for us. We used the kids non-alcoholic drinks coupons forlatte’s in the morning and then the kids shared the rest. As some of you mayrecall, I posted earlier that we received a 9:45pm dining time. That was notgoing to work for us. At first they told us there was nothing they could do,then we were told we could always eat in the buffet. I’m usually pretty easygoing but my 4 year old was not eating dinner at 9:45pm and I was not eating inthe buffet all week. Once they realizedwe were not going away, we were assigned an earlier dining time. Whew.

Food­- we found the service in the main dining roomto be good. It was efficient and moved quickly (they had 2 more seatings to getin that night so they had to move fast). The food was average cruise food in myopinion. Some dishes were better than others. We ate breakfast in the maindining room every day. We did have a good laugh one morning when I orderedbiscuits eggs benedict and received traditional eggs benedict with a peanutbutter cookie on the side. I think something got lost in translationthere. Most of the time we did lunch inthe buffet. We really enjoyed the pizza, prosciutto, mozzarella, salad options.On the last sea day we had lunch in the main dining room . Our kids ate halftheir dinners with us and half with the kids club. I do wish the kids clubdinners provided vegetable and fruit options for the children, because myyoungest would eat fries, bread and pasta all day if allowed. Also, on the fewnights we went to the buffet to grab a drink, it was insanely crowded,bordering on chaotic. This is because half the space is being used as a diningroom. I have no idea why they designed a ship that could not accommodate allits passengers in a main dining room.

Kids club – This sailing was busy. Last year on theDivina there were far fewer children and the kids got more personal attention.Due to the number of children, some activities such as the parade around thepool were cancelled for safety reasons. I completely understand. My kids saidthey enjoyed the kids club better last year. They missed not having the cookingclass this time. That said, when they were at the kids club they enjoyedthemselves.

Pools, slides, sports deck – the pools were busy.However, we were able to snag a seat above the adventure park. There is NO seating by the adventure park. Thelines for the slides were not too bad in the mornings, and the adventure parkgot busy around 11/11:30am. We were usually there before that so it was not toobad. There is no age minimum for the slides (they have taped over the ageminimum) but there is a height minimum (42 inches I believe but don’t quote meon that, my kids are 44 and 48 inches and they could ride the slides). We spentquite a bit of time playing basketball on the sports deck. My biggest pet peevewas the number of children in the pools and hot tubs with diapers on, and thestaff said NOTHING.

Wine Package – Not a huge choice of wines in thispackage. Has to be $33 or under per bottle. We did find a decent Chilean red,Malbec, and a pinot grigio that we liked. I think we paid $120 precruise for 7bottles. So a decent savings for us.

Shore excursions – we did not do any organized shoreexcursions. In Nassau we did the day pass at the British Colonial Hilton. Wehad a very nice time. In St. Thomas, we took a Taxi to Megan’s Bay. We werethere 15 minutes and the kids got stung by something in the water, and that wasthe end of that. Giant waste of time and money, but oh well. In Antigua, wetook a taxi to Darkwood beach. Best decision ever. Two chairs and an Umbrellawere $15. $3 beers, nice clean beach. There was a drop off in the water, so becareful with little ones. Antigua was out favorite port.

Spa – This was by far the best deal of our trip. Our$249 package was exactly as advertised. 3 massages and use of the thermal spaarea for the week. Would highly recommend booking spa services pre-cruise asthey are much cheaper. Also head to spastraight away to schedule the massages as time slots were already booking upquick. We had another good laugh at the “do not taste the snow” sign in thesnow room.

Vip photo card – This one I’m still trying to figureout. We booked this pre-cruise and paid $99. It is $199 to purchase on board.On day one we picked up the physical card and the instructions were to give itto photographers. However, the photographers refused to take it and wanted ourroom key. Throughout the cruise if I scanned my cruisecard or the VIP photocard at the photo computer terminals, all the pictures showed. However, on thelast day I had to link my photocard with my cruisecard. Now that I’m home, thepictures are slowly showing up on Mymscphotos.com for me to download. It is not exactly the most streamlinedservice, but its good value for money.

The smells! – I occasionally got a whiff ofsomething. It was so brief and passing that I think it’s a “people problem” nota “boat problem” if you know what I mean. There was an “engine” smelloccasionally near the aqua park but it did not smell like sewage.

Debarkation -Even if you provided your credit card pre-cruise and authorized purchases, youmust settle your account before you get off the ship. Either I missed thispiece of information or communication could be clearer. I’m all for a companydoing it their own way, but it should be clearly communicated especially whenthe other cruise lines do it differently.

Overall I would definitely sail MSC again. It is no betterand no worse than other cruiselines. To me, each cruiseline has its pros andcons and if the right deal came along I would sail on any of them. On MSC Iloved the European touches. I think it’s great that announcements are inmultiple languages. It was Spring break and it was busy as expected. However,it was busy with families and did not have that college spring break vibe someother cruises have. The staff we encountered were friendly. Our room was a decent size, but the showerwas on the small side.

[Beachbaby1229]

Thanks for your review! Super helpful!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[mamaneedsavacay]

Where did you find lattes?! The bartender told us to go to the Seaside lounge and the lounge server told us to go to Venchi, but warned that the only coffee treats on board anywhere would be chocolate.

We had bought the coffee cuddle vouchers and ended up making our own "lattes" in the buffet with regular milk.

Lost in translation?

[Winemyst]

Where did you find lattes?! The bartender told us to go to the Seaside lounge and the lounge server told us to go to Venchi, but warned that the only coffee treats on board anywhere would be chocolate.

We had bought the coffee cuddle vouchers and ended up making our own "lattes" in the buffet with regular milk.

Lost in translation?

 

 

 

My husband got the lattes at the bar in the atrium. They were small lattes though. He also grabbed pastries and donuts too.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Winemyst]

Oh I forgot to mention. For those with kids when you board you register your kids for a wristband but you have to separately register them for the kids club.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[Keith1010]

Thank you so much for your review/trip report.

 

Keith

[janineallison]

What did you have to do to settle your account prior to debarkation?

[Jaco5NC]

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences, sounds like a wonderful week!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[jamiehaas27]

what spa package did you book? That sounds amazing!