High/Low of Seaside 12/22 - 12/29 Christmas East Caribbean Trip

[acmcfun]

Just out of vacation blue and decide to drop several high/low points of 12/22 - 12/29 Christmas East Caribbean trip.  Our group had about 60+ families (over 200+ people) .  These were collections from many people from our group

 

High

1. Great ship, even with full capacity, there was not that crowded
2. On board activities were plentiful
3. On/off ship were smooth and fast
4. Dining room food is good, especially during 2 formal nights dinners and Christmas eve dinner.  They opened deck 16 buffet at 11pm Christmas eve for special food session - great food and deserts.  
5. MJ show was great

Low

1. Due to so many families, we did use cruise shore excursion program twice.  Both were disappointed due to poor organisations.  
2. MSC group support department was so bad. 

 

My son and my wife had birthday on board.  Now they could not provide real candles due to safety regulation.  It was a bit disappointed.

Our group booked the trip nearly a year earlier.  The price was great and most of us enjoyed.  

[paulajj]

Thanks for the review!

[floridian1]

How did the kids like the kids club? What did you do in the ports?

[acmcfun]

The younger one said just OK for the kids club.  The teenage club feedback was good except the music was too loud.  Teenage club close really late and fit for those teenage schedule I guess.  Our kids did not come back to stateroom until 1am.

 

The bad excursion experience was at Charlotte Amalie St Thomas.  We had group private excursion to Magen's Bay and plus other activities since there was no way for 200 people cross to St Johns.  Most of kids and and some parents went on the excursion but end with disappointment due to poor organization.  I left my 2 sons to the big group and ventured to St Johns with my wife ourselves.  That was a hit, we loved St Johns way better.  Some families did both (just left Magen's Bay earlier), and highly recommended St Johns.  

 

At Nassau Bahamas, we signed up old kids to Atlantis adventure package.  The organization was so bad.  Some kids might only got time to do 3-4 water slides and got pulling out to get back to the ship.  And the return bus was chaotic and not enough to carry all kids back at the same time.  Discover Atlantis that most parents went was good.  This was because we got left right after kids so time period wise we got a good deal.  

 

Our group did our own excursion at San Juan.  It was Christmas eve and luckly we got back in time for very nice Christmas eve dinner (lobsters etc.)  Due to the docking time from 4pm to 1am, MSC let people into dinning room anytime that night.  This was a good plus.  

 

At Philipsburg, old kids went on off shore snorkeling arranged by MSC on a private boat for our group.  But they were not allow them to swim to shore.  The boat was just off Maho Beach.  I saw the boat when I was at Maho Beach.  Most of parents and younger kids went on around island trip plus shopping.