First Timers on MSC

[jajackson]

First time on MSC cruise. We usually sail on Carnival. We sail out on the Armonia on 2/3. Any pointers.

[Jcsups]

We have also cruised other lines this being the first time MSC. Where do I go to find out information about activities on the ship? Can we order water by the case for our cabin? 

[Host Kat]

Howdy @jajackson and @Jcsups 

 

Since this thread concerns MSC, I have moved your thread to the MSC Cruises forum where it will be on-topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have or are going to sail MSC frequent that forum and hopefully will be able to help you.

 

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I sincerely hope this information will be helpful and so glad to have you both aboard Cruise Critic!

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

 

🌟 'Tis the season... 🎄 

[Disnyfan2]

following since first time on MSC in May

[Tapi]

On 12/3/2019 at 9:28 PM, jajackson said:

First time on MSC cruise. We usually sail on Carnival. We sail out on the Armonia on 2/3. Any pointers.

Armonia will be the equivalent of sailing on a Carnival fantasy class ship. She’s one of MSC’s oldest and smallest ships, so keep that in mind. The reason why she’s performing 7 night itineraries out of Miami is because she was originally used for Cuba cruises until the plug was pulled on those sailings, leaving her without a long term commitment. 
 

First pointer: Don’t compare MSC to Carnival. One of the complaints that I heard from some fellow cruisers the first time that I sailed on MSC was that “it’s not like Carnival” or “these burgers aren’t as good as Guy’s Burgers” or “there’s no Punchliners comedy club”, etc, etc. Don’t be that person who can’t appreciate beyond what their preferred cruise line offers.

 

There will be many similarities, but there will be several differences, in great part because it’s a European cruise line.
 

- Expect a more international mix of passengers and culturally diverse experience, including announcements made in several languages.

 

- Expect customer service to appeal to a more European clientele, but don’t think of it as being unfriendly. It’s just different than what Americans would expect. 

 

- Expect entertainment to be less verbal. No comedians, no dueling pianos, etc. Once again, entertainment is geared to appeal to a broad multi-lingual clientele. 
 

- Expect some idiosyncrasies to be different than what you’re used to. For example, you need to set up your onboard account yourself at one of the self service kiosks onboard. 
 

- It’s true. There’s no Guy Burgers or equivalent on MSC. But expect food to be a bit more diverse, with a heavy selection of Italian Entrees. 
 

Go with an open mind, and welcome all the things that differentiates MSC from American cruise lines. Understand that you’re sailing aboard one of MSC’s oldest ships, but that this cruise line has one of the fastest growing, most modern, and technologically advanced fleets at sea. So if you don’t like the Armonia, you can always give MSC a try again aboard one of her newer ships that better reflect what MSC truly has to offer.

 

Have a great cruise! Enjoy! 

[evankyla]

Wonderful review.  I have sailed on the Divine twice and loved her. Once on the Seaside was not my favorite.  I personally love the way MSC handles things. I would never compare MSC to Carnival.  I will never step foot  back on a Carnival  ship.

[scpirate]

3 hours ago, Tapi said:

Armonia will be the equivalent of sailing on a Carnival fantasy class ship. She’s one of MSC’s oldest and smallest ships, so keep that in mind. The reason why she’s performing 7 night itineraries out of Miami is because she was originally used for Cuba cruises until the plug was pulled on those sailings, leaving her without a long term commitment. 
 

First pointer: Don’t compare MSC to Carnival. One of the complaints that I heard from some fellow cruisers the first time that I sailed on MSC was that “it’s not like Carnival” or “these burgers aren’t as good as Guy’s Burgers” or “there’s no Punchliners comedy club”, etc, etc. Don’t be that person who can’t appreciate beyond what their preferred cruise line offers.

 

There will be many similarities, but there will be several differences, in great part because it’s a European cruise line.
 

- Expect a more international mix of passengers and culturally diverse experience, including announcements made in several languages.

 

- Expect customer service to appeal to a more European clientele, but don’t think of it as being unfriendly. It’s just different than what Americans would expect. 

 

- Expect entertainment to be less verbal. No comedians, no dueling pianos, etc. Once again, entertainment is geared to appeal to a broad multi-lingual clientele. 
 

- Expect some idiosyncrasies to be different than what you’re used to. For example, you need to set up your onboard account yourself at one of the self service kiosks onboard. 
 

- It’s true. There’s no Guy Burgers or equivalent on MSC. But expect food to be a bit more diverse, with a heavy selection of Italian Entrees. 
 

Go with an open mind, and welcome all the things that differentiates MSC from American cruise lines. Understand that you’re sailing aboard one of MSC’s oldest ships, but that this cruise line has one of the fastest growing, most modern, and technologically advanced fleets at sea. So if you don’t like the Armonia, you can always give MSC a try again aboard one of her newer ships that better reflect what MSC truly has to offer.

 

Have a great cruise! Enjoy! 

Well said.as soon as they say they only sailed carnival you know they are coming back with a bad review 9/10.some of us don't rank carnival high on the list.my idea of a good cruise is different from theirs.i haven't been on armonia but I watched some video tours .I would rather pay a little more and be on msc seaside.thats just me.

[neptuno]

On 12/3/2019 at 9:28 PM, jajackson said:

First time on MSC cruise. We usually sail on Carnival. We sail out on the Armonia on 2/3. Any pointers.

MSC is our favorite out of Florida for the time being, but beware that Armonia is the oldest and cheapest cruise out of Florida.  Just don't set your expectations too high as you pay for what you get.  We have fun on every cruise; some are better than others.  Meraviglia offers some great pricing for a much newer ship.  Divina and Seaside as well, just depends on your budget.

Edited December 14, 2019 by neptuno

[George C]

Great pizza

[jkgourmet]

On 12/13/2019 at 9:59 PM, neptuno said:

MSC is our favorite out of Florida for the time being, but beware that Armonia is the oldest and cheapest cruise out of Florida.  Just don't set your expectations too high as you pay for what you get.  We have fun on every cruise; some are better than others.  Meraviglia offers some great pricing for a much newer ship.  Divina and Seaside as well, just depends on your budget.

 

On our inside bella in feb, I found the pricing for Mera, Divina and Seaside to be within $20usd of each other.  The Armonia was about $50 less.  Per person of course. 

[ziggyuk]

On 12/13/2019 at 9:36 PM, Tapi said:

Don’t be that person who can’t appreciate beyond what their preferred cruise line offers.
 

Go with an open mind, and welcome all the things that differentiates MSC from American cruise lines.

 

I do agree with most of what you have said and everyone should go with an open mind and try to see beyond what you are used to.

 

However, some of the differences are not because it's a European line, I am European.

 

When I go the the dining room for breakfast and lunch I expect to order from the meu and be served at the table (If I wanted buffet, I would go to the buffet), I will be open minded to different types of food and different serving styles but when I'm told "there is a buffet in the middle of the dining room, if you don't find something you like you can order from the menu." it's not a case of European style. Then when you order from the menu and it finally arrives, it comes cold and soggy because perfectly good food has been standing under a plastic cover so long, it's just poor.

 

Dinner in the dining room is much better as there is no buffet and the quality is very good, but like breakfast and lunch there is very limited choice, I loved the beef stew and the goulash but those were the highlights of the week, I don't expect (it would be nice, but I don't expect) lobster, scallops, king prawns or escargot but an occasional steak choice would be nice.

 

The evening entertainment does need to match an international crowd, if it was all english speaking West End/Broadway shows most of the audience would be excluded but it does not need to be singing in a "belt it out, opera style" each and every night (always english incidentally), a bit of slapstick, a magician and acrobatics need no language at all.

The entertainment around the ship does not need to all be centred around the pool for a holiday camp, drunken entertainment, there is almost no entertainment around the during the day, unless you spend your time at the pool.

 

Lack of attentive staff at the bars, breakfast and lunch, could well be considered European and I am used to that but it did not make my time on ship more enjoyable nor did staff arguing with each other or openly swearing (F word).

 

You might think I did not enjoy my first MSC cruise, I did enjoy it and I am open minded, I will probably sail MSC again, the ships was beautiful, the room was lovely and we had a great time onboard but it won't be my first choice, I hoped it would.

 

It is perfectly normal to compare lines, just like you compare hotels or restaurants. It is however wrong to excuse bad service and poor quality by just saying, "be open minded, its European, Italians do it differently".

Edited December 17, 2019 by ziggyuk

[rwdtgb]

We have been on the Armonia and loved it. We also have been on 35 plus Carnival cruises. Each cruise line is different and as long as you go and not compare and except the experience you will have a good time.

[bluehorizonlover123]

Went on Divina and did not like MSC. Would not sail on the line ever again.

 

[jkgourmet]

7 minutes ago, bluehorizonlover123 said:

Went on Divina and did not like MSC. Would not sail on the line ever again.

 

It WOULD be helpful if you explained the details of your experience. 

 

[bluehorizonlover123]

We sailed the Divina March 2016. What drew us to the cruise was a low price for the booking. $1400 total for a week long cruise.  We thought the beds were hard as a rock, all the pillows were lumpy, you could actually feel lumps of something inside the pillows, no bar soap whatsoever on the ship, even when we asked for some.  No candy on the pillows at turn down, no towel animals, purser desk workers were rude and unknowledgeable.  The casino does give free drinks when you are gambling. Pools were always overcrowded and salt water.  No public bathrooms at the spa, must walk to the indoor pool if you had to go, only 10 treadmills for 3000 passengers, never was able to get one to work out all week, no order to lines in the buffets, everyone scrambling every which way to get different kinds of food, people were pushy and budged too, no seats to sit once you had your food, horrible food in dining room and buffet area. Hard to find public bathrooms all over the ship. If you wanted to cash out at the casino and you had $12.50 coming back, the casino kept the 50 cents and gave you $12 back. This happened every time I had change coming back to me.  Hardly any English speaking people on the ship.  When we were in the elevators, everyone was speaking different languages.  At dinner we were placed at a table for the whole week with others who did not speak english. These are all things I wrote down after the cruise was over to remember my reasons for not sailing MSC again. I do remember their ships were beautifully decorated, but that is the only positive I have about the cruise line.  Hope this helps. If you don't believe me try and find others who have gone on MSC and see what they said after they got home from the cruise.  Obviously food is subjective, and bed hardness, and pillows is subjective. But I have been on 52 cruises, so this was not my first rodeo and I have had lots and lots of cruises to compare this one to. I loved being on vacation for a week, I loved the warm weather and the ports we visited, just saying next time it won't be on MSC spending my precious week of vacation time.

Forgot to mention.... MSC will match your highest level you have reached on other cruiselines. So if you have reached Platinum on another cruise line, they will match, and make you Platinum on your cruise for the Voyagers Club. But it really didn't give us any perks to be Platinum on their cruise line. And we were Fantastica cabin level on this cruise.

Edited December 17, 2019 by bluehorizonlover123

[Homosassa]

2 hours ago, bluehorizonlover123 said:

We sailed the Divina March 2016. What drew us to the cruise was a low price for the booking. $1400 total for a week long cruise.  We thought the beds were hard as a rock, all the pillows were lumpy, you could actually feel lumps of something inside the pillows, no bar soap whatsoever on the ship, even when we asked for some.  No candy on the pillows at turn down, no towel animals, purser desk workers were rude and unknowledgeable.  The casino does give free drinks when you are gambling. Pools were always overcrowded and salt water.  No public bathrooms at the spa, must walk to the indoor pool if you had to go, only 10 treadmills for 3000 passengers, never was able to get one to work out all week, no order to lines in the buffets, everyone scrambling every which way to get different kinds of food, people were pushy and budged too, no seats to sit once you had your food, horrible food in dining room and buffet area. Hard to find public bathrooms all over the ship. If you wanted to cash out at the casino and you had $12.50 coming back, the casino kept the 50 cents and gave you $12 back. This happened every time I had change coming back to me.  Hardly any English speaking people on the ship.  When we were in the elevators, everyone was speaking different languages.  At dinner we were placed at a table for the whole week with others who did not speak english. These are all things I wrote down after the cruise was over to remember my reasons for not sailing MSC again. I do remember their ships were beautifully decorated, but that is the only positive I have about the cruise line. 

And yet, my first MSC cruise was on the Divina in March 2016 (two Bella inside cabins) and we loved  it. Great food areas in the buffets that served food from different cultures - no waiting in a line to reach the different areas, just walk up to the section of counter that had the cuisine one was interested in.  Good food in the main dining room with a good selection each night.

 

Guest Services personnel were courteous and could help with any questions we had (including some Ipad  connectivity problems).

 

Never missed the towel animals or pillow candy as we usually asked that cabin stewards skip them.

 

Loved the mix of people from around the world on board.

 

As we are having a humdinger of a thunder storm right now, I need to stop and shut down the computer.  I do wonder if we were on the same ship in the same space/time continuum as we obviously had completely opposite experiences.  

[bluehorizonlover123]

You asked me MY OPINION and I gave you MY opinion.  You are entitled to your own opinions obviously.

[Tapi]

53 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

I do wonder if we were on the same ship in the same space/time continuum as we obviously had completely opposite experiences.  

I had similar thoughts when I read it. Divina was also our first MSC cruise in 2016. I will admit that it wasn’t the most amazing cruise ever, but we thought that it was a very enjoyable experience, specially considering that we paid $250pp, taxes included, for a Fantastica balcony. Hard to complain about the lack of candy on the pillow, towel animals, or bar soap at those prices! For the price paid, MSC more than exceeded my lowered expectations. 
 

Divina in the Caribbean was OK, but I considered Meraviglia in the Mediterranean to be one of my best cruises in my 35+ years of cruising. Absolutely wonderful.

Edited December 17, 2019 by Tapi

[Homosassa]

51 minutes ago, Tapi said:

Divina in the Caribbean was OK, but I considered Meraviglia in the Mediterranean to be one of my best cruises in my 35+ years of cruising. Absolutely wonderful.

My daughter and her then fiance were on that March 2016 cruise with us.

 

She has cruised with us for over thirty years at the time of that sailing (was seventeen months on her first cruise) on numerous different lines.

 

She and her fiance enjoyed the Divina so much that they booked the new Meraviglia the next summer for their honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean. They loved it (It seems the Italians love newlyweds on their honeymoon; they kept finding little extras in their cabin like a bottle of chilled Prosecco and chocolate covered strawberries).

[jkgourmet]

13 hours ago, bluehorizonlover123 said:

You asked me MY OPINION and I gave you MY opinion.  You are entitled to your own opinions obviously.

 

Actually,  I was the one that asked you for details.  And I appreciate your response.

 

For me, many of the issues you found unacceptable are things I would probably enjoy or wouldn't care about (in fact, I'd be unlikely to even notice them).  And IF I found the food to be as horrible as you felt it was, I would never sail on them again.

 

Obviously,  you're 100% correct that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.   I sailed on RCCL once, many years ago.  It was my 2nd cruise and I hated it.  Had it been my first cruise, it would probably have been my last.  I've stubbornly refused to sail them since.

 

Happy future travels.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[George C]

14 hours ago, bluehorizonlover123 said:

You asked me MY OPINION and I gave you MY opinion.  You are entitled to your own opinions obviously.

I think you would have a different opinion if you had done yacht club.

[bluehorizonlover123]

I think you are absolutely correct. Never did yacht club.

[blueslily]

On 12/17/2019 at 2:44 PM, bluehorizonlover123 said:

We sailed the Divina March 2016. What drew us to the cruise was a low price for the booking. $1400 total for a week long cruise.  We thought the beds were hard as a rock, all the pillows were lumpy, you could actually feel lumps of something inside the pillows, no bar soap whatsoever on the ship, even when we asked for some.  No candy on the pillows at turn down, no towel animals, purser desk workers were rude and unknowledgeable.  The casino does give free drinks when you are gambling. Pools were always overcrowded and salt water.  No public bathrooms at the spa, must walk to the indoor pool if you had to go, only 10 treadmills for 3000 passengers, never was able to get one to work out all week, no order to lines in the buffets, everyone scrambling every which way to get different kinds of food, people were pushy and budged too, no seats to sit once you had your food, horrible food in dining room and buffet area. Hard to find public bathrooms all over the ship. If you wanted to cash out at the casino and you had $12.50 coming back, the casino kept the 50 cents and gave you $12 back. This happened every time I had change coming back to me.  Hardly any English speaking people on the ship.  When we were in the elevators, everyone was speaking different languages.  At dinner we were placed at a table for the whole week with others who did not speak english. These are all things I wrote down after the cruise was over to remember my reasons for not sailing MSC again. I do remember their ships were beautifully decorated, but that is the only positive I have about the cruise line.  Hope this helps. If you don't believe me try and find others who have gone on MSC and see what they said after they got home from the cruise.  Obviously food is subjective, and bed hardness, and pillows is subjective. But I have been on 52 cruises, so this was not my first rodeo and I have had lots and lots of cruises to compare this one to. I loved being on vacation for a week, I loved the warm weather and the ports we visited, just saying next time it won't be on MSC spending my precious week of vacation time.

Forgot to mention.... MSC will match your highest level you have reached on other cruiselines. So if you have reached Platinum on another cruise line, they will match, and make you Platinum on your cruise for the Voyagers Club. But it really didn't give us any perks to be Platinum on their cruise line. And we were Fantastica cabin level on this cruise.

 

No bar soap? Fellow cruisers in the elevators speaking different languages? 

 

Sometimes CC is the best free show in town.

 

Happy cruise planning everyone! I love researching my cruises in advance almost as much as I enjoy cruising. 😎😁🤗

 

[bluehorizonlover123]

You can laugh if you like. But we don't like the liquid soap they present in the cabins. Sensitive skin. We also didn't like that no one on the ship spoke English. Sorry my opinion.

 

[blueslily]

1 hour ago, bluehorizonlover123 said:

You can laugh if you like. But we don't like the liquid soap they present in the cabins. Sensitive skin. We also didn't like that no one on the ship spoke English. Sorry my opinion.

 

 

I always travel with my own toiletries. I dare not use products on my skin that I don't already know are a good fit for my body. So it does not matter to me whether or not the ship has liquid soap or bar soap. I will not use either one of them. That's true for land stays in hotels or ocean travel on a cruise. My soap, lotion, etc is packed with me. If people have sensitive skin, I wonder why they leave product availability up to someone else. Im not willing to risk an issue on my vacation. 

 

I love international travel. I was in Europe a couple months ago. I did not expect people in Europe to speak English versus their own language. I enjoyed trying to communicate with them. I got to practice some of my language skills. It was fun. If fellow Cruisers in an elevator are speaking in different languages, that doesn't matter to me. I don't need to understand the conversations that they are having with their family and friends. It is none of my business. They are on vacation. They are not there to entertain me, but actually many times people are entertaining without them even realizing it. Just like on these Cruise Critic threads.

 

Have a good evening everybody. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by blueslily