MSC Brazilian Cruises

[pettums]

I was wondering if anyone has taken one of the MSC cruises along the Brazilian coast. I have tried to read the reviews and I get this impression or perhaps caricature:

 

1)  Lining up (queuing) will not work in the way that is customary to North Americans

2) There will be lots of late night partying around the pool. 

3) 99% of the people will be Brazilian and speak Portuguese. English will be very rarely spoken. 

 

I am optimistically interpreting this to simply mean there will be lots of Caipirinhas and happiness. 

 

How accurate is this and what other things might be different from  your typical North American cruise?  

 

The reason we are taking this cruise is that it is scheduled to take place over Carnival and heading up to Salvador for Fat Tuesday itself in 2021. So I imagine all of the above may be intensified! 

[JohnJayJotaJames]

36 minutes ago, pettums said:

I was wondering if anyone has taken one of the MSC cruises along the Brazilian coast. I have tried to read the reviews and I get this impression or perhaps caricature:

 

1)  Lining up (queuing) will not work in the way that is customary to North Americans

2) There will be lots of late night partying around the pool. 

3) 99% of the people will be Brazilian and speak Portuguese. English will be very rarely spoken. 

 

I am optimistically interpreting this to simply mean there will be lots of Caipirinhas and happiness. 

 

How accurate is this and what other things might be different from  your typical North American cruise?  

 

The reason we are taking this cruise is that it is scheduled to take place over Carnival and heading up to Salvador for Fat Tuesday itself in 2021. So I imagine all of the above may be intensified! 

We did the Brazilian coast (Santos to Salvador) on the Preziosa Christmas 2016 and were on the Seaview Christmas 2019 so can answer some of your questions. We have done med cruises but never American, can't compare to US market. I'm British and live in Brazil so maybe I have adjusted to cultural differences.
1) Brazilians will line up if it's clear that it's what's expected of them. A few will cut the queue!
2) Yes! Late partying with a lot of noise. I'm sure that it being Carnival they'll be some cruisers that will party night and day if allowed. 
3) You won't hear a lot of English being spoken but once they discover that you're not Brazilian you'll find that quite a few cruisers will want to chat with you in English. At Christmas we only spoke in English with all crew members and met several guests who loved chatting to us in English.
Embrace the party spirit and you'll have a fabulous cruise! with lots of caipirinhas! 

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, pettums said:

I was wondering if anyone has taken one of the MSC cruises along the Brazilian coast. I have tried to read the reviews and I get this impression or perhaps caricature:

 

1)  Lining up (queuing) will not work in the way that is customary to North Americans

2) There will be lots of late night partying around the pool. 

3) 99% of the people will be Brazilian and speak Portuguese. English will be very rarely spoken. 

 

I am optimistically interpreting this to simply mean there will be lots of Caipirinhas and happiness. 

 

How accurate is this and what other things might be different from  your typical North American cruise?  

 

The reason we are taking this cruise is that it is scheduled to take place over Carnival and heading up to Salvador for Fat Tuesday itself in 2021. So I imagine all of the above may be intensified! 

 

Just got back and yes, that's about the size of it.

 

On our cruise it had to be 90% Brazilian and Portuguese spoken, there are also a lot of Brazilian staff taken on board while in the region but most appear to be back of house so all the staff speak english as a primary language with guests. On out first day we were getting reactions from the bar staff of "Oh my god, you speak english, you are so welcome.".

 

The Brazilians like to party big time, they drink like mad and spend nearly all the time around the pool until late, eat late then go to party again at the nightclub.

 

We even had a Brazilian couple complain to the waiter that they should not be seated with english speakers who can't speak Portuguese!

 

Standing in line, yes you are correct, many will just push to the front, forget lines, even for the tender, it's a bundle.

 

They like to dine late so if you want an early sitting it will probably be OK, also we were given a two top table in the evening without even asking, probably as english was so rare. One other thing that is funny is they spend all their time at breakfast making sandwiches and filling their bags with food to take ashore, it was hysterical, they did not hide it and even asked staff for napkins to wrap the food.

 

Be honest most of it did not bother us as we do not spend time by the pool and we were away from the "crowd" most of the time.

Edited January 7, 2020 by ziggyuk

[Cruiser Bruiser]

This is good to read. I've sailed the Brazilian coast on HAL. It was a one-and-done itinerary, and I was excited to see that MSC sails the Brazilian coast every South American summer. Then I read some particularly negative reviews, and I was instantly discouraged. I appreciate your more measured descriptions. So long as I can sleep when I want to, I don't mind a raucous scene by the pool. I'm guessing there's some interesting people watching.

[rool]

2 hours ago, JohnJayJotaJames said:

We did the Brazilian coast (Santos to Salvador) on the Preziosa Christmas 2016 and were on the Seaview Christmas 2019 so can answer some of your questions. We have done med cruises but never American, can't compare to US market. I'm British and live in Brazil so maybe I have adjusted to cultural differences.
1) Brazilians will line up if it's clear that it's what's expected of them. A few will cut the queue!
2) Yes! Late partying with a lot of noise. I'm sure that it being Carnival they'll be some cruisers that will party night and day if allowed. 
3) You won't hear a lot of English being spoken but once they discover that you're not Brazilian you'll find that quite a few cruisers will want to chat with you in English. At Christmas we only spoke in English with all crew members and met several guests who loved chatting to us in English.
Embrace the party spirit and you'll have a fabulous cruise! with lots of caipirinhas! 

Another Brit living in Brazil here 👍

Edit: We are doing Rio to Uruguay and Argentina in December 2020 on Preziosa. Our first time on that ship.

Edited January 7, 2020 by rool

[ziggyuk]

2 hours ago, Cruiser Bruiser said:

This is good to read. I've sailed the Brazilian coast on HAL. It was a one-and-done itinerary, and I was excited to see that MSC sails the Brazilian coast every South American summer. Then I read some particularly negative reviews, and I was instantly discouraged. I appreciate your more measured descriptions. So long as I can sleep when I want to, I don't mind a raucous scene by the pool. I'm guessing there's some interesting people watching.

 

It's honestly not a big deal, the pool is always going to be lively anyhow and most of the MSC activities are around the pool anyway. The pool and hot tubs will be very busy but that's not so unusual.

You will be fine for sleep, we were fine every night, we slept well and had no issues. The only day we had a problem was the last night, there was a lot of noise in the halls and in the early hours someone went crashing into our door, I had late checkout and had put out the "do not disturb" sign, with all the night time ruckuss I had a feeling I should check...... yep, surprise surprise, it had been turned to "please make up room".

 

If you were they type who likes to dress for dinner in a tux and likes an old school experience I might warn you away but most people would have no issues, certainly no more issue than they would with a lively spring break cruise.

 

Edit:

My cruise was far from the best but in no way due to any of the other guests onboard.

Edited January 8, 2020 by ziggyuk

[pettums]

2 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

 

Edit:

My cruise was far from the best but in no way due to any of the other guests onboard.

Are you able to say a little more? I am sorry it was not all great.

[ziggyuk]

5 hours ago, pettums said:

Are you able to say a little more? I am sorry it was not all great.

 

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my cruise, I cruise for the ports anyway, I will use MSC again but it will not be my first choice.

 

The main reasons were the entertainment and dining, for me those are the most important areas on a cruise.

 

The dining was disappointing primarily as the MDR is a Buffet for breakfast and lunch where they really don't want to serve you and would rather you got your own food, when the food finally arrived after a long wait (I don't do buffet in MDR) it was poor quality as it had been hanging around, often cold. 

Dinner was much better as we had a dedicated waiter and nobody was trying to avoid servicing you but, the food choices were also very limited, breakfast worst but alone at lunch and dinner, Goulash, Irish stew and curry were the weeks highlights. 

 

For entertainment, I never miss a show, and I found them very disappointing, every night had a theme but the format was pretty much to belt out songs in an operatic style. All the songs were in english language, for instance they has a Queen tribute night and a 60s/70s/80s night.

Around the ship the entertainment was almost non existent, the activities they did have were almost exclusively based around the pool or at an extra cost like bingo.

 

I did a detailed overview here:

 

[JohnJayJotaJames]

15 hours ago, rool said:

Another Brit living in Brazil here 👍

Edit: We are doing Rio to Uruguay and Argentina in December 2020 on Preziosa. Our first time on that ship.

Uruguay and Argentina is on my must do list. We've already confirmed Grandiosa for Brasil 2020, so fingers crossed for 2021. Where in Brazil do you live? We're near to Campinas - SP.

[rool]

14 minutes ago, JohnJayJotaJames said:

Uruguay and Argentina is on my must do list. We've already confirmed Grandiosa for Brasil 2020, so fingers crossed for 2021. Where in Brazil do you live? We're near to Campinas - SP.

We're a long way from everywhere in northern Mato Grosso. Fairly close to my wife's family.

Nearest airports are Goiania or Brasilia which are a 10 hour or 12 hour drive respectively.

We are considering moving to Palmas TO though in the next year which will make things more convenient.

 

[pettums]

8 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my cruise, I cruise for the ports anyway, I will use MSC again but it will not be my first choice.

 

The main reasons were the entertainment and dining, for me those are the most important areas on a cruise.

 

The dining was disappointing primarily as the MDR is a Buffet for breakfast and lunch where they really don't want to serve you and would rather you got your own food, when the food finally arrived after a long wait (I don't do buffet in MDR) it was poor quality as it had been hanging around, often cold. 

Dinner was much better as we had a dedicated waiter and nobody was trying to avoid servicing you but, the food choices were also very limited, breakfast worst but alone at lunch and dinner, Goulash, Irish stew and curry were the weeks highlights. 

 

For entertainment, I never miss a show, and I found them very disappointing, every night had a theme but the format was pretty much to belt out songs in an operatic style. All the songs were in english language, for instance they has a Queen tribute night and a 60s/70s/80s night.

Around the ship the entertainment was almost non existent, the activities they did have were almost exclusively based around the pool or at an extra cost like bingo.

 

I did a detailed overview here:

 

Thank you for the most excellent review - I had read it before (there aren't that many reviews) and it is incredibly useful. 

 

We said we would never cruise MSC again after our 2018 cruise, but I am back again because I am so excited by the itinerary! We had some specific service issues which freaked us out but the more minor (but generally applicable issues for us) for us were:

- Buffet was a fight club. 

- Food for dinner not that good.  The waiters kept on offering us HP sauce. 

- Trivia offerings were poor to non-existent.

- I thought the best show was the opera show. The other shows struck us as rather dated and rather sexist.  

- Pools were very salty. 

- Kids Counselors were irritated at having to deal with English-speaking kids. 

 

However, as I am envisaging that this boat will be party Caipirinha-land  most of the moans should  not be an issue. And we can eat at boring family-friendly times to avoid too many crowds in the buffet. 

 

Like you we tend to go NCL. And they would definitely win over MSC for us, but they are not offering anything like this for this itinerary so we are back! 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by pettums
clarity

[ziggyuk]

10 minutes ago, pettums said:

We said we would never cruise MSC again after our 2018 cruise, but I am back again because I am so excited by the itinerary! We had some specific service issues which freaked us out but the more minor (but generally applicable issues for us) for us were:

- Buffet was a fight club. 

We did not use the buffet except once to try the pizza (was not good) so no real experience but did not see any problems.

- Food for dinner not that good.  The waiters kept on offering us HP sauce. 

We felt the food was good but the choice was very poor and I already commented on breakfast and lunch, never saw HP sauce.

- Trivia offerings were poor to non-existent.

Very much so, there was really no free entertainment except at the pool.

- I thought the best show was the opera show. The other shows struck us as rather dated and rather sexist. 

As covered above 

- Pools were very salty. 

We did not use, no idea.

- Kids Counselors were irritated at having to deal with English-speaking kids. 

We did not use, no idea.

 

However, as I am envisaging that this boat will be party Caipirinha-land  most of the moans should  not be an issue. And we can eat at boring family-friendly times to avoid too many crowds in the buffet. 

 

I have answered my feelings on your points above, of it helps.

Edited January 8, 2020 by ziggyuk