Trip Report: MSC Seashore Feb 19, 2022 Bella Experience with Photos

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Just now, redsox1584 said:

 

Do they normally assign a dining time?  Are you able to request a table for 2?

Yes, unless you have the Aurea experience, a dining time is assigned. On the Meriviglia, I believe there were four possible times.

Yes, a table for two or whatever size your traveling party is may be requested.

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Lunch was at the buffet where I ate some very good Indian food...fish and lamb curry with bean bread.

 

The rest of the afternoon was relaxing and complete with lemon sorbet. My son had a children's drink package which includes soft serve ice cream at the main pool bar. The machine was broken, however, so the server offered vanilla or chocolate gelato. We both ordered vanilla but ended up with lemon sorbet.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Match Game 72

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It was elegant night, the only one of the sailing. This meant that the New York sirloin was available without an up charge in the main dining room.  We also ate Barramundi fish and pork tenderloin.

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Match Game 72
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Greek Salad

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Fish - mild flavor

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Pork Tenderloin

 

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New York Strip Steak

DS had sailed MSC when this was available every evening on the menu. Something strange about the dinner menus was the Classic Favorites kept changing every evening. There wasn't a reliable go-to  list.

 

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After dinner, the show was Paris. The final cancan number is not to be missed. It goes on like the dancers have an unlimited store of energy.

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Tuesday, February 22, Dominican Republic

We had booked the ship excursion to Ocean World. The ticket included roundtrip coach and admission, but no lunch or beverages. The tour departed on time at 9:30 from Taino Bay, and the return bus left the park at 2:40.

 

Ocean World was clean, entertaining, and staffed with friendly people. We enjoyed the shark and dolphin shows, but my son's favorite thing was the aviary with lovebirds and parrots.

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The aviary was a highlight of the day for us. Bird seed was handed our freely, and the birds would flock to your hand.

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The park is on the coast with a beautiful view. There's a small lagoon for swimming as well as a pool. For lunch we ate at the main restaurant. Food was good and prices were reasonable. For two burgers, a chicken sandwich, fries, sodas, and tip, it cost us $40. We would recommend Ocean World for anyone looking for a family friendly day.

The dolphin show was very good. And all the animals appeared healthy and well-taken-care-of.

 

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For dinner back on the ship, we chose to eat at the buffet. While just a few sections are open because of low passenger count, we all found dinner satisfactory. I had some very good fish with roasted potatoes and peppers.

We all enjoyed the dying show, Mystical Forest. Then DS went to the teen club, and we listened to the jazz duo in Brooklyn Cafe.

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2022

Today was the second day at sea. We gained back the hour from a clock change prior to Dominican Republic stop. Each morning we ate breakfast in the buffet. The oatmeal was good, and I usually got a tomato spinach omelet.

 

Eh and I liked walking the ship in the morning, but we missed a true promenade deck that would allow us to circle the ships deck. During the day, Cabaret Rouge is a nice place to play cards.

For lunch, we ate at Kaito Sushi. on days when unlimited sushi for $33 is offered, individual plates of sushi can't be selected. However, the hot menu is still a la carte.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading, and ds and I won a trivia game played outside Venchi.

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The area outside Venchi where we played trivia - notice the video screens extend to the ceiling. There were very cool and changed to a nighttime sky later in the day.

 

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Since none of us liked the main dining room menu, we went to the buffet for dinner. The three of us ate a nice meal at the buffet. It was a bunch of different foods, but they were good. The buffet food was consistently the right temp...hot foods were hot. Because of the reduced passengers, seats were very easy to find. Crew served all the foods as well as the complimentary drinks (water, coffee, tea, iced tea, and lemonade as well as orange juice at breakfast).

 

We enjoyed the 8pm stage show, "Coast to Coast," which was about various American music styles. Afterwards, we went to the Sports bar and Brooklyn Cafe to enjoy the musical duo.

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Thursday, February 24, 2022

Today we docked in Nassau. In addition to Seashore, four other cruise ships were docked. It must have been a busy day in port, but we didn't experience it since we stayed on the ship to enjoy the facilities.

DH and I relaxed with a couples massage before breakfast. The spa is not inexpensive, but it is a real treat. This was our Valentine's gift to each other.

 

After breakfast at the buffet, we changed into swimwear and went to the Jungle Pool. For a couple of hours, we were the only two in the pool area. Our DS eventually joined us, and then a few families trickled in.

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Around 2 pm, we ate lunch at the buffet. I had fish with a tomato sauce, carrots and mashed potatoes. The guys ate veal, fresh fruit, and pizza.

 

Our next stop was to try out the four water slides located near the children's water park. They got a big thumbs up from us. There are loungers near the exit for the blue, twin slides. This made a good, dry place for us to leave our towels.

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The guys went back to the room to shower, and I went to the buffet to get a plate of cookies. From 3:30 to 5:30, there were freshly baked cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, macadamia nut, and meringue) as well as complimentary soft serve ice cream.

 

DS went to the teen club for a bit before dinner. Even though it was school vacation week in the northeastern United States, there were few kids on board. However, the teen club was run well, and our son made friends and enjoyed the activities like Uno and foosball.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Match Game 72
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That night’s dinner was the second half of the Duo dining package we had bought. Butcher’s Cut restaurant has the ambience of a high end steakhouse. We got three selections from the prix fix menu. We each started with salad. One with Caesar and two with the chopped salad which was served without dressing. Two of us chose filet mignon for our main meal. One had New York sirloin. Our side dishes were smoked mashed potatoes, French fries, and baked potato. The quality of the meat was exceptional. It made the meal worth every penny. Desserts were the banana date bread, cheesecake, and lava cake.

 

After dinner, DS went to the teen club. Since we were too early for the That’s Amore stage show, we listened to the Latin band in the atrium. The stage show was again very good, and it ended with the traditional MSC goodbye number.

 

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Friday, February 25, 2022 Ocean Cay

We started the day at 9am with an appointment with the Future Cruise planner, Buse. She helped us sort out a few choices, and we held a cruise on the Meriviglia for 2023. Tip: she can’t put the deposit on your cruise account. Bring a credit card, or you’ll need to go back later in the day like I did. Cruises booked onboard get double Voyage points and $100 onboard credit for a balcony cabin.

 

Since nothing beats the end of cruise blues like booking another one, I had a spring in my step as we woke DS and then headed to the buffet for breakfast.

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We went back to the ship to get cleaned up. I paid our deposit on the next cruise and got some chocolate chip cookies from the buffet. Then the dreaded packing began. Always a sad moment on any cruise, we just got it done. We walked back to Lighthouse Bar to enjoy a drink near the water.

 

Once back onboard, another trip to the buffet procured pizza for dinner. We had agreed that that main dining room menu was not tempting. We ate our pizza on our balcony and then watched the lighthouse show.

 

Evening entertainment was the Duo in Brooklyn Café. We really enjoyed their music. They are a husband and wife team and told us they renewed their contract through April.

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Saturday, February 26, 2022

Today was disembarkation. We had to be out of the cabin by 8 am. Then we headed to deck 16 for our final breakfast in the buffet which was open until 9  am. At 9 am, we were in the Jungle Pool area and heard that all luggage number groups had been called. It took us one hour to get our luggage, go through boarder control, wait in the taxi line, and arrive at Miami International Airport.

 

Once at the airport, we printed our boarding passes and made it through security to our gate by 10:30. Our 1:13 JetBlue flight had been delayed one hour to 2:13. Eventually we departed closer to 3 pm and arrived in Boston around 6:25 pm.

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Random Thoughts on MSC Seashore

- This is a beautiful ship. Nicely decorated with elegant colors and sparkle. 

- There are some weird chairs in the bars. For example, in Brooklyn Café there are some comfortable sofas as well as mustard yellow Star Trek inspired seats which according to DS are “aggressively slumpy.”

- While some main dining room menus did not interest us, we enjoyed all of our meals and were able to find foods that ranged from good to excellent.

- MSC has really kicked up the quality of their evening theatre shows. The dancing, choreography, and costumes were lovely to behold. We saw six evening productions in the Madison Theatre.

- There was no dancing on board. This may be a covid precaution.

- Staff was polite and friendly without exception. The staff seemed as happy to be on the ship as we felt.

- On the first two days we had a few issues that needed correction (my key card, WiFi access, and drink package activation). It was easy to find someone to help, and they seemed genuinely interested in solving our problem. 

- We had a lot of on board credit ($900). It seemed like every change MSC made to our itinerary was met with additional credit. This was a little luxury that we enjoyed by eating in more specialty restaurants than we normally would have.

- Teen club was a highlight for our son. He really enjoyed meeting other kids and hanging out.

- We like MSC a great deal. DH and I have been cruising since 1999 with nearly 20 mass market cruises under our belt. This was our sixth MSC cruise, and we have always cruised outside of the yacht club. When considering price for 2 adults and 1 child, the experience is very good to excellent.

[Two Wheels Only]

Thank you for the review. I'll be on Seashore in about 3 months so I'm glad that you enjoyed it. 

[Reenie75]

Thank you for sharing your experiences on the ship. I'm thinking of visiting the spa. Did MSC offer any promotions or specials on certain days? We are sailing on March 5th