Seashore March 12

[mlbdude]

48 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Any idea what numbers of any different passenger nationalities are aboard?  When we sailed MSC two years ago, we quite liked being in the minority, as Americans.  But I imagine that travel restrictions are keeping many Europeans and South Americans away at the moment.

It seems back to the old days.  Lots from EU an UK.  Probably 50% American.

[ready2cruzagain]

53 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Any idea what numbers of any different passenger nationalities are aboard?  When we sailed MSC two years ago, we quite liked being in the minority, as Americans.  But I imagine that travel restrictions are keeping many Europeans and South Americans away at the moment.

We just got off the ship this past Saturday and no idea of the ratio but I can say that Americans are still a minority. 

[shipgeeks]

Thank you both.  I think it's time for me to book another MSC cruise!

[Mustard_drill]

For those of you on the ship, would you say the lines in the buffet are caused by them having to serve you instead of normal "grab and go"?

[DisneyTech]

15 hours ago, Mustard_drill said:

For those of you on the ship, would you say the lines in the buffet are caused by them having to serve you instead of normal "grab and go"?

I’m sure that is part of it, but it seems that most of it is caused by not having more buffet lines open. Most of the time around 1/4 of the windows are open. 
 

On top of that, there is often only one person serving at each station and a real lack of organization for how the line forms. 

[mlbdude]

7 minutes ago, DisneyTech said:

I’m sure that is part of it, but it seems that most of it is caused by not having more buffet lines open. Most of the time around 1/4 of the windows are open. 

I noticed they also often had one person serving us running between two windows.  That is probably why they have not spread out more to help the lines.

[mlbdude]

Do not sail this ship of Covid protocol is important to you.  Opinions aside, I do believe if you sell and advertise protocols  they should enforce them.

 

I think we are getting under 50% mask compliance at this point by my observation.

[shipgeeks]

Are masks still officially required?  They are not on some other lines sailing from the US.

[fish_guru]

3 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

Are masks still officially required?  They are not on some other lines sailing from the US.

Per MSC website...

Until April 22, 2022, for ships departing from U.S. ports, fully vaccinated guests are not required to wear masks or maintain social distancing at venues designated for vaccinated guests only, such as select bars, lounges, restaurants, shows, spa thermal area, the casino, or during events and activities that are geared towards fully vaccinated guests only. Guests who are not fully vaccinated (over 2 and under 12 years old) are required to wear masks and maintain social distancing on board in indoor public areas. Masks are required for all guests in the terminal at embarkation and disembarkation.

[Cashsmoney]

On 3/14/2022 at 7:26 PM, DFMW said:

Any March 12th Yacht Club cruisers following this post? How's the service?

I’m on the Yacht club now. Service is ok, don’t have any complaints. However they are busy by the pool during the day. Most of the time I have to walk but to the bar to get a drink

[blueslily]

On 3/16/2022 at 7:47 PM, Mustard_drill said:

For those of you on the ship, would you say the lines in the buffet are caused by them having to serve you instead of normal "grab and go"?

 

Nope

[mlbdude]

Just wanted to post a final comment and summary to this trip.

 

Overall we had a good time.  Other than the elevator situation, any other complaints I have are all related to lack of staff.  It eventually translated to issues in the MDR and even to the private island as most of it was closed.

 

I have enjoyed cruising during Covid, but it seems I need to take a break and wait for things to settle back in.

 

I do want to shout out to the whole crew, you were all great and we’re working at 120% the whole cruise.  Thanks so much.

 

If anyone has any specific questions I will try to answer as best I can.

 

Thanks.

[Go4Golf]

TIP for future Seashore cruisers:

 

* Don’t book a PORT side balcony *

 

They load fuel port side all day during embarkation - the noise and gas fumes make the balcony unusable.

 

Also, they closed all port side balcony on day 6 for cleaning. 
 

So that’s 2 days unusable. One would think you get refund or credit?

 

Hah, tough luck mates, you screwed.

[KlausM999]

🤔, MSC does not clean the balconys on starboard? Hard to believe.

Edited March 20, 2022 by KlausM999

[deliver42]

Do you think the other lines don't fuel up the same way?

[JT1962]

8 hours ago, Go4Golf said:

TIP: Book starboard balcony 👍

I had a starboard balcony on Meraviglia in January and they closed the balconies one day for cleaning. That had happened at least one day on most of my cruises.

[travelwide]

Do you know the name of the YC Director and when he is on until?

[JAGR]

3 hours ago, travelwide said:

Do you know the name of the YC Director and when he is on until?

On March 5th, Robbie said that he had a six-week assignment.  Didn't know beyond that.

[travelwide]

1 hour ago, JAGR said:

On March 5th, Robbie said that he had a six-week assignment.  Didn't know beyond that.

Again thank you.

[Back Woods Boy]

Thanks for all the comments we sale this Saturday. I'm sure I will be able to find something to eat. There used to be chocolates on your pillow just in case you were still hunger at bed time. Never really needed them but they were always gone in the morning. I guess it will be a stair experience probably a good thing.

[AngryBirdah]

On 3/20/2022 at 3:02 PM, Go4Golf said:

They load fuel port side all day during embarkation - the noise and gas fumes make the balcony unusable.

 

Also, they closed all port side balcony on day 6 for cleaning. 
 

So that’s 2 days unusable. One would think you get refund or credit?

 

We had a Port-side balcony.  We embarked just before sailing time, so we weren't affected by noise and gas fumes.  The balcony was perfectly usable from sailaway onwards.

 

Yes, they closed balconies for cleaning on Day 6.  The day at Ocean Cay.  I'm not sure who would rather sit on their balcony instead of enjoying the fantastic, beautiful island?  In any case, they were done cleaning our Deck 12 balcony by 1030 when we were getting off the ship.  We enjoyed the late afternoon and night on our balcony after returning.

 

Not sure how you come up with "2 days unusable" out of that scenario.  Also, I quite appreciated the freshly cleaned balcony 🤷‍♂️

[slei15]

15 hours ago, AngryBirdah said:

 

We had a Port-side balcony.  We embarked just before sailing time, so we weren't affected by noise and gas fumes.  The balcony was perfectly usable from sailaway onwards.

 

Yes, they closed balconies for cleaning on Day 6.  The day at Ocean Cay.  I'm not sure who would rather sit on their balcony instead of enjoying the fantastic, beautiful island?  In any case, they were done cleaning our Deck 12 balcony by 1030 when we were getting off the ship.  We enjoyed the late afternoon and night on our balcony after returning.

 

Not sure how you come up with "2 days unusable" out of that scenario.  Also, I quite appreciated the freshly cleaned balcony 🤷‍♂️

We were in a port side whirlpool suite for the 3/12 sailing on deck 11.  We boarded by 11:00 AM and went to cabins as soon as they were available.  Did not smell ANY gas fumes from the tanker at all.  On day 6, they were done cleaning the balcony before we opened the curtains.  Sat in the whirlpool plenty during the week and absolutely loved it out there.

 

We did run into quite a few issues on the ship...the elevators we found to be horrendous most of the time, the buffet on that first day for breakfast was miserable, and all through we were missing some MSC staples on the buffet (kids corner, ethnic section) that we are used to. We had to spend many hours at guest services resolving shoreside issues caused due to multiple cruise movements (we were sailing on an FCC that originated March 15, 2020). The french onion soup in the dining room was cold and had no soup left almost every time I ordered it because it had been sitting so long it all absorbed into the "crouton". The thermal area constantly had areas not functioning. We were on the Meraviglia Christmas week with 960 passengers and 1,400 crew members, and it was obviously a different experience than last week with about 1,100 crew members and 3,000 passengers.

 

From a business sense, I totally understand why MSC did not staff up the ship.  When the initial contracts ended where they were staffed up for 50% capacity, they did not backfill all of those expiring contracts based on the overarching booking trends, cancellation trends, and passenger counts.  Better to accept 2-3 weeks of misery and not pay for hundreds of extra staff onboard for all of those other weeks they are not needed. That said, for those of use who sailed in those few painful weeks, it does put a damper on the desire to sail again anytime soon, as we are accustomed to a certain level of service that wasn't there.

 

For us, we were on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady a week prior to this sailing.  Everything about that cruise was incredible, and the hot mess of this SeaShore sailing was a big letdown from that experience.  It was also a night and day experience from the Meraviglia over Christmas, and pretty much every other MSC cruise we have been on outside of the Seaside inaugural, though this one may have even been a bigger mess than that.  I don't feel that the design changes from the Seaside to Seashore added anything to the ship aside from chaos and confusion. The buffet is not well designed, even if they did have an appropriate number of stations open. Having to walk through the arcade on deck 18 to get from the main pool/slides to the Jungle Pool/Kids Club was annoying when you were dripping wet going between the two. Walking through/outside the specialty restaurants to get to the adult pool was a bit weird. 

 

All this to say, we did still have a great time on the trip. Despite the issues, the only bad cruise is a cruise that returns home (or gets stuck on a sandbar in the Dominican Republic). No trip is going to be perfect for anyone. I have had plenty of land vacations that weren't the best either. You make the best of the situation, figure out workarounds to issues, and find a way to enjoy it. You are not at home dealing with work, school, and real life. Everybody these days is even more stressed in the days leading up to a cruise with the worries of "what if one of us tests positive" (side note, that did happen to me the day before we were supposed to sail on Virgin in January, hence the rescheduling and 2 cruises in 3 weeks). It takes time for that stress to go away, and amplifies minor inconveniences the first couple days into what feels like the end of the world. If I had never cruised before, didn't know what to expect, and hadn't had previous amazing experiences, I don't think we would have felt like there were any major issues on this sailing that would deter us from coming back. Being spoiled living in Florida with 30+ cruises under our belts, you tend to notice things more.

[gclara]

3 hours ago, slei15 said:

We were in a port side whirlpool suite for the 3/12 sailing on deck 11.  We boarded by 11:00 AM and went to cabins as soon as they were available.  Did not smell ANY gas fumes from the tanker at all.  On day 6, they were done cleaning the balcony before we opened the curtains.  Sat in the whirlpool plenty during the week and absolutely loved it out there.

 

We did run into quite a few issues on the ship...the elevators we found to be horrendous most of the time, the buffet on that first day for breakfast was miserable, and all through we were missing some MSC staples on the buffet (kids corner, ethnic section) that we are used to. We had to spend many hours at guest services resolving shoreside issues caused due to multiple cruise movements (we were sailing on an FCC that originated March 15, 2020). The french onion soup in the dining room was cold and had no soup left almost every time I ordered it because it had been sitting so long it all absorbed into the "crouton". The thermal area constantly had areas not functioning. We were on the Meraviglia Christmas week with 960 passengers and 1,400 crew members, and it was obviously a different experience than last week with about 1,100 crew members and 3,000 passengers.

 

From a business sense, I totally understand why MSC did not staff up the ship.  When the initial contracts ended where they were staffed up for 50% capacity, they did not backfill all of those expiring contracts based on the overarching booking trends, cancellation trends, and passenger counts.  Better to accept 2-3 weeks of misery and not pay for hundreds of extra staff onboard for all of those other weeks they are not needed. That said, for those of use who sailed in those few painful weeks, it does put a damper on the desire to sail again anytime soon, as we are accustomed to a certain level of service that wasn't there.

 

For us, we were on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady a week prior to this sailing.  Everything about that cruise was incredible, and the hot mess of this SeaShore sailing was a big letdown from that experience.  It was also a night and day experience from the Meraviglia over Christmas, and pretty much every other MSC cruise we have been on outside of the Seaside inaugural, though this one may have even been a bigger mess than that.  I don't feel that the design changes from the Seaside to Seashore added anything to the ship aside from chaos and confusion. The buffet is not well designed, even if they did have an appropriate number of stations open. Having to walk through the arcade on deck 18 to get from the main pool/slides to the Jungle Pool/Kids Club was annoying when you were dripping wet going between the two. Walking through/outside the specialty restaurants to get to the adult pool was a bit weird. 

 

All this to say, we did still have a great time on the trip. Despite the issues, the only bad cruise is a cruise that returns home (or gets stuck on a sandbar in the Dominican Republic). No trip is going to be perfect for anyone. I have had plenty of land vacations that weren't the best either. You make the best of the situation, figure out workarounds to issues, and find a way to enjoy it. You are not at home dealing with work, school, and real life. Everybody these days is even more stressed in the days leading up to a cruise with the worries of "what if one of us tests positive" (side note, that did happen to me the day before we were supposed to sail on Virgin in January, hence the rescheduling and 2 cruises in 3 weeks). It takes time for that stress to go away, and amplifies minor inconveniences the first couple days into what feels like the end of the world. If I had never cruised before, didn't know what to expect, and hadn't had previous amazing experiences, I don't think we would have felt like there were any major issues on this sailing that would deter us from coming back. Being spoiled living in Florida with 30+ cruises under our belts, you tend to notice things more.

Glad that you have a positive attitude. We will sail on April 16 (Spring Break for us) and we had just upgraded to YC Club...

Hope my son will enjoy the waterpark as he enjoyed it on Seaview three years ago in Mediterranean...He was way smaller then...

[AngryBirdah]

On 3/22/2022 at 5:37 PM, slei15 said:

All this to say, we did still have a great time on the trip. Despite the issues, the only bad cruise is a cruise that returns home (or gets stuck on a sandbar in the Dominican Republic). No trip is going to be perfect for anyone. I have had plenty of land vacations that weren't the best either. You make the best of the situation, figure out workarounds to issues, and find a way to enjoy it. You are not at home dealing with work, school, and real life. Everybody these days is even more stressed in the days leading up to a cruise with the worries of "what if one of us tests positive" (side note, that did happen to me the day before we were supposed to sail on Virgin in January, hence the rescheduling and 2 cruises in 3 weeks). It takes time for that stress to go away, and amplifies minor inconveniences the first couple days into what feels like the end of the world. If I had never cruised before, didn't know what to expect, and hadn't had previous amazing experiences, I don't think we would have felt like there were any major issues on this sailing that would deter us from coming back. Being spoiled living in Florida with 30+ cruises under our belts, you tend to notice things more.

 

Very well said!  With all the doom-and-gloom I had read around MSC, I was pleasantly surprised even by the Seashore Spring Break cruise!  If that's the worst it gets, then sign me up for future ones.

 

Was your Whirlpool room Forward or Aft?  I'm thinking of one of those suites for a me-and-wife cruise later this year.

 

Thanks!

[NCTribeFan]

Am I correct that there are three MDRs?  Are you assigned to one or can you choose?  I suppose if you have a set dining time, you're assigned to a specific restaurant.  Is that correct?  Wonder if they assign based on the location of your cabin.