Round trips from Southampton on Virtuosa 2022/2023 nov - april

[Bogof1]

We sailed on the 4th Nov on a round trip Southampton to Southampton. What we were not told was that the ship actually starts all its cruises in Hamburg! So the first few days were OKish then every stop from Hamburg on new passengers got on, and Also many got off!! We’ve never sailed MSC before, and sad to say will never cruise with them again. The menu repeated…only a 4 day choice, very limited, a lot of the time the meat had to be sent back, the only “dress up night” was a bit of deep fried Brie as a starter (that’s all that appealed) and chicken Kiev…Lidls frozen beat it hands down. We did eat in the butchers cut as was included in our status match…the best meal In 8 days. The ship is amazing, glitzy, clean, staff wonderful and helpful. Entertainment I would say is personal, 2 shows were really good but not prepared to pay €17 to see ones in the carousel lounge. Quizzes few and far between, craft only a sea day and I got fed up of sticking bits of paper on to other bits of paper. 
The final straw that broke the camels back was disembarkation. I think that due to picking passengers up throughout the voyage was the reason we had to have a face to face immigration check before we could leave the ship. On visiting the bathroom at 2am on the morning of disembarking a pice of paper was under the door telling us we had to report to the carousel lounge at 8:30 for this check!!!! 1 and a half hours later after queuing the whole length of the ship we had our passports checked, cruise cards scanned and a sticky dot put on it to say we had been. Another2 hours In Another queue we finally got off the ship! This was a health and safety nightmare 2000 passengers in close proximity queuing, no water or anything offered…cruise cards shut down at 8 am..so I was told…and no staff telling you what was happening, 3 hours is a long time to stand!!!!!

hopefully they may have learned something with this cruise so it will be better for any other travelling over the next few months 

[mousefan73]

We just got off the ship today in Hamburg. Southampton was a ***** storm. We weren’t disembarking like you guys but had a Windsor Castle tour booked that day. Our tour left hours later and we lost a good hour of the day- after the tour got extended to later evening. The lost hour would’ve made some of a difference but in the end our tour worked out pretty good mainly due to the weather.  
 

So am I understanding you correctly that those getting off with UK passports also had to go to a face-to-face? We had assumed the lines were so huge to get off because they didn’t clear the ship until almost 10 o’clock. They must’ve had face-to-face customs throughout the ship I was up in the sport duck because I’m American my mother was supposed to be downstairs. No way in hell we were separating so she went up with me and we ended up waiting for one hour. And then still had to wait for the ship to clear. 
 

in our excursion line there was a Msc woman behind me and the poor girl kept apologizing saying that she’s also never experienced anything like this. I have in the past two officers were arguing with each other and all I got wind off was “they could’ve at least have let the cruise lines know “ Referring to the communication between authorities and the ships. 
 

so this is work it’s interesting, I asked her tour guide if she happen to know what happened that day. She said that there was a cruise excursion that had gone out ( This is where I wasn’t sure if she meant an earlier ship, our ship) when the excursion came back for the guests refused to get back on the boat and claimed asylum. I guess authorities reacted last minute with changes. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by mousefan73

[General Agent]

We were on this cruise too and agree with most of Bogof1 has said. This ship had 2600 passengers and 1600 crew according to the sign in Le Havre. This ship can take 4800 at double occupancy and 6300 at full capacity with max crew of 1700.

At less than half full capacity and only about 5% down on crew, the ship should have been able to cope well with the numbers.

Even at these numbers the ship felt crowded in many areas (bars and restaurants) where seating was at a premium and service, except in the evening, slow and somewhat chaotic with drinks orders taking way too long to be taken and arrive and the wrong good and drink orders being delivered. I can only imagine what it would have been like with double the passengers.

As this was term time for UK passengers, only pre school children were on board but there were quite a few with buggies etc.

The buffet at breakfast was quite relaxed as these things go with plenty of room if you went to the back of the ship, but in several days there were no mugs for tea/coffee for about 20 mins.

The 4 day menu rotation was a first for me. At least you knew what not to order second time around. Food quality was variable at best and not up to standards of budget lines used before (CMV, Marella etc.).

Dress code is non existent even for 'formal' night so why advertise it as such?

Disembarkation was a farce. I don't know the reasons for what happened. Queues started forming for self disinformation before 7.30 and it took over 2 1/2 hours for some to have their face to face passport check.and a.further hour or 2 to get off the ship, due to 'technical reasons'.  This passport check was not the main cause of the lengthening queues. The bottle neck was due to the very slow cruise card reading programme. there were 2 border guards checking passports and at least double the number reading the cards and putting stickers on. I.guess this was to ensure all passengers were processed even if they did not got off.

There was no meaningful information from staff, no water and no one managing the queing which snaked back in itself in several places.

We joined the queue at about 10.15 when it had reduced considerably and got.off on.deck 5 where there was no queue even though there was still a long queue of about 100 people on deck 6. We were out of the port by 11.15 having picked up our car.

Not all of the problems can be laid at MSC's door but their card reading system need a full update as it took 3 to 4 time as long as systems in other cruise lines and they need to realise that communication is vital even if you have nothing new to say. Staff going along the lines with water an maybe sweet or biscuits would have helped pacify those who were getting quite heated.

Will we sail.with MSC again? Most unlikely as the general cruise experience was not what we like and we now know the big ship experience at anywhere near full capacity is not for us.

 

By the way the original post seems to be repeated and maybe could be merged?