Well, this is disconcerting…

[Morecruisesplz]

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Not quite true., though I agree with the sentiment. I had the occasion to visit a well known club in Palm Beach where the membership is $200,000 with annual dues of $14,000 and over night stays range up to $2000 per room. I was being escorted from the parking lot through the immaculate stainless steel kitchens when the chef caught us and had a 'fit' and scolded the escort for bringing any guest into 'his' kitchen, as he chased us out with what looked like a sharp instrument.

He had something to hide.

[Morecruisesplz]

14 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

I agree 100%. Thanks Cheng. I make a living in safety oversight in Transportation.  This is completely and utterly unacceptable. Period. I don’t care about the excuses and the downplay. Read the write-ups. They’re like the OP said, disconcerting at the very least. This is how ship wide Illness happens. 
 

This is MSCs lack of training, accountability to and through its supervisory ship side staff and officers, lack of product quality management, lack of safety management systems effectiveness, and quite frankly a culture of money and rapid growth over service and quality and SAFETY. I draw a hard line with this. After 7 cruises with them I’m always finding myself somehow swallowing hard and saying well they’ll get it right next time, or they’re trying hard blah blah. No more.  This is a family of very very very wealthy owners that have the human capital and resources to execute a safe and quality product. They choose not to after the last 5 years of ‘trying’. 
 

I take this very seriously and won’t step foot on an MSC ship ever again. Period. All stop. 
 

Let me leave you with this…. If they cut corners with food and hygiene on board, due to a cultural dysfunction and problem people, what do you think happens with other aspects of the company’s safety management of the ship’s operations and maintenance? Do you think there’s a magical fence that stops it there? Is the general lack of concern for customer service and  satisfaction an isolated issue? No. When you combine that culture with the results of this inspection and the findings write up it systemically says that growth and money take priority over passengers and their satisfaction and well being. 
 

There are many other cruise lines that care about safety and consistency of safety and passenger satisfaction where I will spend my money and not have to make excuses for in my mind every time I walk down the gangway disembarking. 
 

…as they say on Shark Tank, “and because of that I’m OUT”

 

✌️

Bull! Check the scores at restaurants you love at home! This was a one-off that has obviously been corrected. Did anyone get sick?

Edited May 12, 2023 by fredmdcruisers
Error

[yellow-submarine]

Oh this report made me giggle:
"Ten flies were in the bar"
"Three live, small flies were flying in the garbage room"
It is someone's job to count flies and classify them by sizes. Also imagine that dead flies would be flying.

[KennyFla]

8 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Bull! Check the scores at restaurants you love at home!

Or, don't.  75% of food illness does not get reported.  I'm not trying to scare anyone from eating out, just saying that mass production and handling of food the place is not going to look like your kitchen at home.   

[chengkp75]

11 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Bull! Check the scores at restaurants you love at home! This was a one-off that has obviously been corrected. Did anyone get sick?

Most USPH inspectors are former local health inspectors and will tell you that VSP regulations are far stricter than local health regulations. 

[chengkp75]

23 hours ago, KennyFla said:

So you can make a broad generalization over one observed instance.  I re-read the entire report, the serious things I saw were that 2 of their coolers were not at temp.  I would call these significant findings.

Yes, it looks like the kitchen manager on this ship needs to tighten things up.  This is the only inspection I have seen on MSC, it would be interesting to see how on average they do. 

There are some on here using this to say all of MSC is unsafe.  I don't agree with that.  Is there evidence that MSC passengers have higher food illnesses?

A USPH is merely a snapshot of the ship at the time of the inspection,  but if you've trained under USPH you recognize when a problem is shipwide. Most of the violations are not in the passenger areas,so likely not visible to you on a cruise.  It is the responsibility of far more than the "executive chef" to deal with these violations. 

[Lupush]

My wife and I have Seaside YC booked in August.  This would be our 1st experience on MSC and I'm very concerned after reading this report.  I work in hospitality and see these types of inspections often, however rarely do you see one that is among the lowest ever recorded.  Seriously considering cancelling.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

33 minutes ago, Lupush said:

My wife and I have Seaside YC booked in August.  This would be our 1st experience on MSC and I'm very concerned after reading this report.  I work in hospitality and see these types of inspections often, however rarely do you see one that is among the lowest ever recorded.  Seriously considering cancelling.

 

One would hope/assume that by August, they've rectified the issues and have a proper system in place to ensure this won't happen again.

 

I would not cancel the Seaside (or any MSC ship) based on this. There are plenty of other issues with MSC which might give one reason to cancel... lol

 

Tom

[1kaper]

16 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

We were also on that cruise.  We agree, the ship was very clean. The only dirty areas we saw were three chairs in three different areas.  Every one of them had a blob of something that looked like melted gelato on the seats.  But the odd thing is that we saw numerous vacuum cleaners being used in different areas (including inside elevators), but literally the only other cleaning we saw being done during the four days  was the glass on the crystal staircase in the piazza, directly in front of guest services. The same glass panel, two different days.  Perhaps the cleaners were all working on the behind-the-scenes areas that were mentioned on the inspection report. 

 

also on the ship. 
The one thing I did see was no soap in some of the dispensers in restrooms. 
I went to one when I got on the ship and there was none on the left side. The entire trip there was never any. I noticed it in a few more places. 
I saw lots of other cleaning being done. 

[Bgwest]

7 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Most USPH inspectors are former local health inspectors and will tell you that VSP regulations are far stricter than local health regulations. 

I would hope that anyone who opts to challenge this by shouting Bull would defer to your 45+ years of  expertise in matters such as these.
Self-styled “experts” always lack the credibility of true experts. 

[KennyFla]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Most USPH inspectors are former local health inspectors and will tell you that VSP regulations are far stricter than local health regulations. 

So I guess that MSC's good scores except for this one are a very good sign?

[Buckeyefrank100]

On 5/10/2023 at 7:13 PM, shipgeeks said:

See the "Well this is disconcerting" post.

Yes, it is disconcerting that they can publish untruths like this.  How do they get away with it? Knowing the source, not surprising, but still......

They all do it.

[Brighton Line]

6 minutes ago, Buckeyefrank100 said:

They all do it.

Well, Disney constantly scores 100 on most of their ships but you get what you pay for. Shockly Disney Dream scored 99 in April only Disney ship to fail to get a 100 on their last inspection. 

 

Even scoring a 100 does not mean CDC didn't find anything wrong, just the violation did not result in points off. Disney Wonder's inspection on 1/2023 with 100 score still had 11 violations, just no points taken off. 

[Buckeyefrank100]

3 minutes ago, Brighton Line said:

Well, Disney constantly scores 100 on most of their ships but you get what you pay for. Shockly Disney Dream scored 99 in April only Disney ship to fail to get a 100 on their last inspection. 

 

Even scoring a 100 does not mean CDC didn't find anything wrong, just the violation did not result in points off. Disney Wonder's inspection on 1/2023 with 100 score still had 11 violations, just no points taken off. 

I was referring to misleading stories by the news media.

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, KennyFla said:

So I guess that MSC's good scores except for this one are a very good sign?

Yes,  it doesn't look like a corporate problem like Silversea had a few years ago. This is a ship that has gotten lazy 

[Morecruisesplz]

6 hours ago, Lupush said:

My wife and I have Seaside YC booked in August.  This would be our 1st experience on MSC and I'm very concerned after reading this report.  I work in hospitality and see these types of inspections often, however rarely do you see one that is among the lowest ever recorded.  Seriously considering cancelling.

The problems were all resolved quickly. You have no reason to worry.

[Morecruisesplz]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Yes,  it doesn't look like a corporate problem like Silversea had a few years ago. This is a ship that has gotten lazy 

Had gotten lazy. Just like any restaurant, the problems were resolved promptly. 

[Morecruisesplz]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Yes,  it doesn't look like a corporate problem like Silversea had a few years ago. This is a ship that has gotten lazy 

Stop frightening people. Have you been on the ship since the report? I have and it was much cleaner than any of my other 45+ cruises. Someone listened and resolved the issues, which by the way had impacted zero customers. 

[Lupush]

25 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

The problems were all resolved quickly. You have no reason to worry.

I went ahead and cancelled.  I'm sure that they were resolved, but the failing inspection was all my wife needed to hear.  Hopefully she will want to go ahead with the Seascape YC we have booked for March.  

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Lupush said:

I went ahead and cancelled.  I'm sure that they were resolved, but the failing inspection was all my wife needed to hear.  Hopefully she will want to go ahead with the Seascape YC we have booked for March.  

That is unfortunate, unless one has booked another cruise on another ship for the same time. Viking Cruises chairmen's comment on their commercials 'rings true' for all of us "The one thing we don't have enough of, and that is 'time'."

  Here is another perspective one might consider. Just this year, 2023, these ships had outbreaks of illness and their latest VSP scores were all passing grades.

April 25 Coral Princess (99), March 5 Ruby Princess (100), February 3 Jewel of the Seas (97), January 21 Brilliance of the Seas (92), January 6 Silver Moon (100 inspected after outbreak), and Arcadia P&O (96). 

   The odds of an outbreak on any ship from any of these largest cruise companies in the world with exceptional track records and a culture of sanitation in this fiercely competitive market are best if not a 'sure thing' just days if not a week after any such failing VSP report. Better to cruise now before a new group of untrained staff boards in the months ahead. I'd venture to say any MSC ship right now would be the safest of any in the world because of this report.

[Morecruisesplz]

15 hours ago, KennyFla said:

Or, don't.  75% of food illness does not get reported.  I'm not trying to scare anyone from eating out, just saying that mass production and handling of food the place is not going to look like your kitchen at home.   

Which is probably much worse.

[Morecruisesplz]

2 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

That is unfortunate, unless one has booked another cruise on another ship for the same time. Viking Cruises chairmen's comment on their commercials 'rings true' for all of us "The one thing we don't have enough of, and that is 'time'."

  Here is another perspective one might consider. Just this year, 2023, these ships had outbreaks of illness and their latest VSP scores were all passing grades.

April 25 Coral Princess (99), March 5 Ruby Princess (100), February 3 Jewel of the Seas (97), January 21 Brilliance of the Seas (92), January 6 Silver Moon (100 inspected after outbreak), and Arcadia P&O (96). 

   The odds of an outbreak on any ship from any of these largest cruise companies in the world with exceptional track records and a culture of sanitation in this fiercely competitive market are best if not a 'sure thing' just days if not a week after any such failing VSP report. Better to cruise now before a new group of untrained staff boards in the months ahead. I'd venture to say any MSC ship right now would be the safest of any in the world because of this report.

Exactly! Thanks for saying it better.

[Morecruisesplz]

10 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

One would hope/assume that by August, they've rectified the issues and have a proper system in place to ensure this won't happen again.

 

I would not cancel the Seaside (or any MSC ship) based on this. There are plenty of other issues with MSC which might give one reason to cancel... lol

 

Tom

Like?

[Morecruisesplz]

10 hours ago, 1kaper said:

 

also on the ship. 
The one thing I did see was no soap in some of the dispensers in restrooms. 
I went to one when I got on the ship and there was none on the left side. The entire trip there was never any. I noticed it in a few more places. 
I saw lots of other cleaning being done. 

You should report no soap. They would take care of it.

[1kaper]

3 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

You should report no soap. They would take care of it.

 

To who? 
 

If I saw anyone I would. But even if I didn’t at some point it should have been picked up. I was on 4 nights. 
 

They messed up the muster drill. A bunch of us who had watched, called and swiped are card got notices that we didn’t. I called guest services to let them know.  They didn’t care.