Overview: First MSC Cruise; 18 years of cruising; 9th cruise line. MSC Seaside May 28, 2023

[CruisingWalter]

 

I wanted to provide our unbiased overview of the MSC Seaside since there has been so much negativity of late on both the brand and that particular ship. I don’t have to remind this group that she's the one that scored 67 on the CDC Health and Safety inspection back in April. We've now sailed 9 cruise lines over the past 18 years so we have a decent yard stick to compare MSC. For our very first MSC sailing we purposely sailed 'regular' and not Yacht Club because for us it's important that the entire ship experience be a good one, not just the upper level. Plus we don’t mind saving money for our first cruise on any cruise line. 🙂 We sailed May 28 from Port Canaveral on a 7-night Western Caribbean. 

 

First off, the ship was very clean throughout as one would expect after that score. She's showing signs of wear and definitely in need of a drydock sooner than later. Multiple shattered panes of glass outside on deck 8 and even one of the floor panels on the starboard Infinity Bridge and more rust showing than there should be in the public areas like the deck 8 waterfront area. Carpeting throughout the ship needs to be replaced, video screens need to be replaced (especially the Garage Club) and other technical issues. But overall the ship looked really good, she just needs some TLC sooner than later.

 

 

Boarding was a breeze in Port Canaveral. We had a 3pm boarding time and rolled up to the parking garage at 2pm. We were onboard the ship at 2:15 and had our bags dropped off the cabin immediately. We sailed with the Bella Balcony Experience and were assigned Balcony cabin 15070 on the starboard side along with a 9:45p dining time in the Ipanema dining room. We’ve never had a cabin quite that high on the ship and I was quite impressed with just how smooth the ride was the entire cruise. 

 

Food was a pleasant surprise given all the negativity we've seen in the reviews in the lead up to the cruise. Main Dining Room and Buffet were both better than Carnival and NCL in terms of selection and quality of food in our opinion. We felt the MDR was also better than Royal Caribbean. First night in the MDR I had possibly the best prime rib I've ever had on a cruise ship. Our second meal was ok, not great and I really appreciated our server’s sense of humor. She basically told us right from the start, “this is not the best meal of the week” and steered us towards what were the best items on the menu. The clam sauce is the most odd clam sauce I’ve ever tasted.  Even with the inconsistency in the MDR it was still a better experience than the other 'family based' cruise lines who are not Disney. The 9:45p seating may have worked in our favor because the MDR was only 25 - 50% full so we never had an issue with our food being hot or coming out slowly. 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh did I mention bowling? The bowling alley was directly above our table. So if you have Table 718 assigned to you in the Ipanema Dining Room, you’ll be able to clearly hear the bowling going on above your head. It was far more amusing than it was annoying. I really want to meet the MSC designer who thought THAT was a good idea. “Hey you know what? Let’s put the bowling alley directly ABOVE the main dining room! Nobody will hear it!” I was trying to keep score based on the sound of the pins. 🙂

 

Pizza was great and it had amazing red sauce. That's the first time I've seen a true red sauce pizza at sea, just the sauce and spices, no cheese. It's not 'the best pizza at sea,' those honors go to Princess Alfredo's and Virgin's Pizza Place, but it's very good pizza and they make a nice variety of them.  The homemade mozzarella and burrata were amazing on the buffet as were the sun-dried tomatoes and the ridiculous artichoke hearts. Yes the buffet can get repetitive, yes it has misses in terms of selection and flavors, but overall, it was a better buffet experience than Carnival and NCL in our opinion. The big negative on this particular sailing was the ice machines continually breaking down. One day there were literally no ice machines working anywhere in the buffet and they had to put out buckets of ice. This was another sign of a ship in need of drydock sooner than later. 

 

 

 

 

Specialty dining was great all three nights in the Asian Market Kitchen. We did a 3-dinner package that was Pan-Asian/Hawaii, Teppenyaki and then Sushi for our final night. Pan-Asian had an amazing filet that was among the best I’ve had at sea. And the little potato fritters that came with it had some nice heat. The sushi was also a really good dinner. Teppenyaki was good, but the NCL and Royal versions are better. Izumi Sushi on Royal is still the best we've had with Sushi on 5 on Celebrity a close second. But for our $109, 3-dinner package (each) it was a great value for specialty dining. And what a beautiful venue up on Deck 16, especially our first dinner overlooking the sunset on Ocean Cay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venchi Chocolate shop makes the most ridiculous Affogato I've ever had and it's only $7. If you don't know an affogato is typically one scoop of vanilla ice cream or gelato in a cup and you pour a shot of espresso over it. With Venchi it was the flavor of your choice, topped with whipped cream, nuts, chocolate sauce and chocolate drizzled inside the glass. For me it was the biggest win on the entire ship, that was so freakin’ good with hazelnut gelato. Cappuccinos were inconsistent across the ship but I identified two bartenders in Seaview Bar who made the best ones when the bar was slow. 

 

 

The shows were entertaining. Not the broadway-caliber entertainment we’ve seen on NCL, Royal and Princess, but they were entertaining. They really don’t put the same effort into the choreography, staging and sets like the aforementioned lines, but then we’re paying a lot less to sail MSC. The opening Rock Show was fun because we knew all the songs. It was nowhere near Rock Opera that we saw on Sky Princess, but then we paid a lot more for that cruise. Peter Punk was interesting with one of the tumbling acts being the show stopper, they were amazing. Starmaker (whatever the Michael Jackson show is) we had to leave after 10 minutes because of the one negative about the theater shows. The shows were too loud for the size of the venue and they consistently got louder as the show went on. We had to leave the final night, Michael Jackson show, because the bass was simply overdriving and the sound was painful for us. But overall, the shows and the musicians throughout the ship were entertaining.

 

 

The venues are quite small for a ship this size, including the theater. I was told by some staff that the Divina actually has a larger theater and larger public spaces and she's a much smaller ship. BIG props to the merch team for including an inflatable ship in the store. I LOVE inflatable ships and my fleet now stands at 3 inflatables (Princess, MSC, Celebrity), 1 plushy ship (NCL) and two small plastic ships (Virgin, MSC). This one was only $5.50!!  A super fun souvenir from the ship. 🙂 

 

Service was exactly what we would expect on a cruise. Attentive, friendly, plenty of staff in the buffet bussing tables which is really important on a family based cruise line when you have a lot of people and a lot of kids. That was a major fail when we sailed Mardi Gras last year. I’ve seen some people on here complain about long lines at some of the pool bars. I did see that and my advice is to simply go inside to the Seaview bar or one of the inside bars. There were literally no lines inside, you can go to those bars and get back to the pool in less time than standing out there waiting.

 

Ocean Cay Marine Reserve was the biggest and most pleasant surprise. From the photos and videos it looks rough and ragged. But once on the island, it's quite lovely. MSC is purposely leaving most of it natural as they continue to reclaim the island and surrounding areas from their former home as an industrial site. You must have water shoes to utilize most of the shore as it's rocky and uneven, but quite beautiful. There are two really nice sandy beaches in the lagoon area, but I honestly prefer the shores. The overnight experience is truly unique to MSC and one that will bring me back again. It's such a unique experience to be on the island at 10:00pm looking back at the beautiful ship lit up at night. Then waking up the next morning to sunrise over the island for another full day. It was on day two I found the rock garden and loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My biggest tip for Ocean Cay is to skip lunch at the island food hall, Seakers, and go back to the ship for lunch. The food hall looked even less inspiring than Marketplace Buffet and I counted over 200 people waiting in two lines to get food. But unlike Castaway Cay and CocoCay where the ships are long walk away from the beach, the MSC Seaside is docked right there alongside the island. My wife has bad knees so we have to walk at a fairly slow pace and it took us 5 minutes to walk from Seakers to the ship. We left our stuff on the island, walked to the ship, had a really nice buffet lunch and then walked back out to the island. So easy, I highly recommend it vs that island food line.

 

 

 

 

The pools are nice and deep with the Jungle Lounge Pool being our favorite since it offers the most shade and it’s fun that it’s salt water. I also love how they tint the pool green to go with the ‘jungle motif.’ It’s nice to have 6 foot deep pools, you don’t see that all that much anymore from modern ships. 

 

 

I did the Zip Line and the F1 Simulator and enjoyed both. That zip is much longer than you think it is and quite lovely. Big tip for F1, feather the throttle. Don’t jam it down because you will lose control within 20 seconds. 🙂

 

I met multiple large multi-gen families from 10 to 21+ guests who all said they looked at Carnival, Royal and NCL but MSC was such a great deal for the large group. I can totally see that now that I've sailed and it was interesting to see an actual table for 14 set up in the main dining room. Not something just pushed together, but a permanent large table. The Yacht Club is what everyone pushed us to book, but I'm so glad we did the 'regular experience' because while we will sail Yacht Club next time, we know we don't need to in order to have a good vacation on this cruise line.

 

 

Now there are some ‘dumb things’ I would not mind if MSC addressed, the most glaring being the WiFi device use. I work from home and really need to have both my phone and laptop connected to high speed WiFi. On any other ship I would simply disconnect the phone when I needed the laptop online. But MSC’s policy of one device per package meant I had to buy two packages. The wearable bracelets are great when the readers work. MSC App kept kicking us out about every 12 hours and would not always accept our username/password. No weekly schedule in the app, we could only see today's schedule, not even tomorrow's until late at night. No extra towels by any of the pools except the Miami Beach pool from time to time. The small arcade I've ever seen I think anywhere. All of those are annoyances but not dealbreakers by any means. 

 

For overall cruise experience we give MSC Seaside a solid 7 and for Value we give it an 8.5. There are trade-offs to sailing MSC and expectations need to be set to sail this cruise line. If you book MSC and expect it to be just like “fill in the blank” you’ll be disappointed. MSC is MSC and if you accept how they operate and what they offer, you should have a good time. 

 

 

 

 

If you have been hesitant to book MSC (like us) because of all the negativity in social media, you really need to get on one of these ships to experience it for yourself. Go in with no expectations, and look at the overall cruise experience objectively against the price of the cruise fare. No cruise line is perfect, they all have their cons. But for what it is, MSC is a solid cruise line, a really affordable family cruise line and they have our new favorite private island. Virgin’s Bimini Beach is still my favorite cruise resort, but it’s not an island. 🙂 

 

 

 

[ChattTenn]

Enjoyed your review very much.  We were on 5/14 sailing (ours 3rd MSC) and also were on Mardi Gras, we believe with the current price/experience we will keep on cruising with MSC and will be on Seaside again later this summer.

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by ChattTenn

[ZoeyVictoria]

I enjoyed your review very much.  We had similar experiences on the May 7 sailing, even having a table under the bowling alley.  You are right, it was amusing!  I was disappointed in some ways because I had been on the Divina twice in 2014, but there is not a cruise line anywhere that is the same in 2023. And it was a bit unsettling to be on a cruise line that we were not familiar with. We have booked the Seaside again for July and will know what to expect. 
 

I think the ship had not yet adjusted to being in the U.S. by May 7 and have seen some photos that show some improvement. The Jungle pool had pads on only 4-6 loungers in front of the pool then; it looks like there are more now.  We had to ask for washcloths, and they were never replaced (thankfully, I had brought some from home).  And the omelet station had only two ingredients to add - very pale chopped tomatoes, and mushrooms. We were told we had to go to other areas and bring back our own meats and cheeses for the cook to add to our omelets. I saw a photo that shows more containers of extras at the omelet station.  Did you happen to notice any of these changes?

 

We booked very late and will be on deck 15 this time.  Did you enjoy it?  I am looking forward to trying it.  I think the elevators will be easier to manage, and hopefully an asset on debarkation morning. 
 

We went to the lagoon in May and really enjoyed it. We intend to try another area in July. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

Great review and pictures. Thank you for sharing. We are on Seaside now and are having a very enjoyable cruise. My eye has not landed on the areas of wear and tear you’ve mentioned but Seaside is such a large ship, many fine details can be easily missed. In fact, I think I will need to return in August for another look around 😀. 

[phred119s]

Thank you for your review. We are sailing on Seaside in July as a group of 23 for my daughter’s birthday. Then we are getting on Seascape the day we get off Seaside.  We tried MSC for the first time in April. We now have 3 booked between now and March. We also really enjoyed it. 

[CruisingWalter]

5 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

Did you happen to notice any of these changes?

 

Omelette stations (there were 2) were fully stocked with about 8 ingredients.  However I did create "The Wally" breakfast sandwich and it was delicious. 🙂 

Mushroom, Cheese and Tomato Omelette

2 slices of rotisserie ham

2 slices of salami from the meat and cheese station

2 slices of provolone cheese from the meat and cheese station.

[CruisingWalter]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

My eye has not landed on the areas of wear and tear you’ve mentioned but Seaside is such a large ship, many fine details can be easily missed.

 

Go walk on the starboard Infinity Bridge. One complete panel of glass in the floor is shattered unless they replaced it during turnaround day at Port Canaveral. A vertical pane of glass was shattered at the back of Deck 8 and another pane of glass I think on Deck 7 or 6 looked like it had a bullet shot through it. 🙂 

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Go walk on the starboard Infinity Bridge. One complete panel of glass in the floor is shattered unless they replaced it during turnaround day at Port Canaveral. A vertical pane of glass was shattered at the back of Deck 8 and another pane of glass I think on Deck 7 or 6 looked like it had a bullet shot through it. 🙂 

 

Oh my!  I’m definitely checking this out on tomorrow’s walk about!  

[amygutman]

What a lovely and informative review. It's awesome when you find a truly unbiased review that discussed both the pros and cons of the ship, the sailing, and the service - and your reporting style with attached photos is delightful. 

Speaking as someone who can't figure out how to post a photo without it flipping upside down, I appreciate your presentation tremendously. 

Now then, I can't await for the YC review! it will be interesting to hear your comparison. Curious...are you on the Seaside for the YC as well? That would be a great "apples vs apples" review. 

Warmest, Amy

[CGTNORMANDIE]

EXCELLENT review…thanks so much for your level headed non biased observations.

[xcell]

great review -- going on seaside for the 3rd time in a few months!

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, amygutman said:

Curious...are you on the Seaside for the YC as well? That would be a great "apples vs apples" review. 

 

Thank you so much for your kind words about the review. The YC sailing will be on the Seashore or Seascape. I'd prefer to sail the EVO updated ships to see how the class has evolved. I have been told by others there are some 'lessons learned' from the first two ships applied to the EVO ships. Seashore is coming to Canaveral so that's probably the ship we'll go on, but we might go ahead and drive down to Miami for Seascape. No dates set yet, but probably before our November Valiant Lady sailing. 🙂

[CruisingWalter]

15 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

We booked very late and will be on deck 15 this time.  Did you enjoy it?  I am looking forward to trying it.  I think the elevators will be easier to manage, and hopefully an asset on debarkation morning. 

 

I have to say the ride up on Deck 15 was incredibly smooth much smoother than I expected. Very little movement or sway evident up there. We were 15070 more forward than mid on the starboard side. 

 

Yes being higher is an asset on debarkation morning since there's only one passenger deck above you.  One thing I'll say about debarkation, the schedule listed 8am as the start of debarkation. When we took the elevator down to Deck 6 at 7:10am to wait for Express Walk Off, they were already debarking passengers. No announcement was made over the ship's systems. Our guess is they were trying to 'quietly' get the Express Walk Off process started before the hoards showed up. If you plan to Express Walk Off expect that process will start somewhere around 7am and most likely without an announcement. 

 

It was glorious walking off the ship at 7:10 and getting home to Orlando at 8:35 even with a grocery stop thrown in on the way. 🙂

[CruisingWalter]

7 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Oh my!  I’m definitely checking this out on tomorrow’s walk about!  

 

Please let me know if they fixed it. You may not have noticed it in the photo I posted, but the shattered floor panel is in that photo of the Infinity Bridge on the Starboard side. I noticed it when I was taking pictures of the Allure of the Seas next to us in Costa Maya. Have an amazing cruise!!

[ZoeyVictoria]

4 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

I have to say the ride up on Deck 15 was incredibly smooth much smoother than I expected. Very little movement or sway evident up there. We were 15070 more forward than mid on the starboard side. 

 

Yes being higher is an asset on debarkation morning since there's only one passenger deck above you.  One thing I'll say about debarkation, the schedule listed 8am as the start of debarkation. When we took the elevator down to Deck 6 at 7:10am to wait for Express Walk Off, they were already debarking passengers. No announcement was made over the ship's systems. Our guess is they were trying to 'quietly' get the Express Walk Off process started before the hoards showed up. If you plan to Express Walk Off expect that process will start somewhere around 7am and most likely without an announcement. 

 

It was glorious walking off the ship at 7:10 and getting home to Orlando at 8:35 even with a grocery stop thrown in on the way. 🙂

That is exactly why 15 sounds so good to us. Debarkation morning was crazy last month (we carried off all our luggage). We waited for three elevators twenty minutes before self-assist was scheduled to begin.  We finally realized there would never be an elevator with room for us  and took an elevator going up instead (from Deck 10). The problem would be that once up to the deck requested, there is no way to select the correct deck going down. We figured that sooner or later, someone was going to request the debarkation deck, and eventually they did.  We then snaked through the entire ship for over thirty minutes before getting to the gangway. Hopefully it will be easier to catch an elevator going down from 15.  
 

It should also be nice to have a quick walk to Biscayne Bay and the Jungle pool.

[CruisingWalter]

3 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

It should also be nice to have a quick walk to Biscayne Bay and the Jungle pool.

 

That would have been nice except Biscayne Bay was only open for breakfast on our sailing. 8a - 12noon. Maybe 7a on some days. I could not figure out why it wasn't open for lunch. Again, an annoyance, not a deal breaker. 🙂 

 

[ZoeyVictoria]

7 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

That would have been nice except Biscayne Bay was only open for breakfast on our sailing. 8a - 12noon. Maybe 7a on some days. I could not figure out why it wasn't open for lunch. Again, an annoyance, not a deal breaker. 🙂 

 

Did you discover the wonderful cookies that were put out in the buffet around 10 p.m. every night?  Best food on the ship!

[CruisingWalter]

3 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

Did you discover the wonderful cookies that were put out in the buffet around 10 p.m. every night?  Best food on the ship!

 

We tried but the line was usually far too long so we skipped it. The cookies were out from time to time at the dessert station too. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

3 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

Please let me know if they fixed it

No, it hasn’t been fixed!  From the looks of it, replacing will be quite an undertaking. Makes me hope they have a structural engineer’s safety approval. 😳

[CruisingWalter]

7 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

No, it hasn’t been fixed!  From the looks of it, replacing will be quite an undertaking. Makes me hope they have a structural engineer’s safety approval. 😳

Just do what I did, walk down the center on that steel support beam. 😄

[noche_caliente]

On 6/7/2023 at 8:02 AM, CruisingWalter said:

 

I have to say the ride up on Deck 15 was incredibly smooth much smoother than I expected. Very little movement or sway evident up there. We were 15070 more forward than mid on the starboard side. 

 

Yes being higher is an asset on debarkation morning since there's only one passenger deck above you.  One thing I'll say about debarkation, the schedule listed 8am as the start of debarkation. When we took the elevator down to Deck 6 at 7:10am to wait for Express Walk Off, they were already debarking passengers. No announcement was made over the ship's systems. Our guess is they were trying to 'quietly' get the Express Walk Off process started before the hoards showed up. If you plan to Express Walk Off expect that process will start somewhere around 7am and most likely without an announcement. 

 

It was glorious walking off the ship at 7:10 and getting home to Orlando at 8:35 even with a grocery stop thrown in on the way. 🙂

 

On 6/6/2023 at 4:32 PM, ZoeyVictoria said:

I enjoyed your review very much.  We had similar experiences on the May 7 sailing, even having a table under the bowling alley.  You are right, it was amusing!  I was disappointed in some ways because I had been on the Divina twice in 2014, but there is not a cruise line anywhere that is the same in 2023. And it was a bit unsettling to be on a cruise line that we were not familiar with. We have booked the Seaside again for July and will know what to expect. 
 

I think the ship had not yet adjusted to being in the U.S. by May 7 and have seen some photos that show some improvement. The Jungle pool had pads on only 4-6 loungers in front of the pool then; it looks like there are more now.  We had to ask for washcloths, and they were never replaced (thankfully, I had brought some from home).  And the omelet station had only two ingredients to add - very pale chopped tomatoes, and mushrooms. We were told we had to go to other areas and bring back our own meats and cheeses for the cook to add to our omelets. I saw a photo that shows more containers of extras at the omelet station.  Did you happen to notice any of these changes?

 

We booked very late and will be on deck 15 this time.  Did you enjoy it?  I am looking forward to trying it.  I think the elevators will be easier to manage, and hopefully an asset on debarkation morning. 
 

We went to the lagoon in May and really enjoyed it. We intend to try another area in July. 

We hope to be sailing this weekend if we can book tomorrow, but fear being assigned a room on Deck 15.  Did you notice much noise from the pool deck and dragging chairs above you?

[ZoeyVictoria]

5 hours ago, noche_caliente said:

 

We hope to be sailing this weekend if we can book tomorrow, but fear being assigned a room on Deck 15.  Did you notice much noise from the pool deck and dragging chairs above you?

 

I believe we will be on the same sailing as you hope to book (July 6), but our Deck 15 cabin is forward, under other cabins. At this late date, though, chances are the available cabins would be those that were cancelled at the last minute, so not necessarily undesirable cabins.  

[CruisingWalter]

7 hours ago, noche_caliente said:

 

We hope to be sailing this weekend if we can book tomorrow, but fear being assigned a room on Deck 15.  Did you notice much noise from the pool deck and dragging chairs above you?

The pool deck was not above us, the Asian Market restaurants were. We heard nothing from above. 

[Essiesmom]

I recognize that large table…we were assigned it for first seating in 2019.  I think we started out with six, in pairs.  One couple moved elsewhere.  The wait staff said there were 15 at the table for second seating, and I think 16 for third.  I believe it was their only table, so we had fast service.  
 I will be back on Seaside for 7 days in August and will be interested to see what is different.  EM