Is MSC really as crowded/chaotic as is painted in this YouTube review

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

fun fact: neither we, nor my parents found any life vests in our cabins last week on Seascape.

I asked our butler about there being no life vest visible in the cabin. Answer, one gets them at the muster station.

[morpheusofthesea]

2 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I found our last week's Seascape sailing completely disorganized, chaotic and crowded. It was a Thanksgiving sailing, so crowds are expected

Yes, It was crowded outside the Yacht Club. It has been crowded on our April 16, June 16, July 16, Aug 6, Sept 24 and Nov 18 (This one) all OUTSIDE the Yacht Club. We have been upset on these prior to this Thanksgiving cruise in the Yacht Club with my rantings about the YC overrun with "interlopers", YCers inviting all their friends and family from cabins OUTSIDE the YC into the YC and all the officers friends & family with "ACCESS" to the YC, and casino 'whales'. This Thanksgiving cruise was actually one of the best Yacht Club cruises to date.We had 330 in the YC with all the moveups, but this time, No interlopers, entrance doors all locking behind us quickly without having to take a moment to push them shut, plenty of lounge chairs available on the OnePool deck (still saw the pergolas being chair hogged). Walked through the Market Place buffet and videoed the entire walk around, several days in the morning, at 7 am empty of guests and staff just standing around waiting for guests to wake up at the same time. Service was excellent in the TopSail Lounge only two regulars sitting at the bar every evening (I think the gentleman had the bar seat reserved). When we walked to Le Cabaret Rouge deck 7 at 7:30 saw lighter than usual line waiting to be seated in the 2 restaurants there. I do not disagree with your assessment of happenings outside the YC. But inside the YC is still the best experience in cruising today.

P.S. There are other reasons that contributed to the Yacht Club not being over run. Not as many friends and family with access (We had 44 on one cruise alone). Better enforcement of YCers allowing their friends in. Eliminating the Seafood Extravaganza on the OnePool Deck.

Edited November 29, 2023 by morpheusofthesea
P.S.

[Brighton Line]

33 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

I asked our butler about there being no life vest visible in the cabin. Answer, one gets them at the muster station.

Even when you have life vests in the cabin there are more than enough where you board the lifeboats and even on the lifeboats. Not every emergency has you returning to your cabin, they hope for that but they have to have enough

[CruisingWalter]

On 11/25/2023 at 12:22 PM, nielgirl said:

Is that the norm you’ve experienced travelling on MSC (not Yacht Club)?

 

Not even close. We sailed Seaside with a nearly full ship and it was more or less the same as sailing every other line. As someone who spent over 30 years in video, film and marketing, creative editing can tell any story you want the video to tell. And with YouTube, negativity drives clicks, views and ultimately money to the content creators. 

 

We're booked on Seashore in two weeks and I expect a busy ship. MSC is not as organized and tightly run as Royal Caribbean, NCL or some of the other lines, but it's not chaotic either. Every ship and every cruise line has their own vibe and some sailings are smoother than others. But I would not hesitate to recommend MSC to folks with the caveat that MSC is its own cruise line. You're spending less so don't expect the same caliber of service and entertainment as other cruise lines. But they are lovely ships with a pretty darn good crew and awesome pools. 

[insidecabin]

Our experience is from Virtuosa in northern Europe a few winter trips.

When maxed out holidays over 6000 it gets crazy with families and kids.

Regular cruises still busy many vlogs emphasize the crowds but it was relatively easy to find the quieter spots with adjustment to timings.

Eg early breakfast buffet is fine.

 

The party stuff is focused at one end, theatre/galleria,virtuosa bar/masters/TV lounge.

 

Early evening was easy to find spaces as many are eating or theatre, later the party end can get rammed and you need to be looking at sky lounge and atrium bars for the less crazy atmosphere but seating fills.

(We found if you hang about seats free up at theatre and dinner times, Virtuosa had late dining and late show)

On cold cruises the horizon bar was often quiet but outside and needed coats, there is some inside space there.

Outside pool bar also quiet but inside pool area bar can fill.

 

 

[jimmyvh]

16 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

When maxed out holidays over 6000 it gets crazy with families and kids.

Almost all horror stories ARE from the summer trips, and it does look awful for this exact reason: queues for everything, undisciplined kids bouncing around all over the place, the whole "claim seat with towel" thing.
I booked a winter trip, because most winter trip reviews are actually pretty positive. If I were to plan a summer cruise, I'd definitely avoid the budget ships and pay extra for a more exclusive or adult only line.

[quattrohead]

20 hours ago, peder said:

 

I meant crowded outside by the pool areas, despite the Seaside class ships have the highest percentage of outdoor space in MSC's fleet (similar to the Prima/Viva and a few other ships designed in the same era). I never experienced any crowding inside.

Plenty of room by the pool. Not enough shaded area's to escape the sun but enjoy the outside.

[Brighton Line]

Please remember most content creators on  YouTube are looking for monetary compensation so they will lead with "shocking" pictures and comments. Yes, there are issues but when you watch a 12-minute clip about the worst cruise in my life what do you expect to see?

There is always some clickbait in the production of those videos. 

[nielgirl]

4 hours ago, jimmyvh said:

Almost all horror stories ARE from the summer trips, and it does look awful for this exact reason: queues for everything, undisciplined kids bouncing around all over the place, the whole "claim seat with towel" thing.
I booked a winter trip, because most winter trip reviews are actually pretty positive. If I were to plan a summer cruise, I'd definitely avoid the budget ships and pay extra for a more exclusive or adult only line.

 

Thank you again everyone for all of the informative feedback. We're like jimmyvh in that we would be cruising outside of the summer rush. Being from Canada our summers from about June to September are usually very hot so there is no reason to escape.

 

Our most likely time to be looking at Caribbean cruises is mid January through March to break up our snowy Canadian winters. That's with the caveat that we'd avoid school March breaks, University spring breaks and any other holidays (ie Easter) when the ships would be more at capacity,

[wgeddings]

HAL is my favorite line (well, next to Disney but nothing can really compare to a Disney cruise I think).   We have cruised most of the other lines that sail out of the US and HAL has great service, food, and all around dedication to the passenger.   As was said above, MSC is not that way.  Nor is Carnival, Royal Caribbean, etc.  but they are not supposed to be that way.  Their price reflects it.  Do you get the same service in a McDonalds that you get at a Ruth Chris steakhouse?  Of course not and no reasonable person would expect that so it is important to compare apples to apples.  You are trying to do that and it is admirable so I encourage you to keep the McDonalds vs. fancy restaurant comparison in mind and adjust expectations.  

 

After a number of cruises, I know what I like and want and understand how the process works.  For first time cruising, HAL is terrific because of all of their attention to customer service.  Now I do not need it so much so Carnival, MSC, etc. are fine choices because I prefer to save money.  If this is only your second cruise, you can still have a great time on a "fast food" cruise line by keeping expectations in line.  As others have said, you can still get the HAL experience if you go with Yacht Club but, honestly, I have never felt the extra cost was worth it to me.  

 

Your experience will also depend on what YOU want to get out of it.  Do you like the nightlife, parties and dancing?  That is probably better and wilder on the "fast food" lines.  Do you like fancy dinners and dressing up?  that is probably better in the HAL, Yacht Club and such lines.  Personally, my wife and I like relaxing, laying in the sun, sleeping late and do not care about gambling, drinking, partying, deck events and such so whether we are on a fancy line or a fast food line it makes little difference for our particular preferences.  Only you know what makes you happy so I encourage you to not to let someone tell you how great or bad any cruise was until you know if their expectations from a cruise are similar to yours.  

 

I hope it goes great for you!

 

[nielgirl]

3 hours ago, Brighton Line said:

Please remember most content creators on  YouTube are looking for monetary compensation so they will lead with "shocking" pictures and comments. Yes, there are issues but when you watch a 12-minute clip about the worst cruise in my life what do you expect to see?

There is always some clickbait in the production of those videos. 

 

It's just like our media with the "if it bleeds it leads" way of thinking.

[nielgirl]

2 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

HAL is my favorite line (well, next to Disney but nothing can really compare to a Disney cruise I think).   We have cruised most of the other lines that sail out of the US and HAL has great service, food, and all around dedication to the passenger.   As was said above, MSC is not that way.  Nor is Carnival, Royal Caribbean, etc.  but they are not supposed to be that way.  Their price reflects it.  Do you get the same service in a McDonalds that you get at a Ruth Chris steakhouse?  Of course not and no reasonable person would expect that so it is important to compare apples to apples.  You are trying to do that and it is admirable so I encourage you to keep the McDonalds vs. fancy restaurant comparison in mind and adjust expectations.  

 

After a number of cruises, I know what I like and want and understand how the process works.  For first time cruising, HAL is terrific because of all of their attention to customer service.  Now I do not need it so much so Carnival, MSC, etc. are fine choices because I prefer to save money.  If this is only your second cruise, you can still have a great time on a "fast food" cruise line by keeping expectations in line.  As others have said, you can still get the HAL experience if you go with Yacht Club but, honestly, I have never felt the extra cost was worth it to me.  

 

Your experience will also depend on what YOU want to get out of it.  Do you like the nightlife, parties and dancing?  That is probably better and wilder on the "fast food" lines.  Do you like fancy dinners and dressing up?  that is probably better in the HAL, Yacht Club and such lines.  Personally, my wife and I like relaxing, laying in the sun, sleeping late and do not care about gambling, drinking, partying, deck events and such so whether we are on a fancy line or a fast food line it makes little difference for our particular preferences.  Only you know what makes you happy so I encourage you to not to let someone tell you how great or bad any cruise was until you know if their expectations from a cruise are similar to yours.  

 

I hope it goes great for you!

 

My husband and I are pretty easily pleased. We aren't looking for the big party scene and entertainment nor the big dress up dinner fare. We get up early to make the most of the daylight hours and just like spending time by the pool and beach. 

 

We really loved our HAL cruise and Half Moon Cay but not a fan of the tendering part. We heard that the Carnival Corp intends to build a dock at Half Moon Cay so that will make HAL the perfect cruise line for us.

 

The draw for us to MSC was Ocean Cay and the docking instead of tendering and the itineraries where the ship stays two days there. That would allow my husband to get his beach fix and me get the cruise experience.

[morpheusofthesea]

26 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

you can still get the HAL experience if you go with Yacht Club but,

We did just that during March 2023 Spring Break. We booked the Pinnacle Suite on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Was able to book a pergola for the week on the exclusive deck for suite guests. I found the cruise very enjoyable and would recommend it to others. My DW will never go again on Holland America. She is spoiled by the newness of the MSC new ships and their more modern decor,( the Pinnacle Suite is like a museum), separate suite dining restaurant, no charge mini bar (we got our final bill on Hal and were charged for taking water from the mini bar and the concierges did not adjust it on board), limited seating for the over popular jazz venue and general lack of entertainment, and DW caught covid and norovirus two days before getting off the ship and had to be hospitalized. So much for the N.A. having a CDC sanitation score of 98. She would have been better off on the Seaside with a 67 score and no reported cases (the following cruise 270 reported cases on the Nieuw Amsterdam).

Edited November 30, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Itchy&Scratchy]

6 hours ago, jimmyvh said:

Almost all horror stories ARE from the summer trips, and it does look awful for this exact reason: queues for everything, undisciplined kids bouncing around all over the place, the whole "claim seat with towel" thing.

to make a fair comparison, we sailed on RCI's Allure in June and on Oasis during Spring Break (Easter week), and it was not as disorganized and crowded as our Thanksgiving cruise on Seascape. Also sailed on a full Enchanted Princess and Regal Princess during Thanksgiving, and it was not chaotic and disorganized.

 

16 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

You're spending less so don't expect the same caliber of service and entertainment as other cruise lines

that's the thing.... No matter how little or how much we spend on RCI or Princess cruises, we always get top notch service. Even though we are always in the steerage class. This MSC cruise wasn't all that much cheaper than our previous or future cruises with Princess, Carnival and Celebrity, but we felt that the $400 difference in price just isn't worth the aggravation with the stupid elevator system on Seascape, with standing in line for an hour to get back on the ship in a port of call only for the buffet to be closed already, or dealing with the manual searches of ALL the beach bags of all the passengers in Jamaica.

 

On our cruise someone passed out while waiting in line to get back on the ship in Jamaica. It was extremely hot inside the ship where we had to wait to be searched. The crew didn't even care. We've been cruising for years, but we've never experienced anything like that before.

[insidecabin]

6 hours ago, Brighton Line said:

Please remember most content creators on  YouTube are looking for monetary compensation so they will lead with "shocking" pictures and comments. Yes, there are issues but when you watch a 12-minute clip about the worst cruise in my life what do you expect to see?

There is always some clickbait in the production of those videos. 

 

Try some of the new to cruising that have been exploring MSC.

 

Onecouplesadventures on Virtuosa are decent reflection of how it was last year.

Their first MSC was their 2nd cruise so they were still fresh.

 

Even when the ship was rammed it was not as bad as people report they just do things wrong.

The classic is moving from bar to bar because they can't get a seat, then giving up, if you hang people move on, review of the schedule give the most likely times for a changeover.

 

We always got a spot in Masters when we wanted might take 10mins standing before someone moved.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

to make a fair comparison, we sailed on RCI's Allure in June and on Oasis during Spring Break (Easter week), and it was not as disorganized and crowded as our Thanksgiving cruise on Seascape. Also sailed on a full Enchanted Princess and Regal Princess during Thanksgiving, and it was not chaotic and disorganized.

That brings up another oddity. The clientele on Princess and RCCL are disparate from the clientele on MSC or the former enforces their rules and the latter does not? On MSC, guests are given an embarkation and debarkation place and time. Times are not enforced. Dress codes are posted for restaurants and not followed and not enforced. Guests are asked to not congregate in the stairwell in 6 languages at the gangways, to no avail. Begs the question if the staff even collects or examines the tender ticket numbers, or even if the guest bothered to get a tender ticket at the gangway on MSC. More pushing and shoving and rude behavior in the Market Place Buffet being reported on social media. Somethings to consider when booking a cruise.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

41 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

On MSC, guests are given an embarkation and debarkation place and time. Times are not enforced.

neither are they enforced on Princess or RCI. The only time our embarkation time was enforced was freshly post-pandemic in Nov 2021 on Harmony.

 

I actually found embarkation and debarkation on Seascape in POM to be quite ordinary (though, not in ports of call). Zero complaints (except for me not knowing how to order wheelchair assistance for my dad).

 

Imagine my shock when I saw a guy at MDR on Seascape who was wearing rashguard and trunks to dinner. I was surprised because cruisecritic reviews usually state that people dress up a bit more on MSC than they do on other, more Americanized, cruise lines. Not this dude, though. 🙂 We are usually quite casual, but we do not wear swimming suits and trunks to dinner at MDR.

[tofubeast]

On 11/25/2023 at 5:24 PM, nielgirl said:

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate it.

 

I was just looking at reviews for MSC on Cruise Critic and seeing a a lot of people confirming the over crowding and chaos that was in the YouTube video. Many of these reviews were from Caribbean itineraries.

 

Can anyone advise what months the off season is for the Caribbean cruises for MSC and what sort of capacity the ships are running at during those time periods?

I was on a sold out 3-night cruise on the Divina in Oct 2022. As others have noted, the only time it ever felt really busy with the first day.Other than that, we were able to find many places that were empty or less crowded. Never had much of a wait for drinks, etc.  We had no one sitting with us at our dining table. Also, on Ocean Cay, there were SO many places that you could explore and feel like you had the entire beach to yourselves.  MSC felt no different than other cruises I have been on. In fact, the busiest I was ever on was the Disney Dream (and we still loved that one, too!)

[peder]

I see inventory on the French MSC website for a cruise we're interesting in that does not have availability in the US. I am not a French resident, only US, but is there anything I can do to book these cabins? Curious if anyone has had any luck with MSC and pulling inventory from one region to another.

[joeyancho]

We are on Seascape right now.  We are in Yacht Club.   I have been down to the main buffet several times.   It is huge and nicely appointed  but  I have never seen a buffet so crowded.  Just waves of humanity.  No where to sit.  The rest of the ship is crowded but not to the extent that the buffet is.  It is because there is no other place to eat.  The main dining room is open for meals but the hours are limited.  I doubt I will cruise MSC again if not in YC.  Just too crowded.  

[WindinmySails]

I was on Seashore for 20+ days on a Med and trans Atlantic this past October and November. I didn't think the ship was crowded during the trans Atlantic part, usually always found someplace to sit outdoors. When the ship was at almost capacity, it was more difficult.   However, I think the design of the ship, although very pretty, is faulty.  

There were few places, if any, to just sit and play cards in the evening for example. During the day, it wasn't hard to find a quiet place, but the evening and night was a different story.  The buffet was usually very difficult to find seating at breakfast, especially on port days. 

Personally, the food, just wasn't appealing to me.  Some meals were fine, but nothing to rave about.  I could always count on good grilled chicken and pizza though in the buffet.  For example, the chicken parm was served with brown gravy and potatoes. The head chef was supposedly Italian. Mid Atlantic, they ran out of lettuce...my other go to.  Buffet hours were limited.   Portion sizes were good, not huge...although this was the longest cruise I've been on, it is the only cruise where I didn't gain weight.  So there's a plus!

The entertainment was interesting and we always found seats to view the shows. Be open minded about the entertainment.  

Our room was lovely, comforable and for 20+ days, I never felt like I needed more or different space.  We had a standard balcony.  

Most of the staff we interacted with was lovely, friendly, but I didn't think some were well trained for the job. We were giving conflicting information a number of times. 

At times, leaving the port to the city was difficult and time consuming.  This was more in Europe.  We also had to pay for buses to most of the port cities...this was unexpected.  However,  I LOVED the ports.    

Due to the value and the itinerary, I would cruise with MSC again.  However, my husband said he would really have to think about it.  

Edited December 8, 2023 by WindinmySails

[morpheusofthesea]

Market Place Buffet on Seascape at 7am every morning our walk through takes 5 minutes. Omelet station in the rear.

[quattrohead]

8 hours ago, WindinmySails said:

However, I think the design of the ship, although very pretty, is faulty. 

This is exactly how I felt about the Seaside. Huge ship but felt too small in all the public area's and the darn bathroom.

[dshroyer]

We just got off Seashore. We were in yacht club. The ship had 4,500 people out of 5,500. It was packed. I walked around on sea day and every bar and pool chair was busy. The elevators were a mess. We will not do Seashore again. Way understaffed.

[mvh]

All 4 of my MSC cruises were full capacity. It felt no more crowded than any other ship I have been on. You just have to be smart about things. Yes, the buffet will be busy at noon, but you will find a table. Yes, the pool will be busy on sea days.  It's a cruise ship, If you want a good chair, get up early.  Even if you're at the pool by 9:30 ish you can find a chair. At least that was our experience, MSC is no better or no worse as far as crowds. IMO