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

[1kaper]

On 11/30/2023 at 5:39 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

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.

 

On Divine one guy came to dinner in the MDR with a baseball shirt totally unbuttoned and nothing underneath. 

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, 1kaper said:

 

On Divine one guy came to dinner in the MDR with a baseball shirt totally unbuttoned and nothing underneath. 

Classy! And this, dear reader, is why we like the Yacht Club!

[elcuchio24]

We were just on World Europa, their biggest ship I believe. Never crowded or overly busy, great experience. 

[luckyinpa]

someone thats been thru the muster drill on MSC should enumerate their experience in detail for the OP. ive only read about it so cannot confirm

[Itchy&Scratchy]

17 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

someone thats been thru the muster drill on MSC should enumerate their experience in detail for the OP. ive only read about it so cannot confirm

yeah, it was a mess on Seascape. So many people at the same time, and elevator use isn't allowed.

Kinda gives you an idea of what's to come if it's a real thing.

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

yeah, it was a mess on Seascape. So many people at the same time, and elevator use isn't allowed.

Kinda gives you an idea of what's to come if it's a real thing.

 

 I just wish my fellow cruisers were aware of the Navy's way of handling traffic flow for events like this -- something I'll never forget -- 

 

    Up and forward on the Starboard side,  down and aft on the port side.  

 

Makes getting from one place to another so organized and easy.  

 

[jjjct]

On 12/8/2023 at 7:57 PM, dshroyer said:

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.

We will be on Seashore in March in YC, would like your veiw on you YC experience. Our 1st time on MSC mostly have cruised NCL 15X a few in Haven, which we loved. 

[dshroyer]

19 minutes ago, jjjct said:

We will be on Seashore in March in YC, would like your veiw on you YC experience. Our 1st time on MSC mostly have cruised NCL 15X a few in Haven, which we loved. 

Here is the review of the yacht club I posted last week.

MSC Seashore Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic

 

[jmsnyc]

Haven't watched the video but YES.. It is chaotic.  The buffet is overcrowded and lines are unbearable.  Tough to find a table.   Have to sit at dirty tables and move food to window sill.   Never msc again!

 

And the food is crap compared to every other cruise I've been on

 

And I'm posting while on board the Seascape 

Edited December 19, 2023 by jmsnyc

[peder]

5 hours ago, jmsnyc said:

Haven't watched the video but YES.. It is chaotic.  The buffet is overcrowded and lines are unbearable.  Tough to find a table.   Have to sit at dirty tables and move food to window sill.   Never msc again!

 

And the food is crap compared to every other cruise I've been on

 

And I'm posting while on board the Seascape 

 

Agreed, but also just a matter of finding the right times and right food items. If you can time things so you're not there at rush, you can basically have the buffet to yourself, and the selection of meats, cheese, fruit, bread, and pizza all tend to be very good.

 

Also the prices at Hola and Venchi are very reasonable, same with the sushi conveyor belt. Can make the entire trip a lot more enjoyable if you drop in to these places.

[jmsnyc]

1 hour ago, peder said:

 

Agreed, but also just a matter of finding the right times and right food items. If you can time things so you're not there at rush, you can basically have the buffet to yourself, and the selection of meats, cheese, fruit, bread, and pizza all tend to be very good.

 

Also the prices at Hola and Venchi are very reasonable, same with the sushi conveyor belt. Can make the entire trip a lot more enjoyable if you drop in to these places.

My cruise is sold out.   The buffet is crowded all times so there is no timing it.   The conveyor belt didn't look so good and the sushi sits on those plates quite a long time

 

I just think tacos should not be surcharged.  It may not be the same now but I remember Johnny Rockets on Royal included

[peder]

20 minutes ago, jmsnyc said:

My cruise is sold out.   The buffet is crowded all times so there is no timing it.   The conveyor belt didn't look so good and the sushi sits on those plates quite a long time

 

I just think tacos should not be surcharged.  It may not be the same now but I remember Johnny Rockets on Royal included

And seat selection shouldn't be charged for basic economy on an airplane. Just the way it is.

 

But at least in my experience, for near identical staterooms and itineraries, Royal would cost my family 2-3x as much, and even with the nickel and diming we're still way ahead with MSC.

[morpheusofthesea]

6 hours ago, jmsnyc said:

The buffet is crowded all times so there is no timing it.

Here are 3 occasions that we walked through the Market Place Buffet 1 is breakfast every day at 7am and the other 2 were the lunch buffet.....the buffets are not busy IF one times them properly.

[jmsnyc]

11 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Here are 3 occasions that we walked through the Market Place Buffet 1 is breakfast every day at 7am and the other 2 were the lunch buffet.....the buffets are not busy IF one times them properly.

BUFET B.MOV BUFET L.MOV BUFET L1.MOV

 are on my current cruise at the moment ???   The buffet is always crowed at lunch...  only time is when it is  closed apart from pizza and burgers then "sometimes" it is less crowded....  Yeah 7am might be not crowded , but that is a super inconvenient time for many people and is useless with respect to lunch or dinner - so I would argue that the food sucks in the inclusive restaurants and the buffet is overcrowded....   I stand by my original post - my cruise is sold out though

 

worst food be far of any cruise ship - Carnival even blows this away

[jmsnyc]

17 hours ago, peder said:

And seat selection shouldn't be charged for basic economy on an airplane. Just the way it is.

 

But at least in my experience, for near identical staterooms and itineraries, Royal would cost my family 2-3x as much, and even with the nickel and diming we're still way ahead with MSC.

A plane and a cruise are two completely different things so I find it irrelevant -  this would be more like comparing Delta's economy vs AA's economy - for the most part they are similar, Royal's economy is vastly superior to MSC's economy   -  not disagreeing that Royal would cost 3x more though - if I ever did MSC again I would have to do a restaurant package and Yacht Club - at that point the prices might be more comparable - and I would definitely be willing to pay more for Royal if it was not much different at the time

[morpheusofthesea]

22 minutes ago, jmsnyc said:

Royal's economy is vastly superior to MSC's economy 

Now this maybe true. Have never experienced MSC's economy, only Yacht Club. So when comparing apples to apples we find YC superior to Coastal Kitchen (we had to wait for a table in CK because a nonsuite Pinnacle walked in 5 minutes before our reservation and we had to wait for another table). Also allowing emotional support miniature dogs in strollers in Coastal Kitchen, luckily the waiters fawning all over this Suite Pinnacle had the good sense not to pet the animal while waiting on tables. Third straw to break the RCCL back was not having suites ready upon boarding and no way to get to corridor and cabin key to access CK Lounge to wait and no concierge on duty embarkation day to get us in. 

[morpheusofthesea]

42 minutes ago, jmsnyc said:

The buffet is always crowed at lunch..

My videos prove otherwise.

[morpheusofthesea]

52 minutes ago, jmsnyc said:

Yeah 7am might be not crowded , but that is a super inconvenient time for many people and is useless with respect to lunch or dinner - so I would argue that the food sucks in the inclusive restaurants and the buffet is overcrowded...

I suppose a great inconvenience, like getting up early, might have had a corresponding effect upon my food. But after 50 years of being dragged out of bed at these ungodly hours especially on MY vacation has had its toll on me and I have learned to enjoy not being rushed for meals while the late comers stand impatiently waiting for our table. We pay more not to be inconvenienced and Yacht Club is the best at making sure we are not.

Edited December 20, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[jmsnyc]

6 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

My videos prove otherwise.

Are you on a cruise at the moment?

[peder]

You're not the only one that's sailed on a completely full Seascape

[jmsnyc]

27 minutes ago, peder said:

You're not the only one that's sailed on a completely full Seascape

Yeah... Will on my cruise the buffet is full during all lunch hours and breakfast hours after 8am....   Anyone that tells me otherwise it's flat out wrong because I've checked multiple times

 

People are posting videos of other sailings that likely were not sold out.

 

I agree with the YouTube poster references in the OP, it is chaotic

 

Not sure what you are trying to prove wrong facts I am witnessing first hand this week....

Edited December 21, 2023 by jmsnyc

[morpheusofthesea]

4 hours ago, jmsnyc said:

Are you on a cruise at the moment?

The videos are from our Thanksgiving cruise on Seascape. We leave tomorrow on another MSC Explora Journeys cruise to compare with Seascape Yacht Club. Reading Explora is having problems running out of food items like lamb chops. Read 600 Prima Donnas (I include ourselves in this group) on for Christmas and 500+ for New Years. We might be in the same situation as you are in now with one tenth the number of passengers paying 10 times the price you paid for your cruise. 

P.S. One would think by paying 10 times the price one would not experience the same problems as steerage.

Edited December 21, 2023 by morpheusofthesea
P.S.

[blueslily]

On 12/20/2023 at 12:34 AM, jmsnyc said:

My cruise is sold out.   The buffet is crowded all times so there is no timing it.   The conveyor belt didn't look so good and the sushi sits on those plates quite a long time

 

I just think tacos should not be surcharged.  It may not be the same now but I remember Johnny Rockets on Royal included

 

Hello, we were on the Seascape last week as well and they said the ship was sold out. I only had one experience in the buffet at a lunch time and once at a breakfast time that there was madness in the buffet area. That was mainly because of timing when I chose to walk through there. The breakfast time was once later during breakfast which was on that unplanned Sea Day Friday that we missed Ocean Cay due to the rough weather when lots of other ships could not dock in some ports also. The other time was during a later lunch time. Other than that, I was able to get in and out, not wait in massive lines for food stations, and enjoy sitting in the back area or outside in the back to enjoy the wake view while we ate. We saw lots of people not going to other areas for seating or not getting food in sections that were not as busy.

 

 Everyone has their own experiences though. I can only comment on our experience and what we did to not experience crowds that some people complain about. I guess it was just about what we chose to do, where we chose to do it, and when we chose to do things. We had a good cruise. 

 

Happy cruising everyone. 

[blueslily]

On 11/30/2023 at 1:43 PM, 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'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.

 

Hi there, we are just back from the Seascape. I had been so worried based on your reports of your experiences, but maybe just luckily, but we did not have most of these issues. Our itinerary was different, no Jamaica. Luckilt, at ports, we were able to get on and off the ship at ports without any long lines or waits. I was so relieved.

 

For us, elevator waits and congestion was really on Day 1 when people were just learning the ship. After that, we could get elevators without much wait. Oh, there was one time we did wait. I'm not sure why we didn't just go around to a different Elevator bank that time. Other times we just went to another set if we saw people waiting or we were just able to get on. I rode alone on elevators sometimes as well, including dinner time or at night during entertainment times.

 

I was just happy we had a good time and not many of the issues people talk about on here. 

 

Now that my Seascape cruise has passed, I may step away from this board. I want to hold onto our positive memories. Sometimes there can be a lot of negativity about MSC and I dont want that to dampen my positive memories of a good cruise experience. If anyone has specific questions as you plan for a future cruise, I can respond based on our cruise experience. 

 

Happy holidays everyone, and happy cruising! I'm off to prepare for my cruise on Celebrity Ascent. Thanks everyone that helped me prepare for my Seascape cruise 🛳 😎 😀 😊 

[morpheusofthesea]

5 minutes ago, blueslily said:

I may step away from this board.

Yes, but don't step away too far.....