MSC Cruise- A Complete Horror Show

[NJsharon]

2 minutes ago, Jules10192 said:

 

 

Sorry that happened.  I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself though.  I have battled the board of ed to get what she needed for her special needs.  If I can do that, I can do anything!  Watch me roar!
I am going in positive & looking forward to it. 
Again, a cruise is what you make of it!

 

[Oxo]

19 hours ago, Pypercallie said:

 I think just got off the same cruise MSC Seascape. I thought this cruise was wonderful! Our rooms were cleaned a minimum of three times a day sometimes four. The food was absolutely delicious. I did get the same dishes you I did not like it but I was so full from the two appetizers and the dessert. Also that was one meal out of 21 that was not perfect! There was 8 of us in our group and we all loved the food. The 6 other people in our group also talked about how clean and how nice the room cleaners were. 

'Our rooms were cleaned a minimum of three times a day sometimes four.'

 

Most of the cruise lines are going to once a day room service. Cruise lines have reduced staff to include room attendants.

 

I find it had to believe any Room Attendant had the time to clean your room 3 or 4 times a day. Their workload has increased with the number of cabins that they are responsible for now after Covid.

 

Was it a mess? I'm sure it wasn't. How often did you go into and out of your room daily? Why did that person feel the need to clean your room 3 or 4 times a day?

 

Happy Cusing!

[MisterBill99]

7 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

You are wrong. People not book MSC "because it´s cheap", people (like me) book them, because they love the product. A cruise line can never survive with just being cheap, that´s something that works for airlines, but not for a ship one spends a whole week or more. 

 

I did not say that everyone who loves MSC does so because it's cheap. I said that some people put up with the issues because it's cheap (many will post "well, it's a cheap cruise line, what did you expect" when people complain after their cruise). Many others obviously have no problems. The OP here clearly did and so did we.

[DeeDe6920]

I had a few similar experiences on the MSC Seascape in September 2023. I’ve cruised with other cruise lines and this was my worst experience thus far.  We upgraded the room at an additional cost. When we arrived, we were disappointed with the size of the room. It seemed like all the additional space was on the balcony. With three of us in the room we had the couch pulled out leaving just a path in the room. Disappointing to say the least. In the shower you couldn’t bathe without touching the door or wall, or in some cases the faucet.  In comparison, when we upgraded on Carnival the year prior, we had a tub with plenty of bathing space.  I called the cruise line before we got there with questions. Not being able to bring any hair appliances seemed crazy. They actually suggested going to the salon on board for hair services, of course that’s an additional cost.

 

Our issues stemmed from not seeing our room attendant until day three. I think that only happened because we were looking for our bottle of champagne that had disappeared and called the front desk. In doing so, we also commented that we hadn’t met our attendant and had speculated who it was during the first two days (we were wrong). We had to repeatedly call the get supplies for three people. We needed three sets of towels and three champagne glasses, etc. Also, cleanliness was an issue. After leaving the ship to go on land, we came back to see a wad of hair on the floor near the trash can. I stopped my friend from picking it up and called the front desk. A supervisor came and we explained the numerous issues that we had gone through with the room attendant, namely her absence. She came and vacuumed the hair after I questioned her about her having cleaned the room already.

 

There were only two issues that we experienced while dining. The first being the call buttons at the table used to call staff for issues and drink orders in the general dining space.  No one ever seemed to be able to get the tables correct leaving us parched during our meals and leading to lengthy waits. We were given every excuse in the book including the system went down and the tablets being used had not been updated to reflect the correct table numbers. This was a huge issue that caused long wait times throughout the cruise in the main dining areas. I quickly learned to serve myself as much as possible in an effort to not have to rely on the staff. Some staff did have attitudes and occasionally lied directly to our faces which resulted in us requesting a supervisor. Unfortunately, the supervisors didn’t do much of anything. 
 

The second issue was the rudeness of the other passengers. Being about based out of Europe, there were a lot of Europeans on board and unfortunately cultural differences were noted. They prefer to cut in line and reach across folks with saying excuse me. 

We literally only missed one meal during our 5 day (I believe) cruise and that was dinner. I don’t recall any extremely bad food. There was an issue with sausage. We had seated breakfast a few days when we had an early start. One person in our crew doesn’t eat pork so he also requests turkey sausage. The crew didn’t seem to know the difference and a manager had to be called. I requested wheat toast and was brought white. Then I was told that they didn’t have wheat. The next day in the same dining room, I requested and received wheat toast.

 

For us, the cruise was bearable because we had some exclusivity with the Aria package which was part of our upgrade. We had access to an upper level sun deck with hot tubs and a bar. We planted ourselves at the bar and hung out with Kevin from St. Lucia for days on end.  We found out from someone in the Yacht Club that you should not do MSC unless you’re in the Yacht Club. He said it’s the only way it’s worth the money. He happened to be in a situation where he basically bid on his Yacht Club room and got it for an additional $500. 
 

Sadly, the money machines scattered around the boat rarely worked so after spending an exorbitant amount of time feeding rejected bills into several different machines, we ultimately got the job done at Guest Services.

 

I took copious note regarding the dates, times and names of the subpar experiences. When I got back home, I perused the website several times and was disappointed that there was nowhere to submit complaints and alert the cruise line of the disappointments of our trip. 

[bob10173]

We have been on 2 previous msc cruises from Florida and enjoyed both. On May 23rd we are sailing on the older msc sinfonia from Athens. This will be a completely different type of cruise than what we have been on before. I always say the people that write these extreme negative reviews either work for another cruise line or expect a Oceania experience for an msc price. We have been on over 50 cruises with most cruise lines and outside of some minor differences and complaints, we are more than happy with MSC. Food, cabin, entertainment etc has been just great. The staff have always been friendly and helpful. 

[thistimeplease]

4 hours ago, ToeyA said:

I signed up just so i could respond to this comment!

 

I've been on 16 cruises - mostly Carnival & Norwegian - and i will never go on an MSC again. 

 

While the staff on our Seascape cruise in December 2023 did a fabulous job, the cruise was disappointing. The food was HORRIBLE. Who goes on a cruise and loses weight?

 

Under cooked, over cooked or cold sums up the offerings at the buffet - except for the pizza. The pizza was good.  O! And the soft serve ice cream that was only limitedly available.

 

One dinner I ordered salmon and received grouper! I was presented with salmon on a different night and altho it was seared beautifully, it was undercooked and inedible.

 

The sad part was that every staff member we talked to acknowledged that the food was bad - eveb the dining room staff acknowledged and apologized. I felt bad for them. 

I had to comment.  We lost weight on a RCL cruise.  Who thought that would ever happen.  We sailed Seascape in 05/2023 and absolutely loved it.  So everyone is different is every experience is different.  There's only 1 cruise line I won't sail with and it's not MSC.  

[LatinaInTexas]

Only cruised MSC once and loved it. Prob my favorite cruise overall. Sure there were a few little things they did that I wasn't used to but nothing that I gave a second thought to.

Eagerly waiting for them to sail from Galveston so I can sail them again. 

I must be one very lucky person in that I loved all my cruises and haven't had one cruise that was anywhere near bad enough to merit making a whole post complaining about it.

[megr1125]

Welcome to CC 🙄

[megr1125]

I've been on 4 MSC sailings and recently booked a 5th. I'm very picky and I'll say that th service gets better, their specialty dining prices are reasonable and overall their fares are excellent.  Plus, I'm tiring of Royal's astronomical fares and Celebrity's new pricing policy. 

 

Is MSC perfect? Far from it. Have I had any horrible meals? No.  Maybe I'm lucky.

[JJMarzi]

Cruised South America with MSC in February. I also was not impressed with the cuisine especially considering it's an Italian cruise company. Mind you, whenever the dish didn't look or taste good, I would just order a different plate. Never been turned down by any cruise company. The housekeeping, service and itinerary were good.

[Sailor291]

Wife and I did our first MSC cruise out of Civitivechia in November 2023, I had read all the negative reviews before we went.  We were so pheasants surprised at how good the cruise was.  Service was excellent, food was very good, customer service rivaled any other cruise line.  Especially when you factor in the price, they can’t be beat.  We are avid Princess cruisers but MSC is our next favorite line.  I firmly believe that the customer service aspect is highly dependent on your attitude to begin with.  

[ToeyA]

23 minutes ago, Sailor291 said:

Wife and I did our first MSC cruise out of Civitivechia in November 2023, I had read all the negative reviews before we went.  We were so pheasants surprised at how good the cruise was.  Service was excellent, food was very good, customer service rivaled any other cruise line.  Especially when you factor in the price, they can’t be beat.  We are avid Princess cruisers but MSC is our next favorite line.  I firmly believe that the customer service aspect is highly dependent on your attitude to begin with.  

Im convinced the European cruises are way better than the ones from Miami!!!

[Beamafar]

3 minutes ago, ToeyA said:

Im convinced the European cruises are way better than the ones from Miami!!!

They have a much more ‘European’ vibe and food emphasis is more tailored towards the passenger demographic.  The mix of passengers from different European countries has a big influence on menus, entertainment, vibe. Sailings from US ports rely heavily on building the market there (they already have a huge market in Europe and don’t have to work so hard in that region to ‘grow’).  I’ve really noticed the difference, over the years, of how MSC has evolved in the US market since Divina first home-ported there and the drive to make a seriously significant impact there. They offer fares that don’t exist anywhere else.   

[grk1957]

I’ve sailed on three MSC cruises,and have taken in total more than 30 cruises on several different lines. They all have their shortcomings/problems. The MSC cruises were pre-pandemic, And happy with the food and entertainment.
I have since sailed on Holland America, and princess. I have an upcoming cruise on NCL and MSC from Europe.

After speaking with my fellow travelers last year on two transatlantic and Mediterranean cruises. The general consensus is that things are worse aboard all cruise lines post pandemic. The cruise lines are cutting back on staff and the quality of food to make up the money they lost!

last spring was the first time I was on Holland America, and I will never sell with them again! Extremely disappointed in Service, and entertainment, And the general maintenance of the ship. We had plumbing problems, toilets backing up into rooms, air conditioning, not working, entertainment that we were supposed to have, was canceled because they lost their contract! The joke going around was that we would have sock puppets as our next entertainment venue! We ran out of American bacon the second day of the cruise on the third day, We were out of bananas and in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. I could live without bacon, but I do like bananas! otherwise the food was very good!

My second fall winter cruise was from Europe on the Island Princess the food in the dining room was very good, I only sent the pork tenderloin back because it wasn’t tender!
The food in the buffet was generally good, and could be much better with a few improvements. Worst French toast I’ve ever had on any cruise ship or anywhere else for that matter! other than muffins, the rest of the bake goods in the morning are beautiful, but dry and tasteless! I can actually go to my local supermarket and purchase better quality, baked goods! at lunch, the chicken salad, and potato salad were the worst I’ve ever had anywhere!

The princess cruise from Europe was 28 days, the entertainment was very good embarkation, Rome and debarkation in Fort Lauderdale, Excellent!

unfortunately, 10 days into the cruise I got the stomach virus. I never had this on a cruise ship before (30+cruises.) also a lot of people had the flu, mostly Canadians, which I finally got the last day of the cruise. I was glad to get off that ship. Fortunately, I only live 20 minutes from Port Everglades!😁

 

 

 

 

[laurell410]

I sailed MSC on the Meraviglia September 2023 out of Brooklyn NY and like most the food was hit or miss.  Hated the buffet, it doesn't mater breakfast lunch or dinner sorry but I was not impressed.   Luckily we had the specialty dining package so we ate in the steak house, seafood and Japanese restaurants.   The Japanese restaurant was nothing to spectacular.   One night after leaving the club we went to the buffet and I got a ham sandwich,  I swear there was 1 slice of the thinnest piece of ham.  The entertainment was ok as they really tried to keep you entertained.   The drinks depended on the bartender which was hit or miss.   The cabins were small and the bathrooms were so small that it was sad.  This review is from an avid cruiser, with Norwegian and Royal Caribbean tie for #1 , Carnival is much better than MSC.   and that says very little about MSC.  I doubt if I would ever sail MSC ever again

[TBMVette]

Just got off this same cruise.  Our cabin was cleaned daily and tidied up 2 times per day additionally.  The production show entertainment was some of the best we've ever seen at sea.  Food was hit or miss but we never went hungry.  We are not the types who have to see customer service on a consistent basis so can't comment on that.  Ocean Cay may be the best private island.  We were there overnight.

 

I guess with the OPs username they should heed their own advice.

[cublet]

Hello,

 

The former Berlitz Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships, now Insight Guide, inspects cruise ships and analyses them into four categories depending on number of berths.

 

The 2024 edition inspected 326 ships whilst a further 17 were not rated because of their recent launch dates.

 

Out of a possible 2000 points, Europa 2 came top with 1792 points and National Geographic Sea Lion came bottom with 772 points.

 

Of the total 326 ships, MSC Euribia was in 52^nd place with 1490 points whilst the highest Celebrity ship, Beyond, was is 75^th place with 1445 points and the highest RCI ship was Anthem of the Seas in 92^nd place with 1419 points. Aside from Cunard, the ships ahead of MSC Euribia came from Mid-size, Small and Boutique categories.

 

Of the top 20 Large Resort Ships category, 12 of those 20 places were filled by MSC ships, beaten by QM2 and Mein Schiff.

 

The criteria being marked were: The Ship; Accommodation; Cuisine; Service; Entertainment; The Cruise Experience. Price, of itself, was not a criterion.

 

 

I don't think MSC's achievements were gained by being 'cheap'.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[thistimeplease]

11 hours ago, laurell410 said:

I sailed MSC on the Meraviglia September 2023 out of Brooklyn NY and like most the food was hit or miss.  Hated the buffet, it doesn't mater breakfast lunch or dinner sorry but I was not impressed.   Luckily we had the specialty dining package so we ate in the steak house, seafood and Japanese restaurants.   The Japanese restaurant was nothing to spectacular.   One night after leaving the club we went to the buffet and I got a ham sandwich,  I swear there was 1 slice of the thinnest piece of ham.  The entertainment was ok as they really tried to keep you entertained.   The drinks depended on the bartender which was hit or miss.   The cabins were small and the bathrooms were so small that it was sad.  This review is from an avid cruiser, with Norwegian and Royal Caribbean tie for #1 , Carnival is much better than MSC.   and that says very little about MSC.  I doubt if I would ever sail MSC ever again

In my opinion the staterooms were the same as NCL and RCL.  Actually, NCL Breakaway balcony room was extremely small.  I will agree the shower was very small.  Did you have the same stateroom level on each of the cruises?  We found the food on RCL to be terrible and I was very shocked by this.  Again, everyone is different and not every cruise line is for everyone.  We love NCL but found MSC to be quite similar, although we thought the specialty restaurants on MSC to be way above NCL and RCL. To each their own.

[deliver42]

Food on MSC is hit and miss. Customer se3rvice ha always been a sore spot to me. We had on issue with cabin attendant on the Seashore. She really didn't give a damn, and neither did customer service. The only way to sail MSC is the Yacht club, where the food is good, and service with a smile is constant.

[ZandZ]

Customer service not willing to accept you as the speaker for another passenger - that one is a positive.  Imagine how upset you would be if someone spoke in your name without your permission.  

[morpheusofthesea]

On 4/5/2024 at 8:30 PM, Never Again MSC 2024 said:

This MSC cruise has made me so angry that words cannot describe. 

"Anger is never without reason, but seldom with a good one." Benjamin Franklin

 

On 4/5/2024 at 8:30 PM, Never Again MSC 2024 said:

The room was completely filthy

DW feels the same about every cabin we enter. She brings latex gloves and disinfectant and we spend an hour cleaning before our luggage arrives. She sends me to the pool deck to retrieve extra towels to put over the "filthy furniture". 

 

On 4/5/2024 at 8:30 PM, Never Again MSC 2024 said:

 

Now to the food, the only good thing was the pizza .

We always find something so good we repeat it. I might be the only one in creation that finds the pizza good, but it never 'agrees' with me so I avoid the pizza when I return.

 

On 4/5/2024 at 8:30 PM, Never Again MSC 2024 said:

dry pasta

I have dry pasta every lunch which I put on top of a caesar salad, dressing on the side.

 

On 4/5/2024 at 8:30 PM, Never Again MSC 2024 said:

Lastly, the “customer service desk” was completely rude and unprofessional

We stood in line for half hour and witnessed same. However when we got to the head of the line the purser saw we were in the Yacht Club and wouldn't even deal with us. She called over a supervisor who wouldn't listen either. Instead the supervisor got on her phone and called the YC director and directed us to go back to the YC. The guest relations desk would have nothing to do with us. We went up the elevator and standing in front of us was the YC Director, Mr. Balla. Without me saying a word, he said "Whatever you want Mr. Morpheus !" He took care of everything.

[Rozzi03]

What ship were you on so I be sure not to go on that’s horrible.

[rrraydon]

On 4/6/2024 at 2:31 PM, Jules10192 said:

I was also on this cruise and can vouch to say the front desk is a hit or miss. While most employees are kind there is someone at the front desk who is very nasty and rude. Her husband who is an officer also assaulted a passenger because they are both high up they think there will be no repercussions. The food was horrible with a few days that we were pleasantly surprised. The chicken was often times undercooked and one of the only consistent things I could feed my son, since he is only a few months old, so this was difficult. The pizza was the only thing that never disappointed, but who wants to eat pizza everyday? My husband and I lost weight on this world cruise because most days we barely ate on the ship. 

Welcome to Cruise Critic....

[JamieLogical]

This is the dish I had on the Divina in February and it was delicious. This was the normal MDR, not in the YC. This was a lunch entree, not dinner.

 

Edited April 9 by JamieLogical

[Two Wheels Only]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:26 AM, cublet said:

Out of a possible 2000 points, Europa 2 came top with 1792 points and National Geographic Sea Lion came bottom with 772 points.

 

To be fair, Europa 2 (1792 points) and Europa (1766 points) could probably both fit inside of World Europa (1490 points). 😁