MSC Seashore Review - 6-9-24 to 9-16-24 - Ocean Cay, Costa Maya, Cozumel

[Heartgrove]

I sailed on the Carnival Venezia in November which has "Smart" elevators also. They were worse than the elevators on the Seashore. During the cruise they would arrive empty or totally full. Disembarkation was total chaos in that you needed to ride "Up" in an elevator so that you would be able to ride "Down" to disembark.

[jaxdog315]

On 6/18/2024 at 3:10 PM, DaKahuna said:

 

 Is it the elevators do not work as designed or is it that people do not know how to use them?  From what I am reading it appears as if they work exactly as designed. 

 

 

 I believe this is called "self disembarkation" - that means you are own your own.  If you choose to do that, why would you also be expecting help from a crew member?  I am confused as we know what a tremendous amount of work it is for the crew to get the ship turned around and ready for the new guest.  Just what was it that you needed the crew's help with?  And yes, every cruise ship I've been on has wanted people out of their cabins and have provided places throughout the ship where you could wait until your baggage number was called before departing?  What was your expectation?  

 

Don't worry he is just an entitled prissy queen 

On 6/18/2024 at 3:10 PM, DaKahuna said:

 

 

[wgeddings]

On 6/19/2024 at 11:40 AM, DaKahuna said:

@wgeddings  Can I beg your indulgence and ask exactly what about the elevators were no working properly?  I re-read your post and I still cannot figure out how they were malfunctioning or working contrary to how they were designed.  As I understrand it, if we are a party of two and want to go to the 15th floor, we tough the button for 15 twice and it tells us which elevator bank to wait at.  Was it not doing that?

 

I now understand more about your concern with disembarkation.  Even with us being in YC on Divina and with the crew trying to wrangle passengers in an orderly fashion, we found that a lot of passengers just ignored the crewmembers and did as they damn well pleased.  We had two couples simply get of the the main line and cut my wife and I off, joining our line, as we were being escorted by a butler to the gangway.  

 

@DaKahuna Sure, I will try to explain in more detail.  What you described is exactly correct.  However, beyond that, you would expect the elevator control system (ECS or whatever it may be called by someone who really knows) should then designate that there are 2 people on floor X who need to go to floor 15 and assign an elevator.  The ECS should also watch and if others in that bank of elevators want to 15 (or a similar floor) it should register them and note that it can transport them on the way to the first couple.  Accordingly, going up or down the elevator should know where people at that bank of elevators (usually 4) need to be picked up and where they need to be transported to and keep it under 16 (or whatever capacity) people.  In fact, that was our experience on Carnival Horizon with the smart elevators there.  However, that requires proper programming of the ECS to keep track and assign elevators.  

 

On Seashore, it was almost random.  If you were on 5 and needed to go to 15, it might assign elevator A for the couple.  Then some other couple might need to go from 5 to 14 and be assigned to elevator B.  If it was because the ECS thought A or B was full, that is one thing but it was not the case. Picture another couple walking up on 5 needing to go to 16 and being assigned to elevator A.  Why was the middle couple assigned to B?  Further, you would have excessively long waits for an elevator car to come and usually it was either full or empty.  Seldom in between.  Some of that might be user error but overall the ECS is supposed to be keeping track to speed up the elevators, not make them slower than they would be with traditional button pushing.   

 

That is why I felt that the problem is in the programming of the ECS.  With the same (or darned similar) systems on Seashore and on Horizon, the experience should be similar since both would have user error involvement.  Since they were not similar experiences, but similar equipment and users, the only variable I can think of is the programming of the ECS.   I hope that explained it better.  If not, let me know and I will be happy to try to explain further. 

 

Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of user issues and there ought to be instructions.  However, even without instructions, most people figured it out or had another passenger teach them after a day or 2.  The same long delays continued though.  I will note that one big difference between Seashore and Horizon is that there were no one with an override (other than certain crew perhaps for emergencies) so it is possible that the butlers for YC folks were causing a great deal of the delays.  However, since both banks (front and back) were having the same delays and since the YC stuff and butlers were mainly toward the front, I am not sure that really contributed. 

 

 

[wgeddings]

17 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

I sailed on the Carnival Venezia in November which has "Smart" elevators also. They were worse than the elevators on the Seashore. During the cruise they would arrive empty or totally full. Disembarkation was total chaos in that you needed to ride "Up" in an elevator so that you would be able to ride "Down" to disembark.

hate to hear that.  Hopefully Carnival can revamp the elevators to be more like Horizon.  I think they got that ship (Venezia) from another line so maybe that contributed?  

 

Makes me think about being at a big convention where the elevators are always full. No matter where you are going, you just get on an elevator and sooner or later you'll get to your floor because it only goes up and down, not side to side. 😀  If you've ever been to DragonCon in Atlanta or ComicCon or anywhere similar, you know just what I mean.  I think sometimes folks just attend to clog up the elevators.

[wgeddings]

23 hours ago, Fishwife2016 said:

So very true.  We were on the Seashore in April and the disembark process for us was very easy and quick.  We waited until our group was called, walked off and to the luggage pickup area.  Luggage was very easy to locate.  We walked past many others who were waiting off to the side, under the watchful eye of several port staff, because they thought they could beat the system.  Mom and I had did have a little chuckle over that!

DW and I are thinking that is a better process in the future.  Normally we carry our bags off and it is faster and no other line has been as chaotic as MSC.  This time, everyone was to out of their staterooms at 7:00.  We were in the chaos from about 7:00 until we got to our car in the port garage about 8:30.  If we had let them take our luggage off, we would have gone to the holding area and the projected disembark time was about 10:00.  Others were earlier but none before 8:45 or 9:00.  We had a 6 hour drive ahead of us so hated to wait to get on the road but in the future, I think we will wait.  

 

Again, for anyone in YC you probably had a completely different experience so YC should share experiences with YC and keep in mind the non-YC folks had a very different experience than you did. 

[Fishwife2016]

4 hours ago, wgeddings said:

DW and I are thinking that is a better process in the future.  Normally we carry our bags off and it is faster and no other line has been as chaotic as MSC.  This time, everyone was to out of their staterooms at 7:00.  We were in the chaos from about 7:00 until we got to our car in the port garage about 8:30.  If we had let them take our luggage off, we would have gone to the holding area and the projected disembark time was about 10:00.  Others were earlier but none before 8:45 or 9:00.  We had a 6 hour drive ahead of us so hated to wait to get on the road but in the future, I think we will wait.  

 

Again, for anyone in YC you probably had a completely different experience so YC should share experiences with YC and keep in mind the non-YC folks had a very different experience than you did. 

We live on the west coast of Florida so our drive is about 3 hours.  However, this trip was my mom and I only so my husband dropped us off and picked us up.  We normally do the self disembark but this time we chose to let them get our luggage.  We were in no rush to get off and we were able to go down to the MDR for breakfast then to our holding area until our turn was called, which was around 9:00.  It was a very easy and honestly one of our better disembarks.  I told my husband that in the future we will send our luggage down and pick it up.  We will be sailing YC over Thanksgiving so will be a different experience for us.

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, wgeddings said:

 I hope that explained it better.  I

 

 No, your explanation was just find and makes sense.  The only thing I could think of would be that the elevators were trying to do 'non stop' service, or priority service to prevent what happens on a normal elevator where someone gets on and off on almost every deck.  

 I guess some people thinks that one way is better than the other.  I do not know.  I have only sailed on MSC Divina and her elevators did not work like that.  I know the forward elevators for YC would show Priority and when someone in YC used their card, any other floors were bypassed no matter who got in first.  

 

[wgeddings]

On 6/21/2024 at 4:51 PM, DaKahuna said:

 

 No, your explanation was just find and makes sense.  The only thing I could think of would be that the elevators were trying to do 'non stop' service, or priority service to prevent what happens on a normal elevator where someone gets on and off on almost every deck.  

 I guess some people thinks that one way is better than the other.  I do not know.  I have only sailed on MSC Divina and her elevators did not work like that.  I know the forward elevators for YC would show Priority and when someone in YC used their card, any other floors were bypassed no matter who got in first.  

 

Our first MSC Cruise was Divina and I can unreservedly say that Seashore is vastly different.  Divine’s atrium seemed beautiful till I saw Seashore.  If you like Divina, you will adore Seashore.  So many wise ship decisions it makes the elevator issue more surprising.  
 

Our first cabin on Seashore was on 5th deck (main entry deck) by the atrium.  Check Deck plan for Seashore and we were in 5159.  I was really worried it would be super loud due to bands in atrium etc.  it was silent though.  Well laid out halls deadened noise and obviously good material used.   Buffet area seats a ton of people but is well laid out that you don’t feel like you’re eating in an airplane hangar.   So many things impressed me as being well thought out it makes the ice dispensers and elevators that much odder.  
 

 

[DaKahuna]

15 hours ago, wgeddings said:

Our first MSC Cruise was Divina and I can unreservedly say that Seashore is vastly different.  Divine’s atrium seemed beautiful till I saw Seashore.  If you like Divina, you will adore Seashore.  So many wise ship decisions it makes the elevator issue more surprising.  

 

We are sailing on Seascape vice Seashore and are looking forward to it.  We enjoyed Divina and she was the perfect size for us but wanted the two itineraries on Seascape B2B. 

 

[noshoobie]

On 6/17/2024 at 10:48 AM, wgeddings said:

The food was not as good this time.  It was still better than some lines we have been on but just not as good as last MSC cruise for some reason. 

I would love to know the answer to this question. Why is the food not as good on the same ship just a few months later? We sailed on the Meraviglia and the food was excellent in the buffet and the MDR. When we sailed on the Seashore we noted that the food was not quite as good. We sailed on the Meraviglia again expecting the food to be excellent and were disappointed. It was not that it wasn't good - it just wasn't as excellent as it was the first time - especially in the buffet. Where is the consistency?

[wgeddings]

23 hours ago, noshoobie said:

I would love to know the answer to this question. Why is the food not as good on the same ship just a few months later? We sailed on the Meraviglia and the food was excellent in the buffet and the MDR. When we sailed on the Seashore we noted that the food was not quite as good. We sailed on the Meraviglia again expecting the food to be excellent and were disappointed. It was not that it wasn't good - it just wasn't as excellent as it was the first time - especially in the buffet. Where is the consistency?

I assume your question is why would the food be different on the same ship only 2 or so months apart. Sounds like you experienced the same thing.  Please bear in mind the food was still good (better than some lines buffet especially).  I think it is a two fold answer. 

 

First, the first time you try something it is special and new so the second time, you have expectations.  Therefore, some of the difference might just be that our expectations were higher or that the food was not "new" to us.  

 

Second, in our end of March cruise, I know there was a change in personnel afterward (contracts expired) since there were new performers, a new cruise director, etc. so it is possible there were new cooks or line personnel.  As these cooks get more used to things, it will probably improve if that was a factor.  

 

I also need to mention that I lean toward more flavorful dishes while DW prefers more bland dishes.  So each person's tastes can also be a factor although here, it was the same 2 people.  I do note that in the MDR, the selections were not all that inspiring and thus we did not even eat in the MDR 2 nights.  Neither of us eat fish (other than shellfish) and I notice lines are going more toward fish since that is likely cheaper than beef/chicken.  Although there is always a beef or chicken option it was not inspiring to us.  

[DaKahuna]

6 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

I assume your question is why would the food be different on the same ship only 2 or so months apart.

 

 Look to the head chef for the answer.  The few times I have managed to dig deeply into this question, there was a turn over in the head chef and or a large part of the kitchen staff.  Get a great head chef and the food is usually much better.