First MSC cruise review: Great trip, food and service do suck, but with the $aving$, I want to go again

[kad56]

Just got off my first MSC cruise! I asked a bunch of questions on this forum before my trip, and appreciate this community's help. I was on a 10 day sailing (7+3 B2B) out of Miami on the MSC Magnifica in a Bella experience. I really wanted to check out Ocean Cay, and I really needed to keep costs low on this trip, and on those measures, the trip was a huge success.

 

I know MSC gets a lot of hate, so I wanted to share my impressions with a friendlier audience 😊 I had issues with the service and the food, which made the trip a bit less pleasant, but not the extent that I would swear off MSC forever. I didn’t have a premium-line experience, but I also didn’t pay for a premium-line experience, so I had to adjust. 

 

I’m looking at booking another cruise after this experience. The on-board experience didn’t blow me away, so I’d like to do a port-intensive trip, and plan some nice dining experiences on-shore. I’m focusing on newer ships because they look great, and because I heard a rumor that service is slightly better on the newer ships (particularly the US-focused Sea Class). 

 

Things I loved

• Ocean cay, ocean cay, ocean cay. Omg ocean cay. I love quiet calm beaches and spent most of my time at the spa beach, which had 5-20 on it at any give time. They play soothing spa music all day. I fell asleep. I read. I made friends. Just writing this makes me want to book another cruise that goes to ocean cay.
• MSC upgraded me to balcony room. It was a nice, spacious room, and I spent a lot of time there to avoid chaos elsewhere on the ship. The buffet really did get too busy for me, but I just took my food back to my own private space. I think this was my biggest stateroom ever, and I could really spread out and enjoy the space.
• I matched to Diamond status before the cruise and got a bunch of freebies as a result (specialty dining, thermal spa time). I ended up getting a good amount of free champagne out of the diamond status at two cocktail parties (one for diamonds, one for all status guests), as well as free bottle of champagne in my room.
• The ship spent a lot of time in port, and I liked having no time pressure to get back. The ship generally docked between 7 and 9, and the earliest all-aboard time I remember is 5:30. It just made for a much more relaxing day, because I never really worried about getting back.
• They have dance lessons multiple times day! I’ve never seen this mentioned in but it’s a fun activity I’ve seen less of on other cruises. On my sailing none of the dance lessons required a partner, which is a plus.
• The energy of the production shows is great. I’m not really that into production shows, but I made sure I saw all of them. The dancers are amazing, and the cast does a great job of getting the audience involved.
• There was a ton of space in the lounges and bars. I never saw an overcrowded lounge.
• It was a great value for money. I looked back at my spending, and my princess Caribbean Cruise this spring cost more than 3x this one on MSC. Yeah, Princess is fancier, but I can’t do fancy on every trip. I thought the 3-night trip was a particularly good value. That one spends an entire long day in Key West, and even longer day in Ocean Cay, and there’s a production show every night.

 

The food and service definitely suck

• Food – The food itself is fine. Some options are excellent (pizza, brie cheese, croissants, egg salad), most are just fine. The problem is limited hours and lack of flexibility. The buffet has a specific hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if you miss those, your option is mainly pizza and burgers. A lot of the buffet stations were closed all of the time, which made not sense to me because the ship was full. Dinner seating in the MDR starts 6-6:15 or 8:30-8:45, and they won’t seat you later. The MDR itself has a lot of large tables, so both your dining partners and your dining time are assigned. I tried to move to my own table and got told off by a manager. I get that I booked Bella, but I figured it was worth a try. I wasn’t expecting to be scolded like a wayward child. The frustrating thing about the MDR is that there’s always available tables because not everybody shows up every night, but they have their seating chart and won’t budge. I gave up on the MDR after my scolding, and ended up consuming a lot of pizza and cheese and bread. I think there was decent food on board, but I just ate the best options available when I was hungry. I think if MSC just extended dining times in the buffet and MDR, they’d get fewer complaints about the food.
• Service – Pretty lackluster. I don’t think that it’s “European” service and the staff aren’t smiling or chatting enough or checking in on how my meal is going. They get things wrong, aren’t accommodating, and some were be borderline rude. Like I mentioned, I matched to diamond and got some freebies out of the status, I had to go to guest services multiple times to actually get my diamond benefits because they didn’t show up on time, and I actually missed out on a few of the benefits because I wasn’t advocating for myself frequently enough. I called guest services a few times in the cruise with cabin issues, they were never addressed, so I learned to physically walk to guest services. When I asked basic question (what terminal are we in? when do the ocean cay trams start running?) staff didn’t know and didn’t go find out. No one of really went out of their way to be extra accommodating, to call someone, to figure something out, to understand what you really need and see if they could provide an alternate solution. That said, I chatted to another cruiser who said service was much better on a recent Sea-class ship voyage, so I’m hopeful the experience might be better on a newer ship…

 

 

[Até]

A good summation of MSC. 

 

Now awaiting responses suggesting that you look at Yacht Club for your next sailing. /s

[kad56]

15 minutes ago, Até said:

Now awaiting responses suggesting that you look at Yacht Club for your next sailing. /s

 

I actually mentioned that I need to be cost concious in hopes of not getting that advice. I do realize that more money will get me better service.... one of the other pluses of MSC is that is they seem to know that they have a value concious customer. I went to the future cruise presentation, and the FCC flagged cruises that were particularly low cost. 

[Até]

7 minutes ago, kad56 said:

I actually mentioned that I need to be cost concious in hopes of not getting that advice.

Understood.  Subtlety doesn't seem to keep those comments at bay.  My apologies if you didn't appreciate the sarcasm.   Thanks again for a value minded review. 

[no1talks]

20 minutes ago, Até said:

"Now awaiting responses suggesting that you look at Yacht Club for your next sailing."

Actually, I'd recommend an Aurea booking on a cruise with an overnight at Ocean Cay. It would be less expensive than YC, but still add some nice extras.

Also, on some ships, there are Aurea suites with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Very nice to have when cruising as a group and sofa beds are just not suitable.


 

[kad56]

12 minutes ago, Até said:

Understood.  Subtlety doesn't seem to keep those comments at bay.  My apologies if you didn't appreciate the sarcasm.   Thanks again for a value minded review. 

Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to call you out. I did get the sarcasm and appreciated it. I just know there's so many YC fans here, and I just wanted to be clear that I'm very much interested in MSC for the low, low prices.

Edited July 9 by kad56

[no1talks]

14 minutes ago, kad56 said:

"I went to the future cruise presentation, and the FCC flagged cruises that were particularly low cost."

Now that you have Voyager Club status, be sure to grab those VC discounts when booking.

[JamieLogical]

It's really unfortunate you didn't get to eat in the MDR. I feel lucky that I actually enjoy sharing tables. I get that some people prefer to eat alone, though. If it's any consolation, even if you had been moved to a two-top by yourself, you still would have had strangers sitting inches away from you on either side, so there really is no such thing as "private dining" in the MDR on MSC (or most other cruise lines I have been on for that matter!).

[Até]

Do you think the ship was anywhere near full capacity?  Did you notice a large number of children compared to Princess and HA?  How about the fellow passenger nationality demographics?

[kad56]

14 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

It's really unfortunate you didn't get to eat in the MDR. I feel lucky that I actually enjoy sharing tables. I get that some people prefer to eat alone, though. If it's any consolation, even if you had been moved to a two-top by yourself, you still would have had strangers sitting inches away from you on either side, so there really is no such thing as "private dining" in the MDR on MSC (or most other cruise lines I have been on for that matter!).

You know, there was a couple of things. I was actually expecting to be grouped with other solo travellers (there were plenty on the sailing). I was assuming I'd make friends at the dinner table. I ended up with two couples, who were nice enough, but the men really dominated the conversation, and they group were really slow eaters, so when I did eat with them I ended up missing most of the early show. The folks were nice enough, but I didn't like them enough to spend 2 hours with the everyday and miss the entertainment. So then I tried to change my table, and I had a pretty unpleasant run in with one of the managers, so that really put me off. I really love the MDR, so that was dissapointing, but it was my trip and I really didn't want to run into this mean dude. I know I could have complained to guest services, but I'd rather focus on enjoying my balcony than spending my day escalating. I looked a some videos of a sea-class ship, and it looks like the have more small tables with like 2 inches in between. That's great for me. Probably my preffered set up. I get my own table, but I get to chat with the group next to me. 

[kad56]

2 minutes ago, Até said:

Do you think the ship was anywhere near full capacity?  

It was. The sailing was marked sold out online a few weeks before sailaway and there was a sign at guest services that it was full. 

[kad56]

4 minutes ago, Até said:

Did you notice a large number of children compared to Princess and HA?

Way more kids!!! That said this was a summer sailing and pricewise it's more accessible to families. And the itinerary was much easier to fit into a week or a weekend. I found I didn't mind the kids. They do dominate the pools, but I find lido pools to crowded for me even if it's adults only, so that didn't make a difference. Actually loved watching the kids react to the production shows. The entertainers did a great job of interacting with them (coming off stage and giving kids a high five, singing directly to a group of screaming teen girls), and I actually thing the kids enhanced my show experience. 

[JamieLogical]

8 minutes ago, kad56 said:

You know, there was a couple of things. I was actually expecting to be grouped with other solo travellers (there were plenty on the sailing). I was assuming I'd make friends at the dinner table. I ended up with two couples, who were nice enough, but the men really dominated the conversation, and they group were really slow eaters, so when I did eat with them I ended up missing most of the early show. The folks were nice enough, but I didn't like them enough to spend 2 hours with the everyday and miss the entertainment. So then I tried to change my table, and I had a pretty unpleasant run in with one of the managers, so that really put me off. I really love the MDR, so that was dissapointing, but it was my trip and I really didn't want to run into this mean dude. I know I could have complained to guest services, but I'd rather focus on enjoying my balcony than spending my day escalating. I looked a some videos of a sea-class ship, and it looks like the have more small tables with like 2 inches in between. That's great for me. Probably my preffered set up. I get my own table, but I get to chat with the group next to me. 

 

Ah, I see. So the issue wasn't that you were assigned to a sharing table, it was the specific table-mates. In my experience, MSC does try to seat solo travelers together, so it is unusual you were assigned to a table with two couples. Definitely bad luck! You may have had more luck asking to be switched to a different sharing table rather than asking for your own table, but hindsight is 20/20! On one of my solo sailings on the Meraviglia, I was seated at a sharing table with four other solo travelers who all IMMEDIATELY started talking about politics! I bit my tongue and sat on my hands, and then immediately asked to be changed to another sharing table for the rest of the sailing and I was able to be accommodated. Something to keep in mind if you end up in that situation again.

[kad56]

8 minutes ago, Até said:

How about the fellow passenger nationality demographics?

Well, it's a lot more diverse looking than princess and hal, and much younger. Very few scooters. There was a bunch of Spanish speakers on board, but I can't personally tell if there were a lot of people who came in from South America, or if the ship was full of Latino-Americans. Probably both. I occassional heard families speaking German, Dutch and Portuguese, and I met a Welsh family on a shore excursion. 

 

I really like the passengers overall. I just think it was overall a positive group. I think there was a lot of first time cruisers, people liked it, they said the liked the food, they were happy with the value for the money, people loved ocean key, they loved the parties. Most of my conversation were about how much people were happy. I think it made me happier to be around happy people enjoying themselves. I've heard a lot more complaints about cruises while sailing on princess and hal. 

[kad56]

4 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Ah, I see. So the issue wasn't that you were assigned to a sharing table, it was the specific table-mates. In my experience, MSC does try to seat solo travelers together, so it is unusual you were assigned to a table with two couples. Definitely bad luck! You may have had more luck asking to be switched to a different sharing table rather than asking for your own table, but hindsight is 20/20! On one of my solo sailings on the Meraviglia, I was seated at a sharing table with four other solo travelers who all IMMEDIATELY started talking about politics! I bit my tongue and sat on my hands, and then immediately asked to be changed to another sharing table for the rest of the sailing and I was able to be accommodated. Something to keep in mind if you end up in that situation again.

OMG! I don't care about what your politics are, I don't want to talk about them on vacation. Also, it's the thing that divides us in the US right now. And I want to connect with people not argue with them. I would have done the same.

 

For more context, at the point at which I gave up on the MDR, I had already had to do work to resolve a bunch of other issues, and I was just not into doing more work. And frankly, I was afraid of getting scolded by this mean manager again.

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, kad56 said:

OMG! I don't care about what your politics are, I don't want to talk about them on vacation. Also, it's the thing that divides us in the US right now. And I want to connect with people not argue with them. I would have done the same.

 

For more context, at the point at which I gave up on the MDR, I had already had to do work to resolve a bunch of other issues, and I was just not into doing more work. And frankly, I was afraid of getting scolded by this mean manager again.

 

Right? Everyone knows that the two things you NEVER talk about in mixed company are politics and religion. I have never had that happen before or since at any of my sharing tables on any cruise line. There are so many other great things to talk about with strangers on cruises! Past cruises and travel, kids, pets, upcoming port stops and excursions.... the list goes on and on. Why would politics be the very first thing you bring up on the very first night?!?!? And the fact that the other four people were all strangers who had just met made it even weirder!

[kad56]

Just now, JamieLogical said:

 

Right? Everyone knows that the two things you NEVER talk about in mixed company are politics and religion. I have never had that happen before or since at any of my sharing tables on any cruise line. There are so many other great things to talk about with strangers on cruises! Past cruises and travel, kids, pets, upcoming port stops and excursions.... the list goes on and on. Why would politics be the very first thing you bring up on the very first night?!?!? And the fact that the other four people were all strangers who had just met made it even weirder!

Were they on the same page politically, or were the arguing? I wouldn't even want to be a table of people talking politics if their politics match mine. It's a break from reality. I deleted most of my current affairs podcasts while on this ship.

[JamieLogical]

5 minutes ago, kad56 said:

Were they on the same page politically, or were the arguing? I wouldn't even want to be a table of people talking politics if their politics match mine. It's a break from reality. I deleted most of my current affairs podcasts while on this ship.

 

They were all on the same page politically and it was not the page that I am on, thus the biting my tongue and sitting on my hands. I did NOT want to engage in a political argument with a bunch of people I had just met and was supposed to be spending 90 minutes a day with for the next seven days.

[kad56]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

They were all on the same page politically and it was not the page that I am on, thus the biting my tongue and sitting on my hands. I did NOT want to engage in a political argument with a bunch of people I had just met and was supposed to be spending 90 minutes a day with for the next seven days.

 

That does sound terrible. 

 

Anyway, I love eating in MDRS in general, and I do want to say that while my MDR experience was a big dissapointment, it did not "ruin my cruise". I made my choices, and I have a better sense of how I want to handle MDR dining on my next trip with the line. 

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

They were all on the same page politically and it was not the page that I am on, thus the biting my tongue and sitting on my hands. I did NOT want to engage in a political argument with a bunch of people I had just met and was supposed to be spending 90 minutes a day with for the next seven days.

 

I would rhetorically ask "Do you think that (insert name of politician) wastes his/her vacation talking about people like us or does he/she take a break from politics and enjoy the vacation?" then go right back to eating/drinking while I ignore whomever isn't intelligent enough to understand the question.

[kad56]

7 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

I would rhetorically ask "Do you think that (insert name of politician) wastes his/her vacation talking about people like us or does he/she take a break from politics and enjoy the vacation?" then go right back to eating/drinking while I ignore whomever isn't intelligent enough to understand the question.

 

LOLZZZ

 

Personally, I'm way too conflict avoidant to do that. I certainly wouldn't want start with that on a trip. But it's an awesome comeback if you're more intrepid than I am.

[Até]

3 hours ago, kad56 said:

Way more kids!!!

I probably should have been more specific and asked - compared to a US Summer sailing on Princess or HA.  Not sure of your sailing history. 

 

I'd be interested to hear a comparison if you book a Summer trip on one of the Seaside/+ class.  I was hoping Magnifica would be less of a draw to families than the newer ships with more kid oriented features.  But the short itineraries and low prices are likely going to be their main booking driver.

[kad56]

20 minutes ago, Até said:

I probably should have been more specific and asked - compared to a US Summer sailing on Princess or HA.  Not sure of your sailing history. 

 

I'd be interested to hear a comparison if you book a Summer trip on one of the Seaside/+ class.  I was hoping Magnifica would be less of a draw to families than the newer ships with more kid oriented features.  But the short itineraries and low prices are likely going to be their main booking driver.

 

So unfortunately I don't have a ton of insight, I've sailed spring break and early June on princess, but I don't think those are a great comparison. My HAL sailing was way off-season. I don't have great comparisons, but I'll pay attention on my next sailing (whenever that is).

 

That said, I really didn't families were put off by the lack of water attractions for kids. The price and duration play in Magnifica's favor, and so many people I chatted with were new cruisers, and if you're cruising for the first time, you might not know what to look for. I'm relative new to cruising, and I'm certainly certain what to look for in a ship and an itinerary.

[TheycallmeDrew]

Food is so subjective. I have only taken 1 MSC cruise so far but I loved the food. People at my table were hit or miss. I didn't take the opinion of the guy ordering his steak well done though! 🙂 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

They were all on the same page politically and it was not the page that I am on, thus the biting my tongue and sitting on my hands. I did NOT want to engage in a political argument with a bunch of people I had just met and was supposed to be spending 90 minutes a day with for the next seven days.

I love to have civil and friendly conversations with people that don’t align with my beliefs.  I personally think people in the United States in particular take things a bit too personally.  It’s nothing personal; I look at it as tolerance (both ways; for me and for others).  We can all “agree to disagree” and learn that ultimately we’re all human beings.  We can all get along even if we don’t agree with others’ opinions on politics and religion. It would be a very boring world if we all thought the same.  I still have hope! 😀