MSC Virtuosa Complaints 2024

[CruiseAddict001]

On board Virtuosa now. Very mixed opinions, mostly not great. We've cruised many cruise lines, this is the first and worst with MSC Virtuosa.
 

Entertainment late at night is terrible. Late night after 23:00 it's dead. The Attic Club deck 18 is essentially the kids club. False advertising yo suggest a nightclub open 23:00- 03:00z. Mostly no DJ and no seating or tables. It's truly awful.

 

The fun the first few days was had outside at the Horizon Bar outside on deck 18, with a great DJ and disko, ot was great, and the only late night entertainment especially for younger groups and adults that want a little dance and few drinks.

 

They've now killed it after 3 nights, no DJ, no music, everyone complaining. MSC killed the fun and don't appear to be interested. Last night oil from engine landing on all the guests clothes even.

 

Teens and adults are hanging around aimlessly bored now with nowhere to go. Now they can't dance the night away, they are hanging around, some drinking getting into trouble. They need and deserve entertainment and frankly the disco at the back was the best for them.

 

Clientele:

 

A bit rough at times. Numerous stories of entire families getting thrown off. Drunken antics last night, almost fighting witnessed, allegations of a drink getting spiked (likely false). Keep your kids safe, don't let them drink, you'll be thrown off.

 

 

Food:

 

Book before the cruise the extra speciality restaurants or you'll be disappointed. Dining times fixed early and late have caused lots of problems.

 

Main dining room has a poor basic cheap menu, it's not great. The premium specialty restaurants are good and therefore strongly suggested for those already booked in future onto Virtuosa (damage limitation!). Book before the cruise as it's way better value.

 

Buffet isn't great, they struggle to keep up with the amount of guests and it is very repetitive. Food choice and quality not great at all, very cheap cuts of meat for instance beef chuck today could have leathered my shoes.

 

Staffing:

 

Not enough bar staff everywhere on ship.

 

Theatre:

 

Can't take drinks in, they don't want to have to clean.

 

Male singers good. Female singers terrible, pronunciation and non English language means their singing isn't great at all. Numerous people walking out of shows. Only 35 min shows, overall opinion is not great.

 

Violinist decent, cruise director is the Hypnotist, very good show, excellent in fact.

 

Premium drinks package:

 

Decent, lots of choice. You'll need the drinks to drown your sorrows and for the lack of entertainment.

 

Rooms:

 

Tiny and basic, way smaller than other cruise ships I have been on. Too many people on board.

 

Staff:

 

Speciality restaurants and main bar deck 6:

 

Fantastic, very friendly. Cannot fault the food and staff in the speciality restaurants.

 

Atmosphere:

 

Generally lacklustre and wanting. Big on pushing jewellery sales on deck at 2pm, lack of music, bands, everything. They need bands and music. It's not even a party ship as some say, it's just very lacklustre.

 

 

Overall, lots of guests are bored, lack of entertainment and lots of return MSC guests saying it's now rubbish and they will not return. We have another week of this to put up with.

 

If you are coming booking premium dining in my opinion is a must as well as drinks package, that will help.

 

MSC - you have made the ship boring. Our table last night overall had paid £25,000, you won't even play music let alone provide a DJ or entertainment. The ship is seriously lacking in entertainment and basic holiday feeling at night. You will pay with many guests unhappy refusing to ever return. Hundreds of guests are complaining and you are ignoring all the complaints.

 

I will not book MSC ever again, and I would strongly recommend against this ship and MSC to others. They are not a patch on P&O, NCL, Royal Caribbean. 

[showingdiva]

Sorry you don't like her.   Just as well we are all different and like different things.   Might be worth speaking to the post-cruise team at MSC UK with your concerns if things were really that bad.  I'm sure they would want to improve on such a terrible experience.

 

She's not perfect, but I must have got my way to Diamond voyager level on a different ship.   I've spent many a night on Virtuosa since she arrived in the UK (ask my bank balance!) - and work with / on board an average of 150 cruise ships every year.

 

Incidentally, standard balcony cabins on the vast majority of recently built cruise ships are 17m2, with a 6m2 balcony.

[marktwothousand]

Dear me, I’m taking my first UK cruise this fall…two weeks long on the Virtuosa…and this kind of review has got me tremendously worried! I was definitely hoping for a good party atmosphere and it’s a damn shame to hear the streets are rolling up at 11 PM. I’m also quite disconcerted to hear there’s rough trade aboard, especially with the anti-immigration sentiment out there right now, makes me leery for my own safety aboard. I do like a good evening walkabout among the crowd.

 

I think I’ll be keeping a low profile if the sentiment portrayed in this review, and the media sentiment out there, Both hold true in a couple months time.

 

unfortunately it’s too late to cancel, but it will definitely make me rethink dinner arrangements as I will be very concerned about being placed at a table with the kind of

behaviour and atmosphere described in the review. 
 

Perhaps the unique itinerary and port intensiveness of my sailing will help keep things in check and be a saving grace. 

 

OP please keep us posted in the next week how things are going. 

 

 

[Essiesmom]

31 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Dear me, I’m taking my first UK cruise this fall…two weeks long on the Virtuosa…and this kind of review has got me tremendously worried! I was definitely hoping for a good party atmosphere and it’s a damn shame to hear the streets are rolling up at 11 PM. I’m also quite disconcerted to hear there’s rough trade aboard, especially with the anti-immigration sentiment out there right now, makes me leery for my own safety aboard. I do like a good evening walkabout among the crowd.

 

I think I’ll be keeping a low profile if the sentiment portrayed in this review, and the media sentiment out there, Both hold true in a couple months time.

 

unfortunately it’s too late to cancel, but it will definitely make me rethink dinner arrangements as I will be very concerned about being placed at a table with the kind of

behaviour and atmosphere described in the review. 
 

Perhaps the unique itinerary and port intensiveness of my sailing will help keep things in check and be a saving grace. 

 

OP please keep us posted in the next week how things are going. 

 

 

There is a Live from going on right now on this same ship, and he isn’t reporting any of these problems.  EM

[marktwothousand]

3 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

There is a Live from going on right now on this same ship, and he isn’t reporting any of these problems.  EM

Thanks for pointing it out. Going to read it now

[showingdiva]

22 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Dear me, I’m taking my first UK cruise this fall…two weeks long on the Virtuosa…and this kind of review has got me tremendously worried! I was definitely hoping for a good party atmosphere and it’s a damn shame to hear the streets are rolling up at 11 PM. I’m also quite disconcerted to hear there’s rough trade aboard, especially with the anti-immigration sentiment out there right now, makes me leery for my own safety aboard. I do like a good evening walkabout among the crowd.

 

I think I’ll be keeping a low profile if the sentiment portrayed in this review, and the media sentiment out there, Both hold true in a couple months time.

 

unfortunately it’s too late to cancel, but it will definitely make me rethink dinner arrangements as I will be very concerned about being placed at a table with the kind of

behaviour and atmosphere described in the review. 
 

Perhaps the unique itinerary and port intensiveness of my sailing will help keep things in check and be a saving grace. 

 

OP please keep us posted in the next week how things are going. 

 

 

 

Okay.   I'm done with the scary Virtuosa stories ...

 

I disembarked Virtuosa in Southampton at the end of June.   My fifth trip on MSC in 3 years.   All on Virtuosa, bar one on her near identical sister Euribia.

 

I travel solo.  I am female.    Never, ever at any point have I felt scared, intimidated or locked myself in my cabin in terror.   Never had bad table guests.   Seen a few a bit worse for wear, but there's 332m and 19 decks of ship.   Very easy to avoid.   I have walked my way around all of this ship over the last few years.   You will be perfectly safe.

 

The food is Mediterranean.   If burgers, chicken nuggets and fries are a passenger's standard diet, they're probably going to struggle.   Being polite and friendly to the staff means they're polite and friendly back.   Everyone is entitled to an off day.   If you really don't like your dining companions for whatever reason, have a quiet word with the restaurant manager.  

 

According to MSC, almost 1/3rd of the UK passengers (like me) are Scottish.  Our only fault is that we are sometimes difficult to understand.   We talk fast (apparently).

 

I've had a look at the planner (they only come in paper format if you ask for one at guest services, or you ask your room steward to deliver them).  There are parties in the galleria, an after dark disco on deck 18 and a DJ, also in the galleria which doesn't begin until 11.30pm.

 

Yes, Virtuosa has a lot of passengers, but she's also a big ship.   The first evening is generally a bit chaotic because everyone is lost and they generally haven't decided which is their favourite bar .. or how much late night pizza they really need.

 

PLEASE do not even think about cancelling your cruise on Virtuosa.    I am already looking forward to No.6 and 7 on board.

 

[marktwothousand]

1 minute ago, showingdiva said:

 

Okay.   I'm done with the scary Virtuosa stories ...

 

Thanks for the positive stories. I booked the Virtuosa cruise because I had such a good first time experience on my NYC Meraviglia cruise this year. And it’s just like the Virtuosa I gather, so I’m hoping for as good as an experience. 
 

That cruise was essentially a party cruise from Brooklyn, so I was pretty concerned about a rough local crowd there too…and hoping that the Virtuosa crowd will be, at least, no worse than that crowd.

 

The worst it got on that cruise was a lot of F** bombs in the music and raunchy dancing at the adults club, which was WAY less of an issue than I felt it would be. 

[sfaaa]

People are complaining because there is no disco? Disco is dead since the 80's. Time to move on and try a new hobby.

[CruiseAddict001]

Numerous rumours of circa 24 passengers removed from the ship Sun 5th July, unknown reasons. Some apparently to police.

 

Sun 5th, nice evening prior to 2am, after numerous complaints, DJ returned starting 23:30, great atmosphere again on back of the ship Horizon bar. Teens dancing, adults mingling having fun again, all well behaved.
 

2am bars shuttered an hour early across ship after apparent problems. Yet another report of a guest taken to medical attention apparently resulting in all bars closed. Some unconfirmed suggestion this was the second consecutive night of suggestion of possible spiking, but take this with a pinch of salt. It could just be false rumour. It was very unusual to close the bar 1 hr early, and close the Casino bar early. It did suggest concern and the bar staff were telling guests of medical incident problems again.

 

Some disturbances around 2am also concerning an adult male. Numerous mothers approaching him as it was thought he'd been removed for inappropriate behaviour and exposing himself to children on previous evenings. This had caused many complaints to MSC and safety concern amongst parents.

 

A nice evening other than the drama again before closing. 
 

This is an honest review from personal perspectives and opinion, treat it as such! My recommendation, keep an eye on and control your kids. Many families appear to have been offloaded losing their holidays and no doubt costing a fortune to get home. 

[showingdiva]

Are you running around the ship collecting complaints  / surveys from other passengers and monitoring bar closing times?   Given the size of Virtuosa, I can't even fathom out how this is even possible.  This is neither the ship I know, nor the one that someone is blogging on currently.

[CruiseAddict001]

5 minutes ago, showingdiva said:

Are you running around the ship collecting complaints  / surveys from other passengers and monitoring bar closing times?   Given the size of Virtuosa, I can't even fathom out how this is even possible.  This is neither the ship I know, nor the one that someone is blogging on currently.

Sounds like you'll be just fine...

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

On 8/4/2024 at 5:06 PM, marktwothousand said:

Dear me, I’m taking my first UK cruise this fall…two weeks long on the Virtuosa…and this kind of review has got me tremendously worried! I was definitely hoping for a good party atmosphere and it’s a damn shame to hear the streets are rolling up at 11 PM. I’m also quite disconcerted to hear there’s rough trade aboard, especially with the anti-immigration sentiment out there right now, makes me leery for my own safety aboard. I do like a good evening walkabout among the crowd.

 

I think I’ll be keeping a low profile if the sentiment portrayed in this review, and the media sentiment out there, Both hold true in a couple months time.

 

unfortunately it’s too late to cancel, but it will definitely make me rethink dinner arrangements as I will be very concerned about being placed at a table with the kind of

behaviour and atmosphere described in the review. 
 

Perhaps the unique itinerary and port intensiveness of my sailing will help keep things in check and be a saving grace. 

 

OP please keep us posted in the next week how things are going. 

 

 

My family sailed the Virtuosa on May 18. Myself, my spouse and adult children, 20 and 23. We had a great time. The kids partied until the wee hours on Deck 18. Food was good. Go with an open mind and form your own opinion!

[marktwothousand]

42 minutes ago, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

My family sailed the Virtuosa on May 18. Myself, my spouse and adult children, 20 and 23. We had a great time. The kids partied until the wee hours on Deck 18. Food was good. Go with an open mind and form your own opinion!

Sounds great! And I love to hear opinions from someone from Ottawa! Did you sail out of the UK?

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

10 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Sounds great! And I love to hear opinions from someone from Ottawa! Did you sail out of the UK?

We did! Southampton. Looking forward to going back. 

[marktwothousand]

Just now, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

We did! Southampton. Looking forward to going back. 

Interesting! And I am guessing there was probably nobody else from Canada aboard that you met, let alone Ottawa? lol

 

i am connecting with someone from Ottawa for this trip. We are booking flights (via Toronto) today. $1300 roundtrip!! Yikes. 

[mackfam]

DH and myself sailed on the Virtuosa to Norway last September. We enjoyed the ship and while I have no idea the total number of Canadians on board, we were seated with two other Canadian couples from Ontario for dinner each night. 

[marktwothousand]

3 hours ago, mackfam said:

DH and myself sailed on the Virtuosa to Norway last September. We enjoyed the ship and while I have no idea the total number of Canadians on board, we were seated with two other Canadian couples from Ontario for dinner each night. 

Oh shut up no way! Did you ask to be seated with other North Americans or did it just end up that way? I think I remember reading somewhere MSC does use factors such as country, language, and solo status to help determine which table you’ll end up at. Not sure if they use things like sex or age though. 

[Cruiser98761234]

MSC Virtuosa is best described as Butlins.

 

We have found the cruise to be terrible, waiting up 25-30 minutes to get served at bars, awful buffet food, no sun beds, a real rough crowd on board.

 

We wouldn't dream of cruising with MSC ever again, it's bargain basement, terrible. 
 

The ship has 6500 guests on board, it's probably suited to 3500. At this level it is so crowded that it is just not enjoyable. There's no seats in bars, often no sun beds, even the entertainment is fully booked up. The restaurants are all fully booked at night, can't even escape the crowds and shoddy food.

 

Most the cruise stops have the ship parked miles from the port, MSC have been charging then £9 a person for a coach to the terminal entrance, such a joke watching decent cruise ships docking in the nearby places. People complaining paying £36 to get to shore then finding cheaper options were in fact available but hidden by MSC.

 

This ship is all about cramming in as many people as possible, and providing rubbish service. 
 

With so many better options out there MSC are ensuring guests simply will not return. Loads of new cruisers are saying never again!

 

 

[mackfam]

10 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

Did you ask to be seated with other North Americans or did it just end up that way?

It just ended up that way. We also had an English couple at our table too. 
 

Its easy to get caught up in the bad reviews. I will say the Virtuosa cruise was our only cruise where we were not in the Yacht Club and we did miss being able to retreat to the calmness of that area. However we still had a great time, but unfortunately the YC does spoil you for anything else once you’ve done it.  We have a cruise coming up on the Poesia next month which doesn’t have a YC so we’re interested to see how that ship’s experience compares.

[Cruiser98761234]

MSC Virtuosa is the only ship that I have known that is repeatedly throwing out oily soot onto the decks and bars. Very numerous people are suffering this night and day, particularly at the back of the ship, getting their clothes covered either from the dirty chairs or from it falling straight onto them. 

[marktwothousand]

17 minutes ago, Cruiser98761234 said:

MSC Virtuosa is the only ship that I have known that is repeatedly throwing out oily soot onto the decks and bars. Very numerous people are suffering this night and day, particularly at the back of the ship, getting their clothes covered either from the dirty chairs or from it falling straight onto them. 

Same thing happened to us on the meraviglia. My aft cabin floor was washed by the steward daily however. But the soot would hit people in horizons. 

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Cruiser98761234 said:

Very numerous people are suffering this night and day, particularly at the back of the ship, getting their clothes covered either from the dirty chairs or from it falling straight onto them. 

I guess this is just another good reason to have the Yacht Clubs in the front of the ship ?

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Cruiser98761234 said:

MSC Virtuosa is the only ship that I have known that is repeatedly throwing out oily soot onto the decks and bars

When one keeps oneself to the steerage classes one is apt to have a limited view the newer ships that still have the same problem. Here are photos I took of the new Regent Seven Seas Grandeur and the soot on the  deck and how it is handled. Crew get up early (or just that the guests get up later?) and wash down the decks.

 

 

[showingdiva]

1 hour ago, Cruiser98761234 said:

MSC Virtuosa is the only ship that I have known that is repeatedly throwing out oily soot onto the decks and bars. Very numerous people are suffering this night and day, particularly at the back of the ship, getting their clothes covered either from the dirty chairs or from it falling straight onto them. 

 

Have you cruised on Queen Mary 2?    She enjoys a good cough.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, Cruiser98761234 said:

MSC Virtuosa is the only ship that I have known that is repeatedly throwing out oily soot onto the decks and bars

Next, the staff have the sooted cushions covered every morning.