MSC Musica- 27july-3aug 2008

[cherrytutu]

We are a couple -both 30yrs- my husband has cruised once before with Royal Carribean. We booked this cruise to see the Mediterranean & to see which islands we would want to return to.

 

Neither of us nor the other people we spoke to enjoyed this cruiseline.

 

PREtrip with 'Quest' company at the Novotel Mestre in Venice.

- the tour around venice was good. the price we paid for the gondola ride was worth it, cheaper than if we had done it on our own.

- the food at the restaurant was AWFUL.

- the beds at the Novotel were horrendously HARD. I could barely walk when I got up in the am, and I don't have back problems nor do I have any other conditions. Other guests also commented on the hard beds.

- in the evening, Novotel ran out of food. There's nothing close either.

 

Food:

The food was absolutely dreadful.

Desserts were not worth the calories.

The magnificent midnight buffet with all their food creations was an absolute gong show, you could barely get near the food. They wouldn't let you eat anything for about 10-15 minutes until people could admire the food & the creations. Annoying. and the food wasn't that great. One night we ordered 'filet mignon' it was not cooked, it was cold in the centre- and it wasn't just mine. A vegetarian at our table starved this week.

 

Embarkation- fine.

 

Pool-

Way too busy. Pool rules are not enforced ie. no jumping or diving. way too many kids in there. Closed after 7pm.

You weren't even allowed to sit out on deck after 7pm, they put away all the loungers and you are absolutely NOT allowed to sit on them. Very annoying if you have a late dinner (we didn't but skipped dinner one night).

 

Cabin:

We had an inside cabin. It was okay. Clean. But very very tiny.

The pillows were very very hard. You can barely turn around in the shower.

 

Breakfast:

Also terrible. It was nice to get coffee/tea to the room while we got ready, but we didn't exactly want to lounge in our room since it was so small- there was barely a surface to put the breakfast tray on. One morning they came 1/2 hour earlier than what I had requested delivery. There was more than one type of tea (contrary to what another poster said).

 

Staff:

The staff did not go out of their way to do anything extra. Some of them were quite sullen. Our cabin steward was very pleasant. We opted out of the mandatory tipping (just drop off a letter saying you opt out of tipping with your room number & signature and they will remove it), and tipped those that actually gave service with a smile.

 

Entertainment:

Same as what you get when you go to all inclusives down south.

Not great, pretty dumb.

 

Disco:

Terrible music, catering to young teens. All electronic dance music. We would have liked to go dancing, but the music was so horendous we couldn't tolerate it.

 

Workout facility:

Rules were not enforced, children as young as 12 or so were permitted to work out. Not enough free weights, like 5 machines, and about 15 cardio machines (2 recumbent bikes, 2 strange machines i've never seen, 2 precors, 8-10 treadmills). They do have spin bikes, but you are not allowed to use those unless you pay for the class. Yoga/pilates are all extra, I think 10euro. Facility was too small and wayyyy overcrowded.

 

Ports:

All were beautiful.

It was wayyy too busy having Mykonos & Santorini in the same day.

Annoying to have to take a boat into some of the islands, I wonder if the cruiseline takes our money we paid for port fees & takes the cheaper option of boating us in/out rather than pay the higher docking fees.

 

Overall:

Wouldn't recommend.

[cruisenc]

Gosh- its sounds like you had a horrible time. Maybe you should have gone to vegas and stayed at one of the european hotels there. It would be like going to europe but just like it is at home

[cherrytutu]

cruisenc- your post was rude.

 

I didn't say we had a horrible time, I am just saying what our experience was of the MSC line.

[henepup]

I'm sorry you had a bad time on your cruise. Some of the things that you claim to be bad are the same on the major lines. MSC tendered you to some of the islands, you should have know that, it would be posted with your itinerary. Cruising is a wonderful way to see lots of different places, hopefully you will give it another try on a different line.

Have a great day!

Henepup

[SweCruiser]

Dear Cherry!

 

Could not agree more! We had also 7 day cruise on Ms Musica on August and we felt exactly same. The cruise was not worth of wasted time and money. Itenary and tendering was fine but, food, service and shows are really bad. We have cruised with HAL, RCCL and NCL and everything is there better!

 

I do not see any reason to cruise with MSC!

 

With Kind Regards: SweCruiser

 

We are a couple -both 30yrs- my husband has cruised once before with Royal Carribean. We booked this cruise to see the Mediterranean & to see which islands we would want to return to.

 

Neither of us nor the other people we spoke to enjoyed this cruiseline.

 

PREtrip with 'Quest' company at the Novotel Mestre in Venice.

- the tour around venice was good. the price we paid for the gondola ride was worth it, cheaper than if we had done it on our own.

- the food at the restaurant was AWFUL.

- the beds at the Novotel were horrendously HARD. I could barely walk when I got up in the am, and I don't have back problems nor do I have any other conditions. Other guests also commented on the hard beds.

- in the evening, Novotel ran out of food. There's nothing close either.

 

Food:

The food was absolutely dreadful.

Desserts were not worth the calories.

The magnificent midnight buffet with all their food creations was an absolute gong show, you could barely get near the food. They wouldn't let you eat anything for about 10-15 minutes until people could admire the food & the creations. Annoying. and the food wasn't that great. One night we ordered 'filet mignon' it was not cooked, it was cold in the centre- and it wasn't just mine. A vegetarian at our table starved this week.

 

Embarkation- fine.

 

Pool-

Way too busy. Pool rules are not enforced ie. no jumping or diving. way too many kids in there. Closed after 7pm.

You weren't even allowed to sit out on deck after 7pm, they put away all the loungers and you are absolutely NOT allowed to sit on them. Very annoying if you have a late dinner (we didn't but skipped dinner one night).

 

Cabin:

We had an inside cabin. It was okay. Clean. But very very tiny.

The pillows were very very hard. You can barely turn around in the shower.

 

Breakfast:

Also terrible. It was nice to get coffee/tea to the room while we got ready, but we didn't exactly want to lounge in our room since it was so small- there was barely a surface to put the breakfast tray on. One morning they came 1/2 hour earlier than what I had requested delivery. There was more than one type of tea (contrary to what another poster said).

 

Staff:

The staff did not go out of their way to do anything extra. Some of them were quite sullen. Our cabin steward was very pleasant. We opted out of the mandatory tipping (just drop off a letter saying you opt out of tipping with your room number & signature and they will remove it), and tipped those that actually gave service with a smile.

 

Entertainment:

Same as what you get when you go to all inclusives down south.

Not great, pretty dumb.

 

Disco:

Terrible music, catering to young teens. All electronic dance music. We would have liked to go dancing, but the music was so horendous we couldn't tolerate it.

 

Workout facility:

Rules were not enforced, children as young as 12 or so were permitted to work out. Not enough free weights, like 5 machines, and about 15 cardio machines (2 recumbent bikes, 2 strange machines i've never seen, 2 precors, 8-10 treadmills). They do have spin bikes, but you are not allowed to use those unless you pay for the class. Yoga/pilates are all extra, I think 10euro. Facility was too small and wayyyy overcrowded.

 

Ports:

All were beautiful.

It was wayyy too busy having Mykonos & Santorini in the same day.

Annoying to have to take a boat into some of the islands, I wonder if the cruiseline takes our money we paid for port fees & takes the cheaper option of boating us in/out rather than pay the higher docking fees.

 

Overall:

Wouldn't recommend.

[compguy]

So sorry to hear that about Musica. I wondered why they are the only liner to have a kids-free policy. They need to fill their ships. Let's hope the news is better from their other ships. Our company has dreamtrips set-up w/ MSC, so I am counting on it. Take care!

[PersistenzaretiniKa]

i've traveled many times with starlauro and then msc. and i'm going to sail again with them next weekafter 7 years during i've been sailing with other lines. i lok forward to it. definetly the most italian ships u cAN FIND. when i'll be back in septembre i'll be able to tell u if u are all right or if it's just a company good for us europeans and not suitable for americans

[salseros2003]

Dear All.

 

just back from MUSICA: I'm sorry to say that the bad reviews are fully true.

 

I had 2 cruise this time: RCCL Navigator from Civitavecchia on August 10th and MSC Musica from Bari on August 18th. More o less the same cost even of it was as compare a poor 3 stars hotel (MSC) vs. a 5 great stars hotel (RCCL).

 

All the reported reviews are true: really the food is horrible. The buffet was available only at lunch with the same same things (only pasta changed); no buffet for dinner but only the main restaurant with a limited and bad menu'. Really I spend a whole week eating pasta and nothing more; most of the main dishes were left on the table.

 

....and I'm Italian... and many many people in the ships with us complained about the all thing reported in the reviews.

 

Skip Musica if you can...

 

It was my 7th cruise: luckly MSC was not the first one: in this case I should have decided not to cruise any more.

[valderee]

We were a group of 10 and went on Musica in May. The ship was beautiful, the lounges were great, music in the lounges very entertaining and the entertaining director was very funny. The food wasnt fantastic, tended to be on the cold side, but none of us starved by any means. We found the restaurant was the best place to have breakfast.

We did not find any of the staff rude. You were able to take alcohol on board. The shows were not great but they were OK. I think on the 5th night the show was great.

It was probably busier in August.

I am not saying that I would necessarily go with MSC again but we had a good time and a very nice ship.

:)

[salseros2003]

We were a group of 10 and went on Musica in May. The ship was beautiful, the lounges were great, music in the lounges very entertaining and the entertaining director was very funny. The food wasnt fantastic, tended to be on the cold side, but none of us starved by any means. We found the restaurant was the best place to have breakfast.

We did not find any of the staff rude. You were able to take alcohol on board. The shows were not great but they were OK. I think on the 5th night the show was great.

It was probably busier in August.

I am not saying that I would necessarily go with MSC again but we had a good time and a very nice ship.

:)

 

Thanks for your reply. I try to explain better: what I mean is that for the same amount of money in all the ther experiences we had a better (very) quality. If, compared to HAL, Carnival or RCCL we had paid 30/40% less it works but for the cost level it seems overhestimated.