MSC Armonia Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We enjoyed our time on the Armonia. It was a different atmosphere and experience than our previous cruises but still good. Staff was friendly and the food was good. I was able to try some new seafood I had never had the opportunity to try on other cruise lines.

I passed the long line of Carnival cruisers standing a thousand deep in the 91 degree Miami Heat. I am sure that I was in my cabin long before they reached the counter. The MSC Armonia embarkation was easy and seamless and everyone that I met was polite and helpful. The cabin while not the biggest that I have been on was the best designed in terms of space and function. Booked a full suite with a tub. Fantastica level. Day 1 ....Very pleased.....so far.

I will never cruise with this line again. Their communication is poor. The captain (Cpt. Pietro) never showed his faced. While at sea, our Cuba port got cancelled due to new regulations by Trump administration, and the communication was poor, inconsiderate, and the Captain delegated to other crew members to deal with the issue. Other cruise lines (i.e. Royal Caribbean) offered ½ cruise credit. This company said they will give us $200 dollars as a "favor". They substituted the 2 days at Cuba with one extra day at sea and Key West. When the passenger pressed them, they increased the $200 dollars to $400, but MUST BE USED WHILE IN THE CRUISED! I understood that the Cuba cancellation was beyond their control, but they could have provided better communication and the Captain should have had the courage to face the passengers. They could have stayed at Cozumel an extra day and bring a Mariachi band on board. I made the recommendation to Carlos, the Assistant Cruise director, but nothing! They said Cozumel was full the following day. What not sail at 2:00 a.m. after bringing some additional fun to the vessel? They said it costed them more to go Key West! That is not the passenger's fault. There were other options. When the Cuba port got canceled, they decided to stay an extra 5 hours in Cozumel. I went to the excursions counter and asked if the excursion to Excaret could be three hours longer. The answer: NO! They weren't concerned about the passenger's experience. They could have done better. I will never recommend MSC!

First time on MSC but not my last. The Armonia was incredibly clean and very tastefully decorated. The food was great and the drinks were strong! Entertainment was very good as well. The service on board was some of the best that I have ever experienced on a cruise. Recommend!!

Ship was below our expectations mainly because of food and cabin but staff was great and the cleanliness of the ship was good as well.

Es un barco que tiene muchos años y no es muy grande pero se paso muy bien siempre había música, los show eran muy buenos y también la comida.

I have been on 20+ cruises from Carnival, Royal Carribean, Celebrity, Norwegian & Princess. MSC Armonia is the WORST cruise ship I have had the misfortune to experience! TOURS: After ALL the inquires/clarifications before departure regarding MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS to purchase tours from MSC in order to go ashore in Havana, it turns out that there is NO such requirement, as advised by MSC staff! I believe travel agent/company & cruise participants have been duped & lied to, which I believe is fraudulent misrepresentation! This is a SCAM to get you to purchase excursions only from MSC at an inflated rate! Many uninformed folks purchased the same tours from online tour/travel sights at more reasonable rates. I have a lot of respect for travel agent/company over the many years we have done business & believe the responsibility for this unprofessional misrepresentation lies fully with MSC. I would appreciate you or your management investigating this important matter with MSC & look forward to your response. Many folks cancelled their pre-booked tours from MSC & received some sort of refund. I was not that fortunate because they always have a policy deadline for cancellation that is unreasonable & to their favor! NONE of the Havana tours stated a tour day, date or time. We booked 3 tours & could not specify a day/date preference. Once on board & only by checking with excursion desk, we are told that 2 of our tours are scheduled for the same day & time, which causes a conflict. We cancel 1 tour & book a different tour for Sunday for rum distillery museum & cigar factory tour, which starts at 8:30AM (a bit early/absurd for rum & cigar tastings)! Our Saturday tour was "Architectural Wonders" which was half walking tour of old Havana & bus tour of rest of Havana. It was NOT advertised or stated in tour description on MSC webite that it also included a stop at a rum museum & cigar factory! When we got back on board, we went to the excursion desk & complained about this & asked to cancel our Sunday tour with full refund, since we went to a rum museum & cigar factory on Saturday's tour. We were told there is a 24 hour cancellation policy, which had past, so we were forced to tour another rum distillery & cigar factory on Sunday! FOOD: The food was only fair/unseasoned & the service was poor. Carnival does a better job with more variety! Most ship breakfast has an omelet station, where you can also order fried eggs of choice (over easy) with cheese. Their was an omelet ONLY station & pre-cooked fried eggs were only offered in a pan on the serving line, which were overcooked! I have type 2 diabetes, so its important for me to read cereal & yogurt package labels for sugar content. Cereal was offered in large bulk containers w/o labels or identification. The cheerios I selected appeared ok, but after tasting, contained sugar coating, which I could not eat. Yogurt was also offered in bulk in a large bowl, w/o labels or identification. Bacon was not drained & wet with grease! Lunch did not offer much variety & was only fair. Dinner was also fair & it seemed as if food portions were rationed. Rack of lamb consisted of only 2 chops, where other ships usually serve 3-4. There was NO lobster nite! Instead there was a seafood grilled platter consisting of a SMALL 1/2 lobster tail, one medium shrimp & a scallop, which were pre-frozen & mushy, & poor quality rather than firm! I asked for NO SUGAR ADDED ice cream & was served sherbert! To be safe I ordered fruit plate for future desserts. PIZZA: All pizza was meatless, except for one style that had hot dogs on it (WHO DOES THIS?). For an Italian owned cruise line, this was culturally pathetic! NO pepperoni or sausage selection! Wait staff would take drink orders from some folks at table & disappear w/o asking rest of table if they would like a drink. Also they might refill water glass for a few at table & leave w/o checking if others needed a refill. Service was poor until we advised area captain of above issues & were moved to a different area with more attentive wait staff. CREDIT CARD: MSC had both my & my roommates credit cards on file, since we pre-booked tours, as per your instructions & payment was successfully processed & confirmed. At cruise terminal, during boarding process, I asked assistant if she needed to swipe my credit card for future onboard purchases, & was told NO, since it was already on file. Half way thru the cruise we are at an upper deck party, & roommate orders us both a drink. He is told that his MSC room card has been frozen from making any future purchases! Obviously an assumed oversite or glitch! I give roommate my card & it is also frozen & rejected! This was an EMBARRASSMENT, since we were with a group of friends. Although MSC has your credit card on file, they have an unknown policy to cut you off when purchases approach $300, without warning nor any limit alert from credit card company! We both had to leave the party & our group, go to customer service desk to hear about their unprofessional policy & have our credit cards swiped to reactivate MSC card. We expressed our embarasment & disappointment in their unprofessional policy. I told them they were not really in the cruise ship business, but in the business of separating me from my money, & that their absurd cut off policy was interfering with that goal. I explained I once purchased a new car & charged 1/2 of car cost on that card for $12,500 w/o a problem! I also told them that perhaps when they cut the ship in half & reconnected the sewage lines, they were misaligned, causing the sewage to flow to managements brains & possibly clouding & affecting poor judgement in policy decisions! MSC BUS from ship to airport: On Sunday, after return from our duplicate tour, we go to guest services to book shuttle to airport. We are told that all shuttle buses were fully sold out, & we could not book & that deadline was 24 hours before ship docks in Miami! I explain that 24 hours ago, Saturday, we were on an MSC tour of Havana & could not possibly have booked by deadline, which we were never informed of! What an absurd policy/deadline! Common sense would dictate at $24 p/p shuttle cost, it would be in MSC best interest to order more buses & make more money! Not on this ship! MSC FINAL PAYMENT: It has been my experience that other ships burser desk stays open past midnite so all guests can settle final payment. We were advised on Sunday evening that burser office was closed at 11PM & we would have to settle bill on Monday morning, as ship was docking in Miami & everyone scrambling to disembark! ABSURD!!! There is NO rhyme or reason or logic or common sense to this ships management, staff or policy making and/or customer service...only DIS-SERVICE & DISAPPOINTMENT! NEVER AGAIN!!!

It is the beat cruise either of us has ever been on. The MSC staff were fantastic, i cant praise them enough. The ship was great all around, cabin, public area's, food, drinks etc. The ports we visited, Ochos Rios and Cozumel were great, Havana in our view was the best port we've ever visited and worth the money on it's own. The people we met on the cruise were very nice, we had a great time, speaking with people from all over the world. Remember it's a smaller ship but a great place to unwind and enjoy yourselves. Our first MSC cruise and we really are converts.

My first time on a Cuban cruise. I so enjoyed myself I just barely made it before the president shut down all the cruises to Cuba. The people of Cuba seem to get a lot out of the crew ships being there but that’s too political for me to get in

Overall the highlight of this itinerary was our 2 day stop at Cuba. We enjoyed every port. The ship needs some updating, and more fun activities on board. Comedy and magic shows should will be great to add to entertainment.

Great looking and clean ship. Buffet does not have many options. Pizza good some days. Service is average. MDR food is not so good but our servers Alfonso and Karina were amazing. Shows we're not that amazing. Some of the activities were fun others not. Overall the highlight of this trip was our 2 days stop at Havana, Cuba 🇨🇺

Really enjoyed this cruise and thought the ship and staff were brilliant. The cruise itinerary was good but would had benefited from one more sea day to make it perfect. You see some average reviews for the MSC Armonia but I think they are unjustified. The ship doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a mega cruise ship but I think it's better for it. There is still enough onboard to keep all cruisers entertained whether single, couples, families or friends. At the right price and with the right itinerary I would certainly cruise with MSC and the MSC Armonia again.

We didn't expect a lot and were pleasantly pleased! We met the Master of the Ship in a very casual setting and he was very gracious and pleasing top speak with! If you want to go to CUBA then go on MSC Armonia!

Just got back from a cruise on the MSC Armenia. What a Great cruise perfect weather and calm seas!! The ship was in tip top shape and all the crew were great. Food was excellent and entertainment’s were very talented. Cuba was very interesting and really enjoyed the old car excursion. I have already booked the the cruise for next April.

I can't recommend this cruise due to the food and condition of the ship. Thermal suite doesn't work and everything needs to be refurbished.

Armonia and its AMAZING Crew. We decided to take this cruise mostly because of its itinerary, timing and reasonable price. The timing was perfect, during the 7th Birthday of our son Eliot, on March 13th, and the cruise dates coinciding with with his school spring break, along with allure of stoping in Cuba. What we did no expect, was the individualized and personable and very especial treatment that Miguel, Lucia and Iryna, Olga along with all the other staff showed us, and especially to our son Eliot. They went above and beyond to make Eliot’s cruise very especial and forever memorable. Eliot was treated to very especial treats in recognition of his 7th birthday, and was welcomed on stage with the staff, as well as getting to meet Iryna, one of the GREAT dance performers. Iryna took the time to talk to Eliot a few times along the cruise and made him feel very especial, Eliot will forever remember her! Olga and the rest of the staff in the Juniors Club were great also. Sunny, made sure our cabin was taken care of. Overall we just wanted send a "BIG THANKS” to Miguel, Lucia, Iryna, Olga and Sunny, without leaving out ALL the other fantastic staff, that made our time in the MSC Armonia so WONDERFUL, creating AMAZING memories for us and especially for our son Eliot. From the bottom of our hearts! THANK YOU! Olga, James & Eliot PS: We hope these comments reach the staff of the MSC Armonia and are shared with all, we truly do appreciate how especial they made our cruise!

The ship was older with two pools on the main deck. More of a laid back ship. Really not a lot of activities as I thought. I loved the interactive game shows and deck shows at night.

Where do I start? Ok - so the first day was a bit hectic but I think the first day of any cruise is like that. The first day on Armonia seemed unusually hectic though. We were among the handful of Americans on the ship, it was mostly Europeans, so the cultural differences were very evident. Communicating with other passengers was minimal, American standards of common courtesy were non existent. I can provide examples of the situations we experienced if interested, it is just too much to get into at the moment. The cabin - we were in a family oceanview cabin. The price seemed to be the same as the regular oceanview cabins, however, it was essentially two cabins in one and accommodated 4 ppl. It was slightly smaller than their suites. I snagged one of these cabins by pure luck as there are only TWO on the entire ship. I can't imagine how the 4 of us would have managed in one of their regular cabins without having to upgrade to a suite. It was still tight but we managed pretty well. The cabin itself could be better taken care of. The chairs have all kinds of "mystery" stain on them, as did the carpet. A little shampoo would go a long way. The bathroom and windows had rust stains. I suspect all the cabins are the same way. Our cabin stew was great though! I would recommend this cabin just because it's bigger. The regular rooms are so tiny but FYI, despite having more space for our family at a good price, our cabin was right below the captain's bridge so at 5pm we had to shut the curtains in both rooms for the "safety" of cruising at night. We forgot to close one of the windows before leaving for dinner one night and realized when we returned around 8 pm. We quickly closed it but we were scolded the following night by a crew member lol. Oh- the pressure! The ship survived though - all was good. Also, the morning of disembarking, we arrived back in Miami earlier than expected - our captain hauled ass to get us to every port earlier than anticipated, which was great.... but around 4:30 am on disembark day we woke up to the sounds of freight trains passing by for 30 minutes straight. I suspect that they were using machinery to remove luggages off the ship, but our entire cabin was shaking and so loud during this process, we were unable to go back to sleep. We were on the 9th deck, so I'm not sure why we heard it as though it was right next to us. Hopefully this was not something the entire ship had to experience but I'm certain everyone in our area did. It was horrible. The food- sweet baby Jesus, it was sooooo bad! We survived off of their pizza, gelato, a few things here and there and port food. The pizza, by the way- AMAZING!! Their breakfast was also good. Same thing everyday but the usual breakfast items. Lunch and dinner in dining room and buffet were hit or miss, but mostly miss. Even on Italian Night, the food was so bad... and it's an Italian cruiseline. How does this happen? My husband and mom in law are Italians from NYC, so after a few days of bad dinners they were really excited for the Italian Night dinner so they can finally have food they are accustomed to. Guess where we went after what they served us...yup, pizza! Thank goodness for that pizza! We did have a pretty decent meal at their new specialty restaurant Surf & Turf for an additional $35pp. Well worth it. I think most Americans will be highly disappointed in most of what they offer after breakfast. But try the pizza - the best I've ever had on any cruise! The Entertainment - sweet baby Jesus again! The only word that comes to mind is corny. Embarrassingly corny. They tried. Don't get me wrong, some ppl were entertained. I will say this, most of the crew members are very friendly, which was nice. Just pack your patience because they are a bit more disorganized than other cruiselines. I'm not sure I'd sail with MSC again. If I do, it'll be a newer and bigger ship.

For many American cruisers this ship will disappoint, they don’t pay attention to details, from drinking water, to food, to entertainment, not even comedy shows. The announcements in 5 languages, I am geeeez

We love the Cruise and Will tel everyone too do this