Very disappointing, unhygienic experience

MSC Bellissima Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 13

Overall rating:

2.4 out of 5
MSC Bellissima

7 Night Western Mediterranean (Barcelona Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 04, 2023

Ship: MSC Bellissima

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

When: 1 feb to 8 feb from Napoli. Note: basic ticket is hundreds of euros cheaper for Italians (compare prices on their sites). Outdoor: Outdoor pool on deck 15 was dirty with hair and trash. The whole back half of the ship plus chairs were covered in soot, and nobody bothered to clean the deck nor the chairs, and it got worse by the day. I saw chunks of soot the size of coal on the deck where the water glides are. I've seen soot on other cruise ships, but it was always cleaned up immediately. Bars: Half of the deck bar is reserved for smokers. Hardly any quiet places. Sky Lounge was two times inaccessible due to 'private party'. Everything has a 15% charge, so a cocktail of 8 eur plus 15% = EUR 9,20. Quality of the food was low in the included restaurant (you get a table assigned, so you cannot go to the other included restaurants). After a couple of days we decided to only eat in the buffet, which had surprisingly better food. Restaurants: Staff didn't bother to tell people to wash their hands at the chaotic buffet Market Place, so probably only 1 out of 1000 passengers cleaned their hands. No plastic gloves. Also a lot of cooks didn't wear gloves. Running, coughing, sick kids. Many of the hand sanitizer stations were empty/not functioning. I did TUI Cruises, Celestyal, and Costa, and now MSC, but I'll avoid MSC in the future. I couldn't wait to leave the ship, and the biggest souvenir I got was a very severe case of the flu.

Embarkation

2 out of 5
Took an hour.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
Went to the theatre. Performance was very mediocre, compared with what I've seen elsewhere.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ship tip

Wear a mask, as not to get sick.

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

4 out of 5

Genoa, Italy

4 out of 5

La Spezia (Cinque Terre), Italy

3 out of 5

Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands

3 out of 5

Disembarkation

3 out of 5
No 'thank you' at the end.
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