MSC Magnifica Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Staff were fantastic - Captain Marco was very accessible to all. At the end of this lengthy cruise, we were ready to go again. highly recommended.

The destinations were fantastic - we would not take a MSC excursion and/or cruise again - many of our excursions cost $50-$100 per person but the entrance fees to most places was about $12-$15 The staff seriously lacks customer service skills!

MSC is first and formost an Italian cruise company and this shows in everything they do. And this is my main fault with this cruise. The whole cruise it was like English speaking people were always an after thought. Everything we did involved people shoving and pushing you out of the way..from the buffet to the elevators. People really had no manners to the point they would not move to let others off the elevator. Daily disembarking at the ports were an absolute desaster. It will only be a matter of time before someone gets hurt in the crush and pushing and shoving as MSC does not seam to believe in queues. Everyone waits for the doors to open then everyone just pushes to get out. Its the same at the buffet. You wait to get what you want then others just shove infront of you and elbow you out of the way. Same at the bars. The bar tenders do not seam to care who was there first its the person who is the pushiest who gets served. There is a place on one of the decks that was the smoking area. It was disgusting with butts on the ground and ash everywhere. The whole deck recked of smoke. Even thought there was no smoking on the balconies it was not enforced!!! So had to contend with smoke while out on balcony. The drink package was a joke!!! drinks under E6 were covered but most drinks were over this!!! We could get coffee on the drinks package but not hot chocolate?? wwhhhaattt?? they cost the same and both were under E6 but nope no hot chocolate. Had to pay for that!! Even the staff were saying our package was a joke!! MSC really need to look at the way they deal with their customers onboard their ships. Their staff at customer service..wow I have never met ruder staff ever. Everything was "such" a hastle. Their first answer was always "no". Followed by "I do not understand what you are saying" Put staff who can speak English fluidly on customer service!! We had a red light flashing on our phone (all night lightling up the whole cabin on off on off) the whole cruise and apparently no one could "understand the problem" let alone fix it!! Oh and add into your costs the price of shuttles from the port to the city at nearly every stop even though this is not mentioned anywhere!! Lowest was E8 per person. *** Also do not pay to go to spa room daily as they do not limit the number of people buying this package so the "quiet" place is loud and you constantly had to wait to get into the spa as no staff were there making anyone get out so people just stayed in for hours at a time.

We have traveled on many other cruise lines and will never use MSC again. We found them to be unfair (i.e. charging us more for their beverage package), not upfront with full options available to us on an excursion day (i.e. they did not take us to the city center and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere with out any direction or guidance.) The cigar room had horrible ventilation and allowed cigarette smokers. The thermal area was minimal unlike other cruise lines. Towards the end of the cruise there was not enough staffing at the bars. There was also a time when all restaurants and the buffet were closed at the same time. The Asian restaurant had decent food but not good service. There were no more than three couples in there each time we ate, very sad.

I just got off magnifica 2 days ago after a 12 day med cruise.Well ill start by saying staff fabulous cannot do enough.Very pleasant ,helpfull,and made us feel as comfortable as possible.We ate in buffet every night.We booked fantastica experience ,told priority seating,yet we were put at a table of 6 ??hence why we stuck to buffet....Entertainment a joke.All geared towards Italian,French,spanish.Theres uk and Irish on board also, why are we not catered for??? ..we watched same crap over and over ,same ballroom wannabees different night.... Regards t.v , Thank you cnn news ,and bbc news,would be lost without them in the room,only stations i had to watch ,and english spoken that catered towards english spoken people.,some nites i was sick could not go out only watch tv.Where did tea and Coffee facilities vanish to??I heard there only left to accomodate the Italian members as they like enjoying the freebees but took away from the rest of us...Heard that from staff by the way🙈.I had a fab time,my 5 stars are for the staff 😊Thank you.Listen folks im very open minded and believe in you make your own holiday.I love msc.maybe go on a newer ship ,do carribean.Msc Magnifica your lovley ,but a newer ship next year for me.Did Davina last year,got a kick in the teeth this year...

Read many reviews before going and went with some trepidation. If you want a Butlins on the sea then this type of cruise is perfect. Crap games with the staff and naff shows with lots of loud Italians around the pool. Despite some comments we found the food was of good quality not gourmet but what do you expect on a budget cruise. We included the basic drinks package which we thought was good value and worked out it was. OK so it's Heineken beer but that's OK, wine was good and plenty of cocktails included. The buffet was good (we nick-named it the "Slop Shop") but only in fun. Plenty of fresh fruit at all meals. Eggs, beacon, sausage, beans, hash browns for breakfast, mushrooms some mornings. Coffee from a big urn which varied but the drinks package meant you could order a fresh cup from the bar if you wanted. Orange juice was more like the original Sunny D, very sweet and sticky, fresh juice was extra unless you were on the premium package. Lunch time if you were on the boat was well served with a large variety of hot and cold food, salad aplenty and bread. Evening sit down meal was fine, OK there were not massive portions but if you filled up at breakfast and lunch then there was plenty, always hot if it was meant to be. If you were hungry or just fancied it you could have 2 or more starters, mains or deserts. Did we enjoy it, yes we did would we do another MSC cruise, probably not. The others we were with have done many and love them. If we do another it will be with a quieter (older) clientele. 6 adults and 2 children

Cruise booked a 2 days in Amsterdam, in fact the ship left at 07:00 the second day, that makes it a sea day in my book. Wifi included in the booking was next to useless and the fully inclusive drinks package included 2 where and 2 red wines, some spirits and only one lager from 10 lagers and beers. Only table tennis and shuffle board activities. What the booking also failed to mention was that the trip was a multi embarkation trip with passengers getting on at most of the ports and during these days the few activities that were on the ship were not available for the passengers that were mis cruise. I cruised with family members all of us have cruised many times before and along with many other passengers will never cruise with MSC again.

If we didn’t encounter the rude bar manager and the food was better, we would of had a fantastic time

Of all Cruises and lines I've been on this has to be the worst cruise we've had. The ports were beautiful but the entertainment and staff was horrible. We were not welcomed on board on embarkation day, the staff seems to in their own world and just hanging hout on the ship. None made us feel as if we were guest and just paid $$ to served and treated nice on vacation it was horrible. The food was horrible and very plain same food back to back. Entertainment was high school play quality except for the their acrobats and stunt performers. I will not cruise MCS again. What a shame..

Went into this cruise with an open mind as I had seen many reviews and critiques saying "avoid this ship", "don't sail with MSC", "had a great time", etc. The ship was very clean and sparkly. Everything was kept to high standards as far as maintaining the ship. We booked an interior guarantee cabin (the cheapest) and less than two weeks after making the booking we were assigned a balcony cabin. I won't say no to a free upgrade so that was already a win. The cabin seemed small compared to other balcony cabins that I have stayed in on other cruise lines but that was the least of my worries. Embarkation was lightning quick in Hamburg. Our paperwork told us we could check in at 6:30 pm but we got to the terminal shortly after noon and they let us on no problem. We had the rest of the day to leave and walk around Hamburg. We missed 2 muster drills and went to go to the third one offered (Southampton) and our cruise cards wouldn't scan and they told us we did not have to attend. So I found it odd that they did not take that too seriously. We went in and attended muster anyways incase they hunted us down for not having gone to one. Bartenders onboard were staffed short, they had too many bar servers walking around taking orders, so drink orders piled up and waiting times were long to get your drink in almost ever bar. Food in the dining room and buffet was fresh and hot, which was good considering I saw a lot of people online saying their food was served cold. Took an MSC tour to Stonehenge & Salisbury from Southampton which was excellent. Hot tubs were very small and very popular since it was a "cold weather" sailing. Italian specialties onboard were great, like pizza, fresh pasta, and gelato. I recommend visiting Honfleur from Le Havre. It was a very cute town on the south shore of the Seine river and had many confectionaries, art shops, and other boutiques. Amsterdam was the best port in my opinion. Try the gouda cheese. Overall I would say for the value, this is a cruise I would take again. Maybe not my first choice, but probably top 5.

We loved this cruise and would take it again. Overall the food and drinks were great, the staff were friendly and professional and the shore excursions did not disappoint!

This was our first European cruise, so was concerned about many things. This MSC staff was wonderful and so was the food. Even our OV cabin was larger then others we have been on. We ended up having an awesome cruise.

We sailed our first time with MSC. The ports were lovely and the tours were terrific. The ship was nice, clean and easy to get around on. The embarkation was easy as guests were getting on and off at each port. However. The food was well below any other cruise line we have sailed on. The entertainment was terrible. People were walking out of the theatre. We found some staff were friendly others not so much. At times we felt like we were an inconvenience. Nothing much goes on during the sea days. Also speciality coffees are served in glasses with no handle. Our daughter got burned because of this. Also witnessed crew mocking a guest. Very unprofessional. Overall the experience was far below our expectations and we don’t expect much. More training of staff is required. Probably won’t sail with them again and never on this ship.

Food was appalling all week, service was slow, not much in the way of entertainment and to top it all off my phone was stolen on the ship! Staff were very unhelpful. The only good thing was meeting some lovely people. Such a disappointment for such a beautiful ship. Never again.

Easy embarked this was due to small amount of passengers getting on board the ship's like a giant ferry people are leaving and joining the ship at every port.

This was our first time sailing with MSC, what a fantastic experience. The ship was beautifully designed with tasteful and elegant surroundings and fixtures. The food onboard was of good quality and a good variety. The Cruise Staff and Main Stage performers are possibly some of the hardest working at sea, both teams deliver new and exciting entertainment options every single day. The thing I enjoyed the most about MSC was the fact passengers embark at each port you visit, meaning you have a mixture of nationalities and a constant turn over of new faces. Some great ports, some boring but that's fairly typical of any cruise liner.

The ship is lovely, very clean and well presented. The staff work very hard to keep things on track, whether bar staff, waiters or entertainment staff. The food is nearly always tepid. The quality is variable, but the waiters bring extra dishes and add ice cream etc to try to make things better. The sports bar team were excellent, funny, chatty and made good cocktails. The thing that lets it down is the organisation. The services team were unfriendly, some had poor English language and were poorly equipped with correct information.. the excursion team were dreadful. The tours were ok, we did 4 and the coaches were ok. The escorts varied from very helpful to awful. The poorest thing was the team on the ship, who were rude most of the time and did not wish to listen to people. They were disorganised on departure and then did not seem to know what to do if someone asked a question. No it was not really terrible, but would I book again, NO!

Cruise would have been better if there had been more daytime entertainment that was not so much of the holiday camp style (Mr Sexy legs competition!) although the entertainment do work incredibly hard. We enjoyed most of the evening entertainment. Service in the bars when they are busy is very slow.

Fantastic weather, beutifull cities with super guides and our second time with this ship and it is still a great ship!

Sailed on Independence of the Seas, Adventurer of the Seas, Voyager of The Seas, MSC Opera and MSC Magnifica so to compare, and this is in my honest opinion, MSC Magnifica are at the top of the cruise class for cleanliness and have by far the best, happiest, friendliest staff I have come across. From the moment we were welcomed onboard staff passing by in the corridors, lifts stairs etc., we found would smile/say morning to us. Our cabin was a balcony and inside and both were very modern, cleaned to the highest standard and very comfortable and quiet, Size was similar to Royal Caribbean inside although the balcony cabin was slightly wider on the Magnifica as I could get my case passed bottom of bed of bed on Voyager but has plenty of room on Magnifica. We mainly ate breakfast lunch and dinner in MDR, we prefer our food to be brought to us by pleasant staff although we did us the Sahara Buffet area a few time when we slept in too late for breakfast in MDR and found the breakfast there hot, constantly replenished, great choice and tasty. There were plenty of opportunities throughout the day to have snacks, afternoon tea etc and bars and cafes would provide sandwiches, biscuits and cakes and in the evening the bars also produced bowls of crisps, nuts, olives, anti pasta and finger food, fabulous little touch. Ship is spotless, never felt overcrowded and has plenty of places to go to if you find Tiger bar to loud, the sports bar and bars near the shops are great little places to sit and have a drink and relax. Card room and games room was always available for us to use and the theatre was stunning. Drinks package, we had the lower of the two prices, bottles of Heineken, loads of cocktails, shorts and mixers (cans of Pepsi, 7 Up), wine, bottles of water, milkshakes, smoothies, Baileys, sweet and dry prosseco by far cheapest we have paid for the cocktails to be included. Bar staff very friendly but understaffed, order with the cocktail waitress around the pool, Tiger Bar, Sports Bar etc and you will save yourself a long wait at the bar. Entertainment team, as most do, work extremely hard, we found them to be very attentive, would pop over to chat, remembered our names, always seemed to be happy to be there big shout out to all of the staff especially GiGi, Kayla and Khalid, give these guys a raise MSC as they are a credit to your company. Would I travel with MSC again yes, I personally enjoy cruising with other nationalities, makes Me feel like I’m on my holiday, however, as my children are teenagers they found the teen club, even though we traveled from Southampton, to be majority German, Spanish and Italian teens so language was a barrier and if we travelled from say Barcelona in the future I’d have to weigh up the lack of British teens on board for them. Having said that they did live their holiday and made some great friends.