Honestly this cruise was very traumatic. I understand the major traumatic even that took place is not the fault of the cruise, but that along with the rest of the experience was just terrible. I have actually had to postpone my future scheduled cruises due to this experience. I love cruising and I have never felt the need to write a complaint, but this experience was god awful.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Took 2 hours to check in. Once we checked in, we had to wait in a second line (boarding group) that was completely unnecessary.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Food was ok. They had a poor selection of alcohol, ran out of stock continuously, and the bartenders are not experienced and lack knowledge that professional bartenders should have. Only met two real bartenders who were actually bar managers but had to step in and make drinks for passengers because the bar staff did not know how and were overwhelmed. God forbid you want a coke or ginger ale… have to go to 6 different bars before you find one that has any. Room service was awful… ordered a tuna sandwich and grilled chicken sandwich. Received the wrong order- two “tuna” sandwiches… which had zero tuna. It was a Mayo and lettuce sandwich. Legit zero tuna bits in it. Inedible. Room service attendant came back to our room to acknowledge that he brought us the wrong order… but did not take the other away? Or offer to bring the correct one? Just to tell us it was wrong and walked away.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Pools were beautiful. Cruise did not really host a fun environment… limited music, activities, hosted events and shows. Shows took place during the scheduled dinner times.
Entertainment
There
Children's Programs
There was one show a night… at 7:30… during dinner.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Poor customer service. We were run into and actually stepped on by a staff member and did not receive even a “I’m sorry”… he just turned around and kept walking. Multiple fights broke out on this cruise and the staff was unresponsive.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Absolutely beautiful ship, easily the nicest boat I have ever been on. Maybe even a little too nice… the mid ship decks where all the shops and food were, was very uncomfortable to walk through in casual clothes. We felt under dressed- so we kind of avoided going through there.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Much bigger than other interior cabins I have stayed in.
Ship tip
Not worth it. For the same price you can actually have a fun cruise on carnival with good food, drinks and activities.
Beautiful little area msc created. Beach was nice and there were nice activities. Again, the bar ran out of alcohol staples… at 10am… not sure how but they did. Bar was understaffed. Lunch line took over 30 minutes to get food… but the food was good.
terrible. Just terrible. Debarkation took 3 hours. The first two of which were spent not moving because there was zero communication or coordination by the staff. Multiple fights broke out because of this lack of organization. Once security was called to break up the fights, they continued to call down more passengers for debarkation. The first group hadn’t even moved an inch, people were escorted off the boat and arrested, and they just continued calling more people! Not to mention all of this happened after we had been woken up at 5:25am by emergency sirens notifying us that a passenger had gone overboard. The whole morning was extremely traumatic and ruined an already poor cruise experience. After getting off the boat, there was another 1.5 hour long line to get out of the cruise terminal parking garage. I have done 7 cruises this year… always parked at the port and I have NEVER experienced anything like this. We were supposed to leave at 9am; we did not end up getting out of there until 3pm. Insane.
It's a shame you had such a poor experience. My experience on meraviglia was just the opposite....loved it. Going on Seascape in February and really looking forward to it. One of the reasons I like MSC is that it is not a party ship like carnival.
People either love or hate MSC. Sadly, overboard deaths on cruise ships are not unique to a specific Cruise Line. I have had great experiences with MSC this year and have 4 more cruises booked with them in 2023.
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