MSC Opera Reviews

This was my 10th cruise and it was disappointing to realize that MSC has a long way to go. The best part of it was the itinerary. Services at excursion desk were the worst. No one there knows what they are talking about. Tried to book the excursion with them in Turkey but they didn't have it in English just French and German. There would rather give you wrong information then say they don't know the answer. The ship is very plain. Bathroom was very small and the shower is tiny. Food is almost the same every day. No sandwiches just pizza 24 hours and it's the only place to get tea or coffe after 10 pm. Shows are just Ok. Dancers could be a lot better. Service in the restaurant was the best but the food could have a better variety. One thing that was nice no one was pushing to buy drinks at the pool and there were plenty of chairs for everyone. Overall it's the European line and it shows in their standards. People are not as friendly and they don't seem like they care. 

MSC has a long way to go to meet the standards of what experienced cruisers have come to expect from  Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Princess. Food on the Opera was poor quality and frequently poorly prepared. This included bones in the fish dishes on 5 of 8 orders. Coffee and tea was not even available during or after meals in the main dinning rooms, only at the buffet. Selection was also limited. The pizza kitchen was the only consistently good. The tendering process was very inefficient as it took 2 hours and 40 minutes finally get to shore and with a stop of only 4 hours, we were left with only 1 and one-half hours on shore. The library was a joke with approx. 20 books in each of 5 different languages, and it was only open for four hours per day. The entertainment was actually pretty good for this size ship. Overall, I would definitely not recommend this ship. MSC as a cruise line is still not ready for prime time.

We tried MSC cruise line for the first time on a 10 day W.Europe cruise. Previously we had cruised with Royal C, Celebrity and Princess. Anyone who has cruised on these ships will be highly disappointed with MSC. Food at the buffett on floor #11 was the same thing each day. Mostly unwarm items. Very limited menus. Iced tea and ice cream not free. Juices only available in mornings. Hand sanitizers used sparingly and many times empty during meals. Our evening meal had bones in the fish on 5 of 8 times served fish. As many as 5 bones in one serving. I still think how easy it would have been to have swallowed them. After about two times I came t expect bones even though I wanted to try the fish menus. Risotti was greasy and the meats were grisily. The servers were so busy that they spent very little time talking with us. Never offered to help pepper/salt. No coffee served. On excursions when we had to tender at St. Peter port we stood in line for 2:40 minutes to exit the ship only allowing 1.25 minutes to explore the city. Not organized at all. Waited almost 50 minutes in line to go back to the ship. Pool chairs were the most uncomfortable chairs ever in that there was no head rest on them. Library time was limited as well as the books in it!

Every evening at the theather we had to listen to the cruise director talk in 4 different lanuages. That got annoying and took up quite a bit of time doing so. Entertainment was fine. Overall very disappointed in the complete lack of organization and downright bare bones service. I could go on but will spare you the time. Don't go MSC!

1) Unable to purchse transfers from South Hampton to cruise, also told until 11 am I could get Transfers at Heathrow airport and pay onboard this was not true. 2) Purchased transfers from ship to Heathrow but was it was canceled by MSC. Because told not enough room. 3) Attempted to purchse and print personnel transfers from ships pirnter but it was not working as a result we we not able to verfiy purchase, also the different time change between England and ship time allowed on 40 minutes to leave ship, get a taxi, and reach couch terminal with out a ticket. The ship should have offered to call free or provide free Computer use. T4) The better starting point for use would have been Amsterdam but this option was never offered, I flight would have less expensive and the transfers to Ship cheaper. cc.Maxine_Con Yahoo.com

The food was the worst, and it was not even close, food I have had on the 13 cruises that I have been on that were a minimum of 7 days.

My wife, two youg daughters and I - we totally loved the MSC Opera. This was our first cruise ever. We are definitely going on another MSC cruise. We found every aspect of the cruise to be very good to superb: the food, service, entertaininment, stateroom cleanliness and comfort, cleanliness and smooth embarking/debarking and sailing of the ship.

Ship is starting to show signs of wear. We had mold in shower and lot of rust on balcony doors. Overdue for preventative maintenance? Buffet restaurant on Deck 11 is always overcrowded, noisy, and busing service is poor. Seems to be lack of supervision of the waiters. Food is kind of bland and pretty much unchanged entire cruise. The lack of attention is obvious . Sugar Free or Diabetic desserts almost non existent. . Charge for bottled water.

We were impressed by the exceptional cleanliness, the layout of the ship, the homeyness's of the cabin (fresh fruits daily) and the extraordinary service of the crew . The food itself is rather dedicated for the European tongue! The breakfast buffet was "uninspired" (eggs / toast were sometimes only lukewarm) - therefore we went to the restaurant and the breakfast served there was much better. The Lunch-buffets were better - good variety of the hot dishes, but the salad part of the buffet offered always the same. The dinner served in the restaurant was a seven course meal. The pasta course was always the best! Quality of fish and meat has room for improvement - it seemed not to be fresh and was often prepared the same way. We liked the magnificent shows in the evening. Exceptional artists!!! Every age group had there "room for entertainement" (the disco for the younger people, the loungers for people our age where we could enjoy dancing too . I missed coffee, ice tea or pizza sometimes during the day. We were also impressed that they still offer midnight buffets - very seldom today on other cruise ships. These buffets were exceptional!!!!!! We had 3 formal events, 6 informal evenings and only 2 causual nights all of which we enjoyed (fortunaley we had brought enough clothes for all the events)

the cruise was directed toward foreigners even though 70 % were american. all the entertainment had english as a second language. every announcement was made in five languages. (gets old) the workout room was too small, the ships library was very inefficient and limited. The ship pool was way undersized, especially the two four man jacuzzi,s But a lack of a stabilizer was the sorest point on the ship

We were impressed by the cleanliness, the roominess of the cabin, the exceptional service of the crew and the layout of the ship. The breakfast served in the restaurant was very good, the buffet could have been better (eggs / toast were sometimes only lukewarm). The Lunch-buffet was better - good variety of the hot dishes, but the salad part was always the same. The dinner served in the restaurant was a seven course meal. The pasta was always the best (quality of fish and meat has room for improvement - should buy them in the States). We also liked the magnificent shows in the evening, but had to adjust to the fact that they were sometimes before dinner. Exceptional artists!!! Besides the disco for the younger people we could enjoy dancing too (hits for the 70s, 80s and 90s). The casino was very small compared to American cruise lines. Sometimes during the day there was no coffee, ice tea or pizza available. We were also impressed that they still offer midnight buffets - very seldom today on other cruise ships. These buffets were exceptional!!!!!!

This was my 7th cruise and it has to be my favorite. Amazing Ports. A spotless ship. Exciting Entertainment. Friendly, sincere service and very interesting food made this trip almost perfect.

Beautiful, clean ship.Friendly sincere service. Grown up & funny entertainment & entertainers. No one hunts you down to sell you something, e.g. drinks. The pace is very relaxed. Amazing Ports, especially the Dominican Republic & Barbados.

ship was very clean,the rest was okey (fashion etc) very plain no frillis

This ship is nice but was of a lesser class than some of the newer ones in the Royal Caribbean line.

We went on this cruise because of the destinations(Panama Canal). The ship was very clean and we enjoyed the cruise. The shows at night were very, very good. Our only negative was the Quality of food at the evening(Diner) meal.

This cruise offered a nice selection of ports but was unorganized at every turn. The food was awful and many of the staff were just plain rude. The entertainment in the main theater was less than professional quality compared to other ships we've been on. The balcony cabin was very nice. We will not cruise MSC again.

The room attendant was very good but apart from him the Service was very poor , we struggled to try and get drinks from bars and the ice cream was so slow to get served we gave up . port excursions are very expensive ,

Quite a bit for my money. Quite a bit for my money. Quite a bit for my money. Quite a bit for my money. Quite a bit for my money. Quite a bit for my money.

I have been on many cruises on different cruise lines but I have never been on one this bad.  Staff at the reception desk, not very helpful.  My wife and I watched the reception desk from where we had a drink every afternoon and I could not beleive the amount of guests that had arguments with the desk personnel.  

When you order a drink in any of the lounges, as soon as it arrives you should order another, because you will be finished with your first and be trying to get the attention of a waiter for quite sometime,  There seemed to be a "rudeness" attitude coming from the staff and when I brought this up at dinner everyone seemed to agree.  

The food either on the 11th floor cafeteria or in the dining room was poorly cooked.  Fish was way over cooked.  Breakfast was always the same, boring breakfast every morning.

Entertainment was poor.  We ended up leaving most nights before half way through.

I was really up beat and looking forward to this cruise but was very disappointed with it over all.

Seriously, even if MSC said, here are two totally free tickets, try it again, I would not even consider for a second taking the tickets.  I was never so glad to get off a ship in all my cruising days.

I have a long list of complaints but I hope that you get the picture.

If I could give this a zero I would! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY WITH MSC! Terrible terrible staff. First on the ship there is a line-up of sales staff soooo pushy to buy things. Well we just wanted to get to our room but did not know how. Staff not intetested. I asked so many staff - can I have my key please? Where is my room? I was very polite. I was not rude. Finally after being ignored by so many staff only interested in selling packages, I had to yell SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO GET TO MY BLOODY ROOM!!! WHERE IS MY KEY FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!! Then one of them turned to me and rudely advised my key is on my bed in my room. Great privacy - room key embedded with all my personal information and credit card details is on my bed in my room which has the door open! But I still don't know where my room is!! Finally I got a map, but no help to work it out. We had only one week before gotten off a 7n cruise with Carnival which we loved and we were so pumped to get on a second cruise. However we immediately hated it and I'm a grown woman and I just wanted to cry. It did not get better. 7n cruise and it was DAY 5 before a staff member acknowledged our existence but I got the feeling it was just because it was getting closer to tip time. It wasn't genuine. Every single day we came back to the ship after being out, there was almost no food. There were at least 10 or more MSC staff grabbing the small amount of food and taking it for themselves. And then sitting at the tables wearing their ID in clear view of the paying passengers and we were all asking the chefs could they bring out more food as we wanted to eat. And they said no - that's all - you should have been here earlier - it's like 4pm when lots of ppl are returning to the ship and want food before going back to their cabin. We couldn't believe it! So we could perhaps share one piece of dessert the size of a spoon between 2 ppl. It was so bad. 1st morning at breakfast I was carrying a small plate with a pastry and a cup of coffee. A staff member slammed into me and my coffee went flying and she did not even acknowledge the fact that she almost broke my arm let alone help clean up - nothing. Again - unbelievable! So I stood there in shock with terrible pain in my arm and my back which I twisted cause she hit me so hard and I guess I was just shocked and waiting for something. Maybe an apology. Maybe the coffee that went flying neefed a mop? Nope. She walked off with nothing. So I went over to a male staff member and said there's coffee all over the floor there right in the middle of the floor - could you please help me clean it up because i was worried someone would slip. Well he looked at me like I was a giant turd and did nothing. Now before you tell me it's a language barrier, I speak fluent Italian so we could communicate with ease. So the coffee stayed on the floor and nobody cared. The same troll from day 1 banged into me again on day 3 when I was at the juice machine. That left orange juice all over the floor. A whole cup. So I poured another and went back to my table. Didn't bother telling anyone cause they do not care. So you get the picture re the staff. SHOCKING!! Don't waste your money. And don't bother asking for information at the information desk - like what is this "miscellaneous charge" on my bill? The answer will be rudely screamed at you so the best thimg to do right then and there is to remove all automatic tips from the bill, tell them you want to give them to individuals who deserve it then try really really hard to find someone, anyone, who deserves a tip. By day 7 you will leave the ship without finding even one person. That is if you can get off the ship because you will be in a scrum of hundreds of people killing each other to get off and the staff in senior uniforms will yell in your face and be soooo rude and after about 3hrs when you finally get your passport back, they will say something really nice as you walk off like none of that ever happened! I'm getting so worked up writing this, reliving the horror. And every day I said to my 14yr old son - let's just ignore the bad behavior, we are so lucky to be doing this, let's really enjoy it, we are going to lovely places - we had to work so hard to build ourselves back up from the staff behavior. Oh and at the day at sea, heaps of ppl were sitting on the edge of the pool smoking. One after the other after the other. In the no smoking area. Staff couldn't care less. Little children everywhere. Who cares. You can smoke. In front of the no smoking signs - that's the best place to smoke right? And in the formal restaurant, the service took soooo long for first course then in between each one as well. No ice water. And on the last day they did free photos as a goodbye gift but because we didn't purchase photos during the cruise, the photographer deliberately skipped over us. I didn't want to let that go, so I asked the wait staff to get him to come back over to us. He came back over to tell us he refused to take a photo because he had tp do it in order of table number. So what about our table? Don't care. Whatever. I was only trying to.prove a point. I didn't want that stupid photo but I would like the next course without waiting 30 minutes in between. Oh and in the hallways that go for miles and miles, they have the cleaning trolleys - seems like hindreds of them that are all too big for the hallways they sit in. Seems like the hallways are their storage area. So while you're walking an eternity to your room up these hallways, about every 3 metres you have to turn sideways to get past the oversized cleaning trolleys. The whole experience was just a zero out of 10. Don't waste your money. I flipped a bird at the ship as we were walking down the pier. The best thing about this cruise was the moment we stepped off it!