Miserable Service Cruise
MSC Orchestra Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Deck Hand
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 0
Helpful Votes: 10
Sail date: October 01, 2009
Ship: MSC Orchestra
Cabin type: Inside
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 14 years ago
Review summary
To start the cabins although nicely keep, were by far smaller than any of all the other cruises we have taken. The price of the cruise seems reasonable until you realize that once inside you have to pay for a lot of extras. Obviously the water, There is no water anywhere in the ship after they close the buffets so you have to buy it. Breakfast buffet is from 6:30am to 10:00am and Lunch from 12:00 am to 15:30pm, after this the buffet is close until the morning. The only way to have dinner is to eat at the restaurants, seating divided into two, the early at 18:30, and the later at 21:00. If this is not to your liking you must go to one of the four of the paid restaurants some with two of them casual seating the other two by reservation only. So if your excursion finish late or you want to sleep early you would have to pay for dinner. Then there is the tour desk, totally incompetent when we got ready to book our excursions we approach the desk and express to the clerk that we wanted to go to Portofino, to which she answer sure fill out the form. As soon as we completed the form and turn them into the clerk she immediately responded that it was all booked. I asked her if they have it in a different language but the answer was no. I asked if she could write my name in case somebody would cancel, she answer that people dont usually cancel. They never bother to write my name or try to see if there was a way around this or if they could book with another company nor even the chance of speaking with the supervisor. Their answer was no and there was no turning back. As far as booking goes they have to call us back twice because of the same thing apparently they over book the Spanish excursion and the only way to go was in the English excursion(lucky for us that we are fluent on both) if not it would have been the same as the Portofino incident. My question is this How Long Has MSC being in the cruise Business that they can not allow people to book on the same Internet that we book our Cruises, therefore eliminating the need for their customers to have to deal with this angry tour desk personnel.Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Food was pretty limited and with no visible variety in sight, it was the same menu or should I say layout as the day before, day in and day out. The only thing that seems to change was the desserts, although I am sure it was not so much by design as because they try to rotate the stock.
Entertainment
I am sure that the staff pretty much conforms to what they are told from the top, it seems like these Italian ships cater more to the European market than the global market. I could sympathize if that is the way they feel but if that is the case perhaps they would save some money by not advertising in the markets that they not care to serve. I believed that both parties would be mutually content should they decide to take this route. Only advertise for the people you are willing to service.
Service and Staff
I am sure that the staff pretty much conforms to what they are told from the top, it seems like these Italian ships cater more to the European market than the global market. I could sympathize if that is the way they feel but if that is the case perhaps they would save some money by not advertising in the markets that they not care to serve. I believed that both parties would be mutually content should they decide to take this route. Only advertise for the people you are willing
Ship Quality
The ship is awkwardly design and the signage didnt help much to identify where you are or where you are going a lot of times the elevator only goes to the 12 floor and you are force to either walk thought the entire a dinning room or through the corridor towards the center o the ship to get the elevator to take to the next level.
Cabin / Stateroom
The staterooms are well keep and the staff in this department seems to be more professional and involve than in the others. My stateroom attendant was always attending to our need and the towels were change every time we used them, also even thought this woman appeared to be overwork she always manage to greet us with a smile, what a difference from the rest of the crew.
Pros: Boarding was easy, very clean ship
Cons: food service, Tour desk help incompetent
Be the first to comment