MSC Orchestra Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We have been sailing with the MSC orchestra on a round trip from Dubai. It is a nice ship. The food is standard I would say. Not the best on sea but far away from bad. Some dishes really were great but there were some we didn't like. But that's not the point. Overall it's worth the price I would say. I really liked the outside area of the buffet restaurant. Having breakfast there and watch Abu Dhabi skyline blowed my mind. So gorgeous. I definitely would recommend purchasing a drink package in advance on their website or with a travel agent. It's possible to do this onboard also, but in this case they will add a 18% fee for every purchase onboard. If you buy it online before boarding, they won't add an extra fee. That's what we experienced. Anybody who already booked MSC and is frustrated to read so many bad things about them: try it out and give them a chance. Maybe your own experience is completely different to what people say in advance. Be open minded and treat others like you want to be treated. That's what I try to do and that worked out fine so far😉 There are always things to improve on every cruiseline but overall I didn't regret cruising MSC.

I have been taking cruises all over the world for over fourty years and this cruise has to be my worst experience to date. The issues I had with this cruise was that the level and quality of service provided paled in comparison to all the other cruise lines I've sailed on in the past. For example;

a) The preparation and quality of the food was poor, especially in the buffet area during breakfast and dinner. I've never seen so much partially eaten food left on the plates of the passengers. What a waste!

b)  Although you could get a glass of water in the buffet area, the servers in the dinning room will not serve you water unless you purchased bottled water. You could also forget about being served coffee or tea after your meal to compliment your desert and our server acted as if she could care less. I've never experienced this lack of service on any other cruise line before.

c) Several of the shore excursions were cancelled. When we inquired as to why, we were told because there were not enough english speaking passengers that signed up for the excursion. Passengers that spoke italian, spanish, or german were able to go on the excursion. They also blamed the lack of interpreters as an excuse.

d) From the first day of the cruise we continually experienced the smell of cigarette smoke in our cabin especially through the air supply vent. Although smoking is not allowed in the cabins or on the balcony, the passengers next to us continued to smoke. They made very little effort to correct the problem nor would they offer to move us to another cabin.

e) The scheduled entertainment on the cruise was below average. The evening entertainment in the theater was geared more towards children than adults with themes like Batman and other super heros.

The ship itself was well kept and and clean. The ports we visited were enjoyable, but those are the only positive comments I  can make about my experience on this cruise line.

Our first Cruise ever was on the MSC Orchestra. What an experience! The service was great.... The ship was spotless... Our balconycabin were great. Nice and clean. The food was fine, Even though many are of a different opinion.

The ship was very nice, big of course, and a bit crowded, and the stateroom I had surprisingly large with the balcony giving it an open feeling. The normal staff contacts out side of dining were good, but dining staff to me was very professional and excellent. Unfortunately the food was atrocious. Some where between bad school cafeteria and frozen diner bad. Nearly every sauce was so salty by the third meal we tried to remember to request there be no sauce. Vegetables were cooked to the point of losing all texture and shape as well as taste. Risotto on the other hand was undercooked such that the rice still had crunchy white centers. Fish and meat were badly overdone. The only dessert worth eating was the chocolate ice cream. The baked Alaska was awful. Breakfast was satisfactory to good. The wine bar and wine selection was actually very good, although I felt kind of sorry for the people working there. The rest of the passengers only used the wine bar for sitting and rarely bought bottles of wine. Dealing with the management on board was not as good an experience, I had a problem they said the would deal with, and I should not worry, just enjoy my vacation. Well that is a good start, but until I pushed them very hard, they seemed to hope the problems would resolve themselves. After it was obvious that I would not go away, they did make sure I knew they were actively working the issue. MSC does not seem to attract a stylish hip crowd, more like older European blue collar workers. Few spoke any English, they are sooo loud when talking right next to each other, but I guess that is just a cultural thing. I cannot recommend MSC. The food was just inexcusable. If they fix that major gap, the ship and line may be acceptable.

I really was disappointed in the experience we had. We travel often and this was not up to expectations.

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.

We enjoyed our 17 day cruise on the MSC Poesia, but we did find the on board costs to be too high. Even drinking water was not free. In addition, many on board were upset about the gratuity being added at a suggested rate of (for the cost we paid) 28%, which is ridiculous. On a whole, we enjoyed the cruise and had fun, but the costs on board were depressing and meant we could not afford to fully enjoy ourselves.

This was my 4th cruise, but 1st European cruise. I loved the itinerary to Genoa, Spain and Lisbon. The ship is huge and watching the captain dock this monster every day in a different port was a show in itself! Kudos to the captain and his staff for a job well done. Everything about the ship was wonderful. I was especially impressed with the trip through the Straight of Gibraltar.

This cruise is not good for any one with a medical condition. If you don't eat lunch you are forced to eat at the main dining room and wait a long time to be served or pay at the other two additional restaurant you even have to pay for pizza. I am diabetic and they wouldn't change my sitting from the 2nd. to the 1st. very unethical. The staff seemed very unhappy never smile. The staff for the tour excursions were not helpful at all, very rude. We missed a real nice excursion to Portofino because they did not know what they were doing. I did not have a very good experience on this cruise.

the ship itself was clean and decorated ok.

A CLEAN SHIP BUT THE FOOD WAS SO SO AND THE THE SERVICE IN THE RESTURANT WAS VERY UNPROFESSORNAL. I WILL GIVE THEM ANOTHER TRY IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT

We intentionally wanted a European based cruise line. We loved the choices of food on the cruise and the wait staff was very accomodating. We ate almost all of our meals in the dining rooms as we like to be pampered on vacation. The balcony room was very nice, and we had more than enough storage for clothes. I enjoyed the dress recommednations for meals. The entertainment was very good, it was classical and very tasteful. We didn't participate in pool side activities. We would definitely recommend the line, but one needs to understand this is not an American company and Europeans tend to not be as demanding, in my experience, as most Americans.

Nice ship, very clean, not laid out well. Very difficult to get from one place to another without having to walk to length of the ship to find an elevator, restroom, etc. The food was bland, either overcooked or undercooked. Not at all appealing. Offered instant coffee, because the pot had already been cleaned and out away. Had to pay extra for iced tea and soda at the bar.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CRUISE LINE AGAIN

We are from Indiana and this was our family's 5th cruise and it was the best one we have taken. We were very scared to go on the cruise because of all of the negative reviews but in the end are SO glad we didn't "listen" to the reviews. We found the food to be very good (both American and European style of food). We also ate at the Chinese restaurant and found it very intimate and good food. We never had to fight for a deck chair (and they are awesome chairs with the face cover). The ship is absolutely gorgeous and very classy. The shows were the best ever. We had everything from ballet to opera to a classical pianist, to shows that you would only see at Cirque de Soleil. The photographers were much less pushy than we have had on other ships. They had daily shopping bargains aboard the ship. My only complaint would be that very few people had any pay-out at the casino and I heard many people complaining about this. Customer service was great. Of course it is an Italian ship so English is the 2nd language for most everyone but we found that very appealing and never had a problem communicating when we needed to. If you are someone who wants loud and somewhat abnoxious decor and activities, then this ship is not for you. The rudest people we encountered on the ship were Americans, not the Europeans! If you want class with a European flair, then this is definitely the cruise you want to take!

We knew it was a kids sail free cruise, but nothing prepaired us for this! The ship was crawling with kids- We could not use pools because people were putting kids in diapers in pools- there is no Adults Only pool- Kids were snorkeling in hot tubs! Food was awful- Tough steak and "plastic" veggies that were always cold! Most of the crew looked so very unhappy-And most were surley and un-helpfull. Bloody,starving horses on shore excursion. Both beds in cabin 9111 were so saggy we could not sleep!

My husband and I have traveled on many cruises all over the world. We were ready to eat the usual wonderful meals that we looked forward too, but it never happened. We felt sorry for the waiter;he gave excuses for which we understood that he was just the "waiter.". The food was either not cooked properly or overcooked. We ate at the buffet most of the day and as a courtesy to our waiter, we ate the evening meal in the dining room. The room stewart kept our room clean, We never saw him, We always looked forward to a mint, but we didn't get one. The information desk was a help when we talked to the ladies; the gentlemen was very rude.We found many people disatisfied with the meals and the unfriendly people on the cruise ship, Our suggestion would be to get a Chef or chefs that know how to cook and present the food to the guests.

MY SISTER AND I JUST GOT OFF THIS SHIP ON APRIL 4th. WE'VE BEEN ON MAYBE 20-25 CRUISES SO I CAN HONESTLY SAY BY EXPERIENCE THAT THIS WAS A CRUISE FROM HELL!!!!! THE WORST FOOD AND SERVICE EVER, A LOT OF FOOD WAS RECYCLED, OLD, AND TASTELESS SLOP! THE BREAD WAS ABOUT THE ONLY THING EDIBLE. SERVICE WAS THE WORST!! WE HAD TO WAIT 20-30 MINUTES FOR DRINKS AND REFILLS ON TEA OR WATER, ONE NIGHT WE GOT UP AND GOT OUR OWN AFTER ASKING 3 TIMES. JUST NOT ENOUGH STAFF TO GIVE GOOD SERVICE. WHOLE CREW SEEMED OVERWORKED, SAD, AND VERY UNHAPPY RESULTING IN TERRIBLE SERVICE. POOL SERVICE WAS NON-EXISTANT. YOU HAVE TO GET YOUR OWN DRINKS. TRASH AND CUPS WERE EVERYWHERE. WHEN I TOLD SOMEONE THEY COMPLETLEY IGNORED WHAT I WAS SAYING AND WALKED OFF. I'M TELLING YOU IF WE COULD'VE GOTTEN OFF WE WOULD HAVE GLADLY CUT OUR LOSSES FOR FREEDOM FROM THIS HELL. THE SHIP IS BEAUTIFUL, BUT MAINTENANCE IS REALLY POOR, FOR A SHIP THAT'S ONLY 2 YEARS OLD. EVEN IF IT WERE FREE I WOULD NEVER TAKE ANOTHER CRUISE WITH MSC!!!! I PROMISE I'M NOT EXAGGERATING, IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!! IT'S CLEAR THAT THE MANAGEMENT OF THIS CRUISE LINE HAS'NT A CLUE OF HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL CRUISE SHIP. i DON'T BLAME THE WORKERS I BLAME MANAGEMENT FOR THIS MESS.

age 72 traveling 3-4 times/year traveling couple accomodations: outside balcony.

Nice ship, but elevators were out of use all week (one side). Probably the biggest complaint was the lack of English spoken by crew members. Even the information desk; they told us to come down in person as they didn't understand what we were asking. Although our wait staff during dinner tried their best, there was no expedition of food between courses. We had first seating to insure enough time to get to the Irish Entertainment each night. Each evening's meal took two hours! We looked forward to the lobster, but it was nothing like we ever experienced before! Over cooked, dry, and no butter to go with it. When we asked for the butter, we got oil. This was our third cruise and the food was ok, but it lacked presentation as on other lines. If it weren't for the spectacular entertainment of the Irish Stars and the theater they performed in, the whole week would have been disasterous! PS - we were witness to many people falling on ship due to the unecessary steps in the internet cafe and various clubs. Bathrooms not adequate outside the large dining room with only two stall bathroom.