MSC Orchestra Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Horrible customer service. Employees cut in front of you and most are just plain incompetent. The food is equally bad in the dining room. Island stops are short and it takes them a long time to get people off the ship wasting 1/2 your time waiting to get off the ship. Much better cruise lines for you to choose from.

This was my 7th cruise and compared to the other cruises and cruise lines this ship has a lot of improving to do. It was very difficult to communicate with staff, there were elevators that did not work the whole week, it was difficult to get from one end of the ship to the other. The food was not cooked properly or presented properly. The dining room was extremely noisy.

This cruise was the worst I have ever experienced and I have been on almost all of them from Carnival to Seaborne, Crystal and everything in between. The rooms were as small as the one I had on my first cruise in 1971. Few of the crew spoke English well enough to understand or be understood. I understand the need for all languages but those at the front desk, room stewards and waiters should be able to speak and understand English clearly if you are traveling to and from places where English is the primary language. The food was horrible and a surprise when someone at the table said Oh this is good (that happened very very rarely.) The lobster the last night was a small Langostino cut in half with all the Goonk still in it that no one eats. YUCK. Standing in my underwear one day at sea a man comes from the other balcony on to mine and proceeded to repair parts of the railing. No previous warning, excuse me NOTHING. It was duck taped for 3 days. We were a group of six who requested seating together we were all separated? We asked the maitre d if we could be together he said yes tomorrow night. Only two of us were moved to our friends table. Our original waiter came from across the room while we were seated said something to the maitre d and the maitre d told us we had to move back to our original table the next night. Obviously he is not in charge??? We arrived at ports so late in the afternoon or for such a short time it was impossible to see or do anything. Internet only worked once in 7 days. Never again MSC

Beautiful ship! Horrible crew.

Nice cruise. Hopefully they will get better. Entertainment, food, needs to improve.

I was very disappointed in this cruise (W. Carib. Jan. 10 - Jan. 17, 2009). Our first dinner set the tone. It took over 2 hours and we encounted a lot of time just waiting for the next course. The lack of training in speaking English left us often feeling as though they did not understand. The food was often served inappropriately (i.e. - scambled eggs served on toast instead of with toast.) To use the spa area(fitness center, steam, sauna, 3 hot tubs) you neede an appointment. Often the day was filled up before you could book. Asking to exercise while seeing no one using the equipment, I was told "sorry , you don't have an appointment." Others haver mentioned other problems that we found still exist. Bottom line: I would not recommend this cruise.

The ship was well done; the shows were good however there was very little to do otherwise. The played Bingo once on Friday.

We were so excited to go on our new MSC cruise in Jan. but as soon as we got on board and went to lunch we knew we picked the wrong cruise line. The lunch buffet was awful the meats were over cooked and the vegetables were bland. The desert selection consistend of sheet cake with pink icing. This did not change through out the cruise, everyday a sheet cake with a differant color icing. Towards the end of the cruise they did start putting out the leftover deserts from the previous nights dinner. The breakfast buffet left little to choose from the scrambled eggs were fine but the fried eggs were burnt and crisp. Lots of can fruits and pastries that were dried out and hard. The oatmeal and yolgurt was good and safe. I have never had pork and beans for breakfast but on this ship they were out for you at breakfast. Lunches stayed the same through out the week and I though the salad bar would be ok but the selection was very odd. 1 type of lettuce, cooked lentil beans, carrots, olives and diced potatoes was one example of the bar. Very limited on the dressing selection most days had 1000 island, Blue cheese, and italian. so you might think that because it was a buffet that the formal served dinners would be better they were not the first night we were greeted by our waiter with are you ready to order, we had not even had water service or offered anything to drink. The table was about 30 inches around for the 4 of us to sit at. We did ask to move to a larger table and the waiter informed be that I would have to go up to see the dining room manager. We were allowed to move to another table and that table was fine. The menu was not true we order a dish that said was chicken breast and they served chicken legs and thighs. The fruit appetizer was to be infused with mint syrup and all we received was 3 slices of melon. The tuna tarlett was nothing more that tuna salad in a mini pie shell. Many of the sauces were the same as if they made 1 huge batch for the week and put it on everything. I spoke with the dining room manager to let him know that I was disappointed with the food quality and it was the worst that I had on any cruise ship, he responded with it is hard to cook for 3000 guests. We did find the lunch buffet had pizza and thought that would be safe but the discription of pizza was with cheese and sausage but was really pizza with cheese and slices of hot dogs left over from the day before. We did have some beverages on the deck and even the drinks were not good. The margarita was made with lemon juice and we tried to get a b52 as a drink mixed with cream and was told they could not do that because they did not have cream. Then after asking again the said they could make it with milk we said that would be fine. We enjoyed the drink until we got the bill and they charge extra for the milk. We did complain to the bar manager and he removed the addtional charge. I thought a glass of port wine would be nice one evening after dinner and much to my suprise the five dollar glass of port was on a 1.5 ounce shot. I did send the drink back. But all in all we did have a good time and it was nice to get away. We do travel on vacation every January and most of the time it is on a cruise. I would hate for somebody to take their saving and call this thier dream vacation only to be disappointed in the quality of the food, service and entertainment staff on this cruise line.

The Italian staff were rude & obnoxious. The South American staff were more than accommodating and very friendly.

Unfortunately there is very little that I can say that is positive. The ship is beautifully decorated and the cabins were very nicely appointed. However, the food was the worst imaginable and we have cruised 7 times and have some basis for comparison. The staff were rude and uncaring. The staff cannot speak English therefor there were many mistakes made when ordering food or drinks. They literally cannot understand what the customer is saying. The embarkation was a very poorly run operation. Some people waited as long as 8 hours to board but the average wait was 4 hours. Some people boarded so late that there was no food left. The debarkation was not much better. It was disorganized and the crowd got out of control to the degree that 2 passengers became combative and security was needed. The long waits and the lack of any MSC staff maintaining crowd control contributed to the overall mayhem that ensued. When a MSC security employee was approached he indicated that he did not work for the cruise line. Indeed he did as he was on board the whole time and when we got to the terminal he was there in a post representing MSC with his name tag clearly displayed.

The ship is beautiful but the food was very disappointing.

Very poor. Never sail MSC again. Impossible to get from dining rooms to decks 5-6 without either walking through the dining rooms or going a few floors up and then getting an elevator down to 5 or 6. Shops not near one another. Two elevators were inoperable the whole trip. No restrooms on diningroom floors. No names for restrooms. Just symbol. What if someone was blind?

T he ship was beautiful,the customer service was horrible,There was no 24 hour food service. Several nights we actually starved. There was no wash clothes throughout our entire cruise, we used large towels.They could not speak english very well at all,so that was a major problem.We tried to make the best of it because we had our family with us.It was my first cruise,and i was really dissapointed.

The ship was great, clean etc.

After seeing this ship in Barcelona, I knew I wanted to go on it. I was not disappointed! After many cruises since my first in 1973, the thought the decor was beautiful (haven't been this impressed since Costa before Carnival bought it). Yes, it is diverse as French, spanish, german, english and, of course, Italian are spoken. To hear the announcements in these languages was enlightening. The music was entertaining from the classic quartet in atrium, the jazz bar, the shows, the Savannah bar with all types of dance music. Just a great cruise!

The ship was so beautiful and spotless. The views from the ship were great. Service was bad the first day but once you find the right people to ask, everything was perfect. Our cabin steward and waiter spoke fluent English, the entertainment staff (the best!) spoke 5-7 languages fluently. The excursions were great, my kids stayed busy swimming with stingrays, playing at the beautiful Cayo Lavantado beach, snokeling etc.. so much to do on all the excursions, they were tired and didn't want to do much during days at sea. Breakfast and dinners were fantastic. Too chilly to go in the pools after 6pm on deck. The spa had hot tubs and saunas, steam rooms. We had so much fun and would go again! Loved the Italians!

poor food,entertainment,service.

This cruise is so great! I do not know how anybody could say it was bad.

th ship has potential but the MSC cruiseline could careless what passengers think, feel or need. The service is rude and subpar and the food is barely edible. We lived on French Fries and Pizza for 17 days. The bread was good. Serice is slow. Tough choice for breakfast...hour wait in dining room or cold slimy food at buffet...yum. We were outright told American's Are Too Picky. So be picky and pick another cruiseline

Overall, the entertainment was great - however, the food was not the quality expected. There were no vegetarian selections- and the options when made were limited. The gym was limited and small - not easy to get to . There were not enough places to sit by the pool - waiting at best 30 minutes or more for a seat. Service in English was limited - and there was no English representative to help with concerns. Adult only areas were not respected as Adult only - and the small pools were filled with children. There was so many things wrong with this cruise to list. Needless to say - if this review helps save one person's vacation then all this heart ache was worth it!