MSC Preziosa Reviews

Wonderful ports of call. Ship was beautiful and very clean. The buffet was a nightmare at peak times, but most of the food was tasty. Main dining room was good except that you had to pay for water and coffee with your meal. Shipboard entertainment was just okay. All in all, a decent cruise, but I wish I had know literally everything was a la carte before I booked.

Don't ever use the cruise line.. carnival is even better than this mess. We were at least 2 hours late to each port and they did not extend our excursions at all and we can screwed on each excursion and only gave us 10% off when we lost sometimes 40-50% of the excursion time... just awful! .

Not worth your money. From day 1 to day 7, this is a chaotic, unfriendly, and boring cruise I have ever been on. I am told there were only 66 Americans on this cruise. They treat the European citizens different from treating the English and non- EU counties such as the Americans. They kept our passports and we all had to stand in separate lines. People on this cruise cut in line at buffet, at drink stations, at waiting lines to get on or off the ship. Imagine you are standing at the buffet line next to your party, and all of the sudden, a human arm poked in from behind you, and under your armpit with their own fork/spoon sometimes, to pick up the food you are about to pick up for yourself and not even say "excuse me". Isn't that frightening?? And if you don't keep up the pace with the rest of the line, someone will cut in and separate you from your party on a daily basis. Now that I am home and have some time to reflect on this cruise, I regret having made the choice to be on MSC. I hope you will do your homework carefully before taking any cruise on MSC.

I enjoy MSC, they seem to have exciting port s we have been on 4 cruises already with them . And have 2 more booked so. We have been on the, Spendida, Poesia, Musica, And Preziosa.

The cruise was great except not being able to stop at one destination due to adverse weather conditions.  The onboard staff was amazing, extremely friendly and accommodating.  The food has greatly improved in the past couple of years even though the menu choices are less.  Keep up the great work MSC!

Itinerary was perfect, though another day in Rio would have made it even better.  Ship and suite were beautiful, food a little disappointing, service/crew very good.  But you'd better like lots of people on the boat...4700 passengers and 1300 crew.  I think I prefer the smaller ships.  

The service was wonderful however we found the food not to be the best as we do cruise quite a bit.  Several times during the dinner hour, we didn't receive what we ordered.  

Highly recommend this cruise. We were on a beautiful and clean ship, the newest in their fleet. The staff was very attentive and our balcony cabin was extremely clean. The only item I believe would need improvement would be the theater shows. The excursions were wonderful. The entire staff was exceptional. 

The MSC cruise from Barcelona was great in every respect and it met all of our expectations, including great food (quality and quantity), excellent evening entertainment, pleasant bars/entertainment venues, and, overall, a very nice ship.  was not good at providing me with information/assistance after I booked and paid for the cruise.  I was unable to ever again contact the agent that initially assisted me.  Further, did not provide me with my cruise boarding documents, after I completed the online registrations, until after I made three calls to demanding that they be emailed to me.  Only after I asked for and was allowed to speak to a supervisor were the boarding documents sent to me within 15 minutes, after the original agent with whom visited said that I would need to wait at least 24 hours. The delay in sending these to me was blamed on MSC, but MSC had assured me that the boarding documents had been sent to weeks before. I will not use in the future, but I will cruise with MSC again.

Food and variety of menu very poor.  Care of and Cabin good.  Itinerary satisfactory. Long lines pre and post tour. Poor communication with service desk. 

I was disappointed.

1. The food was sub par

2. Main option other than assigned dinning was the buffet on 1 floor. This made it entirely too busy & crowded.

3. The worst was the miss marketing by MSC. They made it seem as the ONLY options for the Barcelona & Marseille was from MSC & charged 8.90€ for adults & 5.60€ kids for Barcelona, 15€ & 8€ for Marseille JUST for the bus ride off the boat. The FAILED to mention less than a mile from Port in BOTH cases there was FREE transport from Marseille & 3€in Barcelona. I spoke to several people who didn't want to spend the extra 50-100$ to leave the boat.

4. The customer service from the service desk was terrible!

I will say the waiters & cabin attendantS were wonderful

Beautiful ship

BUT

Sorry MSC epic fail

From the booking experience to the disembarkation, it was difficult not to be disappointed with this trip. MSC does not allow electronic tickets to be printed if booked from elsewhere and if I wasn't a frequent cruiser, I would not have contacted for my tickets. (I shouldn't had have to!!). Embarkation stated 3pm, however, we could have boarded much sooner. Our first excursion was cancelled and I wouldn't have found out until the morning of if I didn't check on my tickets. (cancelled for lack of English speaking passengers) We booked yacht club suite tickets and we encountered to most rude staff at the concierges desk that we could imagine. 98% of the passengers were from Europe and this is who they cater to. We booked an excursion at every port and most were huge disappointments. Palermo, Genoa and most of Rome are not worth getting off the ship for. Malta, Barcelona and France were nice. Italy for the most part is in decay and resembles Greece. Food from the Yacht club private restaurant was hit or miss and the regular buffet is terrible . The casino staff was great, however, if you play table games, you are in for a big disappointment. Very limited selection of games and only a few tables... all in all, we would never take this cruise again and certainly not with MSC.

The Preziosa is the new flagship of MSC. We had a large cabin with a balcony for three persons and it was very comfortable. The ports visited give a wonderful flavor of the Mediterranean.Embarkation and disembarkation was the smoothest I have encountered on a cruise.Steward service was not as efficient as any other cruise line I have used and in this case I paid more for a balcony cabin, Our cabin was made up at odd times and minibar was seldom restocked. Dining in the Golden Lobster was a hurried experience with a get in get out feeling and constant pressure to move out. Coffee and tea were not even served with desert if you had time to eat it. I give the cruise a favorable rating because of the condition of the ship and the ports visited but MSC will not be among the companies I choose for my next cruise..  PS: Use the stairs at peak times because the elevators are packed.

As a first time cruiser on MSC, with experience on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, I was looking forward to learning about an Italian-based cruiseline. It was interesting to note that this line allows passengers to come aboard at each of its ports. That means there is a muster just about every day. Our request for extra towels and pillows (a standard request on the other lines) was met with an argument first, then a two-day delay in providing them. Dinner service was stilted, with the servers not understanding rudimentary English. Servers refused to provide plain tap water , insisting that we purchase water instead. Coffee/tea was also not offered - we were told to go to the cafe and purchase it there. At breakfast, service was poor to non-existent. Occasionally, but not always, we were offered juice and bread. Refills on coffee were available, if you could flag down a waitperson and ask for it. Except for breakfast, the food was either tasteless, or comparable to dishwater (soups) or cardboard (sauces). Only two dinners had portions that were acceptable. All the areas of the ship were invaded by unruly, unsupervised children. Despite signs saying that under-sixteens must be supervised by an adult, said adults were not in evidence. I was extremely disturbed to see toddlers in diapers (expressly forbidden in all pools) present, occasionally with parents, in all the pools. The health hazard of this seems not to disturb the management. Children were roughhousing - pulling or pushing each other into the water, running around the perimeters, generally being totally obnoxious. Needless to say, there was NO place on the ship to avoid these encounters. The crew seldom smiled or responded in a friendly manner, unlike my experiences with the other cruiselines. The ship generally docked far from the cruise terminal, then offered 'shuttles' to town or the terminal for 10 - 15 euros.  

As a first time cruiser on MSC, with experience on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, I was looking forward to learning about an Italian-based cruiseline. It was interesting to note that this line allows passengers to come aboard at each of its ports. That means there is a muster just about every day. Our request for extra towels and pillows (a standard request on the other lines) was met with an argument first, then a two-day delay in providing them. Dinner service was stilted, with the servers not understanding rudimentary English. Servers refused to provide plain tap water , insisting that we purchase water instead. Coffee/tea was also not offered - we were told to go to the cafe and purchase it there. At breakfast, service was poor to non-existent. Occasionally, but not always, we were offered juice and bread. Refills on coffee were available, if you could flag down a waitperson and ask for it. Except for breakfast, the food was either tasteless, or comparable to dishwater (soups) or cardboard (sauces). Only two dinners had portions that were acceptable. All the areas of the ship were invaded by unruly, unsupervised children. Despite signs saying that under-sixteens must be supervised by an adult, said adults were not in evidence. I was extremely disturbed to see toddlers in diapers (expressly forbidden in all pools) present, occasionally with parents, in all the pools. The health hazard of this seems not to disturb the management. Children were roughhousing - pulling or pushing each other into the water, running around the perimeters, generally being totally obnoxious. Needless to say, there was NO place on the ship to avoid these encounters. The crew seldom smiled or responded in a friendly manner, unlike my experiences with the other cruiselines. The ship generally docked far from the cruise terminal, then offered 'shuttles' to town or the terminal for 10 - 15 euros.  

To begin with before the cruise there was not good comunication with MSC reps., they stated things that were not provided.  The cruise check-in proceedure could have been extremely long except  for the fact my 89 yr old mother was on the trip and they put us is a quick line.  Then they let my brother and mother go through security onto the ship but made the rest of us (6) wait to board.  The ship is beautiful and the staterooms are large and beautiful with lots of storage space! The food in the dinning room was good overall with some excellent desserts and the pasta dishes were superb!  Our waiter Jose Cabrera from Honduras was fantastic. The buffet in the Inca and Maya was chaotic, 1st you had to find a table, then the service to clear & clean the table was slow, I cleaned it my self.  You went around in circles trying to find food with 3000 other people.  The food was just average. There are no other non paying places to eat on the ship, only dinning room or buffet.  All other ships I have been on have various places to eat so you don't have the conjested area in the buffet restaurant.

I was told Americans received 1 lt. of bottled water at dinner, we didn't receive them, I asked at the reception and they said it didn't matter what MSC reservations said, they don't give them. From other passengers review, they did receive coupons on there check in. MSC only serves bottled water in the dinning room. No coffee or Iced Tea! They do have water, coffee and hot water for tea in the buffet.  They only have juices until 10:00am in the buffet.  Also a pre package beer option I ordered they had no record of, when I showed them my print out, they said I wasn't charged and they would honor it.  "I had to go with what they sold on board the ship".

Our room attendant Johnny was  great, I asked him to make me towel animals and he did every night but only for my stateroom, we had 4 staterooms. I know the animals are an American ship thing but they are fun! 

The ports of call were fantastic but too short of time.  In Croatia by the time we got off the ship you had about 4 1/2 hrs. before you had to be back on the ship. 

I enjoyed the shows each night, same people but different themes.  They don't really have a lot of other fun activities to do unless you pay for it.  Also the web site on and MSC cruises is not up to date.

  I have cruised over 10 times, on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL and MSC. 

We spent a lot of money on the Excursions in Turkey and were overcharged on top of this.  The tour guides (MSC approved I'm sure), rushed us through the historical sites in order to bring us to a leather jacket fashion show in Seljuk and a Turkish rug showroom in Istanbul.  Hefty $thousands were expected to be made at both vendor locations.  Real bad and dissappointing experience -for once in a lifetime port visits. Get your own touring company/guide to get the most out of your cultural visits if choosing MSC.

Reception staff aboard was rude and unhelpful and the MSC Club manager was never to be found, we were actually thinking of booking another cruise. Kuddos to the rest of the ship Services, including Entertainment, and especially the Dining Staff at L'Aberesque.  Food was wonderful on the ship.

1. Food poor

2. Communications with crew almost non exsistant

3. Tours very poor

4. Shows poor because of language problems

5. Of the 15 cruises my wife and I have taken, this was the worst

I could go on, but I think you get the idea

Thank you for the fine cruise I enjoyed on board MSC PREZIOSA in may 2017 to Scotland and Ireland and for choosing my nearest port in Denmark being Fredericia as replacement on 15 June 2018 for a call at Bergen due to heavy storm. Within only 48 hours the cruise team of the port and the town managed to arrange excursions for 400 passengers and some 2000 passengers walked the short distance to the town center. Many thanks to the 2000 passengers who applauded at the gun salute and the band playing at departure. A beautiful ship in fine evening sunshine.

We were thinking 'have we booked the wrong ship' based on the bad reviews but there was nothing to worry about. We also could not get in to Stockholm (june 5th) but had a wonderfull afternoon in Helsinki instead. If you go on a cruise: be flexible! Things can go other than planned. It's a ship, you have to deal with wind, technical problems etc. The ship is nice, staff is super friendly (just be nice and they will return it) and the cabin is big enough and is serviced twice a day. We ate mostly in L'Arabesque, which was good. Not huge plates full of food but more then enough for us. We did allways order a salad to go with the main dish because Italians do not seem to care much for veggies. The buffet is very busy but we were always able to find a table to sit at lunch or breakfast. Tea and coffee in the buffet should be used to flush toilets, the worst I ever had. But at Il Cappucino they make great coffee, so we had some there. The negative for us were the shows. Italians most be deaf because the sound was so loud we had to put fingers in our ears to dimm it. A shame, because the singers can sing! Also the lighting of the show was terrrible, most of the actors were dancing in the dark. Also the music in the lounges was way too loud for us exept at the Atrium, which is a great place to sit, enjoy music and watch people pass by. It was our first cruise and would we go on the Preziosa again? I think we might try to find a ship with other entertainment but with the right itinerary we would sail with this ship. Overall we had a wonderfull time! MSC is the cheeper cruise option and you will know that once you are on the ship. They will charge you for all the extra's. We knew that up front, so no problem there. Tips: Get yourself informed before you go on any ship. Read reviews, check videos on you tube etc. That prevents dissapointment. Do research off cabins. We choose the wrong one! 😉 Only myself to blaim. Sleeping right above a jazz club was not the right choice. I thought we would hear the music (which would have been okay) but all we heared and feeled were very strong bass tones. Go dine in The Golden Lobster or Arabesque. Very good service, nice food. Not 4 star quality but if you want that on this ship book the Yacht Club.