Poor communication led to confusion and disappointment

Everything was very smooth, my only complaint was that the directions to the terminal weren't clear. We've never driven to Miami before and the first part of the directions said MSC departs from Terminal D, so we parked there. After standing at a vacant terminal, I looked at the directions and towards the middle of the page it read "after Jan. 3, MSC Seascape will be departing at Terminal C" so we had to schlepp our bags down to the next terminal. Glad it wasn't a typical humid Miami day! Yes, it is on my for not reading the entire page but come on, it wouldn't take any effort to put that part in bold. Ufortunately unclear communication was to be a theme for this trip.

Positive: the salad was always nice and fresh at the buffet, the pizza was also right out of the oven and very good. If you came early enough the desert and pastries were very good. Waffles and French toast were very delicious. They were smart by putting the omelet station at the very back of the buffet line so there wasn't a traffic jam of people standing and waiting. Steakhouse was very good, at first we were hestitant to buy the dining package but were glad we did! Dining rooms were ok, service was good but servers seemed very rushed, always running around (possible due to the disorganized drink system--more on that later). Don't skip desert in the dining room--every choice was wonderful Negative--No variety on buffet. Yes, some people like the same everyday, but most cruise buffets also have a "theme" station that varies from day to day. The soft serve ice cream was only offered 1 time during the whole cruise. Even though the schedule on app and daily printed newsletter said the buffet was open until 9, they were always down to 1 station by 7 pm. Hamburgers and hotdogs were offered but they were always ice cold and only 1 ketchup dispenser that was either empty or out of order most of the time. It was also a problem if you just wanted coffee, water or tea, you would have to walk the whole length of the ship because all the drink stations were closed too. Bar service was terrible, disorganized and people were often frustrated because other people would cut in and the bartenders werent keeping track. This did not improve the entire cruise except for the main bar. Those bartenders had a system and it showed, people got waited on in a fair manner. Also, poor communication--the app would say a bar was open, the newsletter would say it was closed and half the time, even when both said it was open you would go to the bar and it was closed. Also, they kept "running out" of coke, water, corona and the flavored syrups for fruity drinks. They shouldn't push the drink packages if they can't keep up with the demand.

The fitness center was nice, had plenty of machines and the trainers were very nice and willing to answer questions. The spa was also nice, the masssage therapists were excellent and overall the whole area was clean. I would suggest more of the heated stone loungers, there were only 3 and again, they pushed the spa package so they should have more of the items people want. They could get rid of a few of the hot/cold steam showers--no one was using those for more than a minute and add more heated loungers. Also, you had to go all the way back to the dressing room to get a towel. It would be nicer if they had towel stations by the jacuzzi and hot/cold showers.

The stage show was very good with costumes and songs that everyone recognized. The dueling pianos and solo musician that played center stage were horrible. No personality, no interaction with audience. There was a really nice stage in the back of the ship but we didn't find out about it until the last night. No mention in the newsletter or app that there were entertainers there every night. We only found out about it from an announcement by the cruise director which he barely mentioned that there would be a mentalist performing and said nothing about the times, so we only got in on the very end of the show. It looked like he was really good and he actually seemed surprised that the crowd was so small. Well, no one knew unless they heard that little blurb at the very end of the cruise director's announcement about arrival at their island. He said, "and when you get back on board, check out the performers at the Cabaret tonight" That was it. The cruise director was terrible.

I am torn about giving this mark. The waiters, service desk, room stewards, spa attendants and everyone was very nice and did their best to understand you and help. The cruise directors and the excursion desk were snarky, rude, terrible at communicating and talked to me like I was stupid. In my opinion, it all started with the cruise director. He set the tone of being condescending on the intercom, saying things like "I see people still sitting around, I'm not sure why the bartenders are still serving you when you need to report to your room for safety video" and "this ship can't leave until you check in by phone" There are nicer ways to get your point across, or send the assistants to those areas to speak to people individually. Later, the ship had engine trouble and the director came on saying "We will be arriving late, but if you have an excursion no need to go to the excursion desk, just check your app for updates." Later, he said "if you have an excursion you don't need to get a tender ticket, just follow the directions on your excursion ticket." So we checked out app and it said our excursion was rescheduled for 2:45. I clicked on the tab that said "more information" and it read "follow the directions on your ticket" which the ticket said Group 30, which I presumed was our tender group. When it got to 3:00 and they still hadn't called group 30 I called the excursion desk (because remember the cruise director said don't go to the excursion desk) someone answered and after putting me on hold for another 10 minutes said to go to the theater. We went to the theater and NO ONE was there! No one was at the excursion desk, so we went to the tender station when they called group 30. We showed our ticket to the asst cruise director, he said "you're too late, that excursion left, you need an ticket to get a tender" We tried to explain to him that we thought we were following directions, he laughed at us and told my husband "Not my problem, that's your fault." Umm excuse me? Our fault for following the directions that were given? Rude! Well because he wouldn't let us on until we went back and got another tender ticket, we basically got off the ship at 5:15 pm and everything was closed! We couldn't even shop except for the little places on the pier. Just horrible! After we were back on ship, we went to excursion desk, the man acted like he didn't speak english well and kept stopping us, writing down what we said. He held his hand in my husband's face twice saying "just the facts" when my husband tried to explain why the statements we heard were confusing. He then read back what we told him, got a nasty smirk on his face and said "I find it hard to believe you didn't know you were supposed to get a new ticket and meet in the theater." He also insinuated that I was a liar when I said I called the desk at 3 pm because he said "We were closed at that time." He wasn't going to give us a refund because he said it was our fault. We didn't yell or become insulting, we just reititerated the steps that we took. He then started talking to us like we were stupid, "it was on the TV and the screen above the bar, how could you miss that?" Which by the way, he suddenly spoke very good english went he got condesending with me. Now, I was sitting right at that bar and I didn't see one single message on that screen. We went to our room to wait, didn't see one single message on TV. I believe he was lying to cover their butts for the big screw up. Also, why wouldn't the cruise director have made an annoucement if all excursions were leaving from the theater at the same time? This was terrible. We eventually got our excursion money back but it doesn't cover the disappointment and hurt feelings from such terrible treatmet. So I would give the service staff a 4.5 star but the cruise directors and excursion desk a 0.

I liked that there were many little areas to gather and smaller pools if you didn't want to be around all the kids. My only complain was the bars in these smaller areas were rarely open.

The room was very nice and the deck was also nice. If you book this particular room, realize it sits a a point where the ship curves so people can look from their deck into yours. So you won't have as much privacy.