It was good vacation, but nothing spectacular. MSC does good with the overall price, but lacks a little in other areas. I have cruised on Carnival, Holland, Princess and Royal Caribbean before this MSC cruise. So far Royal Caribbean has been my favorite.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation was fast and easy. Fastest embarkation we have ever had.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
The dining room we were assigned to seemed to have the tables for couples extremely close together. Wasn't a lot of space. Did not eat at the specialty restaurants. Buffet was always crowded.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Pools were always crowded. Spent most of our time on the 8th deck. There was an adults only pool on the back as well as two infinity hot tubs on the sides. Our first week we have ample access to these spaces. The second week you couldn't even find space to put your toe in.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
Comedian and Italian singer were very good. Otherwise everything else was the quality of a high school musical. Usual bingo, trivia games and karaoke. The lounges on the 8th deck were a good place to go and have drinks.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Thought the staff did a really good job. You could tell the staff enjoyed working on this ship and seemed to all get along really well. Waiters were fast. Never waited over a couple of minutes to get a drink at any of the bars. During dinner the waiters there were always fast. Room steward did a great job as well. Seemed like there more comradery amongst the staff on this ship than any other cruise we have been on.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
What I didn't like was it seemed like the front 3rd of the ship is only for Yacht Club members and no one else had access to those areas. There were no outside walking decks where you could go around the entire ship. Common areas were clean especially the bathrooms. The 8th deck floor in the shopping area was extremely slick to the point of being dangerous. Witness several people falling down and getting hurt. Not sure why they have such a slick floor where people would be coming in from pool areas with wet feet. Also outside deck areas were so hot you felt like you were losing all the skin on the bottom of your feet if you left your flip flops by your chair instead of at the pool entrance. Hot tubs for the yacht club members on that deck appeared to never be used. Would have been nice to have that area for the passengers that wanted to dip their toe in but couldn't since the rest of the boat was full.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
The room was nice but could have used some improvements. For this to be a newer ship, it seemed the carpet already needs to be replaced. Overall the room was nicely cleaned, but the carpet just didn't look good. Closet space was smaller on MSC than other cruiselines we have been on. I liked the doors on the bathroom shower instead of a curtain, but it did seem to make it where you didn't have much room in the shower. The safes in the room were also much smaller. Definitely not big enough to a larger camera or laptop in.
Ship tip
I booked this trip thinking it was a two week cruise. It was what they call a back to back. I learned that after I had already booked it. I would not book a cruise like that ever again. The 8th day of the cruise was pretty much wasted as you had to get off the boat and go through customs and then when we got back on the boat, we were not able to get back to our room until 2:00 pm. We were told we would have access to everything just like any other day, but that was not true.
No excursion as have been there before. Got off the ship and tried to walk around, but the merchants there just harass you too much to buy their stuff so went back to the boat.
Thanks for the review, a piece of advice on that ship, only once did the Main Dining I was disappointed for real bad service and long time to get food, better buffet even with the mess of people skipping lines I get my food first rather than MDR, I did specialty dining though that service is another level worthy
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