SO SO Seashore NO NO

SO- SO Seashore is NO- NO Overall takeaway: I wouldnt recommend the Seashore to anyone at this time as MSC SEASHORE operates with BAIT AND SWITCH and HARD SELLING tactics. Both which impacted my enjoyment of the cruise. MSC puts too much friction between the guest and making simple choices such as food, drinks, entertainment, internet usage and simply relaxing in lounge chair too difficult to be enjoyed. Also, the SEASHORE generally lacked a FUN atmosphere by the staff or activities because everything by MSC on SEASHORE was geared to drive up sales, or drive down costs or keep guests on a short lease. The overall crusie experinece was generic in atmosphere, nothing was a WOW, nothing seemed excessive or indulgent in nature. It was the most disappointing cruise I have been on in recent memory. See below for more details of my reasoning. I have been on over 20 cruises over multiple lines but I am not obligated to any cruise line and mostly determine my cruise by iteniary, cruise ports, price. Also mid fifties and never have traveled in any private "haven" or "yacht club" etc cabin areas. So I think I know basic expectations on what a cruise should provide and entail. I have a review on Cruise Critic of a glowing positive review for the MSC Miravelli from Dec 2021. Note: Lets stop letting companies that deliver poor service and fail to meet expectations off the hook by blaming Covid and "supply chain issues". Nor should we cruisers be expected to lower our standards and feel "lucky" we are cruising. I am still paying my fare and I expect what is marketed to me. If this can't be delivered then your business model needs to change. Also this is not the first cruise I have been on since the restart I have sampled 3 other lines and each has covid precautions in place. I was on one cruise during the Delta surge, Miravegelli when Omricon started and now Seashore at end of Omricon so I wont discuss covid protocols here as I felt very safe on MSC both time however each ship was unique in its handlings. Food- BEYOND POOR The food on the Seashore in the MDR and Buffet was poor to awful. There are many reviews on cruise critic and I agree with them all. The food quality on this ship was 100% different then what I experienced on the Miravelli. Both ships serve the exact same menu in the MDR. Even though the menus were the same across the Seashore and Miravelli it was obvious that the Resturant team on SEASHORE were doing extreme cost cutting. Ingredients switched out for cheaper items or just left off plate, certain menu items not available. Many dishes we sampled were simply inedible, RAW steak, Osso buco that consisted of a 3 inch bone and gristle covered over with gravy, Standard red lasagna was switched out for bechamel lasagna, Gelatinous rice pudding molded to the bowl, bland and flavorless desserts. The real annoyance when the kitchen served a dish that was "obvious" that it wasnt what was on the menu but a substitution and we the guest were suppose to eat it and be happy. I spoke to the manager and explained it was insulting to be served a dish under the guise that it was something else and we would be too stupid to know the difference. Buffet - The most uninspired, unimaginative, tasteless food I have ever encountered on a cruise ship in many many years. The buffet repeats daily for lunch and dinner with little to no variation the only consistency is POOR quality and limited choices Their is no ethnic cuisine, no theme night/menu, no special items. Late night snacks: worse choice of snacks. Leftover sandwiches from lunch and the choices are Tuna, egg salad, mozzarella and tomato or ham. The other choice for late night snacks is a garden salad, and some leftover desserts. Food: as othes have said there is no other option for food on this ship besides these two places. If you are hungry outside of these hours there is nothing onboard. Nothing. IF you come back from your excursion at 4pm. You will have to wait until 6pm to eat unless you want Piazza or side salad. If you sleep in and skip breakfast you have to wait until 12 for lunch. DRINK PACKAGES Another bait and switch tactic at play on this ship. Your marketed to expect the ability to have any coctail on thier menu. I had the easy plus which is around the middle level. Everything I ordered was off the easy plus cocktail menu.However once on board typically you will run into these scenarios: 1) The liqour is out of stock 2) not avaible at the specific bar and tell you to go to another bar which is could or couldnt be in stock 3)Bartender will not know how to make cocktail (cocktail off msc menu) 4) Bartenders will pull lower shelf brands even if you specify a brand 5) Wine: in actuality they only 3-4 types on the entire cruise. 6) No bar menu available. If you dont have your phone to access the menu you just have to randomly order something and likely something cheap and easy for MSC. . It became evident that MSC only wanted to push out bottled beer, cheap wine and well brand liqours to passengers. You will not get what is on your package. Poor customer Service - After 2 hours of being on ship I asked the infinity pool bartender to make me 2 drinks with Barcardi Black (on the E+package). The bartender pulled out an empty bottle and said he couldnt make me two drinks as he didnt have enough. I asked him to make one drink instead. He said "NO, as there wasnt enough even for one" as he waved the empty bottle at me. I asked if could he get another bottle. He said, "No, I can't open another bottle" but I can have a drink with cheapest rum they have on the counter. I was dumbfounded that We havent even left the port and the bartener will not open a new bottle of liqour before the start of a 7 day cruise. This was unbelievable to me and I was astounded in disbelief. We had a little back and forth on this fact. He gave me some attitude, rummaged around behind the bar slamming bottles and came back with Barcardi Black and proceeded to make the drinks. This is the level of service that was deliverd a few hours after boarding and was the extreme but most bar service was perfunctory, brusque and dismissive HARD SELLING- MSC staff will BOMBARD and HARASS you to buy packages everywhere on the ship from the main lobby, buffet, dining room and the pool deck. Continously...you will be targeted up to half a dozen times while eating, drinking or just relaxing. It got to the point where you had to ask the person to leave you alone, however another employee will approach you. I am not exaggareting when I say I was approached less in Puerto Plata on the streets by guides. General Odd tidbits Pools are not connected to Buffett areas which means when its time to eat you have to go down or up 2- 7 floors which means relinquishing your precious pool chairs. Only the solarioum pool is on the same floor of the buffet area. Which means no eating while sunbathing which is always fun on a cruise. POOLs and hot tubs closed by 8 pm daily. Deck chairs are tied up starting at 3:30 pm in some areas. By sundown you can rarely find a deck chair outside of 2 pool areas on this huge ship. There is no FREE ice cream or cookies for kids. You can purchase a cone or gelato for $4 dollars however if your children like playing in the pool and water park and want a ice cream cone beaware its not available. And if so, they will have to gone down 2 floors to buy it. Also no cookies on the entire ship. Which was odd because sometimes all you want is a cookie for a snack at night or during the day. But not on this ship and these are things kids like, cookies, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza and ice cream cone while playing in the water but none of it is available anyone near the pools or complimentary. The ship is beautiful and has some great common areas but MSC underutilizes so much of it in so many ways by blocking off areas: caberet lounge access is closed most days and when open the floor to ceiling windows are covered by heavy red velvet curtains blocking the 180 degree floor to ceiling windows. Why? because they dont want passengers outside of the gift shop and staffed areas. Generally the entire back half of the ship was unused or underutilized. The gym was great and most likely the best one I have seen. Great equipment and location. The thermal spa was excellent and ironically I recieved NO sales pitches in this area. The ship layout is confusing recquiring lot of up and down trips to get to certain areas of the ship. I thought the elevator system was innovative and was efficient. Entertaintment - The Main Theater shows were excellent but all similiar in theme. The other musical acts on the ship were either new or very inexperienced. Most performers stood at mic staring at ipad singing. No audience engagement. Caberet Rouge: promoted as an avante garde theate however in reality this is where youll see typical cheesy cruise show: liars club, staff talent show, a vocalist singing from an ipad. Not exactly whats promised on the website and marketing materials I looked at prior to booking cruise. Giant Pool Screen - not used for any entertainment purposes for guests. No night movies for kids or families. Also no live band on sea days, no "general pool style activities" there was a brief hour each day they do something like corn hole or ring toss but it was so low energy it was easy to overlook. Pool areas- 2 of the larger deck pools are designed in the modern style with overflow areas with day beds so you can get wet without dipping into the actual pool. However on this sailing no water filled this areas. Just hot dry concrete around the perimeter of the pool, thus the pool was full of people and we were sailing with 900. Even though you are served in plastic cups, no drinks are allowed in or around the pools. If you make the mistake of sitting in the pool chair or the edge of a pool and attendant will yell and shout at you to leave the pool. Instead of putting up a sign, or make an announcement of the rules MSC would rather embarass their guests. So this yelling and directing people out of chairs and pools goes on the entire day. FUN! Interior cabin stateroom: nice new modern design as seen on newer ships, felt slightly more roomy then other interior cabins. decorated in creams and beiges. Cabin steward cleaned in am.

Witnessed staff give elderly solo traveler hard sell in dining room over wine package almost to point of devaluing individual for not purchasing.