Almost everything was excellent. The communication of certain information, however, was a nightmare and it cost us over $600 in extra fees. The executives (not the onboard staff) make decisions on how to communicate, and it is their responsibility. Beware of dishonest "bait and switch" tactics. Read the fine print.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Embarkation went okay except the communication of the acceptable forms of vaccination cards and under 12 year old covid tests was not defined. A digital photo of the vaccination cards is acceptable, but that wasn't communicated to us or some of the employees at the port. Confirming that this digital for was acceptable caused a 30 minute delay for us because my wife had her vaccination card in her phone. If this was clearer to us and the employees, then it would have saved us time. They also wanted a negative covid test within 2 days of the cruise, but that creates stress because most tests of that kind take up to 2 days to get the results. We did do our tests 2 days before and, fortunately, got our results before embarkation. Even though we had a negative test for my unvaccinated 10 year old daughter, we still had to do a test at the port, which added to the delay. Had we known that she would have to do a test at the port, then we wouldn't have bothered doing a test 2 days before, or we would have gotten her vaccinated months before. Bad communication.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food is always great to us because we are not picky eaters.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
The kids water park and pools were fantastic. They also had ping pong, foosball, and billiards. The ping pong and foosball area was very hot, they can use some fans in that area. There was not a rock climbing wall, but they did have a beautiful sports area and fitness center. Unfortunately, the open times of these 2 areas were not well communicated. The information was not in the app or on signage, and most of the staff wasn't sure when they would be open. Almost every time we went there it was closed. Bad communication.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The stage shows in the theater and the cabaret were excellent and more family freindly (which we love) than on other ships that have a lot more awkward rated R content. We did long for latin music dancing opportunities. They had pleanty of dance classes and a duo in the atrium, but not a regular latin music dance club like they have on other ships. My parents love to dance to latin music, and passengers were not dancing in the atrium.
Children's Programs
We signed up our younger daughter to the program, but the two times we went to take her it was about to close. It did look like it was going to be great.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
The staff we interacted with were all great, but I feel sorry for some of them because they are forced to enforce and defend ridiculous and poorly thought out rules and policies that cause passengers to get shocked and very angry due to bad communication or sly business practices by the cruise line.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship is beautiful, clean, well designed, and very well maintained. My parents love the promenade main street concept of Royal Caribbean, but they eventually got comfortable with the unique layout of the SeaShore.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The cabin was fantastic, spacious, clean, and we loved the balcony.
Ship tip
Beware of poor communication. It seems that either MSC is unorganized and doesn't realize that they have conflicting or insufficient information in different places (print, website, email, app, & staff), or they purposely make things vague and ambiguous so they can profit off the confusion using the old "bait and switch" technique. MSC knows that less than 1% of the population reads the fine print, and they seem to take advantage of that. We experienced four different major "misunderstandings" before and during the cruise that caused us a lot of unnecessary stress, anger, and over $1050 of additional charges that we didn't plan for. We were eventually spared $450 of those charges, but we had to fight for it while tarnishing the whole experience. We ended up spending $600 more than we should have due to their (possibly deliberate) bad communication. PS. You should also know that the "Hotel Service Charge" on your bill they say is for gratuity. We learned that the reason it is not labelled as "Gratuity" is because the serving staff receives a very small percentage of that money and it's possibly just another hidden fee. If you fight, you can have it removed so you can properly tip those who served you well.
We didn't see much of the city because we did the the Ocean World excursion for non vaccinated passengers. It was very nice, but it was supposed to be for 5 hours, but we only had 3 hours to enjoy it. We saw all four animal shows, but didn't have time to see or enjoy anything else they have at the park (snorkeling, waterpark, beach, waterslides).
We did the panoramic tour and it was great. We got off the bus at the Castillo de San Cristobal for a good amount of time, the Walkway of the Presidents for a little bit, and the rest we saw from the bus. There was a holiday that day, so the driver had to take detours and got lost for while, but it's not their fault.
The first day, the ship could not get to the port until very late because of wind and tides. We did finally get to the island and enjoyed the lighthouse shows and the dance party. We tried to get away from the loud modern dance music for a while, but couldn't because they had powerful speakers everywhere, but it was still amazing. On the second day we rented a cabana which was super nice, but unfortunately, it rained for most of the day until about 3pm. The water was cold and the wind was even colder, but for those couple hours of sun it was beautiful.
Thank you for your review. I agree that MSC has a communication issue but not with the issues you experienced. All that information can be found right on their website - not even in the small print. As someone mentioned already gratuities are a practice all cruise lines use and shouldn’t be a surprise to you. As for testing this really should be studied religiously because of all the constant changes. Overall, I’m glad you had an enjoyable vacation.
MSC only requires an antigen test and they only take 15 minutes and you walk out with the results. I believe younger unvaccinated children require a PCR test and that can be done 3 days before you cruise. Please look at the website before your next cruise. It is all spelled out as plain as day. If you booked through a travel agent then they should have told you about everything thing you are complaining about. We sailed on this ship 12/4/21 and had no surprises. Sorry
Thanks for the review. The hotel service charge / gratuities are added by all mainstream cruise lines and the information is included on the website and in the contract everyone agrees to when booking. ALWAYS read the “fine print” when agreeing to anything.
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