We learned a lot on this cruise. We thought we were getting an upgrade from Carnival, but we actually preferred Carnival Cruise Line to MSC. Bigger is not better. The MSC Seashore was beautiful but difficult to get around and the buffet had long lines for mediocre food.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Bad weather delayed our embarkation by several hours. The port did not seem able to handle the thousands of people who had arrived but could not yet board he ship. It was chaos with line cutting a pushing among the throngs of people.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Rated 3 because our dinner dining experience was great but the buffet is inefficient and the pizza is really the only edible item on the buffet. Breakfast would be improved with an omelet station. The coffee is delicious!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Again eating in the middle because some aspects are fantastic while others are lousy! There were several “whirlpools” around the ship but none of them were heated. Every single guest we spoke with thought they w oh I’d be “hot tubs”. It is one of the activities I look forward to the most but was never able use it because the water was so cold. The gym was good. There were many beautiful spaces around the ship to enjoy.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We enjoyed the music and dancing group on two of the evenings and a very funny ventriloquist on another. Loved both! We also enjoyed the variety show each night before dinner with a 4 piece band playing excellent jazz music in a beautiful small theatre.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
I was disappointed with the quality that our stateroom was made up each day. There was an empty wine glass and a few glasses from cocktails that weren’t cleared for several days. Our daughter was given the royal treatment by the head waiter each night in the dining room taking care to serve her gluten intolerance. There was a mishap with our dinner reservation so we were told to show up each night at 7:30 and they would find a table for us so we were seated in multiple areas and didn’t have the same server each night.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Again rated in the middle because it was an aesthetically beautiful ship and always clean but we were lost most of the time. It is too big and we couldn’t remember which end of the ship the places weee that we wanted to go.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
This cabin is designed to accommodate a physical handicap so the bathroom was much larger than a typical interior stateroom. Our 3 kids stayed in this room and my husband and I were next door with a much tinier bathroom.
Ship tip
If hot tubs are important to you, do not book a cruise on MSC. We learned that we prefer smaller ships with fewer people and fewer places to get lost trying to find.
The embarkation was a nightmare but it really wasn’t the fault of the port but it seems like they should have a protocol in place when that happens and it was utter chaos. Disembarkation was as smooth as butter!
We were lucky enough to find comfortable chairs in the beach near the bar. There was an umbrella behind our chairs and I opened it because it was sunny and I am fair skinned and will get sun poisoning if I get too much of a sunburn. I was told I had to put the umbrella down but I argued my need to keep it up and promised to lower it when the sun was behind clouds and/ or if the wind kicked up, which I honored.
Cold rainy and not enough time at the port to go do anything. We had to be back in the ship at 1:15 p.m. so we didn’t want to waste money on an expensive excursion for so short a time. We took a taxi to a beach and enjoyed about an hour of being in the beautiful water even though it was raining on us while we were in the water.
Quick and efficient. We opted for the express disembarkation and took our own bags off. We were off the ship, through the port security, and out of the parking garage headed home by 9:00 a.m.
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