Ocean Cay is always fantastic! I am looking forward to going back after the upgrades are done. I also absolutely love spending the night there and waking up to that beautiful view! I highly recommend MSC, but I’m not a fan of this ship.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Line outside was the entire length of the terminal. Plus, ya know, then you get in the security line, then the inside lines.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
This is our sixth MSC cruise and because of the size of the ship, they have three dining times (5:00, 7:15, and 9:30) and ours was 9:30 PM. Of course, at 9:30 PM, the staff is exhausted, the rolls are hard, and everything is overcooked. They really need to add more dining space so that it can go back to two dining times. Maybe take up some of the space currently occupied by bars that hardly have any people in them? The buffet has a weird layout, and it’s difficult to navigate. We usually love the buffet food on MSC, but this was not as good as usual. They ran out of half-and-half on the first day? What the heck? The line for ice cream was terribly long. They’ve also started making square pizzas and those were awful. Luckily, they still make their good pizza, you just have to look around. Also, there are buttons on each table to summon the bar staff in the buffet. I never sat at one that was functional. If they don’t work, take them off the tables!
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Entertainment
3 out of 5
The one thing that my 13-year-old son and I enjoy doing together on cruises is singing karaoke. They have made it 18+ and the only time is at 9:30 PM, which was sadly, our dining time. There wasn’t as much live music this time, or maybe I just didn’t happen upon it. The guy that plays the steel drums on ocean cay in the mornings is always fantastic. We didn’t go to any shows this time. The lineup didn’t really appeal to us.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Staff is always fantastic on any cruise ship. They are good people and they work hard. Unfortunately, I feel like this ship is understaffed.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The design of this ship is a mess. There are no midship elevators. They have two banks of eight elevators, fore and aft and a couple at the back of the ship but they don’t go to all of the floors. They have the programmed elevators where you choose your floor in the waiting area and you don’t push any buttons inside. This is a fantastic system if they have enough elevators, which this ship does not.
The common areas were all spotlessly clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
The cabin itself was clean, and our room steward was great! I would rather not have items in the minibar so that I can use it as a refrigerator, but that’s just personal preference. The shower was tiny. The other MSC ships that I have been on have the doors that bow out. This one does not, and it is very confining. This particular cabin is situated two floors up from a smoking area. So when you are sitting on the balcony, you can smell smoke and hear all the people. Not a big deal to me, but it might be to some. The cabin design is great, with more drawers than I have ever seen in a state room. Additionally, the sofa is full-size and it has USB ports, although the one by the bed didn’t work. The cabin is situated midship, and so there are no elevators close by.
Ship tip
Book a cabin on a higher floor, the buffet is on 16th. Then the lack of elevators won’t matter.
This was the worst disembarkation I’ve had. You have to be out of your state room by 7 AM. Had we put our luggage out the night before, our disembarkation time wasn’t until 10:50 AM. So we opted to do express, walk off, starting at 7:30 AM. Guess what? Due to the aforementioned problem of not having enough elevators, 5000 people all came out at 7 and were either trying to go up to the buffet on the 16th floor to eat or trying to get themselves and their luggage down to the sixth floor. It was a tremendous mess, and people were anxious and rude and yelling at each other. Horrible. I saw elderly people trying to drag their suitcases down flights of stairs. This is a disaster waiting to happen
Thank You for the info, my mother, myself, and DS seven yrs old, are considering a summer cruise on the ship. Not being near an elevator would be quite hard on my mothers knees.
*Cruiseline.com is not a booking agent or travel agency,
and does not charge any service fees to users of our site. Our partners
(travel agencies and cruise lines) provide prices, which we list for our
users' convenience. Cruiseline.com does not guarantee any specific rates or
prices. While prices are updated daily, please check with the booking site
for the exact amount. Cruiseline.com is not responsible for content on
external web sites.
Contact us
Submitting...
Need help from a personal vacation planner?
Loading...
Find the perfect cruise with weekly tips and cruise deals for as little as $30/night!
Sign up for weekly cruise deals
Join other subscribers and get the best
cruise deals of the week in your inbox every Thursday.
