Nicely designed ship with poor service and terrible food. The Divina was better.
Had planned to sail the sister-ship Seaview next year but now don’t want it.
Will do the new RCI Symphony and Celebrity Edge next December instead.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Unlike Divina where a Yacht Club butler greets @ curbside then takes you to check-in and on to your cabin-butler who takes you straight to your cabin, the Seaside gets it wrong. No signage for Yacht Club embarkation. Disorganized. Long waits curbside then led to another area with long wait then to another butler who led a large group of us gathered from last check-point. Confusing embarkation. Not user friendly
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Yacht Club private restaurant had the worst food EVER on any cruise ship we’ve sailed and we’ve cruised 34 times!
Can’t imagine the food in the regular dining rooms being any different and we tried the buffet and it was more of the same rubbish.
e.g. I ordered a Rueben sandwich. I know what a Rueben is but the Seaside is so out-to-lunch (so to speak), it’s laughable.
Instead of pastrami or corned-beef layered with sauerkraut and thousand island dressing, preferably between a caraway-seeded rye bread, the Seaside Rueben had a meat I didn’t recognize with shredded carrots stuck between tiny white bread similiar to the tiny finger-sandwiches they serve for afternoon tea. Tiny triangle sandwiches and they even cut off the crust! What am I...5 ?
We had the server hunting down cream to put in our coffee. They just didn’t get it. Bringing us milk or whipping cream.
Tip: if you want cream for your coffee, ask for heavy-cream from the kitchen.
They had a menu item called Salty Cod. I tried it but had to spit it out. It was inedible. Heavily smothered in salt to a fault.
The servers need training too. So many things wrong and complaints were numerous from so many including a passenger who was a chef who said he laughed so hard at the Rueben, his stomach hurt (but not as much as it could have had he eaten it).
I could go on and on about bad food and terrible service (we once waited 45 minutes to get our appetizer. It was simply ugly.
For three days I tried to get anchovies with my Caesar salad. They didn’t understand and said they don’t have any.
On day 4 a menu adjust showed a Caesar with anchovies. I called over the manager to point it out and he (the manager) didn’t even know what an anchovy was 🤦♂️
Bottom line? If you want to diet, take this cruise
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Not enough Blackjack tables to accommodate number of players wanting to play.
Good that it was no-smoking. Only cruise I’ve taken that didn’t have a Blackjack tournament. Unusual.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Good entertainment except for one night with an Italian Opera. Helpful to know what they’re singing about as they did at the NY Met In October where we enjoyed Turandot that had the English translation as they sang, in LED on the seat back in front of each seat.
Seaside could throw up screens on each side of the stage, with translation.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
In dire need of training and learning English.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ship design is very impressive and very clean (inaugural notwithstanding).
Yacht Club cabins were a decent size with a special nod to the shower stall. The best I’ve seen. Spacious and nicely designed with bench.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Yacht Club nice size cabin with excellent bathroom esp. the shower.
Queen bed with two twins pushed together needs work. A night’s sleep created a valley in the middle where we ended up.
Felt like we had to climb uphill to get out of bed. They fixed it each night 😂 good thing my wife and I are good friends.
We were on the Celebrity Eclipse on a cruise right before the Seaside and the bedding was so much better. (So was the food and service)
Ship tip
Plan on losing weight.
Give them many months to train their crew better before you sail.
Go Yacht Club if you can. Learn how to use your elevator express card if you do go Yacht Club.
It brings an elavator directly to you and takes you directly to the deck of your choice, regardless of what buttons others may have pressed.
Lots of fun.
All the stops influenced to various degrees after hit by hurricanes.
Vibrancy in the palm trees were conspicuous by its absence. Water not clean.
Very sad to see islands aftermath, even those lightly hit.
Thanks for the information. I took the MSC DIVINA in November and the food was terrible. And the Spa people were very rude. Everything else was nice! I guess I won't take the Seaside because I will have to live off salad again. No Thanks!
We had our concierge swipe our card each day if we wanted to see the main show on that particular day.
They cut off once full so suggest you reserve in the mornings. No specific seat designated.
Actual seats upon arrival is on a first-come-first-serve basis so suggest you get there 15 minutes before start to get good seats.
Show only about 40 minutes longs which isn’t all that bad.
Shows different each night but you’ll find performers are samey. Variations on a theme due to limits of artistry.
Better than most cruiseline entertainment. Michael Jackson impersonator was good and created the best weeks entertainment.
*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.
