MSC not what we expected

Item: MSC Seaside
Rating: 3.5
Author: gghadden

MSC Seaside Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

gghadden

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 47

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 24, 2018

Ship: MSC Seaside

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 9211

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

We will most likely not cruise MSC Seaside again due to the poor organization of activities and the very poor food. I'm a foodie for sure and was so looking forward to this. On a positive note there is a chocolatier on this ship and I did enjoy having chocolate coffee just about everyday-for that I would consider this ship but only for that. The bar staff is very "snooty" once they find out you have a drink package.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Fairly easy, cluster of people in the terminal after the security checkpoint not knowing which way to go.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Main dining room "Seashore" had nothing exciting to report. You could have steak every night, served over French fries with a broiled tomato. There were a few items that were a regular staple on the menu as well as a few new entres every night _ nothing appealing to us but we did try quite a few new dishes. Didn't use the specialty restaurants as you need a reservation way in advance. Buffet was TERRIBLE, cafeteria style food.....pizza, hamburgers, and whatever was left over from last nights dinner. If you didn't get to the buffet in time or the dining room there was no place to get food. We found ourselves taking water back to the cabin every evening as it was not available after the buffet closed. Don't go see a show and then expect to eat because you can't. Was looking forward to spectacular desserts and found the desserts to be blah. No midnight buffet as we have had this on other cruise lines.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

We purchased the arm band for the Zipline and slides. The Zipline (only 1 of them was in use) was only open 2 times and the wait was over 1.5 hours long (and that was even a day we were in a port). My 8 year old enjoyed the slides but said the zip line wasn't worth the wait. Forget bowling.....needed a reservation way in advance for this too. We did not enjoy the pools as they are all too deep.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

The evening shows in the theater were fabulous! The one thing MSC has done right is their shows.

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

We did enroll our daughter in the tracking for an additional $18.00 - kinda of expensive I think. I never sent her to the club as the front desk people of the kids club never seemed organized and I didn't feel comfortable.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

My review is only for our room steward. His name was Michael Alday and he was wonderful, working so hard everyday and continuing to smile. We tried to keep our room tidy so he didn't have so much to do.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Even with the big interactive wall boards it was difficult to get around. In the area of the specialty restaurants you cannot get around the ship without going back to another area of the ship. Our rom 9211 was smaller than I expected when it was listed as a suite.

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

Our cabin was sold to us as a suite with balcony. It does have an extended balcony alright......we were on deck 9 and there are multiple other decks above us that do not have this type of balcony and they can ALL look down at you. At one point I was sunbathing and someone from 4-5 decks above us thew their cups of ice down in me. It was alarming to say the least and had this been my 8 year old daughter that was hit by the ice it would have hurt her. Didn't feel too good to me either. I called the front desk and they said they would check into it but of course I never heard anything back. The cabin was too small for us to have 3 people AND luggage in the same room.

Ports of call

Miami, Florida Did not visit port

We departed from here-we are from Florida and didn't feel the need to explore a city that we are familiar with.

Thumbs Up 0

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

5 out of 5

We did an excursion booked from the ship to the Caves which we really enjoyed. After the excursion we spent sometime walking around the shopping district, which was very much a tourist trap.

Thumbs Up 0

George Town, Grand Cayman

5 out of 5

We decided to just get off the ship and find our own excursion and glad we did. We found Discountexcursions.com and booked a tour with them. Our driver Anju was the BEST. He showed us around the island and we stopped in Hell and of course stopped for some rum tasting. Make sure you book with this company and try and get Anju. We found out Anju also sings and had a CD out. He's a great man!

Thumbs Up 2

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5

Best stop! The last time we visited this island was over 20 years ago and so much has changed. We did book the excursion from the ship and it was a little unorganized once we got off the ship. There were people lined up in "taxis" to take us to Dolphinaris but when we left we had to explain to the driver that our taxi back to the ship was paid for already. I would go here again and again jut to see the dolphins...and we are fro FLORIDA and see them on a regular basis it's just illegal in FL to touch or feed them.

Thumbs Up 0

Nassau, Bahamas

2 out of 5

Most of the stores were closed due to holiday.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

Nothing to report here.....felt like cattle being herded off the ship.

Traveler Photos

This is chocolate, expresso, venti cream with a chocolate hazelnut coating on the rim.

7 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

Thumbs Up 0

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Onebzyldy 6 years ago

Midnight buffet? Seriously, when & what cruise line is the last time you saw one? In the early 2000’s maybe? Times have changed 🙃

Thumbs Up 2

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kaylortammy 6 years ago

What was the cost for the zip line I'm going on the seaside next week praying for it to be a good one

Thumbs Up 0

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tomconnie14 6 years ago

I am confused on some comments. The buffet had great choices. The late night snacks were open till 2am. Probably the best pizza at sea. They also had sandwiches, breads, chicken wraps, cookies, and other desserts. The water stations are open until then, at least. Not sure what you are talking about.

Thumbs Up 5

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Lindabj1 6 years ago

We we're on Seaside Jan/Feb. Worst cruise ever, The food was the biggest disappointment for us, the desserts were no existent unless you like pudding.

Thumbs Up 1

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andy8867 6 years ago

Why 4 stars if you didn't like it?

Thumbs Up 0

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Yashu 6 years ago

Sorry that you didn't have a great cruise. Especially getting ice tossed at you. It's difficult for customer service to do much about it because come the time they look in to this it will be hard to work out which cabin it came from, but still very ignorant of who every did that.

Thumbs Up 1

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Other reviews of this sailing

Beautiful ship, lots of people

Miami

Bigger ship with less to do!