A bad experience
MSC Seaside Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 12
7 Night Eastern Caribbean & Bahamas (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 12, 2018
Ship: MSC Seaside
Cabin number: 11007
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
We were very excited with this Cruise It is a brand new Ship with Excellent staff, A+shows every night and acceptable food. We were supposed to have 3 stops: 1 in Philipsburg, St. Maarten , 1 in San Juan, Puerto Rico ( We call it "the Diamond of the Cruise") and 1 in Nassau, Bahamas. We found a lot of nice people in St Maarten, but it is an island with poor panoramic and poor entertainment since about 75% of the island still in recovery for the Hurricane Irma. But our bigest expectaction was SAN JUAN (The next day) since there it was Family and Friends waiting for us, (we had 5 years without seen them). Every thing was going OK till a crew member from the casino at 1:00 AM in the morning (when the ship was on the way to SAN JUAN) decided to jump from the 7 deck to the sea and kill himself. The Captain made the announcement of the tragedy about 7 am and he explained the MSC Seaside ship and, with the help of the US Coast Guard, has to stay surrounding the area to try to find the body of the crew member. It was a very sad moment for every body, especially for the rest of the Crew. We Pray for him and for his family. The search of the body after 14 hours was unsuccessful. So, our itinerary was changed and from there ( at 4:00 pm) we departure directly to Nassau, Bahamas and we lost the stop in SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico and the reunion with our family. Nassau was ok, Back to Miami and having a resume of this Cruise: GOOD SHIP, EXCELLENT CREW, ACCEPTABLE FOOD, SAD MOMENT FOR THE CREW MEMBER WHO DECIDED TO KILL HIMSELF, BUT A VERY FRUSTRATED EXPERIENCE FOR EVERY BODY WHO'S EXPECTATIONS WERE TO HAVE AN EXCITEMENT CRUISE AN SEE FAMILY MEMBERS IN SAN JUAN AS US. Note: $33 were credited to every body for not going to San Juan.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
The MSC Seaside is a great Ship
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Disembarkation
11 Comments
Alley0018 6 years ago
I too was on this MSC Seaside cruise and walked away from it so sad. I went in this cruise to try and enjoy life and perhaps gain some peace and to fulfill some of my bucket list. You see I lost my two daughters to cystic fibrosis a few years ago. In a span of 5 years I lost my mom and my sister too and just didn't seem be able to enjoy life so much anymore. Then this January I almost lost my dad to diabetes which he didn't know he had. He will be 90 in July. Thank godafter5 months and a little help from me and his doctors he survived. This was his first cruise. He was so excited especially with the idea that in his lifetime he would go to San Juan! Well he didn't get there because of the tragedy of a lost life at sea. Plus he as well as I became overwhelmed and broken-hearted for that crew member and what his family would be dealing with. I came home from this trip more broken than I was when I boarded it. So much so that I couldn't sleep and started searching on the internet who was his man who was lost at sea? What about his family? How are they all coping? My research bought me too site that told me the man was 37 years old and it gave me his name. There was one site that the mans brother wrote his Facebook address and asked for anyone to please respond. I thought about it and I prayed and I responded. His family is devastated. They hardly have had any news about what happened. They are asking for the video if there is one. They are asking for prayers and for someone to tell them for sure what happened to their brother. My heart breaks for their family. I am more sad than when I left so my review for this cruise would be at first it was wonderful all glittery and a wonderful Captain/Master and a wonderful trip as far as St. Karen. Dad has to use a scooter and so he couldn't do any excursions but thank go for the wonderful cab driver who stopped us as we walked and offered to be our guide! He showed us St. Marten the French as well as the Dutch side. He showed us a beach where everyone wore bathing suits and not clothing optional as we were told from the excursion place. He had humor and did all we asks and more! Our cabins- mine and my husbands were fine. Shower was small but sufficient. My dad really needed a handicapped room but all were booked so the travel agent promised he would have a stool but when we got there there was none. I called guest services and they said that should never have been promised! They then sent the cabin stewar up with a chair only it was the chair or dad that could use the shower. Both could not fit in! I again called guest services and followed with a trip down to level 5. Although I had been told there were no shower chairs to be found later that night a shower chair was brought to my dads room. Amazing!!! The food- feeding that many people I would have to say it was good- hard to feed that many people! We had a balcony room- I loved my balcony. Are turn of $33 was given to each passenger on that ship for missing theSan Juan port. Do they realize that some of us may never get to San Juan now in our lifetime whether it be age or even financial. $33 doesn't seem fair- I think we all should have been compensated better. As far as the mans family please pray for them. He has wife who thinks he's coming back along with three young children. His brothers are devastated and asking for any accurate known to be true information. Me and Dad - well Dad is doing ok still talking about San Juan and me I am now fries with this brother hoping and praying him and his family get answers and get the video if there is one. I wish I had never booked this trip- too sad for me!
kevlyn01 6 years ago
We were on that cruise and it was a very sad day.
We were looking forward to going to San Juan too as never been there before, but it couldn't be helped as it's Maritime law the ship has to stay until given authority to leave the area.
Apparently we could of been made to stay searching for up to 3 days.