MSC Cruise Seaside - Overly crowded boat, rude administration, and poor Customer Service.

MSC Seaside Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 44

Overall rating:

2.6 out of 5
MSC Seaside

7 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 02, 2018

Ship: MSC Seaside

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

We give MSC Seaside an F rating and would not recommend any family or friends to use MSC. Overly crowded boat, rude administration, and poor Customer Service. We will never take another cruise with this cruise company. We have taken 16 cruises with different cruise lines and never experienced service like this. Took a cruise on MSC Seaside June 2018 for our 50th Anniversary with 21 people and we had 7 rooms. We booked through a travel agency a year in advance. I told the travel agency I wanted to celebrate my 50th Anniversary on the cruise ship in private room with a cake, a wine and juice toast and a photographer to take family and group photos the 1st day at SEA. I had confirmation from the travel agency through MSC that our event was confirmed for our party. When I arrived on the cruise ship I was told we had no event booked. I had to spend my first night away from my family to scramble with MSC to get something together and MSC ended up putting us in a restaurant the next day 1st day at SEA. The photographer was inexperience taking group pictures. The setting was not acceptable for the photos we wanted. On the cruise, after seeing the pictures we were very upset. The pictures were terrible because the background was bad, and arrangement of people was bad news. MSC customer service on the cruise refused to make any effort to correct the problem and would not take addition acceptable pictures without charging an outrageous fee. MSC took responsibility for their miscommunication after the cruise and admitted it was their fault it didn’t get scheduled AHEAD OF TIME. They were unwilling to settle fairly for all we went through and gave us a token gift and MSC was unreasonable. This makes us very upset and disappointed in MSC and not at all acceptable. Balcony rooms were very small and the adults had to crawl over kids to get out of bed. Not big enough for 3-4 people The food was served cold in the dining room and was cold in the buffet. Long lines in the buffet and out of a lot of food when you got there. Also if kids wanted ice-cream they served it only a couple hours at lunch with long waits up to 45minutes for a scoop. There were up to 2 hour long lines for the water slides and Zip Line and much of the time only 1 of the 2 were open. You have to register for the shows ahead of time and since some of our guest didn’t t register the 1st day they weren’t allowed to go to the show. Most of the shows were only 30 minutes long and not in English. Could not find a chair to sit at for the pool because it was overcrowded. After the cruise, we talked to customer relations they were indifferent and not apathetic. Never again on this cruise line.

Embarkation

2 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

2 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

Ship tip

Bad customer service long wait lines cold food

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

3 out of 5

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

4 out of 5

George Town, Grand Cayman

4 out of 5

Cozumel, Mexico

2 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

2 out of 5

Disembarkation

3 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 44

9 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

jadmiral    6 years ago

First mistake...you went through a travel agency!

wrighty57    6 years ago

Gosh they probably don’t need customers like you not American are you we sat next to the biggest moaners I’ve met in my life

Rwp5245    6 years ago

I agree was on Seaside in August staff were great I went to guest relations twice and was treated royally! Food was hot shows were best I had seen in 40 plus cruises. I guess it is what you make of it!

pandaman802    6 years ago

It is hard to explain how experiences vary from one end of the spectrum to the other but we were on Seaside in March and had a pretty significant issue (anyone can make a mistake and most of us do it’s truly how we deal with it that shows who we are) but MSC bent over backwards for us to make sure we felt completely taken care of and our situation corrected?? Again I can’t explain it I just make folks aware the spectrum appears very wide with how different people are dealt with differently?? And this is the way it appears to happen on all cruise lines??

jimp194    6 years ago

I have to agree, this was my third cruise with MSC . The cabin space is a joke . The bathroom is smaller then a closet . The people at guest service are rude and the wait time in line to speak with someone is at least a half hour . The restaurant is disorganized dinners come put of the kitchen at random. Some people at my table were finished their dinner before other got theirs. The ship is just completely disorganized

phil20261014    6 years ago

go celebrity

jdietsch    6 years ago

We cruised in June too and we loved the Seaside! It was at full capacity and i felt like it wasn’t crowded at all. Loved the food. Never waited in line long for the zip line or the water slides. I loved that the shows were in other languages! I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it. I would agree that MSC is not for everyone.

bbarnett    6 years ago

We were on the Divina and had the exact opposite experience. Only thing we didn't care for was the evening shows. The food was delicious and the service top notch. Sorry you didn't have a good time

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