A different experience

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 5

Helpful Votes: 130

Review summary

We had a great vacation. My review is coming from a American with children so please do not take offense to it and I will not compare it to other ships either that I have been on. Embarkation was a breeze we were on in literally 20 minutes! Everyone’s room was ready by 2pm and they made and announcement which was nice. We went right to the buffet and had a drink. We went to deck 16 that wasn’t as busy they have little buttons on the table if you want bar service to be brought to your table that is nice as well as the machines for your wine at a drink station. They juices they offer are a nice variety for breakfast through dinner. We did the easy drink package which was perfect for us and they did not make us get a drink package for our 3 year old which we loved! We did not have any problem for the most part with getting a drink at the bar except when we were at the kids water park or the jungle pool with the bar in between them it always closed by 6pm when they pool areas were open will 10pm so you had to walk to a different floor and different area to get a drink which I thought was odd. Also you can not drink along the edges of the pool only at your chairs. There is plenty of chairs we never had a problem finding one at the pools except the kids pool there is none but a little ledge to sit on. I took my husband his drink before it got warm and got a whistle and yelled at by the lifeguard. This was at the jungle pool. Also the Miami pool is half smoking and half not with nothing separating it so if your a non smoker you might not care for that. Our room I thought was a good size so was the balcony with plenty of storage like other rooms. They do not have washcloths in the bathroom you have to ask for them. They have shower doors not curtains which is a plus some rooms have tubs. Kids program seemed nice my son only went one day. They only really had legos to play with but they do take your kids to lunch and dinner if you let them know if you need some more mommy and daddy time as well as going to a port as well. Buffet to me was the same as all the rest. They did not have cookies though and the ice cream was available at odd times which they handed it to you, you could not get it yourself. They do need some work on the ethnic area the pasta is usually al-dente not under cooked. The breakfast buffet is the same as every breakfast buffet no complaints. They atrium didn’t have activities going on however was beautiful mostly have them at the Miami pool area. I felt like they didn’t have a lot of activities in general. Lots of shops, the venchi chocolate bar I felt was pricy and the sports bar was nice but only serves wings. Bridge of sighs is neat but no walking track or area to walk straight around in a circle. Getting off at ports was extremely easy. When we got back on they didn’t even check the screen on the X-ray machine! Crazy! We did not do any of the speciality restaurants. The gym was nice and pretty busy first thing in the morning. We had no problems with any foreigners at all minus the language barrier and the cutting in line at the buffet but that’s their way I think no biggie. Debarking was a disaster though. For some reason they made the ship turn around. They had all the signs set up for the other way. No one had any direction on which way to go everyone was starting to fight and yell it was horrible it took about 60 minutes if not longer. Also which I was told this so I’m not sure that the Europeans were able to get all their tips taken off their bills at customer service the night before the last night. Which we were not able to something about they do not tip etc. I thought it was weird not sure how true but would explain the long line. Overall I would do another msc Cruise possibly if they improve a few things towards the American market.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Miami, Florida

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Disembarkation

Other reviews of this sailing