We will probably try them again depending on price
MSC Seaside Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 16
7 Night Western Caribbean & Bahamas (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: November 12, 2023
Ship: MSC Seaside
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 15070
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 months ago
Review summary
You tend to see that people either love or hate MSC. We actually fell in the middle. I mean, 7 days on a ship can't really be bad can it? Let me take that back since there are a few examples where it can. anyway, they do some things very well and some things very bad and the buffet could have certainly been better. However, if the price is right, our cruise wasn't so bad that we wouldn't take another cruise with them before giving up on them if it turned out the same.Embarkation
Nice and smooth. The only thing that could have been better is their notorious non-linking of your credit card until you do it on their machin onboard. Turns out ours was already linked but we had to go to the machine anyway because we thought it wasn't.e.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
I'm only giving them a 2 because even thought we ate almost exclusively at the buffet, the entrees were somewhat repetitive and boring and we are not fancy or picky eaters so this was surprising. Nothing was bad but instead was more blah such as the grilled pork chop, presented as exactly that and so on for several other items. The choice of sides seemed either limited or non appealing. The pizza was good and so was the pasta but that was repetitive also and the pasta choices were pretty limited. There were only a few of the desserts that were extremely impressive and the ethnic section was Indian every single time. Oh, the ice machines were not working at several of the stations and sometimes they had no ice in a bowl there for you to pick up as a substitute which was aggravating and the only location I ever noticed to get a glass of water, tea or lemonade (which was sour and weak) were the 2 buffets.
Onboard Activities
They generally kept some activities going on. The good thing they did was start them very promptly on time. The bad part was any of these and the entertainment things always seemed crowded so either they didn't have enough things going on at the same time to spread the crowd around or the venues were too small. Also, a couple of events did not happen at all or were moved and you were completely unaware until they never started. No notification was given. I won one of the poolside contests and although the prizes on any of the cruise lines are minimal, I at least expect the item to fit if they are giving away clothing. My t-shirt was a medium, take it or leave it, and I am an XL. I've always wondered why the pools on ships weren't deeper/deep enough. Well, that's no problem here. The problem is they overshot it. 6 1/2' is over anyone I know's mouth, so either tread water or hang onto the edge.
Entertainment
I didn't like the fact you have to book your show in advance or miss out. Also, you'd better get there 20 minutes early if you want to sit together in a decent seat. I thought the Peter Punk show was great and reminded me of the feats seen on AGT. The comedian's adult show was very funny and so-so on the clean one. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed by the Michael Jackson show. Some of it was that it was lip synched, which I somewhat expected, but the dancing in general and the impression of his dancing never came close to giving me a wow moment and I was looking forward to this. The best part was the pole dancer (yeah, I can hear your remarks already), whose presence was a little questionable. My wife felt the same way about the show but the rest of the audience enjoyed it more than we did.
I loved that they had karaoke every night (or at least attempted to) but the garage bar is a terrible venue for it. The only screen with the words is set up where you will likely to sing with your back to the audience if you don't have the words memorized and even most people who did still did this. The seats are horrible, it's crowded and also hard to see the singer, but it's a neat looking area when empty lol.
Finally, the app was very buggy, as all of MSC's tech seems to be. Looks like they'd spend what amounts to a small amount of money to fix these problems, that would amount to a much better customer experience and impression. It would suddenly sign me out without reason and I wouldn't have my cruise card with me for a relatively easy sign in because we paid $15 for the wristbands. I wouldn't buy them again because this problem caused me to have to carry my card around with me, which was what we were trying to prevent to start with. I didn't have the internet package, which might have alleviated this issue. Also I was very happy we didn't buy a photo package in advance since they were only present when we disembarked once and never seen randomly around the ship although they were set up frequently in a few areas for more formal type pictures.
Service and Staff
We had no problem with anyone we came in contact with and I particularly want to point out the bartenders/waiters/whatever their duties were on each given day, to Alexis Bautista and David Valentine who usually worked in the Sports Bar and definitely worked in the Catcus Bar on Ocean Cay. Look them up for great service and tell them Alan the Alabama fan sent you.
Ship Quality
The ship appeared clean and well maintained but is difficult to find your way around as many have mentioned. The layout could definitely be better and don't get me started on those stupid smart elevators. In theory it's a great idea but in practicality it's bad anytime it's slightly crowded. I can't say if the ship felt very stable or it was just calm seas but we rarely felt the boat move.
Cabin / Stateroom
We were well pleased with the size and appearance except the shower was a little tight, but we were happy it had doors instead of a curtain. Also, I had to sit crooked on the toilet because things were so tight. The balcony was big enough that a lounger would have probably fit and the chairs were adequately comfortable. I liked the siding glass door instead of a regular opening one. I dislike that any devices you wanted to charge were shut off when you left the room. Maybe that wouldn't have happened if plugged into a usb charger instead of a wall wart. I forgot to check. Hanging space could easily be limited for some people but we had just enough.
Ship tip
Try to learn your way around from the maps before embarkation.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, Bahamas
MSC seems to either do some things very well or poorly. Well, they did this right! While we've never been to Coco Cay for comparison, it seems like it's designed to just suck money from you and also seems like a water park on the coast, rather than you experiencing a somewhat exclusive island. Half moon Cay was our favorite private island prior to now. Ocean Cay is very pretty, with multiple choices of beaches to visit despite being small, allowing you to find diverse spots as well as very uncrowded ones. Our favorite was Sunset Beach (i hope I got this right) or what ever the name of the rocky beach running down the left side of the island as you look at the island from the ship. Very uncrowded with a variety of chair types available if early enough and still plenty of chairs if not early. The only drawback I could find to this one was that it is rocky and despite having water shoes, I was not comfortable trying to enter the water on the second day. On the first day I went out from it and snorkeled and it was essentially waveless, so the water was very clear and you could see how to walk out in the shallows while avoiding the rocks that might cause you to fall or twist an ankle. There were other people in the water the second day that obviously felt more comfortable than I did since they were out there. My wife did not get in at this location either day but it's quite pretty with many trees you can sit under, making it seem tropical. The beach right in front of the ship was also nice with an extremely smooth entry, no dropoffs and almost no rocks but the umbrellas and chairs there are first come, with none to rent, so you'd better get there early since they fill quickly. We also went to Lagoon beach briefly, which had no trees near the water but was where you were able to rent an umbrella.
It may have just been the luck of timing but we went to the island buffet at exactly noon the second day and had no wait and didn't notice any lines developing while we ate. My wife thought her fish sandwich was great as well as her oatmeal cookie. We didn't try any of the food trucks.
I think the best thing MSC does is they include your drink package as workable while you are on their private island, thus saving some people a substantial amount. While I didn't have any type of drink package, I just think it should be this way on all cruise lines and I highly commend them for this. Way to go! Don't forget Alexis and David at the Catcus Bar I mentioned earlier on Sunset Beach!
Same thing you read on all others posts. Crowded because it's not an actual port but was instead built by the cruise lines, making it difficult and timely to maneuver through to get out to the taxi and excursion areas. $4pp taxi to the Malecon. Spent the day at The Krazy Lobster with decent food, good drink prices and great frozen Margaritas. There was no seaweed problem while there and the wife got a great $25 one hour deep tissue massage.
We've been many times and plenty has been written by others. I wouldn't write anything except we took a ship excursion to the ruins at Tulum. The price of their excursions is one of the things MSC gets right. I've seen prices on previous ships for about 50% more than we paid, making this excursion a no brainer when I saw it. We quit taking cruise line arranged excursions 20 years ago, and arranged our own but for both quality and price reasons. We even sadly saw someone die on a ship arranged excursion that wasn't ran as professionally as the one we were on that time. Turns out our Tulum excursion got back 15 minutes after boarding time so had we done this on our own (which due to logistics and this possibility) we would have been sweating it out on the ship waiting for us or not. Tulum was pretty and hot. Enough said.
Disembarkation
I started to give it one star but it could have actually been worse lol. We were in what was going to be the next to last number scheduled to disembark which is actually in the last set of numbers they call, so we knew there was no need to hurry and we didn't have a flight to catch anyway. We were about 2 hours late arriving in port and by the time they called our number it was over 2 hours later than when we should have gotten off. Fortunately, we were smart enough to not try to go down early and likely end up in a crowded mass, like some people do and create because IT'S NOT THEIR TURN SO KEEP YOUR BUTT WHERE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE UNTIL IT IS! We waited a few extra minutes to avoid the pileup and walked off efficiently but we were hustling because we knew our shuttle was looking for us. Unfortunately one of our luggage pieces was missing and finding anyone to report it to was difficult. Fortunately they located it about 10-15 minutes later. The tag they gave us was torn off so they didn't know which pile to put it in although they could have easily looked at our luggage tag, which had our initial room information and therefore easily figure out which group number.