MSC Seaside Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Our family of three (husband, myself, and 9 year old son) just returned from a July Western Caribbean sailing to Ocho Rios, Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Nassau. This was our first experience onboard MSC, and while we had read many reviews, the cruise was somewhat last minute, so we approached the cruise with an open mind and excitement to try an entirely new cruise line. We’ve been on 30 cruises with all the major mass market lines, mostly in Alaska, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada/New England. Our Cabin: We enjoyed balcony cabin 10245, a Deck 10 balcony, somewhat Aft. We learned mid way through the cruise that the aft elevator bank was uncrowded and optimal for moving around the ship, plus the views are incredible facing the wake and rising up to the Bridge of Sighs. The cabin was well appointed with ample charging ports, however closet and stateroom storage was limited. The bathroom shower was small and my 6ft husband felt cramped, however we did appreciate the glass shower door, and shampoo/shower gel dispensers. As someone who doesn’t love bar soap for hand washing, I also appreciated the liquid hand-soap dispenser near the sink. Bathroom storage was adequate, but a bit more space in the bathroom would be beneficial. The bed was very comfortable and the pillows were perfect for us, a rarity for a cruise. One of our favorite features of this room was the sofa that converted two a bed. The sofa portion rises up, creating a “bunk” for your third guest to watch TV or hang out on top, while the bottom was made into a bed. I imagine the top bunk can accommodate a 4th person as an alternative setup. This was a favorite spot for our son to watch Cartoon Network after a long day in port, and he loved climbing the little bunk-ladder to access the top area. The balcony was fully covered and generously sized, overlooking the Deck 8 seating area for the buffet. You could often hear guests in this area while they were eating, as well as some music/noise from the pool, but it was never loud or distracting. The Ship: The ship is gorgeous and the outdoor-focused design concept is something we appreciated on the ship. We prefer ships with a “connected to the sea” appear, versus a shopping mall/Las Vegas design. The Bridge of Sighs, Champagne Bar, Thermal Suite, Deck 8 wrap around and Aft pool were some of our favorite spots. We didn’t spend any time in the pools, except for the Forest Aquaventure Park, which our son loved. Wristbands are needed for the zip line and large waterslides, and you’ll want to get that out of the way early in the cruise. Food/Dining Rooms: We tried as many dining spots as we could, but in 7 days, we missed some of the Specialty options. Here’s what we experienced: • 3 nights in MDR- both formal- the main dining area on this ship is bustling, and tables are quite close together. For a more quiet experience, try Butcher’s Cut or Ocean Cay. Food in the MDR is pretty standard for a mass market line. The pasta/Italian options seemed better than some of the others. As with any other cruise, if you don’t like something, send it back. • Teppanyaki is excellent and you’ll be smiling through the entire 2 hour experience. Excellent for families. • Ocean Cay is excellent with a crab appetizer that could be a meal. The 3 course experience is expensive, but can be used as one of your dining package options, should you purchase one. We returned a second night as we enjoyed the food and service so much. • Butcher’s Cut serves brunch on sea days for very reasonable a la carte prices. Not many people seem to know about this, so it’s an uncrowded treat on the first sea day. • Lunches: We tried Room service, buffet, brunch in Steakhouse, and lots of lunches ashore. The buffet pizza is excellent if you like the more Italian style pizza (thinner crust, less cheese) and seemed to be always available. The Deck 8 buffet did get crowded at times, but the outdoor seating is a nice escape during good weather. • Food/Favorites: Gelato, Coffee, Pizza, Venchi – and we LOVED soda’s served in cans, versus “bar coke”. We hit the main Venchi location at least 4 times and fell in love with the coffee, hot cocoa and cocktails. Don’t miss it! Experiences onboard: The Thermal Suite is the best I’ve ever experienced at sea. With a snow room, and several sensory steam rooms, I could have visited every day. If you can, invest in the pass, or better yet, book the Aurea experience which includes the pass. On our sailing, pricing in USD was as follows: • $70 day pass/$105 couples • Cruise/week Pass: $200 pp $300 couple Entertainment: We attended 2 Shows, Peter Punk and “Fly”. Both were excellent and just the right length (under 45 min). The crowd LOVED them, and we appreciated that most nights they offered 2-3 seatings. It’s best to reserve through the MSC for me app or a kiosk. The open deck White Party was AMAZING and absolutely one of the highlights of this cruise. It was well attended and the staff taught a number of dances- including some international ones which you could tell the guests loved. Kid’s Center: We had an excellent experience with the kids center onboard, and our son loved the massive supply of legos in his age group. Internet packages: I had a 6gb package for up to 4 devices, but there are other choices, including an unlimited one for one device for $90 per cruise. I would recommend an unlimited package, if one is available to you. I got about 7 hours of use out of my 6gb and still had some remaining at the end of the cruise. Waterslides are fun and awesome for kids and adults alike on this ship. The only annoyance is you need a wristband to use them, and the lines can be long. Get the wristband/waiver out of the way on day 1 or 2 so it’s not a buzzkill. TIPS: • If you have loyalty with another line, be sure to research Status Match with MSC • Download the MSC for me app • Try the Aurea experience • Thermal pass is worth the $ • Look at the pricing and at least consider the yacht club- pricing is similar to premium experiences on other lines • Get wristbands early for zip line and waterslides • Keep an open mind re: dining and passengers: both are European, but we saw it as an adventure, something new, exciting and different • Book a room with a large bath/shower stall if shower space is an issue • Use the aft evelator Things we missed; • Laundry and irons • More storage in room • Bigger shower What we could live without: • Closures at buffet. Pizza and hamburgers only during some still busy times. • Tables are too cozy in the MDR. • Wristbands for waterslides is a buzzkill. Waiver should be signed at check in or allowed online. • Variety of drink packages for passengers in different “experiences” on the ship can be confusing. • Several pools have no shallow end, forcing swimmers to hang on the side or tread water. Things we liked: • Thermal Suite • Bridge of Sighs • Kids Center • Entertainment • White party • Aft pool • Coffee, Gelato and Pizza don’t disappoint. Visit Venchi! Best Features for Families: • Waterslides & Forest Aquaventure Park • Kids menus in specialty restaurants • Yacht Club is family Friendly

Boarding ,the ship itself is beautiful ,but there was something spilled in the entrance to elevator on the carpet like spilled milkthe size of a plater it was there the first day till the last day until i rubed i rubbed it with my foot and it went away pathetic

We have taken Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Costa, and Norwegian cruise ships in the past. This was our first experience with MSCSeaside cruise ship and totally loved it! We recommend this cruise ship. It was spectacular. It's been the best cruise ship that we've taken so far. We would like to take this cruise ship again.

We are MSC Cruisers for LIFE! The Yacht Club experience is like no other!

Absolutely beautiful ship!!! The food is really good! Juni was our waiter for the week and anticipated our every request and whim. Really pleased with our cabin steward, Rudy! Much improvement needed in customer service and relations. Staff was rude, callous, and dismissive. No real entertainment options outside of nightly theatrical presentations. Entertainment options needed to be inclusive of diversified cultures represented on the ship.

We had not heard of MSC so took a chance. The price was right and the experience was awesome. We had a fabulous time and would highly recommend it. The onboard entertainment was the only thing I would say needs improvement.

Communication was bad on the ship I got upset several times also the elevators were out of control

The seaside is a beautiful ship! Positives- evening shows were excellent, staff is very eager to please,tempanyaki grill was excellent, swarvoski staircases are stunning, negatives-bathroom in stateroom is very small- shower is small -toilet leaves no room for your knees you have to sit on an angle.

The ship was amazing and the individual crew members were exceptional, but there were issues that clouded this from being rated even higher. Many of the crew complained about conditions and how they felt about their engagement. This was a surprise because we had never heard these types of complaints before. The dining experience in the main dining room was a disappointment largely because of the level of service (long wait times, food coming out one or two plates at a time), but at the same time the selection especially for vegan and vegetarian members of our party were amazing and far better than other cruise lines. This duality of an amazing ship, great ports of call, stunning entertainment while still having significant gaps in other core areas cloud my review from being even higher.

the ship felt crowded all the time. the zip lines only ever ran for a couple of hours, and then only one line was running so the line was always too long. we purchased the $20 pass to go as many times as we wanted, only to be able to go once.

While staff is very friendly it seems like they are understaffed by about 10-15% The attention to detail we loved about the MSC Divina was missing. We stayed in the Yacht Club and it was notable. I can't imagine what it was like in other parts of the ship.

I had a wonderful time in MSC Seaside and would recommend it to all friends and family. My steward Andres was very friendly. Captain is approachable and caring. Best cruise ever.

The ship was beautiful. However, our butler and the guy who cleaned our room weren't great. I was excited to sail with MSC again because of the service I received on the Divina. I was sad to find that the service was not as wonderful on this cruise. We told the guy who cleaned our rooms when we were headed out so he could turn down, but he always waited until we were in there and then either didn't do it or did it with us in the room. It was as if they wanted us to work our schedule around them which is not what I want on a vacation. Our butler was supposed to escort us down at the ports so we could get the Yacht Club service we are supposed to, but instead we were always the last ones standing behind everyone. The experience was just not as incredible as the Divina and I was disappointed.

The is cruise is for Europeans.. I will be going Royal Caribbean’s or Carnival on my next outing

First off let me state that we are Avid Cruisers and decided to try the MSC Seaside based on the new technology and features of this ship without extensively looking into the ship's reviews which was our mistake. We first noticed that if you weren't Yacht Club member the forward one third section of the ship was unaccessible therefore restricting any forward views or panoramic views moving forward on this ship. We found that the passenger to service Personnel ratio was not adequate to service the ship. To start the food buffet was a disaster which was limited and lacked variety .Certain dishes were not even warm coffee creamer half and half and coffee cups were non-existent during a good portion of the 7 day cruise. If you chose to have juice in the morning such as tomato juice or V8 juice there was an additional charge. The main dining room was extremely crowded and waiters could not get between tables and service properly . The quality of food was poor and sometimes served cold in the middle waiting for water or receiving a cocktail during dinner was a challenge. The gym was small and lacked views to the forward of the ship extremely crowded gave up on that- no staff help. The theater was extremely crowded with passengers often standing up nightly without a seat. We had made reservations every night and were forced to arrive early to get a seat .There was no live Orchestra so the music was on recording no drinks in the theater. The activities were pay for activities for things such a zipline bowling Etc whereas other Cruise Lines include those amenities. If the Sun was out good luck getting a chair to sit on the deck top side again the ratio of chairs to passengers was not appropriate. When ordering a glass of wine or a martini or a mixed drink the appropriate glass in many cases was non-existent it was a challenge to get the right glass for the right drink each evening .Minor things like lack of body lotions or bathrobes are not supplied to the rooms. Restroom placement did not make sense for common areas. In most cases the one toilet that was available was either broken or extremely hard for a handicapped person to access and in need of cleaning. We should have read more reviews before booking this Cruise but that's our fault we would put this ship at the bottom of the line in cruising we have also sailed on the MSC Divina which was also extremely poor. Our advice would be to look for a smaller ship on a quality line such as Holland Norwegian Royal Caribbean to give better service better food and better amenities.

Deceptive advertising for excursions, when confronting staff about this issue received nonprofessional response.

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.

there were positives and negatives, we did go with an open mind as this was our first time on MSC. we have gone on 27 Carnival cruises and a Princess cruise, we already booked another cruise on MSC because the price was so great. we are giving them another chance to win our loyalty. My daughter has gone on 3 MSC cruises and never had the problems with the dining room staff we had.

7th cruise We've ever done. Best ship we've ever had bar none. Kids activities were great and well organized. Food wasn't bad, but nothing special. Very clean and despite being booked solid it never felt crowded on any of the decks. I'd take the same cruise again.

everything was above average fabulous shows wonderful crew beautiful ship nothing to complain about fabulous in all things