We booked this purely on price, it was cheap and cheerful. Yes, MSC has its faults but you get what you pay for. When you compare it to a land based holiday, it doesn’t even come close in terms of standards and value for money.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Fastest embarkation we’ve ever had. Possibly to do with it not being an entire turnover of passengers.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
This is where I was most nervous, having read a few times that the food is awful on MSC. I can’t say I would agree with that at all. Really decent food and plenty of choice in the buffet and in MDR at nights we enjoyed every evening meal. I would perhaps say if you were a fussier eater you may not always like the menu. Quite a lot of fish dishes and more unusual things for the British palate such as frogs legs and escargot. The buffet is pandemonium. Just a constant stream of people. The staff are on it though, constantly clearing tables and taking away your empties - credit to them - much more proactive than I’ve seen elsewhere. MDR we had the same server each night and she was excellent. Also a second guy who did your drinks order and the drinks came fast, again, better than I’ve had on other cruise lines.
Hola! Tacos & Cantina
5 out of 5
Standout meal of the cruise for us. It costs €17.99 a head (plus service charge) and is all you can eat. The food was phenomenal. We went to bed extremely full and happy that night!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Plenty to choose from, the daily schedule was packed. Not really to our liking though. A lot of team games during the day. Brits tend to only like taking part in that sort of thing later in the day after a few shandies, not at 10am. They were always well attended though. There was ten pin bowling which looked great but our young one was too little for us to try it. Good selection of pools but I wasn’t keen on the saltwater. My husband really liked the gym which has a sauna at the changing area.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
This is an area MSC could do with looking at. The theatre shows were pretty poor. Just lacking that something and not quite as polished as you’d expect. And outwith the theatre shows there aren’t really many other venues offering alternative entertainment. There was always fantastic music every night in the atrium, either from the piano or a violinist or a singer. We liked to sit in the champagne bar which is overlooking the atrium, where we could listen to the music.
Carousel Lounge
5 out of 5
This was wow. We were so glad we had precooked this before we went, it was incredible. We chose Arkymea, based round a mad scientist. There was lots of circus style tricks and the costume, staging, everything was just fabulous.
Children's Programs
3 out of 5
Signed my son up for the kids club. It was bedlam trying to sign him in, there was people everywhere and no one seemed to know where to go. But he went once and refused to go back. There must have been well over a hundred kids in there split between the age groups, I think for more shy and nervous children like mine, it was very overwhelming.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Can’t fault the staff. Didn’t encounter one member of staff that wasn’t kind, helpful, chatty. Our room steward was excellent.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
It’s an undeniably beautiful ship. It has the wow factor everywhere you look. I’ve never seen a ship being hoovered as frequently as I did this one. The staff are like ghostbusters with their portable vacuum cleaners on their backs and they’re everywhere! My only criticism is that none of the social areas are very big. It’s a 6000 passenger boat and some of the bars can seat maybe 100 people if you’re lucky. The Virtuosa Lounge was very popular as it regularly had things on but it just wasn’t big enough. There was always an overspill of people standing outside looking in.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Beautiful shiny new cabin, modern feel, good storage space.
Ship tip
Prebook everything you want to do before you go. It’s much cheaper. Everything is more expensive once you’re onboard. And everything is an extra.
We selected the option of taking off our own luggage so we could get off early and hit the road and that was again flawless. Very well managed by the crew.
I am on the virtuosa now. I agree with this review. It us fabulous. The wardrobe would be suitable for one single child. That is the only fault. I will be rebooting. Love it.
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