Noisy Experience

We are self employed and prefer vacations where we can relax and rejuvenate.  We were able to do that on our first cruise with MSC last year and loved it - we wanted to cruise again this year.  However, at the time we made our reservations MSC was not available.  We chose Norwegian and both my wife and I think it was an inferior experience.

The biggest problem was noise - every where was noisy.  We could hear the music from the shows in our room, sometimes past 10:00PM at night.  We sprung for a large-balcony stateroom, but there was no respite there either - most of the time our neighbors seemed to be hosting drinking parties on their balconies.  

The other thing that we didnt like is the constant upsell - it seemed like everything was designed to try and get you to spend more.  They have this down to an art form. 

Our room attendant experience was also much different from MSC.  On the MSC ship, our steward was a ninja - he amazed us with his ability to clean or turn down our room and never be seen, even for short times away from our stateroom.  On the Getaway our steward was friendly but many times we would go to breakfast and come back to an unmade room.  One day the room was never made up. 

The pool area was very small.  On the MSC ship there were two main pool areas plus one on the rear deck. On the Getaway there was 1 main and a smaller one. The main pool smaller than either of the two on MSC.  They devoted that space to having 5 water slides - these were good but more pool space would be welcome. We never actually got in the pool or hot tubs because they were always packed and the pool was not very deep.

Unlike the MSC trip, we found lots of lines on the Getaway trip.  This is the experience we thought cruising would be like.  On MSC they did a better job of keeping the lines shorter.

The buffet had decent food and was clean.  It was sometimes challenging to find a table but we always did - the staff worked hard to quickly clean vacant tables.

We really liked the Freestyle Ultimate Dining package - we were able to dine at many of the specialty restaurants whenever we wanted.  The food was good and the service was too.  On the MSC ship we had an assigned dining room and time, where we had to sometimes sit with people we do not know.

If you want a more Las Vegas experience, the Getaway is your ticket.  If you want a more relaxing place to rejevenate, the MSC Divina is our recommendation.