1fifthavenue

8 minutes ago, rikitikitavii said:

So true, but it was good, will settle for two choices as long as just as good.

I don't recall seeing a breakfast pizza either unfortunately, the space was used for waffles and doughnuts

49 minutes ago, rikitikitavii said:

Seaside would have 4 or 5 for lunch and dinner, and 2 at breakfast.

Well yes but Seaside is much bigger, and has a lot more buffet space... 

25 minutes ago, rikitikitavii said:

Captain & Giantfan, 

just wondering, because pizza in Seaside was so good. Is there pizza on the buffet, or is it al a carte?

We don't mind small ships, there are two older out of West Palm, old Costa Classica and Carnival Celebration, we do often as weekend getaway. Both about 45k tons, built late 80s, early 90.

 

Thanks to all for the comments, looking forward to the ship and Mediterranean ports!!!

 

Rick

 

Hey Rick, there's two types of pizza on the buffet during the day, up to the usual standard of MSC so very good. The restricted choice was a bit annoying though, as some days it was Margherita or cheese foccaccia 

1 hour ago, Bases5 said:

Just curious. What is a hybrid buffet?

Hi Base, sorry that explanation isn't the best, will put more in my review, but basically you go to the MDR to be seated, then have the choice of just a few items on the a la carte menu or a buffet. The waiters don't know what you're doing, who is having what etc

3 minutes ago, Bases5 said:

  Does the Sinfonia have interactive TV in the cabin to check your account?

Do you need to make reservations for the main show's?

If so can you do that on the TV.

Do they provide diner menus at the dining room for reviewing?

Do they provide daily program guides in your stateroom to review daily advents. (Not sure what MSC calls them)

Did you check out the casino,  Was it smoky and did they offer much in table games?

Thanks in advance for all the information!!!

 

 By the way I don't like flying in the day of either but I had a brain fart. I booked the day before and forgot all about the time difference and the lengths of the flight.

When I went to change it, the penalty was all most as much as I paid for 1 flight so we stuck with the original  reservation.

The one good thing is it's a direct flight and gets in a 8:30 am so we have that much going for us.

 We are staying post cruise and checking out Barcelona 

 

Tv isn't interactive

No need to reserve most of the shows, only two on our 10 day cruise needed it

Dinner menu is put up after lunch, but if you have an allergy you can see it the night before

Casino is small, it was pretty smoky, think there were 5 or 6 tables

Daily Programme is delivered the night before

Just back this evening, we joined on the 19th in BCN - enjoyed the cruise but had a few little niggles I'll put in to a review in the next few days. Found all the staff friendly, and that if you smiled at them, they would interact - they're humans afterall and probably putting up with lots of whinging from others...

There were some mobility scooters onboard, though not many. 

Food was generally very good in the evening although it took our table of 6 over two hours most nights, wine service slow. MDR lunch was very limited and the hybrid buffet caused chaos

Most cabin doors on deck 8 were decorated, with a few xmas decorations - not OTT though 

I love the fact MSC is MSC, they are what they are and don't try to be something else.

When a ship (Magnifica) homeported in Southampton this year people were expecting great changes to the product,  whereas all that was changed were a few small tweaks to the standard product.

MSC should carry on doing what they're doing and be different from the other lines. Food is of course subjective and we all have different tastes. I can eat steak and lobster at home, so it's good for me to have octopus or veal on the cruise

6 minutes ago, bigilla said:

Thank you very much for your informative review. We are Maltese and we will be sailing on her next July..

 

Can you please tell me which is the best inside place on the ship where one can view its entrance in ports (if we wish to watch it from inside)?

 

Once again, thank you for the review and food pictures...you made me feel REALLY hungry...

Quote

 

Hi, will you be in the Yacht Club? if so then the Top Sail Lounge is the best place. For the rest of the ship, all of the venues are down the side of the ship, so you'd struggle to really see the sail in, although we did enjoy the Seaside Lounge on Deck 8 - it is a great spot with access to the outdoor promenade

Hi all, 

I created a blog of my experience onboard Seaview in mid-November prior to the ship repositioning to Brazil. 

You can read more about it on my blog - https://timthorpetravel.com/2018/11/28/msc-seaview-a-voyage-of-food/

Hi all

I've just posted this in my Facebook group MSC Cruises UK Passenger Forum:

++++++BREAKING NEWS++++++++

Hi all I've had some fabulous news from MSC UK senior management just now regarding the drinks package changes.

From tomorrow, if you booked your cruise prior to 11th November 2018 and hadn't booked a drinks package, MSC will allow you to book the 'old' packages such as classic, books of vouchers, all inclusive restaurants and bars. The packages available will be the ones that were available at the time when you booked for your applicable sailing date and region.

1 minute ago, sidari said:

Ate ... A number of years ago MSC removed some of the top shelf drinks out of the Deluxe package, so they are not new to doing this. Just read a post on Facebook where someone from a group on a booked cruise next year has been told that there drink package is being changed, another poster seems to think they may be limited to a certain number of drinks per day!

I hope not! Will be re-considering our plans if they do this - with the same old itineraries cruising looks less attractive

I think this should answer the question: https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Assets/All-Inclusive%20Drink%20Package%20Comparison%20Guide%20-%20Caribbean%20Only.pdf

She was in dry dock, they do have to do routine maintenance and take ships out of service for engine maintenance etc

If the ship is full, then sometimes a section of the buffet is reserved for some Bella guests to have their evening meal. It is in a quieter corner, and will be laid out as the restaurant with table cloth, waiter service and you have the same evening menu as the dining room. It does not mean you have to eat the buffet food and serve yourself. I've not heard of this happening much recently and can't recall ever seeing this happen when we have been onboard.

The other differences are negligible as others have mentioned

Can anyone advise how the two compare?

We have cruised with MSC 17 times and have 5 cruises booked with them, but we can see some good deals with Costa, are they similar?

The usual port for Magnifica in Hamburg is Altona - I believe there is a ferry type boat to the city from there? Or you can walk to Altona station and then take the train to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof for about €4 each return

Le Havre port offers their own shuttle buses, inside the cruise terminal (which is more like a warehouse) there is usually a stand to buy tickets, again I think it is about €3 but it is 2 years since we went so can't be 100% sure. The number 20 bus goes from near Le Havre station to Honfleur https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Le-Havre/Honfleur

If you go on to the MSC website the customer service email is on there - not sure we're allowed to post numbers on here? it's an 0203 number and there are a few options... not sure if admin will remoe thi but you could email mscdirect@msccruises.co.uk

Finally got round to writing my review - pics on my blog page https://timthorpetravel.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/honeymoon-honeymoon/

So, as you’ll know from my previous posts you’ll know that our recent cruise on the MSC Seaview was our honeymoon. We got married on May 26th and went back to work for a couple of weeks before joining the inaugural voyage of the ship.

I don’t want to repeat my previous posts with the first impressions of the ship – you can read that here: First thoughts

The itinerary for this cruise was Genoa, Naples, Messina, Valletta, Sea Day, Barcelona. A very familiar Western-Meditteranean itinerary, but what a perfect way to celebrate the launch of a new ship and our marriage. We’d visited all of these ports before, so we knew that for us the ship would be the destination, with the addition of an excursion to the beautiful island of Capri.

With that in mind, we found that we didn’t leave the ship in any of the other ports, particularly as our cruise over the Christmas period covers all of these ports with the exception of Malta.

To best cover the experience on this ship I’ll cover it in a few areas….

Cabin

We stayed in a Fantastic grade balcony cabin, 13236. We found the cabin plenty big enough with a shower room. The shower had a nice glass enclosure (no curtain- yay!) Clothes storage was perhaps at a premium compared to some of the other ships with a lack of drawer space, however as this is ‘The ship that follows the sun” it stands to reason that most cruises will be a week or two at most, therefore there is ample space for that amount of time.

Dining

As mentioned in my preliminary thoughts, our first table on our first night in the Silver Dolphin restaurant wasn’t too great – the restaurant opened late and the food had by that time dried out and wasn’t appetising – far removed from the MSC we know. the service was slow and wasn’t the most friendly we’ve ever experienced.

After the following morning’s breakfast we were assigned to the MyChoice dining section in the Golden Sands restaurant after meeting with Camilla who had been our maitre d’ on the MSC Meraviglia in November.

That evening the experience was incredibly different – waiters who really knew their stuff, slick and efficient, friendly service from our waiter Alan from Honduras – again someone we’ve met on previous cruises.

The tables in both restaurants were, as is common on large mass-market ships pretty close together but far enough apart to keep conversation to ourselves as a couple.

MSC Seaview has a number of dining options, the complimentary options for guests in the main ship – ie not Yacht Club are the Golden Sands formal restaurant from breakfast and lunch, on an open-seating basis, your assigned restaurant for dinner and the two buffets – the main buffet being on deck 8 aft with terraces on both sides of the ship and a smaller buffet on deck 16.

Extra-charge speciality restaurants are the L’Atelier Bistrot on Deck 8, surrounding the atrium, and on Deck 16 the Chef’s Court concept with the Asian Fusion restaurant by Roy Yamaguchi offering sushi and teppan yaki, Ocean Cay seafood restaurant by Two Michelin Star chef Ramon Freixa and the Butchers Cut steakhouse. In the middle of this area is a stunning wine and cocktail bar.

As black card holders we were able to savour a complimentary meal in one of the speciality restaurants and chose Ocean Cay on the basis the food would be something different to usual – we dined twice in the Teppan Yaki on MSC Meraviglia so were excited to experience something new.

We were not disappointed! The taster selection menu available as a loyalty perk offered a choice of three course meal. We opted for oysters, fish and chips and a melon soup. Ramon himself was onboard ensuring the dishes were up to his exacting standards and I have to say this was probably the best food we have eaten whilst at sea.

One thing to note about this area is that it can only be accessed from the forward lifts. Not a problem, but don’t go to Deck 16 Aft with the expectation of walking forward to the restaurants!

Food and drink highlights

So, a key part of any cruise holiday is the food and drink. As seasoned MSC cruisers we are perhaps becoming too familiar with the menus, however this gives us the ability to understand how the food on a particular ship is compared to the other ships in the fleet we have been on.

The Elegant Night menus on MSC ships are curated by the two celebrity chefs who work in partnership with MSC – Italian Carlo Cracco – host of MasterChef and Spanish Ramon Freixa. The menus on both of these nights offer, in my opinion, an excellent choice of dishes. Not to be missed are the ‘Chef’s specials’ on the left hand side of the menu under their picture is the details of their dish designed for MSC.

Cracco’s braised blade of beef with pomegranate and Freixa’s duck royale (duck with foie gras) were both excellently thought out and well put together dishes, with a balance of flavour and beautiful presentation. We’d not tried either of these before as we’d not properly read that side of the menu!

Carlo Cracco’s Elegant menu:

Beverage wise the choice available on the all inclusive drinks packages is extremely varied, with something to suit every taste. We took the All Inclusive Restaurants and Bars Deluxe package and were able to enjoy all of our drinks without the worry of a large bill at the end of the cruise.

The Champagne bar on deck 7 serves Laurent Perrier Brut Champagne which is included in the deluxe package – great digestif to enjoy. A selection of oysters and other seafood is also available from this bar – we enjoyed three oysters here on our first evening at a cost of €9 together with a couple of glasses of champagne. Daniel, Anna Maria and Anastasia here work incredibly well as a team – as it’s not too busy they have time for a bit of a chat. It was wonderful to see them again after previously meeting them on other ships.

Bars

Over our years of cruising we have noticed that when getting onboard a new ship most passengers will find a venue they gravitate to. On MSC Seaview for us it was the Seaside Lounge on Deck 8, with the excellent service of Tayla, Gusti and Pun creating a great atmosphere. This bar offers a wide selection of cocktails and wines, as well as the usual beverages. The entertainment in here in the evening was a jazz singer whose voice was second to none, with almost as much depth as Nina Simone.

Over the way from the Seaside Lounge is the Sports Bar, with a number of screens showing various different sports. We were absolutely delighted to see Francisco from MSC Fantasia and MSC Meraviglia in this bar, and he seemed genuinely pleased to see us too. The Sports Bar has a wide selection of beers both on draught and by the bottle, as well as various cocktails and mixed drinks.

Both theSports Bar and the Seaside Lounge have access to the outside promenade, with seating readily available.

Seaview has a multitude of other bars – we made it our mission to get round them all, and I think we succeeded! It’d take too long to write something about all of them, however I will just mention the area in the Piazza around the Chocolate Factory where the evening’s entertainment is a party band with some great tracks and the Panorama Bar on Deck 16 offering your usual pool-side favourites as well as those ever-so tempting creamy cocktails – Molten Lava anyone??

Overall experience

MSC Seaview offered something entirely different from any ship we have ever been on, and what an experience it was. Unlike MSC Meraviglia which was inward focussed on the extravagant central promenade, Seaview is all about connecting you with the outside and the sea.

Each bar had plenty of seating, and with the design of the ship the added bonus is that the bar areas all have a different atmosphere and feeling. This ship never felt crowded, even on our day at sea – probably because of the high number of balcony cabins, the promenade and the deck space.

There is an abundance of activities, from ten pin bowling, the longest zip-line at sea, an aqua park, rope bridges, the casino (I had an excellent stroke of luck on our final night!) a beautiful theatre, gym, spa, three swimming pools available for the general ship’s population, arcade games, live music… It would be impossible to become bored on this ship.

So, I’ve often written of my love affair with the line’s previous flagship MSC Fantasia for its timeless beauty and elegance (hard to believe she is now ten years old!) So, how does MSC Seaview compare?

Well, she’s obviously much bigger and newer. Strip that away and what you have is a ship with the undoubted feel of an MSC Ship, public areas that flow from one to another and of course those sparkly stairs. I had previously said that it would be hard to improve on Fantasia, but, with Seaside and Seaview I think MSC have done it!

This holiday, despite the small niggles on the first night which should be expected with any new restaurant / hotel / cruise ship, was a great success. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to the wonderful crew for making our honeymoon so special, and I hope we will all meet again soon!

I was also on the maiden voyage. It was a fantastic Cruise with Very small problems. All have to try the Seaside class ships. It is the Best ships in the MSC Cruise Company.

I think so too - it felt like an MSC ship - much prefer it to Meraviglia

perhaps they were just living it up for the maiden voyage :) we could hear it on deck 13 mid but with the door shut it wasn't a problem

It was definitely not silent on Thursday night! Maybe this will change?

We're home now, we cruised from Genoa to Barcelona and had a great night :)

Hi Dave,

We were in a Fantastica balcony - 13236 - great location, plenty of room for the two of us, close to both aft panoramic and mid ships lifts.

We did think the other night that we were pleased not to have an Aft cabin as the disco takes place by the pool on deck 8

Tim

So - here's my blog post I wrote a couple of days ago whilst still onboard, it covers first impressions and thoughts, I'll add more when about the overall experience when I get a bit more time

The ship that gets you closer to the sea…

The concept of MSC Seaside and MSC Seaview is to get you closer to the sea and provide a completely different cruise experience compared to other ships that can often be quite inward looking, for example NCL Epic and MSC Meraviglia.

We boarded the maiden voyage of MSC Seaview in Genoa, having spent the evening prior watching the fireworks from the Piazza Principe train station. What a spectacle!

Embarkation was efficient, as Black Card holders we were among the first passengers onboard… First impressions count and only one word is needed to sum up this ship… WOW

The spectacular central atrium with it’s glistening Swarovski stairs and balcony over the bar that acts as a stage where a band were playing to welcome passengers onboard.

As we walked around the ship we met a number of crew we know from previous cruises - many of them had worked on the launch of MSC Meraviglia and MSC Seaside - presumably their experience with launching a new ship is a great asset to the company.

We headed to the buffet on deck 8 for a spot of lunch - there was an excellent variety of food available, from the usual burgers and pizzas to fresh rotisserie chicken, beef carvery, curries and ‘Med corner’ with delicious meats and cheeses.

One of Seaview’s most handsome features, and in my opinion a game changer is the Boardwalk promenade on Deck 8 - there are several seating areas which can be reached from the multitude of bars and the buffet restaurant. Our thoughts on this are that the ‘norm’ on the cruises we have completed previously is that you’re either sat in a lounge within the ship or you’re on the top deck - having this outside seating area is a fantastic addition to the cruising experience.

Our balcony cabin was ready for us early, and what a luxury to set foot in a room that had never been slept in. The cabin is a decent size and the balcony feels deeper than previous ships we have been on. It was certainly well thought out - the only criticism I have is that drawer space is somewhat limited - there’s enough for most needs, however this could be a problem for longer cruises.

Muster at 5:30 - this was efficient and no need to lug a life jacket round as they are now stored at the muster stations rather than in your cabin - this is a great improvement as it negates the need for all passengers to be using the stairs and lifts to take their jackets back before carrying on with the rest of the day.

We spent some time on deck and also in the Sports Bar where we were very happy to see Francisco - one of the fantastic bartenders we have met a number of times - he’s an awesome guy with a great personality and attitude.

Our allotted dining time was 8:15pm in the Silver Dolphin restaurant on deck 6. The restaurant was nearly an hour late opening - as it was the first night there’s no wonder that there will be some delays and teething issues. In all honesty our waiter wasn’t too great either, service was slow and not delivered with a smile; we missed the theatre show due to the amount of time it took, so rather than be on a downer we spoke with the Maitre d’ who changed our table for the following evening.

The rest of the night was spent exploring the multitude of bars, chatting with friends and having a really great time! There was a fabulous party band in one of the bars, and Andy and I found ourselves jiving!

The next morning we went for breakfast in the Golden Sands main dining room and were seated at a table for two. We were sat for a long time patiently waiting to place our order (about half an hour in total) and eventually gave up hope and decided to grab something from one of the buffets.

On our way out we saw one of the crew, Camila, from our cruise on MSC Meraviglia in November. She was genuinely pleased to see us. We spoke with her about our two poor experiences up to that point and were delighted that she offered us a table in her restaurant on the ‘My Choice’ (anytime dining) section.

This to me is a brilliant example of the great service we get from MSC - sometimes things do go wrong, but it’s about addressing any problems and putting things right.

We came in to Naples at lunch time and took our excursion to the beautiful island of Capri… As we’re currently in Malta waiting for the gun salute I’ll cover more of the details of the cruise when I get back!

Thanks for reading so far

I'm really looking forward to this cruise - is it just me or do the itnernal shots look more like an MSC ship than Meraviglia? Don't get me wrong I liked our cruise on Meraviglia but she didn't feel like a normal MSC ship

If you have a drink package there is no service charge to be paid on your drinks included in your package. If you have any drinks not included in your package then the charge is 15% of the cost

There is the daily service charge / auto gratuity added to your account