sconter

This is probably the most honest and well balanced review I have read on here.

I don't want to derail the thread but I sailed on Bellissima in July (not in the YC)

I found the ship stunning but crowded at times, the buffet was probably the best I had encountered but the main dining room I thought was average.

the reason I would be reluctant to sail MSC again was the service, our air conditioning never worked the whole week, I spent hours at the reception desk and this was never fixed (despite me being told 4 or 5 times it had been)

there was also an incident involving my son at the kids club that was dealt with appallingly that left him very upset and my wife furious for the rest of the trip.

It seems like the default position on our cruise was the customer is never right and even if they are we will tell they're not.

I will qualify this by saying I am not American nor I am a fan on the overtop "service" that is sometimes expected by our friends across the pond.

It's a shame because I would have loved to have tried one of the seaside class ships.

18 minutes ago, Birdie And Sue said:

 

Agree it is ridiculous to complain about getting short notice if an unforeseen incident.  My point exactly.  Thank you for understanding.

Does it suck that a cruise got cancelled, yep big time. Does it even come close to making sense to complain about short notice when there was an unforeseen issue, uh well...

Whats ridiculous is your lack of empathy and understanding to someone who is obviously upset. 

Now admittedly these are very much 1st world problems but the cost and planning that goes into a cruise is substantial and I would be genuinely gutted if this happened to me. 

18 minutes ago, Birdie And Sue said:

 

What part of UNFORESEEN do you fail to comprehend?

Ridiculous. 

can this be done individually, I am on the Bellissima in 3 weeks and I want to book the Steakhouse and Teppanyaki, I dont want to book the 3 dinner package because the Steak place would be the only one I used.

This is actually insane that your a repeat customer with a cruise line who in your own words make your blood boil. 

I’m honestly glad I never discovered this website until after I returned from my 1st cruise otherwise I might never had gone. 

About a year later I found this website and went back and checked the cruise reviews for the cruise I went and I couldn’t believe I was on the same cruise as some of the people moaning about everything.  

2 hours ago, CliveS said:

Having cruised several times, principally with Royal Caribbean & Norwegian, I was looking forward to our first cruise on MSC in October until I was told of an itinerary change.

Having book the cruise to visit one of my partners bucket list "Santorini", I have been told that for "operational reasons" the ship will visit Athens instead.

I have asked to switch to another cruise that is visiting Santorini (MSC have several around this time) and have been told that this is not possible, nor can I cancel without losing my deposit.

This is an appalling way to treat customers and will mean that our first MSC cruise will be our last (we cruise 2 or 3 times a year).

Rest assured the publicity this will get from my many thousands of LinkedIn followers will cost them much more than they will make in profit from me.

Back to Royal Caribbean next time!

Good luck going back to Royal Caribbean, have a look at the top of that board on CC to see what RCCL done with the UK based Independence Of The Seas 2020 itinerary.

I imagine you will be horrified and your many thousand linkedin followers likewise. 

5 minutes ago, Viccarol said:

Thank you all you have really put my mind to rest!! I think in my heart of hearts I know it will be fine I wouldn't have booked it if I didn't like the look of the product. We have a pretty open mind when it comes to holidays and generally go with the flow. I know it won't be Disney - that was a special cruise when our daughter was little, but she's 16 now and isn't interested in being sociable now 😂. Again thank you all for taking to time to reply it is much appreciated.. 

I have my 1st MSC cruise booked on the Bellissima in July, the reason I haven't taken much notice of the reviews on here is that they tend to be extremes (both the negative and positive) the truth will almost always be found somewhere in the middle.

I also feel that in a lot of cases people expectations are not aligned with the price they paid for the product, I dont expect a 5 star cruise, I do expect my room to be clean, the ship to be beautiful and the food to be varied and edible... I doubt I will be disappointed.

In the past few years i have cruised on RCI and Norwegian and genuinely couldn't fault anything on both cruises yet came back, checked the reviews and they were full of people who had taken to exact same cruise as me with nothing but complaints.

10 hours ago, goosemay said:

I have mostly sailed with NCL. A total breeze compared to this company. Average phone wait for me has been 40 mins. I cannot get in the website as I typically have because the page thinks I’m a different nationality than I claim to be. Called. They have no idea how to help. If this company has any hopes of running with the big boys, they’d better make some changes... and stop crashing the ships. Horrifying..,

You do know that this year the Norwegian epic crashes as it came into port, the Viking sky had to be evacuated and there was an accident on oasis of the seas during dry dock don’t you. 

You wont be sailing with anyone at this rate. 

14 minutes ago, cathep said:

We were on last week's sailing.  I'll be writing up a review for our room that will address other stuff that I think gets glossed over.  This was my favorite of 6 cruises.  I stood next to a couple at the services desk who was chewing out the rep about how awful the cruise was.  How can 2 groups have such different experiences?  Beats me, although it could be that we had the Aurea experience. But I tend to think it's the difference in how people travel, though.  If you are the type who wants to recreate your home experience, then this line isn't going to give you 100% what you want.  If you are the type who is open to new experiences, this line will be wonderful.  When we're in Europe, we want to stay in a hotel or apartment that reflects the local area and eat where locals eat.  The flip side to that is a person who travels to Paris and stays in a Sheraton because it's familiar and eats at McDonald's because they know they'll like the food.  Why even travel if you don't want to experience something new?

 

I talked to another dissatisfied passenger who compared the experience to a Disney cruise and said Disney wins hands down.  Well, Disney is 2-3 times what this cruise is and that's comparing a balcony cabin on Disney to a 2-bedroom suite on MSC.  He thought it was worth paying that much more.  I'll gladly take 2 to 3 MSC cruises any day over 1 Disney cruise.  But again, that goes back to someone wanting to pay for familiarity.   

there is a huge amount of reviews along the line of this cruise was nothing like RCI, Norwegian etc etc... 

well no it wouldn't be would it, surely if you wanted a cruise that was like another cruise line you would just book with that other cruise line.

46 minutes ago, cowmilker said:

My comment about eating breakfast in the dining room requiring a bit of extra effort was about a limited time frame. They don't serve it as long as the buffet is open. It was also that on the Meraviglia there are several different dining rooms, and they all don't serve breakfast. There were a couple of days when we had to go to the buffet or do without food simply because we had a tour scheduled and needed to grab something and go.

One other thing: the cruise we were on wasn't the cheapest one out there. We chose it solely because the itinerary wasn't a repeat, and the timing worked. It wasn't that we were tightwads and trying to get a big bargain.  We knew we were getting on a mega ship. Frankly, I spent the first couple of days making every excuse in the world for MSC trying to like it. I felt badly because I chose the cruise and I knew after a couple of days that it wasn't going to get better. IIRC, our cruise on Holland America was about the same price per day.

I do understand that a mega ship is not a little ship. I get that.  I also knew that we'd be cruising with lots of families with lots of kids and that the ship has lots of kid-friendly stuff on board.  That means that valuable public space is occupied by a bowling alley and all sorts of stuff like that instead of lounges.

 

None of that makes the buffet any better. When we first went there, upon boarding, because it was the only place to eat lunch, we excused the chaos. It was embarkation day, boarding had been terribly delayed due to really bad weather, nobody had been able to leave the ship for the day (in the Med, every port takes on passengers and some passengers leave, like a ferry). It was understandable that everyone was hungry and tired and went to the buffet all at the same time.  But the chaos which started in the terminal never stopped.

 

Another example was the day we spent in the terminal at Mersailles. My husband went back to the ship before I did, so when I started back, I asked an MSC staff member where I should go to reboard.  I was pointed to a line. I got in the line, got pushed and shoved and waited until I got to the scanner. At the scanner, I presented my key card and was informed that I was in the wrong place and needed to go downstairs.

 

So I went downstairs, found another MSC staff member and asked. I was told that I needed to go upstairs. I explained that I'd just been there and showed them my key card. I was a returning passenger, not a new one. This took forever, because of the language barrier. The guy ended up talking more and more loudly to me, in Italian. Saying something that another person does not understand is not improved by getting louder. I still didn't understand. Because I knew that the terminal workers might not know what I was asking, I specifically looked for people in MSC uniforms. 
 

The terminal is large. I was in the wrong place, obviously, but I had no idea where the right place was.  Finally, in exasperation, the guy took me to the right place and I got in line again. I was pushed and shoved some more. Right as I got to the scanner, a woman shoved past me with her two kids and took my spot, at which point I finally just lost my temper.  I'd been dealing with this stuff for the better part of an hour and I was sick of it. She got the idea but still went in front of me. 

This was well toward the end of the cruise and really, I was so done. We seriously considered leaving the ship in Marseilles and making our own way back to Civitavecchia to board the Star a couple of days later, but didn't. We just spent as much time as possible either off the ship or in our room.

 

We are not demanding self-entitled people. We tend to go with the flow pretty well. We're happy using public transport in Rome, staying at a relatively inexpensive BnB outside the city center, figuring stuff out on our own. We dealt with the massive lines at the Vatican and didn't pitch a fit. We dealt with the odd closing times for restaurants in Civitavecchia on a Sunday afternoon and ate at McDonald's without complaining about it.  Everything does not have to be perfect for us to have a wonderful time. 

 

There were parts of the MSC cruise that were fine, even superb, as I tried to make clear. But the stuff that was bad was so bad we'll never do it again. Cruises involve more than just the fare. They also involve an investment of time and we're not willing to risk any of that a second time. I know I'd never get my husband on board another MSC ship. 

 

BTW, we were whatever the  "experience" level is above the basic one. I forget what they call it. For that, we got a little booklet that gave us a dozen or so free drinks. That was very nice. We didn't use them all up, so at the end of our cruise, our waiter brought us a bag with the extras in it (we got cans of peach tea) which we toted over to the Star.  We also got free bottled water in the dining rooms.  You kind of have to argue about that one because many of the wait staff don't understand it (it applies only to North American passengers, which is just bizarre - I understand why it's confusing).

I expect that some of these problems go away if you're on an MSC ship in the Caribbean, since they expect a North American presence on board. Really good weather, which we didn't have (and which isn't anyone's fault), would improve the situation as well, simply because a lot of people could be out by the pool.  But if the Meraviglia is full, dear god, it's very full.

Oh, and one other thing. We paid the gratuity without a gripe of any sort. It's not the fault of the staff. They work hard. They aren't as friendly as the staff on Norwegian or HAL, but good god, look at what they are dealing with.  By the end of a week on that ship, I wasn't friendly either.  Problems like the ones we encountered are due to poor management, not bad staff.

Everyone has a different experience but I would imagine booking a ship based on itinerary you would also need to take into consideration when and where you are going. 

For example one of the new mega ships with water slides, rope courses and lots of outdoor space shouldn’t be taken round the med unless the weather is good between let’s say may and September. 

Food is subjective, I hate sea food and I wouldn’t go on a ship taste the scallops and complain they were rubbery. 

1 hour ago, EngIceDave said:

I think it’s funny that people book something because it’s cheap, then complain when it’s not a 5* Resort or Michelin Star cuisine. 

 

You went on on the cheap, Bro, what you expect?

In life you generally get what you pay for. 

I would imagine people choosing MSC are doing so based on price and itinerary for example I chose my cruise in July on the bellisima based on its facilities for kids and price. A similar cruise round the med on RCI and NCL would have cost me between £1000 and £2000 more for my family of four. 

I will temper my expectations accordingly, I don’t expect everything to be perfect but then again it wasn’t on any of the cruises I’ve taken with the companies mentioned above. 

Finally I would be amazed if my family never had one of the most awesome experiences we’ve ever had. (Kids 1st cruises)

Reading some reviews I’m convinced people go on holiday to have as miserable a time as possible. 

With any review good or bad the truth can usually be found somewhere in between. 

The boards on this website are excellent, the information from other cruisers and their reviews I would tend to trust more than the actual review section. 

there is no way I would board at that time.

I am on the Bellissima this July, will be going to the port between 11 and 12 and I would expect to be on board in an hour.

Thanks for that reply, yeah I guess I will need to revisit this again after the ship launches.

This is my 1st on MSC do you know how much would I be if I just added the speciality restraunts on board as and when I want to use them?

I am booked on a 7 night cruise out of Barcelona on the Bellisima in July.

I was planning on booking the 3 night dining package is this like RCI and Norwegian where I can pick my 3 restraunts ie steak x2 and teppinyaki?

Their website is not very clear but I get the impression its the French, Steak and Sushi 3 night package?