dshroyer

We were on the same cruise in YC. Out of Kahlua. That must be why on the last day we ordered a Espresso Martini and got vodka and coffee.

The title of my post is possible reason why Seashore and Seascape seem understaffed. This is mentioned over and over in the comments. My point is that when they built the ships, they were OK with that passenger to crew ratio. It is higher than the competition. Does not mean that MSC is bad. Every cruise has a different level of service depending on time of year, duration, location, etc. But it does indicate that MSC executives are more comfortable with a higher number than the competition. And that is part of their business model and why they can offer such great value. You mentioned I have spent more time bashing MSC than staying on their ships. Well, I have spent 22 days on their ships and 3 days on this forum. I really did not mean this post as a bash against MSC but rather a possible explanation as to why so many people complain about service. I am sorry that so many yacht club people take offense to my post. And for that I am sorry. Life is too short to worry about such trivial things as cruise ships. As a parting word I will leave you with an article. Why Are MSC Cruises So Cheap? (cruisehive.com) How Does MSC Cruises Keep Prices So Low? While the cruise line uses a variety of cost-cutting strategies, most are designed to be unnoticeable for passengers. Amongst the various strategies they use to keep prices low while maintaining profitability, is to maximize passenger capacity on board their ships. Simply put, having more people on each ship allows them to keep pricing low. While they still have to abide by domestic and international safety standards when it comes to allowing passengers onboard their cruise ships, the ratio of staff to passengers is unique. They also reduce cabin sizes to accommodate more passengers on each ship.

I was in the yacht club. I have two more yacht clubs booked. (which I may cancel) If I thought the yacht club was bad, why would I book it 3 times? Not sure what you are getting at. What is my narrative? You are looking at this from a yacht club perspective. Look at Haven or Retreat. Fine. MSC may be better than those. I have no idea. But my original post is about the entire ship. Not a yacht club comparison.

You have cognitive dissonance. Happens all the time. :>)

My first three cruises were non yacht club in 2022. We had a great time. But the ships were about 50% full. I thought it was a great value and thought the service was comparable to other lines. I even told people that I recommend the line. But seeing the Seashore full was a back breaker for me. Even though we were in yacht club. When we left the ship was hot and packed. The reason why I picked those lines and ships is because I have sailed on them. And I wanted a quick analysis of the Seashore to ships and lines that I knew. (Except not the Euriba) If you want to prove my theory faulty, I encourage you to do all of the ships and lines. (But you may not like what you find). My point is that MSC builds it ships with less crew in mind for the amount of passengers. Maybe they have robots below deck and that is how they can do it. But I have also read cruise articles that say the reason why the fares are cheaper is the lower amount of labor and that is shown in the ship design.

I got the same response. But I have received it in the past. But it was in a bottle as the picture above shows. I believe the ship actually makes distilled water and then they add the minerals back in for taste. They may just be getting it "from the source" before the minerals are added.

Look at the stats for the harmony and compare to the Seashore. Very similar passenger counts. Yet the Harmony ship has almost 1K more crew members! Are you saying that MSC can provide a similar customer experience with 1K less crew? I do not understand how this can even be debatable. Seems like you are making excuses for MSC. I think it is clear that MSC has a low-price strategy. And the way they implement that low price is via labor cuts. (as compared to other lines) That is why the ships have less crew cabins. It is their formula. Nothing wrong with that. Not saying that MSC is not a good value. But it is their business plan. I agree that the other lines are also "packed" and there are also complaints about food. BUT if you look at the other lines most of the aggregate customer ratings are in the high 3's or low 4's. Seashore is 2.8 POOR. The ship is beautiful. What could make people rate is so low? And please do not bring up the yacht club. It is less than 5% of the ship and that is truly "cherry picking".

Yes. Ha. exactly backwards. Thanks

This was my 4th MSC cruise. What ratios did I cherry pick? Just showing that the ship was designed for lesser service. Price has nothing to do with that fact other than it explains how MSC can undercut the competition. I did not judge the entire cruise line. I said "the new MSC ships". Can you explain why they built the ships with the notion of packing more passengers per crew member than other lines? And I was not talking about yacht club. But now that you bring it up. That makes the ratio even worse. Some lines, like HAL, do not have a dedicated area. So those crew members can serve the general public. On MSC part of that crew count goes to serve less than 5% of the population. Meaning that "the rest of the ship" even has a higher passenger to crew ratio.

We just completed a 4-day cruise on the Seashore in the Yacht Club. We felt the ship was very crowded and we were even disappointed with the Yacht Club service. As I look at all the cruise critic reviews, there are mostly complaints about food quality and service. Why is that? Why does it seem understaffed? My theory is because the ships were designed for lesser service. What do I mean? Here is a quick analysis that I put together. It shows various ships big and small. And it calculates the “passengers per crew” metric. The lower the number the better. Much better to be on a ship where there are 2 crew members per passenger than 5 crew per passenger, right? If you look at the grid you will see something jump out. The new MSC ships have a lot higher passenger to crew rates! 30% to 40% higher than their competitors. They cannot “hire more people” to provide better service because the ship is built with a limited amount of crew members. The only thing they can do to increase service is to limit the number of passengers onboard. (To fall in line with competitive ratios) We were on the Maraviglia twice last year and loved it. But the ship was only about 60% full. If you look at the grid you will notice that the Seashore has 831 more passengers than the Maraviglia but only 13 more crew members! What? These new ships have been built to provide a lower level of service. Is it a coincidence that MSC cruises are about 30% cheaper than their competitors and the service ratio is about 30% worse? Bottom line is if food and beverage service is not important then you can have a good time on one of these newer ships. But I would say that you cannot expect to get the same level of service as the other competitors, at least based on these numbers. Unless you can get on a ship that is less than 70% capacity.

I say no. They were out of most premium brands in yacht club a few weeks ago. I would not go higher than plus. Even them many bottled beers were out of stock

Here is the review of the yacht club I posted last week. MSC Seashore Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic

I would agree with your statement for other cruise lines. But MSC is continually out of inventory. If you read the comments like "On day 5 the salad bar had no lettuce or salad dressing". Or "On day 4 the bars ran out of vodka and Coke Zero". Those are not perishable items. I think they purposefully limit the safety stock so that each cruise is profitable. Stock Bar A with one good bottle of Bourbon X and then when it is out do not stock another one until the next cruise. Meanwhile they have their "elite drink package" money from you.

I am convinced that when it comes to food and drink they have allowances for each cruise. That way they ensure that each cruise is profitable. If they have big eaters or drinkers then they will just run out of stuff. We were on a cruise when the ship ran out of butter. And eggs. I was on the Seashore a few weeks ago and the first day the yacht club was out of most wines. No wine list for dinner. In the yacht club! This tells me they are allocating by cruise. Just my opinion.

If you are in a taxi or ride share just tell them to NOT get in the standing car lane to the right. Stay to the left, middle lane, and continue past that and they can drop you off right at the luggage. Have a great cruise.

We were in the yacht club and it was underwhelming. You saved money by not upgrading

We just got off Seashore. We were in yacht club. The ship had 4,500 people out of 5,500. It was packed. I walked around on sea day and every bar and pool chair was busy. The elevators were a mess. We will not do Seashore again. Way understaffed.

Please update. We were on the previous cruise and staff was short. I talked to the director and he said " it should get better". Not the experience we hoped for.

I think that is the problem with MSC. Not consistent. Garnishes were non existent in yacht club. That is why you see super good and super bad reviews. Not consistent.

We arrive at 10 minutes before 11am. The gates were not functional. Line was back to the road turnoff. Took Us 45 minutes to get in the lot. Half of the lot is under construction. I recommend parking off site. At least for the next few months

We were on the same cruise in Yacht Club. Poor experience. First day asked for an Old Fashion with Woodford Reserve. After 10 min. "we do not have that". Then asked for Makers Mark. 10 min. later same response. "Well what do you have?" Crown Royal, sir. (That is in the way lower package) Then at dinner. No wine menu. They asked my wife what she wanted, she said Pinot Grigio, she got the $10 bottle stuff. "That is all we have". I am convinced they control costs by only serving a certain amount of premium beverages and then they say "we are out" and you have to get the cheap stuff. In the Lounge my wife asked for a Pinot Grigio on the last day. No special brand. They gave her a sweet Reisling. I took it up to the bar and said "this is not a Pinot Grigio". He said "Sorry sir". Then it turns out he was out of Pinot Grigio and had to leave for 5 minutes to get more. So he probably just poured "another white" and hoped she did not notice. Either lazy or cost cutting. NOT what we paid for. Other people can chime in on their great experiences, but it did not happen on this ship. We did not see our "Butler" until the night of day 2. (50% into our cruise) But we did finally get our newspaper on the last day. :>) Oh, and I did talk to the "Yacht Club Director" the first night. Useless. He said "it should get better tomorrow". Why isn't it good today? I paid for today! He had no response. Then avoided me the rest of the cruise. I guess asking for a Wine Menu at dinner is too much to ask. We were very disappointed. We have over 20 cruises, with 3 on MSC and this was one of our worst cruises. And do not get me started on the elevators. Nothing better than pushing the elevator button and have it say "error, not available". And then going to the other bank and getting the same message. I think the people are good, but the management is cheap and not customer oriented. I back up everything you said on your original post.

We boarded today with no problems. Arrived at 11 and we're in our room within 20 minutes. The traffic through town was not bad at that time.

We are at the Doubletree Montreal today. They are saying the roads to the port will be open Especially after 11am. So maybe that is why all of our boarding times were pushed later 20 minutes?

Wow. My medallion is better than yours. Ha. Not sure if this is FOMO or virtue signaling.... Enjoying your report. We board in Montreal on Sunday.

I have found that the drink package used to be set as a % of the fare. We went on a HAL Mexico cruise with friends. We had inside and they had balcony. Adding the drink package was $30 a day for us but $34 a day for them. (this was years ago) We figured it was because of the cabins. I think HIA does the same thing. Our friend was mad because she felt like she was being penalized for getting the balcony on the extras.