Has the Seaside Dinner Buffet Improved?

Does the main buffet on deck 8 reopen after the final formal dinner seating?

 

 

 

Not according to the dailies posted. The deck 16 buffet closes at 9:30 and reopens from 10-2 for late night snacks.

 

 

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Not according to the dailies posted. The deck 16 buffet closes at 9:30 and reopens from 10-2 for late night snacks.

 

 

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I can confirm that this is true. Only the Deck 16 buffet is open and only from 10 PM to 2 AM for "Late Night Snacks".

I am sitting on the seaside right now and it is definitely the larger buffet on deck 8 that is closed for buffet dining and converted to mdr

 

. Also, we had an inside bella comped from resorts Atlantic city and upgraded to ocean view bella. We could have also upgraded to balcony but our bella experience was not upgradable. Was not going to turn down a free cruise just to upgrade the bella

 

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Thanks for confirming.

I told the captain at the Black card event on the Divina about the food, and he seemed surprise. However the HD had a whatever attitude. Guess he was used to this kind of complain. I told them if you want to succeed in the North American market you guys will have to step up your game. Food wise AND crew wise! My friends who were with me said never again MSC.

I thought that they keep half the buffet open on Divina? I wonder if the selection is better than what offer on deck 16 on Seaside? I had a brief exchange with Captain Scala about this on Instagram (he only responded once) and I get the feeling that they don't see it as a problem. Food is food I guess. It's going to be a challenge convincing them otherwise. Or else we just vote with our wallets. And warn others here and elsewhere.

 

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I thought that they keep half the buffet open on Divina? I wonder if the selection is better than what offer on deck 16 on Seaside? I had a brief exchange with Captain Scala about this on Instagram (he only responded once) and I get the feeling that they don't see it as a problem. Food is food I guess. It's going to be a challenge convincing them otherwise. Or else we just vote with our wallets. And warn others here and elsewhere.

 

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I think the dirt cheap prices for a brand new ship says a lot!

Reading the posts here makes me very happy that we opted for a Fantastica balcony. We chose the later seating and will definitely be eating dinner in the main dining room. I’m not a fan of buffets. I wasn’t sure at first if the higher price of the Fantastica experience would be worth it, but considering the drink vouchers, Internet, onboard credit, and dining room situation, I’m glad I did opt for it.

 

 

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I’m wondering if Tourlink99 would mind coming back and following up. Do you think Antonio misunderstood you or deliberately mislead you?

 

 

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I’m wondering if Tourlink99 would mind coming back and following up. Do you think Antonio misunderstood you or deliberately mislead you?

If you read what they wrote -- "He told me the smaller buffet is being used for dinner, not the Marketplace." that is actually correct. The smaller buffet is being used as the buffet at dinner. Maybe the question wasn't as clear as it could have been or maybe what they posted here is not exactly what was said.

Hard for me to believe there are alot (if any) bar height tables in larger buffet.... I've cruised on 5 different lines and don't recall seeing any in the other buffets on different ships

 

There are bar height tables in both Marketplace buffet and Biscayne buffet.

So I was on Seaside last week. I don't want to get into a long discussion here so I will just post a few observations which are related to both lunch and dinner (which I guess turned out longer than I expected).

 

1) We had a couple show up at a table next to us in the MDR the last night after not being there previously. It turns out they were Bella customers who hated sitting in the buffet and eventually got themselves moved to the Seashore MDR. They were doing a B2B so they wanted to make sure they did not end up in the buffet the second week. I never ended up at the Marketplace to see how it was set up for dinner. But there's a data point from someone who actually sat in the buffet and did not find it acceptable for dinner.

 

2) Yes, the Biscayne Bay buffet is very small. There are no extra stations hidden around the room as someone posted here or in a different thread. The only thing it has better than the Marketplace Buffet is soft ice cream, which is not self-serve and wasn't open at all times.

 

3) At lunch, the Marketplace Buffet had the poorest selection of any cruise I've been on. There was an "Ethnic" section, apparently that's the Italian word for Mexican because that's all I saw there for lunch all week (they had miso soup for breakfast). I've never been on a cruise where there wasn't Indian or Asian food on the buffet until this one. The multiple stations simply repeated what they had elsewhere. The salad bar selection was very limited. I will admit that the pizza was excellent and if you were lucky enough to find the bowl of cut up fresh mozzarella in olive oil and herbs, it was excellent (it started out in the Mediterranean section in Marketplace but eventually ended up in the corner of one of the pizza stations but I never saw it at Biscayne Bay). No fresh pasta station like other ships have. They did have a couple of types of baked pastas each day.

 

Bottom line is that the concerns that had previously been posted are justified, based on my experience.

 

And a little tidbit (per Captain Scala) that is probably posted elsewhere but I was not aware of. The Seaside+ ships (the two larger ships they committed to in the class after Seaview) will be moving the buffet back upstairs and they'll use the space on deck 8 for other stuff, like larger lounge space (which is sorely lacking).

Edited February 4, 2018 by MisterBill99

Occasionally you’ll see posts saying that it’s not worth the money to upgrade from Bella to Fantastica. Judging from the experience of eating in the buffet for dinner rather than the MDR, I’d say it’s absolutely worth it!

 

 

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Occasionally you’ll see posts saying that it’s not worth the money to upgrade from Bella to Fantastica. Judging from the experience of eating in the buffet for dinner rather than the MDR, I’d say it’s absolutely worth it!

 

 

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It is the same food served and same menu just not in the dining room. I would not spend more money for the same thing.

 

 

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