Seaside Review Cruise Number 2 April 28th to May 5th

MSC SeasideCruise Number (2) 28th April to 5th May

Original Review Xmas 2017.https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2581121&highlight=MSC+Seaside+at+Xmas+23%2F12%2F2017

After our two flights we arrived at M.I.A at around 2 pm, seatbelt sign off and up I get to retrieve our two carry-on bags from above our heads, on standing up I felt a pain in the area to the side of my Achilles tendon and as we left the plane it began to hurt and I ended up limping off the plane! We waited for our two cases, headed outside and got transport to our hotel.

Prior to thecruise we stayed at the Marriot on Biscayne Bay for 2 nights with a

room on the 26th floor and a great view of the port, over the two days prior to the cruise the pain and the limp became gradually worse.

Embarkation… Saturday morning we were up at a reasonable time and arrived at the port at around 10.45 am, handed over our cases and headed inside the building and into the priority line which was about 20 people deep. Through the security scanner and up the stairs to the check in area and the Aurea check in desk of which there were three, since returning home we have found out that there is also a desk for Black card holders to check in.

Cruise cardsin hand we headed to the ship or so we thought, instead we were asked to wait in the seating area. This it seems was down to an Inspection being carried out on the ship which was given a score of 94; it was not until around 12.15 that we were allowed onto the ship.

There were two photograph stations set up for people to have their picture taken with some of the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders who were also going to be on board.

Once on the ship an announcement was made that cabins would be ready at 2.30 pm, we headed to ours on Deck 9, 9036 and spoke to our steward Eduardo and asked if we could leave our carry-on bags in the cabin. Having left the bags we headed to the Spa to book our two free massages and chose the 50 minute Bali hot stone for 9 am on Monday morning, it was certainly very good. Once that was done we headed off to the Buffet for food and to start to make a dent into out deluxe drink package.

The pain in my Achilles was becoming worse and putting any weight on my foot just made it worse, the alcohol did not help dampen it either!

Sunday and Monday were sea days with great weather and we chose to spend most of the days up on the Aurea sun deck on 19 which also gave me chance to try and rest my foot though the pain had become much worse despite taking some pain killers.

We had to miss the first Gala night because I was unable to wear my shoes so cannot comment on the dress standards of that night, we also could not make it to all of the shows and in fact only saw Timeless which under another name we had seen twice before.

The Aurea bar service was great but there have been changes to the Deck 19 Aurea/Wellness area, the Starboard side is now the main area plus the bar and the Port side now has a tape barrier before the men’s toilet so that the shower and Hot tub are still in the Top 19 area. We never had an issue finding a lounger on any of the days.

We did write to Marco Massa the Captain to ask about it on one of his ask the Captain a question forms by asking why both sides of Deck 19 are no longer used for Aurea and Wellness guests, his reply was “On sea days only the Starboard side is open, but on port days both sides are open” This is a little at odds with the fact that the Port side where I mentioned is also used as part of the Aurea/Wellness area.The ship was once again clean and sparkling though the hallway carpets are still an issue,we learned that at some point they are going to be replaced.

Tuesday was our first port day in St Maarten and we had booked a Helmet dive with Seatrek and had arranged to meet Whitney at the building at the end of the pier where the RCI ship Jewel of the Seas was moored, now I had the problem of do I fight the pain and still go or do I let my other half down who was also eager to do this thing!

Well I strapped up my foot and ankle and hobbled off the ship very slowly and made it to the meeting area where Whitney appeared with 22 others from the RCI ship. We followed her to the pier where water taxis leave from and joined the boat that took us to the dive area; we were told that the visibility was down to around 10 feet and that we could back out if we wanted to but we decided to go ahead with the trip and were so glad that we did.

We arrived at the platform after about 5 minutes and everyone sat on the benches while we were given some instructions on how to let the divers know if you wanted to get out of there. We decided to go last in the second group so I did not hold up the others due to my foot; the helmets weigh 75 pounds but about 15 once under the water. Having climbed down the ladder you are helped off by one of the divers onto the hand railed walkway, it was worth the effort to get there and the cold had helped ease the pain somewhat from my foot and heel.

Visibility was about 10 feet.

After the dive we went back to the ship to change and grab some food in the Deck 8 Buffet and then took the water taxi to the beach and a bar called Pirates paradise for a sit down and a drink. With the pain growing worse my other half won the battle for me to go see the ships doctor later in the day, he confirmed what I thought that it was, Tendonitis of the Achilles, so they strapped it up gave me some anti-inflammatory tablets which sadly were about as much use as a Chocolate fire guard lol. Wednesday was San Juan port and we headed from the ship straight to Walgreens for some Tylenol which eventually began to help cut down the pain, we waited almost 30 minutes for the free trolley bus but gave up and decided to hire a taxi for an hour to go to some of the places we would have walked to.

Our driver Joseph who had come from Ghana 20 years ago was great and during the trip explained after I asked how he had come to be in Puerto Rico.

He had leftGhana on a commercial ship after the Captain told him they were headed toAmerica and he wanted to go to New York City! They landed in Puerto Rico andafter taking a cab himself decided he was going to stay.

Thursday was the third sea day and the morning was bright warm and sunny so off we went to Deck 19 once again, by around lunch time the clouds had begun to roll in and then the rain started which lasted the rest of the day and evening. This evening was the second Gala night and with the pain still persisting I doubted we would be able to go, my other half who loves dressing up on these nights persuaded me having missed the first one to go, and there I was all suited up with one shoe and one sandal on, boy was it hard getting a sock over the bandage!

After the meal we managed to get to the Theatre just in time for Timeless which went down a storm with those who had never seen it.

Friday was Nassau day and it started out very promising weather wise, we had decided to go to Atlantis by boat and not long after arriving the winds picked up and in came the rain, after the first lot we managed to grab outside photos and then with my foot hurting like hell took a taxi back to the port.

Just as the van came to a stop the heavens opened and drenched everyone as we got out, we managed to get across the street and under cover until the rain eased off.After we had found our waiters favourite drink we headed back to the ship only to be caught in another downpour because our gangway only had one security person checking cards! Meanwhile the one next to us had 5 crew people including 2 security people just standing under a white tent watching guests get soaked! Not good MSC.

Being in a B3 Aurea cabin we had anytime dining or my choice as MSC like to call it, we found out a few days into the trip that our waiter from Xmas and previous cruises Holmes Onell had been moved to the fixed dining time area, we found out that there was a table that had not been used up to that point and requested that we be allowed to use it. We were told yes but if the people who should be there turn up you have to go back to the my choice part of the Seashore dining room, turns out the people never showed up the rest of the week either.

The Cabin … The B3 Aurea Cabin as you can imagine was somewhat smaller than the S3 Aft suite we had on our Xmas sailing and everything that has been said about storage and bathrooms in these and the Bella and Fantastica cabins which are the same internally apart from layout, we have to agree with.

Poorly designed storage in the wardrobes which would havebeen helped had they been reversed, with the shelves and drawers near to thewall of the adjoining cabin, leaving the hanging space more accessible.

There is very little space between the bed and the wardrobe.

The bathroom as others have said is also somewhat on the small side and can see how some people would struggle in them and especially the shower. The bed and pillows were oncea gain great and very comfortable; the balcony has two loungers, two chairs and the table/foot stool.

The cabin design would have been much better had theyused the family cabin layout as in the photo below by Rosalba Scarrone.

Another poor layout, photo by Sandpiper35.

We have not seen it mentioned anywhere but has anyone noticed that there is no air con duct in the ceiling? In the previous review we mentioned that the ceilings were lower than on the other ships, now we know why. The air con has been placed above the wardrobe hence the small gap at the top.

Food … Once again the food was very good apart from the odd thing here and there but the hot food was exactly that and the Cold food was as it should be cold, The Buffet on Deck 8 had lots of choice just as it did on our Xmas cruise.

Butchers Cut was a let-down this time around for the Black card meal, I had to send my steak back because it was under cooked, my other half had to do the same but it came back over cooked! When you are cooking so many, day in day out how hard can it be to get them right.

Changes …There was a few noticeable changes since the Xmas cruise, more staff have been brought onboard in the buffet and dining rooms, more Butlers for the YC, the inclusion of the little bell press on the buffet tables Inside on Deck 8 to call for a drinks order is also a great addition. There appears to be more announcements made during the day which I found became annoying compared to the Xmas cruise, I am also not a fan of the current CD who wasted Ten minutes onstage before the Timeless show.

Cruise Critic Meeting … This was very well attended by guests and the ships officers, Captain Marco Massa went to every person and spoke to them which was very impressive given the numbers that were there, the only downside was taking one photo of so many people meant that it is impossible to see many of them.Due to my foot injury we did not get to use the water slides this time around or get to the Black card party or the Welcome back party or any of the other things like the White night, so cannot comment on any of these.

The sportsbar this time around seemed to be fairly quiet and so we did manage to spendsome time there on a couple of evenings plus it was only one floor below ourswhich meant a short but still painful walk back to the cabin.

There were a few occasions when the Lifts/Elevators were busy which was to be expected, not helped by some people from the YC who were not sure what they were doing when trying to override them!

On my other halves birthday we managed to have a tour of the YC in the evening with a nice drink from the bar, as people have said it is a very nice area. Would we book it? That remains to be seen as we like our Aurea massages and use of the Spa.

Disembarkation… We decided early in the cruise that we would stay on the ship once again until around 10.30 am to let the queues die down and had a few more Chocolate Martinis at the Venchi bar. When we decided it was time to go we walked straight off the ship after our cards were scanned, picked up our cases which were the only ones remaining in our colour code and had a good laugh with one of the security guys, headed to border security and out to a waiting taxi with no queues and back to the Marriott hotel for our one night stay before returning home on the Sunday evening.

Once again despite the injury we had a good week on the Seaside, the ship was spotless apart from the mentioned hallway carpets issue and the crew were faultless and professional despite many looking tired as they come to the end of their contracts but were happy to help out in anyway. We were happy and grateful to have had Holmes Onell as our waiter once again and Eduardo our cabin steward who did a great job on the cabin.

There were a few downside issues for us since the Xmas cruise; we were very disappointed to see people being allowed to wear baseball hats in the Dining room in the evening which we believe to be rude and people in shorts on the Gala night. We have read on a number of Facebook pages that we are members of that people waiting to go into the Ipanema dining room saw people being turned away in shorts and some T shirts!

MSC really do need to take a look at the dress code and have both dining rooms doing the same thing and enforce the dress on Gala nights,the other nights they can relax it on.

We noticed that the number of announcements have begun to increase during the day time which we personally found annoying and believe it may have something to do with the fact that MSC are now employing people from RCI, NCL and Carnival.

One other thing that has crept in since Xmas was having someone sing in the Seashore dining room during dinner which slows everything down to a crawl due the waiters joining in with what appeared to be some sort of dancing! This is not MSC as we know it and while it may be fine on Carnival etc. we would not like to see more of it on MSC.

The people we came into contact with all said they enjoyed the ship and the food as well as the staff and it does seem that MSC have turned around the things that were complained about in the early weeks.

Thanks for your review!

Thank you for review . Sorry to hear you had problem with you leg, hope you are ok now. Really disappointed to to see MSC turning to Carnival and NCL Please MSC stay Italian and stay upscale.

Thanks for the review! I hope you got your foot looked at once home. Having had a foot break myself, they are the _worst_ place to get hurt as you are always using it!

You said the employee contracts were about up. We're going on June 2nd, are they still going to be there then, or are we going to have a new crew by that point?

Hi Kat ... Not all the crew change at the same time, they are staggered changes.

Some of the crew we had will still be there until the end of June/ early July.

Enjoy your cruise, if you have a drink package that covers Gelato be sure to try the Mango on a stick.

Thanks for sharing your experience ! I have been anxious to hear your opinion from your first sailing on the Seaside to now. I am happy to hear they have increased the staff. Understaffed and overworked crew does not make for a good cruise .

So sorry to hear of your foot/heel pain. It definitely had to be a damper on your trip . Sounds like you made the best of it as you could .

One question , how did you manage to get the tour of the Yacht Club area? I'm not sure if it would be our cup of tea but I would love to get a peek inside.

Thanks again for sharing ! Did you book another trip or are you going to try something else ?

TG ... As much as I would like to tell you re the YC, it is something I am not able to divulge other than to say we have a friend in the right place.

We have not booked anything onboard but we do have two other MSC cruises booked as well as one with RCI and Princess.

So it will be 9 MSC cruises on 7 ships.

TG ... As much as I would like to tell you re the YC, it is something I am not able to divulge other than to say we have a friend in the right place.

We have not booked anything onboard but we do have two other MSC cruises booked as well as one with RCI and Princess.

So it will be 9 MSC cruises on 7 ships.

Gottcha ! It's good to have friends !

Many thanks to the wonderful review! Hope you get better soon! Unfortunately sometimes I think that MSC is trying to be just everything for everyone... But at certain point they end up being nothing to no one... Hope they realize that they need to change is their USER EXPERIENCE QUALITY... But retain their lovely ITALIAN LOOK AND FEEL. Have a nice day!... :)

 

One question , how did you manage to get the tour of the Yacht Club area? I'm not sure if it would be our cup of tea but I would love to get a peek inside.

 

Thanks again for sharing ! Did you book another trip or are you going to try something else ?

Thanks for the review!

My husband and I, along with a few other couples, were given a tour of the yacht club after we expressed an interest during a future cruises seminar. This seminar was held on one of the sea days.

You can ask for a tour of the YC.

Thank you for sharing your experiences...2nd time around. Hope your foot is feeling much better by now!

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Thank-you for the detailed review.

Many thanks to the wonderful review! Hope you get better soon! Unfortunately sometimes I think that MSC is trying to be just everything for everyone... But at certain point they end up being nothing to no one... Hope they realize that they need to change is their USER EXPERIENCE QUALITY... But retain their lovely ITALIAN LOOK AND FEEL. Have a nice day!... :)

Nuno ... Exactly.

Thanks for your review, really enjoyed it. We are sailing in Aurea next Feb. Ken

Hi Ken, As with I guess the YC, the Aurea experience is certainly different and having the Deck 19 sundeck is a big plus.

Will be interesting to see how our opinion stacks up against those in the Aurea and the YC. As we sail this Saturday, but we are just in the Bella balcony on deck 10. We did however upgrade our free drink package to the deluxe for $56 each. We will have three of us going, myself, my husband and my mother.

However I worry with the amount of clothes I have sitting out on my dresser for my husband and I and wonder if we will have room to store it or if we will be living out of one of the suitcases.

Hi thanks for a really interesting review. We are booked MSC Seaside sailing July 14th for 2 weeks in YC and glad to read some promising reviews at last. Travelling with 2 kids in a party of 4 from United Kingdom so hope the long trip will be worthwhile.

Mom2 ... The wardrobe in the Bella is the same as in the photos, we struggled with just two of us despite bringing less clothes on this cruise, unless you have the set up as in the family cabin photo you will likely struggle.

Itsmeagain ... Enjoy your cruise in the YC where the cabins have more storage space.

Mom2 ... The wardrobe in the Bella is the same as in the photos, we struggled with just two of us despite bringing less clothes on this cruise, unless you have the set up as in the family cabin photo you will likely struggle.

We have three of us in the cabin, guess we shall see how it goes. Hoping overall that it won't be terribly bad.

Let us know how you get on ... :)

Dave ... I hadn't realised that you'd injured your foot on touchdown! :eek: For some reason, I had thought that it happened a couple of days into the cruise. What a bummer. :( (Only getting round to reading the thread today).

Hi Bea ... Yes I thought it would be ok with two days in Miami before the cruise, but it got worse.

Even now it it still a problem though I can walk ok most of the time, some days it is worse than others.

Forgot to mention that when we boarded the ship there was still broken glass on the Starboard Infinity bridge, no idea if it was the same panel as the Xmas sailing because it had been replaced when we went to check it out.

While waiting for our massages on the Monday morning at 9am I noticed two broken panels which make up the roof of the sitting area of the Spa, I mentioned it to one of the staff who reported it and later in the week it looked like they were working on them.

It would be interesting to know how much glass has been replaced since the ship left Monfalcone.

MSC SeasideCruise Number (2) 28th April to 5th May

 

The Aurea bar service was great but there have been changes to the Deck 19 Aurea/Wellness area, the Starboard side is now the main area plus the bar and the Port side now has a tape barrier before the men’s toilet so that the shower and Hot tub are still in the Top 19 area. We never had an issue finding a lounger on any of the days.

 

 

We did write to Marco Massa the Captain to ask about it on one of his ask the Captain a question forms by asking why both sides of Deck 19 are no longer used for Aurea and Wellness guests, his reply was “On sea days only the Starboard side is open, but on port days both sides are open” This is a little at odds with the fact that the Port side where I mentioned is also used as part of the Aurea/Wellness area.The ship was once again clean and sparkling though the hallway carpets are still an issue,we learned that at some point they are going to be replaced.

Dave, enjoyed reading your 2nd review and the comparison to your first cruise.

When we sailed in March, the Top 19 area was only on S/B side with the same rope you mentioned blocking off access to the bar & hot tub on port side, so they must have changed it early on