Our Impressions of Poesia Eastern Caribbean

[retheridge27]

These are our impressions in a nutshell. Let me preface by saying that I went into this vacation with an open mind and LOTS of previous research. This was also my 15th cruise and I'm a 10 year veteran of management in the hospitality industry; I have a pretty good idea of whats right from wrong on a cruise not matter if its a European or American ship. I'd also be happy to answer an questions as honestly as possible.

 

The Good:

-Embarkation was incredibly smooth. We were dropped off at the terminal at 1:00 and in our cabin by 1:30. The escort to the cabin was a nice touch.

 

-Beautiful ship. The design is very subdued but very effective. The layout was a little different than what most have probably experience on most mainstream US lines, but it was easy to pickup.

 

-This was also the cleanest ship I've seen. It was nearly impossible to walk more than two flights of stairs at any time of the day or night without encountering someone polishing or vacuuming. There were also countless crew members painting, cleaning, or polishing on the outside open deck areas.

 

-Our category 10 balcony cabin was great. The blue hues were very pleasant and the cabin size and layout were sufficient for us. Bath products were refilled every day and were never watered down as some have reported.

 

-Service from line-level staff (by this I mean dining staff and cabin staff) were very good overall. Every crew member we experienced spoke excellent English or at least enough to understand our question and provide a sufficient answer. Don't expect the over the top antics and attention you might get on other lines. This is a European line and the staff tends to provide what is requested with a smile and few extra words. Don't think this means you won't get something if you ask for it, it's just a different style of service and we were quite fine with it.

 

-The entertainment staff was great. I wish I remember the name of the black gentleman with the braided hair; he should be the CD on this ship as far as I'm concerned. They did a great job of leading activities considering all the languages on board. I don't think they could have done much better with this very mixed cruise demographic.

 

-The entertainment in the lounges was great. We didn't particularly enjoy the Michael Jackson show, but I know many did. Overall though, no complaints here.

 

-The pizza! If you go, you must have the pizza that's served in the evenings in the lido restaurant. This is much different than the pizza served at lunch and is actually cooked on a stone in a real pizza oven - this stuff is good.

 

 

The Bad:

-I have to put consistency on food in the bad category. This doesn't mean it was all bad, there was just no consistency. One dish would be absolutely excellent but the next would be on the verge of horrid. Prime rib on the 1st gala night was absolutely great; the filet mignon ordered on the next gala night was delivered overly charred and well done when ordered rare, the lobster was tough and rubbery also. This is just one example.

 

-The sewage smell on lido. Granted, you can move and get away from it and this isn't the first ship I've noticed it on, but still not nice.

 

-What was with the 40 minutes of the stuck ship's horn while leaving Nassau? I realize this is probably not really anyone's fault, but it was very irritating to wake up from our pre-dinner nap to the sound of the ships horn not only blowing, but blowing NON-STOP for a full forty minutes. I have several minutes of video of this taken from our balcony.

 

-I expect to get flamed for this one, but we were actually disappointed to arrive so early in two of the ports (when I saw early, I'm talking 3 hours earlier then what was published in the MSC website, not mere minutes). We certainly appreciated the extra time, but would have really liked to have known about this before the cruise departed. We had a tours in both San Juan and St. Martin (not ships tours) that we really wanted to take, but they didn't fit with our port times. These clearly weren't chance early arrivals, they were published as such the day prior to arrival. How hard is it to publish correct arrival times when advertising a cruise to potential passnegers? I've never seen or heard of this happening on early other line.

 

-This is not a criticism of MSC per se, but this was the absolute RUDEST crowd of people I've ever encountered on a ship. As a generalization, most had no understanding of the concept of a "line" and would walk right over or into you to get what they wanted. This was seen with both American and European passengers, but overwhelmingly most perpetrators seemed to be speaking French or Italian. I'm fine with cultural differences, but these people were acting like every meal was their last on earth, and were willing to fight you for it. Towards the end of the cruise I had to begin doing something which is very unlike me and voice my opinions directly to those who were disrespectful to us in this regard.

 

-Maybe it was just our muster station, but the muster drill was quite sorry. I don't feel that I would be very confident in the MSC staff if a real emergency had occurred. Although the weather was bad outside, I'm not a big fan of moving them inside. Some of the inside stations were nowhere near the actual stations. I would have been able to find ours if needed, but I would be worried about some of the pax who were a little bit older.

 

The Ugly:

-My girlfriend was unfortunate enough to be a victim of food poisoning on this cruise. This occurred on the 4th day and she had not eaten or drank in port. The medical staff confirmed this and subsequently did not charge us for the doctors visit. I had to fill out and sign several pages of paperwork about what she had eaten onboard and what we believed the cause to be. While we were at the infirmary, three others came in with the same exact symptoms. After she recovered, we visited the reception desk to see if the source of the multiple sicknesses had been determined. We were immediately questioned as to why we didn't inform the reception desk sooner and were told that the medical staff is contracted out and didn't work directly with the ship's staff. I frankly don't understand why they can't communicate despite being a contracted service and it's quite honestly not my problem. The situation was immediately turned around on us and we were told that the "concierge" tested the food storage temperatures and it was determined that all who got sick were a result of intolerance and not a food-borne illness. We got confused looks when we asked how the concierge went back in time to test temperatures and asked to speak with someone else and were subsequently refused. I also told her that I know all illness which indicate food borne illness must be reported by the ships staff to the CDC Vessel Sanitation office, and she told us that it wouldn't be reported. Needless to say, I have taken the liberty to report it for them.

 

-In addition to this unfavorable encounter at the desk, our magnetic cruise cards stopped working at least five times during the cruise. I understand this, this happens in my hotel all the time and can be easily fixed. Three times, however, we had to wait or come back because the "computers were down". The third time this happened it caused us to lose 45 minutes of port time in Nassau. Also on this occasion the desk attendant was witnessed throwing her hands up and cussing at the computer in Italian when it wouldn't work. No effort was made as to even so much as apologize for the inconvenience and the lost port time.

 

-This is the absolute most pretentious and unprofessional officer staff I have ever encountered. On the second night was saw Marco, the cruise director approach two inebriated young American females and walk out of the disco with them at around 1:00am after a few minutes of talking to them. While I can't say what happened after they left, I can say that upon Marco's return later in the night we saw him dancing quite closely and innapropriately with another VERY inebriated American girl, probably about 20 years old. This was all while wearing his suit he wore to the show earlier with his name tag still on. On another occasion we saw three crew in their officer's whites order and consume several rounds of shots at lunchtime in the bar of the rear of the cafeteria. Is this really allowed on MSC? I realize crew members are people too and like to kick back, but do they think it's acceptable to throw back multiple straight shots in uniform in the middle of the afternoon? On a third occasion three different officers in uniform stumbled into the area where pizza is served in the evening and took whole pizzas off the counter and to their table. They were obviously intoxicated and loud, and then one flagged down a waitress and ordered another round on his card. This is in an area where families are trying to enjoy a casual dinner with children.

 

 

 

This might seem like a angry rant, but it's all the truth and those considering MSC should take these things into consideration. Don't think we didn't have fun; we certainly enjoyed some aspects and this was certainly not the trip from hell. We found a way to have a good time despite some setbacks, as we always do. We did decide, however, that MSC has a lot of work to do before we consider booking again. With so many lines out there trying so hard to earn your cruise business at similar price points, I think we would have a hard time returning.

[bobar]

good review...sorry about the food poisining...the curly haired guy is Richard and he is a wonderful guy as were his staff....officers seemed the same as in my other 47 cruises on various lines,the marco incident you described is no different than i have seen on other ships..

pizza was great....

i was embarrassed at how many of the Rude passengers were retired"floridians"..i guess they are like that at home too....

entrertainment in lounges was quite good and we danced quite a lot..wish i would have met yall.....

prbably gonna do a 10 or 14 day msc in the fall with my friends who couldnt make this one and i have done msc with in the past..:cool:

[KatSab]

they were fixing the horn. I was on deck 13 on my way to the mojito bar around 9pm when it blasted for couple of minutes. It would have been nice for the ship to announce they were going to blast the horn rather than make us think they were giving us the "man overboard" signal.

 

Slightly after it blasted for two minutes straight, there was a guy up on the horn fixing it. The low tone was not working.

[retheridge27]

Fixing the horn is understandable, but this certainly went on for more than 2 minutes. It initially began when we sounded the horn upon departure from Nassau at 7:00 and I would assume got stuck. It went long enough for me to leave our room on deck 6, walk up to the lido area, and walk back down, all while it was still going. This is when I recorded the 5 minutes of video from our balcony and it finally stopped somewhere around 7:40.

 

Either way, not something that would ruin our trip, just an annoyance that no explanation was offered for.

[retheridge27]

i was embarrassed at how many of the Rude passengers were retired"floridians"..i guess they are like that at home too....

entrertainment in lounges was quite good and we danced quite a lot..wish i would have met yall.....

prbably gonna do a 10 or 14 day msc in the fall with my friends who couldnt make this one and i have done msc with in the past..:cool:

 

I've come to accept the fact that there are rude people everywhere in this world and I strive not to be one of them. I mentioned that many seemed to be European but this was probably just demonstrative of the high number of Europeans on this sailing period; there were certainly rude Americans also. It doesn't matter where you're from, common courtesy should be universal.

 

I'm glad you guys enjoy MSC so much, are you considering their new US fall foliage cruises?

[camofwilliamsburg]

As stated , it is Richard who is the activities staff person and he is wonderful.

I would not read into Marco and his dancing with passengers, since you really never know who these people are. When we cruised in Dec he was on with his sister, his brother in law and his girlfriend. They are expecting a child in Feb and I doubt that what you saw was anything more than dancing and interacting as they all do. He certainly seemed the devoted partner to his gf and we also spoke of his future...no dancing drunk seemed to fit into the plans.

As far as your story, what I do not get is in the Caribbean the pizza at night( the best i agree) is FREE, so why did the officers pull out a card to pay?

 

Maybe what you see is not what is really happening but what you think.

Sorry for the horn, must be difficult to hear but cannot blame MSC.

The stink, I have no idea, it was not there when I cruised. I cruised RCI on JOS and the smell of sewage in certain areas was strong, so it can happen on all lines.

The story of the food poisoning... who knows really what caused this...but the fact that they treated your girl friend and at no charge is showing you that they stepped up to the plate and did something. It really should not matter what the front desk people said in italian to the computer. And if you do not understand italian, how do you know she was cursing?

There is good and bad on every cruise. The trick is not to let the bad or unfortunate STUFF ruin anything.

We loved our meals. Our filets were wonderful. I have been to many restaurants where one persons food is great and the other is not cooked properly. For cooking on a cruise ship, I think MSC does a great job with most of the meals.

Happy Cruising!

[sbtw13]

I noticed that the port times on our recent Med cruise varied (sometimes significantly) than what we had seen pre-cruise. I am sympathetic to your frustration- I thought when I saw the changes that I would have been frustrated if I had been trying to book private shore excursions.

I came up with two hypothesis as to why the changes in times;

 

1. Its intentional to give themselves more wiggle room in case of weather, etc- but come the day before they know more accurately, and post the more accurate time in the daily paper.

2. Americans are more hyper about times- and thus we notice the changes and get upset about it, the pre-publicity on the cruise is more just general port times.

[retheridge27]

Cam,

 

The officers were not paying for the pizza, they gave their card to the waitress when ordering more drinks.

 

I agree that appearances can be deceiving, thats why I did not come to any conclusions with what was happening with the CD, other than exactly what I saw. Could it have been his girlfriend or a close friend for all I know, maybe, and I would hope that any CD would be smart enough to not jeopardize his/her job by something so stupid.

 

Also, I don't remember stating that I don't speak any Italian? I actually have a fair to excellent command of portions of all the romance languages. Our problem with the front desk staff was the complete dismissal that anything might have occurred with regards to the food. The excuse that the conciegre went up to check the food temps after the fact was lousy. Also, food holding temps are only one facet of things that can cause food-borne illnesses. Just a little but of empathy and caring for our situation would have gone a long way instead of cold dismissal.

 

We certainly didn't let the bad stuff ruin our vacation, we still enjoyed ourselves and are glad to have tried MSC. I just wanted to point out these things for any potential future cruisers so as they are not suprised by certain things.

[camofwilliamsburg]

I stand corrected on the drinking....

But I would not have cared about the reception people and how and why she got sick. The bottom line is you were treated fairly and not charged for the doctor visit. They were accepting some responsibility although it was not widespread illness. Judging on that I would be more positive. The person that could do something did. The people that could not did not and maybe they did not know what to offer you --they are reception, not doctor! I witnessed so many people yelling at those people that I think they are complaint wary and defenses are up. I know this is not an excuse, and believe me they screwed something up for me and I was livid, but I just gave up on the issue. I was not going to have that ruin anything. There was just too many good things to allow that to happen, but I do empathize.

[KatSab]

I am not doubting that the horn may have blown longer at an earlier time. I was in the dining room and did not hear it when you clearly did. I was just staing that I heard it blow for about 2 minutes when I was on deck 13 later on around 9pm and then witnessed them fixing it.

[hihosilvers]

I am not doubting that the horn may have blown longer at an earlier time. I was in the dining room and did not hear it when you clearly did. I was just staing that I heard it blow for about 2 minutes when I was on deck 13 later on around 9pm and then witnessed them fixing it.

 

Who cares about the freakin' horn! Sh1t happens, right?

[CRUISERSCM2009]

Good review, i agree with you about many points. The only one think i don`t accept is about the crew and the cruise director. I met Marco during my cruise many times and he spoke also with my kids: he is wonderful person and one of the most professional cruise director i ever met. BTW HE IS DISEMBARKING BECAUSE , IN ABOUT A MONTH, HE WILL BE DADDY OF A BOY. I think is so crazy what u wrote and even if you met Marco @ Disco and even if he was dancing with girls it means nothing. You made a bad figure to write that and inform people about your wrong consideration. Same for the officers , they are not allowed to drink and how u can say for sure they were drinking alchol ? Helloo? Are you crazy?

 

These are our impressions in a nutshell. Let me preface by saying that I went into this vacation with an open mind and LOTS of previous research. This was also my 15th cruise and I'm a 10 year veteran of management in the hospitality industry; I have a pretty good idea of whats right from wrong on a cruise not matter if its a European or American ship. I'd also be happy to answer an questions as honestly as possible.

 

The Good:

-Embarkation was incredibly smooth. We were dropped off at the terminal at 1:00 and in our cabin by 1:30. The escort to the cabin was a nice touch.

 

-Beautiful ship. The design is very subdued but very effective. The layout was a little different than what most have probably experience on most mainstream US lines, but it was easy to pickup.

 

-This was also the cleanest ship I've seen. It was nearly impossible to walk more than two flights of stairs at any time of the day or night without encountering someone polishing or vacuuming. There were also countless crew members painting, cleaning, or polishing on the outside open deck areas.

 

-Our category 10 balcony cabin was great. The blue hues were very pleasant and the cabin size and layout were sufficient for us. Bath products were refilled every day and were never watered down as some have reported.

 

-Service from line-level staff (by this I mean dining staff and cabin staff) were very good overall. Every crew member we experienced spoke excellent English or at least enough to understand our question and provide a sufficient answer. Don't expect the over the top antics and attention you might get on other lines. This is a European line and the staff tends to provide what is requested with a smile and few extra words. Don't think this means you won't get something if you ask for it, it's just a different style of service and we were quite fine with it.

 

-The entertainment staff was great. I wish I remember the name of the black gentleman with the braided hair; he should be the CD on this ship as far as I'm concerned. They did a great job of leading activities considering all the languages on board. I don't think they could have done much better with this very mixed cruise demographic.

 

-The entertainment in the lounges was great. We didn't particularly enjoy the Michael Jackson show, but I know many did. Overall though, no complaints here.

 

-The pizza! If you go, you must have the pizza that's served in the evenings in the lido restaurant. This is much different than the pizza served at lunch and is actually cooked on a stone in a real pizza oven - this stuff is good.

 

 

The Bad:

-I have to put consistency on food in the bad category. This doesn't mean it was all bad, there was just no consistency. One dish would be absolutely excellent but the next would be on the verge of horrid. Prime rib on the 1st gala night was absolutely great; the filet mignon ordered on the next gala night was delivered overly charred and well done when ordered rare, the lobster was tough and rubbery also. This is just one example.

 

-The sewage smell on lido. Granted, you can move and get away from it and this isn't the first ship I've noticed it on, but still not nice.

 

-What was with the 40 minutes of the stuck ship's horn while leaving Nassau? I realize this is probably not really anyone's fault, but it was very irritating to wake up from our pre-dinner nap to the sound of the ships horn not only blowing, but blowing NON-STOP for a full forty minutes. I have several minutes of video of this taken from our balcony.

 

-I expect to get flamed for this one, but we were actually disappointed to arrive so early in two of the ports (when I saw early, I'm talking 3 hours earlier then what was published in the MSC website, not mere minutes). We certainly appreciated the extra time, but would have really liked to have known about this before the cruise departed. We had a tours in both San Juan and St. Martin (not ships tours) that we really wanted to take, but they didn't fit with our port times. These clearly weren't chance early arrivals, they were published as such the day prior to arrival. How hard is it to publish correct arrival times when advertising a cruise to potential passnegers? I've never seen or heard of this happening on early other line.

 

-This is not a criticism of MSC per se, but this was the absolute RUDEST crowd of people I've ever encountered on a ship. As a generalization, most had no understanding of the concept of a "line" and would walk right over or into you to get what they wanted. This was seen with both American and European passengers, but overwhelmingly most perpetrators seemed to be speaking French or Italian. I'm fine with cultural differences, but these people were acting like every meal was their last on earth, and were willing to fight you for it. Towards the end of the cruise I had to begin doing something which is very unlike me and voice my opinions directly to those who were disrespectful to us in this regard.

 

-Maybe it was just our muster station, but the muster drill was quite sorry. I don't feel that I would be very confident in the MSC staff if a real emergency had occurred. Although the weather was bad outside, I'm not a big fan of moving them inside. Some of the inside stations were nowhere near the actual stations. I would have been able to find ours if needed, but I would be worried about some of the pax who were a little bit older.

 

The Ugly:

-My girlfriend was unfortunate enough to be a victim of food poisoning on this cruise. This occurred on the 4th day and she had not eaten or drank in port. The medical staff confirmed this and subsequently did not charge us for the doctors visit. I had to fill out and sign several pages of paperwork about what she had eaten onboard and what we believed the cause to be. While we were at the infirmary, three others came in with the same exact symptoms. After she recovered, we visited the reception desk to see if the source of the multiple sicknesses had been determined. We were immediately questioned as to why we didn't inform the reception desk sooner and were told that the medical staff is contracted out and didn't work directly with the ship's staff. I frankly don't understand why they can't communicate despite being a contracted service and it's quite honestly not my problem. The situation was immediately turned around on us and we were told that the "concierge" tested the food storage temperatures and it was determined that all who got sick were a result of intolerance and not a food-borne illness. We got confused looks when we asked how the concierge went back in time to test temperatures and asked to speak with someone else and were subsequently refused. I also told her that I know all illness which indicate food borne illness must be reported by the ships staff to the CDC Vessel Sanitation office, and she told us that it wouldn't be reported. Needless to say, I have taken the liberty to report it for them.

 

-In addition to this unfavorable encounter at the desk, our magnetic cruise cards stopped working at least five times during the cruise. I understand this, this happens in my hotel all the time and can be easily fixed. Three times, however, we had to wait or come back because the "computers were down". The third time this happened it caused us to lose 45 minutes of port time in Nassau. Also on this occasion the desk attendant was witnessed throwing her hands up and cussing at the computer in Italian when it wouldn't work. No effort was made as to even so much as apologize for the inconvenience and the lost port time.

 

-This is the absolute most pretentious and unprofessional officer staff I have ever encountered. On the second night was saw Marco, the cruise director approach two inebriated young American females and walk out of the disco with them at around 1:00am after a few minutes of talking to them. While I can't say what happened after they left, I can say that upon Marco's return later in the night we saw him dancing quite closely and innapropriately with another VERY inebriated American girl, probably about 20 years old. This was all while wearing his suit he wore to the show earlier with his name tag still on. On another occasion we saw three crew in their officer's whites order and consume several rounds of shots at lunchtime in the bar of the rear of the cafeteria. Is this really allowed on MSC? I realize crew members are people too and like to kick back, but do they think it's acceptable to throw back multiple straight shots in uniform in the middle of the afternoon? On a third occasion three different officers in uniform stumbled into the area where pizza is served in the evening and took whole pizzas off the counter and to their table. They were obviously intoxicated and loud, and then one flagged down a waitress and ordered another round on his card. This is in an area where families are trying to enjoy a casual dinner with children.

 

 

 

This might seem like a angry rant, but it's all the truth and those considering MSC should take these things into consideration. Don't think we didn't have fun; we certainly enjoyed some aspects and this was certainly not the trip from hell. We found a way to have a good time despite some setbacks, as we always do. We did decide, however, that MSC has a lot of work to do before we consider booking again. With so many lines out there trying so hard to earn your cruise business at similar price points, I think we would have a hard time returning.

[KatSab]

I was simply letting the other poster know that I was not trying to discredit their information. You at least have to admit that it is not common for a horn to blow for 20+ minutes, especially without an explanation. Heck, when I was on the deck when it blew for about 2 minutes, a few crew members went to the side to look over because generally that kind of horn blow means man overboard and they were looking to see if the boat was stopping. I would hardly say that is "sh!t happens" worthy.

The ship could have, and should have informed the passengers that there was a malfunction with the horn that that it would be worked on.

[AmoMondo]

Crew have a crew bar where they are suppossed to drink when they are off duty. However I've often witnessed officers having a drink in a passenger bar...very often expresso as they seem to drink it by the gallon but also alchol too. I know for fact because I've been sitting at the bar when they ordered or they have joined me and other passengers for s drink. They were off duty and they were not inebriated or making a pest of themselves. However i do believe that the OP did witness officers drinking as I've also witnessed this.

[spacy]

The horn heard while leaving Nassau was roughly 9 minutes long. I actually took a video recording during this event from my balcony after I heard it stay on for about half a minute. But yes, I would agree that it seemed much longer. At the end of it, my balcony mates were cheering "Thank you" but I jokingly yelled "We want more!". Thanks for your review and sorry to hear about the food poisoning.

[USBRIT]

I am glad that it took a while for my Cruise Critic registration to come through as it allowed me time to cool down after experiencing the nightmare of our MSC Cruse on the Poesia Jan 16 -23rd.

 

The nightmare began at reception staffed by geriatrics from the Ft Lauderdale rest homes about twenty of them. Normally registration takes about five minutes with our normal Carnival Cruise but this time we were with the clerk for nearly 35 minutes due to the fact that she had disfficulty using the laptop and that they had to photo copy my ID and Passport and had only one copy machine for all the clerks.

 

Once through check in we were ushered to the customary reception photo and then on board. On board the public rooms were impressive as shown in the online previews.

 

We found our cabin and were surprised o discover our luggage delivered by 3pm. Surprised because we had contacted MSC Ft Lauderdale prior to embarkation and asked for luggage tags only to be told they would be supplied at the pier. They weren't and I feel it was only due to my foresight in print tags with our stateroom number on them that we got our luggage at all.

 

 

We were disappointed with the cabin. The glitz and glamor of the public rooms vanished in the cabins and was replaced with cheap and nasty Formica in dull colors, tiny closet space and a bathroom which stank of stale urine and bad drains

 

The cruise went down hill from here with the highlight of the cruise being disembarkation a week later. The food was poor mostly cold and service in the dindng room was slow and sloppy. Anyone who wants full chapter and verse can email me usbrit@comcast.net for the gory details.

 

When asked in the comments form would I sail with MSC again my reply was "If I do I wont need to stand in line nearly an hour for a tender as I did in Grand cayman, I will simply walk ashore across the ice as it will be the day after Hell had frozen over."

 

From now on its back to Carnival and the Fun Ships for my three cruises per year

[okbowler]

I agree with almost all of his opinions as they mirror the expierence that we had on the Poesia cruise of Jan. 23rd. We disagree on a few areas.

We felt that the serving crews english comprehension was the worst of our 12 cruises. Others on the cruise also held this opinion. In our case it led to either getting the wrong food or not getting something that we ordered,no big deal, but noticable. My B.I.L. got sick the before we got to San Juan and recovered in time to get off the ship in Nassau, he was treated by the onboard medico and was not charged. As to arriving in port early, reading earlier reports on CC, this is a common occurance for this ship, but you can not plan on it and it can cause some inconvience. In Nassau, arrived two hours early, tour goes at 12:45, you have two hours that are wasted. If ship is going to arrive early at ports on a regular basis MSC should change shedule so one can make proper plans. None of this ruined our vacation, we enjoyed our cruise and would cruise MSC again as the price was great, but if price was close it would not be our first choice. Bill