MSC with kids?

[Noelle2375]

Hello! Has anyone cruised MSC line with young kids? We are just looking into cruises over Thanksgiving and do not know much about MSC but their prices seem super low. Anyone have any insight? Thanks!!!

[flhokie]

We sailed on the Divina last November with DD (3 at the time). Their children's program was better than I expected. The space isn't large and doesn't have a lot of bells & whistles, but their staff was very high energy and had very structured programs. They took them to the shows each night (a great idea, but a couple of shows were a bit scary for little ones) and would take them to the buffet (special section) for dinner.

 

That being said, I would not sail them again. Other than kid's club, there really wasn't anything else for young children.

 

The waterslide has a minimum age of 9 which was upsetting to DD (the slides on Disney were some of her favorite things).

 

They classified the children's pool as an area around the main pool that had about 2-3 inches of water in it (had jets in the wall which were never turned on). Even though the regular pools were deep, I felt comfortable having DD (fully potty trained) in with me with her water wings on. On the last sea day, the staff started saying that children aren't allowed in any pools other than the "children's pool." Nowhere in their signage did it say this, but guest services said that MSC's policy is that kids under a certain age (either 6, 7 or 8--I can't remember now) are not allowed in swimming pools on their ships.

 

The children's area of the buffet (with foods kids like) was only open for the kid's club dinner. Options other than the dining room (2+ hours) were limited if we wanted to dine with our daughter for dinner.

[Noelle2375]

Thank you!! That information helps a lot!! I appreciate it. Q

[jdkbrim]

We sailed with 4 kids on MSC Poesia when it was sailing out of Miami a few years ago. It was during Spring Break and my kids didn't have a good experience. The Counselors were nice, but they never did what was on the schedule, and they kept promising things and didn't follow through. I seriously had 2 of my kids in tears the last night because they were so disappointed. Having a lot of kids shouldn't be an excuse, as other lines we have been on deal with it just fine. Maybe it was a fluke group of Counselors, but I would never take my kids on MSC again. If you want the experience of an Italian cruise line, Costa is a lot better in my opinion. Or, stick with one of the mainstream cruise lines...Carnival, etc.

[Noelle2375]

Thank you for the information. Looks like we will not be taking an MSC cruise any time soon. haha.