Seaside Caribbean Inaugural Detailed Review - 12/23 - 12/30/2017

[slei15]

We were a group of 21 family and friends on this sailing,ranging in age from 3-95. All in our group are very experienced cruisers, with a couple of travel agents mixed in as well. I will go through this review by category, rather than by day of the cruise. Please make sure you read through before commenting that I am just a complainer…There will be both good and bad,with detailed descriptions of each. I want to make sure I present the full picture of this cruise to provide as much information as possible for readers.I am sorry for the lack of pictures, I was horrible with remembering to take them! I will frame this whole review up with a statement I made in anotherthread…You have to know what you are paying for. You can’t expect to have Bloomingdale’s service at a Wal-Mart price. When your expectations are set appropriately, there is less chance for disappointment. When expecting Wal-Mart treatment and receiving Dollar Tree treatment in some areas, then there can be some disappointment. Please feel free to ask any questions for more information. I will be happy to provide. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of dailies or menus, again I was horrible with the camera!

[mafig]

----patiently waiting-------:D

[slei15]

Dining:

As with many things, food is very subjective. Our group tended to think the food on this ship was very good. There are always some hit and miss dishes, but as a whole, while we all feel most cruise lines MDR quality is going downhill fast, MSC seems to keep up the quality of their MDR food. We felt the same way on the Divina 6 months ago. The buffet food was made in much smaller batches than most ships, and the majority was cooked right on the buffet line, allowing it to be much fresher when it was put out. The chicken nuggets (I know, its kid food, and it was in the kid area of the buffet, but it’s a guilty pleasure) were the tastiest nuggets we had ever had!

 

The main buffet on deck 8 turned into a regular dining room at dinner, and the only buffet open for dinner was the smaller family buffet on deck 16. There was not a huge selection of food on the dinner buffet as a result, but it was a decent variety and adequate enough to serve the purpose. We haven’t yet figured out if this will be an every cruise thing, as there were 3 full seatings in each of the three main dining rooms, we don’t know if the ship was just sailing at max capacity with all of the triples and quads holding three or four people and this is the exception, or if that is the actual plan.

 

The service in the dining room was a different story. On embarkation day, the MSC for Me app was having some glitches that carried through to the phone app, screens throughout the ship, etc. Our dining time for night 1 was listed on the app as 6:00 PM in the Ipanema dining room. We arrived at 6, and along with at least 50 other people who also saw the 6:00 PM, were told that we were supposed to be there at 5:30 and could not enter the dining room because the kitchen was now closed. The host was extremely rude, and just told us to go eat at the buffet or come back at 9:30 PM for the final seating with our 5 and 8 year olds. That would not have been good for anybody! We asked for the Maitre’D or a striped hotel officer, and he refused to get one for us. 8 of our group of 21 were left outside, while the remainder of the table got to eat. There was also a mother with her young child out there with us, whose husband and 2 other children were also sitting inside already. He would not let them in to join their family either. I understand some slower service, etc. from getting their bearings on an inaugural sailing, but this situation was completely unacceptable, and nobody did anything to try and resolve the situation.

The second night, we did make it into the dining room. This was Christmas Eve, and they had a special menu for the evening, including a surf and turf with lobster tail and bacon wrapped filet mignon. The only problem with the menu for this evening, was that the “Everyday” menu items were not available. Many of the appetizers were on the fancier side, and for those who wanted something a bit simpler, they would not even make a Caesar salad. If it is an everyday menu, one would be led to assume that the items would be available every night. This night in the dining room was horrible from a service perspective. First, we told the waiter the kids would be doing the “Happy Dining” with the kids club. This is where the kids order first and enjoy their dinner while the adults have their appetizers, and then 45 minutes into dinner the kids club comes and picks them up while the adults peacefully linger over the rest of their meals. He took their orders and rang them in immediately at about 5:35. At 6:15 when the kid’s club counselor came down to get them, their food had not arrived yet, so we couldn’t send them out. Our 8 year old had asked for a Caesar salad as he did not like the other items on the menu, and when he ordered, nothing was said about it not being available. We were not told this until the kids food arrived at 6:45! At this point, we sent him and his friend up to the buffet to grab some food and bring it back so he could eat, as he was starving and just finding out an hour after ordering that what he wanted wasn’t there. About 10 minutes later, his friend comes in and tells us that they won’t let our son into the dining room with the food he grabbed from the buffet. The maitre’d happened to be standing at our table when his friend came back, as we asked for him because we still hadn’t received any food for the adults. I asked him to come to the door with me to tell the host to allow my son in, and he did. The host had the nerve to question the maitre’d as to why he was allowing buffet food into the dining room. I don’t know what kind of Miami nightclub he thought he was working as a bouncer at, but the host needs a reality check of what a family cruise entails.

After these service experiences the first two nights, the maitre’d personally watched over our two tables for the remainder of the cruise, and we had much better service at dinner. It was still extremely slow, and by the time we were receiving dessert each night, they were rushing us out of the dining room to prep for the next seating.

 

Other meals in the dining room also presented significant service issues. We went for one sit down lunch and 2 breakfasts. For the first breakfast, we were there for almost an hour and a half. When our food finally arrived, 90% of it was the wrong order, or just not cooked well. The bacon was floppy and nasty looking, the omelets had the wrong ingredients in them, and it was just not good. We are pretty sure the wrong orders were due to the significant language barriers we had on this ship. More on that later.

 

The lunch we went to was a repeat of that first breakfast. The food took forever to come out, not all of it ever actually arrived, and a lot of what did come out what incorrect. This happened to be on the same day as the first breakfast, and by 2:00 PM, we had already spent almost 5 hours in the dining room that day!

 

For the second breakfast, the service was a bit quicker (only 45 minutes to receive our food), but we still received the wrong food, and one of the bagels with smoked salmon was so hard and over-toasted it was inedible.

 

There were two other incidents in the dining room that really bothered us that were safety/health related and massive training issues. First, there was a server pouring a bottle of wine for the table next to us. I had stepped away from the table for a moment, and placed my dirty napkin on the table. I had drinks in my other glasses, and food in front of me. The server at the next table was one glass short, and turned around and grabbed the wine glass from my seat. It was face-up, and she had no way of knowing if I had touched it, used it, etc. Second, we asked if we could have the bacon wrapped filet mignon without the bacon. They did not ask why, if it was for religious reasons, a pork allergy, etc. and when they brought it out, it was clearly cooked in the bacon and then the bacon removed in the kitchen.

[slei15]

Cabins:

Our group had a wide range of cabins, including insides, balconies, and an Aurea whirlpool suite. Most of the group was the Fantastica experience on Deck 11 aside from the whirlpool suite. The cabin location was great on deck 11. We were halfway between the main promenade levels with everything and the upper pool decks, which made it convenient. It was all cabins above and below, so minimal noise. The cabins themselves were typical size, however, they were not laid out as well as other ships, including the Divina. One the Divina, we easily unpacked 4 full suitcases (2 adults, 2 kids) into the available drawers and hanging spaces in an inside cabin. In this cabin, we could barely fit the contents of one suitcase in the storage. It was difficult to maneuver in the cabin having to stash items wherever we possibly could. We were able to fit all 4 hard-sided suitcases under the bed to have them out of the way, but we could not live out of them because it was too difficult to get them out. The storage space was the same in the insides and balconies. The bathroom was typically small, and for someone with longer legs (I am 6’1”), I could not sit straight on the commode and had to have my legs turned. The shower was not as small as some I have been in, and the pressure/temperature was great! One of the better features in the oceanview and above quad cabins that have what the deck plans call a “double sofa bed” is that it is actually a bunk bed. The couch lifts up into an upper bunk, revealing a second bunk below. For children who refuse to share a bed, this is a much better option.

 

We fully understand and appreciate the craziness of embarkation day on a cruise for the cabin stewards. Knowing there is a significant amount of work to be done the first day, we requested from our cabin steward at 2:00 PM to have the second bunk in our cabin unlocked and set up as we knew our children would likely want to go to sleep early that night after a long day of travel and we wanted to give him plenty of time for when he had an opportunity. We asked again around 7:30 PM, and called guest services when it was still not completed at 10:00 PM. It was not until 10:45 PM after our child had fallen asleep on the lower bed that another cabin steward finally came in to unlock it for us after we begged him in the hallway. We had also asked for the lower beds to be put together, which we ended up having to do ourselves for that first night. After that night, our steward was excellent, ensuring he met all of our needs, however; it was a very rough first night that set the tone for the week. The stewards on this ship are responsible for 20 cabins with no assistant. This was the most we had ever heard of, and the strain of the extra work definitely showed.

 

Having the all-inclusive deluxe drink package, the mini-bar was also included. Once we found out that all we had to do was fill out the little paper with what we wanted in it; that was amazing. We were refilled every night with the items we wanted. The snacks were great for bringing off the ship to the beach as they were sealed, and being able to make a mixed drink was so convenient.

[slei15]

Bar Service:

The bars on this ship ran very slowly. Through a combination of apparent understaffing, combined with the new technology of the tablets being utilized, it was a very slow process to get a beverage. The tablets were constantly dead and in need of recharging, and the staff had issues figuring out how to ring in a drink that was not necessarily straightforward. Another issue was the bars not having the items on the menus. On the first day when we embarked, one of our group ordered Harvey’s Bristol Cream at the Shine Bar, where it is on the menu. She was told that they did not have it yet, but they were still stocking the deliveries and would have it that evening. This particular liqueur did not arrive at a single bar through the entire 7 day cruise. While in the dining room, we ordered a particular red wine by the glass from the menu, and by night 4, they were out of it. That was the only cabernet on the by the glass menu, and they did not offer to substitute another cab when it was gone. It was not restocked for the balance of the sailing. Also in the dining room, the servers were unaware they could provide bar service, and when the maitre’d told them that of course they were supposed to provide bar service, it took until halfway through the meal to receive the drinks. Myself and my father ended up going out to the bar each night to retrieve our own beverages for the table after ordering our food to enable us to enjoy them with dinner. It seems there should be a service bar created for the dining room to provide beverage service, as the current setup is not practical. Also, the bar servers out in the public areas were rarely able to walk around to take drink orders. Because there was a lack of bartenders, the servers would end up taking the orders of everyone standing at the bar while the bartenders made drinks, and the servers could not escape to walk around the decks taking orders!

[slei15]

Pool Decks:

On the Sea Days, it was impossible to find a deck chair by the main pool if you did not go out by 7:00 AM and lay out towels. It was stated in the activities guide that chairs were not to be reserved and abandoned items would be removed, however, when we asked a pool attendant, he told us he was not allowed to remove items and we just had to get out there early. On the last sea day, I went out at 7:40AM, and there was not a single chair by the Miami Beach pool (deck 16), out of hundreds of chairs, that did not have something on it laying claim to it. There were 3 chairs actually occupied by people at this point, and the pools and hot tubs were completely empty. I understand it being a struggle to find a large group of chairs together, however, looking for a single chair to sit on and read a book should not be a struggle. The kids play area in the pool was awesome. It was like a mini water park with a 1 foot deep pool, small slides, sprayers, buckets dumping water, etc. The kids absolutely loved it. The only issue with the area was that there was nowhere for parents to sit around it to supervise. The closest chairs were one deck up! The water slides were also great. They moved quickly and never got crazy lines. The slideboarding video game was a workout, as the slideboards were somewhat heavy and had to be carried up lots of stairs. The zipline was fun. It was very slow-moving (not like the ones you do in the ports), and the lines took forever on it! Suggestion…Go on a port day 20 minutes before it opens and get in line. The zipline was also not open the first two days because it was too windy.

[slei15]

Kid’s Club Happy Dining:

On the Divina, this was an excellent program. The kids would be picked up after their meal in the dining room, and the children who were eating dinner with kids club would be just finishing up when they were brought up. Then the kids doing the Happy Dining could eat dessert with the group. On the Seaside, the timing did not work out this way. When the kids were picked up from the dining room for Happy Dining, the kids who were eating dinner with Kids Club were just starting dinner, meaning the ones who already ate in the dining room then had to sit in the buffet and watch the others eat dinner before proceeding to any activities. The timing of it caused the program to be useless, as the kids had no interest in leaving the dining room early to go sit at the buffet for another hour.

 

Kid’s Club:

We had kids in our group ranging from 3-10. All of absolutely loved the kids club when they went. One of the counselors from the Divina 6 months ago actually remembered our 5 year old as soon as she saw him when we boarded. She saw him and called out his name! The club had a different theme each night (pirates, Halloween, carnival, etc.). There were parades, performances, etc. that the kids loved. They also have their mascots, Doremi and Dorebro, which are big costumed sunshine shaped characters, as many acitivities. It’s great, unless your child has a completely irrational fear of characters (which living in Orlando makes things difficult quite often)! Unlike the Divina, the kids club on this ship did not bring the kids to the theatre shows, likely because the theatre is so much smaller with so many showings of each show.

[slei15]

Entertainment:

The theatre entertainment is another area that could use some work for the North America and family market. “Timeless”, “Peter Punk”, and “The Wizard” were all good family friendly shows that were able to keep the interest of a variety of ages from 5-95 in our group. The Frank Sinatra show and Butterfly did not seem to fit the desired demographic for the ship. The opera show with all of the songs performed in Italian did not seem to have any connection to the North American market.

 

There were many daytime and early evening activities, such as arts and crafts and Karaoke, which stated they were for ages 18+. Presumably this is because the kid’s activities are happening in the kids club, which makes sense. What really bothered us, is that while these seemingly family friendly activities were restricted and enforced, the “BeerProv” improv comedy show, which clearly should have been adults only, was forced to be family friendly and kids were allowed into the audience at 11:30PM. These shows should have been restricted to adults, and the comics made reference to this fact multiple times throughout the performances. The trivia’s were great, and there was plenty to do on the ship during the sea days. On port days, outside of the standard trivia, the ship was almost shut down until the afternoon.

 

For the gym, there was no place to get a bottle of water for use on the cardio machines anywhere near the gym in the morning and on port days when the bars in that area are not open yet or are closed for a private event. Most ships have a cooler in the gym where they sell bottles of water, however, for this ship; we had to search for 20 minutes prior to using the gym to find a bar open for a bottle of water. The gym was very well-maintained, and equipment tended to be available without a wait. I guess this crowd wasn’t into fitness as resolutions had not yet begun!

 

The casino was on the smaller side for a ship this size, but getting a spot at a table was not overly difficult. It was very disappointing that they decided to make the half of the casino with the slot machines a smoking section, but on the bright side it was well filtered and did not drift over to the tables which were non-smoking. The tables were primarily $10 minimums aside from during the happy hour on sea days when they were $5 minimums. Roulette was a $5 minimum on the outside and $1 minimum on the numbers with no minimum play on the inside.

[slei15]

Venchi:

The Venchi chocolate bar/gelato stations are absolutely amazing. With the all-inclusive deluxe package, you can get anything they have, with the exception of the chocolates (they call them pralines) and the crepes/waffle cones outside by the pool on Deck 7. The chocolate martini at the deck 6 chocolate bar was to die for. There is a trick…If you order the “Espresso and 3 pralines” from the coffee menu with the deluxe package, you get three chocolates free:) The gelato was amazing. It is available at many places around the ship. My suggestion, order a milkshake with either one of the chocolate or cappuccino flavors of gelato, and then head over to the bar and ask for a shot of Bailey’s to be poured into it. Amazing adult milkshakes. They also have chocolate covered gelato bars at a couple of the gelato locations. These were incredible, and included in the deluxe package. Have I mentioned that the deluxe package is worth every cent?

[slei15]

Language/Customer Service:

It has been clearly stated in all of the marketing material that the purpose of this ship is to be the full entrance into North America, with it being the first ship fully immersed in the North America mass market style. That said, many areas on this ship do not meet this desire. While it is commonplace on all cruise lines to have the international staff, this ship had a significant language barrier with the majority of the staff and the English speaking passengers. It became quite evident as the week went on which crew members came from the Divina vs other ships, as the crew from the European ships, primarily the Meraviglia, spoke very poor English and could not understand simple requests. If the ship is being marketed as North America mainstream, having a crew fluent in speaking and understanding English needs to be priority number 1, as it would help alleviate many other issues. Overall with the customer service on the ship, the crew did not demonstrate a willingness to help. If they couldn't understand a question or did not know an answer, they would simply say I don't know or don't understand and not make any effort to assist you in finding the answer.

 

Irina at Guest Services was a ray of sunshine in the midst of the issues. Her job is to stand there and listen to complaints and issues all day, and there were a significant number on this cruise of thousands of people, and she stood there with a smile, documented everything, and commiserated with each guest to make them feel as though they were being heard.

[slei15]

Ports:

In all of our cruises, we had never made it to Antigua. It is a beautiful island. We took a transfer from MSC to Dickenson’s Bay beach, which was $15.90 per person. They took us at 9:45 AM and returned us at 1:30 PM. The beach was right next to Sandals Resort, and it was perfect. They charge $22 for 2 chairs and an umbrella (we did not use this, as we were in the water and building sand castles the whole time). There is a snack stand which is crazy overpriced for food. Back near the port, there is an old casino which we had a great time in. $5 tables, free drinks, and fun atmosphere.

 

St. Thomas was as usual. We docked at Havensight. No excursions for us here.

 

Nassau was Nassau. Got off the ship, went to Dunkin Donuts for a much needed iced coffee, walked a few rows of the straw market, and headed back onboard to enjoy the empty pool and slides.

 

We very much prefer western itineraries personally, but this cruise was about the ship and the family time, not the ports!

[slei15]

Overall Impression:

Overall, we had a great time on the cruise. As with any cruise, it will be what you make of it. If you choose to let issues ruin it for you, it will be a miserable cruise. If you roll with the punches and move on, you can still have a great time. Would we return on the Seaside? We currently have two additional cruises booked on her. We will be doing it very differently if we do, with an aft Aurea suite booked for one and an Aurea whirlpool suite booked for the other. We have decided the increased space, private areas for pool deck and spa, and anytime dining would be an absolute necessity to do this again. We have not yet made the decision if we will go on them, as they are not until November 2018 and March 2019. A lot will depend on feedback received as it gets closer if the service issues resolve themselves. We did have a great cruise, and I think if the dining room issues the first two nights hadn’t happened, it would have been an entirely different tone for us. As they say, first impressions are everything.

[helen haywood]

Thank you for your extremely well thought out review. Looking forward to more.

[mafig]

Thank you very much.

 

Disappointed to hear about the casino smoking.

 

Happy to hear about the chocolate bar.

[lifeasme123]

Thank you for the well laid out post. I like you did it by areas rather than day or port.

[easyboy]

Thank you for your detailed review.

 

 

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[Mpls35]

Thank you for your detailed review!

 

In the kids club, were kids allowed “free play” as they wished, or were the structured play enforced? My 10 year old has limited interests (high functioning ASD), but is interested in the video games and trivia show in the do re mi studio. On other ships the kids club hasn’t allowed him to just play video games as he wished- what was your impression of the kids club in that respect? He isn’t interested in arts and crafts or imaginative play like pirate night. Hoping just to leave him for a few dinners, not for very long. Thank you for your feedback!

 

 

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[slei15]

Thank you for your detailed review!

 

In the kids club, were kids allowed “free play” as they wished, or were the structured play enforced? My 10 year old has limited interests (high functioning ASD), but is interested in the video games and trivia show in the do re mi studio. On other ships the kids club hasn’t allowed him to just play video games as he wished- what was your impression of the kids club in that respect? He isn’t interested in arts and crafts or imaginative play like pirate night. Hoping just to leave him for a few dinners, not for very long. Thank you for your feedback!

 

 

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There was designated free play time for the video games and legos, but when they were doing the group activities that is what they expected the kids to do. I don't think they allowed them to free play during the structured times, but I can't say for sure and I don't know if any exceptions were made.

[CTBob]

Great review, thanks so much. Now I am better prepared for my B2B starting this Saturday (Jan 6th). Bob

[Lindagop]

Thank you for an informative well written review

[scopewest]

Thank you for taking the time to post, great review.

[helen haywood]

After reading the rest of your review it sounds like new ships with a lot of new technology (and add in the language barrier) need several sailings to work out the kinks. I'll keep that in mind for future cruises!

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[thegraminator]

Great review ! Thank you ! One question please , did you or anyone in group use room service , and if so how was the food and the selection ? Thanks !

[slei15]

Great review ! Thank you ! One question please , did you or anyone in group use room service , and if so how was the food and the selection ? Thanks !

 

 

 

Nobody in our group used it aside from coffee/pastries in the morning. The menu was pretty standard (Caesar Salad, sandwiches,etc.)

 

 

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