Review of MSC Seaside 12/23/17-1/6/18, SuperfamilyPlus, Menu, Dailies, Food Pr0n,Etc.

[ERLEC]

And here is what the pull out sofa looks like. You can't walk around it when out as it extends to within about an inch of the desk. Our steward mentioned this and said he's happy to set it up each night, but we preferred pulling it out ourselves when we were ready to use it. The problem that created was that our steward...forgot?... we were using it and never serviced the linens. And I'm being generous here. Because halfway through, he noticed the bed out while we were still in the cabin and said "oh, you're using it. " We confirmed we used it every night. You'd think it would be serviced after that! Alas, no. Not once.

 

Honestly, I'm pretty easy to please and can brush most things off my shoulders no problem. I do have to say that our cabin steward was not good. I've seen others on this board mention getting their mini bar refilled regularly -- it was like pulling teeth to get ours restocked and even then things would be missing. Our floor often still had things on it after being cleaned, and not fluff. Cabin stewards vary tremendously, so another is likely wonderful! But that's what we got. Did it dampen our holiday? Goodness, no!

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

 

Can you tell me the cabin numbers you had? It's the first time I see a double-sofa bed. I was told it's all sofa converting for bunks. Now I'm concerned about what I'll be getting on my cruise.

[seaweeyin]

OP (Seaweeyin) thanks again for the great posts. I have a few questions:

 

1. Are there any free food venues that are opened late?

2. For the Kids Clubs - were there a lot of English speaking kids?

3. Is Lobster Night available on all cruises, or was it a special for Christmas Eve?

4. Did you eat at Butcher's Cut?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi, lifeasme123,

 

1. Biscayne Bay Buffet on deck 16 had some sort of free food options until 2 a.m. Think sandwiches, bread, a small selection of veg, maybe pizza, depending on how late it is, cookies.

2. Well, I didn't do a survey, lol, but all my kids, who are English speakers, made friends in the kids clubs with other English speakers.

3. This one I'm not sure about. We also had a lobster night the second week, but it was New Year's, so another holiday. Hopefully someone on the current and upcoming cruises can post elegant night menus to compare.

4. We did, and we found it very enjoyable. Of the three specialty dining venues we tried, it was probably our least favorite, but I think our opinions were colored by just how much nice steak we were eating in the main dining room. The bone marrow was luscious.

[seaweeyin]

Thank you. Out of the six of us she is the only one who objects so she will just have to eat what they offer!

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what the alternate main course option would be for those who don't like seafood. We're all dedicated eaters of ocean bounty, ourselves! The minute tart with the veggies and goat cheese was a really delicious non-seafood starter, though.

[seaweeyin]

can you tell me the cabin numbers you had? It's the first time i see a double-sofa bed. I was told it's all sofa converting for bunks. Now i'm concerned about what i'll be getting on my cruise.

 

11051, 11053, 11057

 

The sofa bed is in 11053, while the sofa bunk beds are in 11057. No extra sleeping arrangements were in 11051, but that's the cabin with the bathtub.

[seaweeyin]

I am so glad we booked the Trio Specialty dining! That looks marvelous and those oysters are going to make my husband very happy! Did you happen to notice if there was a non-seafood dish for my seafood hating daughter? (not sure who's genes she got ) Also, I pre-booked our dining and they told me I couldn't book the first night. Not sure why.

 

I would pop up and see if you can get your specialty dining changed to the first night once you're onboard. We didn't have a problem making that reservation for the first night of our second week.

[mamaneedsavacay]

Thank you for this awesome review! Your information is really helpful.

 

We have a SuperFamily (just two rooms) booked for March. And we booked Guarantee, so no cabin # yet. Your trouble with the kids club bracelets is something that may affect us too, as I'm assuming (hoping) they will assign the kids to one cabin and the adults to one cabin. It's just DH and I and our three kids for the two rooms combined. So, from your post, it seems that for DH and I to each be able to check the kids out of the Juniors club, we should all be booked in one cabin, and just assign the teen to the second cabin? Since it's all one reservation number, I wouldn't think it should matter, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the problem you had?

 

Several things refer to being in the same cabin, for example, the photo package is for everyone in the cabin. And now it's pay $50 for unlimited zipline rides for everyone in the same cabin. In this instance, do they count the SuperFamily/Superfamily Plus as one cabin? I assumed they would until your post about the childcare.

 

You also mentioned that your room steward wasn't great and didn't remember which beds you were using, but you did see him throughout the cruise, right? How do we find them or signal that we need them or leave a message for them? On our Disney cruise, it was hit or miss to find ours in the hallway, but maybe there was a system we never discovered.

 

I enjoy your writing. Are you allowed to plug your novel(s) here?

[ERLEC]

11051, 11053, 11057

 

The sofa bed is in 11053, while the sofa bunk beds are in 11057. No extra sleeping arrangements were in 11051, but that's the cabin with the bathtub.

 

Ok thanks. According to the deckplan 11053 and 11057 both should have bunks. And there's no mention 11051 has a bathtub.

[lifeasme123]

Can you tell me the cabin numbers you had? It's the first time I see a double-sofa bed. I was told it's all sofa converting for bunks. Now I'm concerned about what I'll be getting on my cruise.

 

Go to the deck plans: https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Discover-MSC/Cruise-Ships/MSC-Seaside/Deckplan.aspx

 

Look up your cabin and see the legend assigned to your cabin. Just hope it is correct :-):

 

Key

 

 

• 

Sofa bed

3rd and 4th bed are pullman beds

Double sofa bed

• 

  
  3rd bed is a pullman bed
  

• 

  
  Bunk bed or sofa that can be converted into Bunk bed (3rd and 4th beds)
  

• 
  

[lifeasme123]

Hi, lifeasme123,

 

1. Biscayne Bay Buffet on deck 16 had some sort of free food options until 2 a.m. Think sandwiches, bread, a small selection of veg, maybe pizza, depending on how late it is, cookies.

2. Well, I didn't do a survey, lol, but all my kids, who are English speakers, made friends in the kids clubs with other English speakers.

3. This one I'm not sure about. We also had a lobster night the second week, but it was New Year's, so another holiday. Hopefully someone on the current and upcoming cruises can post elegant night menus to compare.

4. We did, and we found it very enjoyable. Of the three specialty dining venues we tried, it was probably our least favorite, but I think our opinions were colored by just how much nice steak we were eating in the main dining room. The bone marrow was luscious.

 

My uncle will be very pleased to know buffet is open until 2am. LOL. He loves to eat, esp pizza.

 

On Meravigilia, which was a European itinerary, there were not a lot of English speaking kids. however, it was great watching our daughter and kids she met speak through gestures. She had a blast on that ship.

 

We ate at Butchers Cut on Meravigilia and really enjoyed it. We did not care for the Asian restaurants on Meravigilia.

 

Thanks again for your fabulous reviews! It is like reading a novel.

[Pluto_fan]

Thank you for your wonderful review! I'm enjoying it immensely.

[ERLEC]

Go to the deck plans: https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Discover-MSC/Cruise-Ships/MSC-Seaside/Deckplan.aspx

 

Look up your cabin and see the legend assigned to your cabin. Just hope it is correct :-):

 

Key

 

 

 

• 

Sofa bed

3rd and 4th bed are pullman beds

Double sofa bed

• 

  
  3rd bed is a pullman bed
  

• 

  
  Bunk bed or sofa that can be converted into Bunk bed (3rd and 4th beds)
  

 

That's the problem. The deckplan is wrong for many cabins...

[lifeasme123]

That's the problem. The deckplan is wrong for many cabins...

 

Got it. Well that will be fun to see that we didn't get the bunk! Our DD loved the single bunk on Meravigilia.

[Sunkissed Mommy]

11051, 11053, 11057

 

The sofa bed is in 11053, while the sofa bunk beds are in 11057. No extra sleeping arrangements were in 11051, but that's the cabin with the bathtub.

 

 

SO strange that they would put the bathtub in the room for two. It seems like it would make more sense to be in a room that holds 3 or 4. Bu I guess with these super-family rooms they assume the family will just share the entire space?

 

Anyway... I really appreciate your review. the details are helpful and easing some tension I've had. I am traveling with 11 other rooms and some of these other reviews had me worried that they are all going to throw me overboard. BUT, your review seems reasonable and balanced. Like hearing abut the meal options at the buffet. Its not just "chicken fingers and hot dogs" as one person reported. Phew! Thank you so much.

[seaweeyin]

That's the problem. The deckplan is wrong for many cabins...

 

I agree that this is a problem, and one I would like to see MSC address. All SuperFamily type bookings are Guaranteed, so you can't pick your rooms, which means you just won't know until a few weeks before sailing. As I said earlier, when we did get our rooms assigned, they didn't have the green indication for SuperFamilyPlus, which had me worried. It did work out in the end, for us. But no one should be concerned that they might not get the cabin configuration they booked. This is not a difficult thing to get right.

[seaweeyin]

SO strange that they would put the bathtub in the room for two. It seems like it would make more sense to be in a room that holds 3 or 4. Bu I guess with these super-family rooms they assume the family will just share the entire space?

 

Anyway... I really appreciate your review. the details are helpful and easing some tension I've had. I am traveling with 11 other rooms and some of these other reviews had me worried that they are all going to throw me overboard. BUT, your review seems reasonable and balanced. Like hearing abut the meal options at the buffet. Its not just "chicken fingers and hot dogs" as one person reported. Phew! Thank you so much.

 

Agreed that it's a weird configuration. In our case, two adults shared the bathtub cabin and the kids just popped in for their baths as needed. I never went in with a measuring tape, but my guess is that the bathroom with the tub is larger than the other bathrooms--I'm pretty sure the sofa in that cabin was a bit shorter than the pullout or bunk bed sofas, which would be required with a larger bathroom. So not enough room for the longer sleep sofas in the bathtub cabin?

 

And thank you kindly for your nice thoughts! The buffet in the evening is not large, but I would find it hard to go hungry.

[seaweeyin]

Thank you for this awesome review! Your information is really helpful.

 

We have a SuperFamily (just two rooms) booked for March. And we booked Guarantee, so no cabin # yet. Your trouble with the kids club bracelets is something that may affect us too, as I'm assuming (hoping) they will assign the kids to one cabin and the adults to one cabin. It's just DH and I and our three kids for the two rooms combined. So, from your post, it seems that for DH and I to each be able to check the kids out of the Juniors club, we should all be booked in one cabin, and just assign the teen to the second cabin? Since it's all one reservation number, I wouldn't think it should matter, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the problem you had?

 

Several things refer to being in the same cabin, for example, the photo package is for everyone in the cabin. And now it's pay $50 for unlimited zipline rides for everyone in the same cabin. In this instance, do they count the SuperFamily/Superfamily Plus as one cabin? I assumed they would until your post about the childcare.

 

You also mentioned that your room steward wasn't great and didn't remember which beds you were using, but you did see him throughout the cruise, right? How do we find them or signal that we need them or leave a message for them? On our Disney cruise, it was hit or miss to find ours in the hallway, but maybe there was a system we never discovered.

 

I enjoy your writing. Are you allowed to plug your novel(s) here?

 

You have't misunderstood the problem we had with kid's club--the technology they were using required the child to be in the same actual cabin number as the kid for it to work. We aren't the only ones who think this is silly--the staff were dumbfounded and frustrated, as well. Luckily, they are wonderful and good with remembering which parent belongs with which child, so they manually checked Toddler in until we switched our cabin numbers around they way we wanted them. And the way we wanted them was with Toddler in our cabin, so once that was changed through Guest Services, we didn't have any more problems. Tween, in the Juniors club, we allowed to check in and out themselves so there wasn't the issue there. Hopefully they will have this sorted by the time you board.

 

I don't know how it will work with the zipline, but we did have issues with the photo package, but I'm going to detail that in another post, so stay tuned.

 

We saw our room steward in the hallways often! He always smiled and said hello. But, dear Room Steward, hellos don't change the linens or stock the minibar! In the first few days, we'd reiterate our desire for the minibar to be restocked, but it was still sporadic and we gave up. It wasn't an issue to lose our heads over, but if it had mattered more to me, I would have worked harder to make clear what we wanted. Not that I should have had to...

 

On the wall just inside your cabin door, there are "DND--do not disturb" and "Make up the room" buttons that you can push, which trigger a light in the hallway outside your cabin door. Other than that, I tried leaving a written note once. Didn't seem to help. There definitely was a language barrier there, but I don't think that fully explains it. Cabin steward perhaps needed more instruction by housekeeping trainers?

 

I don't know if I'm allowed to plug my novels here, but I'm also not sure I want to give up anonymity, either. Especially as I'm about to tell you about trivia on board aka A Story in Which Seaweeyin Exposes Her Competitive Nature. Anyway, I'll think more on it...

[AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)]

I've decided 14 days is a really nice length for a cruise! Enjoy your holiday!

 

The place to get your espresso fix in the early hours is the Seaside Bar on deck 5 in the atrium. It opens at 6:30 a.m. and there's a small selection of pastries on offer, as well. Croissants, chocolate croissants, mini muffins, fruit pastries, etc.

 

Thank You so much for this and ALL of the other information you have shared with all of the readers on this forum. You are truly a ray of sunshine for those of us who have been shaking in our boots about trying a new cruise line. While all has not been perfect, it certainly has not been disastrous.

 

Thanks again.

 

Stan

[seaweeyin]

If the first week of the cruise was all about lounging around, drink in hand, or walking around seeking out the next good drink, or taste tasting every flavor of gelato or playing in the pools (it was a tough week!), the second week found our party seeking out more organized activities on board.

 

Crafts are offered multiple times each week at the Bistro (check the dailies for more info). The dailies never mentioned what was to be made, so I walked by once to find out. On that particular day, they were making dream catchers. I saw all of one person participating and in subsequent walk-bys throughout the week, never saw very many people making things. But it's possible I missed the rush!

 

We played Bingo once when it was offered in the Haven Lounge. My fabulous FIL bought three sheets with three boards on each, then proceeded to rip them apart and pass them around to us. "Ugh, I don't think you're supposed to do that," I said. If there's one thing I know about bingo, it's that you Don't Mess With The Rules. Or the grannies. They will dobber you to within an inch of your life. FIL replied, "Ach, it's fine," not a moment before the event lead announces "DO NOT TEAR YOUR SHEETS!" I may or may not have flashed my patented smug face. But I had time to run up and exchange the sheets and we were good to go. The game was a touch slow and the instructions were given in several languages (and we didn't win anything), but it was still a good time.

 

I also sat at a slot machine, put $10 in and proceeded to lose it within 3.5 seconds. Now I can say I used the casino on board. I did watch the blackjack tables for a few minutes, as well as the roulette wheel, because it's more fun watching others lose money than to lose one's own (and I also find the way a good dealer moves their hands to be mesmerizing), but I didn't play either. I'm not the gambling type.

 

HOWEVER.

 

Everyone either is, or knows, an embarrassingly competitive person. On this trip we were blessed with not one embarrassingly competitive person, but THREE FULL GENERATIONS of embarrassingly competitive people: my FIL, myself, and Tween. To top that all off, mr. seaweeyin, though rather laid back personality-wise, is a veritable FOUNTAIN, nay a NIAGARA FALLS, of useless knowledge. Put us together and we make a half decent trivia team. There are a few different incarnations of trivia on the ship. English-only is daily at 10:30 and 3:30, usually in the Sports Bar. Multi language trivia is also offered, as is music trivia. Take a look at the dailies for more info on those. We generally stuck with English trivia. These were never themed--the questions were broad and random. Sasha quickly became a favorite staff member of mine--he spiritedly hosted about half the trivia sessions we attended, while the other half rotated various staff members who ranged from good to Complete Authoritarian (sorry, huge team across the room, the rules are 6 or fewer per team!). Trivia was full of friendly competition, familiar faces along the way, arguing about the answers to questions, and, I'm sorry to say, that one time I mouthed "cheater" to someone on another team. I'm still working on grace, y'all, but in my defense...they were actually cheating. (We won that game. Cheaters never prosper!). As we began to collect prizes--t-shirts, hats, hot drink tumblers--we looked to the greatest prize of them all: the backpack. Alas, the only time we saw that being given away was during music trivia up on the pool deck, and the only reason we got in on that game was because mr. seaweeyin and I snuck up there to grab gelato and the music trivia just happened to be about to start. We joined in but the topic--Classic Rock--was not our strength and our performance was dreadful. I shook my fist in the air when I saw those coveted prize backpacks being handed out, contemplated tackling someone for them, but in the end ordered a frou frou drink and let it all go.

 

Anyway, trivia on the ship was fun.

 

While I didn't particpate myself, I always saw at least a handful of folks at the dance lessons and exercise activities on the pool deck, as well.

[seaweeyin]

I hope each of you reading along has a beautiful 2018.

 

Here's the daily from New Year's Eve:

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[seaweeyin]

The Majority Rulz game was, to me, the stupidest game ever, btw. It's like one of those games people make up when they're sitting around, getting too drunk, but really believe they've come up with something good.

 

New Year's, or Hogmanay, is a big deal to Scots. They party like there's no tomorrow! We found the ambiance on the ship during the New Year's parties to be smack dab in the middle between More Sedate Than An Abandoned Retirement Home and Wake Up Three Days Later in an Unfamiliar Place. We started in the Haven Lounge, but I wanted to dance! So we went up to the pool deck where FIL showed off his slick club moves to count in 2018. I think I wanted a bit more energy, but it was fun enough. The best part was spending it with family.

 

Oh, before the party, we ate, of course. Here are the menus for that night (finally early dining hooray!!!):

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[seaweeyin]

scallops, lobster and filet, lobster bisque, shrimp ravioli with the shrimp head that freaked Tween out, nougat desert, and holiday cookies. All delicious selections.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[mamaneedsavacay]

Tween, in the Juniors club, we allowed to check in and out themselves so there wasn't the issue there. Hopefully they will have this sorted by the time you board.

 

I will have two in the Juniors, so I guess we will just set them to self check-out, and give them instructions that they aren't to do that without us. I'm not keen on them wandering the ship on their own, while I think they are in the club. Do you have advice on that? Did your tween just go between you and the club or did they "explore?" I'm also hopeful they will figure out the technology, but it helps to outsmart the tech in advance whenever possible.

 

I don't know how it will work with the zipline, but we did have issues with the photo package, but I'm going to detail that in another post, so stay tuned.

 

I definitely want to know about this. We had bought the 100 prints, then canceled and bought the VIP digital package, but they still haven't refunded our prints pkg, so right now both are showing on our account. In the interest of outsmarting the technology, I wonder if they would let us book everybody in one of our two cabins, but keep the other cabin in our reservation. I hope your picture story has a happy ending, because I can already see where this is going...

 

We saw our room steward in the hallways often! He always smiled and said hello. But, dear Room Steward, hellos don't change the linens or stock the minibar! In the first few days, we'd reiterate our desire for the minibar to be restocked, but it was still sporadic and we gave up. It wasn't an issue to lose our heads over, but if it had mattered more to me, I would have worked harder to make clear what we wanted. Not that I should have had to...

 

Ugh. We are pretty low maintenance cabin-wise and at hotels/resorts we often just put out the DND and ask for more towels, but my kids are going to be picky about which beds they use because our cabins could sleep more than just us. And especially if we aren't going to sleep according to who is listed on each cabin, I just don't want to have to fuss with the wrong beds being made up when we are getting back to the room late and dead tired. It sounded like your guy couldn't even keep that straight. Will just cross my fingers we get a good communicator on that one.

 

I don't know if I'm allowed to plug my novels here, but I'm also not sure I want to give up anonymity, either. Especially as I'm about to tell you about trivia on board aka A Story in Which Seaweeyin Exposes Her Competitive Nature. Anyway, I'll think more on it...

 

No pressure! I have a travel blog and have previously cross-posted my trip reports from that on relevant forums (Disney, specific all-inclusive brand, etc.) and you're right about the loss of anonymity. It's strange. I don't think I'm going to do that here. At least not while I'm a CC newb.

 

I didn't find your trivia story anything to be embarrassed about. Call out those cheaters! ;)

 

I'm glad to hear there are some fun things to do like Trivia. Our favorite place on the Disney Cruise was the D-Lounge where they did gameshows, karaoke, and family parties. Is there a place like that on the Seaside? I saw the DoReMi club, but it looks like it's part of the kids club, and of course all the adult lounges. Anything that's not a bar, but more of a family activity hangout? Did you do any karaoke at all?

[seaweeyin]

We decided to fly into 2018 by finally using the zipline. It was a port day in ocho rios and we were just planning on heading in to a beach at some point so we got up, hit the gym, got coffee, and got in line. The line was scheduled to open at 10, so we figured we'd be doing well to get in line at 9:45, just in case. Well, at 9:45, there was no one else there. Nor was there at ten. Just after ten, we were allowed to climb the stairs to the top. Then we waited another half hour while the staff moved the empty and harness-filled boxes from one end of the line to the other. Why this task wasn't accomplished at 9:30 so that the 10 o'clock opening time was observed, I don't know. But that really should be the usual practice.

 

Tween and I got hooked up and pushed off. I've been on a few ziplines and rather love them. This was by far the slowest I've ever been on. The beautiful backdrop of Jamaica's mountains made it worth it. We were not charged for our ride and I agree with those who think it's a shame to start charging for it. I never noticed the line being so long in the previous week that crowd control became an issue.

 

Anyway, glad we did it. Here's a pic of mr. Seaweeyin flying over Jamaica, as well as the dailies.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[seaweeyin]

Dailies part 2

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[seaweeyin]

Menus for that evening. During the day, drinks availability on the ship started to fall apart. My uncle in law, who had been drinking Peroni, was told at several bars and at dinner that they were out. He did manage to find a bar or two with a stash left. Then we discovered they were out of angry orchard cider. The biggest disappointment came when Wednesday night dinner revealed they were out of the Oberon red I'd been enjoying so much. Finally, late in the week they ran out of FIL's favorite pinot grigio. The official excuse given was that "people drank so much on new years eve" but... wouldn't a ship plan for that????? Poor excuse for what really was very bad planning and purchasing. We shifted gears and drank other things we liked and continued to enjoy our beverage package, but I think people are well within their right to be irritated by this.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app