Our Seaside review - March 3 - 10 - One and Done for MSC

[suzyed]

I hope you all did not pay the Service Charge, otherwise MSC will think they've done a great job. In Europe we only tip if the cruise was a succes.

Of course we paid the service charge!!! Our room steward did an outstanding job!!! We tipped him extra!

 

While our dining room staff was not the best we ever had, they seemed confused/uninformed many times. We felt they were trying to do a good job and actually our assistant waiter was more receptive than our waiter. We tipped them both, as well.

[mianmike]

That part won't change no matter how many cruises you go on. Anytime you stick 5,000 people on a ship there are bound to be differences in opinions. Your opinion is just as valid as the next, and visa versa. The trick is to look for patterns in things that matter to YOU and your wife.

 

This is true especially for reports about food. For example, you mentioned that your steak was great and someone else mentioned it was terrible. It is possible you got a much better cut of meat. That doesn't mean the other poster's steak wasn't tough, just that yours was better.

 

Some may report excessive waits for an elevator while the next cruiser states they never waited more than a minute. I believe both posters. How long you wait for an elevator is often determined by the time of day you are using it. If cruiser A never tried to use the elevator right after a show, they may never have experienced the wait that user B did.

 

Anyway, what matters here is that you and your wife had a lovely time on Seaside. Don't let others who had a poor time effect your memories. So many times, I notice cruisers become personally attached to a ship/line and feel the need to defend it on a message board. What I'd suggest is to just keep telling your glorious story! Don't say others are wrong with their experiences, but do keep telling your experience over and over. You have a refreshing perspectrive and it's something all of us old timers should read.

 

In the grand scheme of things, we really are all very fortunate to be in a position to even discuss cruising.

 

Again, welcome to the world of cruising, I think you may be hooked. If I could offer one more piece of unsolicited advice, take all your paperwork, all the dailies, plane tickets, tender tickets, etc... and start a treasure chest. Mine started in 1987. I have the original bills from the very first cruise I took along with 6 years of 'cruise travel' magazine. It's amazing to see how far the industry has come. You are in for many more years of evolution. Enjoy!!

What a great post! Couldn't agree more.

[dd likes to cruise]

Java garu said this comment. “ At the cruise critic meet n' mingle, we did speak to the head of F&B and he noted our concerns and expressed that they are working towards better service.”

Isn’t the meet and mingle fairly early in a cruise? That means they made their mind up about the MDR and food real quick. That bothers me.

[ISLANDCRUSO]

The number of complaints on these boards are miniscule compared to the numbers who cruise on any given cruise ship, sadly there are people who go looking for trouble and are the kind of people to find it.

Of the small number of complainers on this one MSC board it appears that not very many actually took the issue of any kind of smell up with any of the senior officers on the Seaside! but then come here to complain about it.

[Beamafar]

Java garu said this comment. “ At the cruise critic meet n' mingle, we did speak to the head of F&B and he noted our concerns and expressed that they are working towards better service.”

Isn’t the meet and mingle fairly early in a cruise? That means they made their mind up about the MDR and food real quick. That bothers me.

 

That struck me at the time, too!

[sidari]

Bea ... The trouble is, that it is hard just now to decide who to believe and who not to believe!

[javaguru]

Java garu said this comment. “ At the cruise critic meet n' mingle, we did speak to the head of F&B and he noted our concerns and expressed that they are working towards better service.”

Isn’t the meet and mingle fairly early in a cruise? That means they made their mind up about the MDR and food real quick. That bothers me.

The meet n mingle was day 3. Our first two dining experiences took 2 1/2 hours. I don't believe we reported issues with the food at that time.

[javaguru]

Bea ... The trouble is, that it is hard just now to decide who to believe and who not to believe!

It shouldn't be an issue of who to believe and who no to believe? Do you really think people are just coming on and posting things that are not true? This review was our experience. I didn't make anything up. People have reported that I was incorrect about the pool towels. Apparently on dec 16, there are towels. We didn't happen to use that pool. Food quality is obviously very subjective. For us, the food was sub-par. The experience in the dining room was different for everyone. We could see some sections had reasonable service. Our section did not on some of the nights. When our waiter had fewer tables to service, things were faster. My bigger concern is the lack of management. They are well aware they have issues in the dining room, yet there weren't managers walking around (at least in our sight) and asking to see where the problems were.

[javaguru]

The number of complaints on these boards are miniscule compared to the numbers who cruise on any given cruise ship, sadly there are people who go looking for trouble and are the kind of people to find it.

Of the small number of complainers on this one MSC board it appears that not very many actually took the issue of any kind of smell up with any of the senior officers on the Seaside! but then come here to complain about it.

 

 

Really? We have never had complaints about a cruise before. We didn't go looking for issues. Plenty of people experience the same issues and don't bother to post about it. I don't understand why people like you complain if anyone post about issues. We are trying to help people as they decide what cruise/company to choose.

[sidari]

Java ... The answer is Yes, I do believe that there are people posting comments here that are not entirely true, that is not to say that you are one of them. On another thread at least two people were asked for cabin numbers of where the posters claimed that there was a smell in the cabin, non was forthcoming, ask yourself why ?

Had they been provided to the people asking the question I at least would have been able to ask if a friend in the house keeping department could check it out.

 

As I believe Islandcruso posted, not everyone is complaining of the same kind of smell as some people have tried to make out, and to be fair many people are unsure of what they have smelled which may have been paint, varnish, thinners or other cleaning products being used in certain areas of the ship.

Sewage and rotting materials or anything burnt and chemicals have their own smell which is quite different to the other items I have listed, most people will not have come into contact with the latter.

[javaguru]

Java ... The answer is Yes, I do believe that there are people posting comments here that are not entirely true, that is not to say that you are one of them. On another thread at least two people were asked for cabin numbers of where the posters claimed that there was a smell in the cabin, non was forthcoming, ask yourself why ?

Had they been provided to the people asking the question I at least would have been able to ask if a friend in the house keeping department could check it out.

 

As I believe Islandcruso posted, not everyone is complaining of the same kind of smell as some people have tried to make out, and to be fair many people are unsure of what they have smelled which may have been paint, varnish, thinners or other cleaning products being used in certain areas of the ship.

Sewage and rotting materials or anything burnt and chemicals have their own smell which is quite different to the other items I have listed, most people will not have come into contact with the latter.

 

Why would someone go to the effort? I can see why people wouldn't want to report their cabin number for privacy reasons. As far as smells, we encountered it only on embarkation day and it seemed to be in various areas around the ship and I would certainly describe it as a sewer type smell. It wasn't a huge deal for us, but different people have different sensitivities. As pervasive as it is, if MSC wants to track it down, I don't think they would have a lot of difficulty. I saw on one post where they had found a problem and corrected it, but there are apparently more. Sorry, but I just don't believe that people would post made-up issues.

[DCGuy64]

Really? We have never had complaints about a cruise before. We didn't go looking for issues. Plenty of people experience the same issues and don't bother to post about it. I don't understand why people like you complain if anyone post about issues. We are trying to help people as they decide what cruise/company to choose.

 

Hi, there. I thought your review was a good one, filled with lots of specifics and very thorough. Thank you for taking the time to write it. It's especially good that you were able to speak with the F&B manager about your concerns. Sometimes I read reviews that are negative but the reviewer either neglects to mention speaking with anyone in charge about their experience, or else he/she never DID do anything to alert the staff about a bad experience. Now, that being said, one of the things I find frustrating about negative reviews is when incomplete information is given. For instance, your first post said that there were NO towels on pool decks. I think that's a direct quote from you. But someone else pointed out that there WERE towels on deck 16, to which you responded that you hadn't visited that pool. Well, ok, then perhaps it wasn't correct to say there were NO towels anywhere at all, which is what I think a reasonable conclusion would have been, based on how you phrased it. Please don't think I'm picking on you, because I'm not. As I said at the outset, I thought your review was good. I just think that context is everything. It's hard for us who haven't been on the ship to reconcile one review that says the NY strip and prime rib were terrible, when another reviewer on the same ship raves about how delicious the very same foods were. Of course, every person is entitled to his opinion. But opinions with no context (or preconceived ideas) are of little value. What's the definition of "too long" when it comes to service times? What's the definition of "too few options at the buffet?" These things can mean very different things to different people. That's all I'm saying. It's too bad the negatives you mentioned on your cruise have allowed you to form an opinion of MSC such that, as you say, means it's "one and done" for you. But it's your money and your vacation time, so you must do what you feel is right. It's just a little frustrating for people like me who are trying to make sense of the many reviews about MSC's newest ship when the impressions people have, differ so wildly from one another.

[sidari]

DC ... I know that others have brought up the subject before and I think it has a lot of merit and substance to it, in so far that there are people who have only ever cruised certain lines and then expect Seaside and MSC to be the exactly the same.

The trouble is that many of these people do not do any homework and believed all the hype that was out there that you yourself have mentioned, comments like MSC will never break into the American market despite them having been there since 2006 goes to prove they have seen a cheap deal and why not, many have status matched (the fault of MSC) much to the annoyance of loyal MSC cruisers and then complain that they are not getting Champagne when they have paid for Beer!

The simple answer is to book with who you are happy with but don`t write reviews built on one cruise that attacks the cruise line for your holiday that you got for far less than you normally pay, I have never cruised with Carnival but I would not go to the Carnival board and tell people they were rubbish.

[javaguru]

DCGuy64, good point on the towels, but my experience was there were none. We did go up on deck 16 but never saw towels. We didn't use the pool there. Past experiences on other cruises was towels were available at every pool. If I am at the South Beach pool, I have to go up to deck 16 to get a towel. To me that makes no sense. If they are choosing to do that it would probably be beneficial to put up a sign that towels are available on deck 16. That's my opinion though. My guess on the food is that people have different standards. I did see a beef roast at the buffet and tried it - the beef that was there when I tried it was cooked through - totally well done and tough. I would never call it prime rib and did not take a bite beyond my first. However, maybe the person who posted it got the beef at a different time.

 

In the MDR, my prime rib was not cooked properly and had no flavor. In the MDR, I ordered the NY Strip 3 times. Once for lunch and twice for dinner. I ordered it rare twice and VERY rare once. The rare orders were cooked medium. Not a big deal to me. All three times the meat was tough and not flavorful. Maybe I just happened to get the only three bad steaks on the ship, but I doubt it. I did my homework and wasn't really surprised by anything encountered except the guy in the thong in the MDR. I think it is very fair to write a review of ones experience on one cruise. That's why CC is here. The more reviews the better. If a cruise line has a problem, people can see it in an open and honest forum. What I don't understand is people complaining about people writing reviews of their experience.

[suzyed]

Java garu said this comment. “ At the cruise critic meet n' mingle, we did speak to the head of F&B and he noted our concerns and expressed that they are working towards better service.”

Isn’t the meet and mingle fairly early in a cruise? That means they made their mind up about the MDR and food real quick. That bothers me.

Unless they were at the Meet and Mingle on Week 2 of their cruise! We were at both!

[scottygirl]

Why would someone go to the effort? I can see why people wouldn't want to report their cabin number for privacy reasons. As far as smells, we encountered it only on embarkation day and it seemed to be in various areas around the ship and I would certainly describe it as a sewer type smell. It wasn't a huge deal for us, but different people have different sensitivities. As pervasive as it is, if MSC wants to track it down, I don't think they would have a lot of difficulty. I saw on one post where they had found a problem and corrected it, but there are apparently more. Sorry, but I just don't believe that people would post made-up issues.

 

We smelled it too, especially the first two days. We actually smelled it when we were dropped off at the port before getting on the ship. We always smelled it when using the water slides.

[scottygirl]

DCGuy64, good point on the towels, but my experience was there were none. We did go up on deck 16 but never saw towels. We didn't use the pool there. Past experiences on other cruises was towels were available at every pool. If I am at the South Beach pool, I have to go up to deck 16 to get a towel. To me that makes no sense. If they are choosing to do that it would probably be beneficial to put up a sign that towels are available on deck 16. That's my opinion though. My guess on the food is that people have different standards. I did see a beef roast at the buffet and tried it - the beef that was there when I tried it was cooked through - totally well done and tough. I would never call it prime rib and did not take a bite beyond my first. However, maybe the person who posted it got the beef at a different time.

 

In the MDR, my prime rib was not cooked properly and had no flavor. In the MDR, I ordered the NY Strip 3 times. Once for lunch and twice for dinner. I ordered it rare twice and VERY rare once. The rare orders were cooked medium. Not a big deal to me. All three times the meat was tough and not flavorful. Maybe I just happened to get the only three bad steaks on the ship, but I doubt it. I did my homework and wasn't really surprised by anything encountered except the guy in the thong in the MDR. I think it is very fair to write a review of ones experience on one cruise. That's why CC is here. The more reviews the better. If a cruise line has a problem, people can see it in an open and honest forum. What I don't understand is people complaining about people writing reviews of their experience.

 

 

I saw the towel exchange on day 3 or so as I just happened to walk by it. It would have been nice if MSC would have communicated that it was available. Maybe it was but I never saw it?

 

My son had the same piece of shoe leather from the buffet also. The pizza however was FANTASTIC.

[sidari]

Scottygirl ... What was the smell you mention, many people claim to have smelled it but have not said what it was they actually smelled.

[suzyed]

The number of complaints on these boards are miniscule compared to the numbers who cruise on any given cruise ship, sadly there are people who go looking for trouble and are the kind of people to find it.

Of the small number of complainers on this one MSC board it appears that not very many actually took the issue of any kind of smell up with any of the senior officers on the Seaside! but then come here to complain about it.

Not true.

While I don't consider us complainers....there were some things we loved about the Seaside and some that need a bit of work. For such a new ship that is to be expected. I will say that when talking to other passengers on our 2 week sailing, we did not find one single person who said they would sail on Seaside/MSC again! I found that shocking! We also ran into at least 5 crew....from room service personnel to Matre'd, who said they were unhappy and were leaving after their contract to go back to their previous cruiselines.

Also found that shocking that not only did they feel that way but that they shared it with us!

 

To that end, we did talk with Ziggy the hotel manager and my DH met with the Captain over coffee for about an hour and half and discussed some of the above items. It's clear the Captain is very proud of the ship and wants it to be the best it can be. He was very concerned about some of the points DH brought up and even disclosed some other issues we could not have been aware of. We believe he is commited to handling these challanges and will help to make Seaside successful!

 

(So I guess my point is that some people DO go to the Senior officers to discuss the issues). Not info disclosed here are complaints it's just info that others are interested in hearing. If it doesn't concern you or you're not interested in the info, don't bother reading those posts....stick with the ones that interest you!

 

Smooth Sailing!

[suzyed]

It shouldn't be an issue of who to believe and who no to believe? Do you really think people are just coming on and posting things that are not true? This review was our experience. I didn't make anything up. People have reported that I was incorrect about the pool towels. Apparently on dec 16, there are towels. We didn't happen to use that pool. Food quality is obviously very subjective. For us, the food was sub-par. The experience in the dining room was different for everyone. We could see some sections had reasonable service. Our section did not on some of the nights. When our waiter had fewer tables to service, things were faster. My bigger concern is the lack of management. They are well aware they have issues in the dining room, yet there weren't managers walking around (at least in our sight) and asking to see where the problems were.

Totally agree!

For example: Dh's steak was wonderful one night and terrible the next. He didn't make that up to complain...it was a fact.

However, we did see managers in the dining room trying to smooth out issues.

[suzyed]

Java ... The answer is Yes, I do believe that there are people posting comments here that are not entirely true, that is not to say that you are one of them. On another thread at least two people were asked for cabin numbers of where the posters claimed that there was a smell in the cabin, non was forthcoming, ask yourself why ?

Had they been provided to the people asking the question I at least would have been able to ask if a friend in the house keeping department could check it out.

 

As I believe Islandcruso posted, not everyone is complaining of the same kind of smell as some people have tried to make out, and to be fair many people are unsure of what they have smelled which may have been paint, varnish, thinners or other cleaning products being used in certain areas of the ship.

Sewage and rotting materials or anything burnt and chemicals have their own smell which is quite different to the other items I have listed, most people will not have come into contact with the latter.

I am well aware of the differences in smells. Paint, varnish, cleaning agents(which I, personally don't find offensive) smell entirely different from sever smells. Really, I don't see how one can confuse the two.

I smelled both on the ship and both were fleeting or in different areas.

[scottygirl]

Scottygirl ... What was the smell you mention, many people claim to have smelled it but have not said what it was they actually smelled.

 

 

Sewage smell is the best I can describe it with a little sulfur mixed in. Not a pleasant smell. It wasn't paint, varnish or cleaning agents.

[DCGuy64]

DCGuy64, good point on the towels, but my experience was there were none. We did go up on deck 16 but never saw towels. We didn't use the pool there. Past experiences on other cruises was towels were available at every pool. If I am at the South Beach pool, I have to go up to deck 16 to get a towel. To me that makes no sense. If they are choosing to do that it would probably be beneficial to put up a sign that towels are available on deck 16. That's my opinion though. My guess on the food is that people have different standards. I did see a beef roast at the buffet and tried it - the beef that was there when I tried it was cooked through - totally well done and tough. I would never call it prime rib and did not take a bite beyond my first. However, maybe the person who posted it got the beef at a different time.

 

In the MDR, my prime rib was not cooked properly and had no flavor. In the MDR, I ordered the NY Strip 3 times. Once for lunch and twice for dinner. I ordered it rare twice and VERY rare once. The rare orders were cooked medium. Not a big deal to me. All three times the meat was tough and not flavorful. Maybe I just happened to get the only three bad steaks on the ship, but I doubt it. I did my homework and wasn't really surprised by anything encountered except the guy in the thong in the MDR. I think it is very fair to write a review of ones experience on one cruise. That's why CC is here. The more reviews the better. If a cruise line has a problem, people can see it in an open and honest forum. What I don't understand is people complaining about people writing reviews of their experience.

 

Hi, and thanks for your response. I both agree with you and disagree. Yes, CC is here so people can post about their experiences and ask questions. Yes, your experience is yours and I wouldn't dare deny you that. You have every right in the world to post on here, both negative and positive. As I said earlier, I liked your post and found it helpful, I thought it was very fair and well-balanced. However, it's difficult for me to reconcile your poor experiences with the beef selections when other passengers loved theirs. True, taste is very individual, but unless I am misreading your post above, you aren't saying it's just down to taste. You're saying that all three steaks were "bad." Not just not to your liking, but objectively bad. And the guy in the thong? How is that MSC's fault? You mentioned that among the negatives about the cruise on which you're basing your decision never to cruise with them again. I may be in the minority here, but I think it's helpful both to read people's reviews AND ask them questions so I can get a better idea of why they liked/didn't like certain things. I've read a good 20 full reviews of the Seaside since it began sailing in early December, and I find it confusing that two passengers, commenting on the same ship and same cruise, can arrive at vastly different conclusions (e.g. "the steak was terrible" vs "best steak I ever had" or "nasty sewage smell the whole time" vs "never smelled it the whole time" or "staff completely unfriendly and never cleaned" vs "staff always smiling and friendly and constantly cleaning the ship".) HUH? The more I know about WHY a particular reviewer had a bad experience, the better I can understand whether his/her experience will affect me. There was a really fantastic and long thread by a well-known reviewer about this ship, but the more I read his complaints and saw him answer questions, the more I realized that the ship wasn't lacking in any way, it was just that the reviewer had unrealistic expectations of what it offered. When I cruise on this ship later this year, I plan to write a comprehensive review and I'm perfectly fine with people picking it apart. In other words, a review of my review. Totally fine by me. Maybe you feel differently and that's cool, too. Thanks.

Edited March 12, 2018 by DCGuy64
Forgot to close parentheses

[suzyed]

Hi, there. I thought your review was a good one, filled with lots of specifics and very thorough. Thank you for taking the time to write it. It's especially good that you were able to speak with the F&B manager about your concerns. Sometimes I read reviews that are negative but the reviewer either neglects to mention speaking with anyone in charge about their experience, or else he/she never DID do anything to alert the staff about a bad experience. Now, that being said, one of the things I find frustrating about negative reviews is when incomplete information is given. For instance, your first post said that there were NO towels on pool decks. I think that's a direct quote from you. But someone else pointed out that there WERE towels on deck 16, to which you responded that you hadn't visited that pool. Well, ok, then perhaps it wasn't correct to say there were NO towels anywhere at all, which is what I think a reasonable conclusion would have been, based on how you phrased it. Please don't think I'm picking on you, because I'm not. As I said at the outset, I thought your review was good. I just think that context is everything. It's hard for us who haven't been on the ship to reconcile one review that says the NY strip and prime rib were terrible, when another reviewer on the same ship raves about how delicious the very same foods were. Of course, every person is entitled to his opinion. But opinions with no context (or preconceived ideas) are of little value. What's the definition of "too long" when it comes to service times? What's the definition of "too few options at the buffet?" These things can mean very different things to different people. That's all I'm saying. It's too bad the negatives you mentioned on your cruise have allowed you to form an opinion of MSC such that, as you say, means it's "one and done" for you. But it's your money and your vacation time, so you must do what you feel is right. It's just a little frustrating for people like me who are trying to make sense of the many reviews about MSC's newest ship when the impressions people have, differ so wildly from one another.

RE: towels. First day on the ship, the towels were found in the cabin with a note that said the towels were to be used at the pool and when going on excursions and to please return them to the cabin to be replaced by the room steward. I even saw someone on the pool deck looking for towels and he was told he needed to bring them from his cabin.

If there was a towel exchange on deck 16, I sure didn't see it in the two weeks on Seaside. I don't doubt it was there, but it sure wasn't obvious, at least not to us!

[suzyed]

DC ... I know that others have brought up the subject before and I think it has a lot of merit and substance to it, in so far that there are people who have only ever cruised certain lines and then expect Seaside and MSC to be the exactly the same.

The trouble is that many of these people do not do any homework and believed all the hype that was out there that you yourself have mentioned, comments like MSC will never break into the American market despite them having been there since 2006 goes to prove they have seen a cheap deal and why not, many have status matched (the fault of MSC) much to the annoyance of loyal MSC cruisers and then complain that they are not getting Champagne when they have paid for Beer!

The simple answer is to book with who you are happy with but don`t write reviews built on one cruise that attacks the cruise line for your holiday that you got for far less than you normally pay, I have never cruised with Carnival but I would not go to the Carnival board and tell people they were rubbish.

I believe people are trying to do their homework by reading the many and yes, differing reviews! Take what is of interest to them and leaving the rest.