First MSC Cruise-- Seaside March 17-24 Review

[LovetheCubs]

Beautiful pictures!! Looking forward to the rest of your review!!!

[iambumbo]

SERVICE/STAFF--

 

It's clear that service is a point of emphasis from the captain on down. Captain Massa was very sociable and a visible presence throughout the ship. His officers were equally engaging when you'd see them around. I think that enthusiasm passed on to the rest of the crew as nearly every member of the crew would greet you cordially and seemed interested in helping you. As mentioned previously, the only potential obstacle can be a language barrier on occasion. However, gesturing or pointing to menus solves a lot of problems and won't be perceived as rude.

 

I've already discussed the dining room and buffets to an extent, and no complaints with service there. No problems getting the food we wanted, used plates were quickly cleared away, and service with a smile. The gelato servers at the South Beach deck 7 pool area were the fastest and friendliest.

 

Bar service was fairly good, with the exception being the usual when pool bars are swamped and everyone is lined up for a drink at the same time. If you weren't in a hurry, pool servers frequently came around to get you a drink. The champagne bar staff was amazing and gave us the best service of any bar. Another benefit to Aurea is access to the bar on deck 19, which was never as busy as the main pool bars.

 

The entertainment staff deserves a special shout-out. They were fun, full of energy, seemed to really enjoy their jobs, and put on some great parties like the White Party and Snow Party. I think the passengers fed off that because the activities I saw had solid participation. I usually don't pay much attention to the cruise directors but Stephen Cloete on his first week on the job was thoroughly underwhelming and the proverbial legend in his own mind. His number 2, Candice, was far more enthusiastic, entertaining, and would have made a better cruise director. Regardless, the entire entertainment staff really delivered a high quality product.

 

Now that I've laid out high praise for the many deserving areas from our cruise, it's time to address the one really dark spot from the week. Many of you may have noticed there's one area I have not discussed yet and that is... our cabin steward, Josue from Honduras. In plain terms, he was AWFUL. We are not high maintenance at all but he was just constantly screwing things up. For example:

 

-- Our room had a slot in the shower for shower gel and shampoo but it was missing, so we used mini-tube toiletries like you get in a hotel. That's fine if, you know, you get them. He did not independently provide any toiletries all week when cleaning the room. Not even once. Every time we'd run low, we'd have to hunt him down to get some more. Empty ones remained on the shower floor until we threw them out. It was probably a bad sign the first day when he told the GF that body wash, shampoo, and conditioner were all the same so we could just use any of them.

-- He took our beach towels several times and never replaced them. That's obviously a problem because we'd be charged if they disappeared (not to mention not being able to have them to use). Eventually we just started grabbing them off the cart as we knew he wouldn't replace them.

-- The room comes with two bath robes. The GF used one and hung it in the shower. It disappeared the next day and again, wasn't replaced until we hunted him down twice to ask for it.

-- The bed was made up the first day with no top sheet so we had to sleep directly under the comforter.

-- He would make up the room at very inconvenient times. One day it would be 6pm when we hadn't gotten back from port (and would obviously need to shower before dinner). Other days we'd get back from dinner at 10:15 and he'd still be working on it (including last day when we still needed to pack).

-- He was unaware we had the premium drink package and could freely use the minibar. Once brought to his attention, I'd notice drinks would randomly disappear, as I think he was just grabbing drinks from one room to fill another.

-- Last but certainly not least, one day about 10 minutes after we put the key in the door notch and hit the do not disturb button (both of which would trigger lights outside the room to notify the steward), he just barged into the room at a very delicate time when we most definitely did NOT want to be disturbed.

 

Although on a personal level Josue was friendly enough, he clearly was way in over his head and in need of more training. We thought of complaining to customer service but figured what would be the point and it would be awkward seeing him in the hallways so we just managed to do things ourselves. I might have expected a guy like that to be breaking in at the Bella level so it was surprising he'd be handling Aurea rooms. We made our opinions well-known in the post-cruise e-mail from MSC, and that was good enough for us. We mentioned our plight to a bartender and he said sometimes they'll send these guys down to the crew deck to clean rooms for re-training, and hopefully that's what happens here when they get our feedback.

 

As seasoned cruisers, we understand it's luck of the draw and once in awhile you'll get a bad apple, but I'd feel bad for someone who got this guy and thought that's the norm. Yes, he was easily the worst cabin steward either me or the GF had ever had in about 25 combined cruises, but it certainly wasn't a cruise-killer and wouldn't keep us from sailing on MSC again.

 

I'm working on uploading some more pics of the ship but I think I've largely covered everything that comes to mind in terms of substance from our cruise. Thanks again for all the kind words and I'm still happy to answer any more questions that come to mind!

[mafig]

So sorry about your room steward.

We've had good ones, but the ones that stand out for us were the bad ones, but luckily for us, not as bad as he one you had.:(

 

I don't know what I'd do either. It would be awkward to complain about him while on the ship, but then again it's so annoying to live with such poor service.

 

We had a butler once (on Norwegian) that was just terrible. Every time I saw him I just wanted to strangle him.

[nautica34]

Enjoyed your review! No reason for the steward to barge in. I always use the additional lock when I'm in the cabin. Made the mistake of not doing so in a hotel once. The maid knocked once and then walked in. My cabin steward told me he was responsible for 19 cabins with no assistant (I asked him). I asked 3 times to empty fridge which he never did. I gave up.

 

I agree about the entertainment staff! I sailed with most of them on Divina, thrilled they were on Seaside. Tyrone and Candice were amazing!

 

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[MANDMTRAVEL]

Great review!!! Thanks for posting.

[Motegi]

Thanks so much for your review! Pam and I are booked on the Seaside in September and are excited to check out all that the ship has to offer.

 

This will be our second cruise with MSC and it was because we had such an amazing time on Divina last June that we even considered the Seaside as we are normally NCL fans.

 

Af for lackluster room stewards we experienced something very similar on the Carnival Victory in February but wouldn’t have expected it on MSC. Much as yourselves we didn’t let it ruin our vacation and took a few things into our own hands. We did sympathize with him when he mentioned that they are now each assigned 30 cabins per day.

[iambumbo]

As an unfortunate post-script to the trip, it turns out the GF ended up getting salmonella somewhere along the way. She started feeling some stomach issues Saturday morning (disembarkation morning) and they got pretty bad by the time we got home so she went to the doctor that Sunday. They didn't get back to her with test results until late last Thursday, saying she had tested positive for salmonella. She's still having some issues though not as bad as before, and doctors expect it will resolve spontaneously anytime now.

 

Obviously it's impossible to know where she got it... i.e., somewhere in port, somewhere on the ship, who knows. But if anyone hears about some kind of salmonella outbreak either in the Caribbean or the ship, please let me know as we'd be very curious to hear about what happened. We're just glad this didn't come on earlier on the trip or it would seriously have ruined our great time!

[NYHartChapp]

Good review, thanks. But VIP Blue Lagoon for $139 pp and cash bar? Yikes. For future reference (if you're interested in a beach day), consider Breezes. $95 pp includes indoor buffet, outdoor grill and all drinks. Some beach activities are extra. We took a bus from downtown Nassau to Breezes for about $2 pp each way. Great fun!

[thegraminator]

So sorry to hear about the GF and the salmonella ordeal ! Hope she is feeling better ! I think you should perhaps report this to MSC . It is not like they can do anything , or even, as you say , that you can be sure where she contracted the bad stuff, but if there was an outbreak among the other cruisers they need to know and investigate the reason or source .

[iambumbo]

Good review, thanks. But VIP Blue Lagoon for $139 pp and cash bar? Yikes. For future reference (if you're interested in a beach day), consider Breezes. $95 pp includes indoor buffet, outdoor grill and all drinks. Some beach activities are extra. We took a bus from downtown Nassau to Breezes for about $2 pp each way. Great fun!

 

Thanks for the tip. Agree completely that Blue Lagoon was overpriced. The only reason we booked it was we had a bunch of OBC to spend and didn't really have much else to spend it on. We would definitely not have booked that excursion at that price but for the extra OBC.

[iambumbo]

One other comment just occurred to me after reading some other posts. One thing I missed on Seaside was the handicapped button outside bathroom doors. Not because I'm handicapped but because I like having the option to just punch the button and have the doors open and close automatically without having to touch the door handles. It's a great way to avoid disease from people that didn't wash their hands or simply were carrying some bug when they touched the door.

 

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[windlicht]

One other comment just occurred to me after reading some other posts. One thing I missed on Seaside was the handicapped button outside bathroom doors. Not because I'm handicapped but because I like having the option to just punch the button and have the doors open and close automatically without having to touch the door handles. It's a great way to avoid disease from people that didn't wash their hands or simply were carrying some bug when they touched the door.

 

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The buttons get touched too?

[iambumbo]

The buttons get touched too?

Well, of course. But you can just punch them instead of having to use an open hand. Same reason I've seen many officers will give people fist bumps instead of shake hands, much easier to transmit germs with a handshake than a fist bump.

 

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[rose102798]

DINING--

 

 

 

We ate all of our breakfasts and lunches (when not in port) at the buffets, and all of our dinners at the Seashore restaurant, except for our jaunt to Butcher's Cut. For inquiring minds, I did notice that deck 16 buffet was closed for dinners, with half of deck 8 buffet for buffet eaters and the other half for those assigned to that dining room.

 

 

 

As mentioned at the outset, I am a pretty picky eater but I found plenty to eat in the buffets. Of course, I also tend to eat a lot of the same foods (more so for breakfast) so if there was any lack of variety, I probably would not have noticed. The pizza is great as advertised, as are the various bread options. There was a carving station every day for lunch, although with some unusual meats such as lamb and veal. I concur with others' comments that there are many foods which many Americans may find unusual but there are enough options for your standard meat-and-potatoes folks too. Line cutters no worse than any other cruise.

 

 

 

We had anytime dining but went nearly every night around 8:30-8:45. By then, there would be no or little line and we were seated quickly. We had heard drink service could be slow so we'd usually bring drinks with us to dinner. The waiters had many different wine bottles nearby and would bring you something if you were thirsty. As with the buffet, the entree options were a little exotic for American tastes but I was able to find something I wanted every night. There is a "traditional favorites" menu but it's not offered on elegant nights or Italian night. That saved me several nights as I often ordered the NY Strip steak and/or rotisserie chicken off that menu when nothing appealed to me from the main menu. Portions were no smaller than on other cruises and pretty solid quality. Some people had said the crew was not amenable to changes but our waiter would provide salad with no dressing or combine plates, as requested. We had the same waiter, Barbara from Brazil, 5 of the 6 nights and she took great care of us. My concern of anytime dining is not getting the same wait staff every night as I like how they learn your tastes and idiosynchracies, but that wasn't an issue as we got the same waiter repeatedly and she made great suggestions about what to get (or avoid).

 

 

 

I chose Italian Night as our Butcher's Cut night because I had seen the regular dining room menu online before our cruise and knew nothing would appeal to me, and traditional favorites would not be available. You may recall that we ran into a bit of language barrier in scheduling this, although the waiter was trying to explain that he didn't know which night would be Italian night as it varied week to week. In any case, he got us the night and time we wanted, and even came over to say hi while we ate and ask if we had been the couple who wanted that night.

 

 

 

The Chef's Table was a gift from my GF's parents. As we all know, cruise lines generally oversell their products but this is one that was actually undersold. Their description said you'd get bone-in ribeye, a shellfish appetizer, a side, and a dessert. This was soooo much more than that. Now, we may have gotten lucky because nobody else had signed up so it was just the two of us, and wow, did they take care of us. The maitre d' himself served us. The assistant brought over bread and the maitre d' jokingly said don't eat that, I don't want you getting full on bread! He said if you don't like anything, let me know immediately and I'll replace it with something you do like. The sommelier came over and said you can pick a bottle of wine from the menu up to $70 or let me pick a good one for you-- we deferred to him and got a very smooth Shiraz. First course was a huge two level tray that included monster shrimp, lobster, stone crab, king crab legs, and oysters. Next came their signature course of some kind of hard boiled eggs and liver. He could tell I was not a fan and offered to get me a salad, which was a yummy replacement. Next course was a smoked tomato soup. Now come the entrees! You not only got several slices of the bone-in ribeye, but also filet mignon, with 4 sauces to dip them in. Next came something I'd never tried before, a huge cut of... bison! It tasted just like NY Strip but was very tough, the GF couldn't eat it as she'd reached maximum capacity. We somehow found room for dessert and I had cheesecake while the GF had lava cake. The maitre d' was grateful for our feedback, which was glowing. He mentioned lots of people were turned off by the price ($75 if booked online, $88 onboard plus 18% gratuity)-- I said you should sell it better as more people would buy if they knew what you all get! Sorry for the long description but I hadn't seen one in any other review and it deserves more publicity.

 

 

 

Of course, the Venchi/gelato shops bear mention. I believe they were 4 of them around the ship and they were very popular for good reason. Lots of different flavors plus you can choose the bars with the premium drink package. I grabbed a milkshake one day with it too.

 

 

 

Next up to cover... what I'd call the aspects of the cruise some folks might find "unusual".

 

 

 

I know this review is from a long time ago, but wondered if you wouldn’t mind answering a question about the Chef’s Table. Was it only available on certain nights? Sea days? Etc?

 

 

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