My 180 on the MSC Seaside UPDATED REVIEW!

[The Admiral]

:cool::DSo I have received a lot of grief for my criticisms of the Seaside based on my 12/30/17 sailing and I always said I dId not have a hidden agenda just giving the honest good and bad things review. But when circumstances change I think it’s fair to provide an update; so I have some revisions to my opinions based on recent sailing information.

 

IN A NUTSHELL MSC SEEMS TO HAVE WORKED HARD AND FIXED A LOT OF THE ISSUES PEOPLE WERE UPSET ABOUT AND I WOULD RECOMMEND GIVING THEM A TRY, SO HERE I GO:

 

1) Sewege smell: didn’t experience it anywhere on the ship not even in areas others previously said they smelled it.

 

2) entertainment still very good, descriptive story on the cruise program doesn’t always match what I see on stage (lost in translation I guess) lol, but still great shows and the non sequitur dinosaur in one of their shows is kind of endearing.

 

3) dinning room service still a little slow but it has improved and the dinning staff really work hard to accommodate you and dining needs of special diets. The dinning team going the extra mile and their hard work make up for the slow service but MSC should still try and speed up the experience a bit, the fastest service was still an hour and a half.

 

4) This is perhaps the most positive fix MSC made! Alternative Dinner option finally fixed- whereas before you only had a very limited selection on the very small Biscayne bay buffet as your alternative dinner; now for dinner MSC has opened the large and beautifully appointed MarketPlace buffet area on deck 8 As an alternative dinner venue.

 

On one side is the overflow third main dining room separated so the 3rd dinning room passengers dont have buffet guest intruding into their area. Other side is a full buffet on the entire length of that side of the ship with plenty of options for every palette we ate there 2 of the 7 nights. GREAT JOB MSC!

 

 

There is enough space separating the buffet side from the more formal dinning side, so it works, but MSC needs to just add a 3rd dinning room if they are going to crowd their ships, it’s just more comfortable to the passenger experience to have a smaller third dinning room. Maybe on other Seaside class ships turn the biscayne bay buffet space into a formal small third dinning room, I really don’t think kids care where they get their chicken nuggets - Biscayne bay didn’t do it for us.

 

I BEG YOU MSC, PLEASE KEEP THE TRUE ALTERNATIVE DINNER BUFFET OFFERED EVERY NIGHT INCLUDING ON ELEGANT NIGHT AT THE LARGE MARKET PLACE BUFFET ON DECK 8 GOING! THIS WAS THE PASSENGERS BIGGEST COMPLIANT BEFORE IT WAS FIXED AND BY FIXING THIS YOU HAVE WON CONVERTS TO MSC!

 

Because the Seaside does not have a lot of the various alternative free dinning venues like Royal has on the Oasis class ships a true alternative dinner buffet in the market place is crucial to getting and keeping customers in the North American market. Even on elegant night, folks on vacation may want to skip dressing up and a 1.5 hour dinner service and they need a large selection dinner buffet as an option.

 

SOME AREAS MSC SHOULD STILL WORK ON:

 

1) ...I encourage MSC to offer the classics menu every night even on Italian night. In the formal dinner menu it’s hard to please everyone but having the classics available on all 7 nights helps a lot. On elegant and Italian nights you could not order from the classics menu (grilled chicken or my strip steak) and that is still an issue I encourage you to reconsider.

 

2) staff still seems overwhelmed in all areas (dinning, housekeeping, reception) of the ship and it noticeably slows down service. I think you should consider staffing ratios, if staff is always overwhelmed your turnover rate is going to be through the roof and having to train new staff all the time is going to substantially drag down your service and repeat customer rates. This issue Long term is actually going to cost you money.

 

3) follow up is important to the customer service experience: I’m still waiting for my 12/30/17 sailing survey I took the time to opt into receiving. Just one example.

 

4) because the Seaside and probably the whole seaside class of ships are very crowded ( at times it’s a nightmare to simply walk around or get an elevator - YES IT IS THAT OVERWHELMING)- you often feel like canned sardines so it’s important to keep the maintenance on the ship high so the rugs, public area and cabin furniture don’t look worn and bad.

 

Also, keep eyes regularly on the safety of the water slides- the bolts holding those things together are already rusting from salt. And ensure the water park always works- it’s a big draw for families and not having all the bells and whistles you have there working optimally can ruin a family’s vacation experience.

 

On the upcoming Word Class ships and other Seaside ships please consider my comments and that of other customers as you build them, no excuse for Making the same mistakes twice. (I wish I could help design the public areas lol)

 

BOTTOM LINE: Based on MSCs efforts to improve the experience as I have described above, I would highly recommend you give the Seaside a try. MSC is trying hard and it shows in the positive changes they have made. If they continue to take past passenger advice and not revert back to past practices they will succeed.

 

Oh one more thing... Royal and NCL are pricing cruises on their new ships beyond most families means for standard balcony cabins, if MSC DOES NOT follow their competitors pricing strategy and MSC continues to keep prices much lower and affordable through the next Seaside Class and also in the World Class ship launches and they also keep up their good faith efforts to improve on passenger experience and dinning I can now finally see how they can break into the North American Market, take market share and keep a loyal and growing customer base.

 

Godspeed MSC I’m rooting for you!

 

Ciao

[thegraminator]

Thanks Admiral for your updated review . I appreciate you taking the time to revisit the issues and to give credit where credit is due .

 

I think your suggestions are great . If I may I would like to suggest a few more issues that I have gleaned from the various reviews so far. It seems that there are 2 areas that are not living up to the space allocated for them, those being the French Restaurant and The Garage Disco . Most reviews say these spaces are very under used.

 

And lastly I think there should be complementary food offered in the Sports Bar on the Seaside like it is on the Divina . The offerings should be consistent across the entire fleet .

 

Thanks for allowing me to piggyback on your thread . I sincerely hope that MSC listens to this feedback .

[riclop]

:cool::DSo I have received a lot of grief for my criticisms of the Seaside based on my 12/30/17 sailing and I always said I dId not have a hidden agenda just giving the honest good and bad things review. But when circumstances change I think it’s fair to provide an update; so I have some revisions to my opinions based on recent sailing information.

 

IN A NUTSHELL MSC SEEMS TO HAVE WORKED HARD AND FIXED A LOT OF THE ISSUES PEOPLE WERE UPSET ABOUT AND I WOULD RECOMMEND GIVING THEM A TRY, SO HERE I GO:

 

1) Sewege smell: didn’t experience it anywhere on the ship not even in areas others previously said they smelled it.

 

2) entertainment still very good, descriptive story on the cruise program doesn’t always match what I see on stage (lost in translation I guess) lol, but still great shows and the non sequitur dinosaur in one of their shows is kind of endearing.

 

3) dinning room service still a little slow but it has improved and the dinning staff really work hard to accommodate you and dining needs of special diets. The dinning team going the extra mile and their hard work make up for the slow service but MSC should still try and speed up the experience a bit, the fastest service was still an hour and a half.

 

4) This is perhaps the most positive fix MSC made! Alternative Dinner option finally fixed- whereas before you only had a very limited selection on the very small Biscayne bay buffet as your alternative dinner; now for dinner MSC has opened the large and beautifully appointed MarketPlace buffet area on deck 8 As an alternative dinner venue.

 

On one side is the overflow third main dining room separated so the 3rd dinning room passengers dont have buffet guest intruding into their area. Other side is a full buffet on the entire length of that side of the ship with plenty of options for every palette we ate there 2 of the 7 nights. GREAT JOB MSC!

 

 

There is enough space separating the buffet side from the more formal dinning side, so it works, but MSC needs to just add a 3rd dinning room if they are going to crowd their ships, it’s just more comfortable to the passenger experience to have a smaller third dinning room. Maybe on other Seaside class ships turn the biscayne bay buffet space into a formal small third dinning room, I really don’t think kids care where they get their chicken nuggets - Biscayne bay didn’t do it for us.

 

I BEG YOU MSC, PLEASE KEEP THE TRUE ALTERNATIVE DINNER BUFFET OFFERED EVERY NIGHT INCLUDING ON ELEGANT NIGHT AT THE LARGE MARKET PLACE BUFFET ON DECK 8 GOING! THIS WAS THE PASSENGERS BIGGEST COMPLIANT BEFORE IT WAS FIXED AND BY FIXING THIS YOU HAVE WON CONVERTS TO MSC!

 

Because the Seaside does not have a lot of the various alternative free dinning venues like Royal has on the Oasis class ships a true alternative dinner buffet in the market place is crucial to getting and keeping customers in the North American market. Even on elegant night, folks on vacation may want to skip dressing up and a 1.5 hour dinner service and they need a large selection dinner buffet as an option.

 

SOME AREAS MSC SHOULD STILL WORK ON:

 

1) ...I encourage MSC to offer the classics menu every night even on Italian night. In the formal dinner menu it’s hard to please everyone but having the classics available on all 7 nights helps a lot. On elegant and Italian nights you could not order from the classics menu (grilled chicken or my strip steak) and that is still an issue I encourage you to reconsider.

 

2) staff still seems overwhelmed in all areas (dinning, housekeeping, reception) of the ship and it noticeably slows down service. I think you should consider staffing ratios, if staff is always overwhelmed your turnover rate is going to be through the roof and having to train new staff all the time is going to substantially drag down your service and repeat customer rates. This issue Long term is actually going to cost you money.

 

3) follow up is important to the customer service experience: I’m still waiting for my 12/30/17 sailing survey I took the time to opt into receiving. Just one example.

 

4) because the Seaside and probably the whole seaside class of ships are very crowded ( at times it’s a nightmare to simply walk around or get an elevator - YES IT IS THAT OVERWHELMING)- you often feel like canned sardines so it’s important to keep the maintenance on the ship high so the rugs, public area and cabin furniture don’t look worn and bad.

 

Also, keep eyes regularly on the safety of the water slides- the bolts holding those things together are already rusting from salt. And ensure the water park always works- it’s a big draw for families and not having all the bells and whistles you have there working optimally can ruin a family’s vacation experience.

 

On the upcoming Word Class ships and other Seaside ships please consider my comments and that of other customers as you build them, no excuse for Making the same mistakes twice. (I wish I could help design the public areas lol)

 

BOTTOM LINE: Based on MSCs efforts to improve the experience as I have described above, I would highly recommend you give the Seaside a try. MSC is trying hard and it shows in the positive changes they have made. If they continue to take past passenger advice and not revert back to past practices they will succeed.

 

Oh one more thing... Royal and NCL are pricing cruises on their new ships beyond most families means for standard balcony cabins, if MSC DOES NOT follow their competitors pricing strategy and MSC continues to keep prices much lower and affordable through the next Seaside Class and also in the World Class ship launches and they also keep up their good faith efforts to improve on passenger experience and dinning I can now finally see how they can break into the North American Market, take market share and keep a loyal and growing customer base.

 

Godspeed MSC I’m rooting for you!

 

Ciao

Admiral you went again? Thanks for providing a fair opinion now that does make a lot of sense.

[riclop]

Thanks Admiral for your updated review . I appreciate you taking the time to revisit the issues and to give credit where credit is due .

 

I think your suggestions are great . If I may I would like to suggest a few more issues that I have gleaned from the various reviews so far. It seems that there are 2 areas that are not living up to the space allocated for them, those being the French Restaurant and The Garage Disco . Most reviews say these spaces are very under used.

 

And lastly I think there should be complementary food offered in the Sports Bar on the Seaside like it is on the Divina . The offerings should be consistent across the entire fleet .

 

Thanks for allowing me to piggyback on your thread . I sincerely hope that MSC listens to this feedback .

Very good points especially that french restaurant that i did not see a single person eating there 3 weeks ago.

[resstation]

And I'll be "the one" who points it out - dining has one "n". Dinner has two. I was fine the first half dozen times but...

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

[mafig]

Admiral you went again? Thanks for providing a fair opinion now that does make a lot of sense.

 

 

Yes, Admiral. When was your cruise?

[Jaco5NC]

Thank you, I enjoyed reading your recent thoughts and observations. It sounds like MSC is really listening to their guest’s feedback and I really appreciate that!

[The Admiral]

Yes, Admiral. When was your cruise?

 

Three weeks ago

[The Admiral]

Yes, Admiral. When was your cruise?

 

Family went three weeks ago and we compared notes on changes

[nikkiw60]

Family went three weeks ago and we compared notes on changes

 

 

 

Did you go again 3 weeks ago or your family?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Clarea]

Very constructive feedback, thanks for your report.

[Keith1010]

Thank you fo your report.

Keith

[BermudaBound2014]

Personally, I would like to Thank you for both reviews. Without your first review, the issues like the lack of dinner buffet may not have been addressed so quickly. It's refreshing to read that the Seaside has come such a long way in a short time. Thanks again :)

[#1TravelMom]

I BEG YOU MSC, PLEASE KEEP THE TRUE ALTERNATIVE DINNER BUFFET OFFERED EVERY NIGHT INCLUDING ON ELEGANT NIGHT AT THE LARGE MARKET PLACE BUFFET ON DECK 8 GOING! THIS WAS THE PASSENGERS BIGGEST COMPLIANT BEFORE IT WAS FIXED AND BY FIXING THIS YOU HAVE WON CONVERTS TO MSC!

Above quoted from The Admiral. We 100% agree!!! We are blessed to have been on 55+ cruises. We are very casual diners. We like being relaxed and enjoying the dinner buffet at our leisure. We have our first MSC booked. If the dinner buffet is not large enough to offer a great salad and varying choices, this will unfortunately be a dealbreaker for us in the future.

[SternLH]

Hey!

Are you able to tell me what the internet was like, and was it accessible via your room?

[The Admiral]

Hey!

Are you able to tell me what the internet was like, and was it accessible via your room?

 

I had a WiFi signal everywhere including in the room

 

Internet is easy you go to their Internet website link and create an account using the Internet ID number printed on your cruise card and buy a package.