MSC Orchestra 11 Night Northern Europe 30 Aug - 10 Sep

[Cullyman15]

We just returned from our 11 night cruise aboard MSC Orchestra. Over all we were pleased with the cruise and found the value for what we paid to be very good. We had an inside cabin with the Bella experience.

 

Embarkation: We boarded in Warnemunde Germany and there was a line up for about 20 mins, we only had backpacks so luggage was not an issue.

 

Ship: The ship over all was very clean and spacious with lots of lounges, we found some of the staff struggled with English but we were expecting this as we have only previously sailed in the Carribean out of the US. The ships Officers did not interact with the passengers very much not that they have too to but the occasional hello would have been nice.

 

Food: Overall we found the food to be good to very good with most meals and service in the MDR on the very good side. Food in the buffet was good with a variety of dishes each day, the produce was especially good. The buffet was extremely busy at times and finding a table proved difficult, they did not seem prepared or organized at times to handle the amount of diners. An example of this is the ship arriving in port at 1300, they should have known that most of the 3000 passengers were going to have lunch before leaving the ship and closing one half of the buffet line was not a good idea. My wife and I were told to go to the dining room for lunch because the buffet was "full". We are not very picky but having to do this was a pain in the ass, we had to choose from a significantly reduced buffet selection or sit down and order off a menu which neither really impressed us. Not to mention we were not really wearing dining room attire as we were planning to head ashore.

 

Entertainment: The entertainment was good with a variety of acts throughout the cruise, however one of the things we found odd was that we only laid eyes on the cruise director when she appeared on the stage before and after each evening show. We never saw her even once anywhere on the ship, not even in passing. Another odd thing was on the last night as is customary the Captain said a few words, he was bashing the larger ships in the MSC fleet while trying to sell his smaller sized ship, we appreciated his love of his ship but found it odd for him to speak ill of is employers larger ships. Perhaps this was a language thing but it just sounded odd.

 

Ports: The Ports were all interesting but it would have been nice to know that we were going to have to pay for a bus/shuttle service in 2 of the Ports, this should have been communicated earlier so that passengers had a choice to sign up for an excursion since you are paying for a ride into the city anyway.

 

Disembarkation: We disembarked in Genoa Italy and it was complete chaos when we got off the ship. There were so many passengers wanting taxis and in typical fashion in Europe there are no rules for Queing, passengers were pushing their way into the front of the line with luggage carts and there was no staff from the ship or port authority to assist it was everyman for himself. This could have been easily avoided with a couple of staff and a simple barrior line for a queue.I can tell you this sort of behaviour would not be tolerated in North America but seems quite normal in some places in Europe.

 

Happy to answer any questions

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Mdrgirl]

Thanks! Good to know...

[Flip2cruise]

On 9/17/2018 at 7:37 PM, Cullyman15 said:

 

 

 

 

Ports: The Ports were all interesting but it would have been nice to know that we were going to have to pay for a bus/shuttle service in 2 of the Ports, this should have been communicated earlier so that passengers had a choice to sign up for an excursion since you are paying for a ride into the city anyway.

 

 

 

Happy to answer any questions

Which ports did you have to pay for a shuttle/bus? 

[Nimloth]

Thanks for the review.