If you had to pick one what would it be? Opera, Musica or Orchestra?

[cparker01]

We are looking to book a cruise to Greece. Any preferences on either Opera, Orchestra or Musica? Those appear to be our options not sure if they are of the same class/age or is one better than the other? We will be with a 12 and 10 yr old so want to make sure it's good for the two of them.

Edited January 20, 2019 by cparker01

[sidari]

Musica and Orchestra are the same class of ship, Opera is smaller is size, we have not sailed on Musica so would choose that but would depend on the ports.

Opera now has a kids spray water park since it was stretched.

Edited January 20, 2019 by sidari

[Captain-John]

  S

Edited January 20, 2019 by Captain-John

[gatlinburg]

On 1/19/2019 at 8:41 PM, cparker01 said:

We are looking to book a cruise to Greece. Any preferences on either Opera, Orchestra or Musica? Those appear to be our options not sure if they are of the same class/age or is one better than the other? We will be with a 12 and 10 yr old so want to make sure it's good for the two of them.

We are looking to book as well.  Have heard Musica has best Greece Itinerary if you want Athens and Santorini.  We are just waiting to find some decent Flights available from the US.

[cparker01]

13 hours ago, gatlinburg said:

We are looking to book as well.  Have heard Musica has best Greece Itinerary if you want Athens and Santorini.  We are just waiting to find some decent Flights available from the US.

We are looking at Musica departing Venice May 24th 2020. I have a booking for the same itinerary on the NCL Dawn. MSC is about $1500 cheaper but I'm a little afraid there will be few english speaking travelers sailing with us.

I'd rather sail with MSC, just sailed Seaside last May and will sail this May on Bellissima in the Mediterranean. We always bring our kids, 9 and 11, so I'm not sure how much kids activities are on Musica?!

And yes flights look pricey! We are in Atlanta and try to use points to fly. Plus we can't book flights till mid summer when they become available.

[Captain-John]

6 hours ago, cparker01 said:

We are looking at Musica departing Venice May 24th 2020. I have a booking for the same itinerary on the NCL Dawn. MSC is about $1500 cheaper but I'm a little afraid there will be few english speaking travelers sailing with us.

I'd rather sail with MSC, just sailed Seaside last May and will sail this May on Bellissima in the Mediterranean. We always bring our kids, 9 and 11, so I'm not sure how much kids activities are on Musica?!

And yes flights look pricey! We are in Atlanta and try to use points to fly. Plus we can't book flights till mid summer when they become available.

 

I deliberately didn't leave a comment the last time I posted, so as not to put you off anything. I think for the kids, if they like the kids club and kids activities,  NCL is the better choice.

You're right that there are fewer English speakers on MSC. Dawn has been refurbished not so long ago and the food is a notch above MSC.Musica is still a glitzy ship don't get me wrong.$1500 is quite a difference too. I probably haven't helped much!

[Beamafar]

I agree ... $1500 is a lot of saving.  Just think what you could do with that extra money to make the cruise super-special.

 

I can't quite understand why what language other passengers are speaking matters (don't mean to sound rude about it, but it's something that doesn't impact on me, so I don't really get others' hesitancy around it).

 

I had a look at the Musica itinerary;  it's one I'd be really interested in doing (plus it's the only Musica class ship we haven't been on!).  However, prices here are a bit too steep at the moment, so I won't be booking it any time soon.

[Captain-John]

19 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

I had a look at the Musica itinerary;  it's one I'd be really interested in doing (plus it's the only Musica class ship we haven't been on!).  However, prices here are a bit too steep at the moment, so I won't be booking it any time soon.

 

Eastern Med prices are outrageous across the board. Not unusual to see X for £2K each in a balcony, NCL for £1500-1700 etc. Can't quite understand why - less ships in the region now so supply & demand coming into play?

 

In 2014 we sailed on Preziosa out of Venice. Fantastic itinerary that included Istanbul (don't think many do now). Can't recall it being much more than £800 each for the week in a balcony + £240 for the drinks package (as it was at the time!)

[cparker01]

2 hours ago, Captain-John said:

 

I deliberately didn't leave a comment the last time I posted, so as not to put you off anything. I think for the kids, if they like the kids club and kids activities,  NCL is the better choice.

You're right that there are fewer English speakers on MSC. Dawn has been refurbished not so long ago and the food is a notch above MSC.Musica is still a glitzy ship don't get me wrong.$1500 is quite a difference too. I probably haven't helped much!

Yes, you are pretty much spot on why I booked the Dawn already also the room cat I was looking at was soon to be full. I still crave the MSC experience once again. Sometimes I read to much about others experience that sway me as well. I did read several past post while reaching the Musica a having a lot of motion. But once again some things should be taken with a grain of salt as I've had some good times on rocky ships. I'm still thinking about switching, guess I'll keep a watch on the suites left and make my final decision. Thanks for input I appreciate it!

[cparker01]

1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

I agree ... $1500 is a lot of saving.  Just think what you could do with that extra money to make the cruise super-special.

 

I can't quite understand why what language other passengers are speaking matters (don't mean to sound rude about it, but it's something that doesn't impact on me, so I don't really get others' hesitancy around it).

 

I had a look at the Musica itinerary;  it's one I'd be really interested in doing (plus it's the only Musica class ship we haven't been on!).  However, prices here are a bit too steep at the moment, so I won't be booking it any time soon.

Yes, you are so right about the $ that's why I keep going back to the Musica. And you are in no way being rude! I hesitated to post that but that's truly my one of my main concerns. It's not a concern for my husband and I at all as we love the cultural experience,  language barriers and so forth. But I'm driven by my kids experience, while I want to expose them to everything possible I also want them to be able to make friends easily. And once again I read some post about others comments on the kid thing and language keeping them feeling alienated at camp and such. 

We will be on Bellissima soon and being a mega ship I don't worry about this as much, only the smaller ships leaning towards the European market even more. At least they will get a taste of the wonderful culture experience and differences now in case we do sail on the Musica next year! Thanks for your opinions, I always like what you have to say!

[Beamafar]

That's very kind of you to say!  🙂

 

Of course ... it makes perfect sense that you'd be concerned for your kids fitting in (something I don't have to consider as I don't cruise with kids  🙄).  I agree that there's been reports of kids having a difficult time with interacting due to the language barrier.

 

I have found, too, that Eastern Med MSC cruises have even more European (non-English) passengers onboard than West Med cruises (percentage-wise).

Edited February 2, 2019 by Beamafar

[cparker01]

Since I'm the instigator of travel and cruising in my family of 4, I do work hard to make sure everyone is happy and wants to sail again. We did Seaside last May and my husband was very sick for 3/4 of the trip. 2 trips to the ships hospital and $700 later, he was down on cruising and was not real keen on keeping our Bellissima booking. So I pray evertthing goes well on this trip coming up to completely bring him back

"on board " with the whole cruising experience.

[Beamafar]

How unfortunate for your husband.  I've experienced being ill on cruises (nothing to do with the motion) and a couple of times it took 2-3 weeks after arriving home before recovering.  Hopefully you'll all have a wonderful time on Bellissima - she's a very different style ship to Seaside (or anything else in the fleet, apart, of course, from her sister ship, Meraviglia, which we were on when she first sailed the Med).

[gatlinburg]

On 2/1/2019 at 11:08 PM, cparker01 said:

We are looking at Musica departing Venice May 24th 2020. I have a booking for the same itinerary on the NCL Dawn. MSC is about $1500 cheaper but I'm a little afraid there will be few english speaking travelers sailing with us.

I'd rather sail with MSC, just sailed Seaside last May and will sail this May on Bellissima in the Mediterranean. We always bring our kids, 9 and 11, so I'm not sure how much kids activities are on Musica?!

And yes flights look pricey! We are in Atlanta and try to use points to fly. Plus we can't book flights till mid summer when they become available.

we're close to booking June 14, 21, or 28th Summer of 2020 on Musica.  (7 & 9yr old) Kids are keen on going to Athens and Santorini.  Our third grader is studying Ancient Greece right now.  :-)   What kinds of deals have you gotten with Flights?   Flights into Venice are crazy.  lol

[cparker01]

7 hours ago, gatlinburg said:

we're close to booking June 14, 21, or 28th Summer of 2020 on Musica.  (7 & 9yr old) Kids are keen on going to Athens and Santorini.  Our third grader is studying Ancient Greece right now.  🙂   What kinds of deals have you gotten with Flights?   Flights into Venice are crazy.  lol

Hey I saw this after I posted to you on the airline forum. To bad you all are going would love to know some other kids would be sailing with us. Of course I haven't booked cruise yet, booked same itinerary on NCL but may switch as price is better. As I say in my other post we really won't be able to see flights till around July. We truly did this same waiting game as last year and I looked almost every day in weeks to come to try to figure out the prices. As the days get closer you with be able to get an idea of what they will most likely be. I also said we play the points/miles game. Right now I'm anticipating Venice to be high. From what I think with little experience is booking early will give you the best choices. It's hard to wait but that's our only choice 🤐

[gatlinburg]

On 2/1/2019 at 11:08 PM, cparker01 said:

We are looking at Musica departing Venice May 24th 2020. I have a booking for the same itinerary on the NCL Dawn. MSC is about $1500 cheaper but I'm a little afraid there will be few english speaking travelers sailing with us.

I'd rather sail with MSC, just sailed Seaside last May and will sail this May on Bellissima in the Mediterranean. We always bring our kids, 9 and 11, so I'm not sure how much kids activities are on Musica?!

And yes flights look pricey! We are in Atlanta and try to use points to fly. Plus we can't book flights till mid summer when they become available.

cparker01, we booked Aurea experience balcony cabin, for Summer 2020.  (July 21 departure out of Venice).  Traveling with our two children who will be 8/10yrs old.  They loved being on MSC Meraviglia in April out of Marseille, but wanted to do Greek side this time.  Wish you were onboard with us.  Happy Cruising!   We love MSC.  

[panamapd]

The price differential is huge between the two options!  We have enjoyed the Epic, Jade and Breakaway and I think on this occasion I would do MSC.  However, you may want to have a look at the length of time in ports.  On one occasion we had 07.00am to 1.30pm in Naples with MSC.  With the Epic it was 08.00am to 8.00pm.  We are from the UK and our 9yr old son has not had any problems with sailing with MSC.  We have done most of their ships now.  One suggestion would be to fly into Italy (if that is cheaper than direct into Venice), I would then try to get a train into Venice.  Other posters might be able to let you know if this is doable!  

 

We recently did the MSC Opera and thought the ship was terrible.  In fact the only good thing was the kids club!  Our son loves all the activities and the family disco is second to none!  Also he is always placed with another English speaking child.  There were also Italian lessons, which he loved!

 

Beamafar - you may remember me posting about MSC switching from Armonia to the Opera.  MSC said they were sister ships but disappointment in the Opera doesn't cover it!!

 

Captain Ron - only 4 days now the the AIDAnova!!

[Beamafar]

53 minutes ago, panamapd said:

We recently did the MSC Opera and thought the ship was terrible.  In fact the only good thing was the kids club!  Our son loves all the activities and the family disco is second to none!  Also he is always placed with another English speaking child.  There were also Italian lessons, which he loved!

 

Beamafar - you may remember me posting about MSC switching from Armonia to the Opera.  MSC said they were sister ships but disappointment in the Opera doesn't cover it!!

 

 

I do, indeed, P.  Sorry to hear you didn't like it.  It's very disappointing when you pay out hard-earned money and the ship lets you down.  We did Orchestra at Christmas 2017;  I never wanted to do another MSC cruise again (we've since done 3 more with another 2 booked for this year!)

 

I almost booked a Cuba cruise on Opera a couple of years ago, but the ship put me off.  I've no idea why, but it just didn't appeal.  We did Armonia last week and loved it - so like Sinfonia and in fantastic condition, too.