Trip Report: MSC Seaside, Western Caribbean, Feb. 9th, 2019

[CruiseIreland]

Hi. I thought I would post this trip report before I forget lots of things about the cruise. There are zillions of photos of Seaside on CC now, so I won't bother trying to post any, partly because I am struggling to embed pics.

 

 

Background

We are Ken & DW, from Ireland, embarking on our first trip to the US. DW is not a keen flyer and I persuaded her that I had got a great deal on MSC Seaside and we should make a longer trip of it since we were flying so far. Success! Now, DW does not like the sharing tables at dinner aspect of most of our previous cruises so, this time, I splashed out on Aurea so we could have Anytime Dining. I will say that we have met many fabulous people with whom we still stay in touch but we have met some right donkeys. To be honest, I find the 'donkeys' highly entertaining but she does not enjoy the tension of wondering who we will meet. Additionally, having the included drink package, which we upgraded to Deluxe before the changes, would allow us access to the minibar. Also, DW has always wanted to have a hot tub, admittedly outside an Alpine chalet or some such, but I went for the Whirlpool suite as a surprise, which I only shared with everyone here on cruise critic, but she never reads CC. Overall, we would be staying 3 weeks in Florida.

 

First days

I arranged the flights to come in to Miami a few days earlier in case of snow disruption to air traffic, as happened in 2018, causing many to miss their flights to the US. Accommodation in Miami was prohibitively expensive, so I booked 3 nights at the Seafarer Resort and Beach, Key Largo, on the Keys(obviously). We collected our car at Miami Airport Car Rental Center and made it to KL, with the assistance of a satnav we had hired as an extra. Key Largo was a beautiful place and had a magical, air to it which made it a great start.

 

Embarkation

On Saturday, we drove back to MIA and took the Thrifty Car Hire Shuttle to the port. Dropped bags with porter and entered the terminal. We went through screening and proceeded up the escalator to the check-in area. There was no obvious sign for Priority Boarding which comes with Aurea so we queued with everybody until a member of staff came along. Asked her about it and we were sent to the Black Card Member check-in desk. We had no SetSail pass or any paperwork as we had booked via a US travek agent and couldn't print anything. That was no problem although we had to show proof of our ESTAs which, luckily, I had downloaded to my phone. We had our pics taken and were issued our cruise cards and wrist bands and proceeded to board, skipping the customary boarding photo. Entry onto the ship to deck 5 Atrium. Straight to stateroom which was ready. The stateroom is very deep with loads of room and a very useful walk in closet(check out JimZimm's review of an identical stateroom).

 

The moment of the big reveal approached and DW walked out onto the balcony, taking in the view of Miami and only slowly realising that there was a hot tub on her very own balcony. Once she got over the shock, she was really excited and made good use of the tub over the week. After the first time we used it, we were able to avoid drowning the neighbours, above and below.

 

Meet & Mingle

This was arranged for 10.00am on the first day at sea, in the Seaview Lounge. I must say it is the earliest I have ever taken a drink, but it was 3pm at home. A lovely big cake was provided and the Cruise Director, Erik, spoke etc. A photo was taken and delivered to our stateroom a few days later. Turnout was poor, about 15 people.

 

Speciality Dining

We had booked the Trio dining package and had chosen the 10/12/14 Feb as our preferred nights, on booking, just to spread them out. After unpacking, we went up to Deck 16 looking for the buffet but came out at Chef's corner where the Sp. restaurants are located. While there we checked with a staff member and confirmed the times for our meals. All was good except the last night, Feb 14, as it was Valentine's night and Ocean Cay was booked out so they were only able to offer 5.30. We changed this a couple of times over the next couple of days until eventually we settled on Friday 15th for Ocean Cay. 

 

Frustratingly, you cannot access the Biscayne Buffet, same deck, from Chef's Corner, so we had to go down a deck and climb again to the buffet. This is the smaller buffet and it is not always open but was great for a quick lunch and again, on disembarkation day, was a great place for a quiet breakfast.

 

Dining experiences: MDR & Speciality

Our first night dining was in Seashore MDR. We turned up at about 8.15 and had to wait a few minutes but were seated soon enough. Our waiter was very pleasant but struggled to serve his area in anything like a reasonable time. Also, the wine waiter was slow and hard to get to refill glasses. To be fair, he was a bit gutted when we opted to skip dessert as we had booked the show for 9.45.

 

Subsequent nights at the MDR, we were served by Adi and service was excellent. We turned up a bit closer to 8pm. Food in the MDR was usually excellent and the only disappointing main was duck one night. For the first time on MSC, 7 cruises, DW said the fish was not over salted and she even had the mussels one night. Every night a steak was available if nothing on the menu appealed. 

 

As mentioned on other threads, the tables are very close together but I think the system is: every two tables have a gap to one side large enough to allow the waiters to pass through, but they are themselves only a few inches apart. Didn't matter to us and we even had birthday cake shared by the lovely French family on the closest table one night.

Dining times are: Seashore, 5.15, 7.15 & 9.15 - Ipanema, 5.30, 7.30 & 9.30.

 

Speciality Restaurants

The menus and restrictions are posted elsewhere on this forum.

Butchers Cut: We had beautiful Filet Mignon, dessert was chocolate lava cake(?). Fab meal. Wine was served by the glass from an extensive menu after initial confusion, on the part of the Sommelier,  as to whether we had the appropriate package. Waiter sorted that out, the key number being 536. Incidentally, saw a guy eating in Butchers Cut with his baseball cap on. Nobody cares, nor do I.

Pan Asian Restaurant: Once again, MSC Asian restaurant confused me. The menu seems odd to me Lack of chicken on the special menu meant we chose one main from the a la carte menu(at 50% price) and I, once again, opted for the Filet Mignon. The food was very good though. The Captain and some senior officers came in to eat so our servers left us largely to our own devices and fawned all over the Captain and his table. The Sommelier ignored us tonight!

Ocean Cay: This is the more expensive speciality restaurant and was very nicely decorated. Service was very good and the menu a great selection for seafood lovers. Unfortunately, Crab was excluded but before DW could stage a mutiny, we spotted a main or starter that contained enough crab to keep her happy. I had the seabass. Both very good. Interestingly, no substitutions of courses, you had to have the 3.

 

Next time, we might pay as we go and concentrate on BC and OC, skipping Asian altogether, although I would give Teppanyaki a go.

Entertainment

We attended shows on a few nights.

Day 1: Timeless – Time travel. Our scientist discovers the secret to time travel and journeys through the ages etc. Very talented singing and dancing, juggling, not so high ring, contortionists, skaters and dancers.

Day 2: The Wizard – Secret of eternal youth. Did not go to this.

Day 3: My Life in Music – Some classics by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ennio Morricone etc.  Very talented singing and dancing, juggling, not so high ring, contortionists, skaters and dancers.

Day 4: The Dream: Didn’t go but imagine “Very talented singing and dancing, juggling, not so high ring, contortionists, skaters and dancers.”

Day 5: Fly: Broadway style spectacular but imagine etc…

Day 6: Peter Punk – take on the Peter Pan story. Didn’t go to this but…well, you get it.

Day 7: Starwalker: Excellent dance skills, juggling and pole dancing to the tunes of Michael Jackson. Very good. I wonder if they will keep it on the ships for much longer?

 

Other:

Lone singer in the main atrium, in front of the big screens, good singer if a strangely feminine voice.

Latin Express(duo) played fantastic music in the Haven lounge every night. Very good band on before them but I don’t have their name.

Ports of Call

We stopped in:

Jamaica, Ocho Rios, - just went to Margaritaville. $55 for VIP area, 2 beds, umbrella, 2 free cocktails and wifi.

Grand Cayman,- took public bus to Calico Jacks, $2.50 pp ew. Calico Jacks was ok, $20 for 2 beds, umbrella and wifi.

Cozumel, just walked off and shopped in port area as forecast was dull. Good souvenirs. For fun, I took the flyer with offers from various retailers of free gifts and collected as many as possible. All junk, as you may imagine.

Puerto Maya. The only excursion we booked was in Puerto Maya where we booked with Natice Choice to see the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben. The tour lasted 4hrs30m and was very good and great value at $55 versus $96 for MSC same tour.

 

Overall impressions:

Ship, very impressive, lots of reflective surfaces inside. The outdoor seating area at the Marketplace Buffet was a great place to have breakfast or lunch. Always seats available. Buffet was usually very good but the Ethnic corner did not have much in the way of Mexican or other Caribbean food. The self serve drinks(wine and beer) were seldom working/all working.

 

The minibar was disappointing. Apart from an unending supply of bottled water and soft drinks/nuts, we found that we were restricted to a min scotch, gin & vodka per day plus some beers. No wine or Irish whiskey would be supplied despite being requested. 

 

Disembarkation

To my surprise, us being Aurea and all that, we were given tags to leave the ship at 8.10am! Not happening! We got up about 7.45am and went to breakfast at about 8.30. Used the Biscayne buffet on deck 16. Very quiet. We strolled off at about 9.30 and tried to find our bags. Being Aurea, ours were in the VIP area but nobody seemed to know where that was. Finally found it on the other side of a wall. No great signage. Quite quickly through CBP/Immigration and outside.

We had a great cruise and would have little bad to say about MSC Seaside. The Caribbean was a delight and we’re really glad we saw part of it but I don’t feel the need to complete the circuit and do the Eastern of Southern, but at the right price, who knows!

 

Following the cruise, we had 10 great days in Florida, catching the launch in Cape Canaveral.

 

If I have left anything out, tell me! Any questions, I will try to answer. Ken

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by CruiseIreland

[Beamafar]

Hooray ... I've been looking forward to reading about your escapades, Ken.

 

Delighted to hear the surprise went down well.

 

I've been wondering, too, about whether the Starwalker show will be on for much longer.  I was going to bring it up before now, but didn't want to open that particular can of worms.  Hopefully mentioning it here won't trigger a bruahaha about the rights or wrongs of continuing with it/removing it.  If anyone wants to debate it, I respectfully request they start their own thread on the subject and don't hijack this one.

 

ETA ... I've been toying with the idea of trying out Ocean Cay.  We're not big fish eaters but I am partial to sea bass and DH loves mussels and crab.  However, when it comes to our Black Card perk, Butcher's Cut wins out.  However, you've tempted me to give OC a go.

 

I'm surprised your DW has found the fish dishes salty on prior cruises.  That has never been my experience (though I do use a lot of salt, which might explain it).

Edited March 12, 2019 by Beamafar

[BadSanta]

Great review!

 

We are going to many of the same ports. Just wonder if it's easy to do the excurcions on your own? I think many of the excurcions are a bit pricy, bet you can do it better on your own with taxi or local comapny?

[Captain-John]

Thanks for your review. There are so many things in your review that have me thinking 'Only on MSC' which is such a familiar feeling!

 

I find the Western Caribbean a bit 'meh' and far prefer the Eastern/Southern (with the exception of Grand Cayman). The Mexico stops were totally uninspiring for me and I was always looking over my shoulder in Jamaica.

 

Definitely don't write the rest of the Caribbean off as I think it has a very different feel to it. 🙂

[CruiseIreland]

1 hour ago, BadSanta said:

Great review!

 

We are going to many of the same ports. Just wonder if it's easy to do the excurcions on your own? I think many of the excurcions are a bit pricy, bet you can do it better on your own with taxi or local comapny?

Hi, there. Thanks for the kind words. Private excursions or beach resort are doable in all resorts. We used Native Choice on recommendations from CC Caribbean boards. Ken

[CruiseIreland]

3 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Hooray ... I've been looking forward to reading about your escapades, Ken.

 

Delighted to hear the surprise went down well.

 

I've been wondering, too, about whether the Starwalker show will be on for much longer.  I was going to bring it up before now, but didn't want to open that particular can of worms.  Hopefully mentioning it here won't trigger a bruahaha about the rights or wrongs of continuing with it/removing it.  If anyone wants to debate it, I respectfully request they start their own thread on the subject and don't hijack this one.

 

ETA ... I've been toying with the idea of trying out Ocean Cay.  We're not big fish eaters but I am partial to sea bass and DH loves mussels and crab.  However, when it comes to our Black Card perk, Butcher's Cut wins out.  However, you've tempted me to give OC a go.

 

I'm surprised your DW has found the fish dishes salty on prior cruises.  That has never been my experience (though I do use a lot of salt, which might explain it).

Thanks Bea. There is so much of the atmosphere on Seaside that l just can't capture in a trip report. I was pretty much converted to Latin music by Latin Express. I still hum it tonelessly in my head. The cruise was just one week in a 3 week trip that was fantastic overall.

 

Regarding salty fish, that has always amazed me. DW is a salt fiend and yet she found fish dishes on MSC very salty whereas l didn't and I rarely use salt. Go figure! Yes, l could stay in Butchers Cut. If you're going to Ocean Cay for crab, the choice is limited. DW said the mussels in the MDR were fabulous!

 

I really think MSC needs to look at its theatre shows. The fabulous talent is wasted on the nonsense they are putting on. Yes, l wonderful if Starwalker will be replaced by something like a Daniel O'Donnell tribute. 32 years with a top 10 albums each year! Wow! 

 

One thing l think l omitted was that the staff were almost all very pleasant, even in the busy bars. Only two grumps come to mind, both in the Top 19 bar, surprisingly.

 

Ken

[CruiseIreland]

1 hour ago, Captain-John said:

Thanks for your review. There are so many things in your review that have me thinking 'Only on MSC' which is such a familiar feeling!

 

I find the Western Caribbean a bit 'meh' and far prefer the Eastern/Southern (with the exception of Grand Cayman). The Mexico stops were totally uninspiring for me and I was always looking over my shoulder in Jamaica.

 

Definitely don't write the rest of the Caribbean off as I think it has a very different feel to it. 🙂

Thanks Captain John. Yes, Jamaica would be one place l would only use a tour, mainland Mexico another. Really wanted to see Mayan ruins so Western was favoured. If the right flights came up, l wouldn't rule out eastern or southern.

[Beamafar]

10 minutes ago, CruiseIreland said:

I really think MSC needs to look at its theatre shows. The fabulous talent is wasted on the nonsense they are putting on. Yes, l wonder if Starwalker will be replaced by something like a Daniel O'Donnell tribute. 32 years with a top 10 albums each year! Wow! 

 

You wouldn't seriously inflict that on anybody, Ken - certainly not on a ship where people would have nowhere else to go only overboard.  I can just hear the cry "Abandon ship".  😱

 

12 minutes ago, CruiseIreland said:

If the right flights came up, l wouldn't rule out eastern or southern.

 

Maybe you'd consider sailing down for 2 weeks and adding a 7 night Southern Caribbean as a B2B.  The only flights your DW would have to worry about would be a flight to Barcelona, then a long haul with a connection home.  I'm referring to Splendida's repo to Martinique in Nov 2020 which has an attractive price tag.  DH has just been looking at it and is keen.

[CruiseIreland]

19 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

 

You wouldn't seriously inflict that on anybody, Ken - certainly not on a ship where people would have nowhere else to go only overboard.  I can just hear the cry "Abandon ship".  😱

 

 

Maybe you'd consider sailing down for 2 weeks and adding a 7 night Southern Caribbean as a B2B.  The only flights your DW would have to worry about would be a flight to Barcelona, then a long haul with a connection home.  I'm referring to Splendida's repo to Martinique in Nov 2020 which has an attractive price tag.  DH has just been looking at it and is keen.

Oh no! No way she'll do a TA. It would be flight over to the USA or some Caribbean destination. Thanks tho!

[scpirate]

On 3/12/2019 at 3:11 PM, Captain-John said:

Thanks for your review. There are so many things in your review that have me thinking 'Only on MSC' which is such a familiar feeling!

 

I find the Western Caribbean a bit 'meh' and far prefer the Eastern/Southern (with the exception of Grand Cayman). The Mexico stops were totally uninspiring for me and I was always looking over my shoulder in Jamaica.

 

Definitely don't write the rest of the Caribbean off as I think it has a very different feel to it. 🙂

I wouldn't waste money on the eastern Caribbean but southern I think is worth it out of Puerto Rico.

[CruiseIreland]

16 hours ago, scpirate said:

I wouldn't waste money on the eastern Caribbean but southern I think is worth it out of Puerto Rico.

A colleague sailed out of Puerto Rico on Royal and really enjoyed staying in PR. It seems a shame that MSC have such an odd stop in PR. Despite what I posted above, I have been toying with a 2020 cruise on Meraviglia, from Miami, visiting Belize & Honduras amongst others and of course, Ocean Cay! You never know!