MSC Magnifica is the food really as bad as the reviews say?

[2BACRUISER]

Looking at an MSC baltic next year but food Is a HUGE part of our holiday and although Magnifica as a ship has great reviews nearly all complain about the food which really puts us off. Now I know food is subjective but the thought of pizza, which I'm reliably informed is good, for 14 nts and days doesn't fill me with confidence. We're not fussy eaters and I should say we cook from scratch every day for dinner so we like a wide and varied menu.

So what's the true picture or is it just the luck of the draw on that cruise? 

[Morgsmom]

I'd be hopeful for a cruise NEXT year.  Our experience on the Divina was that the food was barely passable. We cook from scratch daily and DH is a chef so we already go in expecting "less."  The food we were offered wasn't even passable.  However, it was the 2nd sailing back after being without guests so it wasn't as if everyone was back in their routine.  It was noticeable, however, how much the base quality of the food products had been downgraded.  For example there was not one single berry (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry) on the ship, likely due to cost.  I am hoping that with time conditions will improve.

[Cruiseforever11]

We've been on the Magnifica and going again in Nov this Yr and next May. Personally we have not had any food issues on any of the 8 cruises we have done with msc and I do have a food allergy too but the food from our point of view is ok with plenty to choose from and yes the pizza is the best and is always freshly made. There maybe some people who would say we are lucky then that we have not had a bad experience with the food bit of the cruise. Food is the not the be and end all for us personally. We don't choose a cruise based on food reviews. If we have something and we don't like it we just don't have it again and choose something different but that's just us. Everyone one is different with what their likes and dislikes are and what their expectations are too.

[miataman19]

We just got off Meraviglia . We did stay in The Yacht Club so that might have something to do with it. The food there was amazing. They will cater to any need or wants you have (within reason). Been in the food service industry since 1969 and attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY (very expensive , only attended 1 year...lol). I'm the same as Morgsmom, we expect "less" but this experience beat our expectations. Food is so subjective to each individual. I might love a particular dish and you might hate it so to generalize that any lines food is not good is shortchanging yourself.

[pretzlaff]

We just got of Divina last week.  We are not picky, but the food was really not good. 
We were in Yacht Club and the Yacht Club restaurant was nothing special at all.  In the four days, we only ate there for one dinner and one lunch.  The dinner included a veal chop that they had breaded and baked.  Not a good way to treat a nice piece of meat.  One dessert was a small piece of sheet cake that was yellow with chocolate frosting on top.  It looked like a school lunch cake.  It had very little flavor.  Filet steak seemed to have been baked or roasted or something.  Yacht Club snacks in the Top Sail lounge were sad and we only ate them once.

 

The buffet was tough to eat at.  There were maybe 9 stations.  We would wander past each station finding nothing that looked very good.  The Italian dishes were all in big baking pans and you really couldn't tell what it was.  They would scoop it on to a plate for you.  I maybe took food from 3 of the 9 stations and one of these was a hamburger and one was the pizza.  One day the meat slicing station had 'chuck roast'.  I got some thinking that they had miss-translated the type of meat, but, sure enough, it was chuck roast.

 

Indeed, the underlying food is of poor quality and it is prepared poorly.

 

This is in contrast to Ovation of the Seas in Alaska 3 weeks ago, where 90% of the food was great.  In the buffet there were about 12 food stations and I happily ate from 9 of them.  Fresh berries and fruit.  Excellent cuts of meat.  Great grilled fish.  Fun desserts.  Indeed, we were so happy with the buffet that we stopped eating in the Coastal Kitchen, their suite restaurant.

 

We have a transatlantic for March scheduled with them for 16 days.  I will not make final payment in December mostly because of the food.  I will roll the deposit into a very short Florida cruise but dread taking it.

 

Now folks can chime in with 'food is SO subjective'.

[dexddd]

1 hour ago, pretzlaff said:

We just got of Divina last week.  We are not picky, but the food was really not good. 
We were in Yacht Club and the Yacht Club restaurant was nothing special at all.  In the four days, we only ate there for one dinner and one lunch.  The dinner included a veal chop that they had breaded and baked.  Not a good way to treat a nice piece of meat.  One dessert was a small piece of sheet cake that was yellow with chocolate frosting on top.  It looked like a school lunch cake.  It had very little flavor.  Filet steak seemed to have been baked or roasted or something.  Yacht Club snacks in the Top Sail lounge were sad and we only ate them once.

 

The buffet was tough to eat at.  There were maybe 9 stations.  We would wander past each station finding nothing that looked very good.  The Italian dishes were all in big baking pans and you really couldn't tell what it was.  They would scoop it on to a plate for you.  I maybe took food from 3 of the 9 stations and one of these was a hamburger and one was the pizza.  One day the meat slicing station had 'chuck roast'.  I got some thinking that they had miss-translated the type of meat, but, sure enough, it was chuck roast.

 

Indeed, the underlying food is of poor quality and it is prepared poorly.

 

This is in contrast to Ovation of the Seas in Alaska 3 weeks ago, where 90% of the food was great.  In the buffet there were about 12 food stations and I happily ate from 9 of them.  Fresh berries and fruit.  Excellent cuts of meat.  Great grilled fish.  Fun desserts.  Indeed, we were so happy with the buffet that we stopped eating in the Coastal Kitchen, their suite restaurant.

 

We have a transatlantic for March scheduled with them for 16 days.  I will not make final payment in December mostly because of the food.  I will roll the deposit into a very short Florida cruise but dread taking it.

 

Now folks can chime in with 'food is SO subjective'.

Chiming in, obviously it is.  We were also on Divinia in YC recently and the food was great.  

 

Went to buffet once and while scaled way back, plenty of selections considering ship was only 25% full.

[Gatordad1967]

found the food to be awesome on Meraviglia last month.

 

[lyndarra]

7 hours ago, pretzlaff said:

We just got of Divina last week.  We are not picky, but the food was really not good. 
We were in Yacht Club and the Yacht Club restaurant was nothing special at all.  In the four days, we only ate there for one dinner and one lunch.  The dinner included a veal chop that they had breaded and baked.  Not a good way to treat a nice piece of meat.  One dessert was a small piece of sheet cake that was yellow with chocolate frosting on top.  It looked like a school lunch cake.  It had very little flavor.  Filet steak seemed to have been baked or roasted or something.  Yacht Club snacks in the Top Sail lounge were sad and we only ate them once.

 

The buffet was tough to eat at.  There were maybe 9 stations.  We would wander past each station finding nothing that looked very good.  The Italian dishes were all in big baking pans and you really couldn't tell what it was.  They would scoop it on to a plate for you.  I maybe took food from 3 of the 9 stations and one of these was a hamburger and one was the pizza.  One day the meat slicing station had 'chuck roast'.  I got some thinking that they had miss-translated the type of meat, but, sure enough, it was chuck roast.

 

Indeed, the underlying food is of poor quality and it is prepared poorly.

 

This is in contrast to Ovation of the Seas in Alaska 3 weeks ago, where 90% of the food was great.  In the buffet there were about 12 food stations and I happily ate from 9 of them.  Fresh berries and fruit.  Excellent cuts of meat.  Great grilled fish.  Fun desserts.  Indeed, we were so happy with the buffet that we stopped eating in the Coastal Kitchen, their suite restaurant.

 

We have a transatlantic for March scheduled with them for 16 days.  I will not make final payment in December mostly because of the food.  I will roll the deposit into a very short Florida cruise but dread taking it.

 

Now folks can chime in with 'food is SO subjective'.

Your experience matches mine on my Divina TA Nov 2019. Ordering off the menu in MDR was a bit hit and miss, mostly miss. Not only was the food disappointing but the wait staff often got the order wrong. We cut them a little slack as they seemed to have a huge work load with the number of tables they were servicing. One of my dining buddies was a retired chef - and vegetarian. He had usually ordered a day in advance. Mosy disappointing of all was the standard of Italian dishes which I could not understand mostly bland flavourwise. Limp asparagus was common on dinner plates and I found myself asking for green beans for a little variety. My guess is, the head chef is on a very tight budget.

I would cruise MSC again knowing not to expect anything great as far as MDR food goes. On the contrary, I found the buffet quite good with enough variety to keep me happy although still not as good as other lines I have cruised with. Itinerary is, to me more important and the TA, Genoa/Maimi, more than compensated.

I have cruised on Ovation and it was far and away better than MSC but my favourite for MDR meals is a toss up between Celebrity and HAL.

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by lyndarra