Seashore - 3/12 Sailing - Our 1st MSC experience

[DisneyTech]

I know there is another thread about this topic already, but I wanted to share our experience on the March 12th sailing on the Seashore without bombarding the other thread. 
 

First off, I want to say that we are myself, my wife, and our 6 year old daughter. We are Diamond Voyagers Club members through status match, and this is our first MEC cruise. 
 

While our list of complaints is long, the staff is doing their best, but they have been put in an impossible situation by the corporate office booking more people than they can handle. 
 

Also, not everything is awful.. unfortunately the good is just overpowered by the bad. Butchers Cut was delicious, the people are great, and the drinks are overall good. 
 

I plan on writing a longer review with more details once we get home, but if anyone has any questions on anything in the meantime, go ahead and ask. 
 

Check-In

• MSC Voyager Club Diamond Status (through status match) - arrived expecting priority check-in, like it says in benefits section. No Diamond check in. Only Aurea and Yacht Club. 
• Check in room 2 hours total. It was absolute chaos.
• They are using a terminal that is under construction, so indoor space is tiny. 
• Outdoor luggage drop was a mess, with bags piled everywhere and very little signage. We almost got hit my other cars multiple times. 
• Closest parking garage is two terminals down. 

 

Elevators

• This elevator system can’t handle the number of passengers. You will often wait 5+ min for an elevator to arrive, only for it to be completely full and you have to start over again.

 

Ship Policies

• COVID policies are very loosely, but unpredictability enforced. 
  • Masks not enforced around the ship. Most people aren’t even pretending to wear them. 
  • Make you put mask on when you enter buffet, but no enforcement once you come through the doors. 
  • Forcing people to find and wear masks to sign waivers at the water park, even though it’s outdoors where masks aren’t required. 
• For children under 12 to disembark at ports, they need a wristband from guest services. 
  • We tried to get off the ship and we’re told she couldn’t get off without a wristband and we needed to go to guest services. 
  • When we got there, we were told that they needed to see her vaccine card (despite showing it at checking, and then taking photos of it)
  • This meant we had to go back up to deck 14 and get her card, then go back to deck 5 and get her wristband, then down to 4 to disembark.
  • None of this was ever mentioned in advance. Guest services said they tried to call the room twice, but no one answered. They never left a message or placed a letter in our room. 

 

Drink Package

• We upgraded to Premium Drinks before we boarded. Found out onboard that there are venues where you can’t use your package, even if the prices are below the limit. 
  • Not allowed to use drink package in Venchi for any drinks on the menu, but you can get ‘normal’ drinks with package. 
  • No drink packages accepted at all, no matter what drink, in ‘Hola!’, even though all drinks are $15 and under. 

 

Spa Thermal Area 

(Couples pass - $360+ 15% service fee)

• Items not working for multiple days
  • Half of indoor jacuzzi tub
  • Hot mists / aromatherapy was cold
• Ceramic chairs were almost always being held with personal belongings or towels, but rarely used. 
  • Should have been removing items and had signs not to reserve.

Staterooms

• Tiny
• No storage
• Can’t access half of closet
• No access to couch if 3rd person in room.
  • No where to sit in room besides beds. 
  • They leave the couch made up as a bed all the time, unlike other lines that only pull out the bed at turndown time. 
• Bathroom Tiny
  • Not enough room to sit straight on toilet.
  • Can barely wash yourself in shower.

 

Dining

• People are constantly harassing you to buy specialty dining reservations. 
  • Will often get asked 3 or 4 times at every bar and every time we sit down at the buffet. 
  • It would be great if these employees could be used to open more buffet lines. 

 

Main Dining Room

• Given no information on first night about seating time, weren’t told until we asked that we had anytime dining.
• Main dining room takes forever
• Main dining room food is terrible
• Night 1 - ordered main course and dessert. Got main course 1 hour in. Gave up at 1hr 45min and left without dessert. 
• Night 2 - dinner totaled just over two hours for appetizer, entree, and dessert. We waited approx. 30 min between finishing our entrees and receiving dessert. 
• Night 4 (night 3 was specialty restaurant) - much much faster. Approx 1 hour total for 3 courses. 
• On nights 1 and 2 waiters seemed absolutely swamped. They simply don’t have enough staff to support a full dining room. 

 

Buffet

• Only 1/4 of the buffet is open most of the time, even though ship is over half full. 
• Often takes 15-20 min to get to one station. 
  • If you want food from another station, you have to wait in another 15-20 min line. 
• The “bar” in the buffet is almost pointless. You can only get soda, small water, and beer. No energy drinks, no mixed drinks, etc…

 

Bars

• Bars are way understaffed, leading to long waits for drinks. 
• Bartenders often make ‘premium drinks’ with well liquors, instead of the ones listed on the menu. 
• Overall, bar menus are good, with lots of options. 
• Drink quality is inconsistent. 

 

Kids Club

• Hours are multiple small chunks of time, with closed times throughout the day. 
  • Leads to massive lines at opening and closing times. 
  • Also makes it hard to plan around. 
  • Other things like splash park are also closed when kids club is closed. 
• Tiny lobby where all 3 clubs drop off and pick up. 
  • Also leads to long lines and overcrowding. 
• Our child enjoys it, but says it’s very chaotic and disorganized. 
• We were given wrong info about kids being allowed to eat lunch at the club on port days (we were told they could only if parents were gone on an excursion; in reality, all kids can eat lunch on port days only)

 

Pools

• Very spread out around the ship, requiring you to dry off and walk through buffet or other indoor areas to get from one to the other. 
• Pool towels are only available from your room. None out on deck. 
  • If you use your towel and it’s wet, it seems like you have to wait for your room steward to exchange it for a new one. 
  • There is one ‘towel exchange’ window near the Long Island Pool, but we’ve never seen it open. 

 

Splash Pad / Water Park

• Splash pad hours are terrible. 
• Splash pad is overcrowded and unsafe
  • Witnessed older kids having full on fist fights and holding other kids under water. There were no employees around to stop it. When I went to one of the slides to tell an employee he said: “there is a sign that says no lifeguard on duty”. He couldn’t care less. 
• There is literally zero seating and no cubbies or anywhere else to place personal belongings, towels, etc. 
• To ride the slides, you have to sign a waiver and get a wristband.
  • Even though the table with the waivers is out on the pool deck, they are requiring you to wear masks to fill out paperwork. (Many people don’t have them with them at the pool, and masks aren’t enforced most places on the ship, so most people aren’t wearing them at all)
  • Height requirement is 40” for slides, but you must be 7 years old. Which means our 6 year old, who is 48” tall, can’t ride anything but the tiny baby slides. 
    • Many parents are just lying about their kids age, because they don’t check anything in a computer when you fill out the form. Nothing to keep you from making up a fake room number, name, age, etc…

 

 

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, DisneyTech said:

I know there is another thread about this topic already, but I wanted to share our experience on the March 12th sailing on the Seashore without bombarding the other thread. 
 

First off, I want to say that we are myself, my wife, and our 6 year old daughter. We are Diamond Voyagers Club members through status match, and this is our first MEC cruise. 
 

While our list of complaints is long, the staff is doing their best, but they have been put in an impossible situation by the corporate office booking more people than they can handle. 
 

Also, not everything is awful.. unfortunately the good is just overpowered by the bad. Butchers Cut was delicious, the people are great, and the drinks are overall good. 
 

I plan on writing a longer review with more details once we get home, but if anyone has any questions on anything in the meantime, go ahead and ask. 
 

Check-In

• MSC Voyager Club Diamond Status (through status match) - arrived expecting priority check-in, like it says in benefits section. No Diamond check in. Only Aurea and Yacht Club. 
• Check in room 2 hours total. It was absolute chaos.
• They are using a terminal that is under construction, so indoor space is tiny. 
• Outdoor luggage drop was a mess, with bags piled everywhere and very little signage. We almost got hit my other cars multiple times. 
• Closest parking garage is two terminals down. 

 

Elevators

• This elevator system can’t handle the number of passengers. You will often wait 5+ min for an elevator to arrive, only for it to be completely full and you have to start over again.

 

Ship Policies

• COVID policies are very loosely, but unpredictability enforced. 
  • Masks not enforced around the ship. Most people aren’t even pretending to wear them. 
  • Make you put mask on when you enter buffet, but no enforcement once you come through the doors. 
  • Forcing people to find and wear masks to sign waivers at the water park, even though it’s outdoors where masks aren’t required. 
• For children under 12 to disembark at ports, they need a wristband from guest services. 
  • We tried to get off the ship and we’re told she couldn’t get off without a wristband and we needed to go to guest services. 
  • When we got there, we were told that they needed to see her vaccine card (despite showing it at checking, and then taking photos of it)
  • This meant we had to go back up to deck 14 and get her card, then go back to deck 5 and get her wristband, then down to 4 to disembark.
  • None of this was ever mentioned in advance. Guest services said they tried to call the room twice, but no one answered. They never left a message or placed a letter in our room. 

 

Drink Package

• We upgraded to Premium Drinks before we boarded. Found out onboard that there are venues where you can’t use your package, even if the prices are below the limit. 
  • Not allowed to use drink package in Venchi for any drinks on the menu, but you can get ‘normal’ drinks with package. 
  • No drink packages accepted at all, no matter what drink, in ‘Hola!’, even though all drinks are $15 and under. 

 

Spa Thermal Area 

(Couples pass - $360+ 15% service fee)

• Items not working for multiple days
  • Half of indoor jacuzzi tub
  • Hot mists / aromatherapy was cold
• Ceramic chairs were almost always being held with personal belongings or towels, but rarely used. 
  • Should have been removing items and had signs not to reserve.

Staterooms

• Tiny
• No storage
• Can’t access half of closet
• No access to couch if 3rd person in room.
  • No where to sit in room besides beds. 
  • They leave the couch made up as a bed all the time, unlike other lines that only pull out the bed at turndown time. 
• Bathroom Tiny
  • Not enough room to sit straight on toilet.
  • Can barely wash yourself in shower.

 

Dining

• People are constantly harassing you to buy specialty dining reservations. 
  • Will often get asked 3 or 4 times at every bar and every time we sit down at the buffet. 
  • It would be great if these employees could be used to open more buffet lines. 

 

Main Dining Room

• Given no information on first night about seating time, weren’t told until we asked that we had anytime dining.
• Main dining room takes forever
• Main dining room food is terrible
• Night 1 - ordered main course and dessert. Got main course 1 hour in. Gave up at 1hr 45min and left without dessert. 
• Night 2 - dinner totaled just over two hours for appetizer, entree, and dessert. We waited approx. 30 min between finishing our entrees and receiving dessert. 
• Night 4 (night 3 was specialty restaurant) - much much faster. Approx 1 hour total for 3 courses. 
• On nights 1 and 2 waiters seemed absolutely swamped. They simply don’t have enough staff to support a full dining room. 

 

Buffet

• Only 1/4 of the buffet is open most of the time, even though ship is over half full. 
• Often takes 15-20 min to get to one station. 
  • If you want food from another station, you have to wait in another 15-20 min line. 
• The “bar” in the buffet is almost pointless. You can only get soda, small water, and beer. No energy drinks, no mixed drinks, etc…

 

Bars

• Bars are way understaffed, leading to long waits for drinks. 
• Bartenders often make ‘premium drinks’ with well liquors, instead of the ones listed on the menu. 
• Overall, bar menus are good, with lots of options. 
• Drink quality is inconsistent. 

 

Kids Club

• Hours are multiple small chunks of time, with closed times throughout the day. 
  • Leads to massive lines at opening and closing times. 
  • Also makes it hard to plan around. 
  • Other things like splash park are also closed when kids club is closed. 
• Tiny lobby where all 3 clubs drop off and pick up. 
  • Also leads to long lines and overcrowding. 
• Our child enjoys it, but says it’s very chaotic and disorganized. 
• We were given wrong info about kids being allowed to eat lunch at the club on port days (we were told they could only if parents were gone on an excursion; in reality, all kids can eat lunch on port days only)

 

Pools

• Very spread out around the ship, requiring you to dry off and walk through buffet or other indoor areas to get from one to the other. 
• Pool towels are only available from your room. None out on deck. 
  • If you use your towel and it’s wet, it seems like you have to wait for your room steward to exchange it for a new one. 
  • There is one ‘towel exchange’ window near the Long Island Pool, but we’ve never seen it open. 

 

Splash Pad / Water Park

• Splash pad hours are terrible. 
• Splash pad is overcrowded and unsafe
  • Witnessed older kids having full on fist fights and holding other kids under water. There were no employees around to stop it. When I went to one of the slides to tell an employee he said: “there is a sign that says no lifeguard on duty”. He couldn’t care less. 
• There is literally zero seating and no cubbies or anywhere else to place personal belongings, towels, etc. 
• To ride the slides, you have to sign a waiver and get a wristband.
  • Even though the table with the waivers is out on the pool deck, they are requiring you to wear masks to fill out paperwork. (Many people don’t have them with them at the pool, and masks aren’t enforced most places on the ship, so most people aren’t wearing them at all)
  • Height requirement is 40” for slides, but you must be 7 years old. Which means our 6 year old, who is 48” tall, can’t ride anything but the tiny baby slides. 
    • Many parents are just lying about their kids age, because they don’t check anything in a computer when you fill out the form. Nothing to keep you from making up a fake room number, name, age, etc…

 

 

Sounds about right.

Be thankful you have not had to deal with customer service on the phone 

Did you get your room you booked?

How many onboard?

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

My recollection from Seaview last summer is that you can barely talk to Reception or Shorex if there is a band or DJ playing (which is often) because they're in the same room and it's TOO LOUD to hear. Terrible design issue there.

[DisneyDatknee]

I did not have the best experience on MSC last year, but booked the Seaside again because price. Did you feel the premium upgrade was worth it? I know how much our drinks were in August, but I have a feeling they changed it to make the Easy Plus different. 

[DisneyTech]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Sounds about right.

Be thankful you have not had to deal with customer service on the phone 

Did you get your room you booked?

How many onboard?

We’ve had the displeasure of calling them in the past. 
 

we did get the room we booked. 
 

I’ve been told around 3,000 on board. 
 

1 hour ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

My recollection from Seaview last summer is that you can barely talk to Reception or Shorex if there is a band or DJ playing (which is often) because they're in the same room and it's TOO LOUD to hear. Terrible design issue there.

Correct. One of many design issues with the ship. 
 

 

Just now, DisneyDatknee said:

I did not have the best experience on MSC last year, but booked the Seaside again because price. Did you feel the premium upgrade was worth it? I know how much our drinks were in August, but I have a feeling they changed it to make the Easy Plus different. 

We booked a package that included the cheaper package, so we felt the upgrade is worth it so we can get mostly whatever we want. It does annoy us that they randomly pick places to not let you use the package, like the chocolate bar and the Mexican restaurant. 

[clemsonlori98]

I am so sorry you are having all of these issues. ☹️  My family sets sail on April 9.   If they opened up more of the buffet would these long lines disappear?    Is it your feeling that they just don't have the amount of staff needed or MSC decided to just keep everything partially opened?  Do you think this is a choice by MSC or just they were caught off guard by the staff/passenger ratio?      

I am curious about other services around the ship.    Are dirty towels piling up around the pool/trash cans being emptied/cleanliness of public restrooms/etc?     

 

Hope your cruise gets better!!   

[DisneyTech]

57 minutes ago, clemsonlori98 said:

I am so sorry you are having all of these issues. ☹️  My family sets sail on April 9.   If they opened up more of the buffet would these long lines disappear?    Is it your feeling that they just don't have the amount of staff needed or MSC decided to just keep everything partially opened?  Do you think this is a choice by MSC or just they were caught off guard by the staff/passenger ratio?      

I am curious about other services around the ship.    Are dirty towels piling up around the pool/trash cans being emptied/cleanliness of public restrooms/etc?     

 

Hope your cruise gets better!!   

In general, the layout of the buffet is very odd and makes it very hard to see what’s open and what offerings there are. That being said, I do think more of the buffet being open would decrease lines. 
 

I think the majority of the problems are related to not having enough staff. Some crew have said that there are more staff on the way, but in my opinion, MSC had no right to sell the cruise to this many people if they couldn’t have enough crew on board to support them. 
 

There are lots of dirty glasses and trash piling up in various places. There are no overflowing trash cans, mostly because there are almost no trash cans to be found. 

[Paphillyguy]

Sad to read this because in December we did not encounter any of these issues.  I think they will get it under control.  

[JT1962]

From reviews / comments I have read, other cruise lines are struggling with staffing issues currently as well, with the Spring Break crowds. I am guessing it takes several weeks to get staff from their home countries to the ships. By the time sales / marketing let them know the passenger counts would be up, it was probably too late to get additional staff ready. If they have the issues with hiring that most US hospitality companies are having, they may not be able to fill all the positions.

 

Things have changed quickly. I was on Meraviglia Jan 23-30, and we had less than 600 passengers and about 1,500 crew. 

Edited March 16, 2022 by JT1962

[fish_guru]

1 hour ago, JT1962 said:

From reviews / comments I have read, other cruise lines are struggling with staffing issues currently as well, with the Spring Break crowds. I am guessing it takes several weeks to get staff from their home countries to the ships. By the time sales / marketing let them know the passenger counts would be up, it was probably too late to get additional staff ready. If they have the issues with hiring that most US hospitality companies are having, they may not be able to fill all the positions.

 

Things have changed quickly. I was on Meraviglia Jan 23-30, and we had less than 600 passengers and about 1,500 crew. 

I get what you're saying but I have to imagine they know well in advance what their passenger count will be or, at the very least, a very good estimate.  After all, they decide how many cabins to make available for booking. 

 

I would also guess that MSC is more inclined to increase passenger counts because of the financial flogging that they've endured as a result of the pandemic. That said, they're really shooting themselves in the foot in the name of short term financial gain. 

 

All these people on this cruise, especially first time MSC customers are leaving with a horrible impression. They're not likely to ever sail with MSC again. In addition, they're going to go home and lambaste MSC to anyone and everyone who will listen. 

[DisneyTech]

Just now, fish_guru said:

I get what you're saying but I have to imagine they know well in advance what their passenger count will be or, at the very least, a very good estimate.  After all, they decide how many cabins to make available for booking. 

 

I would also guess that MSC is more inclined to increase passenger counts because of the financial flogging that they've endured as a result of the pandemic. That said, they're really shooting themselves in the foot in the name of short term financial gain. 

 

All these people on this cruise, especially first time MSC customers are leaving with a horrible impression. They're not likely to ever sail with MSC again. In addition, they're going to go home and lambaste MSC to anyone and everyone who will listen. 

I 100% agree. This is purely poor operational planning. MSC corporate is fully to blame for not having a better staffing strategy in place. 
 

I understand that it may be difficult to find crew, but if you can’t provide the needed staff, then you shouldn’t sell the rooms. 
 

In my mind, MSC is intentionally taking full fare from customers with zero intention of delivering a full experience. 
 

Every guest on this cruise deserves a partial refund. 
 

 

[Morgsmom]

42 minutes ago, DisneyTech said:

I 100% agree. This is purely poor operational planning. MSC corporate is fully to blame for not having a better staffing strategy in place. 
I understand that it may be difficult to find crew, but if you can’t provide the needed staff, then you shouldn’t sell the rooms. 

In my mind, MSC is intentionally taking full fare from customers with zero intention of delivering a full experience. 

Every guest on this cruise deserves a partial refund. 

 

I am sorry that @DisneyTechdid not enjoy, HOWEVER, if he/she had spent a little time researching and understanding what was included and the passenger loads they might have been more knowledgeable.

• No drink packages are allowed in Venchi or Tapas - that's very clearly spelled out.
• They have suspended priority boarding for Diamond, also well known.
• Passenger loads tripled in the past week - it's not like you can just magically fly in extra trained crew or grab them off the other ships all of which have spiked in numbers
  • This will impact how many employees are available for everything - from buffet staffing, bar staffing, etc
• IMO, MSC is not taking full fare - these current fares are a bargain vs "normal" times.  You don't indicate if you were status matched b/c of a hotel or another cruise line.  If a cruise line then you know that for a cabin and beverage package on X you'd pay 3x more, and on Disney it'd be 4 or 5 times more.  
• MSC is going to sell every single room they can; as would a hotel.  It's a fixed occupancy situation.  Once the boat sets sail that's the # of guests you have for the week...
• Kid's clubs on MSC are not like the other cruiselines. Indeed shorter hours.  
• Your seating time for dinner is indicated on your cruise card; it should have been pointed out when you checked in.  
• The employees walking around the buffet to upsell you are employees of the venues (Butcher's Cut, etc); they are not buffet staff.  (Though I agree they are annoying).
• If a bartender was using a well liquor I'd certainly call them out on it, HOWEVER, high guest count volumes and big drinking guests have caused onboard outages in liquors.  Unfortunately they only stock up in Miami and will never dig into the duty free offerings.  (Thus there was a Tito's shortage two weeks ago on the MERA but the shop was full).

Cruising right now has a lot of hiccups, to be fair.  Does MSC exacerbate them?  Yup. They sure do.  But for the low fares you have to pack a hefty dose of patience.  MY opinion only.

 

 

[Oxo]

4 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

 

I am sorry that @DisneyTechdid not enjoy, HOWEVER, if he/she had spent a little time researching and understanding what was included and the passenger loads they might have been more knowledgeable.

• No drink packages are allowed in Venchi or Tapas - that's very clearly spelled out.
• They have suspended priority boarding for Diamond, also well known.
• Passenger loads tripled in the past week - it's not like you can just magically fly in extra trained crew or grab them off the other ships all of which have spiked in numbers
  • This will impact how many employees are available for everything - from buffet staffing, bar staffing, etc
• IMO, MSC is not taking full fare - these current fares are a bargain vs "normal" times.  You don't indicate if you were status matched b/c of a hotel or another cruise line.  If a cruise line then you know that for a cabin and beverage package on X you'd pay 3x more, and on Disney it'd be 4 or 5 times more.  
• MSC is going to sell every single room they can; as would a hotel.  It's a fixed occupancy situation.  Once the boat sets sail that's the # of guests you have for the week...
• Kid's clubs on MSC are not like the other cruiselines. Indeed shorter hours.  
• Your seating time for dinner is indicated on your cruise card; it should have been pointed out when you checked in.  
• The employees walking around the buffet to upsell you are employees of the venues (Butcher's Cut, etc); they are not buffet staff.  (Though I agree they are annoying).
• If a bartender was using a well liquor I'd certainly call them out on it, HOWEVER, high guest count volumes and big drinking guests have caused onboard outages in liquors.  Unfortunately they only stock up in Miami and will never dig into the duty free offerings.  (Thus there was a Tito's shortage two weeks ago on the MERA but the shop was full).

Cruising right now has a lot of hiccups, to be fair.  Does MSC exacerbate them?  Yup. They sure do.  But for the low fares you have to pack a hefty dose of patience.  MY opinion only.

 

 

You are a very good cheerleader! Why do  you know all the reasons for all these shortcomings and can explain them. When MSC doesn't know how to correct them? 

You make MSC prices sound like Wal-Mart cost cutting. LOL

Bottom line is like you imply,  you get what you pay for. 

Low cost, many shortcomings.

[Morgsmom]

23 minutes ago, Oxo said:

You are a very good cheerleader! Why do  you know all the reasons for all these shortcomings and can explain them. When MSC doesn't know how to correct them? 

You make MSC prices sound like Wal-Mart cost cutting. LOL

Bottom line is like you imply,  you get what you pay for. 

Low cost, many shortcomings.

Not a Cheerleader; an informed consumer.

 

MSC prices are supply/demand dependent.  No one booking a cruise - lower the price, high demand, raise the price.  Just like airplanes.  They take off regardless of the numbers of seats occupied so they want to maximize revenue.  Simple economics.

 

As far as reacting to demand changes- the ships were at 1000 pax just last week, it has tripled in a week.  Onboard employees (of the lower level service type, not the officers) have 9 month contracts.  So the cruise line is magically going to find new employees, train them, move them, and agree to keep them on for 9 months just in time for a spring break resurgence.  

 

If you see the reports from Miami/South Beach this week they are experiencing the same issues.  Not enough staff in hotels and restaurants (due to greater socio-economic reasons impacting the hospitality sector).

[Paphillyguy]

I think that what a lot of people are forgetting is that there still is a pandemic and that there are certain operational changes that have been in place because of that.  These are documented and out there if someone does any research on their cruise prior to going especially if they are on this message board.  You can not expect the same as before right now.  Just because there are more guests and some may feel that there is no longer a pandemic does not mean things are back to normal.  I am not saying that MSC should not have planned staffing better because of the larger crowds and maybe they should have held off on some of the bookings.  But they struggling as well and are trying to make money.  Getting staff and the quarantine  period is very hard right now.  I look at this as the first sailing of a new ship, there are learning curses to get through.  It will get better. 

[Paphillyguy]

One other thing that might make it hard to anticipate the exact crowd is the 48 hour prior cancellation policy.  I am not even sure how many people use this but I imagine that does have an effect on staffing.  Maybe or maybe not but I wonder how many cancellations they get each cruise 

[Oxo]

40 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

Not a Cheerleader; an informed consumer.

 

MSC prices are supply/demand dependent.  No one booking a cruise - lower the price, high demand, raise the price.  Just like airplanes.  They take off regardless of the numbers of seats occupied so they want to maximize revenue.  Simple economics.

 

As far as reacting to demand changes- the ships were at 1000 pax just last week, it has tripled in a week.  Onboard employees (of the lower level service type, not the officers) have 9 month contracts.  So the cruise line is magically going to find new employees, train them, move them, and agree to keep them on for 9 months just in time for a spring break resurgence.  

 

If you see the reports from Miami/South Beach this week they are experiencing the same issues.  Not enough staff in hotels and restaurants (due to greater socio-economic reasons impacting the hospitality sector).

Thanks for your info. However, MSC had to know that their passenger count would triple. As for supply and demand, fuly aware of such. Been cruising since 1986 and have over 100 cruises. So, I am somewhat knowledgeable about the cruise industry. 

Maybe you and I should obtain employment with MSC to help them to run a efficient company

.

[JT1962]

Staffing issues are a problem in most places. Our local grocery stores and restaurants are struggling with hiring enough people to handle the customer demand. I can only imagine the issues all cruise lines have in hiring enough staff, getting them to the ships, properly trained, etc. I am guessing once the Spring Break surge ends, the passenger counts will drop, but probably not to the levels they were in January and early February.
 

It’s not a good experience for those on board now, and many may never return to MSC, but the same issues are happening on other cruise lines as well. Hopefully most people will realize these are unique times and eventually give cruising another chance. 

[Oxo]

1 hour ago, Morgsmom said:

What's your opinion of the Specialty Restaurants? I posted my opinion in this link. 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2838016-seashore-specialty-restaurant-menus/#comment-62834440

 

[sidari]

1 hour ago, Paphillyguy said:

I think that what a lot of people are forgetting is that there still is a pandemic and that there are certain operational changes that have been in place because of that.  These are documented and out there if someone does any research on their cruise prior to going especially if they are on this message board.  You can not expect the same as before right now.  Just because there are more guests and some may feel that there is no longer a pandemic does not mean things are back to normal.  I am not saying that MSC should not have planned staffing better because of the larger crowds and maybe they should have held off on some of the bookings.  But they struggling as well and are trying to make money.  Getting staff and the quarantine  period is very hard right now.  I look at this as the first sailing of a new ship, there are learning curses to get through.  It will get better. 

MSC have been shored up with loans from their parent company, a report published last week gave the figures and types of loans that have been provided in order to keep the cruise fleet sailing and new ships being built.

[Paphillyguy]

30 minutes ago, sidari said:

MSC have been shored up with loans from their parent company, a report published last week gave the figures and types of loans that have been provided in order to keep the cruise fleet sailing and new ships being built.

Loans have to be paid back even if they are from the parent company. 

[DisneyTech]

3 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

 

I am sorry that @DisneyTechdid not enjoy, HOWEVER, if he/she had spent a little time researching and understanding what was included and the passenger loads they might have been more knowledgeable.

• No drink packages are allowed in Venchi or Tapas - that's very clearly spelled out.
• They have suspended priority boarding for Diamond, also well known.
• Passenger loads tripled in the past week - it's not like you can just magically fly in extra trained crew or grab them off the other ships all of which have spiked in numbers
  • This will impact how many employees are available for everything - from buffet staffing, bar staffing, etc
• IMO, MSC is not taking full fare - these current fares are a bargain vs "normal" times.  You don't indicate if you were status matched b/c of a hotel or another cruise line.  If a cruise line then you know that for a cabin and beverage package on X you'd pay 3x more, and on Disney it'd be 4 or 5 times more.  
• MSC is going to sell every single room they can; as would a hotel.  It's a fixed occupancy situation.  Once the boat sets sail that's the # of guests you have for the week...
• Kid's clubs on MSC are not like the other cruiselines. Indeed shorter hours.  
• Your seating time for dinner is indicated on your cruise card; it should have been pointed out when you checked in.  
• The employees walking around the buffet to upsell you are employees of the venues (Butcher's Cut, etc); they are not buffet staff.  (Though I agree they are annoying).
• If a bartender was using a well liquor I'd certainly call them out on it, HOWEVER, high guest count volumes and big drinking guests have caused onboard outages in liquors.  Unfortunately they only stock up in Miami and will never dig into the duty free offerings.  (Thus there was a Tito's shortage two weeks ago on the MERA but the shop was full).

Cruising right now has a lot of hiccups, to be fair.  Does MSC exacerbate them?  Yup. They sure do.  But for the low fares you have to pack a hefty dose of patience.  MY opinion only.

 

 

@Morgsmom, I’m sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. 
 

The notes about where the drink package isn’t allowed are inconsistent. The MSC app doesn’t mention anything about restrictions. 
 

Also, I disagree that suspension of priority boarding is well known. I never saw anything about this on MSCs website. 
 

and yes, you can magically fly in Crew and have them trained for when your passenger loads increase. If you don’t want to increase Crew to support more passengers, then don’t sell as many cabins. It’s pretty simple. 
 

and no, these rates are not bargains. It is roughly the exact price as the cancelled cruise I had booked on the seaside. That was booked before the pandemic. 
 

I have no problem with MSC selling every single room they can, as long as they supply the staff to manage the guests. I’m sorry, but there is zero excuse for having a ship that is over half full and only having 1/4 of the buffet open. 
 

Also, do you think I’m stupid? Of course the number of people you leave with is the number of people on the ship. I’ve been on over 40 cruises; I understand we don’t pick up people in the middle of the ocean. 
 

my restaurant is on my card. There is no mention of anytime dining, nor was it mentioned during booking (should only be aurea, which is what the signage at the restaurant says), nor was it mentioned at check in, nor could most staff tell us. It wasn’t until we checked at the restaurant that someone could tell us the setup. 
 

I understand the employees work for the other venues. But it isn’t unusual for employees to work multiple places. If they are short staffed, these people should be trained to serve at the buffets so that they can open more lines. 
 

and I’ve been staring right at the premium liquors that they should be pouring while they grab well liquor. 
 

While you’re  entitled to your opinion, excusing MSC for providing poor service at a non-discounted rate doesn’t make any sense. 

 

[Morgsmom]

@DisneyTech  Oh, great.  Well at least I am certain that I have more cruises under my belt than you.

 

The MSC website is notorious for not being updated and had you reviewed the boards BEFORE booking you would have known that your status matched Diamond Status was not going to get you priority boarding.  This is a pandemic still and they are recovering.  Give 'em a break.

 

If you are watching bartenders pour well when a call was ordered, then obviously I'd say something.  However, just because your package allows you to order Tito's if you call a Vodka/tonic you are getting well liquor.  

 

And, no, you can't magically fly in crew at the drop of a hat.  That's some Disney Fairy Dust kinda magic there.  Best to you! 

[JT1962]

I’m hoping everyone one reads all the negative reviews & experiences so there will be less than 600 on my October cruise like there was in January😀 
 

I know they can’t stay in business sailing at 15-20% capacity, but it is nice while it lasts.

[At Sea At Peace]

@Disney Teach

 

Why didn't you sail Disney?

 

The posts appear to be quite biased.  Given the current (world-wide visitors) dissatisfaction with Disney is, well, worse than your dissatisfaction with MSC.  

 

Solution, don't sail MSC.  Go to WDW or DCL.  Pretty simple.

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by At Sea At Peace