Seashore 23-4 to 30-4

[McHaggis69]

We are first time Seashore cruisers with a couple of days to go. Currently on way to MSC private island before returning to Miami on 30th April.

 

Thoughts and observations -

 

The ship itself is amazing - shiny and new and very much a different layout to our former RC cruises.

We are booked Aurea class with the premium extra drinks package.

Embarkation was a mixed event. We arrived by taxi to the dock and were stopped and asked for our cv19 tests on multiple occasions, but not to show the actual test - just to ask that we had it - the Answer the first and 4th time was ‘yes’!

We were NOT tested at the port. We joined a priority queue (but we had to ask where it was after being directed to the normal queue) and were quickly processed with photo and checks of all cv19 documents - the test results and vax docs

We got on board and were a bit scunnered to find no state rooms were ready so we had an hour or two to kill (we boarded at about noon) carrying hand luggage around.

We had an issue activating our cruise cards at the terminals but a quick visit to guest services sorted it out.

 

Aurea class we thought included free minibar and free breakfast in room. We’ve been charged to refill the minibar (so I guess by ‘free’ they mean ‘until you drink it all’). We also got charged for our second breakfast in room on day two. No idea why. I guess what they mean by free breakfast in room is ‘free breakfast one time in your room’?

 

The main dining room for us is Central Park. The food in our opinion is just okay. Nothing to write home about but generally well done. We were surprised at dinner to find you are limited to a choice of 2 red wines. Happily our waiter brought me a bottle of what I actually wanted and we were not charged. If you are used to eating higher end food, then the restaurant falls a little bit short. Service is great and the staff universally friendly.

 

The spa (including free massage for both if us) has been great - a really nice experience.

 

I’ve already opened another thread about our neighbours smoking on their balcony. Its taken 3 visits from customer services to get them to stop, but to be fair to MSC we got a call this afternoon to ask if it had been resolved so good follow up there.

 

Excursions have all been well organised, but it is a real shame so many people just dont listen to what they are being told and all those small delays while they try and understand what is going on adds delays for everyone who is already in line/tickets out/knows where to go etc.

 

The premium extra drinks package has generally been amazing - just about anything I want on the menus I can have. Menus - we are still using scanned barcodes to bring the menu up on your mobile device and its a bit of a pain. CV19 restrictions on that point still in place, but nothing beats having an actual drinks menu to look at physically.

 

On CV19 - staff all wearing masks but very few passengers are. We did for about 4 or 5 days but have stopped now.

 

The biggest bugbear is the buffet. We are all using shared serving utensils. Surely we should all be given disposable gloves?? Serving utensils at a buffet are the no1 cause of spread of any contagion - not just cv19 - you just dont know if the person serving their eggs has been picking their arse before doing so and you then have to use the same utensil. Further, because perspex screens remain in place, its very difficult to reach underneath and serve yourself - you have to pretty much duck down and angle your arm to get what you want. We have our own hand sanitiser we use after serving our food from the buffet. The buffet food is really quite basic and often cold. Eggs benedict with cold congealed sauce is not appetising. Having said that the choice is reasonably varied so we’ve found something to eat every time we have visited.

 

What has been really quite annoying is the hard upsell on the ‘pay’ restaurants. It has been *incessant*. Constantly pestered by staff from the Butchers Cut no matter where you are on the ship to sign up to a signature restaurant package. As it happens we did sign (after 3 days being pestered) and are at Butchers Cut tonight, but come on MSC - 4 days of pressure selling is embarrassing.

 

The elevators… what is everyones problem? We have found them 19 times of 20 to be fast, efficient and more often than not empty. Twice we have had to wait what I might call an unreasonable period of time for a car to arrive but as far as I can tell thats been because someone has been ‘holding’ the lift doors open on another floor - while late arriving family members get on board. The lifts are easy to operate - touch a screen to tell it what floor - the system tells you what car - and you then get on board. Simple and does away with my own personal hate of people who dont know how traditional elevator call buttons work and they press the up arrow even when they want to go down and vice versa - doesn’t happen with this system.

 

MSC for me APP is a monster - particularly where the spa is concerned. Whatever you book at the spa should show up on your personal itinerary on the app, but our experience is its almost always wrong. Same with billing. Was shouting at the wife for spending $500 in the spa which somehow reduced to $300 later in the day with no rational explanation. The app is simply not reliable enough.

 

Overall it has been thoroughly enjoyable. Happy to try and answer any questions if I can in next few days. Although like all ‘reviews’ it might seem I have noted all the issues/problems - we really can’t fault MSC and would happily cruise again with them.

[Two Wheels Only]

19 minutes ago, McHaggis69 said:

On CV19 - staff all wearing masks but very few passengers are. We did for about 4 or 5 days but have stopped now.

 

For ships departing from U.S. ports, fully vaccinated guests are recommended but not required to wear masks and maintain social distancing on board in public areas.

Guests who are not fully vaccinated (over 2 and under 5 years old) are required to wear masks on board in indoor public areas.

 

[McHaggis69]

Yup - we know the rules - I’m simply reporting the actuality on board - I didn’t intend to be critical for anyone choosing not to wear a mask.

 

Coming from Scotland where mask use only ended 18th April and many people are still using them, it was a bit of a change to be just about the only people using.

[Two Wheels Only]

12 minutes ago, McHaggis69 said:

Yup - we know the rules - I’m simply reporting the actuality on board - I didn’t intend to be critical for anyone choosing not to wear a mask.

 

I understand.

 

Even when it WAS the rule, mask usage was less than 100%....more like 50% on my last MSC cruise. Seeing what's going on with Princess, I have no idea of how MSC will react...if they do at all. 

[NMsunset]

Hello McH!

We enjoy Ocean Caye and hope you do as well.

 

Departing on Seashore in a couple of weeks and like you we enjoy the spa.

Please share how busy the spa, steam, pools, etc have been...any room or area not open in the spa?

 

Liked your big picture attitude:

Overall it has been thoroughly enjoyable. Happy to try and answer any questions if I can in next few days. Although like all ‘reviews’ it might seem I have noted all the issues/problems - we really can’t fault MSC and would happily cruise again with them.

 

Cheers!

[McHaggis69]

We understand there are around circa2500-3000 passengers onboard.

the vessel generally feels quiet apart from possibly the main pool/sundeck area today which was busy as we walked through. The aurea sundeck has been quiet. We’ve had comfortable seating in the ‘cabanas’ every time we’ve visited.

The buffet appears to only be about half used so we always head to a quieter section to eat.

spa appointments have been easy to get, but they do try and sell the unpopular 8.30am slots! Just decline and get a more reasonable time. We are not aware of any closed areas but we haven’t tried all areas.

Bars and casino are very very quiet. The other night the sports bar only had about a dozen people in.

The ‘white night’ event on the main pool deck last night seemed to be very poorly attended. Maybe we left too early?

 

Service in all areas has been pretty swift.

Strangely some of the bar staff dont know their own menus and you have to show them the drink - on their menu - that you’ve asked for!

in casino last night I ordered a drink at the bar and the young girl clearly forgot about me. About 5 minutes later another bartender asked if i was waiting for a drink and when i explained he brought my drink within seconds.

 

 

 

[CampNCruise74]

4 hours ago, McHaggis69 said:

We are first time Seashore cruisers with a couple of days to go. Currently on way to MSC private island before returning to Miami on 30th April.

 

Thoughts and observations -

 

The ship itself is amazing - shiny and new and very much a different layout to our former RC cruises.

We are booked Aurea class with the premium extra drinks package.

Embarkation was a mixed event. We arrived by taxi to the dock and were stopped and asked for our cv19 tests on multiple occasions, but not to show the actual test - just to ask that we had it - the Answer the first and 4th time was ‘yes’!

We were NOT tested at the port. We joined a priority queue (but we had to ask where it was after being directed to the normal queue) and were quickly processed with photo and checks of all cv19 documents - the test results and vax docs

We got on board and were a bit scunnered to find no state rooms were ready so we had an hour or two to kill (we boarded at about noon) carrying hand luggage around.

We had an issue activating our cruise cards at the terminals but a quick visit to guest services sorted it out.

 

Aurea class we thought included free minibar and free breakfast in room. We’ve been charged to refill the minibar (so I guess by ‘free’ they mean ‘until you drink it all’). We also got charged for our second breakfast in room on day two. No idea why. I guess what they mean by free breakfast in room is ‘free breakfast one time in your room’?

 

The main dining room for us is Central Park. The food in our opinion is just okay. Nothing to write home about but generally well done. We were surprised at dinner to find you are limited to a choice of 2 red wines. Happily our waiter brought me a bottle of what I actually wanted and we were not charged. If you are used to eating higher end food, then the restaurant falls a little bit short. Service is great and the staff universally friendly.

 

The spa (including free massage for both if us) has been great - a really nice experience.

 

I’ve already opened another thread about our neighbours smoking on their balcony. Its taken 3 visits from customer services to get them to stop, but to be fair to MSC we got a call this afternoon to ask if it had been resolved so good follow up there.

 

Excursions have all been well organised, but it is a real shame so many people just dont listen to what they are being told and all those small delays while they try and understand what is going on adds delays for everyone who is already in line/tickets out/knows where to go etc.

 

The premium extra drinks package has generally been amazing - just about anything I want on the menus I can have. Menus - we are still using scanned barcodes to bring the menu up on your mobile device and its a bit of a pain. CV19 restrictions on that point still in place, but nothing beats having an actual drinks menu to look at physically.

 

On CV19 - staff all wearing masks but very few passengers are. We did for about 4 or 5 days but have stopped now.

 

The biggest bugbear is the buffet. We are all using shared serving utensils. Surely we should all be given disposable gloves?? Serving utensils at a buffet are the no1 cause of spread of any contagion - not just cv19 - you just dont know if the person serving their eggs has been picking their arse before doing so and you then have to use the same utensil. Further, because perspex screens remain in place, its very difficult to reach underneath and serve yourself - you have to pretty much duck down and angle your arm to get what you want. We have our own hand sanitiser we use after serving our food from the buffet. The buffet food is really quite basic and often cold. Eggs benedict with cold congealed sauce is not appetising. Having said that the choice is reasonably varied so we’ve found something to eat every time we have visited.

 

What has been really quite annoying is the hard upsell on the ‘pay’ restaurants. It has been *incessant*. Constantly pestered by staff from the Butchers Cut no matter where you are on the ship to sign up to a signature restaurant package. As it happens we did sign (after 3 days being pestered) and are at Butchers Cut tonight, but come on MSC - 4 days of pressure selling is embarrassing.

 

The elevators… what is everyones problem? We have found them 19 times of 20 to be fast, efficient and more often than not empty. Twice we have had to wait what I might call an unreasonable period of time for a car to arrive but as far as I can tell thats been because someone has been ‘holding’ the lift doors open on another floor - while late arriving family members get on board. The lifts are easy to operate - touch a screen to tell it what floor - the system tells you what car - and you then get on board. Simple and does away with my own personal hate of people who dont know how traditional elevator call buttons work and they press the up arrow even when they want to go down and vice versa - doesn’t happen with this system.

 

MSC for me APP is a monster - particularly where the spa is concerned. Whatever you book at the spa should show up on your personal itinerary on the app, but our experience is its almost always wrong. Same with billing. Was shouting at the wife for spending $500 in the spa which somehow reduced to $300 later in the day with no rational explanation. The app is simply not reliable enough.

 

Overall it has been thoroughly enjoyable. Happy to try and answer any questions if I can in next few days. Although like all ‘reviews’ it might seem I have noted all the issues/problems - we really can’t fault MSC and would happily cruise again with them.

Thanks for your write-up.  Our experience with the elevators on starboard side mids was very different. How did the dinner at Butcher's Cut go?

[McHaggis69]

Butchers Cut was good.

 

The restaurant itself is lovely and the staff very attentive.

My wife (not being a steak fan) chose the halibut main course, and although the fish was well cooked - the dish itself she found a little dry. Sitting on a bed of brown rice it lacked any dressing or sauce to lift the dish.

I had an 8oz fillet which was cooked to perfection (medium rare). The steak comes with 4 small sauce pots so you dont really need to choose what to have. It was delicious.

 

Overall - probably a solid 8 out of 10.

I can’t actually recall the cost now, but I stuck with the red wine on my beverage plan so it was just the food we paid for. What I do recall was expressing how inexpensive it actually was.

[deliver42]

We're on the ship in 2 weeks, and can't wait. Thanks for your review.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

My wife and I were on your sailing. After 60+ sailings, we only do the buffet rather than the MDR although we did the Japanese tapanyaki one night. The first lunch on board did not make for a good first impression with the carvery meat (beef) cold and full of fat. But things got much better after that so I have no food complaints. I thought I saw a comment about the lack of an omelette station in the buffet but I can't immediately find it. There were 2 stations, side-by-side, but all the way aft at the rear of the buffet. MSC has come a long way with customer service in the years since we began sailing with them. Everyone and I mean everyone was friendly and helpful. Years ago they were famous for their indifference.