Live from MSC Seaview...and it's not good...

[amurray88]

This is my first cruise on MSC and we joined on Saturday. I have to say I am less than impressed...I do hope later in the cruise I'm able to come back and update this in a positive way.

 

The good - the quality of the food and the service in bars.

 

However, the service in the restaurants is absolutely appalling. As soon as we stepped on the boat we were ushered to a table where a waiter told us about all the speciality restaurants, gave us a sales pitch and then said "most guests go for the €115pp option so shall I get you signed up?" Eh no. 

 

First night in the dining room and I seen 2 waiters walking about with a sheet of paper. You guessed it...even at dinner they were asking you to upgrade.

 

Fast forward to breakfast the next morning and we went to the buffet. I went to the bar to ask for a coffee and was told to sit down and someone would take my order. Well I had my breakfast, no-one in sight. So I went to the bar and said I'd like a coffee and I've now finished my breakfast and no-one has came. "Sit down sir and someone will come". 15 minutes later I left...with no coffee.

 

At dinner that night once again, a waiter carried around a plate with a raw steak on it trying to get people to upgrade. They came to my table whilst I was having desert and asked me to upgrade to the steak. I said sorry, I've had my dinner and I'm just finishing dessert....but no that wasn't enough. "But you can still have steak sir". No thanks, I've had my dinner. "So you don't like steak?"...no I do like steak but I've just had my dinner. "Well you can have the steak too?".... seriously stop harassing me.

 

Next day (today) we docked in Naples. We were in Naples until 7pm and our dinner time was 6:15 so I got up first thing to ask to change our dinner time. I went to the MDR and explained we were planning on being in Naples until 7pm could we change our dinner time (this was 8:30am). They sent us to the speciality restaurants which I thought was strange but ok...so went up there. Was told they can't change times for main dining room (but you guessed it....) But they could book us into speciality. I said no thanks I just want to change my time in the MDR. She sent me down to the MDR. I explained again to the staff and they said the restaurant manager will be here at 5pm, come then and it'll be no issue. (Let's leave that story there for the moment...)

 

We then have lunch at 12 noon in the buffet to get off at 1pm in Naples. We sat down and asked a waiter for a drink. He said he doesn't take drinks orders but he'll get someone. We waited. And waited. Until the same waiter was walking about again so we said oh we were waiting on someone coming to take a drinks order. Again he said he would get someone. We finished our lunch and I seen the head waiter so I explained we had waited a long time but have not had a drinks order taken, we've now finished our lunch and realistically we shouldn't have to wait >20-25mins for an order to be taken having already asked several times. He said "well someone will take it now". I didn't want to be awkward or negative but explained that there are alot of staff around who are literally walking doing nothing and the same thing has happened at breakfast. He said to me "well you're getting your order taken now so what else do you want?"...wow. I have sailed on a good few ships in my time and have never been spoken to like this. If you don't want to serve people then at least let them go to the bar and order for themselves.

 

Back to our dinner reservation. I said to my wife I'd go back onboard at 5pm to get dinner sorted...so jumped back on the ship and went to the MDR. Surprise surprise, doors closed and no-one to be seen. I went to guest services and they said not to worry, turn up when we want and go to the my time dining. We went at 7:45pm and said could we have a table for 2. "No, your table is 6:15 you need to go to the buffet". I said I had ran about several times today to try and change this and spoke with guest services who said for me to come whenever and you would help. The supervisor said no, we aren't aurea class so can't do this and we have to go to the buffet. I said I'd really prefer not to, I had tried everything I could to change times and thought we had sorted it with guest services. He said he would give us a table at 10pm which I really didn't want, plus we had a show booked for 10:30 so we would miss it. He said there's nothing he can do, it's our fault for missing our time. I went back to guest services and the woman phoned the restaurant who said they could take us if we go now....we went and had dinner.

 

Why was it that hard? Not to mention they then came round AGAIN and tried to sell limoncello souvenir glasses.

 

I've got to say, unless this gets significantly better I will not touch MSC again. It is horrific in the restaurants. I feel like I'm in a bar in a holiday resort with someone coming in every night trying to sell me stuff...I wouldn't be surprised if the head waiter brings up a bundle of watches and sunglasses tomorrow and asks us to buy it. It's desperate and really quite off putting.

 

 

 

[Germancruiser]

Just a week since I am back from the Seaview-your report confirms what I thought when walking the ship. If MSC - then Yacht Club. What you report is outragious- unbelievable almost- what where they thinking?

My YC experience was wonderful - as the last time one Seaside. YC or not- what you experienced should not happen - that is not the kind of service one is used from cruise ships- no matter in what part of the ship one sails.

The salespeople with Spa offers and Speciality Dinning options walked the YC Pool Deck from time to time- but in a very very discret manner!

[Essiesmom]

It sounds as if you have worn yourself out because you didn’t/don’t understand that if you are not Aurea or Yacht Club, you have fixed dining, and that’s it.  No changing.  You adapt, they don’t.  EM

[mianmike]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

It sounds as if you have worn yourself out because you didn’t/don’t understand that if you are not Aurea or Yacht Club, you have fixed dining, and that’s it.  No changing.  You adapt, they don’t.  EM

 

Wow

[Germancruiser]

I agree- the Dining Time is fixed- that I appreciate- but they could have a bit more accomodating- even with a ship sailing not at full capacity. I don´t know about the attitude of the OP, though. I nice smile would have helped a bit.

Also I have to say- the service I got outside of the Yacht Club was also very friendly and efficent!

 

[perakcruiser]

1 hour ago, mianmike said:

 

Wow

Well, it may sound harsh, but it is absolutely correct. You made a mess with the dinner time and continued to make it a personal matter/fight which never is a good idea. You maybe can be lucky to find a maitre D (certainly not at 5pm) that is willing to change for this night, but the normal answer is "No, please go to the buffet". If at this night there is a dish in the MDR you don´t want to miss and that does not exist at the buffet, you need to arrange your times, not they. 

 

Apart from that the extensive selling of drinks packages and speciality restaurants sounds totally annoying and disgusting. I never experienced it in almost 15 years of cruising with MSC also not in 2022. If that would happened in the past I would have gone straight to the reception and cancel the service charge completely. Now cannot cancel anymore, hopefully this is not giving them the go for these super annoying behaviour. 

 

Drinks at the buffet, yeah, old problemI thought they had improved, but obviously not consistent. 

[perakcruiser]

12 minutes ago, Germancruiser said:

I agree- the Dining Time is fixed- that I appreciate- but they could have a bit more accomodating- even with a ship sailing not at full capacity. I don´t know about the attitude of the OP, though. I nice smile would have helped a bit.

Actually I managed to do this one time. From late to early session. Showed just up for the early session and asked "Could we join the early session today?". Answer was "No, go to the buffet". I said "No like, today is my favourite pasta dish on the menu, but I need to watch a very important football match later". The combination of Football and Pasta convinced the Maitre D, what else?, but we had to wait quite a long time to have a table assigned and he made us feel we asked him to change the ship in the middle of the cruise not just the dinner time.

 

That was more than 20 years ago, but I still remember that after everything worked out well, coming back to the room just for kickoff. My team was down 0-3 after 30 minutes already and I stopped watching and went to a bar 😄 

[mianmike]

2 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

Well, it may sound harsh, but it is absolutely correct. You made a mess with the dinner time and continued to make it a personal matter/fight which never is a good idea. You maybe can be lucky to find a maitre D (certainly not at 5pm) that is willing to change for this night, but the normal answer is "No, please go to the buffet". If at this night there is a dish in the MDR you don´t want to miss and that does not exist at the buffet, you need to arrange your times, not they. 

 

 

You're replying to the wrong person.  I'm not the OP and I've never been on that ship.  

[amurray88]

Hi, I'm not sure it's fair to say I messed dinner time up. I was assigned to 6:15, not given an option. On the whole we're happy with that - we can work round it. But when the ship doesn't arrive into port til 1pm and stays in port til 7pm I do feel they should be flexible. I agree, 5pm is not the best time to sort it but that is why we tried several times in the morning to sort it.

 

I'll be honest, it felt like a fight... and that's not the way I want to be on holiday (don't get me wrong I'm sure I've grumbled at small things in the past as we all will from time to time). It really felt like it was me against the restaurant which was bizarre. I didn't mention this last night but when guest services said to go at 8pm we turned up and the assistant manager argued with the manager that we should be told to come back at 10pm even though the manager wanted to sort it. It wasn't a nice experience.

 

Sitting having dinner and a supervisor (white shirt) is walking around telling waiters "that isn't how you serve tables". It's just bizarre. The staff seem to be almost fighting within themselves. 

 

However, the service at bars is the absolute opposite. They are attentive, friendly, funny...and I don't just mean one bar...we've not had anything other than a warm reception in any bar we've been to. So strange

[perakcruiser]

3 hours ago, mianmike said:

 

You're replying to the wrong person.  I'm not the OP and I've never been on that ship.  

Sorry 😌

[sidari]

Sadly this is one of the issues (Dining) that let's MSC down badly, far too inflexible and a could not care attitude by a number of members of staff. Sloping shoulders is not a good trait and instead of dealing with the issue there and then staff pass it off to others who they know cannot or will not help.

[amurray88]

26 minutes ago, sidari said:

Sadly this is one of the issues (Dining) that let's MSC down badly, far too inflexible and a could not care attitude by a number of members of staff. Sloping shoulders is not a good trait and instead of dealing with the issue there and then staff pass it off to others who they know cannot or will not help.

I read the reviews beforehand and always thought that there's people that will find problems no matter what and it must just be people who look for issues...but I couldn't agree with you more. "That's not my job", "that's not my area" is a common phrase from the staff and realistically we got our dinner last night but it didn't have to be like that. The upselling is unbelievable and like someone else said it's worthy of getting rid of the service charges. I just can't help but feel that those who are causing the issues are not necessarily the ones that would be hurt by taking off the service charge if that makes sense.

 

Anyway, we are going to go and enjoy the holiday and full report to follow for those who want it after our holiday 🙈

[CruiseScrooge]

I stopped cruising to do elder care way before covid. I loved MSC out of miami and have a cruise coming soon but i'm tempted to try the one time MSC change or cancel and take the loss. I'm bella solo inside and thinking the cruise might be more chore than fun. 

[MsTabbyKats]

OMG....this is supposed to be a vacation for a week, not a week in jail, where you need to follow the rules or not eat.  You pay their salaries.  They need to learn customer service.  Although "the customer isn't always right"....it's a lot easier to keep repeat business than look for new business.  Flexibility...make "that customer" feel special.

 

As far as the "upsells"....I'd smile and say "no thanks" and walk away.  Annoying but laughable!

[perakcruiser]

1 hour ago, amurray88 said:

Hi, I'm not sure it's fair to say I messed dinner time up. I was assigned to 6:15, not given an option. On the whole we're happy with that - we can work round it. But when the ship doesn't arrive into port til 1pm and stays in port til 7pm I do feel they should be flexible. I agree, 5pm is not the best time to sort it but that is why we tried several times in the morning to sort it.

Usually you will get the slot you "order" when you make the booking. If MSC messes it up, happened to all of us, it can be changed at the first night with the Maitre D before the first dinner session. Not in the morning, not at lunch time, not at 5 pm (if that is not the start of the 1st seating), certainly not with the reception. 

 

Early session has advantages, the early one most cruisers NOT from Southern Europe prefer, but certainly it is not ideal for the days when the ship departs in the evening. Can you imagine the chaos if many first session Pax want to change to second session because the ship is in the port from 4pm to midnight? 

 

2 hours ago, sidari said:

Sadly this is one of the issues (Dining) that let's MSC down badly, far too inflexible and a could not care attitude by a number of members of staff. 

Well, MSC offers you to BUY flexibility (Aurea) and even flexibility plus attitude (YC) 😇

[shipgeeks]

We book Bella on MSC cruises because we want set dining, not anytime dining that comes with Aurea. When we last sailed, we were given an early time.  After boarding, we went to the restaurant where changes were arranged.  We were able to get changed to our preference of late seating.

On the night that we would have found it inconvenient to show up at our scheduled time, we just went to the buffet.  It was fine.

We too just say "No thanks" if offered upsells on any cruise.  Actually, we've found MSC to be less aggressive than some others, but I guess that depends on the crew and ship at any particular time.

[8420PR]

At the end of the day, cruise ships are just big floating holiday and food factories, trying to balance between passengers want flexibility and customized service, and the 'floating factory' needing to manage capacity and process flows.   Imagine if everyone who had a 1830 dinner time requested to go to the later seating because of the 1900 sail away in Naples.

 

MSC has lower prices and lower crew/passenger ratio than other lines, so the end result is a lower level of customization possible.   When we pay more (e.g. Aurea or YC on MSC, or perhaps another cruiseline) we receive a higher crew/passenger ratio and then a more customizable product.   

[mscdivina2016]

13 hours ago, Germancruiser said:

 

The salespeople with Spa offers and Speciality Dinning options walked the YC Pool Deck from time to time- but in a very very discret manner!

That bothered me as they continuesly did it not only on the pool deck, while I am in my cabana, but the same people also did it in the Top sail lounge.

 The only people I want popping around into my cabana are the waiters. When I pay money for a private, my own use cabana for the day, I don't want a sales call. The YC director popped by and I told him I did not care for that, I was given a free cabana.

 

What's next, someone walking around with roses for sale during dinner in the YC reastaurant?

[amurray88]

36 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

That bothered me as they continuesly did it not only on the pool deck, while I am in my cabana, but the same people also did it in the Top sail lounge.

 The only people I want popping around into my cabana are the waiters. When I pay money for a private, my own use cabana for the day, I don't want a sales call. The YC director popped by and I told him I did not care for that, I was given a free cabana.

 

What's next, someone walking around with roses for sale during dinner in the YC reastaurant?

 

I agree...that's definitely how it feels.

 

Here's hoping it gets better...will see how dinner goes tonight.

 

I can also understand what some are saying - imagine if everyone wanted to change dinner time. I understand what you're saying 👌 but there's a way to do it...and a way to speak to passengers. At the moment I don't feel like I'm on holiday when I'm on the ship, I feel like I've signed up to a week long sales pitch. That's not the way I want it to be on holiday 😢 I want to love the ship and the staff but at the moment that is just not happening.

[diesel1973]

Sounds like my experience on the Seaside shortly after it first sailed. I was constantly lied to by different staff and when disputing it with GS the only result was them saying " there must have been some misunderstanding". That is not my idea of a vacation thus done with MSC.

[JAGR]

27 minutes ago, diesel1973 said:

Sounds like my experience on the Seaside shortly after it first sailed. I was constantly lied to by different staff and when disputing it with GS the only result was them saying " there must have been some misunderstanding". That is not my idea of a vacation thus done with MSC.

Not trying to offend you, but I am curious.  I understand you had a bad customer service experience on Seaside back in late 2017 or early 2018, and that you swore off of MSC from that point on.  Why then, would you continue to be active on the MSC forum pages some four plus years later?  Is it curiosity on your part to see if MSC CS experience has improved, or is it a sort of attempt at misery loves company?  Personally, I had a bad CS experience six years ago on an unnamed cruise line with a distinctive red funnel.  I posted about my experience on the cruise line's forum page.  I have not been back on the site again, since I will no longer sail on them.

[Paphillyguy]

5 minutes ago, JAGR said:

Not trying to offend you, but I am curious.  I understand you had a bad customer service experience on Seaside back in late 2017 or early 2018, and that you swore off of MSC from that point on.  Why then, would you continue to be active on the MSC forum pages some four plus years later?  Is it curiosity on your part to see if MSC CS experience has improved, or is it a sort of attempt at misery loves company?  Personally, I had a bad CS experience six years ago on an unnamed cruise line with a distinctive red funnel.  I posted about my experience on the cruise line's forum page.  I have not been back on the site again, since I will no longer sail on them.

There are several people in this forum that have swore off MSC for one reason or another.  Yet, most not only continue to post, they continue to sail.  If I truly was so upset with something, I would never use it again.  

[mscdivina2016]

2 hours ago, Paphillyguy said:

There are several people in this forum that have swore off MSC for one reason or another.  Yet, most not only continue to post, they continue to sail.  If I truly was so upset with something, I would never use it again.  

I was one of those people.

 

Unfortunately,I now have 4 booked.

 

Only different thing is they all are with a TA.

Already had several issues, but TA dealt with it.

I love the product, hate IT and CS.

 

 

[Paphillyguy]

25 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I was one of those people.

 

Unfortunately,I now have 4 booked.

 

Only different thing is they all are with a TA.

Already had several issues, but TA dealt with it.

I love the product, hate IT and CS.

 

 

I agree love the product especially the YC, but the IT and customer service are horrible. 

[shipgeeks]

We love the product, have never had any issues with IT, and had excellent customer service the few times we had a question.