MSC Bellissima or Diamond Princess from Tokyo?

[70KToM]

We're looking at two cruise options leaving from Tokyo in August, and we were hoping to get advice on which of these is the better option for us, since we're not familiar with either cruise line. Itineraries are comparable.

 

Diamond Princess vs MSC Bellissima

 

About us:

• 40s
• Will cruise in a suite this time (honeymoon) so we'll have access to some suite benefits if those are particularly interesting
• Prefer mega ships over small ships (we prefer some anonymity over running into the same people repeatedly)
• Decent Wifi is important (don't need streaming, but we need to so some work for our business)
• Favorite line is Virgin Voyages (amazing food, younger, more adult themed), second favorite is RCL (reliable, and we're Diamond so some nice benefits).
• Our favorite ships have been Spectrum of the Seas and Scarlet Lady.
• We've sailed HAL (bit geriatric and boring at night but good food), Norwegian (felt very low budget), and Celebrity (comparable to RCL, little more middle aged, good food, enjoyable enough)
• Activities we typically prioritize include stuff like trivia, game shows, excursions, food, playing board games, escape room, skydiving simulator. We also enjoy specialty coffees, adult oriented entertainment like on Virgin, tiki bars.
• Activities we don't typically care about include pool, spa, sun deck, dance shows, stand up comedians whose jokes are mainly about colonoscopies.

 

Our preconceptions about MSC (may be totally off base) is that it's low end with not very good food. Does MSC rank below Norwegian in being more on the low end?

 

Our preconceptions about Princess (again possibly totally wrong) is that it's super geriatric, even more than HAL, and this ship is somewhat small (2500) and might be totally dead after 8pm like our HAL cruise was. Is Princess better or worse than HAL in terms of being too quiet/geriatric?

 

Neither may be an ideal fit for our preferences, but options are very limited post-covid, and we've already done the Spectrum from Singapore voyage, so this is about it for Asia, other than a Cambodia/Vietnam river cruise. What would you recommend, and what are your experiences with either or both of these? Thank you in advance for your advice!

Edited April 6, 2023 by 70KToM

[Essiesmom]

I would ask on the MSC board here if anyone has sailed MSC in Japan/Asia and what the passenger demographic is.  I suspect Diamond Princess would be mostly American with some Japanese.  But I would think guests on Bellissima in Asia would be mostly European with maybe some Asian.  The ship is much larger and entertainment mostly musical due to the ethnic mixture. Food is subjective.  
    There are not many perks to suites on Princess.  If you were to choose MSC, be sure to do a status match with Royal, or any other ship or hotel chain where you have high status.  And there are not many suites outside of Yacht Club, which is highly recommended.  EM

[CruiserBruce]

I suspect the demographic on both ships will skew older.

[John Bull]

A factor which you need to consider is language - Princess will be mainly North Americans, MSC will be much more European.

Whilst you'll have no significant problem communicating with the crew, from Captain to Customer Relations to dining staff to bartenders (English is after all the world's second language), the language barrier seriously stilts interaction with other passengers.

 

Last winter we sailed the Caribbean from Barbados with MSC (Seaside) and made the mistake of thinking that the passenger mix would be mainly North Americans and Brits (chartered fly-cruise from the UK, same as P&O and Marella), plus a smattering of Europeans.

In fact, the cruise followed on from a repositioning cruise from Genoa, Marseilles & Malaga, ours was the only flight from the UK and there were just a handful of Americans.

Perfectly pleasant European fellow-cruisers, but inter-action was minimal - even something like asking if a table was free, I speak passable French & a little German and many spoke some basic English, but we all found it hard work to go beyond basic pleasantries and simple Q & A.

 

The theatre shows were song-and-dance, avoiding the language barrier, but the cruise director was multi-lingual and at the shows I feel sure that he was too keen to show off his language skills, with great long monologues in multiple languages -  all passengers seemed to feel the same way as we did. Ditto loudspeaker announcements. .

 

MSC has the youngest and most stylish fleet in the business, Diamond Princess is quite an old lady, but I'd plump for her.

 

Just MHO

 

JB 🙂