Your experiences on MSC Orchestra

[Ryan82]

We'll sail on Orchestra December 10th around Egypt and Red Sea. She shall be the oldest ship in the MSC fleet that we've been on so far.

 

Anyone have any recent experiences to share? I like there is no YC meaning the whole ship will be accessible.

 

I believe there's two speciality restaurants onboard. Are both accessible to utilise the Diamond complimentary dinner?

 

I've watched tours etc on YouTube but they often don't fully convey what the ship is like. At least in my view.

 

I appreciate she's an older ship and we chose the cruise for the itinerary and chance to finally see the Pyramids.

[Preziosa]

Orchestra is a Very fine ship. You Will love it. We had Our Diamond dinner in the chinise restaurant. Very good.

[Ryan82]

Thanks I've seen the Shanghai restaurant onboard Orchestra and am keen to try it out. There seems to be another speciality restaurant onboard too but not sure if that's available for diamond. 

 

The shanghai restaurant is only showing as £18 per person so I'd probably just pay for that if the other one is free.

[jborchart]

Just did a 10 day on Orchestra in the Med.   For its age it is in VERY good shape.  It is clearly being carefully cared for.  Many interior updates have been done.

 

For its size it has great bars and entertainment.  Deck 6 has an easy flow through so you can walk right out of the theater and into live entertainment in multiple venues.  Its lively and interesting all evening long.  Entertainment is superior to everything else we've been on in the 90,000 ton range (on multiple lines).

 

We've recently been on much newer, much bigger ships (on other lines) that aren't anywhere near this nice.

[Nunagoras]

7 hours ago, Ryan82 said:

Thanks I've seen the Shanghai restaurant onboard Orchestra and am keen to try it out. There seems to be another speciality restaurant onboard too but not sure if that's available for diamond. 

 

The shanghai restaurant is only showing as £18 per person so I'd probably just pay for that if the other one is free.

They had such a French Bistro like restaurant back in the day on the back part of the buffet for dinner, but I believe that has been discontinued by 2016 or such and never returned, so the Eastern one is really your unique specialty venue aboard. They'll likely to have a premium steak option on the MDR, but I don't know if that is good for your Diamond benefit. If Eastern is your cup of tea, go for it.

[Nunagoras]

16 minutes ago, jborchart said:

Just did a 10 day on Orchestra in the Med.   For its age it is in VERY good shape.  It is clearly being carefully cared for.  Many interior updates have been done.

 

For its size it has great bars and entertainment.  Deck 6 has an easy flow through so you can walk right out of the theater and into live entertainment in multiple venues.  Its lively and interesting all evening long.  Entertainment is superior to everything else we've been on in the 90,000 ton range (on multiple lines).

 

We've recently been on much newer, much bigger ships (on other lines) that aren't anywhere near this nice.

The Musica class where the Orchestra lives out was imagined on such a time when MSC was mostly an Italian business for the Italians. They were what I can call an Italian "X lite" style of cruising company back then. With time they have "downgraded" to global mainstream with the average prices reflecting that precisely. Now it seems they're slowly going the opposite trend. Go out of the discount market to become something a little bit higher in the market with same ships, but what saddens me is that, while at that time some 15-20 years ago, they were doing mostly their own thing, now they're going to somewhat mimic all their competition round the clock, when what I think they should have done would have been, retain their lovely Italian look and feel by creating their own thing in the market, while at the same time trying to higher up their service level to where the best ones on the upper-mainstream market are today. That way they could have continued to be such a "X lite" Italian venue for our enjoyment!...

 

Surely; the World Europa is on my bucket list for the next years, just for a change of perspective... But anyway; Musica and Fantasia class ships remain my fave ones till they will be, because they still reflect to an extent an era when MSC decided to serve our southern Med culture like it deserves to be for a larger audience. Maybe I'll just have one or two more trips on those ships on the next years to come till they're within us!

 

Have a wonderful day!...

[Ryan82]

Thanks for replies. Even more excited to go on Orchestra now.

 

I've only sailed on Preziosa and Virtuosa and Grandiosa but I did prefer the onboard experience/ design of Preziosa.

[CruisingFox27]

We've sailed on Orchestra twice and had a fabulous experience on both occasions. We quite like the smaller more intimate feel. Of course, the newer ships have more glitz and sparkles but, Orchestra had a more old world, elegant cruise ship feel. 

[perakcruiser]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:13 PM, Nunagoras said:

The Musica class where the Orchestra lives out was imagined on such a time when MSC was mostly an Italian business for the Italians.

When I first time cruised the Orchestra (Norwegian fjords) in 2011 it definitely was not an Italian business for the Italians. It was business for Europeans who love Italian culture and there were not too many Italians on board. 

 

On 7/13/2023 at 10:13 PM, Nunagoras said:

But anyway; Musica and Fantasia class ships remain my fave ones till they will be, because they still reflect to an extent an era when MSC decided to serve our southern Med culture like it deserves to be for a larger audience.

I couldn´t agree more.