Pirate Jumps Ship! A Live Carnival Vs. MSC Comparison 8/20/23 - 8/27/23

[pirate4me2]

Hello CC family!

 

I can’t believe I am typing this….I think my mental breakdown has reached a whole new level. That, or maybe my drinking did and I accidentally got on the wrong website.  I, a loyal Carnival cruiser, have done the unthinkable….I booked a cruise on a different cruise line. WHAT AM I THINKING????

 

I actually think this could be a good thing. I love Carnival, but after 25 cruises I am getting, how should I say this…not quite bored, but not as entertained/pleasantly surprised each day, as I originally was. I think I need to sprinkle in cruises on other lines here and there to keep the experience fresh. Chris (my hubby) has agreed, but unfortunately for him, he isn’t along on this trip…my dear Mom is. She had expressed an interest in trying MSC back in 2020, and we actually had a cruise booked with them for September of that year, butttttt we all know what happened to that. So, as I was planning our first post-Covid mother/daughter adventure, I said what the heck….and booked us in Yacht Club cabin aboard MSC Seaside for August 20, 2023. We love the Havana area on the Vista class ships, so I thought this could be a similar experience to that.

 

I won’t be doing a full on review of the vacation on this board, since this is the Carnival forum, BUT I wanted to do a live comparison of the 2 lines to help anyone else who has sailed Carnival that may be wanting to try MSC. Each evening (or maybe every few days or as something that warrants a post happens) I will post pros and cons of MSC compared to Carnival. If you want my full live review, I will be doing that on the MSC forum (can I get directions to there, please? J/k).

 

So, without further ado….let the craziness begin. I feel like a fish out of water, this is all new. Hopefully this is just what I need to make my heart fonder of my dear old Carnival!

[pirate4me2]

Pre-Cruise thoughts/comparisons:

 

Website: Carnival’s site, as much as we may gripe about IT issues, is wayyyyyyyy better than MSC’s. I have tried pulling their site up with Chrome, Edge, and Safari, and they all have glitches with the site. It takes a while to load, and it just isn’t as user friendly. I absolutely despise it. Ugh. Carnival gets the win here as far as I am concerned.

 

Status Match: I LOVE that MSC does this! We status matched back in 2020, and my Platinum status with CCL has got me Gold status with MSC, which is their second highest level. It’ll be weird being “gold” onboard….like, how long ago was I gold with CCL? 2017? I will have to keep reminding myself that it’s OK, it’s a good level. Hahaha. They do say tho that you have to cruise with them once every 3 years to maintain your level, and I actually think this is a good thing….it keeps there from being an overwhelming number of high-level cruisers that are not as loyal/active.

 

Payments: CCL will allow you to make partial payments via their website, but to make a partial payment on an MSC cruise you have to call in. What the heck?? I do not want to have to do that, especially since their wait time for a representative can be long. Ugh! Also, their website won’t let you use a Discover card to make payments, so if you’re planning to use that kind of card to pay you have to call in. Carnival wins as far as ease of making payments!

 

Pre-Cruise communication: MSC really needs to work on this. I got an email about something called a Fun Pass, and it said “Your upcoming cruise on Magnifica.” Uhhhh, I am not booked on that ship, I am supposed to be on Seaside, did they pull a dancing of the ships on me? I hopped on the website and confirmed that my cruise was still on the correct ship. Carnival’s communications are much better! Oh, and they sent out an email to personalize my YC experience about a week before the sailing, where I get to choose my pillow choice (can I just say how excited I am for this option? I am a pillow snob, and this made my day! I’m high maintenance, I know), my mini bar choices, and my newspaper choice. I filled it out and submitted it, but a lot of peeps on the MSC boards say that the information never gets transferred to the onboard crew, sooooo….we shall see how that goes.

 

Online Check-in: MSC opens check in for your cruise 30 days prior to sailing. I really like this, as opposed to Carnival’s 16 days, as I tend to have too much going on all at once and can be scatterbrained and loose track of time and forget to check in until the last minute. That extra 2 weeks was helpful. The process and questions are much the same, but MSC’s dang website keeps giving me an error when I try and print my boarding pass. I was able to download my e-ticket packet though (holy moly how many papers long is this thing? I thought Carnival had a bunch of nonsense printed out, but MSC beats that!) so hopefully that is enough. By far, Carnival wins with ease of printing the check-in stuff….if I could get MSC’s boarding pass to work, I would have said they are equal, but man their IT departments needs to get it together!

[ninjacat123]

This sounds interesting!!  Thanks for the review/comparison and I hope you and your mom have a great cruise (even if it's not on Carnival🤣)!

[pirate4me2]

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

This sounds interesting!!  Thanks for the review/comparison and I hope you and your mom have a great cruise (even if it's not on Carnival🤣)!

Thank you! I'm hoping that this will kinda help any others that may be considering trying MSC in the future. I know I am feeling like a fish out of water and have been trying to find as much info as I can about how the 2 lines compare. 

[LatinaInTexas]

Hope you enjoy your new cruise line cruise! Tried MSC last year and other than a few things I didn't like compared to Carnival I loved a lot of things about MSC over Carnival.

[pirate4me2]

1 hour ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Hope you enjoy your new cruise line cruise! Tried MSC last year and other than a few things I didn't like compared to Carnival I loved a lot of things about MSC over Carnival.

I am glad to hear that!! I think it will be good to branch out and try them to keep things "fresh" for me. 

[dmet0225]

Status match?  Do other cruise lines do this other than MSC?  That idea never occurred to me.

[lazydayz]

With your being in the Yacht Club, I think MSC should easily win this challenge.  Hope you and your mom have a great cruise.  

[pe4all]

Looking forward to reading your comparison.  You are off to a great start, imho.  The status match thingy always intrigued me, but every time I price MSC they can't touch the fares I get with CCL - even with leaving from NY and saving on airfare and hotel.

[pirate4me2]

57 minutes ago, dmet0225 said:

Status match?  Do other cruise lines do this other than MSC?  That idea never occurred to me.

I am not sure. I was pretty psyched to learn about it!

 

28 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

With your being in the Yacht Club, I think MSC should easily win this challenge.  Hope you and your mom have a great cruise.  

I am going to try and be as fair as possible, I am not really comparing apples to apples and I realize that. But the general entertainment, food, fellow passengers, private islands....that is what I will be comparing. 🙂

 

26 minutes ago, pe4all said:

Looking forward to reading your comparison.  You are off to a great start, imho.  The status match thingy always intrigued me, but every time I price MSC they can't touch the fares I get with CCL - even with leaving from NY and saving on airfare and hotel.

Thanks for following along! 

[edspec]

The pizza is great on MSC. As long as you accept that there are many other nationalities on board, many with different conduct rules than those in America you’ll be fine. A friend sailed with them awhile back and was furious at what she took to be rude behavior.  Everyone in the world doesn’t wait their turn…when we were stationed in Germany in the 80s one of the orientation teachers was giggling about our four way stop signs. She said they’d never work in Germany and that if we wanted to be waited on in a shop we couldn’t just stand meekly at the back.  
Print and have handy ALL package details and don’t make changes to your reservation close to the cruise.

DH and I really liked MSC, it was like a trip to Italy and a cruise at the same time.

[VentureMan_2000]

I'm still waiting on getting not quite bored, but not as entertained/pleasantly surprised each day of a cruise.  I think 25 cruises ought to do it...  🤣

[HappySails4U]

5 hours ago, pirate4me2 said:

help any others that may be considering trying MSC in the future

We are Platinum but  have discussed cruising with MSC because of the Marine Reserve.    Will be interested to hear your thoughts about the food options and entertainment as compared to Carnival.   Enjoy your trip !

[luvs2beachit]

Looking forward to reading your review.  Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience.

[pirate4me2]

31 minutes ago, edspec said:

The pizza is great on MSC. As long as you accept that there are many other nationalities on board, many with different conduct rules than those in America you’ll be fine. A friend sailed with them awhile back and was furious at what she took to be rude behavior.  Everyone in the world doesn’t wait their turn…when we were stationed in Germany in the 80s one of the orientation teachers was giggling about our four way stop signs. She said they’d never work in Germany and that if we wanted to be waited on in a shop we couldn’t just stand meekly at the back.  
Print and have handy ALL package details and don’t make changes to your reservation close to the cruise.

DH and I really liked MSC, it was like a trip to Italy and a cruise at the same time.

I keep hearing about this pizza, i Absolutely can’t wait to try it!!

I told mom to realize that about our fellow passengers, and we are going in with an open mind. 🙂 

 

27 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

I'm still waiting on getting not quite bored, but not as entertained/pleasantly surprised each day of a cruise.  I think 25 cruises ought to do it...  🤣

😂 it’s a good problem to have! 
 

8 minutes ago, HappySails4U said:

We are Platinum but  have discussed cruising with MSC because of the Marine Reserve.    Will be interested to hear your thoughts about the food options and entertainment as compared to Carnival.   Enjoy your trip !

I can’t wait to see Ocean Cay! 
 

7 minutes ago, luvs2beachit said:

Looking forward to reading your review.  Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience.

Thanks for following along!

[Knights on the Beach]

I'm happy to see your post! We would also like to try out MSC and Seaside looks really pretty. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it! We're also branching out a bit and will be on Disney Fantasy 8/26. That will definitely be different for us!

[pirate4me2]

2 minutes ago, Knights on the Beach said:

I'm happy to see your post! We would also like to try out MSC and Seaside looks really pretty. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it! We're also branching out a bit and will be on Disney Fantasy 8/26. That will definitely be different for us!

Have a wonderful cruise!! That’s my birthday! 😂 I’ve heard great things about Disney, I hope you enjoy it!

[princess76021]

7 hours ago, pirate4me2 said:

Hello CC family!

 

I can’t believe I am typing this….I think my mental breakdown has reached a whole new level. That, or maybe my drinking did and I accidentally got on the wrong website.  I, a loyal Carnival cruiser, have done the unthinkable….I booked a cruise on a different cruise line. WHAT AM I THINKING????

 

I actually think this could be a good thing. I love Carnival, but after 25 cruises I am getting, how should I say this…not quite bored, but not as entertained/pleasantly surprised each day, as I originally was. I think I need to sprinkle in cruises on other lines here and there to keep the experience fresh. Chris (my hubby) has agreed, but unfortunately for him, he isn’t along on this trip…my dear Mom is. She had expressed an interest in trying MSC back in 2020, and we actually had a cruise booked with them for September of that year, butttttt we all know what happened to that. So, as I was planning our first post-Covid mother/daughter adventure, I said what the heck….and booked us in Yacht Club cabin aboard MSC Seaside for August 20, 2023. We love the Havana area on the Vista class ships, so I thought this could be a similar experience to that.

 

I won’t be doing a full on review of the vacation on this board, since this is the Carnival forum, BUT I wanted to do a live comparison of the 2 lines to help anyone else who has sailed Carnival that may be wanting to try MSC. Each evening (or maybe every few days or as something that warrants a post happens) I will post pros and cons of MSC compared to Carnival. If you want my full live review, I will be doing that on the MSC forum (can I get directions to there, please? J/k).

 

So, without further ado….let the craziness begin. I feel like a fish out of water, this is all new. Hopefully this is just what I need to make my heart fonder of my dear old Carnival!

just got here, thanks for doing this!

hugs from Texas

[pirate4me2]

3 minutes ago, princess76021 said:

just got here, thanks for doing this!

hugs from Texas

Welcome aboard! 
I love Texas!!!

[pirate4me2]

Eeeek, it’s time to start packing….and I realized something that has made my heart fonder of my dear old Carnival. See, this “jumping ship” is a good thing, it’s doing what I had hoped! Anyway….I am packing for MSC, and I pulled out my normal suitcase I use for Carnival, which is a carry-on size. I have FINALLY after 11 years of cruising gotten it down to where I can pack into a carry-on and a backpack….but not for MSC apparently. ☹ I realized as I was packing that the reason I can pack into a carry-on with Carnival is thanks to my Platinum status, and that free laundry perk. I won’t have that with MSC, and maybe I am just a cheap-o, but I refuse to pay the price that they want for laundry. So, I hauled out my old faithful friend that hasn’t traveled in a while and was quite dusty….the big old teal full-size suitcase. Fun fact: the last luggage tag that was on her (I never take them out of the holder until I am putting the new one in for the next cruise) was from our Vista B2B in 2017! That was the cruise where I turned Platinum, and I wasn’t sure how the free laundry perk would work, so I packed like I am now packing for MSC.

It's probably good I pulled out Old Faithful….I am feeling a bit anxious over MSC’s evening dress code. We are in Yacht Club, and it sounds like I need to make sure I have “nicer” attire for their dining room, even on non-gala night. So instead of wearing shorts, flip flops and a T-shirt to dinner (yes, I am that person!) I had to pack 4 outfits just for dinner.  AND I realized that all my “dressy” shoes are technically just fancy flip flops. Argh. Guess I need to go buy a nice, neutral pair of dress shoes.  I am feeling a bit fonder of dear old Carnival again, where my flip flops are basically the only pair of shoes I pack!  

[pirate4me2]

One other change from Carnival, this 7 night cruise only has 1 elegant night. I found this chart showing the dress “code”, theme parties, and entertainment for the ship (Seaside) I am sailing. I can’t wait to see how the deck parties and entertainment compare to Carnival! 

[Chief93]

I'm really looking forward to this review.  I need a cruise next summer that departs from Istanbul, and it looks like MSC is the best option.

[ninjacat123]

29 minutes ago, pirate4me2 said:

One other change from Carnival, this 7 night cruise only has 1 elegant night. I found this chart showing the dress “code”, theme parties, and entertainment for the ship (Seaside) I am sailing. I can’t wait to see how the deck parties and entertainment compare to Carnival! 

This is interesting!  I like knowing ahead of the cruise what to expect and I like the MSC chart.  It will be fun to see what you think of the "party/show" differences🥳

[pirate4me2]

16 minutes ago, Chief93 said:

I'm really looking forward to this review.  I need a cruise next summer that departs from Istanbul, and it looks like MSC is the best option.

If you have any questions you think of that you'd like me to do recon on while I am onboard, just ask! I will try and do my best to find out answers. 

 

1 minute ago, ninjacat123 said:

This is interesting!  I like knowing ahead of the cruise what to expect and I like the MSC chart.  It will be fun to see what you think of the "party/show" differences🥳

I am the same way, being a planner I like to know what to pack for and expect. 

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

Hello!  Very interested in this!  How do you get the status match from Carnival Platinum to MSC XXXX?

 

Thanks in advance!