MSC Seaside (w/ a 9 month old) - 8/13 - 8/17 Review

[FloatMyBoat10640]

Hello! 

 

I thought I would give a quick review on our 4 night sailing on the MSC Seaside from 8/13/23 - 8/17/23. A little background, my wife a and I are seasoned cruisers and both grew up going on lots of cruises since we are both from South Florida. We have cruised on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian with NCL being our favorite line so far. But this would be our first cruise on MSC and first cruise from Port Canaveral, we usually cruise out of the Port of Miami/Port Everglades. The price of the cruise along with the dates is what made us choose MSC. Also, we decided to take our 9 month old with us as there a week where he wouldn't be in daycare. We figured, we would take PTO anyways to watch after him, might as well do it from a cruise. 

 

Embarkation: Our assigned check in time was 2pm. From the moment we were dropped off till we boarded the ship was a total of about 30 minutes. I spoke with the MSC employee checking us in and he said the ship was at about 80% capacity. We booked a balcony cabin (Fantastica Experience) and our room was ready as soon as we boarded. The atrium really made an impression from when you walked on, lots of chrome and shine especially from the Sikorsky crystal stair cases. I usually like to take the stars to get around the ship but since we had a stroller and our son with us we had to use the elevators. I looked into the way the elevators worked before we got onboard and saw that you had to select the floor you wanted to go on first on a screen and would get directed to an assigned elevator. I think this worked better in theory then in real life as we were constantly waiting for an elevator. It got to the point where I had my wife carry our son so I could carry the stroller up the stairs since we were waiting so long. The elevator algorithm also did not seem to take into accounts that one floor request could have multiple ridders so when an elevator did come it was usually full and we had to go through the selection process multiple times. The mustard station drill was pretty efficient. All we had to do was go to our assigned station after we watched the video and they scanned our card to mark us a finished.

 

Cabin: We booked balcony cabin 11176 on the deck 11 and the first thing I thought of when we entered was how narrow the cabin was. Our stroller couldn't even fit through the door. We have been in many balcony, ocean view, and inside cabins before but this one seemed to be the narrowest of them all, especially after we set up the pack and play for our son to sleep in. The shower had a door, not a curtain which was nice and we did not notice any sewer smells like some others mentioned in the reviews prior to our cruise. The room was very modern looking and had a longer couch. The bed was also pretty comfortable but the room seemed to be lacking storage. A lot of cruise ships have drawers/ shelves by the desk for storage but Seaside had none. Other reviews have mentioned this already but there were plenty of outlets with USBs for charging electronics. 

 

Food: The food was consistently average to below average and portions were on the smaller side (keep in mind that MSC will upcharge if you order more than one entrée in the main dinning room). We only ate in the included restaurants which meant we were limited to the buffet and main dinning room. The buffet was very repetitive for lunch and dinner. For example, on one day of the cruise lunch options at the buffet included dal lentils, curried chicken, and allo paratha at the "ethnic" section. All of these options were repeated again for dinner. On another day they pulled pork, grilled steak, mixed stir fry vegetables, and roasted chicken which was exactly the same for lunch and dinner. Normally the buffet mimics the food options in the main dinning room but on MSC they did not with the exception of the dessert options which were the same. There some stand out dishes however, as others have mentioned the pizza is very good and for my taste had the right ratio of cheese to sauce, the crust also had a nice chew to it. The pasta dishes were also consistently good, both in the buffet and main dinning room. The also had lots of options for breakfast which we thought was the best meal. They had great croissants, sticky buns, and unlike the Carnival Sunrise we were on last year had bacon every morning. Another standout dessert for me was the pistachio coconut dequay that I had for dessert one night in the main dining room.  

 

Food in the dinning room was also below average as well (except the Italian dishes), I ordered fish 2 nights and on both occasions it was overcooked and dry. We did the early seating at 5:15pm since my son has an early bed time. I wish they would open anytime dinning up to all guest instead of just the Aura Experience guests. Having the same waiters and servers was nice but I miss the fluidity of being able to go to dinner latter/early based on the what we were doing each day. The service was good for the most part, dinner lasted about 45 minutes to an hour every night. They brought my son a fresh fruit plate and steamed veggies every night after they saw that what he was eating. 

 

Ports: 

- Nassau: We've been to Nassau more times than I can remember with the last time being in April 2022 when we went on the Carnival Sunrise. We just walked around for about an hour and went back to the ship. 

 

- Private Island (Ocean Cay): We enjoyed ourselves here a lot here, we took our son for his first time ever in the ocean in one of the lagoon facing beaches. He had a good time splashing and licking his lips when the salt water got him. The Island was developed to the point where there was lots of walking paths but not to the extent where it felt too commercialized. We had a nice lunch on the island while our son napped in the stroller. We did not get a chance to sample the food trucks but we had your standard lunch of jerk chicken, ribs, burgers, fries, and pasta salads at the buffet. Also, since we were on the starboard (right) side of the ship were able to catch the lighthouse show from our balcony. The show was short about 10 minutes long but was fun to watch. They had a LED light show with music projected on the light house, it probably would have been even better on the beach. It was nice that MSC has the Seaside stay till midnight, my wife and I would have gone back out to the island and walked on the beach if our son was not with us. 

 

Entertainment: Unfortunately we can't speak much to the entertainment since we had our 9 month old with us which limited our evening entertainment. We did not think it would be fair to others if we went to a show and he was babbling the whole time. We normally like to go the evening shows but did not make it any of them this cruise. I did appreciate that they had 3 showings vs the usually 2 showings to allow more people to make the shows. 

 

Cruising with an Infant: We were prepared for what it would be like traveling with a infant, our son turned 9 months old the day we disembarked the cruise. We knew that this would a different experience vs pre-kids and knew we would not be able to stay up late and enjoy the evening activities like we done on past cruises. However, we still had a great time and our son enjoyed himself as well. We really appreciated that MSC had the "Baby Chicco Club" onboard, this area is for kids one and under had pack and plays, a changing station, and lots of toys to play with (the toys only had settings for Italian and Spanish which was pretty funny). It was a nice place for us to change our son without having to go back to the cabin. They even provided diapers and baby wipes. If he was one year old we could have enrolled him in the included baby sitting services. Our days were planned around our sons naps which lasted for 45 minutes to an hour. I'm glad we brought him on this cruise but I don't think we would do it again till he is off bottles and on primarily on solid food. Having to bring all his bottles, bottle cleaning brushes, and powdered formula was a lot. We also brought with us an inflatable bathtub so we could bath him in the shower. 

 

Baby things we are glad we brought with us: 

-Blackout cover for the pack and play

-Inflatable bath tub (did double duty for bath and bottle drying)

-Sound machine

-Stroller fan

-Portable sound machine

 

Disembarkation: MSC assigns an disembarkation time based on the deck that you on with lower decks being assigned an earlier time. I liked the way other cruise lines do it where you pick a tag with an assigned time based on a first come first service basis.  From the time our embarkation time was called we were off the ship in 15 minutes.

 

Odds and Ends: Overall we a good time and like they say "any day on a cruise is better than a day on land". However, I don't think we will be cruising with MSC again unless the price is substantially cheaper vs the competition. Since we knew we would not have the opportunity go to shows or make all of daily activates onboard because of our son, food was one of the things we were excited about and MSC disappointed in this regard. Some of things we really enjoyed about our cruise on NCL Getaway and Carnival Sunrise was the all of the included food options available besides the main dining room and buffet. Also, MSC needs to enforce an age restriction for the Forrest Adventures splash pad. When we took our son there it was packed with teenagers hanging out in the kiddie pool. If you are old enough to wear a thong you are too old to be in the kids pool. I did think MSC did a great job at designing MSC Seaside, the ship is beautiful and I really liked the amount of outdoor dining space on the promenade. It brings that connection to the ocean. 

 

I'm happy to answer any questions!

Edited September 3, 2023 by FloatMyBoat10640

[Tierun]

It sounds like you had a typical experience with MSC.

 

You might not be able to answer this for me, but was the zip line in use during this cruise?

[FloatMyBoat10640]

Yes it was, we saw people on it during the entire cruise. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by FloatMyBoat10640

[Tierun]

Thanks

[AlanFromEngland]

Thanks for the info. We'll be taking out baby daughter, 1yo, on her first cruise next month. We've done this itinerary before but on the MSC Divina, and thought it was good relative to the price. We'll also have out 12yo son, and picked this cruise because it had a lot of the things he loves to do.

Thank you for the solid review.

[Homosassa]

How can  stroller appropriate for cruising on a ship not fit through the cabin door?

 

How wide is your stroller?

[Envelope21]

Thank you for this review. We will be on this ship in about 4 weeks.

 

The elevator situation sounds like what we experienced on a Carnival ship a few years ago. We had the same reaction that you mentioned, about it often being full by the time it got to you. On that ship, you also had to enter how many passengers were in your party. That would SEEM to mitigate the full elevator problem, but I think often people didn't realize they had to do that.

 

Are you saying that if you want an extra entree at dinner they charge you for it? Wow. That's a new one. Do the servers tell you how much it is?

 

We've been on MSC only one time before. The price is pretty hard to pass up. What I remember about it was that the buffet was always terribly crowded. So much so, that you could hardly get from one end to the other. We shall see how things go.

 

Thank you for your review.

 

[Essiesmom]

30 minutes ago, Envelope21 said:

Thank you for this review. We will be on this ship in about 4 weeks.

 

The elevator situation sounds like what we experienced on a Carnival ship a few years ago. We had the same reaction that you mentioned, about it often being full by the time it got to you. On that ship, you also had to enter how many passengers were in your party. That would SEEM to mitigate the full elevator problem, but I think often people didn't realize they had to do that.

 

Are you saying that if you want an extra entree at dinner they charge you for it? Wow. That's a new one. Do the servers tell you how much it is?

 

We've been on MSC only one time before. The price is pretty hard to pass up. What I remember about it was that the buffet was always terribly crowded. So much so, that you could hardly get from one end to the other. We shall see how things go.

 

Thank you for your review.

 

There are several  Rey recent threads about the $5 charge each for extra entrees.  I discussed it in my Live thread.  It’s in very small print on the menus. It includes all entrees from chef’s selection down, and on the classics side from Mac and cheese down.  Apps and desserts are still unlimited.

EM

[Envelope21]

thanks so much!

 

[FloatMyBoat10640]

On 9/5/2023 at 9:43 AM, Homosassa said:

How can  stroller appropriate for cruising on a ship not fit through the cabin door?

 

How wide is your stroller?

I’m not sure of the width but we have a Britax BFree Premium stroller. It fit everywhere else besides through our cabin door. 

[Essiesmom]

The specs say 23” wide.  Looks like it folds up so it could have been taken into the cabin.  EM

[Homosassa]

12 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

The specs say 23” wide.  Looks like it folds up so it could have been taken into the cabin.  EM

That makes sense. 

 

Back in the dark ages (1983) of the original "MaxiTaxi" stroller with the hard plastic basket under the seat, we had to fold the stroller to gain access to our  cabin.

 

We also never attempted to use it on a crowded elevator.

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-80s-maxi-taxi-collapsable-44906503

Edited September 7, 2023 by Homosassa