What do Loyal Royal Cruisers think of MSC?

[shipgeeks]

I was just reminded of one of the things we liked best about MSC, and don't like on RC: private island.  Ocean Cay is my idea of paradise: just sand, some palm trees and low vegetation, views of the beautiful water all around, little or no piped music. We keep trying Coco Cay, and we never enjoy it. Too loud, too closed in, too filled with structures, too hard to see the sea.

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, cublet said:

nothing compares with the Royal Promenade during the $10 ‘cruise essentials’ sale that makes a rugby scrum look like a vicarage tea party

Best line of the thread LOL...

[mets07]

18 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Best line of the thread LOL...

I so agree!! Great line, @cublet

[ajtaylor29]

7 hours ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

The only time I have lost weight on a cruise was on Celebrity Eclipse in Aqua Class and dining in Blu.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

Uh oh.....our first Celebrity cruise will be next May on Eclipse?!! But, luckily we're sailing in a suite so we won't be counting on Blu for our meals....although i did plan to try it!

[Scottdalfonso]

We have only done Royal, with another one in 2 weeks, BUT over a year ago we booked MSC Seascape, which is still, until World America, the newest ship sailing from the US.  We booked that cruise, for 3 of us, on a balcony, with Drink packages for all 3 of us, WIFI for 2 of us and the slightly upgraded Fantastica experience, to 4 ports (2 of which we haven't been to) for almost half the price of our Royal on an older, not very updated ship- ocean view (no balcony) 5 nighter to one port with NO packages or Wifi. We couldn't pass it up. We originally had it booked for September, but moved it back to Dec (for no cost due to the Fantastica free cruise change perk).  So we are going in very open minded, but for the cost, we couldn't pass it up, and unless it's TERRIBLE, I think we will enjoy it for what it is. 

Edited July 7 by Scottdalfonso

[Saab4444]

1 hour ago, time4u2go said:

Little known fact: The concept of what became the Royal Promenade was created by MSC.

This is not true. Royal had it long before in 1999 on Voyager and MSC copied it from Royal (first on the MSC Meraviglia in 2017). Originally the idea of a promenade comes from the big Silja Line ferries Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony in 1990 and Royal copied it from them as all those ships came from Turku shipyard

[smokeybandit]

4 minutes ago, Saab4444 said:

This is not true. Royal had it long before in 1999 on Voyager and MSC copied it from Royal (first on the MSC Meraviglia in 2017). Originally the idea of a promenade comes from the big Silja Line ferries Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony in 1990 and Royal copied it from them as all those ships came from Turku shipyard

Correct
 

 

[Scottdalfonso]

MSC has also copied the open back\boardwalk with dry slide and inner facing balconies on the "World class" ships 

[skyking]

We bounce back and forth between Royal and MSC. 

 

We find them more alike than they are different, we just sailed Anthem to Norway and the food was just meh however the cruise was FANTASTIC! 

 

We have sailed both in and out of the Yacht Club, and we really enjoy the experience on both cruise lines. 

 

We really enjoyed the Duplex on the Virtuosa, but also enjoy CL suites on Oasis class ships. 

 

We go into every cruise with an open mind and go with the flow. 

 

Edited July 7 by skyking

[barbeyg]

The main reason we haven’t booked MSC yet is because while we would sail YC, we like the “entire ship” experience.  We don’t want to be exclusively in a smaller area on a ship.  We like free range cruising. 😂  And the rest of the MSC ship experience doesn’t appeal to us, based on others’ reviews, people we know and trust the opinion of.  🤷🏻‍♀️

 

The whole shipwide experience is why we sail Celebrity too now….and are considering booking Princess, given the right itinerary. 

[yogimax]

We'll be trying MSC in October solely based on price and convenience of Brooklyn.

 

The status match from Diamond Plus to Gold is virtually useless.  Crown & Anchor gives FAR more benefits than MSC.  

 

We were able to book a balcony with drink and internet package tossed in for significantly less than Royal's inflated cost.  Will we like it?  We'll let you know.

[George C]

2 hours ago, yogimax said:

We'll be trying MSC in October solely based on price and convenience of Brooklyn.

 

The status match from Diamond Plus to Gold is virtually useless.  Crown & Anchor gives FAR more benefits than MSC.  

 

We were able to book a balcony with drink and internet package tossed in for significantly less than Royal's inflated cost.  Will we like it?  We'll let you know.

When we did status match from diamond plus they made my status black but wife got gold, black gave us a free dinner in specialty restaurant. 

[mizLORInj]

Have sailed both (and other mainstream lines).   We try to sail whatever is in NY/NJ since we can drive to the port.   We decided to try out MSC Meraviglia over Thanksgiving last year.   We enjoyed it.  We did do the status match and got Gold level which gave us a cute MSC bag, and I don't remember what else, but I didn't expect much anyway.

 

Embarkation was easy -- we purposely chose a 1pm arrival time to avoid the earlier crowds.  Ship was beautiful; cabin was nice.   Were there little quirks?  yes, but I don't even remember now what they were.   I loved the adults-only area at the stern.  Multi-stepped lounger area, bar, and pool.  Spent A LOT of time there.  They also had a high deck lounge that we found similar to the Viking Crown area. . . full area of windows--I think it was Sky Lounge.  We called it the Viking lounge, and fellow tablemates all knew what we were describing as they were seasoned cruisers as well.  Entertainment was good although I would not do the for-pay shows again.  

 

Will we sail MSC again?  Yes, we will.   I am glad we tried it to form our own opinion--and I suggest others do the same!     Maybe we'll try Yacht Club someday. 

 

As far as cost. . .we priced MSC Meraviglia and Odyssey of the seas for a later-this-year cruise, 7 nighter out of NY/NJ. . . WITH the drinks/wifi pkg in a balcony cabin, MSC was $1,200 less than Odyssey.   

 

 

[little britain]

Have done a few MSC and have another booked.

plus: usually good priced fares, cheap drinks packages, freshly made mozzarella, stunning ships, no begging for a 10, their steak restaurant is far better than Chops, unobtrusive service, more relaxed, great coffee, great pizza, male dance hosts, varied music, innovative ships, no rush to get in and out of dinner, chocolate with coffee, canapés with drinks in the adult lounge, more interesting itineraries, flexible boarding options. 

 

negatives; on older ships sometimes a strange layout, like only one set of elevator’s goes down to the dining room, shows are adequate, sometimes they sell too cheap and you get some “cheap” cruisers. 
 

I have done YC and personally I didn’t really like it, I like the big ship vibe and the variety of bars. I did like the private dining room ( like CK) but I felt the service and quietness of the YC lounge was just too quiet for me. 

[PhillyFan33579]

My thought is someone who is truly loyal to Royal would not be able to answer a question about MSC. 

[Cooper30]

My wife and I have been on 13 Royal cruises (she's actually been on 14) and one MSC cruise.  Thanks to the pandemic, we hit Diamond quicker than expected (I love it when people look down on us because we are pandemic Crown and Anchor babies 😄 )

With Royal, we've been on nine ships, everything from Vision to Oasis, with Freedom Class being our favorite (with Quantum Class a very close second).  We enjoy Royal Caribbean and have no plans to stop cruising with them. 

 

Other than one cruise in a JS during the restart on Adventure out of Nassau, most of our cruises have been in gty interiors and balconies.  We did fork over the money for an aft balcony on Explorer last fall when we cruised out of Italy.

 

Our one MSC cruise was a three night one on Divina from Miami to Nassau and Ocean Cay.  We have been on a three night on Freedom to Nassau and CocoCay, so we compared the two (although the Freedom cruise was b2b with a 4-night).  On both, we stayed in gty cabins (Bella on MSC).

 

We feel the two companies to be more similar than different.

 

Here are a handful of our opinions based on comparing our Divina and Freedom three night cruises.

 

We were status matched to Voyagers Club Gold level.

 

• Royal wins in entertainment, hands down.  It's not even close for us. Give us a live orchestra please.  I'll even take Cats again over the show we saw on Divina.
• Royal wins overall in crew interactions.  MSC crew weren't jerks, but Royal's crew is more personable
• MSC wins in the buffet. 
• Royal wins in the MDR
• MSC wins in the price comparison
• Ocean Cay is more our style than Coco Cay, but we still enjoy ourselves at Coco Cay.
• A three night cruise is a three night cruise regardless of which company you're on...lots of people taking a long weekend with the drink package.

 

Random observation upon boarding Divina....the walls are dark which makes the interior dark....but then there are mirrors EVERYWHERE....so many that we were laughing together at how many mirrors there are.

 

With all things equal, we will choose Royal.  The drink vouchers are hard to beat (and we don't even drink alcohol).  We know what to expect with Royal, and have not had a bad experience on any Royal ship.  We can see Diamond Plus on the horizon in a few years.

However, we have a 7-night northern Europe cruise booked with MSC this coming October on Preziosa where we got a legit "too good to be true" deal on YC, so we're excited about that.  We also have a 6-night Med cruise to Greece and Turkey booked on Divina in May 2025 in an interior.  It was another "omg look at how cheap this is" yolo booking.

Don't worry though, we have five cruises booked with Royal from Jan 2025 through Jan 2026, one of which is a 9-night out of Southampton where we splurged on another aft balcony.

I will elaborate on anything I posted here if anyone is curious or gets offended. 

We are in our mid-50s, work our butts off, and are spending our kids' inheritance. 🙂 

Edited July 10 by Cooper30

[Gemina]

We’ve done 6 cruises on Royal now as well as 2 on Disney and 1 in the Haven on Norwegian. Royal is hands down our family’s favourite and we all agreed we preferred our February Wonder cruise in a regular balcony room over our aft Haven penthouse on the Escape the week before. We have three teenage boys and love the amenities on the Oasis class ships as well as the general energy of sailing on a big ship. My first choice is to book Royal. 
 

That being said, my husband and I are booked on a B2B Med cruise on the MSC World Europa in October. We sailing in the Yacht Club and I am very excited to try it out. Given our experience with the NCL ship within a ship I’m wondering if we will miss being a part of the action but since it’s just the two of us we might prefer having a quiet place to retreat to. 

[bucfan2]

28 minutes ago, Cooper30 said:

My wife and I have been on 13 Royal cruises (she's actually been on 14) and one MSC cruise.  Thanks to the pandemic, we hit Diamond quicker than expected (I love it when people look down on us because we are pandemic Crown and Anchor babies 😄 )

Good for you!  One of the main reasons we tried MSC was to get away from the 'status snobs'. We'd hear all about how they're this/that, got the nameplate, etc, and then laugh when we'd run into them at the tier gatherings and hear 'Oh, we didn't know...would you like to join us?'.  Certainly not all, but enough to get annoying. 
 

We still cruise Royal quite a bit, but if MSC YC remains as nice as it currently is (and near its current price point)...we'll continue w/ MSC a bit more often, as Royal can't hold a candle to them in our opinion.

Edited July 10 by bucfan2

[The Fun Researcher]

Price Price Price

 

What do I think of MSC?  They have attractive pricing and fairly new ships in the US market.  They are doing all they can to break in and get a solid foothold.

 

I'm absolutely willing to give them a shot for the right price, in fact we plan on it.  We have friends that had only sailed Royal and Celebrity and loved MSC, but a LOT of that had to do with what they got for the price (especially the included adult drinks)

[The Fun Researcher]

On 7/7/2024 at 9:32 AM, time4u2go said:

Little known fact: The concept of what became the Royal Promenade was created by MSC.

Which MSC ship had it before Royal?

[PhillyFan33579]

9 hours ago, Cooper30 said:

My wife and I have been on 13 Royal cruises (she's actually been on 14) and one MSC cruise.  Thanks to the pandemic, we hit Diamond quicker than expected (I love it when people look down on us because we are pandemic Crown and Anchor babies 😄 )

How does anyone know your loyalty level? I cruise on RCI 1-2 times a month. With the exception of Pinnacles who wear their gold name tags, I have no clue about the loyalty level of other passengers (and don’t care for that matter). Even if someone knows you are a Diamond, how would they know how you reached that level?

[Ocean Boy]

On 7/6/2024 at 2:42 PM, George C said:

If you are bargain hunting yacht club offers inside cabins that still has all the perks . 

Are these cabins located within the yacht club or do they come with access to the YC but located elsewhere?

[L454S]

11 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Are these cabins located within the yacht club or do they come with access to the YC but located elsewhere?

 

Yes, these cabins are in the YC, and like most all other inside cabins, they are across the hall from the balcony cabins. We tried one once and would do it again on the Seaside.

 

Have another booked, this time will try the balcony suites.

 

Edited July 11 by L454S

[cublet]

17 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

My thought is someone who is truly loyal to Royal would not be able to answer a question about MSC. 

Hello,

 

Phyllis Grosskurth writing on Freud said he thought it would not be possible both to be loyal and have a mind of one's own. Sounds pretty familiar even today.

 

However whilst I still have a mind (and before I turn into a sheep) I intend to keep using it.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[George C]

3 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Are these cabins located within the yacht club or do they come with access to the YC but located elsewhere?

Yes as far as I know all are in the YC , you need to be in one of the cabins to enter the area , on seaside all the cabins are on deck 16 and 18 and deck 19 is pool area. Apparently 17 is unlucky in Italy so there is no deck 17 .