MSC Synphonia - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Long)

[mach4]

The specific cruise that we took for which this review applies was the Cruise to Totality March 22-April 2, 2006 (link). While there are aspects to this cruise which are completely unique, I will attempt to limit my commentary to those aspects which will be likely applicable to most cruises. The itinerary of this particular cruise was completely unique in that a port of call to Tobruk, Libya was added to accommodate the viewing of a total solar eclipse. This was the first time that a cruise ship had ever been to Tobruk. The eclipse portion of the cruise was spectacular. The specific itinerary was Genoa, Naples, Syracuse, Alexandria, Tobruk, Tripoli, Malta, Salerno and Genoa.

The data set which comprise a baseline for comparison of cruises include our 1990 Caribbean cruise on the MS Noordam (Holland America), a 2002 Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas, a 2003 Alaska cruise on Princess’ Dawn Princess, a 2004 Mexican Riviera Cruise on the MS Ryndam and a 2005 Mexican Riviera Cruise on the MS Oosterdam.

First the good. Embarkation was as smooth as I have encountered. We were through the embarkation process very quickly with no particular issues. The only thing that was a bit unnerving was the fact that the cruise line confiscated our passports and held them for the duration of the cruise. The other thing to be aware of is the cost of taxi service in Genoa. It was 35 Euro for the less than a mile trip from the hotel to the cruise terminal. The terminal was generally neat and clean and we waited only about an hour from the time we cleared security until we were in our stateroom. We were able to go directly to our stateroom and were escorted by a friendly and neatly attired room steward(ess).

That was about it for the good… Things went downhill quickly from there.

One thing we noticed was that the ship is always late. It was late departing Genoa, late arriving Naples, late leaving Naples, late arriving Syracuse, late leaving Syracuse and so on. On the second night, dinner was delayed 30 minutes. The shows were generally late starting as well.

The other thing that you notice immediately is that staff is generally incompetent and carry an attitude best described as “could care less”.

The “gelateria” was closed throughout the entire cruise…with no signs posted. The climbing wall was closed for the duration, with no explanation. The game room was only open a couple of hours a day. The library, which shared space with the game room consisted of three small cabinets of books – one English, one German and one Italian. There were no magazines. There were no puzzles. There were no cards…well, you get the idea.

Seemed like every time we had a question the person we asked had either no idea of the answer or spoke no English. The most common response was to go ask at Reception. Going to Reception met with either no staff present or a response to go ask someone where we just came from. One classic response at reception was that the document that needed to be signed for a particular activity e.g. a minor using the gym, still needed to be translated. Two days later when the document was done being translated, it was two sentences. We wondered how it was that a cruise line could be doing business for the number of years that they have been doing so, and never got around to translating a basic needed document into English. Now, if it were Tagalog or Farsi or Chinese I could understand, but English…?

Dining was always an experience. First, we found the food to be average at best. It always had nice fancy Italian descriptors, but the quality was clearly lacking. Availability was highly limited. Each mealtime was narrowly defined, and there was no buffet dining option during dinner. One daily schedule reported that Room Service was available from 7:30 until 10 and the next column reported that Room Service was available 24 hours.

We never knew when to expect a particular menu item, as they seemed to come at random times. One member of our party might be getting their soup when another was getting salad and yet another was getting their main course. Being Americans, we enjoyed iced tea. This was a huge problem. Initially we had to get our own ice and order hot tea which we made into iced tea. Then they decided to provide iced tea at dinner, but only one carafe. The steward reported that his boss said that that was all we could have. Things finally changed and there was adequate iced tea, but it was a major issue. One thing that never got resolved was the availability of spoons for stirring the iced tea. They were never available when needed. There was a constant flow of utensils on and off the table, but spoons always seemed to be in short supply. Our solution – simply use knives as fully functional stirring devices.

One rather humorous illustration of the incessant absurdity was a daily desert item called “sorbet of the day”. Now having become accustom to the concept of a “soup of the day”, “sandwich of the day”, “special of the day” and any number of other “of the day” items, we naturally assumed that there would be a different sorbet each day- wrong! “Lemon Sorbet” was the “sorbet of the day” everyday!

The entertainment was adequate but amateurish. If you happen to hear the cruise director Paulo getting ready to sing Elvis… you are advised to head for the exits!

The excursion desk can only be described as incompetent. They hardly know what is going on and the ability to distribute tickets in a timely manner is lacking. And sometimes they flat out just lie. Our excursions were actually pretty good – especially Pompei, however we heard many fellow cruisers discuss how horrible their cruise guides were. Inconsistent is probably the watchword.

My wife got her nails done on the ship. The first time she went to the spa for her appointment, she was turned away because “it was too rough”. When she finally got them done a couple days later, the French Nails job was so poor, she had the spa lady take the polish off and just put clear on. The spa lady reported that she didn’t do nails (which was obvious since she actually drew blood clipping her cuticles)! The spa lady said her friend usually did nails, but she was not available.

One younger member of our group (12 years old) attended a number of special youth events. One in particular was especially memorable. The event was a “Chocolate Party”. Ok, sounds like fun… the chocolate turned out to be a packet of Nutella (a spreadible chocolate paste). Michael, recounting the “iced tea spoon situation” reported that, amazingly, the kids actually got a spoon to eat their Nutella.

Then there was the photography staff. They were generally following cruise ship format until one night they had clowns go around to get pictures taken with the passengers at dinner. The only connection we could make was the perhaps subliminal recognition that the cruise line and the cruise staff were “a real joke”. The analogy of a “circus” seemed to fit. We thought MSC was a real circus! But that was just the beginning – on another night they had “pirates” come around to have passengers get their pictures taken with. It is possible that the Europeans enjoy this kind of goofiness, but we found it unprofessional and obnoxious.

Well, what about the ship itself? It was generally well maintained and clean, but the design left much to be desired. I have already spoken of the library and the game room. The stores were woefully inadequate. In fact one store was positioned such that it blocked access between two adjacent public areas. One floor had a staff space which was likewise right in the middle of the floor so you needed to go either up one or down one deck to continue your movement on that deck. The theater had a rather interesting design. Each “row” consisted of a “couch” and a row of chairs. The interesting thing was that the chairs were positioned in front of the couch and were at a higher level than the couch, thus ensuring that fully half the audience was blocked from a clear view of the stage. This one item kind of symbolizes the entire absurdity and the total lack of attention to detail of MSC.

The lounge entertainment was generally lacking in quality and variety as was the theater. This is perhaps understandable when you consider that there are 5 supported languages on board. If you think about it, this limits entertainment to magic, musical shows, juggling and acrobatics. The “Cabaret” show was well worth missing. There was one bright spot and that was what they titled The Cirque de Imaginaire. An obvious take off on Cirque de Soleil, its acrobatics and other performances were excellent.

The Internet facilities were marginal at best. No wireless access was available. In fact while I was writing this review in the vicinity of the Internet area, I had several people come by inquiring about whether I had wireless access. They have obviously been on other cruises and were amazed to note the lack of expected connectivity. The speed was very slow and at .33 Euros a minute it added up significantly. There was no provision to download email for offline reading, or to write off-line and then go on line to send. And no ability to run multiple sessions to provide background downloading was provided. A good baseline is this – 7 minutes to log on, load a browser, load an email package, select and read an email.

An additional comment on food. Most cruise lines will have either an open buffet or a midnight buffet. On the Sinfonia there was none of that. The only thing available between dinner and breakfast was a “snack” served in the lounges. One night it was crepe Suzette, another night was micro-pizzas and another night it was little finger sandwiches. Again, you are forewarned to set your expectations at a minimal level.

We found one positive thing, at least for us, was the lack of an art auction. Those cruisers who live for the at sea auctions will be disappointed, but those like us who find them trite and obnoxious, will appreciate the absence.

The incompetence and indifference of the staff became, in a perverse kind of way, part of our ad hoc “onboard entertainment”. We came to look forward to dinner as an opportunity to share our “MSC stories” of the day – and believe me, there were no lack of stories.

And finally I would be a bit remiss if I did not mention the illustrious Lady Lucia. If you take this cruise you may have an opportunity to encounter this interesting and eccentric old lady. She claims to have been born with a golden spoon in her mouth, run away with a Circus trapeze artist and become a trapeze artist herself and now after the death of her husband of 60 years she just flits around the world cruising and driving wherever she may. But be forewarned, Lady Lucia just gets up and walks away if she doesn’t like you…that’s what she says, and from experience, apparently it’s true! Everyone on the ship knows her - let us know if you encounter this most interesting and unique lady.

The highlight of our trip was the eclipse itself. I will leave the details of that event for another time and place, but suffice it to say that logistics in North Africa, in general, and Libya in particular are, if nonexistent, completely primitive. Just a sample will provide the flavor. There were 5 portable toilets provided for approximately 2500 people. The line was consistently over an hour. The details of the eclipse event are not germane to this particular cruise review, since this was the first time since WWII that a cruise ship has been to Tobruk and it is likely to remain off the general list of cruise ports for the foreseeable future – although it shouldn’t be. The people of Tobruk were delightful, grateful, friendly and, to a person, excited for the opportunity to host such an event. If the opportunity presents itself to go to Tobruk – take it! We missed the WWII cemeteries because of lack of time, but those that had the chance to visit them were impressed and touched.

A particular word about the eclipse is in order however. Despite the fact that over half the cruise was “eclipse chasers”, there were many passengers who were not taking the cruise for the eclipse. We heard from them that it was apparently promoted as an “eclipse cruise” in MSC literature. Yet, amazingly enough, there was no provision for passengers not participating in the formal third-party eclipse events to go to the eclipse location! After numerous complaints, MSC did manage to throw together an excursion for those passengers, but that turned out to be a disaster and impacted negatively the other events.

But then there was Tripoli. Tripoli is a dirty and primitive town. The recounting of our shore excursion will provide a level-setting of expectations for your stay, should you have the opportunity to stop in Tripoli. Our selected shore excursion was a trip to Leptis Magna. We were to meet on the pier at 9:00 am. One set of tours departed at 8:00 am and went off only about 30 minutes late. But at 9:00 am there were several hundred people on the pier with busses available for less than 25% of that number. After milling around for the better part of an hour, an announcement was made that all excursions were cancelled. So many people elected to go into town and the rest elected to go back aboard. At around 10:15 an announcement was made that all tours were back on and busses would depart at 11:00. So we elected to take our chances and go on the tour wondering whether we would ever get back alive. As we were pulling out we drove by lines of busses – yes, the ones we were supposed to have taken at 9:00. In true MSC fashion, no one had a clue what was going on, and no detailed information was provided. In fact at one point the cruise director Paulo was on the pier and was approached by one irate passenger. He allegedly stated that “it’s not our fault, it’s not our problem – it’s your problem”. Although I was not there to hear the comment directly, I have no reason to believe that it is not accurate. In a technical sense, it may be true that the cruise ship is not responsible for the performance of the tour operators of the shore excursions – but the reality is that they choose the tour operators. If a tour operator does not operate professionally, they should find another. So we definitely hold them responsible for the lack of quality and performance for the operators. In any event, a tour director speaking in this way to a passenger is inexcusable.

Logistics notwithstanding, Leptis Magna is not to be missed. If your expectations of the infrastructure and environment are that of Egypt, you will be ok. It is an amazing complex. Because we departed over two hours late, we missed the museum, which was reportedly spectacular.

A high point of most cruises is the formal nights. MSC calls them “Galas”. For those expecting the usual fare of filet mignon, crab, rack of lamb and lobster, you will be disappointed. On our final “Gala” we were pleased to see Lobster on the menu. However when we noted that it was “aromatized”, we were suspicious - and rightly so. The lobster was dry and devoid of taste, so we assume that “aromotized” is an Italian word for dry and bland. Not even a bit of drawn butter was to be found to try to salvage the experience – a fitting disappointment to place an exclamation point on a long string of disappointments.

Many on this forum have commented that MSC is notoriously bad with its disembarkation procedures. Well, we were not to be the exception. I must however say that even our extremely low expectations were exceeded. We were told to be out of our rooms by 8 am, so we went down to breakfast in the Il Galleone restaurant where we were treated to cold, runny eggs, cold, dry hash browns and exceptionally greasy bacon. It was clear that the “MSC Express” breakfasts had been pre-assembled as much as an hour beforehand. One member of our breakfast party found some unidentifiable substance or organism in the bottom of his juice. It was simply gross. We were told that our passports would be available in the Symphonia Lounge between 8 and 9. We dispatched one of our group to get the passports. After an hour we sent out a search party. Amazingly the line had not moved. It turned out that our passports were supposed to be stamped in Salerno by the Italian authorities the day before, but someone forgot that that this was Sunday and the Italian authorities do not work on Sunday. This meant that the passports had not even begun to be stamped until our arrival in Genoa. Ok, so anyone can make a mistake – but you would think that the information would be communicated to the passengers in a timely manner – especially since the situation was known the night before! Not a chance – this is MSC!

If you are taking a cab to the airport or hotel upon disembarkation, be prepared for a real experience! The cab area is complete and utter chaos.

Here is my rating for each of the departments

Wait staff: Adequate and undertrained. Poor systems

Food preparation staff: Adequate, but uncreative

Housekeeping staff: Excellent – attentive yet unobtrusive

Ship: Excellent- well maintained

Entertainment: Limited but adequate

Recreation: Limited

Excursion staff: Incompetent

Cruise Director: good language skills… that’s about it

Reception: Incompetent… REALLY Incompetent

Engineering staff: Excellent

Maintenance staff: Excellent

So the bottom line is this – as a convenient transport mechanism to get to interesting ports for interesting touring, MSC is functional. But if your expectations are for “American-style” cruising with quality service, food and entertainment, you will be disappointed. As long as you adjust your expectations to consider the cruise as basic transportation, room and board, you will be just fine.

Postscript –

I have had several days to contemplate the situation with MSC. My belief is that the situation is the result of several major systemic factors

• MSC Management has limited personnel management skills
  
• MSC Management has limited project management skills
  
• MSC as a corporation has woefully inadequate information management systems
  
• MSC staff are extremely under trained
  
• MSC operational policies and procedures are inadequate
  
• The entire MSC organization has no pride or customer service orientation
  
• There is little if any communication among the different departments at MSC
  
• There is very little coordination between corporate and the field
  
• No one really cares

If you understand this basic set of realities, everything that happens to you on MSC will both make sense and your expectations will be set appropriately. Remember, MSC is a shipping company. They do pretty well with “shipping” their passengers from point A to point B, just not with customer service, customer experience or customer care.

The bar has been set with other cruise lines. Even some of the historically bad lines, like Carnival, have made great strides. There is no reason why MSC could not send their key management and department heads on a competitor’s cruises to see how it should be done. An attitude adjustment, some basic systems, some basic training and some attention to detail are all that is required.

MSC Cruise Tips

Get to the cruise terminal as early as possible. You will breeze through the check-in process smoothly and can wait in the lounge area waiting for your embarkation number to be called. The line builds quickly and staff simply cannot keep up with the process.

Expect the worst, then be prepared to be disappointed.

Cabs in Genoa are generally expensive and tiny. Be prepared to hold your suitcase on your lap.

Take everything you need – the stores on board are generally useless.

Forget the spa – it’s a joke.

Bring any books you want to read with you – the library is useless and mostly closed.

 

Unless your ports of call require it - consider a different cruise line.

[asctony]

Thank you for your review mach4. Be forewarned that you will probably get flamed or accused of being a ghost writer just to bash MSC. I thought these problems of poor food and service only was MSC Caribbean. However, it must be MSC worldwide. I guess it is because we expect good food and service to be part of any cruise line. Why doesn't MSC do something about their poor food and service? Why does Mr. Rick Sasso, who ran Celebrity, do something about this? He should know better and should do something NOW! There is too much competition out there with the other cruise lines. It is a shame that MSC does not read these comments, read the surveys provided (if they are passed on to HQ) and take immediate action to improve these areas of concern.

You took the time to write a very detailed review. Now lets see what happens to it and those on this board who read it. Happy Cruising!

[antcyd]

Mach4,

Thank you for your excellent, detailed review. I appreciate the time and effort you put into writing all of it, the good, bad and the ugly!!Unfortunatly for you, more bad and ugly but I for one am not surprised as your experience was mirrored on my MSC Lirica Caribbean cruise. I too thought the "bad" experiences were isolated to the Caribbean cruises,

I am disappointed to learn of your experience somewhere other than there and given the length and time you put into the review I tend to believe it was as you said it was, though I am sure as asconty said, you will be flamed by the MSC groupies, shame one can't write what they feel without being flamed on this particular board, just know there are those of us out here who want to hear the "good,bad and ugly". I, like everyone else I am sure would prefer it be a perfect world and hear just good but the truth is the truth and your experience is yours.

Thanks again for taking the time to write your review,

Cindee

[Magwa]

Thank you for your review mach4, please could you advise as to which part of the world you are from? Aus, Europe, US? as it does make a difference. I also note it is your first post to the forum and it would be more convincing if you spelt the name of the vessel correctly, especially since you have just returned. Rick Sasso has nothing to do with anything MSC Europe asctony. MSC in Europe does not cater specifically for Americans and Iced Tea is not something one gets on any UK or most European Ships.. [imo it's the foulest thing going anyhow:)] The Rock walls on Sinfonia & Armonia have never been used as far as I am aware, they are a relic from Festival.

 

I am surprised over the sorbet.. MSC in Europe have a wonderful selection.. did you taste it? or just took the name? which may have been a language problem. Assuming you are from the US, then perhaps the server did not understand or explain properly? which is no excuse anyway.

 

I don't know where you get the notoriously bad disembarkation problems from, most people even if they slam MSC have agreed that is no problem. MSC have one Gala and one Formal night in Europe on a weekly itinerary.

 

Where did the 2500 people come from? Just curious as that would not have been MSC's organisation, was there another ship in port? or general tourists about? The tour bus thing is often a problem in places where ships are not regulars.. if fact it also happens in Fort Lauderdale! I doubt there is much if any choice of tour operator in Tripoli.. you can't be American as Americans cannot enter Libya, even with a visa.. unless of course the Libyan authorities have changed their stance yet again? perhaps they have, but not a couple of months ago as some cruiselines changed all their itineraries because of the problems.

 

asctony.. it is almost as if you revell and delight in any bad review.. grow up.. if there are problems, they are to be dealt with.. not gloated over. There are problems on all lines.. I had to put up with a stinking bathroom on HAL for a week... sod all was done about it, apart from a wet towel put over the drain to mask the smell... and a broken shower, where after the 2nd time of asking a non-english speaking steward to fix and he didn't, got out our own screwdriver!

 

ime the food on MSC surpassed that on HAL... but no you won't believe that because you didn't like it. I did, and others do... some don't.. but why gloat every time you see a bad review. It's that attitude which annoys people. MSC does read these comments.. but it is often hard to pick the truth from over embellishment. Now you can pick my post to bits, as I know you will, but I don't care as I'm off to the Med for.. yup an MSC cruise:) far better than HAL, I am sad to say, who did not by any means live up to the hype; they couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery, was the comment by nearly all pax re the tendering [Americans too]. 3hrs to get ashore in St Thomas..

 

I would just like a few answers to some simple questions above. I don't expect everyone to like MSC as I do... least of all those from outside Europe. Tastes, customs, expression, mannerisms etc are all very different and often mis interpreted.

[mach4]

Magwa inquired about which part of the world we were from - We are from San Diego, CA. I agree, it does make a difference. That is one of the themes of my review. For Americans at least, and likely others, if their only experience is cruising Alaska, The Carribean, The Panama Canal, Hawaii, Mexico, etc., they will likely be shocked at the difference in the cruise experience. If one has the opportunity to simply understand the differences by reading reviews, it can allow them to make an informed decision on the front end, and understand that they will be having a different experience on the cruise.

 

Magwa also pointed out that I mis-spelled Sinphonia. Yup, I did and I apologize for that oversight.

 

Magwa also indicated that the Rock walls on the Sinphonia and Armonia have never been used. We were told that the climbing crew was left behind in Genoa. They also indicated that the climbing activity was a summer thing, and, like the gelateria, was only operated during that time.

 

Magwa also commented on the iced tea - "Iced Tea is not something one gets on any UK or most European Ships". Iced tea was available in the buffet and at the outside grill throughout the cruise. It was only in the dining room that it was an issue.

 

Magwa also commented on the sorbet - "I am surprised over the sorbet.. MSC in Europe have a wonderful selection.. did you taste it? or just took the name?" I had the sorbet virtually every night. It was tasty - just always lemon.

 

Magwa also inquired about the ground portion of the eclipse. The only thing that was germane to MSC was the fact that they provided no way for people that were on the cruise for the cruise (not the eclipse) to participate. They just never thought to consider that the passengers that were on board for just the cruise, just might want to see the eclipse too. By the way, Libya is comletely open to Americans now. The only restriction is that anyone that has an Isralei visa in their passport will be declined entry. Things have really changed!

 

The beauty of these boards is that participants can speak openly and honestly about their experiences. Obviously, everyone on a cruise will have a different experience and different perceptions. Much of the experience comes down to the personal interaction that one has with their cabin attendant and waiter, entertainment staff, plus the individual issues e.g. room problems, interaction with other staff and even weather.

 

No one review provides anything but a single data-point. It is a snapshot of one person's experience, on one cruise at a particular time. It is in reading lots of comments and comparing cruise experiences over time that the real differences begin to emerge.

 

Magwa concludes her post with "Tastes, customs, expression, mannerisms etc are all very different and often mis interpreted". I couldn't agree more. And that I think was the whole intent of my review -

So the bottom line is this – as a convenient transport mechanism to get to interesting ports for interesting touring, MSC is functional. But if your expectations are for “American-style” cruising with quality service, food and entertainment, you will be disappointed.

Thanks

[harry47]

To start.........this was our fifth cruise, our first with MSC. Others have been with Celebrity and Princess. We are a family of four from Australia and went on this cruise for the ports of call and excursions offered only.

But after talking to fellow passengers at the airport and in our hotel in Genoa, we were made aware of the fact that we were not going to see the Solar Eclipse even though it was advertised as this here in Australia.

I have no alternative but to agree with mach4's review.

The ship was clean. Our cabin atendant was attentive and looked after us. I should mention that this was after moving cabins from deck 7 to deck 9 after being kept awake most of the first two nights due to a banging sound coming from somewhere behind our cabin and finally getting someone to care enough to do something about it.

The lady mach4 mentioned was my wife, who was left in tears after simply trying to get some satisfaction from the cruise director about the stuff up of the Leptis Magna excursions in Tripoli. She was berated by him and talked to in attitude that i can only say was totally beligerent. We complained about this, but in true MSC fashion, the officer we talked to about this matter, then git off the ship in Salerno and we are still waiting a reply.........

This will be our first and last time with this cruise line.

We expect a caring attitude from staff and to be treated with civility and a courteous attitude, not abused and made to feel like you are lucky to be here, just put up with it.

To those looking for a good cruise experience, look somewhere else.

Thanks.

[harry47]

sorry

[Magwa]

for your explanations. Some things have certainly changed. My husband will not be too happy if the sorbet is the same flavour every night, but I am a fruit and cheese person. The iced tea must just be an addition, I will be surprised if it is on Monterey as I doubt there will be many [any?] Americans aboard.. I will take note. Odd if available elsewhere it was not in the dining room, but then when we have the kids with us and they want squash etc.. this often sends the waier out to the nearest bar to get it.

 

I am glad to hear Libya is 'open' again.. lets hope they don't, like last time, just close the doors with no notice [there was some discussion over this in a thread towards the end of last year].

 

Yes, MSC is different to the American style of US based lines. It's no better or worse imo, just 'different'.. one either seems to love it or hate it, rarely a middle of the road.

 

I am very sorry to hear about your wife's experience harry47.. that is not acceptable and I hope you hear from MSC shortly.

 

Thanks again mach4.. I am now off to sample MSC Monterey tomorrow. The oldest vessel I have sailed, and ever likely to.

[Wenneke]

We are just back from Sinfonia, and we noticed some differences following mach4 review:

-the ship sailed/arrived everyday on time (except in genua, it left 1 hour late)

-the gelateria was opened on several occassions (and it looked yummie)

-you could ask cards, games, puzzles ... at the reception desk

-sorbet of the day: our waiter told us on the second evening that it is always lemon

-the clown, the pirates, is to entertain the children, when you ask the photographers not to take your picture, then they will leave you alone for the remainder of the cruise (isn't the captain also just a clown to take

your picture with?)

-and the lobster, yes it was still very dry

[maclady]

We were also on the cruise to totality.We had a wonderful time because of the ports, delightful cruise companions and the total eclipse-and despite the Sinfonia. I wouldn't cruise on MSC again if it was free. We also had the banging on our cabin wall on deck 7 and no one believed us until the Travelquest people helped us out so we could get moved. We found out later that our cabin was next to a crew elevator,which was used in the early morning hours when they were preparing breakfast. The food was mediocre-and what really got me was the bones that I encountered twice in fish fillets.I stopped ordering fish. I found the safest thing to order was the steak that was available off the menu. I probably had my annual quota of red meat on this cruise. Even the pasta dishes were awful. We are seasoned cruisers on HAL, Celebrity and Princess. I had never met a cruise ship I didn't love before Sinfonia. We still had a great time-we always do- but no more MSC!Mach 4 you should also put your comments on the Sinfonia reviews- I plan to.

[tom_uk]

Oh dear - here I am again in 'defend MSC' mode....

 

We cruised on Sinfonia in May 2005 and it was delightful. It did have its idiosyncracies but to my mind they added to the flavour of the cruise. However it was our first cruise, and I accept that means we had no standard of comparison. I posted a review here:

 

http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpage/yourfav/yfc_md_sinfonia.asp

 

and substantially the same review (gramatically-improved, hopefully) here:

 

http://www.cruisereviews.com/MediterraneanShippingCruises/Sinfonia1.htm

 

Obviously one's reactions are personal, as are comparisons. However, I have since cruised on NCL ( a two-night taster) and Celebrity so I have now got something to base my views on. I would certainly put the food I had on Sinfonia as at least as good as that which I had on Celebrity's Galaxy. European in style, certainly: less meat, more vegetables, lots of pasta, lots of bread. (Maybe more white meat, chicken especially.) And we always found someone at Reception who could help us. We have especially good memories of Eleonora who was detailed to especially help us, the only english-speakers on an excursion to Cefalu (from Palermo), and who did so excellently. I think also that it's best to divorce the experiences ashore from the experiences on board ship; the sanitary arrangements ashore can't be blamed on the cruise line! Many parts of North Africa are primitive compared to North America and western Europe; that's the way it is.

 

I'm sorry your memories of Sinfonia aren't as fond as mine are. Funnily enough, I've just been looking at her on a live webcam: it's Thursday so she's at Palma, and there's a webcam in a hotel that overlooks the port and there she is! - I generally take a look most Thursday's.

 

I'd go back on her.

[amusea]

The specific cruise that we took for which this review applies was the Cruise to Totality March 22-April 2, 2006 (link). While there are aspects to this cruise which are completely unique, I will attempt to limit my commentary to those aspects which will be likely applicable to most cruises. The itinerary of this particular cruise was completely unique in that a port of call to Tobruk, Libya was added to accommodate the viewing of a total solar eclipse. This was the first time that a cruise ship had ever been to Tobruk. The eclipse portion of the cruise was spectacular. The specific itinerary was Genoa, Naples, Syracuse, Alexandria, Tobruk, Tripoli, Malta, Salerno and Genoa.

 

The data set which comprise a baseline for comparison of cruises include our 1990 Caribbean cruise on the MS Noordam (Holland America), a 2002 Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas, a 2003 Alaska cruise on Princess’ Dawn Princess, a 2004 Mexican Riviera Cruise on the MS Ryndam and a 2005 Mexican Riviera Cruise on the MS Oosterdam.

 

First the good. Embarkation was as smooth as I have encountered. We were through the embarkation process very quickly with no particular issues. The only thing that was a bit unnerving was the fact that the cruise line confiscated our passports and held them for the duration of the cruise. The other thing to be aware of is the cost of taxi service in Genoa. It was 35 Euro for the less than a mile trip from the hotel to the cruise terminal. The terminal was generally neat and clean and we waited only about an hour from the time we cleared security until we were in our stateroom. We were able to go directly to our stateroom and were escorted by a friendly and neatly attired room steward(ess).

 

That was about it for the good… Things went downhill quickly from there.

 

One thing we noticed was that the ship is always late. It was late departing Genoa, late arriving Naples, late leaving Naples, late arriving Syracuse, late leaving Syracuse and so on. On the second night, dinner was delayed 30 minutes. The shows were generally late starting as well.

 

The other thing that you notice immediately is that staff is generally incompetent and carry an attitude best described as “could care less”.

 

The “gelateria” was closed throughout the entire cruise…with no signs posted. The climbing wall was closed for the duration, with no explanation. The game room was only open a couple of hours a day. The library, which shared space with the game room consisted of three small cabinets of books – one English, one German and one Italian. There were no magazines. There were no puzzles. There were no cards…well, you get the idea.

 

Seemed like every time we had a question the person we asked had either no idea of the answer or spoke no English. The most common response was to go ask at Reception. Going to Reception met with either no staff present or a response to go ask someone where we just came from. One classic response at reception was that the document that needed to be signed for a particular activity e.g. a minor using the gym, still needed to be translated. Two days later when the document was done being translated, it was two sentences. We wondered how it was that a cruise line could be doing business for the number of years that they have been doing so, and never got around to translating a basic needed document into English. Now, if it were Tagalog or Farsi or Chinese I could understand, but English…?

 

Dining was always an experience. First, we found the food to be average at best. It always had nice fancy Italian descriptors, but the quality was clearly lacking. Availability was highly limited. Each mealtime was narrowly defined, and there was no buffet dining option during dinner. One daily schedule reported that Room Service was available from 7:30 until 10 and the next column reported that Room Service was available 24 hours.

 

We never knew when to expect a particular menu item, as they seemed to come at random times. One member of our party might be getting their soup when another was getting salad and yet another was getting their main course. Being Americans, we enjoyed iced tea. This was a huge problem. Initially we had to get our own ice and order hot tea which we made into iced tea. Then they decided to provide iced tea at dinner, but only one carafe. The steward reported that his boss said that that was all we could have. Things finally changed and there was adequate iced tea, but it was a major issue. One thing that never got resolved was the availability of spoons for stirring the iced tea. They were never available when needed. There was a constant flow of utensils on and off the table, but spoons always seemed to be in short supply. Our solution – simply use knives as fully functional stirring devices.

 

One rather humorous illustration of the incessant absurdity was a daily desert item called “sorbet of the day”. Now having become accustom to the concept of a “soup of the day”, “sandwich of the day”, “special of the day” and any number of other “of the day” items, we naturally assumed that there would be a different sorbet each day- wrong! “Lemon Sorbet” was the “sorbet of the day” everyday!

 

The entertainment was adequate but amateurish. If you happen to hear the cruise director Paulo getting ready to sing Elvis… you are advised to head for the exits!

 

The excursion desk can only be described as incompetent. They hardly know what is going on and the ability to distribute tickets in a timely manner is lacking. And sometimes they flat out just lie. Our excursions were actually pretty good – especially Pompei, however we heard many fellow cruisers discuss how horrible their cruise guides were. Inconsistent is probably the watchword.

 

My wife got her nails done on the ship. The first time she went to the spa for her appointment, she was turned away because “it was too rough”. When she finally got them done a couple days later, the French Nails job was so poor, she had the spa lady take the polish off and just put clear on. The spa lady reported that she didn’t do nails (which was obvious since she actually drew blood clipping her cuticles)! The spa lady said her friend usually did nails, but she was not available.

 

One younger member of our group (12 years old) attended a number of special youth events. One in particular was especially memorable. The event was a “Chocolate Party”. Ok, sounds like fun… the chocolate turned out to be a packet of Nutella (a spreadible chocolate paste). Michael, recounting the “iced tea spoon situation” reported that, amazingly, the kids actually got a spoon to eat their Nutella.

 

Then there was the photography staff. They were generally following cruise ship format until one night they had clowns go around to get pictures taken with the passengers at dinner. The only connection we could make was the perhaps subliminal recognition that the cruise line and the cruise staff were “a real joke”. The analogy of a “circus” seemed to fit. We thought MSC was a real circus! But that was just the beginning – on another night they had “pirates” come around to have passengers get their pictures taken with. It is possible that the Europeans enjoy this kind of goofiness, but we found it unprofessional and obnoxious.

 

Well, what about the ship itself? It was generally well maintained and clean, but the design left much to be desired. I have already spoken of the library and the game room. The stores were woefully inadequate. In fact one store was positioned such that it blocked access between two adjacent public areas. One floor had a staff space which was likewise right in the middle of the floor so you needed to go either up one or down one deck to continue your movement on that deck. The theater had a rather interesting design. Each “row” consisted of a “couch” and a row of chairs. The interesting thing was that the chairs were positioned in front of the couch and were at a higher level than the couch, thus ensuring that fully half the audience was blocked from a clear view of the stage. This one item kind of symbolizes the entire absurdity and the total lack of attention to detail of MSC.

 

The lounge entertainment was generally lacking in quality and variety as was the theater. This is perhaps understandable when you consider that there are 5 supported languages on board. If you think about it, this limits entertainment to magic, musical shows, juggling and acrobatics. The “Cabaret” show was well worth missing. There was one bright spot and that was what they titled The Cirque de Imaginaire. An obvious take off on Cirque de Soleil, its acrobatics and other performances were excellent.

 

The Internet facilities were marginal at best. No wireless access was available. In fact while I was writing this review in the vicinity of the Internet area, I had several people come by inquiring about whether I had wireless access. They have obviously been on other cruises and were amazed to note the lack of expected connectivity. The speed was very slow and at .33 Euros a minute it added up significantly. There was no provision to download email for offline reading, or to write off-line and then go on line to send. And no ability to run multiple sessions to provide background downloading was provided. A good baseline is this – 7 minutes to log on, load a browser, load an email package, select and read an email.

 

An additional comment on food. Most cruise lines will have either an open buffet or a midnight buffet. On the Sinfonia there was none of that. The only thing available between dinner and breakfast was a “snack” served in the lounges. One night it was crepe Suzette, another night was micro-pizzas and another night it was little finger sandwiches. Again, you are forewarned to set your expectations at a minimal level.

 

We found one positive thing, at least for us, was the lack of an art auction. Those cruisers who live for the at sea auctions will be disappointed, but those like us who find them trite and obnoxious, will appreciate the absence.

 

The incompetence and indifference of the staff became, in a perverse kind of way, part of our ad hoc “onboard entertainment”. We came to look forward to dinner as an opportunity to share our “MSC stories” of the day – and believe me, there were no lack of stories.

 

And finally I would be a bit remiss if I did not mention the illustrious Lady Lucia. If you take this cruise you may have an opportunity to encounter this interesting and eccentric old lady. She claims to have been born with a golden spoon in her mouth, run away with a Circus trapeze artist and become a trapeze artist herself and now after the death of her husband of 60 years she just flits around the world cruising and driving wherever she may. But be forewarned, Lady Lucia just gets up and walks away if she doesn’t like you…that’s what she says, and from experience, apparently it’s true! Everyone on the ship knows her - let us know if you encounter this most interesting and unique lady.

 

The highlight of our trip was the eclipse itself. I will leave the details of that event for another time and place, but suffice it to say that logistics in North Africa, in general, and Libya in particular are, if nonexistent, completely primitive. Just a sample will provide the flavor. There were 5 portable toilets provided for approximately 2500 people. The line was consistently over an hour. The details of the eclipse event are not germane to this particular cruise review, since this was the first time since WWII that a cruise ship has been to Tobruk and it is likely to remain off the general list of cruise ports for the foreseeable future – although it shouldn’t be. The people of Tobruk were delightful, grateful, friendly and, to a person, excited for the opportunity to host such an event. If the opportunity presents itself to go to Tobruk – take it! We missed the WWII cemeteries because of lack of time, but those that had the chance to visit them were impressed and touched.

 

A particular word about the eclipse is in order however. Despite the fact that over half the cruise was “eclipse chasers”, there were many passengers who were not taking the cruise for the eclipse. We heard from them that it was apparently promoted as an “eclipse cruise” in MSC literature. Yet, amazingly enough, there was no provision for passengers not participating in the formal third-party eclipse events to go to the eclipse location! After numerous complaints, MSC did manage to throw together an excursion for those passengers, but that turned out to be a disaster and impacted negatively the other events.

 

But then there was Tripoli. Tripoli is a dirty and primitive town. The recounting of our shore excursion will provide a level-setting of expectations for your stay, should you have the opportunity to stop in Tripoli. Our selected shore excursion was a trip to Leptis Magna. We were to meet on the pier at 9:00 am. One set of tours departed at 8:00 am and went off only about 30 minutes late. But at 9:00 am there were several hundred people on the pier with busses available for less than 25% of that number. After milling around for the better part of an hour, an announcement was made that all excursions were cancelled. So many people elected to go into town and the rest elected to go back aboard. At around 10:15 an announcement was made that all tours were back on and busses would depart at 11:00. So we elected to take our chances and go on the tour wondering whether we would ever get back alive. As we were pulling out we drove by lines of busses – yes, the ones we were supposed to have taken at 9:00. In true MSC fashion, no one had a clue what was going on, and no detailed information was provided. In fact at one point the cruise director Paulo was on the pier and was approached by one irate passenger. He allegedly stated that “it’s not our fault, it’s not our problem – it’s your problem”. Although I was not there to hear the comment directly, I have no reason to believe that it is not accurate. In a technical sense, it may be true that the cruise ship is not responsible for the performance of the tour operators of the shore excursions – but the reality is that they choose the tour operators. If a tour operator does not operate professionally, they should find another. So we definitely hold them responsible for the lack of quality and performance for the operators. In any event, a tour director speaking in this way to a passenger is inexcusable.

 

Logistics notwithstanding, Leptis Magna is not to be missed. If your expectations of the infrastructure and environment are that of Egypt, you will be ok. It is an amazing complex. Because we departed over two hours late, we missed the museum, which was reportedly spectacular.

 

A high point of most cruises is the formal nights. MSC calls them “Galas”. For those expecting the usual fare of filet mignon, crab, rack of lamb and lobster, you will be disappointed. On our final “Gala” we were pleased to see Lobster on the menu. However when we noted that it was “aromatized”, we were suspicious - and rightly so. The lobster was dry and devoid of taste, so we assume that “aromotized” is an Italian word for dry and bland. Not even a bit of drawn butter was to be found to try to salvage the experience – a fitting disappointment to place an exclamation point on a long string of disappointments.

 

Many on this forum have commented that MSC is notoriously bad with its disembarkation procedures. Well, we were not to be the exception. I must however say that even our extremely low expectations were exceeded. We were told to be out of our rooms by 8 am, so we went down to breakfast in the Il Galleone restaurant where we were treated to cold, runny eggs, cold, dry hash browns and exceptionally greasy bacon. It was clear that the “MSC Express” breakfasts had been pre-assembled as much as an hour beforehand. One member of our breakfast party found some unidentifiable substance or organism in the bottom of his juice. It was simply gross. We were told that our passports would be available in the Symphonia Lounge between 8 and 9. We dispatched one of our group to get the passports. After an hour we sent out a search party. Amazingly the line had not moved. It turned out that our passports were supposed to be stamped in Salerno by the Italian authorities the day before, but someone forgot that that this was Sunday and the Italian authorities do not work on Sunday. This meant that the passports had not even begun to be stamped until our arrival in Genoa. Ok, so anyone can make a mistake – but you would think that the information would be communicated to the passengers in a timely manner – especially since the situation was known the night before! Not a chance – this is MSC!

 

If you are taking a cab to the airport or hotel upon disembarkation, be prepared for a real experience! The cab area is complete and utter chaos.

 

Here is my rating for each of the departments

 

Wait staff: Adequate and undertrained. Poor systems

Food preparation staff: Adequate, but uncreative

Housekeeping staff: Excellent – attentive yet unobtrusive

Ship: Excellent- well maintained

Entertainment: Limited but adequate

Recreation: Limited

Excursion staff: Incompetent

Cruise Director: good language skills… that’s about it

Reception: Incompetent… REALLY Incompetent

Engineering staff: Excellent

Maintenance staff: Excellent

 

So the bottom line is this – as a convenient transport mechanism to get to interesting ports for interesting touring, MSC is functional. But if your expectations are for “American-style” cruising with quality service, food and entertainment, you will be disappointed. As long as you adjust your expectations to consider the cruise as basic transportation, room and board, you will be just fine.

 

Postscript –

 

I have had several days to contemplate the situation with MSC. My belief is that the situation is the result of several major systemic factors

• MSC Management has limited personnel management skills
  
• MSC Management has limited project management skills
  
• MSC as a corporation has woefully inadequate information management systems
  
• MSC staff are extremely under trained
  
• MSC operational policies and procedures are inadequate
  
• The entire MSC organization has no pride or customer service orientation
  
• There is little if any communication among the different departments at MSC
  
• There is very little coordination between corporate and the field
  
• No one really cares

If you understand this basic set of realities, everything that happens to you on MSC will both make sense and your expectations will be set appropriately. Remember, MSC is a shipping company. They do pretty well with “shipping” their passengers from point A to point B, just not with customer service, customer experience or customer care.

 

The bar has been set with other cruise lines. Even some of the historically bad lines, like Carnival, have made great strides. There is no reason why MSC could not send their key management and department heads on a competitor’s cruises to see how it should be done. An attitude adjustment, some basic systems, some basic training and some attention to detail are all that is required.

 

 

 

MSC Cruise Tips

 

Get to the cruise terminal as early as possible. You will breeze through the check-in process smoothly and can wait in the lounge area waiting for your embarkation number to be called. The line builds quickly and staff simply cannot keep up with the process.

 

Expect the worst, then be prepared to be disappointed.

 

Cabs in Genoa are generally expensive and tiny. Be prepared to hold your suitcase on your lap.

 

Take everything you need – the stores on board are generally useless.

 

Forget the spa – it’s a joke.

 

Bring any books you want to read with you – the library is useless and mostly closed.

 

Unless your ports of call require it - consider a different cruise line.

 

 

Enjoyed your post immensely. It brought back many memories of my cruise from Venice to Genoa on the Costa Marina about 15 years ago. The itinerary was wonderful with stops in Turkey, Egypt and Sicily. It was the first cruise for our tablemates and we had to explain that the food in the dining room was far from the norm. Every day the menu listed a different flavor of ice cream but it was always vanilla. Not even any chocolate sauce. Salad was self-served iceberg lettuce sitting in metal containers in the middle of the dining room. Finally one night we all disembarked instead of eating in the dining room and went to a nearby McDonalds.

Strangely, the cabins were wonderfully designed and large.

The housekeeping was excellent. But the reception desk had no information about the ports and instead distributed misinformation. I really want to try MSC but your post has given me second thoughts since the memories linger on.

[LuvBNatC]

It's interesting that the OP was baffled by the randomness of meal courses served to each person at the table. On my cruise, the order of serving also varied from waiter to waiter so we never knew who'd be getting what when. When I pointed this out about my Lirica Panama Canal cruise some time back, I was flamed to toast and advised never to leave the U.S. again.

 

Lirica was such a lovely ship, at first I thought it would become my new home away from home after many years of sailing with NCL. But after 11 days of pussy-footing around the temperamental crew, I changed my mind. :(

[duckman715]

It's interesting that the OP was baffled by the randomness of meal courses served to each person at the table. On my cruise, the order of serving also varied from waiter to waiter so we never knew who'd be getting what when. When I pointed this out about my Lirica Panama Canal cruise some time back, I was flamed to toast and advised never to leave the U.S. again.

 

Lirica was such a lovely ship, at first I thought it would become my new home away from home after many years of sailing with NCL. But after 11 days of pussy-footing around the temperamental crew, I changed my mind. :(

LuvBNatC - We also live in Midlothian, VA. Happy cruising in the future. Scheduled for Maasdam early 2007 & NCL Spirit late 2007

Bill