OPERA- Opinions on dining!!!

[bobar]

LHair,

The menus I have been reading show a different fish every night..Were they out of fish? Sorry you didn't like the food . sailed Msc 3 yrs ago and can't wait to sail again on 3/10. so how was the ship, the entertainment,the cabin? :cool:

[LHair]

Yes they do have some fish and how you could posibly get a menu is beside me, because it is not even posted on the ship anywhere. The entertainment was a big hit with the people on board and while we only went to two shows they were both well done and we enjoyed them. We did speak to people that had sailed this same ship before (Madien Voyage)and they were also taken back by the deteriation of the food and the service and would not sail with them again, with this said we also talked to people that had been on as recently as last year and they thought last year was a fluck so were giving it another try and would not do it again. The ship is one of the nicest we have sailed on and the cabins were a bit small but adequate, and loved the hand held shower head, do not find that on other ships and makes big difference in tiny shower. With all this said and not to sound like the ugly american, we did have good time, but is was in spite of the service and food and not because of it, I will be very curious to hear your take when you return. No one will starve on this ship they do have plenty of options, Oh yes do go out early and save your lounge chair with a towel if sun bathing is what you like other wise it may be hard ot find one near a pool when you do, we did it early in the day and was not bad but by 1000 most if not all seats in sun by pool are gone especially on days at sea. The Jacuzzi and pool close at 8:00pm and they rope them off so you may not enter and they took to draining them on occasion, good time though to go for a walkabout on deck if your inclined. If you have cruised other lines this will definetly be a change of pace, again the highlight for most of the people was the entertainment and the port of calls, they were both very good. I will only say that I have not even posted the worst of the worst we were told on this cruise from other people, while I do believe it happened to them I can only hope they were isolated incedents, however with so many I doubt it. As one cruiser said to me compare price to what you get back in return and let that be your guide, with that being said I would like a 50% return on our already low fare. Just make sure you are going with someone or a group whoes company you enjoy and it will make the cruise better for all. I personally have no reason to slam this cruise line, and if that is the way it is coming across I am sorry, all I am really trying to do is inform people, as I said previously we spoke to a lot of people and got a lot of feedback while on this cruise, of which I am only giving a "very" small portion. It appeared to me that a lot of people on this cruise were indeed having a good time as we did at times, but to say this cruise some how compares to favorably to others would not be the truth even at the price we got it at. :confused:

[frbob]

I get such a kick out of folks who just can't stand it when others enjoy a cruise and then feel compelled to tell everyone how wrong the happy cruisers are.

 

And as for reserving lounge chairs by the pool, you're not supposed to do it... on MSC or any other cruise line/ship. Just plop your little self in one of those empty, toweled chairs and have a great day! But that's another topic...not for this Thread.

 

Be happy!!! Life's too short to add high blood pressure to the equation. :)

[mizzy76218]

I have been going on cruises for thirty years and I am only 51. I have never seen such a diverse swing of opinions. I love food, but the food on all lines that I have gone on in the last ten years has been on a decline, Edible yes, but not as good as it use to be.

 

What other lines have you gone on? Which one of them are you conparing MSC too?

 

I too, am really looking forward to this trip and if there is plenty of food, I wil make the best of things and have a great time, finding plenty of oportunites to enjoy it. I am glad you had a good time, so why would you think you should get half your money back? I do not understand why people in general are so negative. You see them on other ship boards as well. LHair, I am not saying this aplies to you, so please give me your point of reference.

[bobar]

with enough investigating one can find anything,that's how i got menus.

of 28 cruises 2 of my 3 favorites were on costa and msc so i'l just chalk our differences of opinion up to personal choice..I love being around other cultures,experiencing their food and customs and i guess being raised italian in a big italian family is why i like the italian cruiselines.

My other question to LHair would be of the mainstream not premium lines who is your favorite. This may help all of us get a better base on where you're coming from with your comments:cool:

[LHair]

OK OK..I have as I said previously been on 5 other cruisies on the Royal Caribbean, and Princess cruise lines. While I profess this doesn't make me an expert or remotely qualified to speak about the cruise lines as a whole I was just wanting ot get the word out there to those who may be going on MSC OPERA from my point of view. As for FRBob all I can say is you are right it shold not be allowed to save chairs and on other cruise lines it is not, but however I hope you are one of those guys that just plops and someone comes up as I saw and well lets see how you handle it, it did not go well on our cruise for the people we saw. As for getting menus of the ships please Bobar inform the masses where you were able to aquire this from, I am sure a post with the menu for the MSC Opera would be great for all these people that are asking, as for myself I have even taken to calling the cruise lines and they still wil not give out the menus for their ships, MSC, RC, and Princess, but please I would be very interested in finding out where I could get this info. As for happy cruisers, well as I have said in previous post we saw many of them as well, and we at times were them, I am only trying to let people to know what to expect, I compared this cruise line to Princess and Royal Caribbean, my wife said I shouldn't because it is a step down, but I had no other to compare it to, however the people we talked to did, they had a total of 248+ cruises under their belts and they had cruised across the board on all the lines I had ever heard of and some I had never heard of. As for being from and Italian family, my wife is first generation Sicilian and comes from a big italian family and speaks the language fluently, and even she had difficulty with the crew on this ship. For anyone who is still not getting this I will try one more time, yes you can have a good time on this ship and no you will not starve, however to say this compares to others like Princess or Royal Caribbean it doesn't and it would not even come close form what I have been told to Celebrity or some of the bigger lines. Understand we talked to over 40 people during this cruise and was given a lot of information, I am not maiking it up and for those who think we just couldn't be happy on any ship you are wrong dead wrong. From here on out I will answer any and all direct questions but will refrain from voicing my opinon further, I have done it in last 3 post and you should be able to see we did have good time just not near what we expected on 11 day cruise, as for 50% it became a running joke with the 4 tables that we sat near at night for dinner to see what it would take to get anyone ot come back and sail with this ship again, and basically most if not all felt that they might do it again with a 50% reduction in the already very low fair we had gotten, now these people were strangers to us and one table of 8 were all German, one table of 4 was Canadian and the other two tables of four were American. Listen I read these post before we went on our cruise and I didn't bother asking any questions or even regestering for this site, and no mater what anyone said or would have said we would have gone on this cruise and I am not trying ot stop anyone form going on this line, I am just trying ot get some info out there for all to see, becasue in my opinion some of the info is very old or in error.:rolleyes:

[bobar]

cool thnx..Well my last cruise on royal carib in nov was some of the worst food and service i have ever had and Celebrity was th biggest letdown and dissapointment i have ever sailed on.haven't done princess,i think they're the only major line i haven't been on. the menus were for the lirica and are on cruiseclues.com

Well i also want current info so not only will i write a very detailed review when i return but i'm even gonna take pictures of the food so good or bad there really is current info for folks..I had 12 years in the restaurant business prior to my years as a real estate broker so will try to give a real good accounting of the service..And like i said to you in my posts i'm glad y'all had fun:cool:

[tjcox9]

Sure seems to be a wide variety of opinions of this cruise line. I just know that we were looking for a change of pace and certainly found it. Yeah, I'm a neophyte at this cruising thing with only about 15 under my belt (and it shows.) :D My cruising partner has way more than that on a wider variety of lines than me and felt the same, possibly more enthusiastic!

 

Perhaps these negative reports will keep the naysayers off this line and let those of us who enjoyed our experience have some more fun in the future.

 

And sorry to say once again, that I enjoyed most of the food, but then I am an adventurous eater. Yes, the entrees were sometimes lacking, particularly if one is a meat and taters kinda person, which I am not. But after I finished the appetizer, maybe soup or salad and pasta, who needs an entree' anyway?

[OldCop201]

Oh buddy, it's a losing battle here with a couple of the posters. Several people have posted "their opinion" on this board. You and I as well as others have given the good and the bad. For us the bad far exceeded the good. Bobar and Frbob seem to think we are trying to convince them that they are going to have the worst time of their life. Let's not forget that Bobar was on MSC "3 years ago". What difference does it make if we happen to believe Princess or Celebrity or HAL or whatever is "the best"? Go....have a great time. Come back and tell us how wonderful the food was. There is no way possible you could ever come back and agree with us. Like LHair...we had a good time. Because of our group. MSC certainly did nothing to assist us in enjoying ourselves. In the survey they want you to fill out they give you TWO lines for comments. I wrote 8 pages. Good & bad. You would think that if somebody took the time to write that many comments and wasn't totally satisfied with the product they are putting out that they may have responded. Nope. Not a word. They don't care.

Go. Have fun. Come back and tell us how great MSC is. Let us know that we obviously have no idea how food is supposed to taste. Make sure we are aware that the crew were the best that ever sailed. We will be happy for you.

[frbob]

I agree with TJCOX9....keep those negatives coming in and scare everyone away from MSC. Doesn't matter if the comments are subjective (i.e. a matter of personal opinion) or not. Doesn't matter if they're riddled with rumor and innuendo. Keep 'em pouring in! Yeah!!! Next cruise on MSC there will be lots of empty, unreserved lounge chairs for me and TJ to enjoy.

 

BTW, I thought the food was excellent on the Opera. But that's my very subjective opinion. I have no experience with Hardees or Chef Boyardee, so I can't speak for others. My unsophisticated taste buds were on a grand holiday aboard Opera. And I never experienced ANY bad or discourteous service on my MSC cruise, so I'm not qualified to remark about what others might have run into.

 

I do, however, know this...I went on this cruise with an open mind and a positive attitude; and came away happy as a clam. I put it right up there as one of the best cruise deals of my considerable life. Ciao!!!

[bobar]

Ok. no more defending MSC. I know what i like and i know i'm gonna have a blast. It just doesn't make sense that people would get on here,say they had a good time and then tell people to stay away that it's no good and nit pick it to death.But that seems to be the american way these days...So peace, have a great life and I guess i'll never meet most of you anyway since you don't like what i sail on,and old cop the "3 yrs ago" thing is called coming back to something i really enjoyed,so i won't rain on your parade cause as i said we obviously won't ever sail together..Frbob you are right sir.We will never have to run into any of these folks since they won't be sailing msc again and maybe they are doing a good service,they're keeping future complainers from sailing...I for one and gonna go have a ball and i sail in 8 days..can't wait!!

[mizzy76218]

I am amused that he acturally spent his cruise taking a survey. Bobar, please let have your review when you return. If your negative then I am in trouble. I know you will have a great time. Please find out, if there is a kids menu and what is on it.

[bobar]

i will try to remember to find a kids menu and write down whats on it..wow

i fly to ft lauderdale next friday..I can't wait!!!

[teegeezfun]

I took an unoffical survey of 40 couples on this cruise and only 3 people said they would ever do it again, yes majority were Amercian / Canadians, but these were people that had cruised as many as 111 times in one couples case, and I did not have to find them they found me to take the survey. I have scaned the internet reading up on this cruise line and find it strange anyone would recomend it to anyone else, seriously! The last couple we met on the ship were two chefs from canada and they just hammered the food as the worst they had ever had, again the COP is right

 

I find it strange that you would waste perfectly good caribbean time to survey 80 people...comeon...loosen up. life is way to short.

 

i traveled on opera in january and had a super time. not every meal was teriffic, but i defy you to name a cruise line in the price point of msc that served every meal perfectly. ...can't be done.

 

also, maybe you and oldcop had the same waiter, because i had a great wait team in lapprodo dining room. service was super...

[RuthlessBoss]

Someone wrote that they knew how food should taste. Well, we all have an opinion of how something should taste, but it's usually a specific taste that particular person prefers. Because someone else prepares it differently doesn't make it bad. I love my own Italian sauces with strong flavor and spices, yet my neighbor makes it bland. It doesn't make it bad, just not to my liking.

[LHair]

Have a great time and I am sure you will. "My fault" I thought this was an open forum that afforded you the oprotunity to speak your mind, without being hammered for having a different oipinon. Some of your coments are dead on, as to different taste on foods and the like, very true, as for me I prefer pasta and rice to a steak any day and throw in some seafood and I would be in heaven, should tell you something. As for the survey it started at dinner one night when the other couple we were sitting with related an incedent that day and well by the time we had left dinner 3 other couples had described similar problems, from word of mouth it got out of hand with people just walking up to me and telling me their stories, on the last day in line leaving the ship we heard 4 couples stories about their cruise problems/dislikes, with that said we did hear and have some of them say nice things (3) but all agreed entertainment was great and the ship was beautiful. At no time have I said stay away from this line, that is a personal choice you make on your own, I have only said I would not cruise this line again, for the price of cruising I am sure this line is what some people would like and for them I am happy. Our waiter (L'Approdo dining early table 47) on this cruise was great and in fact we tip him additionally as we did also our cabin lady. As for negatives coming in what should one do only post the positives? While I agree negatives can get carried away, I haven't even scratched the surface of what I was told on this ship and have only tried to pass on info that we persoanlly observed, so don't get me started on the negatives. As for FRBOB's choice of dinning well I will let him dine as he wishes, it takes only a child to start calling names and throw out insults. Open mind! I am not sure there are to many on this site for the truth be known I do believe that we have ringers on here, people from the cruise line that come on to make sure nothing bad is said about it. OLDCOP you are absolutely correct about the comment card, it has only two lines, and as you did we used additional paper to air our compliments and grevances, we only used 4 pages, but will say this in closing I did hear form two sources they had to empty the comment box twice before my wife but ours in and they were emptying it when my wife came to put hers in. RuthlessBoss has it right about food taste, and all I did was give "my" opinion but to be attacked because of it is unbelievable, there are some people on here that do not want to hear anything bad about MSC Opera and that strikes me as strange, I took no offense that someone hammered Princess and I personally love them as crusie line, and as for Celebrity, well I haven't had the opprotunity to cruise them but other people that have cruised it across the board said it was the best for food and from what I saw on several sites like this, it was rated a 5 star compared to 3 star for MSC, so will take your comments in stride and we will see what happens on my next cruise in OCT 07. Seriously some of you folks act like I am attacking one of your children, for Godsakes it is a cruise ship and we had some bad experiences on it and wanted others to know about it, if we would have had a great experience I would have come on and said that as well but we didn't. Wonderful ports of call, entertainment was great, and the ship itself is fantastic, I will leave it at that, OH yes and the weather was perfect.:rolleyes:

[OldCop201]

Amen!!!!!

[bobar]

Not taking anything personally. My review when i return from my 3/10 cruise will certainly have some negatives in it as after 28 cruises,I have yet to be on the perfect one.There is no such thing..But I will tell you cooking for 2000 peple is not easy and acrooss the boeard as these ships get bigger I have gound the food slipping a bit on all the cruiselines.I'm not saying it's bad,just not what it used to be..More and more specialty restaurants and such. Besides I would never make a decision not to sail on a line over food anyway.have never been on a cruise where i starved and actually LHair most of your other comments are very positive so don't feel beat up.Well i sail a week from today and can't wait!!:cool:

[mmcipdn]

OK OK..I have as I said previously been on 5 other cruisies on the Royal Caribbean, and Princess cruise lines. While I profess this doesn't make me an expert or remotely qualified to speak about the cruise lines as a whole I was just wanting ot get the word out there to those who may be going on MSC OPERA from my point of view. As for FRBob all I can say is you are right it shold not be allowed to save chairs and on other cruise lines it is not, but however I hope you are one of those guys that just plops and someone comes up as I saw and well lets see how you handle it, it did not go well on our cruise for the people we saw. As for getting menus of the ships please Bobar inform the masses where you were able to aquire this from, I am sure a post with the menu for the MSC Opera would be great for all these people that are asking, as for myself I have even taken to calling the cruise lines and they still wil not give out the menus for their ships, MSC, RC, and Princess, but please I would be very interested in finding out where I could get this info. As for happy cruisers, well as I have said in previous post we saw many of them as well, and we at times were them, I am only trying to let people to know what to expect, I compared this cruise line to Princess and Royal Caribbean, my wife said I shouldn't because it is a step down, but I had no other to compare it to, however the people we talked to did, they had a total of 248+ cruises under their belts and they had cruised across the board on all the lines I had ever heard of and some I had never heard of. As for being from and Italian family, my wife is first generation Sicilian and comes from a big italian family and speaks the language fluently, and even she had difficulty with the crew on this ship. For anyone who is still not getting this I will try one more time, yes you can have a good time on this ship and no you will not starve, however to say this compares to others like Princess or Royal Caribbean it doesn't and it would not even come close form what I have been told to Celebrity or some of the bigger lines. Understand we talked to over 40 people during this cruise and was given a lot of information, I am not maiking it up and for those who think we just couldn't be happy on any ship you are wrong dead wrong. From here on out I will answer any and all direct questions but will refrain from voicing my opinon further, I have done it in last 3 post and you should be able to see we did have good time just not near what we expected on 11 day cruise, as for 50% it became a running joke with the 4 tables that we sat near at night for dinner to see what it would take to get anyone ot come back and sail with this ship again, and basically most if not all felt that they might do it again with a 50% reduction in the already very low fair we had gotten, now these people were strangers to us and one table of 8 were all German, one table of 4 was Canadian and the other two tables of four were American. Listen I read these post before we went on our cruise and I didn't bother asking any questions or even regestering for this site, and no mater what anyone said or would have said we would have gone on this cruise and I am not trying ot stop anyone form going on this line, I am just trying ot get some info out there for all to see, becasue in my opinion some of the info is very old or in error.:rolleyes:

go to this link

http://cruiseclues.com/lirica/

[LHair]

mmcipdn, thanks for the heads up on the menus, outstanding post, as for our ship the opera it was not as good as yours, with that said we didn't starve either, and deserts were great. I have been reading other post and it seems the Lycria is the better of the two and a few people on our cruise had mentioned the other ship and said that was one of the reasons they were on the Opera because they liked the Lycria. Well I am done posting for this site, have ot go back ot work next week and basically have passed on all info and answered all questions asked of me, just wish I was going cruising sooner than latter do love it compared ot other vacation styles. Hope all enjoy their cruises and watch out for the sun it is hot already...;)

[Sailure]

Hi

 

Just wanted to let you know don't plan on very good dining on the Opera. The food is either cold or dry. You would be much better sailing either on Royal Carribean or Celebrity where they know how to feed people. You won't find a good buffet, the staff doesn't speak english and the same goes for their dining room. Good luck, Luv2cruise304:mad:

 

So many people keep saying the food isn't good, but what do they mean? From what I've been told, MSC's food is more Northern Italy style which has a lot of French and Yugoslavian influence. I know Northern Italian food is much different from Sicilian food, but I prefer Northern anyway.

What is so bad about the food? Is it just that some people feel it's too cold or dry? Can't you send it back to fire it up a little if it's too cold?

I love sailing with Europeans, I get along fine with them, and it doesn't matter to me that they don't speak English. I always TRY to speak THEIR language and I've found out that by doing it...their English is better than MY attempts, but they do appreciate the effort.:D

I've had some meals on HAL that left a lot to be desired for MY taste, also the same with Celebrity.

I wonder how many people sail mainly for the food?

[Sailure]

Who cares about the food?? Like, why go on a trip and obsess over food...there has to be something there to eat, for heavens sake--eat Gelato all day! I am going on the Opera 4/1/07-- I am more worried about it being Spring Break, the ship is full and hopefully not with little kids!

 

anyone else out there going at that time?

Previous Opera passengers??? Can you book spa treatments before boarding?

 

Don't know if I replied to you before MagiB, but my partner and I will be sailing with you.:)

I have a feeling we'll get enough to eat. I can always eat pizza and cheese sandwiches and soup!

I've been on other message boards where the posters have pictures of themselves showing. Seems there are quite a few people who go for the food!:D

I go to relax, enjoy the ports I like best, have someone else cook and clean and did I mention...RELAX?:D

[Sailure]

Not taking anything personally. My review when i return from my 3/10 cruise will certainly have some negatives in it as after 28 cruises,I have yet to be on the perfect one.There is no such thing..But I will tell you cooking for 2000 peple is not easy and acrooss the boeard as these ships get bigger I have gound the food slipping a bit on all the cruiselines.I'm not saying it's bad,just not what it used to be..More and more specialty restaurants and such. Besides I would never make a decision not to sail on a line over food anyway.have never been on a cruise where i starved and actually LHair most of your other comments are very positive so don't feel beat up.Well i sail a week from today and can't wait!!:cool:

 

I've been cruising for 30 years on at LEAST 3 cruises per year. I've sailed a variety of lines, and I've sailed down on the lower decks when I first started cruising on up to the full suites and owners' suites. EVERY single cruise I've been on has had something on the menu I did NOT like. Every single cruise I've been on had SOMETHING that was NOT perfect.

But, with the exception of ONE cruise on the Olympia line when they tried to start a Carrib. route out of the USA, I have enjoyed every cruise on every line. THAT cruise started off negatively on the 2nd day at sea when after ALL passengers had paid for their cruise, they made an announcement that ALL passengers would have to spend an extra $75+ PP to pay for fuel. That almost started a mutiny. Other than that one time...there has always been MORE postives than negatives on all my cruises.

In my opinion I think it's a waste of money to go on a cruise for the food only and it's a waste of time and energy trying to get others to go along with someone else's idea of what good food is and I think it's sad to base an opinion of the cruise on food.:D

[LHair]

Well I do not do this often but in your case I will, are you an idiot? Seriously to read your comments directed at my message can bring me to only one conclusion you are iether an idiot or a stooge for the cruise line. If you had bother to read any further than just the comments about the food you would clearely see that we said we did not starve and that we indeed had a good time on the cruise, but for some reason, our dislike and considerable others on this cruise offends you and requires you to make derogatory comments to that effect. I t takes a very small mind to sit back and just slam people that are trying to provide factual information ot other cruisers and yours must be very small, indeed you have driven me to talk down ot you and that takes a lot. With that said I have unlike you read other post of people who have since traveld on this same cruise line since we did and ahve already read of changes that have been made for the better, you can thank us and the 40 people we cruised with for some of this, we did stuff the complaint box and yes we pointed out some of the short commings of this cruise and it sounds like someone is doing something about it to make it better for all... one last time you can and should have a good time on this cruise line and as one person pointed out at the price it really can't be beat, if that is what you are going for....Hang in there OLD COP:cool:

[bobar]

Well guys i'm back and it was great. The food was excellent,especially the pastas,soups, fishes and veal dishes. The entertainment excellent, the staff incredible, the cabin comforable, the ship immaculate, the activities exhausting. I'll give you a negative, The drink cups were real small but we brought are own and no problem so thanks to those who pointed that out. I can not wait to sail on MSC again!!!