MSC Opera's Europe sailing experience

[Member]

This is our 22 cruises (the 6th Europe sailing) but the first with MSC Opera management gave us a below average mark as a whole. If it were not the friendly entertainment staffs and a few other positive aspects such as cleanliness & good itinerary, it could be our worse cruise. The shore excursion department and too many staffs had this don't care attitide toward these non Italian-speaking passangers. And the food in the main dining room was no comparison to any of the other 9 main cruise lines we're on. But then it may be just us and/or on this particular 12-days Adriatic Sea sailing that failed so miserably. In short, MSC is better off to just stay to its niche Italian market or it'll expose more and more of its weakness to its competitors. Just a dozen or so onboard passengers' opinion.

[moveup]

We're booked on an MSC eastern Med. cruise for next March and the date for cancellation has not yet passed, so we are very interested in your experience. Regarding the food, have you traveled in Italy and if so how did the food compare with what one is served at a trattoria? Regarding the staff that you found unhelpful, was it a language problem or were they rude? Any more specifics about the aspects of the cruise you found below par would be appreciated.

[Member]

Taste is very personal but the issue is more to the substance & service. Say on the main dishes, the seafood choices are fishes 11 out of 12 nights. We love prawn and other types of seafood so we had the best lunch feasts on every port (4 in Italy, 3 in Greece and one of each in Croatia and Montenegro) we visited instead. The meat choices are mostly sliced meats (some are more deep frozen than the others). And the accompanying vegetables are the same potato, green bean and tomato on either one. Service wise, both our waiter teams works very mechanical (and hard) but lacks the attentiveness. So we just served ourselves on say the bottle water and wine on every meal. I find its more to do with the management issue.

Regarding the cruise staffs, they all speak/understand basic English to communicate well alright. It is this don't-care/I-don't-know attitude of those mentioned at the shore excursion desk and a few others at various posts that put us down (understandably not so towards the Italian-speaking passengers). Again, we put the burden to the management of lack of training.

We paid as much, if not more, for our cruise compared to our previous ones. We can tolerate the smallest shower space we encounter at Opera and a few other issues. Regretably we just remember more the rude attitude of these staffs than the enjoyable moments on the dance floor and with the entertainment staffs.

Again, this could just be us.

[clivep]

We went on the Opera in May and I am just about to post my review in the main reviews section.

 

The staff attitude seemed to be that if they are not making money out of you then they don't want to know. The main restaurant staff were the only polite ones we encountered.

 

My wife and I love going to Italy and adore Italian food. We found the food in the restaurant to be OK, the best being the pasta course. I like meat and unfortunately the main courses were all disappointing. Do not expect the quality of food you get in a trattoria. The cafeteria is best avoided altogether.

[Member]

We've lowered our expectation on MSC's food, entertainment, tour and even service to accomplish our vacation towards the Adriatic Sea's off-beated cities during the off-shoulder season of mid-September. Thanks to this, we managed to tour a few memorable places such as the Frasassi Cave from Ancona, Trogir from Split, etc. And from Trieste, we spent an afternoon at the beautiful Ljubljana before finishing our post-cruise visit to the vibrant Zagreb.

On the ship, we appreciate all those hard-working entertainment teams/acts and main restaurant servers. And we respect the reception staff/social host's trying to get us through our mistreatment.

All and all, because of the cultural different, we'll stay away from MSC Opera to Europe for the time being.

[smgapp]

It sounds like we had unusually decent food on the MSC Orchestra last week. I loved the vegetables served with dinner- on several nights I ordered the grilled roasted vegetables and then asked for balsamic vinegar and put it on the veggies-it was wonderful (they have great balsamic vinegar- it is also out at the buffet each day) . I also had an eggplant parmesan type veg side dish that was delicious and I enjoyed the baked tomatoes . I think I only remember having basic green beans one night- but I like green beans so that was not a negative to me.

[Member]

"Orchestra" management seems to do much better than "Opera" in foods & attitudes. How about its shore excursion arrangement towards the English-speaking passengers? After all, its the less-hassle visit of the foreign places and sights that lure us to cruise to begin with.

[geocruiser]

Member,

We were on Opera 3/10/07. We also encounter some very rude waiters. One was very rude while we were placing our order. He would talk his buddy (another waiter) in Italian complaining. So we sat there and listen. When he came back, we said nothing about how rude he was BUT order another salad, but this time my sister-in laws placed her order in Italian. He knew we heard him and understood every thing he said. (Both my husband and his sister were born and lived part of their early years in Italy). By the way, he was still rude after that too.

Now there were some very nice staff on board too. But I must say that I don't go on a cruise to have people be rude to us. I felt they were out of line because we were nice to them even when they were not nice to us.

 

Geo

[Brian Raine]

Like Member stated MSC should stick to the Italian market. We were on the Rhapsody out of Dover in September.There were some 300 plus Genoa footbal fans on board, they boarded in Amsterdam. They took over the vessel. I,m football mad but had English passengers carried on as they did they would have been labelled hooligans.Several Italian passengers totally disregarded the restaraunts dress rules , turning up in shorts and /or tee shirts. Having sailed with Costa 5 times I know the antics of some Italian passengers, their total disregard for other passengers, the noise they make when conversing( usually in the theatre), their attitude of letting children run around un supervised and taking seats in the theatre. but the MSC passengers took the biscuit. Added to the food being sub standard, the buffet food a joke, even pasta that was uncooked,the waiters who were "funny" (not HA HA)We are doing Costa again in November to Mauritius(for my sins) but we will NEVER set foot on MSC again whatever the price or destination. ( I know there are some English /US passengers who I would rather not be with but the MSC - Costa passengers win hands down)

[Bollinge]

We have been on dozens of cruises.

 

Our best have been on Cunard QE2 & QM2, Celebrity (Millennium Class vessels) and Swan Hellenic Minerva II (now Azamara something).

 

Our worst voyages have been on Carnival Imagination and Costa Classica.

 

We very much enjoyed our trip on MSC Lirica, and have today just booked MSC Musica for Christmas 2007.

 

Going on Carnival Victory next month - swore we would never cruise Carnival again - but in with a group of 35 for a birthday so no option.

 

So, I would rate our solitary MSC experience as better than average. We certainly did not experience anything to stop us booking again. Will let you know about our second MSC trip when we return in the New Year

[babu666]

It's been interesting to read these comments. I have made 4 transatlantic cruises with MSC, 3 on Lirica and the last one (4-12-07) on Opera. If it were't for the MSC logo and the look alike ship layout, I would not have believed they were the same line. The Opera trip was the pits. Apparently they had lost a lot of staff in Ft Lauderdale just before the cruise. So, this turned out to be a training cruise. After realizing that, it was easier to put up with the sloppy dinner service (although it took three nights and six waitstaff before we could get hot milk with the dinner coffee) and the spotty cabin service.

 

What was unforgivable was the way the desk staff lied rather than admit they didn't know. And I still have heard nothing from the claim I put in for the bag they broke in unloading. And my companion still talks about the shock of waking up to a steward entering the room at midnight without so much as a knock on the door.

 

BEWARE THE TIPPING POLICY. We stayed the full 19 days. The cruise contract had one figure for the daily tipping (say, $10, as I've forgotten) but the info book in the cabin said, say, $7.50 (which I considered more reasonable given the training nature of the cruise). But, another couple got off in England at 17 days and were told, by the ship in writing, that the tipping was $5. When we got off, they went back to the $10 figure. Needless to say, I used cash to tip.

 

Naturally I sent a letter to my TA who passed it on to MSC who has yet to reply.

 

But, being an optimist, I have again booked Lirica, this time for the Caribbean in Feb. Hopefully, she will not have dropped to Opera's low standards. Babu