Orchestra March 14 - 21 Review

[texascruiseman]

Well, Let me start out by saying that me and my wife have been on 3 cruises before this one. Carnival, Holland and Princess. I went probably as open minded as a person could go. Me and my wife love to explore new cultures and we actually embrace that. But here is my review and I will be as fair as I can based on my previous cruises. Just as a warning cooking is my hobby and I will judge this harder than other things.

 

Embark = Great easy and fast.

 

Ship = Over all TOO CROWDED. Not enough staff for the number of people on the ship. Its not that the servers are bad just not enough of them to do the job right. Mainly this pertains to the food services side of things. My room steward was great I didn't have problems with this.

 

State Room = Great, clean always fresh fruit and ICE.

 

Day time entertainment = Not good, everything was done on deck 13 around the pool which made for crowds that were too large.

 

Night Time entertainment = Was good. I really enjoyed the opera singers. Very talented group of people.

 

Food = Here was where I get pretty picky. I heard a lot of complaints before we went on the cruise about the food being cold. Well, That didn't bother me so much but here is what did. Nor, did the two hours that it takes to eat dinner each night. We love that. It is a time to slow down and talk to each other. Along with that though we love good food and drink. Here goes.

 

Bread = Pretty Good

Appetizers = OK

 

Soups = OK always hot or cold depending on the soup. Kind of generic though nothing to write home about.

 

Salads = I found the green salads general bad used too much iceberg lettuce not enough green leafy lettuce. The Caesar was pretty good

Now the pasta salads where fantastic.

 

Main Courses

Beef = Not good at all. But I come from Texas where we probably have the best beef that you can buy.

Veal = Really Good

Lobster = You could not make me eat that. They need to remove this from the menu.

Fish = BAD

Poultry = OK

Vegetable = Not so GOOD I found to be over cooked and served cool. And I do not know how you can mess up a potato that bad. Their potato's where awful no matter how they prepared them.

 

Pasta's = Phenomenal. They got this right very good

Deserts = The Tiramisu was probably the best I have ever had. All others where good as well.

 

Wines = General very good. If you like wine go to the wine bar and try a few of the Italian wines.

 

Buffet = Lines too long and too many people around. I did not care for the buffet at all. Burgers , Hot Dogs and French fries not good at all.

 

Room service = The menu is a joke compared to the other cruises that we have been on. It is very limited.

 

Pay for Restaurants = Only the Chinese restaurant was available on this cruise because there where so many passenger aboard they had to close the other one "4seasons" for main dining seating. The Chinese restaurant was better than main dining for sure but not as good as like a P.F Changs or Pei Wei if you have one of those in your area.

 

Over all I thought the food was pretty POOR compared to the other cruises we have been on.

 

Service People = The food services/room steward were mainly from Indonesia which I found to be very helpful and courteous. Now, the accounting desk and some of the other higher up staff were Italians came off arrogant. This could have been due to a culture clash or something. I do not want to judge the Italian people based on this one experience. But, that was they way they came off to me. Strangely enough I found the French passengers on the ship much nicer than the Italian staff. HA HA

 

Excursions = We didn't take any. We just did our own thing at the stops.

 

Overall would I take a MSC cruise again. NO I would not

If you like really good food and drink like we do. Do not take this cruise you will be very disappointed. Now if you are the type that like large portions of lower qaulity food you may consider it. But, if you like higher qaulity food do not do this cruise.

 

Dis-embark= fast and easy good.

 

 

My wife would be upset if I did not mention the T-Shirt Scam. Buy 2 get one free does obviously not mean the same thing in other places. It's more like Buy 2 get 1 free some times. Beware of the T-shirt scam.

 

Some of the things that other people are complaining of are legetament complaints. Beware of that.

[stoopidwon]

Overall very fair review, I leave april 17 with wife and two kids. Thanks for the input.

[noblepa]

Overall very fair review, I leave april 17 with wife and two kids. Thanks for the input.

 

I trust that you mean April 18. On April 17, I plan on being aboard the Orchestra in Nassau, not returning to Fort Lauderdale until the next morning. :)

 

 

Paul

[sashasasha]

Can you elaborate on the tours you did on your own. The places you visited? Thanks

[texascruiseman]

DR Just beach and shopping.

 

St. Maarten took a taxi inside the port to Dawn Beach, very relaxing had snorkeling available. Very reasonable prices here. U.S domestic beer was 75 cents. Imports were $1.25.

 

St. John brother and sister in-law did fishing excursion and said it was the best they have ever been on and they have been on 9 cruises.

 

Nassau - Shopping was good here and activities right at the port. I wished we could have spent more time here.

[sashasasha]

thank you