angelsil

The lack of sales pitch I absolutely appreciated! I found that on Grandiosa as well, so must be an MSC thing. Definitely a positive.

There weren't a ton of kids on the ship, so I'm not sure it was a school thing. But maybe that contributed some. At least half the passengers were from Europe and I know some schools (including the Uni I attended over there) don't start until late September or early October. It just seemed the Seascape was poorly designed for the amount of passengers they have. FWIW, I felt the same way about Harmony of the Seas. Whereas Grandiosa distributed the passengers nicely across several options for entertainment, food and beverage, we often found ourselves 5 deep in a line to get water or a beer at the one open inside bar (the one on deck 5). Not a vacation breaker, but not my favorite thing either.

I mean, I literally said this was my experience. Yours was different. Okay. But coming in here acting like I'm lying about what I experienced? I'll hold my tongue on what I think about that. I even said the USB thing was a minor annoyance, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to leave their phone on the nightstand. This is exactly why people don't post on these forums. Fanboys who think any review that isn't glowing is automatically false. I'll just add this - I never said I didn't enjoy the cruise. I said the ship wasn't for me and that we preferred Grandiosa and that our MSC experiences have been uneven thus far. Not bad. UNEVEN.

I am the early 50s in my pairing 🤣 (DH is 45, I'm 52)

I figured I'd write out my experience last week on MSC Seascape for anyone who is researching whether the ship might be right for them. Who we are Married couple in our mid-40s to early-50s. No kids. Traveled extensively and cruised many times. Primarily Royal and Celebrity, but also Disney, Carnival and one prior MSC cruise in the Med on Grandiosa. I was status matched diamond on MSC. DH was status matched Gold. We are not fancy or demanding travelers, but we do expect reasonable service, decent food and a relaxing cruise. We took this cruise as it was cheap, we could drive to port, and we wanted to see if the MSC product in the US suited us better than in Europe - our Grandiosa cruise was very uneven. Caveats This is just my opinion, of course. Experiences can and will vary. We were in Fantastica class, not Yacht Club. Part of the reason I wanted to write out my review was to provide an input from a non-YC perspective as so many on this board only sail in YC. This cruise missed Ocean Cay so I can't provide any input there. The good Embarkation and disembarkation was a breeze. With my diamond, we were given priority boarding but I don't think we needed it. We took our luggage off the ship ourselves and were in the car by 7:40am for the drive home. The Aurea spa was a treat, if a bit crowded at points. We bought a week-long pass and enjoyed it most days as a haven from the chaos of the ship. The ship was so, so crowded. We really liked Hola Tacos and felt it was well worth the upcharge. The food, overall, was pretty good. We liked the smaller portions served as we're not big eaters. Butcher's Cut on Seascape was way better than on Grandiosa. Still best pizza at sea, though I think Grandiosa was better there. But, hey, they're sailing from Italy. I'll allow it. Cabins were very well insulated. We almost never heard the other passengers, which is a nice change from other ships. On Grandiosa, we were under the pool deck and woken up every day at like 1am. Deck 11 on Seascape was mostly quiet except for some noise from the adults-only deck/whirlpool. The bad The design of this ship was confusing. Even after a week, we still got lost. Weird dead ends all over place. We had to backtrack many times because doors from the deck to the interior were locked. Not helped by the Sports Bar being closed all week. This created crowds of people. We much preferred the Grandiosa as a ship. Several times during the week the ship couldn't keep up with the heat, especially in port. We keep our house at 75 and the ship was running over that. It was miserable to come back from a 100+ degree day in port and not be able to really cool off unless in our cabin. Early dining at 5pm is no bueno. We were assigned that and only made it about half the nights. The line to change dining time the first night wrapped around the restaurant, so we gave up on that idea. For some reason, they only have USB ports on one side of the bed. Minor thing, but it was annoying. Everything that's been said on these boards about MSC shoreside is valid. They are awful at anything pre-cruise and the website is almost a liability. With the canceling of Ocean Cay they didn't pivot well to a sea day. Few things were open and this mean mobs of people in the 1-2 bars that were open or playing the interior games. I'm led to believe Ocean Cay is missed frequently, so I'd hope there was a plan in place. The atrium music was...uh...not great. At least to my taste. The rock guitarist was great, but had an iffy voice. The sax guy was just an odd choice. Again, tastes vary, but trying to enjoy a glass of bubbly with an aggressively loud solo sax version of the 'Game of Thrones' theme was so bad it was almost comical. They have a very nice wine cellar on Seascape. It's unstaffed, however. You have to request assistance from a neighboring bar to get a bottle of wine. The ship has no actual sommelier as we were advised the first night. Or at least none in the steerage section. Maybe YC has one. The ugly Service was incredibly uneven all over the ship. It was either amazing or awful. My spa therapist spent 50 minutes complaining about her life during my massage, for example. I can't see that flying anywhere else and it wasn't exactly relaxing. We had numerous encounters where the staff was trying but clearly under trained or just plain unhappy. We found this on Grandiosa as well. The buffet is a hellscape. The way it's designed meant lines would cross each other (where there were lines) and getting out of the buffet area to seating meant pushing through mobs of people. We only went a few times. Which brings us to the other point.. There are simply not enough food options on this ship that don't require a reservation. Outside the buffet, we only found ice cream and a few pastries at the bar on deck 5. Even on Grandiosa, there was pizza by the pool and nibbles (for cost, granted) available in the pubs. On Seascape, if you didn't want to fight the buffet (see above) and you didn't eat in the hour or so for sit-down dining over breakfast or lunch, it was room service or nothing. We ate less on this cruise than any in the past and ordered pizza to the room twice. Verdict I don't think we'll sail MSC again unless we try Yacht Club. It's just too uneven a product from our 2 voyages and we certainly don't like the Seascape design. Yacht Club would have to compare favorably in pricing against Celebrity retreat or Virgin (which we want to try) to consider it. Our next cruise is on Viking - a river cruise in France - so we'll see how that goes!

This right here. I use THC tinctures for sleep after battling insomnia for 50 years. I've never taken them on a ship, but if I did it would have zero impact on any other passenger. There's just no need to smoke flower in confined spaces with all the options out there and a person consuming an edible is no more disruptive than someone having a glass of wine or two. In moderation, it's just not a problem for the rest of the passengers or crew. Now, legality in the various ports *is* a big issue and that's why I don't carry any edibles on the ship - even to keep in my cabin as medicine. I've seen numerous people being hassled in Jamaican ports for either smelling like WEED or having a few joints on them. Trying to bring WEED back on a ship is dumb, but the ones I saw were mostly getting slapped on the wrists and issued a fine. Probably a good money maker for the port, but not worth the risk for me.

Grandiosa in Europe had a decent selection of beers, including IPAs, in the British pub. Outside that pub though it was mostly European beers like Hefeweizens. I *think* they had an IPA at the pizza place by the pool as well, though.

Yesterday I booked a November 2024 cruise on Viking to take advantage of the $25 deposit. I was expecting to be told I had to pay the final by 9/30/2023 as that's what the Viking website said. I ended up booking (via recommendations here) via a TA and my final payment date is showing as 8/9/2024. I'm gonna reach out and confirm with the TA but that is a FAR better payment date for a cruise that's far out. I wonder if different agencies have different negotations.

We're looking at November for just this reason.

This is exactly the insight I was looking for - thank you. DH and I have been on Celebrity for years and certainly some sailings - in our 20s and early 30s - we were also the youngest. We experienced things on the ship closing down really early and just generally not meeting a ton of folks we had things in common with. On a 3,000 person ship you can always find a few folks to hang out with. On such a small ship, I was concerned it might be harder. We're interested in this cruise 99% for the itinerary, so I guess that isn't a huge deal honestly. We did a similar land tour in Italy last year and had a blast. I've always wanted to try a Viking cruise after living in Europe for years and seeing them sail by when I was a broke student.

DH and I are looking to book the Viking River cruise that basically floats around Bordeaux stopping at wineries. We're wine drinkers, but not necessarily snobs. I am 52 and DH is 45 and we're a bit worried we'll be the only ones there not retired. We're not crazy active people or crazy partiers, but we also don't want to be on such a small boat and feel like the odds ones out. Our previous cruising has all been larger lines - primarily Celebrity but also Carnival, RCCL and MSC. Has anyone taken this cruise and can let us know what you thought?

I applied for status match after booking my cruise and the discount was not applied by MSC. I had booked directly with them online. I wouldn't expect MSC to proactively give you a discount. They're shoreside systems are a hot mess. I wasn't really paying attention to be honest, so I never reached out to them to try and get it applied after the booking.

On our November cruise we did the full tour of Rome. I think it was called the Grand Tour? Went to the Vatican, then walking around Trevi fountain/Pantheon area, lunch and then finally a tour of the Colosseum. We were perpetually behind schedule and were the last to arrive back at the ship. I'm glad we had booked with the cruise line in that respect. I had been to Rome previously, DH had not. He really, really wanted to see the Colosseum and it was the only excursion that offered it. Would I do that tour again? I don't think so. The guide was great and the tour covered a lot of ground, but it was a loooong day and the time wasn't well utilized. The lunch was banquet level quality and certainly any number of local places would be better. Ended up waiting forever for shoppers at the Vatican, which was the first stop, so we ended up rushing the rest of the day through parts that were worthy of more time. We didn't get to go in any of the buildings except the Colosseum. Vatican, Pantheon, etc. were outside only.

That does seem a bit judgmental. I've done my fair share of short party cruises out of Florida. Not so much as I've gotten older, but well into my 30s. I've lived in Europe and all over the world and regularly travel overseas. Time and place for everything which is why we have a variety of cruises! Nothing wrong with a short booze cruise as long as you don't bother other passengers and can handle your liquor. FWIW, I've been a huge fan of Sarah Brightman since the 1980s and seen her live several times. Not so much into Bocelli, but I definitely know that song.