Food, Drink and the Spa.

[sidari]

Mr Vago ... I have Three questions for you if you would be kind enough to answer them, It is clear that many more people are begining to love MSC ships and their Interiors and cleanliness but one of the main things that stands out from the MSC boards on Cruise Critic is the Food/Buffet and Dining room complaints.

1) complaints have ranged around the Buffet food and so i wondered if and how this can be improved by MSC ? and how can food such as Steak be improved in the Main Dining rooms.

2) There has been much talk recently on Cruise Critic around the Drink packages offered by MSC on some sailings, the Aligrissimo is not available but on others it is, would it not be better to have both of the Aligrissimo packages available on every cruise in order to stop the confusion as to when they are or not available? we have used the package once so far and found it to be very good, we will also be using it on our next 2 cruises with MSC.

3) On Ocean Voyages can you tell me why the Spa is not available Free of charge but once a ship begins its sailings in the Caribbean it then becomes Free ?

Thank You.

[irnbru]

We usually cruise with another company but due to MSC being the company cruising to Dubai at the end of the year we thought we would give it a go since its my 50th bday. Having just booked the cruise and now reading the boards I too find the drinks packages to be confusing.

Why can't you make this simpler and include unlimited packages like other cruise lines do?

I also note you can't book a package unless everyone else in your cabin does too. I'm travelling with two elderly woman who are tee-total and usually buy a soda package.

5 other cruise lines let you take a limited amount of alcohol onboard, can you not follow suit?

Sandra

[kseattle]

Originally Posted by irnbru

I also note you can't book a package unless everyone else in your cabin does too. I'm travelling with two elderly woman who are tee-total and usually buy a soda package.


Sandra

The restriction that I was surprised to learn about is for people in separate cabins travelling together. We have a group of 15 people in 5 cabins, so none of us can opt for the convenience of the Allegrissimo package if one cabin does not take it? Is it possible to reconsider that policy?

[Pierfrancesco Vago]

Originally Posted by sidari

Mr Vago ... I have Three questions for you if you would be kind enough to answer them, It is clear that many more people are begining to love MSC ships and their Interiors and cleanliness but one of the main things that stands out from the MSC boards on Cruise Critic is the Food/Buffet and Dining room complaints.

1) complaints have ranged around the Buffet food and so i wondered if and how this can be improved by MSC ? and how can food such as Steak be improved in the Main Dining rooms.

2) There has been much talk recently on Cruise Critic around the Drink packages offered by MSC on some sailings, the Aligrissimo is not available but on others it is, would it not be better to have both of the Aligrissimo packages available on every cruise in order to stop the confusion as to when they are or not available? we have used the package once so far and found it to be very good, we will also be using it on our next 2 cruises with MSC.

3) On Ocean Voyages can you tell me why the Spa is not available Free of charge but once a ship begins its sailings in the Caribbean it then becomes Free ?
Thank You.

As for your first question, the buffet is the most visited dining area on board, particularly during breakfast and lunch, and continually enhancing this area is a priority for MSC.
With the help of famous Italian food designer Paolo Barichella from food and lifestyle designers Enocultura, we have in fact recently transformed the buffet restaurants across the fleet, creating a Mediterranean style buffet which enhances the variety of fresh choices and brings on board the concept of the visible kitchen, with skilled chefs preparing dishes directly in front of guests. The redesigned buffet is open non-stop for 20 hours a day and boasts many different speciality corners, including a pizza corner, a pasta station, a corner providing a large selection of traditional cheeses as well as cuts of high quality hams, a dessert corner, a children’s corner, an ethnic corner with speciality recipes from a diverse range of countries, a wellness corner, and many more. So far, this new area has received great feedback from our travellers.
Our popular Allegrissimo package covers approximately 80% of our cruises. We offer two different Allegrissimo packages (Allegrissimo and Allegrissimo Premium) on cruises in the Med, Northern Europe, the Red Sea, and Argentina, while in the US we offer the Allegrissimo premium.
Just as pricing and sales strategy for the cruise product in general vary from market to market, so do pricing and strategy for drinks packages, which is the reason that there are specific itineraries – in this case Brazil and South Africa- in which we do not offer Allegrissimo.
And finally, access to the thermal area of the MSC Aurea Spa is free for our travellers sailing from the US in order to meet the expectations of our US guests. It’s a normal feature of US cruise lines to offer this service for free.

Originally Posted by irnbru

We usually cruise with another company but due to MSC being the company cruising to Dubai at the end of the year we thought we would give it a go since its my 50th bday. Having just booked the cruise and now reading the boards I too find the drinks packages to be confusing.

Why can't you make this simpler and include unlimited packages like other cruise lines do?

I also note you can't book a package unless everyone else in your cabin does too. I'm travelling with two elderly woman who are tee-total and usually buy a soda package.

5 other cruise lines let you take a limited amount of alcohol onboard, can you not follow suit?


Sandra

MSC Cruises offers both limited and unlimited drinks packages for children and adults. For adults, our “Cheers” package offers unlimited beverages with lunch and dinner, while Allegrissimo Adult offers unlimited drinks at any time, excluding certain premium brands, and Allegrissimo Premium Adult offers unlimited drinks at any time, including premium brands. It is a normal commercial policy for people sharing cabins to take the same package.
As for the question about bringing alcohol on board, we have a strict policy about guests bringing on board their own alcohol, and this is mainly for safety and security reasons.

[sidari]

Mr Vago ... I thank you for the replies.

My recolection of the Buffet on the MSC Poesia in November 2012 from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale is how you have descibed it in your reply.

With regard to the Spa would it not be better to open it to All people sailing with MSC especially on Transatlantic cruises ?