MSC vs. Carnival: A Personal Review

This review is to compare Carnival Cruise Lines with MSC Divina. The contents of this review is solely my opinion and my observations. Your experience may differ. First, this cruise was a chartered cruise for the musical group, Celtic Thunder. All the ship board entertainment was provided by Celtic Thunder and other chartered artists. A regular cruise experience might differ slightly. Secondly, I am a frequent cruiser, sailing Carnival the most, which is why I am comparing the cruise lines. The cruise experience is not a new thing for us.

Embarkation: Total nightmare. Mind you, this might because it was a chartered cruise. We were told embarkation would start at 1:00. We did arrive earlier at the port than suggested in order to get slightly ahead of the busloads of shuttled passengers from the hotel. By the time we arrived, we were moved to Zone 7. There are not enough seats in the waiting area and lines of waiting passengers wrapped around the building haphazardly. Announcements could not be heard and it seemed very so disorganized. We got on the ship around 2:25. Supposedly, we were not to access our cabins until 3:00…. We took our carry-on luggage to the cabin anyway and the cabin was ready. Carnival comparison: We are platinum cruisers and walk on board around 11:00. We drop off carry-on luggage immediately and return hours later. Carnival wins here hands down.

Muster Drill: Carnival wins here only because they do NOT require the life vest to be brought to the drill. MSC still requires you to show up with the life jacket. BUT kudos to MSC…all of your muster stations are indoors and air conditioned. MSC was scanning everyone’s card and I heard they were making those who ducked out of the first drill to attend a make-up drill.

Drink Packages: We routinely purchase Carnival’s Cheer’s package for drinks. On this cruise, we were not given the option to purchase any of the advertised packages (per the website) but were offered a Celtic Thunder pass of 25 drinks for roughly $132.00 bucks. I figured it was $6.40 per drink including tip. We purchased two packages and purchased two extra drinks total. Our experience was that MSC drink prices are remarkably LOWER than Carnival. MSC gets the low price vote, but it was not what was advertised on line.

General alcohol warnings: MSC Divina is the first ship I have seen bartenders actually use jiggers and shot glasses to measure alcohol. That's great! However, I also watched them UNDERSERVE customers when it got busy by freepouring (three count, instead of four) and by failing to replace an empty bottle repeatedly. I would have hated to have been served those Long Island Iced Teas without Gin or Vodka. They constantly failed to garnish the drink as well. One bright star was Jon, at the Garden Bar, who was always accurate, polite, and seemed to care about each drink he put out. Carnival seems to never use shot or jigger glasses to measure the alcohol they serve, each drink is consistent, and they are generous in their pours. This one goes to Carnival!

Another observation: Carnival has servers that patrol the pool side areas with constant frequency. No real complaints from me as I have found them to be attentive but not intrusive. MSC servers were rare and often absent. In our sail away party (and it was a big deal), there were no servers at all. In fact. I had to go the bar for every drink I ordered all cruise long. Yet, for the same area Serenity vs. Garden Bar area: Carnival would have two bartenders and two servers… MSC had five bartenders trying to work in the same space. I did not think the increased number improved the service. Carnival wins for service here.

Food: Because this was a chartered cruise, we had the option to dine anytime, anywhere. There were no set early or late seatings. However, they did seat you with others even if you asked to be seated alone. (URGH) We ate in the Specialty Restaurant, Eaterly, one night but it was supposed to be IRISH faire. It was very simple, basic food and I was disappointed that it was not good Irish food. I suspect that Eaterly is a great Italian venue that serves good food. The service was great. We did eat in the Villa Rosa one night with others, after requesting a table to ourselves. Our dinner mates were lovely. The food was just so-so. Our biggest complaint was LACK of options; three of the options were pasta and we chose the veal. Carnival wins hands down with multiple options across the board. We found the overall quality of Carnival food much better. We also missed the end of meal song and dance that Carnival employees do.

Buffets: Again, our experience is that Carnival has more options on the buffet and does a better job with the quality. Salad bar options, for example, are highly limited on MSC where Carnival has a full service salad bar. MSC does a great job with the Pizza and the burgers. Otherwise, the food is not remarkable.

Cheese and meats: I will give MSC my nod for their Mediterranean Bar with all the meats and cheeses! I wish Carnival would do this or have it as a room service option. I went upstairs for this nightly.

Room Service: Be prepared, on MSC, room service is NOT available until 7:30 am. For early risers who want coffee delivered, plan on getting it yourself. Carnival wins on this point, hands down.

Cabin Stewards: First cruise I have ever been on that I never met or saw the cabin steward. With Carnival, we always are introduced to steward by first evening and we can tell them what we need or want. On MSC, we had to call several times to ask for beds to be split, extra pillows, and ice, which we never got! An absent steward is fine if everything gets done, but if it not, it goes back to that basic service issue.

General word about the cabin: We had cabin 13194 which has an odd shaped, extra- large balcony. The balcony rocked! The cabin was basic. MSC has shower doors as opposed to shower curtains. I liked the shower door, but the counter space was limited and there were fewer shelves than Carnival has. I did like the under cabinet storage that MSC had. Yet, the bathroom seems slightly larger with Carnival. Overall, the cabin was very comfortable and the beds were comfortable. I found this to be a draw.

The Yacht Club: This is MSC’s ship-within-a-ship concept, but we did not book this type of cabin. As a result, we did not have access to this area of the ship. We did hear from those that did that they felt their service and food quality was much better than the rest of the ship.

Shipboard Entertainment: I cannot comment on this because it was a chartered cruise and our entertainment was brought on board. I can say that ALL of the venues, such as the theater, the clubs, the bars, are awesome, comfortable, and well appointed. I did miss Carnival’s drink service in the main theater, cocktail tables, and the wide leg room, but we were very comfortable.

PORTS: I have been to Nassau, Bahamas several times and frankly, it is a port I can avoid. We did a MSC Davina excursion of the Catamaran Sail and Snorkel. They took us out to a reef and left us to explore. Great day, no complaints. No lunch either. Water refreshing at this point.

Coco Cay Private Island: Another horrible experience with tendering. We had an “A” tendering ticket for 8:00 am but they did not even begin tendering until 9:30. We arrived on the island at 10:30. Although there were several large passenger tenders in the harbor, MSC was running only one tender back and forth for passengers. Bars were not even set up by 11:00 and some drink options were not available at all locations. The island is nice with multiple beach areas and seats. Be advised, if you familiar with Carnival cabanas, they are not similar on Coco Cay. These are small, rattan, see-through, three sided structures are bunched up with other cabanas. I would have been disappointed to pay the large sum to rent one of the cabanas.

Lastly, we thoroughly enjoyed our chartered cruise despite some hiccups. MSC has a stunning ship that is very comfortable. We were disappointed with the food, drinks, and service overall. At this point, I would not book another MSC cruise.

Very interesting review! Thanks

Thanks for your insightful comparison! :)

Where was the embarkation?

Last year, Divina was in San Juan for a day stop when we were boarding Conquest for the repo. I thought she was a lovely ship. At least the shape and exterior was very pleasant.

Embarkation was in Miami, Terminal 7. The ship is truly gorgeous!

Thank you for the comparison. Question..... Do they still do everything in mutiple languages? I heard the muster drill is grueling due to being done in different languages.

We had some friends that sailed a week before you (I believe) and they did not even leave Miami until 7:30pm......not sure if that's the norm because I have watched it leave that late on the port webcam before and always wondered why....:confused:

They too said the ship was pretty, but they didn't think they would book MSC again.

Disappointing to see that MSC hasn't learned anything since my chartered gay cruise in Feb on the spectacular Divina. Our charter company, RSVP, sailed on the Divina ahead of time in order to check out how things worked and to head off possible problems with service and operations on our cruise. It was pointed out that bar service needed to be stepped up considerably which MSC didn't understand until we all showed up and the bars were mobbed on the first day. They added bar tenders, but as ncbeachteacher said, they poured pretty awfull drinks and ran out of a lot. Dining room service was just as bad with long waits and cold food. Overall the experience ended up costing MSC the charter for next year as RSVP gave us a vote on going back to the Divina or chartering the Regal Princess--yeah, that wasn't even close. It really is a shame as Divina has a lot to offer and is a great ship for the Caribbean, but MSC cannot compete with the other mainstream cruise lines with such mediocre and disappointing service.

Thanks so much for your time to do this comparison! :)

LuLu

Thank you for the comparison. Question..... Do they still do everything in mutiple languages? I heard the muster drill is grueling due to being done in different languages.

No just in English.

We had some friends that sailed a week before you (I believe) and they did not even leave Miami until 7:30pm......not sure if that's the norm because I have watched it leave that late on the port webcam before and always wondered why....:confused:

 

They are scheduled to leave at 7pm as the European flights do not arrive until late afternoon and then people have to go through Immigration. I would say 25% of passengers are from Europe.

Disappointing to see that MSC hasn't learned anything since my chartered gay cruise in Feb on the spectacular Divina. Our charter company, RSVP, sailed on the Divina ahead of time in order to check out how things worked and to head off possible problems with service and operations on our cruise. It was pointed out that bar service needed to be stepped up considerably which MSC didn't understand until we all showed up and the bars were mobbed on the first day. They added bar tenders, but as ncbeachteacher said, they poured pretty awfull drinks and ran out of a lot. Dining room service was just as bad with long waits and cold food. Overall the experience ended up costing MSC the charter for next year as RSVP gave us a vote on going back to the Divina or chartering the Regal Princess--yeah, that wasn't even close. It really is a shame as Divina has a lot to offer and is a great ship for the Caribbean, but MSC cannot compete with the other mainstream cruise lines with such mediocre and disappointing service.

I am not sure if it is just the charters which seem to be the problem. I did a B2B on the Divina in September and loved it.

Drinks were good, food was hot, shows were excellent etc and best of all the casino was completely non smoking.

Also I was upgraded to a balcony both legs even though paid inside price (solo).

I am Diamond with Carnival and have never had an upgrade to a balcony with them.

Recently did the Divina and never want to see an MSC ship again. MDR chairs back to back, no room for servers to get around the tables. All the food & bar servers acted like 1st day on job. Very confused. Note must peeps have some issues but many love it. Been waiting for a cancelled cruise refund deposit for 2 mons. Never again.

This review is to compare Carnival Cruise Lines with MSC Divina. The contents of this review is solely my opinion and my observations. Your experience may differ. First, this cruise was a chartered cruise for the musical group, Celtic Thunder. All the ship board entertainment was provided by Celtic Thunder and other chartered artists. A regular cruise experience might differ slightly. Secondly, I am a frequent cruiser, sailing Carnival the most, which is why I am comparing the cruise lines. The cruise experience is not a new thing for us.

 

 

 

Embarkation: Total nightmare. Mind you, this might because it was a chartered cruise. We were told embarkation would start at 1:00. We did arrive earlier at the port than suggested in order to get slightly ahead of the busloads of shuttled passengers from the hotel. By the time we arrived, we were moved to Zone 7. There are not enough seats in the waiting area and lines of waiting passengers wrapped around the building haphazardly. Announcements could not be heard and it seemed very so disorganized. We got on the ship around 2:25. Supposedly, we were not to access our cabins until 3:00…. We took our carry-on luggage to the cabin anyway and the cabin was ready. Carnival comparison: We are platinum cruisers and walk on board around 11:00. We drop off carry-on luggage immediately and return hours later. Carnival wins here hands down.

 

 

 

Muster Drill: Carnival wins here only because they do NOT require the life vest to be brought to the drill. MSC still requires you to show up with the life jacket. BUT kudos to MSC…all of your muster stations are indoors and air conditioned. MSC was scanning everyone’s card and I heard they were making those who ducked out of the first drill to attend a make-up drill.

 

 

 

Drink Packages: We routinely purchase Carnival’s Cheer’s package for drinks. On this cruise, we were not given the option to purchase any of the advertised packages (per the website) but were offered a Celtic Thunder pass of 25 drinks for roughly $132.00 bucks. I figured it was $6.40 per drink including tip. We purchased two packages and purchased two extra drinks total. Our experience was that MSC drink prices are remarkably LOWER than Carnival. MSC gets the low price vote, but it was not what was advertised on line.

 

 

General alcohol warnings: MSC Divina is the first ship I have seen bartenders actually use jiggers and shot glasses to measure alcohol. That's great! However, I also watched them UNDERSERVE customers when it got busy by freepouring (three count, instead of four) and by failing to replace an empty bottle repeatedly. I would have hated to have been served those Long Island Iced Teas without Gin or Vodka. They constantly failed to garnish the drink as well. One bright star was Jon, at the Garden Bar, who was always accurate, polite, and seemed to care about each drink he put out. Carnival seems to never use shot or jigger glasses to measure the alcohol they serve, each drink is consistent, and they are generous in their pours. This one goes to Carnival!

 

 

 

Another observation: Carnival has servers that patrol the pool side areas with constant frequency. No real complaints from me as I have found them to be attentive but not intrusive. MSC servers were rare and often absent. In our sail away party (and it was a big deal), there were no servers at all. In fact. I had to go the bar for every drink I ordered all cruise long. Yet, for the same area Serenity vs. Garden Bar area: Carnival would have two bartenders and two servers… MSC had five bartenders trying to work in the same space. I did not think the increased number improved the service. Carnival wins for service here.

 

Food: Because this was a chartered cruise, we had the option to dine anytime, anywhere. There were no set early or late seatings. However, they did seat you with others even if you asked to be seated alone. (URGH) We ate in the Specialty Restaurant, Eaterly, one night but it was supposed to be IRISH faire. It was very simple, basic food and I was disappointed that it was not good Irish food. I suspect that Eaterly is a great Italian venue that serves good food. The service was great. We did eat in the Villa Rosa one night with others, after requesting a table to ourselves. Our dinner mates were lovely. The food was just so-so. Our biggest complaint was LACK of options; three of the options were pasta and we chose the veal. Carnival wins hands down with multiple options across the board. We found the overall quality of Carnival food much better. We also missed the end of meal song and dance that Carnival employees do.

 

 

 

Buffets: Again, our experience is that Carnival has more options on the buffet and does a better job with the quality. Salad bar options, for example, are highly limited on MSC where Carnival has a full service salad bar. MSC does a great job with the Pizza and the burgers. Otherwise, the food is not remarkable.

 

 

 

Cheese and meats: I will give MSC my nod for their Mediterranean Bar with all the meats and cheeses! I wish Carnival would do this or have it as a room service option. I went upstairs for this nightly.

 

 

Room Service: Be prepared, on MSC, room service is NOT available until 7:30 am. For early risers who want coffee delivered, plan on getting it yourself. Carnival wins on this point, hands down.

 

 

 

Cabin Stewards: First cruise I have ever been on that I never met or saw the cabin steward. With Carnival, we always are introduced to steward by first evening and we can tell them what we need or want. On MSC, we had to call several times to ask for beds to be split, extra pillows, and ice, which we never got! An absent steward is fine if everything gets done, but if it not, it goes back to that basic service issue.

 

 

 

General word about the cabin: We had cabin 13194 which has an odd shaped, extra- large balcony. The balcony rocked! The cabin was basic. MSC has shower doors as opposed to shower curtains. I liked the shower door, but the counter space was limited and there were fewer shelves than Carnival has. I did like the under cabinet storage that MSC had. Yet, the bathroom seems slightly larger with Carnival. Overall, the cabin was very comfortable and the beds were comfortable. I found this to be a draw.

 

 

 

The Yacht Club: This is MSC’s ship-within-a-ship concept, but we did not book this type of cabin. As a result, we did not have access to this area of the ship. We did hear from those that did that they felt their service and food quality was much better than the rest of the ship.

 

 

 

Shipboard Entertainment: I cannot comment on this because it was a chartered cruise and our entertainment was brought on board. I can say that ALL of the venues, such as the theater, the clubs, the bars, are awesome, comfortable, and well appointed. I did miss Carnival’s drink service in the main theater, cocktail tables, and the wide leg room, but we were very comfortable.

 

 

 

PORTS: I have been to Nassau, Bahamas several times and frankly, it is a port I can avoid. We did a MSC Davina excursion of the Catamaran Sail and Snorkel. They took us out to a reef and left us to explore. Great day, no complaints. No lunch either. Water refreshing at this point.

 

 

 

Coco Cay Private Island: Another horrible experience with tendering. We had an “A” tendering ticket for 8:00 am but they did not even begin tendering until 9:30. We arrived on the island at 10:30. Although there were several large passenger tenders in the harbor, MSC was running only one tender back and forth for passengers. Bars were not even set up by 11:00 and some drink options were not available at all locations. The island is nice with multiple beach areas and seats. Be advised, if you familiar with Carnival cabanas, they are not similar on Coco Cay. These are small, rattan, see-through, three sided structures are bunched up with other cabanas. I would have been disappointed to pay the large sum to rent one of the cabanas.

 

 

 

Lastly, we thoroughly enjoyed our chartered cruise despite some hiccups. MSC has a stunning ship that is very comfortable. We were disappointed with the food, drinks, and service overall. At this point, I would not book another MSC cruise.

hank you for your review.

As you were on a charter cruise things are done very differently and cant be totally compare to a normal cruise on Divina.

1) Embarkation was different because of the charter. This is not the norm on Divina.

2) Drink Packages are limited on Charter cruises. MSC has probably the best drink packers among cruise lines compare to Carnival.

3) Dining room experience was changed for the charter, and they do have a difficult time with this as the servers are use to 2 main seating.

4) Service is different for Italian cruise lines in where they do not disturb you such as on the pool deck. Also you were on a charter and it could be possible they limited pool service, my cruise on Divina had plenty of servers on the pool deck and you call them over.

As for cabin steward they are trained not to interfere when you are in the room, there is a light outside that tells them you are in the room and they move on if its on. I only found mine when I went out looking for her, my room was always done and I swear they would just sneak in and do their thing. but they should have responded to your request by phone.

Food is subjected, but they have the best pizza on cruise lines.

Entertainment is all brought on so it cant be compared.

I am glad you got to see such a beautiful ship. I would encourage you to try it as a non-charter.

BosJoe, I said at the onset of my review, that this was a chartered cruise and your experience might be different. However, service issues should never be different just because it is a chartered cruise. Poor service is poor service. I also said I am a frequent cruiser, so I do feel I can ferret out anomalies vs. real problems.

We did not have a bad cruise. We had a great time, because of the great entertainment. However, we will probably not seek out MSC for a non-chartered cruise based on this experience. In our experience, we found the service overall to be poor. The food options and quality were basic. We don't go on a cruise to eat pizza and hamburgers. For us, this cruise line is not a good match for the way we like to cruise nor meets our expectations of a quality experience. We would rather spend our cruise dollars elsewhere.

Thank you for the comparison. Question..... Do they still do everything in mutiple languages? I heard the muster drill is grueling due to being done in different languages.

She responded that the muster drill was just in English, probably because it was a charter.

BosJoe, I said at the onset of my review, that this was a chartered cruise and your experience might be different. However, service issues should never be different just because it is a chartered cruise. Poor service is poor service. I also said I am a frequent cruiser, so I do feel I can ferret out anomalies vs. real problems.

 

We did not have a bad cruise. We had a great time, because of the great entertainment. However, we will probably not seek out MSC for a non-chartered cruise based on this experience. In our experience, we found the service overall to be poor. The food options and quality were basic. We don't go on a cruise to eat pizza and hamburgers. For us, this cruise line is not a good match for the way we like to cruise nor meets our expectations of a quality experience. We would rather spend our cruise dollars elsewhere.

Yea I am a frequent cruiser too, and the service on my cruise especially around the bars was better then my celebrity cruises. The service is based off of the European style, and the Americans here in just can't grasp the difference in service.

I will say your dining service could be better, but on the same hand I understand that MSC waiter staff and the kichen is not use to this as they are pretty much trained at 2 seatings. So they get lost in he confusion of anytime dining.

Food is subjected, if you thought the burgers were good and I didn't that goes to the show everyone taste will be different, my view the food is no different then any other mass market cruise line. When your feeding over 3000 guest, your basically serving cater food. The best meals are now at the pay for restaurants. It's not the worst and not the best, it's not as good as it use to be many years ago.

I will say my cruise the service was a par below excellent, but what cruise is ever perfect.

Again, I reviewed our experience on the MSC Divina and compared it to our experiences on Carnival. I am glad you had a different experience. That's the great thing about these reviews, you can glean the information presented and make an informed decision based on how you like to cruise, based on what is important to you.

Happy Cruising!

Thank you for the comparison. Question..... Do they still do everything in mutiple languages? I heard the muster drill is grueling due to being done in different languages.

I see the OP answered you on this already, we found the 5 versions of every announcement back when we sailed MSC was very frustrating. I had heard earlier this year that they had made this change (for US sailings). Glad they listened.

I see the OP answered you on this already, we found the 5 versions of every announcement back when we sailed MSC was very frustrating. I had heard earlier this year that they had made this change (for US sailings). Glad they listened.

That must have been frustrating.

That must have been frustrating.

Very. MSC as a cruise line is a very interesting story. They tried very hard on the Orchestra when we sailed her. To me (and I know there are some that love MSC) they just did not fit to (American) Caribbean cruising.

I'm not busting your chops Bosjoe but:

 

2) Drink Packages are limited on Charter cruises. MSC has probably the best drink packers among cruise lines compare to Carnival.

 

Wouldn't you think they wouldn't run out of booze if the packages were limited?

Yea I am a frequent cruiser too, and the service on my cruise especially around the bars was better then my celebrity cruises. The service is based off of the European style, and the Americans here in just can't grasp the difference in service.

 

I'm not sure what's to grasp when it comes to European style bar service.

Just asking.

Back in September my husband and I took a cruise on the MSC Divina and We are frequent Carnival cruisers!

We did NOT like MSC at all. The food was terrible, the buffet was a little better than the MDR (which is odd) but the servings were so small that you had to order 2 meals every night, the deserts were not yummy at all.(severe lack of anything chocolate )

You were right about the cabin steward. We did meet him once but that was the only time we saw him.

The ship was beautiful but honestly the layout confused me. The life boats were on the deck that was basically the main drag, so you couldn't walk outside or even look outside .

The shows. Were AWESOME!!!!! I gotta admit they were excellent. No other ship I've been on has shows that good.

But the ship was really BORING!!! No excitement on the lido deck.. The trivia was dull.. It was just a boring ship.

And when they had the cruise critic get together the cruise director was there. He was saying he couldn't understand the negative reviews and pretty much made it clear that they had no plans to change the ship to be more 'American' , they like the European style cruising .. I obviously do not :eek:

And the WORSE thing. They only had soft serve ice cream for 3 hrs a day!!!! What a horrible horrible thing :rolleyes: ..ok, it was t the worst thing but it was sad!! I love my 24hr ice cream

I won't ever sail on an MSC ship again. Thankfully we had a real good price so it wasn't too much of a disappointment .

I sailed MSC Divina in the Med last year. Beautiful ship!! Much nicer than any Carnival ship I have sailed. Entertainment...MSC leaves Carnival for dead, the drink package at AUD 35 pp...unlimited drinks, again leaves Carnival for dead.

Were there some things that Carnival does better...of course. Buffet/lido offerings better. Sea day activities and organisation of reboarding/queues better.

Every cruise line has it's positives/negatives. Try them all I say!

I have to say my next Carnival cruise will be my last ...for at least a while.

Variety is the spice of life!!