MSC Magnifica from a North American point of view

Sail Date: September 2014

Destination: Baltic & Northern Europe

Embarkation: Southampton

We have never been on cruise in which we've had a bad time. Cost & value is always a consideration for us and we rarely pay for any optional services or meals onboard. We treat the ship as a floating hotel and book based mainly on itinerary. When reading reviews I realize they are opinions and to decipher how they will affect us is sometimes difficult. When I was researching this cruise I found very few current reviews if any, on MCS cruises other than the Divinia’s Caribbean itinerary. I will write this review with the intention of helping North Americans decide whether the European style MSC is for you. Let me preface this review by stating that we went to London for 4 days and took Eurostar to Paris for 7 days pre-cruise so that may affect our value and cost ratings. I will also take into account the comments of my dining tables mates aged mid 30s to late 50s which we had great conversations with.

Cabin: We booked an “inside GTY” about 2 months out through the MSC USA website for $749us. We tried picking a room but it wouldn’t allow us so I rolled the dice! With airfares and hotels cost being so high, we needed this cruise to average out the costs while allowing me to “chill out” before going back to work. One week after our booking, I received an email with our cabin assignment. It was Panera Deck, cabin 9191 so I was happy as I was nervous about getting deck 5 as it’s below all the amenities and restaurants. Cabin 9191 was a balcony on deck 9 in the aft area and just happen to have an internet review so we got pretty excited about the upgrade. We were ecstatic upon arrival to the room as it was bigger than the hotel rooms of our London and Paris hotels and also any of the “inside cabins” on our previous cruise. The layout was excellent which may have added to the feeling of spaciousness. The steward always kept the cabin clean and tidy when we were not in. We kept odd hours with naps, afternoon showers, etc. but the room was always fixed when we returned to the cabin. The thing that surprised me was that we didn’t know who our steward was for the whole trip. We noticed 2 individuals working in the area and they gave us a general greeting but no “Mr. or Mrs.” type acknowledgement. It was like a well run hotel and we felt compelled to leave an additional small cash tip on the dresser on our last morning. There was a $1eu per person UNICEF donation added to the bill on the first night as MSC is a supporter. I left it as UNICEF is an organization that I’m comfortable with but I didn’t see anything about it in my research but it was mentioned on the onboard video/TV channels.

Embarkation: It was the smoothest embarkation process that we’ve ever encountered on any of our cruises. When we arrived at 2:00 we were the only people checking in. I believe it is due to that fact that MSC allows you to begin and end any 7 day cruise at any of its scheduled ports. My guess was that 25% of the guests boarded in Southampton, while 30% each boarded in Amsterdam and Hamburg, with the remainder in Zeebrugge or LeHavre. This is not noted on the USA website or I may have started the trip in LeHavre instead and spent more time in Paris and the French countryside as we’ve been to London before. We would have saved on the high cost of London and the Eurostar fare to visit Paris.

Dining:

Dinner

MSC offers traditional dining with pre-booked seating times of 6:30 or 8:30. We chose 8:30 as the ship would still be docked on the “Port days” and we didn’t want to cut into our shore time or have dinner at the buffet. We would snack at the buffet upon returning to the ship if we wanted but was rarely “needed”. Every dinner is a 6 course affair with choice of starters, salad, soup, pasta/risotto, main, dessert. 2 choices in each category as well as what was offered daily. I usually kept my meals to 4 courses but some went for the full meal deal daily. The food was good and presented nicely. It wasn’t fine dining but it was a notch above “Olive Garden”. The noticeable difference between MSC and others is that they only serve bottled water at dinner whether “sparkling” or “still” at a cost of $2.99eu per 1 liter bottle tip included. The waiter charged me the first 2 nights and waved me off when I presented my cruise card the remainder of the cruise. There is also a charge for hot beverages after dinner as they have no “drip” coffee, only beverages from the Espresso machines. The average dinner would take about 90 minutes but table 537 closed out the dining room almost every evening with great conversation. Our table consisted of couples from London/USA, east USA, west USA, and us (west Canada).

Beverages

I’m not put off by the ala carte service of beverages at dinner because the service charge/tip per day of $7eu per person is only $18us per cabin. This difference is only in the dining rooms as hot tea and coffee is available anytime at the buffet. Juice is available at breakfast only. You may want to pre-purchase a coffee or soda card for dinners but I found the water adequate. The pre-purchase card prices per drink are cheaper than in London or Paris restaurants. Two of the couples had beverage packages and they said it takes 5 drinks per person per day to make it worth while. Wine, Limoncello, & Sambucca flowed during and after dinner. I ordered a bottle of 2008 Amarone (16.5%) wine for $33eu on Gala night to share with the table and they said it was many notches above the “package wines” they were drinking. The price is close to what a liquor store in Canada would charge. The sommelier's presentation was very impressive as well. If you know your wines, you may find better value “cherry picking” from the wine list.

Breakfast (6:30-9:00)

We had breakfast at the dining room only one morning and were underwhelmed by the eggs Benedict so we never went back. The eggs were on toast with a pale Hollandaise sauce which I felt was powdered. One of our dinner mates had traditional omelet’s one morning which they said it was good compared to the “folded” McDonald’s style at the buffet. The youngsters of our dinner group had room service of continental breakfast and said it was good, especially the carafe of coffee which was better than the buffet version. The buffet contained everything one would need for a good breakfast and timing would determine whether your food was hot or warm. The buffet contains most things one would find on the North American cruise lines. To me, the only difference that noticeable was a lack of ham, lox, and the bacon is twice as thick and not as crisp as we’re used to. If you pick out what they would consider overcooked, it was delicious!

Lunch (11:00-2:00)

We had sea day lunches in the dining room and they were good if not memorable. You could have all 6 courses here too! We didn’t have any buffet lunches at all.

Snacks/buffet (6:30am to 2:00am)

We went to the buffet for any snacks that we needed. It would be late lunch, early dinner, sandwiches, pizza or fruit as choices. Nothing stood out but I did have some Indian & curry dishes at the stern of the buffet one afternoon that was delicious.

Specialty Restaurant

They had an Asian specialty sushi/restaurant that was empty every time we walked by it. As someone who has grown up with ethnic foods I was intrigued but as someone who’s managed restaurants for 35 years I was not.

Enrichment Activities:

Unlike the other cruise lines which list activities every half hour throughout the day, MSC’s daily is more of an ad for their services. The activities listed are limited at best but, I did not miss them as the ports, shows, and dinner kept us busy. We spent the 2 sea days on deck and with long lunches. I would be more concerned about the lack of activities if the cruise had many sea days or projected seasonal poor weather.

Entertainment:

The shows we saw were different than any production shows that we’ve seen on other lines. They had acrobats, contortionists, and strongmen incorporated in with the dancers and singers. Cirque meets Broadway?

Family & Children

Fitness & Recreation

We didn't use any of the facilities but if I was cruising with young children, the Happy Dinner option sounds interesting. That’s when the kid’s are served their meals during your starters and leave with MSC Kid’s club attendants while you complete your other meal courses. There was very few children on this mid-September cruise.

Public Rooms:

All the public areas were a spacious and elegantly decorated. The Magnfica is probably the “classiest” looking ship that we’ve been on. The theater reminded me of movie houses of the 60s with a forward facing balcony. There were rooms for cards/bridge, poker, and cigars, that were secluded and enclosed for privacy. The lounges and discos were very open and welcoming.

Service

The waiter we had was outstanding and very accommodating. I believe this has to do with the fact that he would be seeing us nightly. I tipped the waiter extra on the last night. Every other staff member we were in contact with was either indifferent or standoffish. No one went out of their way to be hospitable. If you are someone who is very demanding MSC is not for you. To be honest we have felt the service decline in all our cruises since our NCL cruises a few years ago.

Shore Excursions

We didn’t take any with the ship and prefer DIY excursions as we like to walk to get a better feel of the port we’re visiting. Our tablemates did take ship’s excursions and enjoyed them.

Zeebrugge

We just went into the small harbor town for a walk and to the market for some cabin snacks and beverages. As we’ve been on the road for almost 2 weeks we didn’t want to take the train into Brugges (30min) or Brussels (1 hour) for the afternoon. Our dinner mates took excursions to Brugges and while they enjoyed it, they didn’t display any passion in their recap to us. We relaxed on the empty deck and pool area. We boarding back on the ship security x-rayed my bag but didn’t open to check it. I had 2 six packs of sodas that could have been beers but no one checked. Our dinner mates had some bottled Belgium beer that was taken away but they had it delivered to their room the night before (day 4) Hamburg. Take that information for what it’s worth and come to your own conclusions.

Amsterdam

We had done our research and was going to take the 30 minute walk from the cruise center to Anne Frank House and then continuing to Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. I thought we had 2 days in Amsterdam as we stayed overnight but the ship departed at 9:00 the next morning. When I realized this, I tried booking Anne Frank House on-line but we waited too long to decide. We hoped that they would have tickets at the door but we were told that there was nothing available for the remainder of September. Book your tickets on-line early for the $10eu adult price. My DW says that we now have another reason to visit Amsterdam. We continued our walk to the Rijksmuseum stopping off to browse shops along the way. The Rijksmuseum contained a couple of Van Gogh’s, Rembrandts as well as many other artifacts. It was a great visit but after a few hours I didn’t feel as compelled to go to the Van Gogh museum which was just 100 yards away. We actually got in line to buy tickets but we thought it would be nice to walk back to the ship along a canal and grab a quick bite as well as browse the shops. As we cycle regularly back home, we thought about renting a bike to get back but we realized quickly we’re out of our league. There’s freeway driving and then there’s Los Angeles freeway driving. We saw couples cycling a top speed holding hands with bikes only 12” apart. There were more people cycling at midnight than during rush hour in Vancouver and we’re one of the most bike friendly cities in North America. You have a better chance of being hit by a cyclist than by and other vehicle in Amsterdam. My crazy dinner mates convinced us to leave the ship at 11:00pm and walk the 15 minutes to the “Red Light” district. It’s one major party zone but neither my DW nor the other 3 ladies in our group felt unsafe or threatened. We headed back to the ship at 12:30 while the others went for refreshments at a bar along the cruise terminal. I thoroughly enjoyed Amsterdam and may return as it’s a hub for air travel.

Hamburg

I did not do my usual homework on Hamburg as I thought we would spend the morning at the fish market and the afternoon at the Miniature Museum and let the DW do some shopping down town. We got off the ship shortly after 10am and walked to the fish market. The place was jumping and there was an exciting atmosphere but some booths were beginning to shut down already. The merchants said that they’ve been there since 4am. We found out that a lot of the businesses were closed on Sundays in Hamburg. We spent a couple of hours walking along the waterfront as the Miniature (train) Museum didn’t sound as appealing to DW without the shopping. We looked for a restaurant with free Wi-Fi but did not see one advertising it. In hindsight if we were to arrive on a Sunday I would get off the ship ASAP and go to the fish market till it shut down before doing the waterfront walk. The rest of the afternoon would be spent relaxing on ship or at an internet café. Our dinner mates did find a sushi restaurant that offered it and spent the afternoon there.

LeHavre

We had stopped off in LeHavre before and did the Canadian D-day beach and sites. We pre-booked a rental car at the pier for this visit as I was undecided as to what we would do and I knew driving was not difficult in this part of France. I also saw the excursion prices and felt no matter how much the car cost, I would break even with just 1 stop. I booked a car that was waiting for us next to the terminal. I could Have saved $30eu by booking offsite but we did that last time and I wanted the option of making a pit stop back at the ship if we wanted. MSC does not offer a D-Day beach excursion so you would have to book a private tour or drive yourself. My dinner mates all wanted to go to Normandy but pre-booked other excursions offered. 2 couple did “Paris on your own” and the other did “Ruoen on your own”. The “Paris on your own” group rode 3 hours each way on the bus and got 4 hours of free time. They were really excited upon their return as none of them had been to Paris before. I looked at the excursion brochure and decided that we would spend the morning north in Etretat and the afternoon south at Honfluer. The clerk at the rental office said that we should go a little further to north to Fecamp. We really didn’t know what to expect when we set off at 9:30. We drove north a bout 40 minutes to Etretat and the beach area there was spectacular. The cliffs on each end of the beach were stunning we decided to hike up one end of it. We decided to take the extra 15 minutes to Fecamp to see the Benedictine Liqueur Palace tour. Upon arrival at the site we noticed that the place was shut down. It would have been pretty disappointing if Fecamp was our destination and not Etretat. We left at 2:00 drove back past the cruise terminal and on the Ponte Normandie Bridge on our way to Honfleur. Honfleur is a quaint little harbor tourist town. We had a late lunch of Mussel & Fries and Jambon et fromage crepe before walking around the center of town. It was the town where explorer Samuel De Champlain left from to discover New France. (Quebec, Canada) We got back to the ship just after 6:30 and probably could have spent another hour or so in LeHavre but it had been a pretty long day already.

Southampton

We stayed in Southampton 1 night before moving to Gatwick for our trip home. We got off the ship with the early group and stopped off at the hotel to drop off the luggage. We then picked up some snacks at the store before walking to the train station (left of coach station) to catch the 30 minute 11am train to Salisbury for a HOHO to Stonehenge. We had pre-booked the train for $5.5bps each for a 7pm return trip. The HOHO was $31bps per person pre-booked on their website. The HOHO was waiting outside the Salisbury train station. We saw Stonehenge, Old Sarum, the Cathedral & the Magna Carta before walking back to the station. It was a very easy DIY and was cheaper than the excursion for 2 with the hotel price included. We spent the next morning browsing the Southampton area before catching the train to Gatwick. ($8.25bps each)

Summary:

I would cruise MSC again if the itinerary was what I wanted. I would do this same cruise again but would start in another port instead of Southampton only to spend more time in that area. The cruise line is different from the mainstream lines but not necessarily in a bad way. I still prefer anytime or freestyle dining but this was a nice change. There was enough variety in the Italian style menus that made each meal enjoyable. I read many reviews regarding line jumpers and pushy people and if you look for them, you’ll find them. I say that because if you look for them on other lines you’ll find them also. The value that this cruise offered was outstanding. Some people may not like the ala carte pricing but the cost of the cruise plus the onboard charges is one of our lowest for a 7 day cruise let alone for Europe.

Great review thank you.

We are looking at MSC Magnififca for a repo in March to Venice.:)

Great review thank you.

 

We are looking at MSC Magnififca for a repo in March to Venice.:)

If the price is right, go for it!:D

Just make sure you bring stuff to keep you busy on those sea days.