MSC dining?

Hi. I am finding very little information on the dining on the cruise I am looking at. I am looking at booking the seaside for our first MSC cruise. Trying to figure out what dining is included with the price and what options they have. Is it like most ships that have one main dining room you go to each night or pay for the other restaurants? Or is it like disney where you get to go to different ones? Also is it just one big buffet or are there small quick service places on the ship included? I find the different levels of what you buy confusing also. thinking of just moving up to the second level for our package so we get room service and 12 drinks for the week. I am guessing the room service is included. Any input from people that know MSC would be great. Trying to decide if we are booking it. My mom will be booking also and has been asking alot of questions I can't answer.

Hello,

it is almost impossible to provide an 100 % correct answer without knowing what you have booked:

-On which ship will you be for your cruise?

-Do you have a drink-pakage like Allegrissimo or Cheers included?

-Which cabin type have you booked? (Bella, Fantastica, Aurea, Wellness, Yacht Club)

General Information I can provide:

-on every MSC ship there is a buffet-Restaurant, where you can eat for free.

-besides this you will have one main dining room where you can get breakfast and dinner "a la carte"

-there will be also (some) Restaurants, where you have to pay for the Food

-drinks (except water and coffee/tea (breakfast)) are not included as long as you have not booked a dink-package

-ice cream is also not included unless you have booked e.g. the Allegrissimo package.

Best regards,

Wolfgang

We are looking at booking the seaside. The room we are thinking of getting is a Fantastica. I didn't know about the separate drink packages so I will need to look into those. I am not use to all these different levels for booking one type of room. We are not big drinkers so I am not sure we will need it. There will be 4 adults and 3 children. Looking at two balconies.

When you book fantastica you will have room service included (such as breakfast within your cabin). We are ALWAYS adding the Allegrissimo drink package (in future it will be called All Inclusive Package) because we are on Holiday and do not want to agonzie what to drink and what not. Within the Allegrissimo package you will have a good choice of cocktails, draft beer, wines, coffee, sodas and ice cream in all restaurants and bars.

-on every MSC ship there is a buffet-Restaurant, where you can eat for free.

-besides this you will have one main dining room where you can get breakfast and dinner "a la carte"

-there will be also (some) Restaurants, where you have to pay for the Food

Is that still going to be true on Seaside? She is a different animal with the buffet on deck 8, along with a 'bistrot', as well as a number of small food venues on deck 16. I can't help but think it will be a horrible failure if everything other than the MDR and buffet is an upcharge. I feel like it was Divina that has (had?) a sushi restaurant off the atrium which was almost always empty. It's tough to see MSC quintupling-down on that bet...

I'm hoping they follow the model similar to the newer Carnival ships, which have buffet + MDR, and also paid restaurants... but they also have Guy's Burger, Blue Iguana, fish & chips, the sandwich shop, Asian/Indian, and pizza is actually a separate station on Carnival ships. Though we were on Glory last month and the sushi bar was now par-per-roll, and the fish and chips was supposedly going to become a pay-for option.

OP: here is the detail for the 'experience' levels on the MSC site:

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Cruise-Deals/Our-Fares.aspx

All my Information was based on the current fleet of MSC - concerning the new Seaside or Meraviglia class I have no clue to be honest... But you are right the restaurants, where you have to pay for were almost always empty like e.g. the Tex Mex or the Eataly...

Is the Allegrissimo drink package expensive? And do you have to buy it for the whole cabin? We won't be drinking alot of alcohol to make it worth it if it is alot. I was hoping they had a pizza place and a burger place for my teenagers. They love that on other cruise ships.

I thought it was more expensive than this, and keep in mind that this is not an official site: http://www.cruisemapper.com/wiki/697-msc-cruises-alcohol-policy

You do have to buy it for everyone in the cabin. It does seem rather pricey if you don't have a couple drinks with each meal, or stay up in the club and drink for several hours. Just my 2 cents, of course. It's an individual valuation.

Pizza is on the buffet. I don't recall if it's 24x7. I think they also have burgers on the buffet, but they are buffet burgers so probably not what you're looking for. :) They did have some cool little roll-sized sandwiches in the same area.

My teenage boys like to eat and especially things they don't have regularly at home :) Do you know if at the dining room soda is included with your meal or do you have to buy the package to even get that? All the ships I have been on it is included with you dinner meal but not anywhere else on the ship.

My teenage boys like to eat and especially things they don't have regularly at home :) Do you know if at the dining room soda is included with your meal or do you have to buy the package to even get that? All the ships I have been on it is included with you dinner meal but not anywhere else on the ship.

Mealtime drinks are not included.

There is the "Cheers" Package (from next summer on called "Mealtime Restaurant Drink Package") which covers just that.

Especially when cruising with kids, I would consider an Aurea stateroom instead of Fantasica, because with Aurea you get the Allegrissimo package (from next summer on "All inclusive Restaurant & Bar drink package) included (plus some other perks).

My teenage boys like to eat and especially things they don't have regularly at home :) Do you know if at the dining room soda is included with your meal or do you have to buy the package to even get that? All the ships I have been on it is included with you dinner meal but not anywhere else on the ship.

I think Disney does free soda at dinner, but when I've looked an Disney it seems to price out around the same as Yacht Club on MSC! I'm not familiar with anyone else doing it. As RudiRatlos indicated, MSC does not. There are a variety of coupon books available, though I am not sure there is enough of a discount to make it worth doing over ala-carte. For alcohol, there are some decent deals short of the AI packages.

I also agree that if you would seriously consider the AI packages, it is worth looking at Aurea. The cruise I'm currently eyeing is $760 higher for Aurea (in a balcony). With 2 adults and 2 kids, it would be cheaper to upgrade the cabin, and would also get us the massage(s), priority embarkation, and whatever else there is... essentially for free. However, we don't drink alcohol/soda/coffee nearly enough to justify the AI package, so I'm on the fence and I still need to sell it to my wife. :D

I find that the drinks packages on MSC are the cheapest out there. I haven't been on any other cruise line that give soft drinks with meal unless you mean flavoured water?

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I have to agree with the previous points about the drinks packages, it takes a head ache out of thinking about spend.

The cost f the drinks package is £20gbp per day, per adult in the cabin (cheaper for children as they obviously can't have alcohol)

When you consider that a can of coke is €2.80 and a coffee about €2, alcohol free cocktails about €5 and you can also have gelato ice cream during the day, which again is about €2 then it wouldn't take much to pay for the package, even if you don't drink much alcohol. You can also get bottles of water or unopened cans of drink to take off the ship and go ashore!

Also if you don't have a package then add 15% service charge on to those prices.

Apologies I don't know the conversion in to dollars, but am sure it would all be relative and a similar price.

I find that the drinks packages on MSC are the cheapest out there. I haven't been on any other cruise line that give soft drinks with meal unless you mean flavoured water?

 

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All the cruise lines i have been on give you soft drinks at dinner and juice available for free at breakfast. Carnival, Princess and Disney cruise lines

I was just looking at the Aurea balcony option and they have no rooms in the middle of the ship? Very strange that the only the cheaper rooms are and none of the more expensive are.

Sorry , what do you mean by soft drinks, when I hear this I think of coke, fanta & 7-up etc. Which I have never gotten free on Princess or Carnival during meals. Only flavoured water when I was on board!

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I was just looking at the Aurea balcony option and they have no rooms in the middle of the ship? Very strange that the only the cheaper rooms are and none of the more expensive are.

Aurea cabins are forward on the basis that the Aurea spa is at the front of the ship. The idea is that you have quick and easy access to the spa

All the cruise lines i have been on give you soft drinks at dinner and juice available for free at breakfast. Carnival, Princess and Disney cruise lines

Very strange. I've been on 15 Carnival cruises over the last decade+ and have never gotten free soda, other than at the Captain's party and such. I have bought the soda card a handful of times, but otherwise I'm am not familiar with soda being provided without an accompanying invoice on Carnival.

I've got ~5 cruises on Princess, but none in the last 7 or 8 years. Still, I don't recall free sodas there either.

Juice is available on any ship at breakfast, though usually the crap out of the fountain. I would assume it comes by the glass if you go to the dining room, and perhaps with a better selection.

Aurea cabins are forward on the basis that the Aurea spa is at the front of the ship. The idea is that you have quick and easy access to the spa

Also check the size of the balconies on the Aurea cabins on Seaside on deck 9 I believe. Quite large.