RealNorwegianCruiser

Walbart = Walmart.

So, on Tuesday my son and I disembarked in Istanbul. A 9 night long cruise was over for this time.

Again it was chaos on disembarkion. Rowdy passengers, and very little control by MSC. A passenger was even screaming to one of the security officers, and no actions by MSC. The whole situation was close to out of control. Yes it happens because the cruise guests doesnt follow the rules, but when noone enforce the rules, people dont care.

Istanbul is fantastic as always! We stayed in Hagia Sofia Mansions Istanbul, Curio Collection by Hilton, for 1 night before we flew back home to Norway. A very good experience! The staff was very child friendly, and he hotel itself was lovely quirky! It might be one of my new favorite hotels! Walkable to Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, and Grand Bazaar. A smart choice if you got limited time in Istanbul, and want to see many of the historical gems.

We got a upcoming cruise with MSC in October. This time from Bacelona, and with MSC Seaview. It will be our 5th cruise with MSC since its already paid in fully. One land based vacation on Gran Canaria after that.

Will that be the last MSC cruise for a while? Who knows. Maybe this Splendida cruise was just the one rotten apple. We might get impressed again. But this time I will not do what I normally do when I am back from a cruise: Be looking for a new cruise deal with MSC.. Because, well, because we are on a break! Its not you, its me. I just expect more..

6 hours ago, bobnjeff said:

We are currently on the Preziosa. Second of two cruises B2B. Absolutely wonderful cruises. Zero complaints. We’re very experienced cruisers having done over 40 mostly on Celebrity and Royal. We took Royal to get to these cruises and we sailed on Celebrity in December. MSC is leaps and bounds better than either. Beautiful ships, superb food, entertainment that is 10 times better than anything on any ship we’ve sailed. The crew onboard are truly incredible, amazing, excellent! Celebrity used to be almost this good many years ago but they have gone downhill dramatically. Forget about Royal. They have cut so many corners and pinched pennies so much it’s like the Walmart of cruise lines. 

If Royal has turned into Walbart of cruise lines, I am really curious what MSC is. Lidl? 🙂

And no: you cant Just walk off the ship if you are unhappy about the cruise, or in my wifes case a personal issue. You need to fill out a form. "Break of voyage declaration". Then the ship inform local authorities etc.. THEN you can walk off. 

.. No rage quitting here, my friends! 😀

We normally order the todays risotto as starter, and we got ine more dessert one evening. We dont got extra charged. They can Just try..

Katakolon. Just got cancelled due to wind. Had no plans there anyway. Will be sea day instead. Thanks God for Ipad, since my 6 year old start to be a bit bored.

Trieste: due to my wifes personal issue, we had to get her to the bus station. Then I took my son to a toy store and bought him a lot of LEGO. That was expensive.. After that we had a good ice cream, walked a bit around and looked at buildings.

Yesterday was sea day. We basically stayed half of the day in the jacuzis in the back of the ship. Less crowded there.. We ate ice creams, and mock cocktails. That was fun for my son. 

The watch on my Phone regulated itself after the cellphone network, so my son and I had Albanian time. Not ship time. Therefore we missed dinner in MDR. No big deal, better choice of food in the buffé. And since it was elegant night and my son wanted to wear his Guns'n Roses tskirt, it felt allright to go to the buffét. I pick my fights with the kid carefully this vacation, and choice of tskirt is not a fight I care to take..

Thats all for now. Pireaus/Athens tomorrow. Since its Just my kid and me, we need to do some kid friendly stuff. Rearrange plans in other words. I heard a rumor about a war ship you can visit, so I Will google that now.

Frode: freedom of speech.. what to say...........?

Today we are in Trieste. Nice place.

My wife had to leave the cruise today due to personal reasons, but my son and I Will stay on back to Istanbul. 

The disembarkion in Trieste can be summed up in one word: chaos! Since the ship arrived to the port much later than usual due to some wind, people qued up in the stairs with their luggage. Everyone tried of course to be first one off.. it seemed like the crew had no control! It worries me to be honest. I saw two dudes even start fighting. A good ol Spagetti Western... 

I am also surprised over how bad English skills many of the crew members got. My English is not the best either, but these guys STRUGGLE with communication. I pray to God that nothing serious happens while Im onboard, because that Will end really bad I am afraid.

Was on a show yesterday. Circus something something. It was ok for me, but boring for my 6 years old.

Service in MDR was faster tonight, but unfortunately I am still not impressed with the food. Sorry.. I wish I could be positive about more.

I Will finish on a positive note tonight though: Butchers Cut still great! I met a old "friend" from Meraviglia there as well: Elvis. Very friendly waiter.

Tomorrow sea day, then Katakolon, Pireaus, Kusadasi, and back to Istanbul. 

Btw: dont buy Fun Pass on Spendida. Only 4k cinema and two other game machines working.. 

Bari: easy to do on your own. Walkable from the ship unless you got health issues.

Parties: I was travelling with wife and kid, now travelling only with my kid. Im in bed around 22.. sorry. 

One more positive thing: everyone is very friendly towards my (sometimes) noisy six year old..

Stateroom 10087. If you get it, grab it. 

Gigantic balcony.

The rest of Spendida is rather "meh", but that balcony is awesome!

My wife and son is very pleased with the onboard pastry.

I am currently on Spendida with my 6 years old and wife. We joined from Istanbul. 

This is so far my least pleasant cruise experience..

Here is why (for now):

- Embarking in Istanbul was unorganized,  and it was very few signs from MSC in the harbour. Sad, since the port area is one of the most beautiful cruise ports I been to.

- Food. You get food. You dont leave hungry, but the quality is not very good. It lacks TASTE. The pizza is of course good, but you cant live on pizza for a whole 9 night long cruise.. The worst with this is that we are not very picky when it comes to food - believe it or not.

- Understaffed and stressed. Crew seems tired,  waiters keep forgetting parts of our ordens in MDR. Service is slower than on any other MSC cruise we been to..

- Sooo many russians. So many! You could almost rename the ship MSC Moscow! Last point is not only MSCs fault though. (Yeah,  I got an issue with ruzzians because of the Ukraine war..)

- Spendida starts to look tired. Poor old lady.. 

- Pools are very cold. Basically nobody uses them. (I am Norwegian. Im used to cold stuff...)

We got a new cruise with MSC coming up from Barcelona in October, and at this point I consider to cancel it. I would lose 800 EUR in deposits, but it would maybe be okay... Small price to pay based on this experience so far.

So all in all: cruising? Well.. more like a very good ferry ride..

(Im diamond/black, so its not my first experience with MSC).

6 hours ago, phissy said:

Same thing is happening in Greece. Limiting number of ships in ports.

Locals are "so over" the tourists taking over towns and leaving trash and mess behind when they leave.

Can confirm this. Cruise tourists are very unpopular in Norway now. Locals in the fjords got fed up with tourists peeing and pooping in their gardens, and cruise ships pumping out loads of pollutions..

Its a issue that both the local authorities and the cruise industry need to share the blame for.

Many of the small places that is being visited by cruise ships is basically too small for it. For example Geiranger: 230 people lives there, and each year the place gets more than 700 000 tourists.. Its not sustainable. 

We did a status match for our son (now 6). He was (is) Diamond with Royal Caribbean, and got Black (Diamond) with MSC.

Thanks! And thanks for the review so far!

Going on Splendida from Instabul in May, and must admit Im a bit worried for amount of russian passengers..

Lots of russians on your sailing?

When I started cruising in 2009, I bought a tux. I been using it on two cruises. Both with Celebrity.

Would never put on a tux on a MSC ship, not in YC either.

Cruising has changed a lot, and the more mainstream it has turned the less formal it develops. Thankfully!

Cruising on mainstream cruise lines as MSC is now often a more economical choice than a landbased vacation with AI.

Thanks for the answers!

Someone know if it is possible to connect an gaming consol (Nintendo Switch) to the stateroom TV? 

(We will be in a YC stateroom if that makes any difference)

Thanks in advance for answers! 

In our cruise docs its stated as following: "Your embarkation time: 11:00"

I believe one word in particular is important when it comes to MSC Cruises compared to other cruise lines. It is expectation. 

What you should and can expect from MSC Cruises.

Lets start with the obvious: MSC Cruises is not and will not be a luxury cruise line. It is not in the top level of the mainstream cruise lines either. Yacht Club is good, but it is not 5 star that either. It is good, but not top level.

And the price reflects that. You get what you pay for, and in my honest opinion: A little bit more.

MSC Cruises is good, but it is a mid level mainstream cruise line.

I got 2 MSC cruises under my belt, and got one more coming up now for easter. As a European family with a young child, MSC is a good product for us.

Expectations. 

This is my review. Pre Covid19 though.. 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=637706

So I really need to turn into an ass to get banned, right? I want my account deleted, not changed. 

How can I delete my user account?

On 1/15/2021 at 4:23 PM, Host Carolyn said:

This isn't about MSC but will leave as long as it doesn't get political!!!  Vaccination will hopefully lead to cruising starting up so that's my stretch for leeaving. So please no political stuff...😏

Sad to see that this forum now allows threads like this.

We had a good run CruiseCritic. Im out.

Has MSC developed a vaccine) ?

1 minute ago, korpo024 said:

OMG...really????

OMG... YES!!!

(I won btw..)

27 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page. 

Look for "Vilkår og betingelser" and click the "+". 

 

The information is there. You claim that is wasn't when you booked.

 

The information that states...

 

"Shipboard credit does not apply to MSC Voyagers Club members under 18 years old."

 

...has been a part of the Voyagers Club Terms & Conditions for at least 5 years (looking at the pdf that I have). 

 

 

You weren't mislead. You chose to not read all of the available information. The other cruise lines have terms and conditions, too. Read and understand the terms in your future endeavors. 

You see, when you use * then it should be a * for that text it refers to. On the homepage it is not. Confusing - at best. 

14 minutes ago, cvg42 said:

and it was all about 100€/$ OBC for his 3y old son. Alone the 5%+5% reduction was 95€/$ reduction per 1000€ cost of the the booking...+ 100€/$ per adult and double points. The sky is the limit.

Yupp. All about 100 EUR x 2 (2 bookings).