macdon9876

Thanks all for the comments and tips! I've always enjoyed these boards for the commentary.

For a bit of perspective about the air:

- This was a family trip with thirteen total in our party, and was booked by a single member of our party. NCL Air was selected for the cost savings (you don't say - get what you pay for!). I agree with several who have mentioned it - travelling on our own, we always book direct with the airlines, or maybe with an agent we trust who will help if things go sideways.

- Of the thirteen, the other nine had no problems with their air, aside from a delayed flight coming home. (We were all flying to/from the same home airport.)  Our family of four were the "lucky" ones - we always had a different itinerary home than the rest, and it changed a number of times in the span of a month (I said five times, but my wife says it was actually six times).

- When I say "change" I don't just mean time changes. These were wholesale changes to the entire flights - carriers, connection cities, departure times/days, etc. In total I remember being booked variously on Frontier, Air Canada, WestJet, JetBlue and Air Transat (the last two carriers ended up getting us home - connecting through Punta Cana of all places - after a short puddle-jump flight from San Juan aboard a mostly empty JetBlue plane - that was a genuinely pleasant experience, and my first time on JetBlue... but they destroyed one of our bags!). This last flight was confirmed at around 9pm on the night before disembarkation, but even in the morning my wife couldn't check-in as it said her reservation didn't exist! (JetBlue fixed this error.)

- In the end, I think I can roll with quite a lot, but what got under our skin the most was the attitude of NCL staff we dealt with. One person was by far the worst (a shoreside employee at NCL Air), but at every step of the way indifference was the best we experienced, and rudeness and hostility were often present. How dare we ask how we should expect to fly home to Nova Scotia from San Juan after several changes, which had been happening since before we left Halifax? 🙂 

- As mentioned, I was particularly disappointed with Guest Services. While they weren't able to actively change the situation, they could have taken a much better approach with us as worried customers. There was no support or compassion about the situation at all, until the very end (the morning of disembarkation) when one GS employee spoke to us with a smile and kindness, which was such a pleasant change. Had this been our experience throughout, there is a good chance we would have looked at another cruise and chalked this up to an awful air department at NCL. (Agreed with another poster - I've read similar about Royal's air as well.)

Derek, I didn't find the hidden sun deck (or even deck 19) - darn!! I'd say next time, but no...

mking8288, we did not participate in the M&G, but I still have the dailies - can't remember if they listed officers or not. I remember that RC usually included a sheet with the officers. Daniel was the CD.

Interesting comment re: hours of work, though they seemed to be going morning until late evening in our corridor. Interestingly, ours was the only deck not opened on time on the first day - it took about another 30-45 minutes for them to finish our hallway cabins after they made the all-call that cabins were open. Perhaps they were short-staffed? In any event, agree - at least two or three times I just asked our steward for fresh towels and told her not to bother with the room. We keep a tidy cabin regardless.

We just returned from our fifth cruise, and our first on NCL aboard the Epic (sail date March 12th). I have a feeling that Epic was not the best ship introduction to NCL, but using Cruise Air sealed the deal for this being the worst cruise experience we've had...

I usually do an in-depth review but we returned and went straight back to work during a busy time of our year, so a lengthy review may come later. For now, some highlights and opinions:

The Good

- We loved the itinerary (Southern Caribbean). We visited Aruba, Curacao, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Kitts (this last port was a return visit for us). We didn't get off the ship in Grenada but the other ports were wonderful, with the exception of St Lucia. Don't get me wrong - it is a stunningly beautiful island - but the port was extremely jammed with two ships, and the aggressive driving during our van tour gave several in our party motion sickness.

- The staterooms have an entry in each category (Good, Bad, Ugly). What I loved about the cabin included:

• the clever storage in various places around the room, especially the drawers tucked under the sofa and the headboard storage pockets and lights;
• the shower was a nice size;
• the lighting was nicely designed and practical;
• the balcony seemed larger than average (but that might be my imagination).

- The buffet, we found, had tasty, fresh, hot, and well-presented food, and we didn't find it overly difficult to navigate except on the busiest days (perhaps the worst day was the morning of disembarkation, but I've found that to be true on all five cruises we've taken). The options didn't change much throughout the cruise, however.

- Getting on and off the ship was about as easy as we've experienced - lines moved fast and security was a breeze.

- Our fellow passengers were amazing! We found it to be a very friendly ship, little in the way of impatience, rudeness, cutting lines, etc. It was also a well-balanced cruise in our view: lots of families, a smattering of teens and college kids, with couples and seniors mixed in. We had been worried about college kids overwhelming the cruise (our last cruise in March was aboard Indy - a five-day out of Fort Lauderdale - and it was a party ship). Not the case this time.

- The staff were mostly friendly, with the notable exception of Guest Services. Our steward was friendly enough but not as personable as stewards on past cruises. This may be due to the apparent recent change to their workload. The lifeguards were particularly great with our kids during their evening swims.

- The pools and waterslides were well-enjoyed by the kids in our group, though all said that the bowl slide was easy to get stuck in with the tubes.

- The music offerings were great! The pool-side cover band was excellent, and we enjoyed the Elton John tribute trio (quirky but fun, though the first show is better).

- The "Free at Sea" offerings were pretty good overall, especially the photos - we were very pleased.

The Bad

- The staterooms seemed SMALL! My gosh, it's hard to believe that balcony cabins could get tighter than we experienced on past ships, and perhaps by the numbers they're about the same (not sure, haven't checked), but it was a small room to get around in.

- The beds were so short that my wife, who is 5' 4" tall, says that her feel dangled off the end. I'm nearly 6' tall, but I tend to bend my knees when I sleep so not as much of an issue, but still...

- The ship, I found, is difficult to navigate. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to access deck 5 without going through the casino from our cabin! Lots of dead ends and odd design choices. I was disappointed in the promenade deck, a favourite of mine when we cruise. The Epic's promenade is blocked by emergency life boats and only goes along the sides of the ship, not around the bow or stern.

- The pools seemed to be small given the number of passengers; however, they were not busy at night which was a nice time for our kids to swim.

- Likewise, we found the popular shows to be very hard to get into (e.g. Howl at the Moon was always jam-packed).

- On past cruises (except Indy on Spring Break) we were always able to find a quiet bar. Not so on Epic, except for Spice H20 in the evening - but it was a smoking area so not a great place for us non-smokers to hang out. The bar staff there were great!

- The smoking area at the pool is oddly located, right next to the area where parents sit to supervise their kids in the pool.

- There weren't enough places for the kids to get smoothies.

- We found O'Sheehan's to be "meh" for the one supper we had there, but we didn't get breakfast there.

- We tend to disconnect during our cruises (intentionally). However, when we connected to Wifi every few days to message family at home, it was quite poor. We were using the free 250 minute Wifi promo. Very slow and unreliable.

The Ugly

- Yes, the bathroom situation is stupid. If you don't know, Google it. Very impractical and such an odd, odd design choice. Having your cabin entryway convert to your bathroom just doesn't work well.

- Cruise Air, and by extension for poor immediate support, Guest Relations on the ship. Much has been written about Cruise Air. It was, without a doubt, the worst travel and customer service experience we've ever had, and this was the reason our party of thirteen family members did not book another cruise with NCL. Without going into lengthy detail, I will say that if you're considering booking air travel with NCL - DON'T!! Any cost savings won't be worth it if things go wrong. Our return air travel changed FIVE TIMES, including THREE TIMES in the last two days while on the ship (we discovered on day 5 that we had no flights home - this was not communicated to us in any way). It caused enormous stress and took hours of our time to resolve.

I eventually dealt with a member of Guest Services who was somewhat helpful, and I also realize that their ability to provide immediate support or resolution is limited or impossible (their shoreside staff in Miami apparently need to do it all), but they could have taken a better and more supportive tone and approach with clearly distraught customers. Repeated requests to speak with a supervisor/management were denied.

- Our impression is that the reported staff cutbacks, especially with the room stewards, was noticeable and very uncomfortable. Our steward often had not attended our cabin by 4 or 5pm when we returned from port. To be clear, this is not a criticism of the steward - she worked all day on the two days we stayed on the ship (sea day and Grenada). 

To conclude, we're sad and disappointed. Norwegian was a line I was really looking forward to trying, and the vibe from fellow passengers was so nice that I wanted to return. However, the ship design, the service, and especially the lack of caring or support with the air bookings made it very unlikely that we'll book an NCL cruise anytime soon.

We're taking a southern cruise from San Juan next month aboard Epic (first time on NCL). We're getting very excited for our first cruise since 2018!

We're travelling with extended family, and the group decided to use NCL's air program (which I've since read was probably a mistake, and our experience so far has been concerning - our return flight has changed three times so far). Our flights down (the day before the cruise) are decent and our extended family is all together on the way down. However, our family of four's flights home are separate from the others, and we don't fly until close to midnight on disembarkation day. (It will be a LONG night and day of travel - we're scheduled to land at our home airport at around 4pm the following day.)  This is with an 11- and 13-year-old, so not too young thankfully. I'd hate to do this with kids any younger!

We've considered various options for disembarkation day: trying to find a whole-day tour; renting a car; finding a hotel day pass; etc.  If anyone has experience in this type of situation I'd love to hear opinions. The biggest problem is our luggage - we don't want to haul that around all day.

Another option we're considering is finding a hotel in San Juan, close to or on a beach, which offers early check-in. We'd then at least have a "home base" for the day, and we could use the hotel room, enjoy the beach and wander a bit, eat supper, and then be able to shower and maybe take a snooze in the early evening before heading to SJU late evening to check in for the flight.

Thanks for any suggestions and tips! We've been to San Juan several times but only as a port of call, so not very familiar with the city, beaches, hotels, etc.

Thanks all for the comments. Lots to consider.

During our spring break cruise on Indy a few years ago, my wife and I made the most of it and enjoyed ourselves, but also decided that we would likely avoid March cruises in the future.

This one is being considered only because our school March Break is the most convenient time for everyone in our party. However, with a bunch of cousins (kids) in the mix, our worry is that the college kids would take over the pools and rec areas, etc. That was certainly what happened on Indy… the pools were packed solid with the students.

I appreciate the replies! 

Several years ago my wife and I took a 5-day cruise from Florida in the middle of March. In Canada this is the typical timeframe for public school spring breaks, but not university breaks. We didn’t realize that mid-March IS high season for American college spring breaks. We had a good cruise but the ship was definitely overrun with college kids.

We are now looking at a southern cruise from San Juan, during that same mid-March school break period in 2023. This would be a 7-day cruise. It would be a family cruise with our own kids and extended family.

Can anyone comment on how heavy the college spring break crowd is on ships from San Juan? We’re looking at Norwegian Epic if that matters.

Thanks for any comments!

Yes but if like OP you split the kids and take two rooms you don't benefit from this. On Seaside you can book a suite for 4 for about the same price as two interior rooms. Which is preferable depends on family preference and age and size of kids.

Yes, we felt that we wanted to do separate rooms for this cruise - four in a cabin for a week last time was a bit tight, to say the least. We didn't feel they were old enough yet to have a room across the hall - that's another trick I've read about when travelling with older kids and teens: the parents have the balcony and the kids have the interior room across the hall to save a few bucks! :D

Also, does MSC still do Kids Sail Free in the summer? Ours sailed for free on Divina two years ago in the summer, but for some reason I had thought MSC changed this promotion to off-peak times of the year.

Addition

Three things I forgot to mention in the review:

Zip line: Much to my disappointment, I didn't get a chance to try the zip line! I tried three times: once it was during closed hours (I went up on a lark while we were on deck 18, without previously looking at the program), and the other two times I went, during listed opening hours, only to find it closed due to wind. We didn't see many people using the zip line - I can only think of three or four times when I noticed it being used.

4D Cinema: My wife and I used this once, late in the week. It was a really cool experience, albeit too short for the $10 pp charge. You go into a small, single-row theatre with chairs that move and wind blowing in your face. The movie is 3D point-of-view, and it is a zombie theme: you use toy guns (think elaborate versions of those old Nintendo duck hunt guns) to shoot the zombies. It's neat in that the chairs move along with the movie - the car rolls down a hill and the chairs are bumping and twisting beneath you, with wind in your face, etc. I'd like to see the experience last longer and/or be cheaper.

Arcade: Seaside does not have any significant arcade: two video games, an air hockey table, and a claw game are the four machines I can think of. Our boys were a bit disappointed in this. We aren't the type to allow our kids to spend a lot of money at the arcade, but on Divina it was a welcome attraction for them to pass a few minutes on a long sea day. My older son and I enjoyed a couple rounds of air hockey, and he used one of the ride-on video games for a few minutes.

We just returned from our fourth cruise, this time aboard MSC Seaside (August 11th to 18th sailing – Western Caribbean). My wife and I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this cruise throughout the week, trying to pin down how we feel about the Seaside and MSC in general, given our limited but growing cruising experience.

To help with context: we’ve sailed twice on Royal Caribbean (both times on Independence of the Seas), and once on MSC Divina two years ago. The Royal cruises were both “getaway” cruises for us (no kids), whereas both MSC cruises were with our two sons, and our parents (her parents last time on Divina, and mine on this cruise).

I think, to sum up our Seaside experience, we’d conclude that the ship – while beautiful and with many good points – has too many people, has some poor design and logistic elements, and the crew seemed drained and overworked (even for a cruise ship), although still professional and efficient.

I also think my wife and I, given a choice, will begin to gravitate back to Royal Caribbean for a number of reasons, although we feel we ought to try some other brands as well depending on the purpose of our cruise. Celebrity is one that is of particular interest to us as a couple, and we wonder if we ought to give Carnival a try with the kids. I’m not sure that MSC will be our first choice in the future, but we may consider a different, smaller ship like Divina.

We selected Seaside specifically with our kids in mind, so much of this review will be through that lens. We did consider how we’d feel about the ship if we sailed on her as a couple, and I’ll sprinkle these thoughts in here and there.

This is a long one. It is organized into categories for those who want to read about specific topics. I’m happy to try to answer any questions.

– FLIGHT / PRE-CRUISE HOTEL –

We flew into FLL the day before our cruise and rented a van to drive to Miami, where we stayed at the Hampton Inn Airport South Blue Lagoon. For our party of six, the van rental ended up being cheaper than the shuttles we would have needed (airport à hotel, then hotel à port), and we liked the freedom the van gave us to explore a bit on the Friday evening.

The Hampton was good – clean, comfortable, decent free breakfast buffet (although I’ve had better at other Hamptons). It was close to grocery, pharmacies and restaurants, and had a good pool and free parking. It was a quick and easy drive to MIA to return our vehicle in the morning, and then we took Alamo’s free shuttle to the port.

– EMBARKATION –

After returning the van, we arrived at the port at around 11:45. I was expecting a lot of people (especially seeing the crowds as we drove past the Carnival terminals), but as we pulled up to the MSC terminal we were surprised to see sparse crowds and idle porters – our shuttle driver literally handed our bags to a porter directly from the bus!

Security and check-in were both quick and easy, and we were standing in the Atrium of the ship before noon.

We ate lunch at the buffet, then explored the ship for a while before our cabins opened at 2pm. Our boys had brought their swimming gear and were in the pool by 1:30, and we joined them after checking out our cabin and grabbing towels.

TIP: Others here have suggested dealing with the waterslide paperwork and bracelet on the first day, and this is excellent advice. We found the guy set up between the Jungle Pool and Aqua Adventure Park, close to where the tube slide ejects / ends. There was one family ahead of me in line. The next day – the first sea day – the line to get a bracelet was long for much of the day.

– CABINS –

Our party had three adjacent balcony (Fantastica) cabins, midship on deck 14: two connecting cabins, and an additional unconnected cabin. These were not the “super family” cabins (three connecting rooms).

Others have said it and I agree: these cabins are TIGHT for space. It was adequate for us, since my wife and I were in one and our boys in the other, but we would have been very challenged for storage space had the four of us been in a single cabin.

The bathroom design is another space that wasn’t well thought out, in my opinion. The toilet position is awkward, and I found the shower is very tight to get around in.

During online check-in we had requested that the beds in one room be separated; this wasn’t done on arrival but our cabin steward did it quickly upon our request. We also asked him to empty the minibar in the boys’ room, which he also did with no problem. (I bring this up this because, on one of our cruises – I can’t remember which one – the steward refused to empty the minibar.)

TIP: We asked the steward to open the balcony dividers, but he wouldn’t do it, citing safety regulations. He said we had to go through guest services. My wife went down to the desk on embarkation afternoon and they agreed to open the dividers without any hassle, but it didn’t end up happening until the evening of the second day of the cruise (after a second call to guest services). Two years ago, the steward on Divina opened them himself, immediately upon our request, so this is an apparent change in policy on Seaside, as others have reported.

TIP: The connecting doors in the cabins have no latch to hold them open – in fact, the closer mechanism on the doors is quite strong (if you let go of the door it will slam closed). Our steward supplied us with door stops to keep the doors open, although they didn’t work all that well. I’d suggest bringing decent door stops if you have connecting rooms and want to keep the doors open.

– POOLS, SLIDES, WATER PARK –

As mentioned earlier, we selected Seaside with our boys in mind, and the slides and water park (Aqua Adventure Park) were a major factor in our decision.

The area is well designed, except for a lack of seating for parents who don’t want to get wet. We were often in the water with our kids, but on those occasions when we didn’t want to go in, we had to stand around the water park area.

The boys loved the slides and water park. The park has various sprayers, water bucket dumpers, and other fun. The slides are fast and the crew do an adequate job keeping the kids in order – whistle blasts were heard fairly often, and we saw unruly kids (and teens) being asked to leave pools and slides more than once.

The pool we liked most was the Jungle Pool, adjacent to the water park. It usually wasn’t too busy and kids were often found in this pool, but they do need to know how to swim – the pool is around 6’ deep with no shallow end. It is also salt water, which we all found irritating to our eyes. We live on the east coast of Canada and we are no strangers to swimming in the (much colder) North Atlantic, so we don’t know why this water bothered us as much as it did.

CRITICISM: Both the Jungle Pool, and especially the Aqua Adventure Park (slides and splash pads), lack seating and loungers. There are plenty of loungers around the Jungle Pool, but only a dozen or so allow you to see your kids in the water – the views from the rest are partially or entirely blocked with landscaping decoration. Our kids are still young enough that we want to see them in the water, and when we weren’t swimming with them it was a crapshoot as to whether we’d be able to find a lounger with a view of the pool.

The opening hours of the Aqua Adventure Park (including the slides) was also frustrating. The park opened at 10am on sea days, and noon on port days. Oddly, all the water was running in these areas as early as 7am from what I noticed. Our boys are early risers – most days we were ready and swimming by 8:30.

On the first sea day of the cruise we hadn’t checked the opening hours, so my boys were in the splash area (which was in full swing) with some other kids at around 9am, but they were chased out by an unfriendly officer who seemed to be in charge of the pools. There were caution cones on the steps leading to the splash pool, but we didn’t clue in to the fact that yellow caution cones in a wet area of the ship meant “closed”, especially since the ledge to the splash pool is low and easily climbed over – which is exactly how our boys entered the area. The next day I noticed that they added straps to make it more obvious that entry was blocked.

– DINING & DRINKS –

Buffet & MDR:

We ate most of our meals in the buffet on deck 8. There are two buffets: one on deck 8 and the other on deck 16. The one on deck 16 is much smaller – essentially just a single counter that spans the width of the ship – and we found it was crazy whenever we ate there. The deck 8 buffet was much larger, but was also very busy.

I now completely understand why it was such a problem having the deck 16 buffet as the main supper buffet in the early days of Seaside (when they used the deck 8 buffet as an overflow MDR space). It is way too small to be the main buffet for any meal, let alone supper!!

The food was good. Usually nothing to write home about, and the selection was very similar each day. We ate well and never went hungry!

We dined in the MDR twice: once on the first formal night (day 2), and then on the final night of the cruise. Our waiter was friendly, but seemed annoyed that we didn’t dine there each night. He made a comment about it on the first evening, and then seemed somewhat perturbed about our presence on the last night. Perhaps he was just having an off night or was tired from the week. There are three seatings for supper on Seaside and it must be a big job to turn over the dining room for that many people. On that point: we found that the atmosphere in the MDR lacked the relaxed pace of dining we experienced on other ships. We weren’t exactly rushed, but we felt aware that we had to get in and out in a certain time frame. (We had the second of three seatings – 7:15.)

CRITICISM: We found the show times didn’t align well with the dining times. For instance, the show times were 6:45, 8:00 and 9:15, while our dining time was 7:15. If we wanted to go to the early show, we’d be rushed to get to supper on time. 8:00 wasn’t an option if we were dining, leaving the late show as the best option. We did go to the early show on the final night of the cruise and arrived at the MDR about ten minutes late (along with a number of other guests entering with us from the show). Seaside or MSC management may wish to consider better aligning the dining and showtimes.

PRAISE: The Mealtime Beverage Package worked well for us, and especially for my parents. This allowed for free wine, beer, soda and fruit drinks at meals, both in the MDR and buffet. My parents are wine drinkers and they would sometimes have a glass with lunch and at least one at supper, often taking another glass with them as they left. For this reason they just barely managed to get through their cocktail drink tickets by the end of the cruise!

TIP: There are call buttons for drink service on the buffet tables. We found it took a very long time to get drink service using these buttons. On deck 8, just going to the buffet bar directly was quicker and easier.

Specialty Dining:

My wife and I ate at one specialty restaurant on this cruise: the Bistrot la Bohème on deck 8. It was odd in that the tables are set up in what is essentially the corridor. The food was good – again, nothing to write home about, but a nice change from the buffet line with the kids, and the waiter was one of the friendliest crew members we interacted with. That alone, plus the quiet atmosphere, was worth the $15pp fee.

Water was free in the MDR and in the buffet, of course. At the specialty restaurant we had to pay for water with our meal.

There were crew members constantly circling around the ship throughout the week, pushing the specialty dining. I wonder if the fee-based restaurants on Seaside are struggling. The bistro we dined in was hardly ever busy: the night we ate there, perhaps three other tables were occupied.

Drinks / Bars:

Bar service was hit-or-miss, and the drinks themselves could also be hit-or-miss. We both found bar staff that we liked and we tried to go to as often as possible, and our habit of tipping $1 per drink for good service (NOT automatically) helped get us noticed in a crowd. My preference was a waitress in the Sports Bar on deck 8, while my wife liked a bartender at the Seaside Bar on deck 5.

When we got drinks from bar staff other than the two we liked, the consistency varied wildly from bar to bar, even for the exact same drink.

The OJ mix they used in some cocktails had an odd flavour – perhaps best compared to Tang flavoured drink. It took away from the enjoyment of drinks that use OJ as a mixer.

TIP: If you like frozen drinks like strawberry daiquiris or pina coladas (or the Miami Vice – a mix of the two – yum!) go to the Jungle Pool bar on deck 18. They have those slushy machines that you see in convenience stores: one each dedicated to strawberry daiquiri and pina colada mix. Very nice and consistent flavour and texture. They add alcohol for adults and keep it virgin for the kiddos.

Other / Misc:

We did not specifically order room service on this ship – a first for us, as we usually enjoy a room service lunch at least once on a cruise.

We did, however, order a “Romantic Sunrise” breakfast package online before we sailed. This was supposed to include pastries, fruit, freshly squeezed OJ and two MSC-logoed flutes we could take home. “Flutes” is the term MSC uses – this is important for this story.

There was no info about this package in our cabin, so I went to guest services with my paperwork to ask. No problem, they said, and asked what day we wanted – we opted for the second sea day, or day 5 of the cruise, at 7am.

The time change happened between days 4 and 5, and we forgot about the delivery, so the poor guy was knocking on our door at 7am sharp (which felt like 6am for us due to the time change), but he was professional as he brought in our food while I stumbled around, half-awake, looking for a tip.

This is where MSC’s attention to detail was a bit lacking. We encountered minor things like this several times during the week:

- The OJ was not freshly squeezed, but rather the same as in the machines at the buffet.

- The glasses were plain juice glasses, not MSC flutes.

The reason we ordered the package at $19 was for the glasses and fresh OJ. The other food we could have had, for free, from the buffet or room service.

We enjoyed the food regardless, then I went to guest services to sort it out. They apologized and said they’d send the two flutes and fresh OJ right away.

By the time I returned to the cabin, a delivery had indeed been made: two more trays of FRUIT, but no FLUTES. I kid you not.

I called back down to guest services, who again apologized and said they’d made it right. Soon after, I received a call from the food services supervisor, who apologized and said the delivery was on its way.

Five minutes later the flutes arrived (quite nice – we like souvenir glassware from ships).

The fresh OJ never did arrive and we opted to not pursue it.

– PORTS –

We visited the same ports as our Divina cruise two years ago: Ocho Rios, Georgetown (Grand Cayman), Cozumel, and Nassau.

Ocho Rios:

We went to Dunn River Falls last time, so for this visit we decided to visit the Green Grotto Caves and the Turtle River Falls & Gardens (formally Enchanted Gardens). We booked through Yardie Tours, highly reviewed on TripAdvisor. The tour price included admission to the sites.

Neither attraction was very busy, but both were well worth the visit. The caves were very cool – our boys enjoyed the experience and the tour lasted for about 40-45 minutes. Our guide was excellent and entertaining. The cave system is very warm and humid – not cool as you’d expect caves to be.

The Turtle River Falls & Gardens is a hidden gem. Again – not busy at all. While you can’t climb the entire falls system as you can at Dunn River, you’re still able to go into the water and climb small sections of the falls along the way. The guided tour also includes a visit to an aviary where they have birds eat from your hand, a macaw sits on your shoulder and head, etc. The guide here was also excellent and very friendly.

The one odd part about the Turtle River Falls is that it is apparently a former resort (Enchanted Gardens), and so there are a number of buildings in various stages of decay on the property. The reason for the abandonment wasn’t well explained and some people might find it off-putting, but we didn’t feel unsafe.

We were talked into visiting the Taj Mahal shopping area on our way back to the ship. When we arrived I realized it was the exact same shopping area we went to during our last visit to Ocho Rios (we used another tour company last time – Peat Taylor Tours). The store staff clearly seem to be in cahoots with the tour guides – perhaps they are even owned by the same people. We’ll know better next time.

In truth, “running the gauntlet” in all of these ports is becoming tiring, especially since the stuff is all so similar. We’d like to try to find more authentic markets in the future.

Grand Cayman:

Based on advice from Cruise Critic, we opted to use the public bus system to visit Public Beach along 7-Mile Beach. We started walking along the main road, and before long we heard the beep from the public bus/van. $2.50 each set us on our way, and the friendly driver chatted with us about the island as we travelled along.

We spent about 90 minutes at the beach – lovely place. There were showers and facilities available, as well as snorkel, beach toys, umbrellas and chairs to rent. No pushy vendors at all.

Our return journey was just as easy – the bus stopped across the street from the beach – although they brought us to the bus depot a few blocks away from the port. It was easy to find our way back to the pier, shopping a bit along the way.

Cozumel:

This was our third visit to Cozumel and we again used Tours Plaza, who we highly recommend. It is a “driver for the day” service, and he’ll help arrange the day however you wish. Admissions to sites are not included, however. My mother wanted to see the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio, then we drove along the back side of the island to El Mirador, then onward to the city for lunch at La Choza. We skipped the beach on this tour.

Nassau:

We decided to visit the Pirates of Nassau Museum with our boys. It was expensive for what it is, in my opinion. The experience is well designed, but quite short. There is also a portion of the tour where surgery on a pirate ship is depicted. The scene itself isn’t overly gory, but there is a sound effect that repeats which my seven-year-old didn’t like at all.

From the museum we walked to Junkanoo Beach for a quick stop, and then swung by the straw market on our way back to enjoy the quiet ship for the afternoon.

Nassau was the most aggressive port we visited in terms of vendors and taxi drivers pushing us for a sale. It never seemed to end, even at street level at the stores, away from the pier itself. At the beach we were asked by no fewer than five people within two minutes if we wanted an umbrella and chairs.

– ENTERTAINMENT –

We saw three shows, and they were all excellent in terms of production and visual effects. Much like Divina, the storylines were somewhat ambiguous, likely due to the many languages of the passengers.

My wife and I felt that the entertainment options throughout the day were limited – even had we been sailing as a couple, we would have found it hard to keep busy throughout the day, whereas on Royal Caribbean we found that there was plenty to do.

The entertainment staff were hit-or-miss, but none were awful. We won trivia at one point and the crew member told us a prize was on its way to our cabin, but nothing ever arrived. On another day, we were on deck with our kids and a dance song was playing so we danced around together, and two entertainment staff joined us and danced with the boys, then we all took a selfie at their suggestion which was a nice interaction.

The 70s party was fun, although Royal does it better (at least on Indy). The Atrium space is a bit odd in terms of hosting large parties on the ship.

There were two gala nights on the second and sixth days of the cruise. We dressed for the first one and did smart casual for the second. Most people seemed dressed nice, although perhaps not as formal as suits, etc. There were still a few shorts and t-shirts in the dining room - to each their own.

White Night, on the other hand, seemed to be the main event on this ship. People were dressed in beautiful white clothing; some of the outfits were very formal and elegant. It really felt that White Night took the place of the gala nights in terms of the "buzz" on the ship.

– FELLOW PASSENGERS –

I'd estimate that the vast majority of passengers hailed from other parts of the world beyond North America.

It was very interesting to meet and interact with people from countries far and wide. We learned a bit about various countries and cultures from passengers we chatted with. At times there was a language barrier, but it usually didn’t get in the way. I was often envious of those who are multilingual. My wife speaks English and French, but I only know English.

When I wrote a review for Divina I described fellow passengers as “assertive”. I’ll double-down on that description for the passengers on Seaside, but I think it also may be due to the ship having too many passengers for the design and space on the ship.

I’ve read many times that a cultural norm in parts of Europe allows for a different type of order in terms of lines, cutting in front of others, etc. It isn’t considered rude, but rather just the way it is. For this reason, I’m exercising caution in this review and I’m reluctant to describe this type of behaviour as rude, but at the same time it is something to be aware of.

The best way I can describe it is this way: in crowded public places, there is often a natural “ebb and flow” of movement that most people seem to understand, with exceptions of course. That seemed to be missing on Seaside. I actually noticed it when we were flying home: connecting through the busy Toronto airport (YYZ) was a breeze after the week on Seaside, since that “ebb and flow” was present, at least to a degree, in the airport (of all places!!).

– DISEMBARKATION –

We had a mid-afternoon flight, which was an awkward time: we didn’t want to wait on the ship, but there wasn’t much time to do anything. We opted to rent a van again and spend sometime exploring Fort Lauderdale before flying.

For this reason, we decided to do the self-assist disembarkation. Our TA suggested we line up at 6:30 and that was good advice: the line was fairly long when we arrived, and by 7am it snaked well past us.

Oddly, on the morning of disembarkation, we didn’t have an invoice on either cabin door. I called down to guest services and they said it was due to us still having a small amount of non-refundable OBC remaining on our account, so we didn’t owe anything. Sweet!

The line started moving shortly after 7am. It was a quick and easy process to exit the ship and get through customs. We picked up the free Alamo shuttle at the pier for the return to MIA for our van rental, and then enjoyed the morning exploring Fort Lauderdale before flying home from that airport.

Our journey home was supposed to have taken eight hours, but it turned into a fourteen-hour ordeal –we arrived home at around 4am the next day, having been awake for almost 24 hours. But, that is a story for another forum!

– INTERNET, DRINK COUPONS, SERVICE –

When we booked we had a certain internet package included, which has since changed. When we activated the internet on the ship we were given 3GB in each cabin, and it said we could hook up two devices (although we only used one device for each cabin account). The internet worked fairly well, and I found the app easy to use. The activation is a bit odd: you create an account in the app, and then create a second, different account for the internet. As others have said, remember to go into the app to start and stop your wifi session each time.

We each received the 12 drink coupons (alcohol for us, non-alcohol for the kids). This was on top of the previously mentioned Mealtime Drink Package. The tickets worked well: bartenders took the coupons and filled our orders. They did need to scan our cards but we didn’t need to sign. My wife and I used all 24 adult drink coupons, but we came home with about 14 non-alcoholic drink coupons.

Service on the ship was mostly efficient and professional, although not overly friendly. Our cabin steward attended to our needs very well. Guest services was fine when I dealt with them, although my mother left very angry when she felt ridiculed by a guest services member after asking a question about how to access the internet. I will say that few of the crew seemed overly happy, and there was a sense of fatigue or wariness among several crew.

– CRUISE MISCELLANY –

The best new item I brought on this cruise: a small LED light that has a magnet on the back. It allowed me to get up in the dark without having to turn on a room light, thus causing less disturbance for my wife as she slept. It attached to the wall beside the bed, and I could snap it to the cabin ceiling to create a spotlight.

What I'll stop bringing on cruises: I haven't used a highlighter yet, although they're easy to pack. On this ship a power adapter was not necessary, but we don't bring or use a lot of electronics on a cruise.

– FINAL THOUGHTS –

We’ve taken four cruises now. My wife and I asked each other where we’d rank this one, and it is hard to say.

This ship was much better for our boys compared to Divina, although the relatively limited hours of the water park and slides was a bit of a surprise. Perhaps that is normal on ships – any comments on this point would be appreciated. They could live in water, though, and the Jungle Pool was a frequent venue for us.

Our youngest really enjoyed the Kids’ Club, but our oldest wasn’t a fan. The age band was 7 to 11 years old, which at first we liked – it allowed our boys to be in the same club. As it turned out, however, the kids skewed to the young end, leaving our 9-year-old with a bunch of younger kids to play with. They went to the club three times, each time for about 60-90 minutes. I’m sure our 7-year-old would have gone more frequently, but he adores his older brother and didn’t want to be away from him for long.

All in all, it was a good cruise but not a great cruise, and the little irritations started to pileup over the week. Every cruise requires that you take things in stride, and we did. We do think, however, that Royal might do a better job with the customer experience, logistics, ship design, and overall cruise organization. Having said that, a smaller MSC ship might still appeal to use at some point in the future.

Just back from Seaside, August 11th to 18th.

The two elegant nights were a mixed bag. The first one (day 2 of cruise) seemed to have more participation than the second (day 6 of the cruise). This is true for us as well: we dressed up for the first elegant night, then wore smart casual for the second.

White Night seemed, to our eyes, to be a MUCH bigger deal than the elegant nights. This really surprised us as it was a different experience from our other cruises. In some sense, white night seemed to be another elegant night, given the beautiful clothing many people were dressed in.

They had a pirate-themed night on the last cruise day (Nassau), although few people were dressed in any themed costumes aside from a few kids. Likewise, we attended the 70s party and we didn't see much in the way of themed dress, aside from the crew.

Not an answer to your question, but would also like to hear of recent experience on Seaside (sister ship to Seaview) regarding balcony dividers.

We sailed on Divina in 2016 (two adjoining cabins) and they had no problem opening the dividers for the entire cruise. This time on Seaside we have three adjoining cabins - hoping to have the dividers open again.

• Things that I recommend doing right away:
  
  • use key card of the person who has VIP package listed in their name to take the embarkation photo.
    
  • Go to photo center and pick up VIP photo card. Always use that card or the key of the main person with the photographers so you won't have to go back to the photo booth to transfer photos.
    
  • Go to the atrium to get the kids club bracelets, because those also work as room keys for them. If you want to add GPS tracking to them, it costs $18 each, and you have to do that upstairs at Doremi. (We didn't.) Note: the kids club is not open for drop-off at all the first day/night.
    
  • Go to the casino for a kiosk to link your credit card to your room card. Even if you are not going to give your kids charging privileges, make sure that you check the boxes by their names to link them to your CC.
    

Thanks for the detailed review! Sorry for reviving this old thread. I've done several searches but can't find answers to the few questions I have, so perhaps you can help.

We have a similar situation - not the official Super Family cabins, but simply two connecting cabins, and the grandparents will be in an unconnected third cabin next door. We plan to put the kids in one room, and my wife and I in the other (although we had to book one adult and one child in each room officially).

- I had been wondering how the VIP photo package works. It is now listed at $149 on the MSC site, so perhaps I waited too long (we sail in three weeks). I'm not sure it is still as good of a deal. In any case, are you saying it doesn't matter who is in the photos, so long as the VIP photo card is used? For instance, if I bought it for the cabin under my name, could the grandparents use the VIP card for a photo of them with the grandkids and it would be included?

- Are you able to set spending limits on the child wristbands, or is it all or nothing? Also, can the wristbands be programmed to unlock a different cabin door? (As I mentioned, we had to book one adult and one child in each room, but ideally their wristbands will unlock the room they'll both actually be in.)

- Are you able to link cabin accounts? We have OBC for each cabin - do we need to spend it separately or can we link the cabins and have the credits apply to the entire combined balance?

Thanks to you (or anyone else) who might have answers!

Thanks for the reply.

MSC only offers two excursions on disembarkation day, and both require flights from MIA later in the afternoon.

We did consider staying on the ship and we may still do so, although as I understand, MSC requires guests to be out of the cabins by 7am. We figured, if we are being kicked out anyway, might as well get off the ship and find something to do!

We sail on Seaside in August with our two kids and my parents.

Our flight home is on a Saturday, from FLL at 2:30 pm, so we expect we'll want to be at the airport for noon or so.

Any suggestions on what to do the morning of disembarkation? When we sailed on Divina in 2016 we did the self disembark, and we were standing on the pier at 7am! I've read that Seaside self disembark is a bit less organized, but I'd think we'll still be off with plenty of time to spare.

Our first thought was to rent a car at MIA and drive to Fort Lauderdale, explore a state park or something, grab an early lunch, and then return the car to FLL. How much of a hassle is it to get from the Miami port to MIA to pick up a rental? We've taken the Alamo shuttle from MIA to the port - does it operate in reverse?

We also considered taking a taxi or shuttle van to FLL, store our luggage there, and then use the Fort Lauderdale trolley, but the timing doesn't seem to work well - I think it would be too tight.

Initially our flight home was later in the afternoon - closer to 4pm - but Air Canada decided to change the itinerary. 2:30 is an awkward time - too long to sit around at the airport (especially with kids), but too short to really do much in the morning.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I think personal opinions regarding the behaviour of other passengers, whether they are foreigners, children or even screaming babies, should not be included in cruise reviews. Negative interactions with other passengers are pure chance and totally beyond the control of any cruise line.

I'm on the fence about this. This post is more "thinking out loud" via my keyboard!

I'll use Spring Break as an example. We cruised during this period last year (unknowingly - we had no idea that cruising was a popular Spring Break activity, and we didn't realize that universities in the southern US have their breaks in March).

If we were to cruise again in March, I'd absolutely want to know if the Spring Break crowd was absent, or more subdued, on a given line/ship/itinerary. In fact, we won't sail again in March unless we can be relatively assured that we're selecting a ship that won't be overwhelmed with Spring Breakers. There are no guarantees in life, but you can sometimes spot trends that increase the probability of a given situation.

Discussing poor or frustrating behaviour of fellow guests in reviews can be viewed as irrelevant based on what the cruise line is able to do about it. Isolated incidents like crying babies is a good example: pure chance. However, here is a thought: if you are seeking a certain style or type of cruise, do these notes in reviews help readers form opinions about the general clientele of certain ships/lines?

Another example: if I'm sailing in the summer and want to find a line where kids are less likely to run the halls, perhaps these notes would help. If I read review after review about kids running the halls on NCL, perhaps I'll avoid booking on that line. Likewise, if Holland America notes well-behaved children and that is what I'm looking for, booking on that line might increase my chances of getting what I want out of the cruise.

It's an interesting topic, but I'll stop now - I think we've run the risk of hijacking this thread! :p

Your requirements for a pre-cruise hotel are exactly what we look for as well! We treat our pre-cruise day more as another vacation day rather than just a travel day. We usually try to stay at the Intercontinental near Bayside. But last year it was sold out, so we booked the Hampton Inn Brickell. I liked both hotels and areas, but I think I'm still partial to the IC.

...

If you have any other specific questions, let me know!

Thank you for the recommendation!

Come back and let us know what MSC says please!!!

Absolutely! I'll try contacting Blue Lagoon by phone in the next few days (I emailed earlier in the week but no reply). I've also put a bug in my travel agent's ear asking whether MSC ever adds excursions by request. I'm doubtful but who knows.

Thanks for your replies!

Blue Lagoon sounds like the best of the three and it tops our list because of the water activity area for our kids (slides and water trampoline, etc.) - the other two don't seem to have that, although Balmoral does seem to have nice beach areas. I think Balmoral would be our second choice. The concern we have with Pearl Island is that it seems quite small.

I'll try contacting them directly to see what they have to say. Perhaps MSC will eventually offer a beach day to Blue Lagoon - it is still early, I realize. We've had several winter storms lately so I've been dreaming of our summer Caribbean getaway!

We'll be on Seaside in August, and we're trying to figure out what to do in Nassau.

Last year we took the water taxi to Atlantis to walk around, and then went to Cabbage Beach for a while. We wouldn't return to Cabbage Beach.

We're torn between a resort like Melia, and one of the islands, specifically Blue Lagoon (although I think we're leaning towards Blue Lagoon).

We'll be travelling with our two boys, 9 and 7. They love the water, and the water activity zone at Blue Lagoon would be straight up their alley! One of them would also like the animal encounter, but the other wouldn't have anything to do with it! We're thinking a beach day with the toys would suit them just fine.

So, my question specifically about Blue Lagoon and Seaside:

Is it possible, or advisable, to do Blue Lagoon on our own (i.e. not a ship excursion)? I understand that we'd need to find our own way to the ferry dock on Atlantis Island.

We aren't opposed to taking a ship excursion, but currently MSC offers only two options for Blue Lagoon: an adults-only VIP experience, and a sea lion encounter that would end up costing $460 versus $228 if we just book the beach day. That's a lot of extra cash to spend for a few minutes up close and personal with a sea lion! :p

We have no problem with off-ship excursions - that is what we have done on our three past cruises. However, in this case I'm curious if it's advisable to do it independently. For instance, do the ferries run all day so we could leave in time to comfortably get back to the ship? Departure is at 4pm on our cruise.

Thanks for any advice!

Have you considered an excursion like Blue Lagoon? Won't have to worry about safety and it's an excellent beach day. I think I'd personally prefer the Melia as I like the larger resort feel and amenities but both are great options.

We were looking into the islands a bit. The three that seem to pop up are Blue Lagoon, Balmoral and Pearl islands. We may return to that idea as we sort through our options.

Thanks for your comment!

We've done two summer cruises and one March Break (Spring Break) cruise. (My wife and I are both teachers so we are limited to school breaks for our cruising.)

Here in Nova Scotia the public school breaks are in March, and the universities here have their Spring Break in February. Turns out, in Florida, most of the universities shut down during the same week in March that our public schools have their break - unbeknownst to us before we embarked on Indy!

We'll probably never do a Spring Break cruise again; or, if we do, we'll try to search for a ship or line that has less appeal to the college kids. Maybe Holland America or something. The two summer cruises were no problem for us - one as a couples cruise and the other as a family cruise.

Alcohol is the determining factor for us. When we were on Indy last March the consumption was excessive, and the behaviours were - at times - simply out of control.

There is a definite difference between young kids whose parents don't keep them reigned in, and drunk college kids. The out-of-control younger ones can be annoying, but it is a different type of annoying than loud, obnoxious, intoxicated 21-year-old adults.

I'm surprised that the lines don't market certain ships as "party ships" and market other ships as "family ships" during Spring Break. I understand that some people like to party loud and hard, while other folks don't. Why not market a few ships as the booze cruises? It might or might not work, but stricter enforcement of alcohol consumption on the non-party cruises would help!

Thank you for the comments! We'll continue to look into Melia. Did you pre-purchase or just walk up and buy the passes the same day?

We'll be visiting Nassau this summer aboard MSC Seaside with our two children and my parents (who may opt to stay on the ship in Nassau).

There are fresh travel advisories for the Bahamas, and Nassau in particular, from both the Canadian and US governments. Has anyone visited Nassau recently who would care to comment on the safety in port? The Canadian warning, in particular, seems to suggest crime targeted towards tourists in the cruise terminal areas.

I've been scouring these forums looking for things to do in Nassau. The last time we visited in 2016 we explored Atlantis (just wandered around for free) and then went to Cabbage Beach. If we opt to do a beach day again, we wouldn't return to Cabbage.

We are torn between one of the better free beaches (Saunders, for instance, gets mentioned a lot as a nice beach), or possibly looking at a resort for the day. Melia is one that we're seriously considering, but we are trying to figure out if the experience is worth the $140 for our family of four, versus just enjoying a nice, free public beach.

We are also considering a walking tour of downtown, possibly including the pirate museum for our kids.

All of these options require walking or some form of transportation in Nassau, which goes back to the safety question. Is it overblown, or are there real concerns in Nassau these days?

Thanks for any comments.

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it is a low-cost / free option:

When we went to Nassau on Divina in 2016, we took the water taxi to Paradise Island, explored the massive hotel with the aquarium, and then walked to Cabbage Beach - there is a path from Casino Drive. Here is a Google Maps link if this forum will let me post it:

https://goo.gl/maps/YkUheMwvzEL2

The path is to the right of the building in the centre of the picture.

We felt safe enough - the path seemed a bit sketchy - but the beach itself was packed, and also had a never-ending line of beach vendors.

We are returning to Nassau this August and we are looking at other options: possibly one of the day passes to a resort, or perhaps one of the private island excursions. However, if there are other free, public beach options other than Cabbage, I'm all ears as well!

Good luck! As I re-read your post I see that you may be on your cruise now so this message may be too late. If so, what did you end up doing?

Thanks so much for the review and pictures! Glad you enjoyed your first cruise.

Thanks so much for all the replies! We'll reconsider the Hampton Inn Brickell - it gets such positive reviews here and elsewhere that it is hard not to consider.