‘Live from Orchestra’ Christmas 2017 Cruise Review

Bea ... Hope you are feeling better now, Mark said he managed to catch you before you left the ship ... :D

For dessert, DH had the fruit ice cream sundae ( which didn't have any icecream)

.

and I had the baklava

Overall, our last night was a night to forget.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

It's funny how things turn out. One of the reasons for choosing this cruise was that Valletta was a POC and DH could get some duty-free cigarettes at the port. Well, as was said before, this port was cancelled. However, when we arrived in Genoa, the itinerary was changing direction and heading to Morocco (and the Canaries) which fact allowed for the duty-free shop to open onboard the ship. So, DH managed to get some duty-free after all.

Unfortunately, that's about the most positive thing I can say about the whole cruise. We reckon it's one of the worst we've been on in terms of entertainment, food and atmosphere. There was little to nothing to do, the bands seemed only to play foreign songs, a lot of times in the evening the ship was a ghost town. DH met many people from different countries in the cigar lounge where he spent a lot of his time - especially when I was confined to bed. To a man, everyone agreed with our feelings about the cruise. There were quite a few who'd never cruised with MSC before and I often found myself explaining that it wasn't a typical MSC cruise. This is the very first time I have ever felt like wanting to cancel other cruises I have booked into the future - and that includes our upcoming repo from Dubai to Yokohama in the YC on Splendida.

Should we choose to use the 5% Voyagers' Club discount, plus the 10% discount we received for missing 2 ports - added to the 30% casino voucher I got (which I have always used within 2 weeks of receiving it) - we have a total of 40.15% off our next booking, . At the moment, I really am reluctant to book anything else.

I had considered booking Seaview for our Anniversary in September if I did manage to get the casino voucher. I had saved the pricings at the end of last October, which showed a YC inside at €1599 and a YC balcony at €2599. Today, the prices are €2969 and €3149, respectively. How about that for price increases?! I have 2 months before deciding, but I doubt those prices will drop within that time frame. It looks like they'll be at that rate now 'til the next price changes which probably won't come about 'til the end of March.

Bea ... Hope you are feeling better now, Mark said he managed to catch you before you left the ship ... :D

Hi, Dave. Still not over the worst of it. I'd say I'd need an anti-biotic to shift it. I haven't managed to read your thread (or much else). I've been offline since Saturday! I hope your trip was enjoyable.

Yeah ............. on the last night, we went to Guest Services and asked them to contact Mark to see if he was free to meet us. We wanted to thank him personally for sending the Prosecco to the cabin. He couldn't have been very far, cos he turned up within minutes. Funny thing, we also received a room diffuser, which was in the cabin when we arrived. I don't know if that was Mark's doing, but it was a nice surprise.

It's funny how things turn out. One of the reasons for choosing this cruise was that Valletta was a POC and DH could get some duty-free cigarettes at the port. Well, as was said before, this port was cancelled. However, when we arrived in Genoa, the itinerary was changing direction and heading to Morocco (and the Canaries) which fact allowed for the duty-free shop to open onboard the ship. So, DH managed to get some duty-free after all.

 

Unfortunately, that's about the most positive thing I can say about the whole cruise. We reckon it's one of the worst we've been on in terms of entertainment, food and atmosphere. There was little to nothing to do, the bands seemed only to play foreign songs, a lot of times in the evening the ship was a ghost town. DH met many people from different countries in the cigar lounge where he spent a lot of his time - especially when I was confined to bed. To a man, everyone agreed with our feelings about the cruise. There were quite a few who'd never cruised with MSC before and I often found myself explaining that it wasn't a typical MSC cruise. This is the very first time I have ever felt like wanting to cancel other cruises I have booked into the future - and that includes our upcoming repo from Dubai to Yokohama in the YC on Splendida.

 

Should we choose to use the 5% Voyagers' Club discount, plus the 10% discount we received for missing 2 ports - added to the 30% casino voucher I got (which I have always used within 2 weeks of receiving it) - we have a total of 40.15% off our next booking, . At the moment, I really am reluctant to book anything else.

 

I had considered booking Seaview for our Anniversary in September if I did manage to get the casino voucher. I had saved the pricings at the end of last October, which showed a YC inside at €1599 and a YC balcony at €2599. Today, the prices are €2969 and €3149, respectively. How about that for price increases?! I have 2 months before deciding, but I doubt those prices will drop within that time frame. It looks like they'll be at that rate now 'til the next price changes which probably won't come about 'til the end of March.

Thanks Beamafar for your entire live review. I'm sorry you and your husband weren't feeling well for bits of your cruise, and I'm also sorry the experience didn't live up to what you are accustomed to from MSC. I always appreciate truthful feedback, and whilst I'm a little more nervous about my own upcoming Orchestra cruise, I have always been wary of cruising MSC and each time I have, I've been pleasantly surprised. However I acknowledge you have far more experience with MSC than me and therefore I attribute a greater weighting to your thoughts.

As I mentioned further up, I'll just keep reminding myself I'm going for the heat and to escape the February gloom here rather than for exceptional dining or entertainment.

We also have the Aurea package, so hopefully the spa will provide a different ambiance if needed. I think I will bite the bullet and get the S3 Suite for the extra space, as we may spend more time in our cabin reading and sitting on the balcony if things are lacking in the entertainment department and the ship feels empty later on at night like it did for you.

Although it's a few hundred quid more, I'll frame it such that if I don't manage to have a good time, in the top category cabin and with the top package available (aside from the YC, which isn't offered on this ship), then I will probably never sail again with MSC and they will miss out on future thousands. It's a final roll of the dice. :)

Regarding price increases, I've noticed NCL are the exact same - I think every operator in the market is 'pushing the boundaries' to see at what level they will start to lose business. I remember just 18 months ago, I could have got the YC on Fantasia for c. £900 each for the week - a price never to be seen again - and the silly bugger I am, I didn't go for it and stuck with the B2!!

I do intend doing my own review of Orchestra on the Western Med/Canary itinerary, although probably not live (that said it might give me something to do in the absence of meaningful entertainment!). I sail February 24th until March 8th.

Thanks again for the effort and detail you've went into with your experience.

I have just had a set-to with my T/A regarding an upgrade to an S3 Aurea suite (from a B3), my final decision on this matter may well be based on your final thoughts and summary (no pressure!) - I won't be giving MSC more money for a declining product (if that's the case) on Orchestra.

CJ ................ we did 4 MSC cruises this year. The only one we truly enjoyed was our YC experience onboard Meraviglia - we didn't like the ship, itself. I believe that things are going downhill, while prices are only going up, which makes for very little value going forward.

I never did make it to the Spa on Orchestra but the one on Magnifica is identical and is a fantastic venue.

CJ ................ we did 4 MSC cruises this year. The only one we truly enjoyed was our YC experience onboard Meraviglia - we didn't like the ship, itself. I believe that things are going downhill, while prices are only going up, which makes for very little value going forward.

Oops - I already contradicted myself above - as I say for an extra few hundred, it will be the 'final hurrah' and they will lose out on more in the long run if it's not up to scratch. I'm giving them every opportunity to impress me by going for the top flight of everything - it's up to them how they deliver! :)

Oops - I already contradicted myself above - as I say for an extra few hundred, it will be the 'final hurrah' and they will lose out on more in the long run if it's not up to scratch. I'm giving them every opportunity to impress me by going for the top flight of everything - it's up to them how they deliver! :)

I really hope you have a very different experience to us. You'll have MyChoice dining, so hopefully they'll be more attentive in the MDR. Your room steward should be, too. Ours was missing for most of the time and never even approached DH, who was in and out all the time, when our room was not serviced for a number of days while I was in bed, to find out if we needed anything.

You may have missed my comment on the Spa which I was adding to my previous post as you were posting.

Thanks, we won't go looking for fault but equally won't tolerate anything unacceptable. I'm happy to speak to the desk about room servicing issues, if there are any, and directly to the matire'd about dining issues. There are a couple of options for us if we find the dining isn't up to scratch, both of which I think are 'wasteful' but conversely if they improve the holiday experience I might have to relent. The options are going to the buffet at dinner time (never done it on any line on over 15 cruises), and eating ashore for lunches etc. I also like the look of some room service items, but resent paying for them, and would rather they offered some of those things at the buffet too.

I notice from your review MSC have starting doing what Costa do, by including a buffet section in the MDR for breakfast and lunch. Is it 'open seating' at lunch time or can you specify a table for two again?

Good to know about the spa. I do intend on getting my money's worth out of the steam rooms and hot tubs, and I have read they will be much quieter than the tubs on deck.

It's open seating at both breakfast and lunch. There's a buffet section at both meal times. Tables for 2 were incredibly scarce - in fact, there were even very few tables for 4! So it was very difficult to get a table on our own sometimes. We always went early for lunch and it was always busy. I guess most people stayed onboard a lot due to the cold weather.

Here's a link to the menu and our choices in the Speciality Restaurant from my Magnifica report. The menus and food are identical to Shanghai on Orchestra. We thought the food on Magifica was better. From post #24 on:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2553610&highlight=magnifica&page=2

Something I forgot to mention is that there's a snack buffet in the wine bar for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The times are posted in the daily planner. Here's a photo of some nice-looking sandwiches and other snacks which were available one lunchtime when we were passing thru'

The wine & beer bar is a very nice venue with 4 beers on tap

There was a guy played guitar here in the evenings who was very good - when he played.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

Vegetable spring rolls and chicken wonton is about as adventurous as I get, although my wife wife will likely try the more exotic things on the menu (we will get the Black Card meal once on our cruise).

Regarding the snacks in the wine bar, I would have thought it would make more sense to have those running outside of meal times - chances are you won't be using that in place of a meal but rather as a snack with a drink or two, before or after dinner rather than concurrent with it?

Thanks for the review Bea, sorry about your experience and the dreaded winter virus. So much of it about.

We were looking at orchestra on September 3rd when it calls in to Dover to Genoa then jump on Divina to Marseille with a few days in Italy but will instead stick with what we booked already for August.

Glad we upgraded Bellissima to YC (although cheaper than a super family).

Would you say with the current downturn in quality it’s got to be YC or nothing?

Also, how much would it cost to get to 2000 casino points if you didn’t get any wins? I’m about as lucky as a one leafed clover 🤦*♂️

Would you say with the current downturn in quality it’s got to be YC or nothing?

That's exactly how we're feeling these days, Mark. However, with the prices where they're at, YC is getting a bit rich for our tastes - even with the 40.15% total discount. The only cruise that will fit our budget with the discount is an Aurea booking on Poesia from Venice in September. We certainly won't sail anything less than Aurea in future. Even then, I think MSC prices are getting too steep and, without any significant improvement in what they're offering, we'll be sailing a lot less with them in the future. Even the 'loyalty' programme is a joke at this stage. I've got 3x the number of points needed to get to Black and am tired of hearing that a new tier is being introduced. I'm losing total interest in cruising with them, TBH.

As for chasing 2000 points in the casino to get a 30% discount - it may work out cheaper to just pay full price for your cruise. It really depends on how the points accumulate when you're playing and how much it's costing as to whether it's worth it or not. When we were on Meraviglia, I got to the 1200 (the old acquired level of points) AND was €100 up in the casino when I qualified for the discount voucher. I used it to book our Splendida cruise next March, where we got €4700 off the total of the cruise without it costing us anything!

Regarding the snacks in the wine bar, I would have thought it would make more sense to have those running outside of meal times - chances are you won't be using that in place of a meal but rather as a snack with a drink or two, before or after dinner rather than concurrent with it?

I totally agree with you, CJ.

We missed breakfast one morning and went down to the wine bar as the breakfast snacks were supposed to be available 'til 11.30am - the only place where food was available between 11am and 11.30am. There was ONE croissant left in the buffet!

I wasn't going to comment 'til I'd finished posting the final day's menus, but, I'm sorry to say the food was really bad onboard.

So sorry to hear this.

But again I have to say the "Fresh made Ravioli in butter sage" are to die for! I knew from cruises before that I need two servings of this :lips-sealed:. But this time I did not need to ask, I just ordered it for my wife also who chose other things. Big mistake, after she tried it she refused to hand it over.

I easily can understand that passengers who are not pasta lovers will not be as happy as me or all the Italians on board. If you mainly want to enjoy great cooked steak, duck and so on every night, then this will not happen.

But why did you not order the "Fish mixed grill"? It is a highlight of the cruise, it is a really decent sized swordfish steak, the king prawn is now really king. At least on the meraviglia it was.

Maybe today you first post the menus and ask the board for recommendations ;)

It's funny how things turn out. One of the reasons for choosing this cruise was that Valletta was a POC and DH could get some duty-free cigarettes at the port. Well, as was said before, this port was cancelled. However, when we arrived in Genoa, the itinerary was changing direction and heading to Morocco (and the Canaries) which fact allowed for the duty-free shop to open onboard the ship. So, DH managed to get some duty-free after all.

 

Unfortunately, that's about the most positive thing I can say about the whole cruise. We reckon it's one of the worst we've been on in terms of entertainment, food and atmosphere. There was little to nothing to do, the bands seemed only to play foreign songs, a lot of times in the evening the ship was a ghost town. DH met many people from different countries in the cigar lounge where he spent a lot of his time - especially when I was confined to bed. To a man, everyone agreed with our feelings about the cruise. There were quite a few who'd never cruised with MSC before and I often found myself explaining that it wasn't a typical MSC cruise. This is the very first time I have ever felt like wanting to cancel other cruises I have booked into the future - and that includes our upcoming repo from Dubai to Yokohama in the YC on Splendida.

 

Should we choose to use the 5% Voyagers' Club discount, plus the 10% discount we received for missing 2 ports - added to the 30% casino voucher I got (which I have always used within 2 weeks of receiving it) - we have a total of 40.15% off our next booking, . At the moment, I really am reluctant to book anything else.

 

I had considered booking Seaview for our Anniversary in September if I did manage to get the casino voucher. I had saved the pricings at the end of last October, which showed a YC inside at €1599 and a YC balcony at €2599. Today, the prices are €2969 and €3149, respectively. How about that for price increases?! I have 2 months before deciding, but I doubt those prices will drop within that time frame. It looks like they'll be at that rate now 'til the next price changes which probably won't come about 'til the end of March.

Book YC (insides are a steal) and you will really get a nice experience, to remember!

Disappointing to hear things were not up to standard for your trip, especially on top of you being ill too. Hope you're feeling better, get yourself to the Dr if not :fever:

We have 225 days until our Orchestra cruise so I hope things improve before then, especially the food quallity.

p.s. I'm available for your Dubai repo cruise if you decide not to go ;)

Quick question.....with the social package.......can you be logged in during the day on your cell phone....and then in the evenings log out on the cell, and use same acct to log in on your iPad?

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the internet social package doesn't allow access to CruiseCritic so I can only post when in port. As there are only 2 sea days, I will be able to post most days.

 

We didn't go to either of the 2 shows so far in the theatre. The first night was Flamenco which I'm not a fan of and We've seen last night's show before. I'll post yesterday and today's daily planner later.

 

Dave .......... We haven't met Mark yet but he sent a bottle of prosecco and plate of choc strawberries to the cabin last night so that's 2 of each we received yesterday as our Black Card ones were delivered yesterday afternoon

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app