The good the bed and the frustrating...cruise review MSC Musica

The Good The Bad and The frustrating

This is my review of the MSC Musica Venice to Rio cruise 12th November to 3rd December.

I should start by saying that we were on a grand voyage which is a subset of MSC cruising that involves long Journeys usually across oceans and that I understand that there are some distinct differences in the way that the ship operates on these services compared to those around the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

The good...

Staff were very helpful and in the bars they were very engaging and friendly.

Entertainment was great, there was something for everybody and the MSC entertainment crew were very engaging. The spectacular shows were indeed that and there were some interesting themes like Alice in Wonderland , Ghostbusters Etc all explored in their own way and renamed

Laundry, we bought a package of 40 items and sent at least four separate bags, all of which were expertly washed and ironed and hanged on hangers and returned to our room within the specified time.

Maintenance of the ship was excellent a lot of work was being done as we were making at Atlanta crossing.

The bad.

I can genuinely say that this was the worst and MDR food I have ever experienced. I make a rule if it is not something I would pick up in the buffet it is not certainly something I want to eat. For instance, a Greek salad having a one tiny dice of feta cheese and one tiny Olive.

Nut encrusted lamb was flaccid chewy and certainly not crusty.

Suckling pig was not a crispy spectacle but a limp white blob on the plate. There were no vegetables!!!! To have vegetables you have to ensure that you ordered an additional side dish. Truly truly awful.

We ate in the buffet on several occasions in fact probably more than I have ever on any other cruise. The food in the buffet? Well least you could choose and create a more pleasing plate that included some color other than white.

We were allocated seating in Maxim's Restaurant and the table was a table for 8 which included four on a banquette style semi circular seat which was the most uncomfortable imaginable apparently designed for children of families to be wedged in and kept under control.

Of the six that started out in the main dining room on this table, two left immediately to go to an earlier sitting in the other restaurant and both of the other couples including ourselves intermittently went from that point onwards

We did feel slightly sad for the waiters on a table as clearly we were not attending due to the poor quality of the food and not necessarily their service levels.

The top 16 addition to the outside decking is proving to be annoying for those of us that do not have access to it as it is utilising not only deck 16 but also deck 15 on windy days. This reduces the amount of outside seating area quite dramatically and there were no spaces or beds left on many many days at sea

The wine on offer we knew would only be two Reds in the drinks package but both the Barberra and the Merlot were dire.

The television offering for the few days that we were in European waters included 3 English-speaking channels.

After that, as expected we lost all television for the few days that we made the Crossing of the Atlantic but was very disappointed on reaching Brazil in that the television signal was not restored due to missing our port day in Fortaleza and then subsequently we had no English television to the end of the cruise very very disappointing.

We reported Crew smoking at the aft end of deck 10 in the outer stairwell on at least three occasions. The cigarette ends had been strewn about the deck and if we were lucky had been left in half drunk cans of drink or water glasses. Nothing was ever done about this during the whole Cruise.

I'm reading all those descriptions of grand voyages we were expecting some items to start running out, on this Cruise that included at various times honey, tea bags coma Bailey's, I'm amstell, Murphy's red, Newcastle Brown to name a few which brings me on to the cost savings on items like tea bags as others have pointed out they have downgraded that tea bag supplier to a dish water like thin quality tea bag which requires two to be used in each application. Negating the cost savings that I'm sure they are trying to achieve. Similarly the salad dressings provided had been thinned out causing them to crash onto plates and flood salads using twice as much as you would have had they been kept to a sensible consistency. I am an accountant by training and I am sad to say this looks like a case of the accountants trying to run the ship to me.

The frustrating...

We missed the docking in Fortaleza, due to weather, we made a very tight turn just before the pilot left the ship again and did a circuit outside the port but then left for Recife adding an extra day at sea after the crossing. 7 sea days in all.

This Cruise was also, for those of you who are members of the voyagers club, a voyagers selection Cruise when we booked it. For those of you that are in the know for gold members, as we are, this entitles you to further discounts on the cruise price at booking and additionally a 50 Euro onboard credit. This concept of the onboard credit caused many issues and I urge persons booking in the UK to absolutely ensure that this on board credit is in paperwork that comes from MSC before they board the ship. It took us 5 days whilst travelling and much anguish and several visits to customer services whilst onboard to get this sorted. All praise to an accounting staff member from the back office who finally got this sorted with the Geneva office for us. So the watch word is do not board without documented evidence of everything that you have paid for and everything that you are expecting to receive whilst on an MSC Cruise.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the objective review. Nice to know that the buffet did at least give you some acceptable food options.

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Do you have the daily programs? That would be most helpful. Thank you.

Oh dear. Thank you for your review but it has rather dampened our enthusiasm for our first MSC cruise. We are on the Musica in March, Rio to Venice. Luckily we are seasoned cruisers and try to "Always look on the bright side of life, tee dum tee dum tee dum tee dum" but this does sound a bit bleak!

Sue

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Oh dear. Thank you for your review but it has rather dampened our enthusiasm for our first MSC cruise. We are on the Musica in March' date=' Rio to Venice. Luckily we are seasoned cruisers and try to "Always look on the bright side of life, tee dum tee dum tee dum tee dum" but this does sound a bit bleak!

Sue

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk[/quote']

 

A couple of points that may help....those who had been on non grand voyage cruises on sister ships said this food was not the norm and that it had been better on their previous MSC cruises. I know food is very subjective but everyone I asked agreed the food was dreadful on this cruise.

 

Regards many questions we raised on shortages We kept getting the comment from staff...'well it is because we are getting ready for Brazilian season'...well I am sorry you must NOT forget the passengers you already have on board.

Do you have the daily programs? That would be most helpful. Thank you.

Sorry John after 21 days I did not have space to keep them but I could try to answer any questions.

Thank you for your review.

Keith

A couple of points that may help....those who had been on non grand voyage cruises on sister ships said this food was not the norm and that it had been better on their previous MSC cruises. I know food is very subjective but everyone I asked agreed the food was dreadful on this cruise.

 

Regards many questions we raised on shortages We kept getting the comment from staff...'well it is because we are getting ready for Brazilian season'...well I am sorry you must NOT forget the passengers you already have on board.

Thanks for the update JL. We've been on quite a few TAs and TPs so we're familiar with the running out of stuff scenario (on a TP out of Sydney, they ran out of beer, it wasn't pretty! ;)) You're quite right though, regardless of the destination, the passengers on board should be the prime consideration.

Sue

Thanks for the review. . . we are someday looking to cruise in northern Europe and MSC has competitive pricing but so far I have not seen any reviews to really recommend them.

Jerseylily, having done a few Grand Voyages on MSC, I have to agree with the points you make about the quality of food served and the experience of running out of things as the ship uses up old stock before reaching the new region where they replace the stock with what will become the offerings for that region. When we were on Sinfonia last year from Venice to Durban, they ran out of quite a few things too - wines that I liked was one as well as butter. In the last week, they made little butter patties and each guest was given one piece each at dinner! The main meat dish for most of the cruise consisted of pork!

The price of the cruise used to be so cheap. There was a time when you could get a B2 balcony cabin for €55 pppd (£45 in Sterling under the £25/£35/£45 promotion) PLUS 20% off that if you were a Black Card member. IIRC, there were similar, earlier promotions that were even cheaper! This was because the cruise company was repositioning the ship, anyway, so it was sold at a great price to get people onboard to affray the cost of the move.

However, it has all changed now since the cruise companies have seen how popular the GVs have become and the prices are more in line with regular prices; I rarely see offers for GVs. They're certainly double the price they were only a couple of years back.

When the prices were low, you could accept the cutbacks (to a point) and reason that you get what you pay for, but it's absolutely not acceptable when MSC is charging similar rates as regular cruises where the ship is stocked up and menus far better.

I thought "Grand Voyages' were supposed to be the absolute best, that MSC did as a cruise line. Its version of the "Gold Standard", I am left concerned. What about the people who spend tens of thousands of Dollars, for a full World Cruise, with MSC? What about them and others? Talk about paying top Dollar, which is easily twenty grand more, for the same World Cruise. Thanks for the heads up, I will save a little longer and go with a more respectable line, for this "trip of a lifetime."