Seaside to avoid at all cost!

[cruzeluver]

I was on the same cruise as the OP and can speak to most of his/her points.

 

on the way entering the ship, I don't see a single smile from any staffs. I don't feel welcomed to onboard. I suppose staff greeters can change throughout the boarding process, but there at least ten people smiling warmly as we boarded at approximately noon. Smiles, "good mornings" and "hellos" were prevalent all week long.

Customer service desk is always packed. It seems like there is not enough staffs to serve all the passengers on board. Factually untrue. During the boarding process, the evening before and the morning of disembarkation the lines do get long, but otherwise I never saw more than 20 in line. We went to the desk three times and even with 20 ahead of us never waited more than 10 minutes. Pack you patience. You are on a ship with 5,000 people.

6 elevators work out of 8 and they are so tiny that we have to wait at least 5 minutes every times. yes there did appear to be at least one elevator down at each bank throughout the week. Elevators were no smaller than on any of the other 20 something ships we have been on and rarely did we have to wait more than one minute. If you regularly had to wait at least 5 minutes that is incredibly bad luck.

PUBLIC places in atrium is way too small. when there is event, not enough room for people to pass, we had to squeeze We went through and near the atrium during several of the large events including the pre- White Party, 70's night and cowboy night and never had to do any squeezing. Again,amazingly bad luck on your part.

we are stuck to dine at the main dining room on deck 6. You guys didn't let us have a choice. Either we eat or starve (the other option is the MINI buffet on deck 16 which always serve BURGERS, PIZZA, HOTDOT!! tell me which cruise line doesn't offer this? it's just lack of varieties) There are only two main dining rooms. Is what you are saying that you wanted to be in the other one? They cannot simply let everyone pick and choose. Again, 5,000 people. We were originally assigned a table for two in the Seashore dining room, but a quick visit and they were able to move us to a larger table as is our preference. Your assertions about the deck 16 buffet are again factually incorrect. There were far more many options than what you have listed. I am all for letting people express opinions, but not asserting incorrect facts.

buffet on deck 8 is not always open! at night time, you guys convert it into a dining room. During the breakfast and lunch, we always had trouble to find a table because it was always full. During breakfast, you guys really lack of varieties! One toaster available for the entire buffet! room service is a joke, the menu is so limited and can't never be reached. By now I am starting to wonder which ship you are on. We had breakfast in the deck 8 buffet five times and never struggled to find a seat. Sat down immediately upon filling our plates. Your run of bad luck is truly incredible. What more variety at breakfast do you need? They had scrambled eggs, pre-made breakfast sandwiches, an omelette station, hard boiled eggs, every kind of bread, bagel and croissant under the sun, baked beans, bacon, sausage, several different cereals, whole fruit and chopped fruit, pancakes, waffles, french toast, broiled tomotoes, cold cuts, cheeses and on and on and on. Yeah, no variety.

I am tired of copy/paste, so to wrap up your other points: the delay to Antigua was not the fault of MSC and we did stay and extra hour to help make up for it which is more than they had to do or is typical for late arrivals. Loved the shows and hope MSC retains the European flair and does not turn into just another US cruise line.We knew about the zipline charge in advance. Not too pleased about it, but it did keep the lines short! Never waited long and it was a blast! Rode it 7 times.

[kerryincork]

So just got back from the trip. I just copy and pasted what I wrote to MSC. I apologize for my broken english.

1) on the way entering the ship, I don't see a single smile from any staffs. I don't feel welcomed to onboard.

2) One of the wheel of my luggage got smashed when it got delivered to my room.

3) Customer service desk is always packed. It seems like there is not enough staffs to serve all the passengers on board. Front Desk staffs don't have enough acknowledge to help the customers. We have to scream out loud to understand with each other because the music in atrium is always loud. On my first attempt to report my broken luggage, you guys told me "in order to file a complain, we will send you a survey at the end of the cruise. From there, you can report a complain and comments". When i wanted to speak with a supervisor, you guys told me "there is no one available, you can come back later"

4) Room isolation is terrible. I was on deck 15 AFT. Every times there is an event with music, I can hear it clearly. Also if some one walks heavily or run, i can hear their foot steps. We couldn't sleep well when there is any event located on AFT of the ship at night.

5) 6 elevators work out of 8 and they are so tiny that we have to wait at least 5 minutes every times.

6) PUBLIC places in atrium is way too small. when there is event, not enough room for people to pass, we had to squeeze

7) Restaurants

we are stuck to dine at the main dining room on deck 6. You guys didn't let us have a choice. Either we eat or starve (the other option is the MINI buffet on deck 16 which always serve BURGERS, PIZZA, HOTDOT!! tell me which cruise line doesn't offer this? it's just lack of varieties).

We can't even order to take out from the dining room. Again, we were starving after 2am because nothing is opened! What do you offer to eat if people gamble or dancing party until late? nothing

buffet on deck 8 is not always open! at night time, you guys convert it into a dining room. During the breakfast and lunch, we always had trouble to find a table because it was always full. During breakfast, you guys really lack of varieties! One toaster available for the entire buffet! room service is a joke, the menu is so limited and can't never be reached.

8) Shows are nice but too short! We have to be there at least 10 minutes before the show starts to have good view. Meanwhile the show last only 30 minutes and there is always people who are late and it's so disturbing to get up to let people pass by. Not enough game shows, comedy show only 1 per night and it's so late, like around 11:30pm. Your entertainment orientation needs to improve big time!

9) Shore excursions.

we were supposed to arrive at 9am at st johns, but the ship arrived at 11am due to some medical emergency.

MSC could've had orginazed the meeting time and place better. we already got 2hours shorten, we still

had to waste another 40 minutes to meet up the group and as always, there is

always people who are late. so by the time we got off the boat, we just got another 30 minutes wasted.

and by the time we got the beach, it was around 1.30pm. we just lost so much time!!

and again at st thomas, why group meeting at 10:15 when the ship arrives at 7am? port of calls and beaches

are very important to us and you guys just ruined it. not to mention the last port of call (bahamas), I understand

that it wasn't MSC's fault, but still...

10)Casino

seaside only offers limited slot machines and only 8 gaming tables and max bet is too low!

11) zip lines cost money! It's 10$/time

12) It was my firs time bringing my parents to cruise. After what they've just experienced,

I don't think they will cruise again.

 

 

 

 

It sounds like you very unlucky 😐 you sure had a bad time of it. But I think your problem is with cruising.

 

Having a cabin directly under pool deck or buffet is well known for noise on every single cruise line you go. It's even included in the articles on this site. How to choose your cabin.

 

Unfortunately luggage gets damaged on all cruise lines and airlines. It's insurance that covers this cost. No cruise line accepts responsibility. I was only watching a cruise show based on Princess where one of the luggage cages were dropped in to the sea.

 

It's pretty common now to have entertainment in the atrium where guest services are. Both NCL & Carnival have shows in atrium.

 

All mega ships have limited capacity, they require everyone to turn up at minimum of 10 min. Admittedly I have found MSC to poorly organised in this regards.

 

I hope your next vacation goes better for you.

 

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[leos037]

I was on the 1/13 sailing - while most of those complaints are are ridiculous. Elevators were slow. and i would have loved to have some lox at breakfast but that was a very minor thing.

[jimbob22]

I was on the 1/13 sailing - while most of those complaints are are ridiculous. Elevators were slow. and i would have loved to have some lox at breakfast but that was a very minor thing.

 

I was actually curious about this. I also like having a bagel, creamcheese and lox at breakfast. Not a showstopper, but it is sort of a staple on most of the big cruiselines (not sure about Carnival, where I gravitate to the juevos rancheros breakfast...).

[just erica]

I was actually curious about this. I also like having a bagel, creamcheese and lox at breakfast. Not a showstopper, but it is sort of a staple on most of the big cruiselines (not sure about Carnival, where I gravitate to the juevos rancheros breakfast...).

 

They do serve bagel, cream cheese and smoked salmon at breakfast in the MDR.

 

Breakfast buffet only has salmon mousse, which was very good!

[DCGuy64]

I think many of their comments are valid. Why so dismissive of OP? It is their opinion. At first I didn't lend much weight to the thread because OP lobbed out a grenade with no info, but they came back and explained why this is their opinion. Some of those items are very important to me, some are not, it does not matter, now I have information to form decisions and opinions on regarding the items of interest to me, and give less weight to those that don't. But there's little call for picking apart OP's opinions and to do it in the manner you did is pretty ignorant. The fact that you're continuing to defend the behavior proves that.

 

Hmm, I saw their comments as more of setting the record straight. The OP complained of a lack of variety in the breakfast buffet and then one of the responders went on to list a multiplicity of options. I don't think that's mean, I think it's just honest. Don't you?

[cruzeluver]

Smoked salmon with bagel, red onion and cream cheese is on the regular breakfast menu in the main dining room. Husband had it twice on Seaside last week.

[js]

Thank you for coming back and updating your review. I appreciate it and it makes me feel better reading the specifics, which I can say happens really on any cruise line. What line to you usually sail?

[fraffin]

I was actually curious about this. I also like having a bagel, creamcheese and lox at breakfast. Not a showstopper, but it is sort of a staple on most of the big cruiselines (not sure about Carnival, where I gravitate to the juevos rancheros breakfast...).

 

This is my biggest and probably only complaint with Carnival. Lox/smoked salmon used be on the free breakfast room service menu. They eliminated it. Fine, I had to start going to the breakfast buffet to get it. Now they've removed it from the breakfast buffet. Now you have to wait until 11:00 AM when the Deli window opens to get the salmon. Of course I have my own workaround. The Deli window stays open fairly late in the Carnival buffet. I just go get a plate of salmon before they close and stash it in the mini-fridge in the cabin. Now all I have to do is order my free room service bagel with the door tag.

[jimbob22]

I disagree with some posters in that I think that if you're paying thousands of dollars for a cruise (even if RCI/NCL/etc cost more for a similar cruise), you deserve excellent and prompt customer service.

 

Chick-Fil-A isn't fine dining, but they're very popular partly because of their great attitude and customer service orientation. I see no reason that guest services and other positions on a large cruise line shouldn't be similar. Rationalizing slow or bad service with 'well, you're paying a really low price!' just doesn't cut it for me.

[jimbob22]

This is my biggest and probably only complaint with Carnival. Lox/smoked salmon used be on the free breakfast room service menu. They eliminated it. Fine, I had to start going to the breakfast buffet to get it. Now they've removed it from the breakfast buffet. Now you have to wait until 11:00 AM when the Deli window opens to get the salmon. Of course I have my own workaround. The Deli window stays open fairly late in the Carnival buffet. I just go get a plate of salmon before they close and stash it in the mini-fridge in the cabin. Now all I have to do is order my free room service bagel with the door tag.

 

thanks for the interesting feedback. We like Carnival's mdr (service is pretty quick, and since many of their ships lack specialty restaurants, the portions and quality seem at least as good or even a tad better than some other cruises we've been on). We really like the pizza, Mexican, burgers, Mongolian, etc.

 

But we're not crazy about the breakfast and dinner lido, which to us has fewer choices, geared more toward US 'meat and potato' type preference compared to other large cruise lines. Removing lox from breakfast buffet would confirm this, although since I like the juevos rancheros and arepas for breakfast, I'm able to tough it out ;)

[fraffin]

thanks for the interesting feedback. We like Carnival's mdr (service is pretty quick, and since many of their ships lack specialty restaurants, the portions and quality seem at least as good or even a tad better than some other cruises we've been on). We really like the pizza, Mexican, burgers, Mongolian, etc.

 

But we're not crazy about the breakfast and dinner lido, which to us has fewer choices, geared more toward US 'meat and potato' type preference compared to other large cruise lines. Removing lox from breakfast buffet would confirm this, although since I like the juevos rancheros and arepas for breakfast, I'm able to tough it out ;)

 

I should have also mentioned that smoked salmon was available in the MDR for breakfast on Carnival.

 

Sorry everyone else for the off-topic posts.

[DCGuy64]

thanks for the interesting feedback. We like Carnival's mdr (service is pretty quick, and since many of their ships lack specialty restaurants, the portions and quality seem at least as good or even a tad better than some other cruises we've been on). We really like the pizza, Mexican, burgers, Mongolian, etc.

 

But we're not crazy about the breakfast and dinner lido, which to us has fewer choices, geared more toward US 'meat and potato' type preference compared to other large cruise lines. Removing lox from breakfast buffet would confirm this, although since I like the juevos rancheros and arepas for breakfast, I'm able to tough it out ;)

 

Great, now I've got a hankering for huevos rancheros and arepas. I, too, really loved Carnival's breakfast offerings, nom nom... ;p

[chefchick]

To the OP, thank you for coming back and explaining your first post...if you had waiting to take the time to do that originally this thread would have been a lot shorter. Again, every cruiser has their “deal breakers”, but most of what you posted was either from your lack of planning, part of the “cruise experience” on pretty much every line, or just bad luck. I did not experience any of the things you mentioned, but I’m sorry that your vacation was ruined. “Avoid MSC at all costs” is a bit harsh based on what you reviewed here, but every person on that ship probably had a different story to tell....we are all different and have different experiences.

[CruiseGal999]

I disagree with some posters in that I think that if you're paying thousands of dollars for a cruise (even if RCI/NCL/etc cost more for a similar cruise), you deserve excellent and prompt customer service.

 

Chick-Fil-A isn't fine dining, but they're very popular partly because of their great attitude and customer service orientation. I see no reason that guest services and other positions on a large cruise line shouldn't be similar. Rationalizing slow or bad service with 'well, you're paying a really low price!' just doesn't cut it for me.

 

No one said (as far as I can remember) that slow or bad service was OK due to low price. I, personally, asked if they chose a guarantee cabin for a minimum price and then complained about the noise around the cabin. The running footsteps and voices, etc.

[rolloman]

I think many of their comments are valid. Why so dismissive of OP? It is their opinion. At first I didn't lend much weight to the thread because OP lobbed out a grenade with no info, but they came back and explained why this is their opinion. Some of those items are very important to me, some are not, it does not matter, now I have information to form decisions and opinions on regarding the items of interest to me, and give less weight to those that don't. But there's little call for picking apart OP's opinions and to do it in the manner you did is pretty ignorant. The fact that you're continuing to defend the behavior proves that.

 

As always, agree with you 100% LMaxwell.

[Gwendy]

MSC is different from mainline US cruises, not worse, not better just a different vibe. Go with the flow, as someone else stated any cruise is a good cruise. By the way you get back what you give out. I once talked to a woman who told me her whole cruise was ruined because the buffet ran out of butter and by the time the waiter went and got more supplies and brought it to her table her toast was cold. Not MSC , Princess lol

 

 

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[The Admiral]

So I wonder if the OP will return to tell us what their problem was that caused the cruise to be ruined.

 

Yes I’m curious as well. I can say based on my experience on seaside their guest relations line seems longer than usual at times line went all the way back to the hallway you turn into when you get off the elevator. Seemed like there were a lot of issues requiring guests to go to guest relations, I felt sorry for that staff they worked really hard and were very friendly but you could just see between the blaring music and guests having to scream to be heard over the music they were very overwhelmed.

[gkbiiii]

My experience with MSC's Guest Relations, is that it represent the worst of the Italian Bureaucratic Tradition: be it governmental, Banking, department stores, utilities, cable, credit cards, etc. Whatever your worst experiences are, in your own life, MSC will find a way to surpass them!

 

Those in the Yacht Club, are excluded from all this, by their own private VIP Concierge desk.

[sidari]

Strange how some of us never have an issue with customer services, it must depend on the person you are presented with.

[suzyed]

It's whatever. The OP didn't like the cruise, they're not going again. OK, we get it.

 

I can't waste any time trying to straighten out a stranger who wan't happy with their vacation.

 

We go on the Seaside in less than two weeks and we plan on having a great time, whether there are issues or not.

Have a great day everyone!

[Homosassa]

Strange how some of us never have an issue with customer services, it must depend on the person you are presented with.

 

Yes, the person the Guest Services are presented with.

 

I have always been greeted with a smile and quick, courteous help.

 

My daughter talks about her honeymoon cruise on Meraviglia where anytime she was at Guest Services her business was completed by the person asking: "Is there anything we can do to make your honeymoon more special?"

[TravelinGert]

Yes I’m curious as well. I can say based on my experience on seaside their guest relations line seems longer than usual at times line went all the way back to the hallway you turn into when you get off the elevator. Seemed like there were a lot of issues requiring guests to go to guest relations, I felt sorry for that staff they worked really hard and were very friendly but you could just see between the blaring music and guests having to scream to be heard over the music they were very overwhelmed.

 

It was a lot like that the last time I was on a new ship. At first I felt sorry for them but then when they kept not doing the things they promised to do, I felt a mite less concerned for their feelings. :rolleyes:

 

However in the grand scheme of things the only things that were kind of a big deal were being unable to turn on the AC in an oceanview deep in the bowels of the ship for 44.5 hours (but who's counting? :confused:) and not being able to use their fancy electronic safe.

 

Eventually I just flagged down a maintenance crew in the hallway. :halo: Turned out the safe wasn't plugged in and the thermostat wasn't wired in. :rolleyes: On the one hand kind of neat to realize you're the very first occupants of a cabin. :):cool: On the other hand two nights with no window you can open and no AC wasn't much fun.

[SNJCruisers]

It's whatever. The OP didn't like the cruise, they're not going again. OK, we get it.

 

I can't waste any time trying to straighten out a stranger who wan't happy with their vacation.

 

We go on the Seaside in less than two weeks and we plan on having a great time, whether there are issues or not.

Have a great day everyone!

Hope you guys enjoy your cruise next week. Look out for my review from last week that I will start composing on Tuesday.

[MisterBill99]

I was on Seaside last week and dealt with Guest Services. The person I spoke to was very nice, in fact almost everyone we dealt with on the ship was friendly, with a couple of exceptions. However, I had a problem with music playing from the crew area beneath my cabin (front corner suite on deck 9). It only started Wednesday night and played all night. I spoke to an officer on the gangway when I left Thursday morning, but when I returned to the ship it was still on. I went to GS at that point and the person I dealt with was helpful and eventually had a couple of supervisors/officers from housekeeping come up to the cabin and heard it, and it was turned off a few minutes later. However, it turns out that another cabin had called in the problem and nothing was done about it. So while my experience was good, they did not fix the problem on the first or even second report (assuming the officer I reported it to did anything).

 

The line when I went was very short since the ship was still in port but it was long early in the week and the last day.

 

BTW after my week on the ship I would agree with the title of this thread.

 

One of the exceptions I mentioned above was the MDR hostess who refused to seat us for breakfast at 9:15 on the day we were supposed to visit Grand Cayman but could not because tendering was cancelled. They made the announcement at 7:30am but apparently no one thought to tell the MDR to revert to a sea day schedule and seat guests until 9:30am (port days it closed at 9). I subsequently spoke to the F&B manager at the Black Card party and he agreed that we should have been seated, so hopefully the hostess (who said something like "do you want me to make breakfast for you" after I complained about being turned away) has been educated on what she SHOULD have done.

Edited February 4, 2018 by MisterBill99