MSC Seaside Feb 3-10, 2018 - Awesome!

[Match Game 72]

Thank you for the wonderfully detailed review. And I appreciate the upload of departure times. I had not seen this elsewhere.

[Estjali]

Estjali ... Enjoyed your review and it is good to see decent reports coming back with the myriad of poor ones since our Xmas inaugural cruise.

 

I had a little laugh at your elevator experience and also at the Ferry comment at the start, many years ago we sailed on the Silja Festival from Stockholm to Turku and back with our Swedish friends, there was a very large party going on in one room so we decided to check it out and found a room full of line dancers.

 

Thanks for the comments sidari. I enjoyed reading your review earlier.

 

Nice to hear you’ve experienced a Silja cruise. Then you also know the difference in the level of service and the experience in general, when comparing to Seaside. If you’re ok with Silja, you’ll be amazed by the Seaside experince!

[Estjali]

Thanks everyone for the lovely feedback!

 

I felt the need to write my review after reading all the negative ones before our cruise. With the right mindset and approach to the cruise, I’m sure everyone will enjoy it.

 

We saw lots of happy people on the ship every day and I didn’t see anyone complaining.

 

Now if it is true what many reviewers say, that some other lines provide that much better experience, I would love to see those next... But if there is a large price difference, I wouldn’t hesitate booking with MSC again!

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Nice review, thank you.

 

I can’t believe they sold booth seating in the sports bar to watch the SB....that’s completely ludicrous!

[georgemoe]

Thank you for that well balanced review Estjali. We are sailing Seaside in April. It will be our first MSC cruise. As expected we are now seeing more positive balanced reviews. Thank goodness. Glad you liked the room. We were actually booked in that stateroom for our cruise but got a good deal to upgrade to Aurea.

[sidari]

We have sailed on 6 MSC ships so far and will be back on Seaside again in April.

Silja mini cruise was where I was introduced to Rheindeer meat.

[BermudaBound2014]

That's exactly what we do when we're in YC. I don't get how some people would be in such a hurry to get to where they're going, that they basically dismiss others' rights to get to where they're going in the normal order on an elevator. I blame MSC for providing the facility.

 

I agree 100% here. We never would even think to override the elevator, but did use it when we were the only ones on. However; we never could quite get it to work right. I"m sure that one was operator error.

 

OP: I love your review!! It literally glows with 'first cruise' excitement. I bet you're hooked on cruising now :). The whole thing makes me smile for you.

 

I do have one question though, Did you ever smell septic/sewer?

[tallnthensome]

I will purposely push the elevator "door close" button when I see a Yacht Club wristband coming.... ;);p

[TrinaLC]

Thank you for your thoughtful review! I think many have had their expectations appropriately set by reviews pointing out where the ship might fall short. Any ship will have pluses and minuses.

 

There was so much excitement built up that I think the early cruisers may - understandably! - had unreasonably high expectations. We will follow your example.

 

I must compliment you on your English, not only is your grammar exceptionally proper, so is your use of "everyday vernacular" :)

[oceantriumph]

Food/restaurants: Now here’s a thing that surprised me at first; I had requested a table for two for dinner in the MDR a few weeks before our cruise. We were assigned one, but it was in the Market Place Restaurant! I had read before that the buffet on deck 8 would be used as an overflow dinner restaurant for Bella guests, and we had booked the Fantastica experience. I was disappointed at first, but the staff said on the first night that we could change this if we’re not happy.

 

As a bella guest, I'm very happy to hear your review of the market place dinner experience!

 

I was wondering how were you able to request the 2 person table for dinner? Did you have to email or call them? Do you have the contact info by any chance?

 

Thank you for your help!

[Formula280SS]

Very nice review. Thank you. (y)

 

Artful handling of things that went wrong; great perspective. We're on Seaside in 3 weeks B2B, so we are following the current reviews; looks like we'll have to "wait and see" and experience Seaside considering their polarity (the variant + and - reviews).

 

Then again, we have a certain perspective of enjoyment also. We have had a really good time on almost every cruise* even when things went wrong. After all, and on balance, we're on a cruise (and on stunning and beautiful ships). :D :cool:

 

* There is a qualification; pre-cruise recently our reservation disappeared when we were looking at excursions on the MSC website logged in to our account. Tense phone wait for CS (and, then again, others never experienced any wait at all) to verify our reservation. :confused:

[Formula280SS]

I agree 100% here. We never would even think to override the elevator, but did use it when we were the only ones on. However; we never could quite get it to work right. I"m sure that one was operator error.

 

BermudaBound2014 (love that member name; we've reserved a cruise to get back to Bermuda (2nd time) on NCL Escape in September); we loved it.

 

Totally agree also. (y)

 

In fact, I really don't believe the "option" should even work if there are others in an elevator with scheduled stops. I'm not even sure the option should be there at all even though we have and will have it. :o

 

We have been in several elevators when someone also used the option; nobody in such circumstances knew what happened though and was just wondering out loud. We would, if we were getting off also (or staying on), would explain to the others what the "option" and we would apologize to them for having to experience such use that we considered inappropriate.

[Norwegian Cruiser 73]

Thank you very much for a great review from the MSC Seaside. Very nice to read. I'm glad that you liked MSC and enjoyed your cruise onboard :)

 

Greetings from Norway:)

[Linda the Book Lover]

Thanks so much for your review.

[MisterBill99]

Random thoughts:

 

 

• We had one incident in a full elevator with a YC guest, a ”graceful” lady with a need to state loudly her status and wave the wristband in the air. She used her wristband to go to deck 19 (we got on at deck 5 and were going to 11). All the other people’s selections were erased and we got up first. However, there was somekind of a glitch in the system and the elevator only went to 18, then back down to drop us off at 11 and others where they were going. The YC lady had a taste of her own medicine and got a free ride up and down again with us poor people. :') I laughed so hard after getting off (not at her), she seemed confused.
  
• I think this elevator ”cutting in line” allowed by MSC is not cool (erasing everyone else’s floor selections when a YC guest steps in). Luckily this only happened once.
  

That's amusing. We had a YC family cut the line to get back on the ship one day. A ship employee walked them up the gangway with his Yacht Club card and they got in front of everyone else (and this was after we'd already been waiting because they only had one computer working and still had people leaving so we had to wait for them.. MSC really likes to let you know your place on the ship!

YC passengers can also touch their card to the button area to call an elevator. They come really quickly!

[mafig]

I think it happens the other way too.

 

I seem to remember a few times being on Deck 16 (Divina) and hitting the down button to go to Deck 7 so we could walk across to the restaurant, the elevator arriving full of passengers who wondered why they ended up on 16.

 

It's not all elevators that do this.

[Beamafar]

We had a YC family cut the line to get back on the ship one day. A ship employee walked them up the gangway with his Yacht Club card and they got in front of everyone else (and this was after we'd already been waiting because they only had one computer working and still had people leaving so we had to wait for them.. !

 

That doesn't happen on European cruises. If there isn't a separate YC gangway provided (which there very rarely are), YC guests queue jist like everybody else.

 

Sure, there are some who sail in YC who are extremely demanding and think they're better than everyone else, but they really are in the minority. If you really want to experience those with an over-blown sense of entitlement and outright snobbery, look no further than suite guests on Celebrity - after sailing a couple of times in YC, our experience on X was an eye-opener!

 

 

 

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[Frode]

Hej från Stockholm - great review, Estjali [emoji106] Thanks!

[CTBob]

Thanks for the excellent review. Always nice to know that others also enjoyed the Seaside as much as I did. One week of my B2B was in the Yacht Club and I refused to use the elevator over ride. I didn't like it when I wasn't in the YC and the elevator passed me by so I didn't want to do that to anyone else. It probably wouldn't have been such an issue if all of the rear elevators were working. Hopefully the elevators are all working by now. Bob

[Tids64]

Thanks for a very informative review, the departure schedules was very helpful I now know when to arrange our pick up, thanks. :D

[korpo024]

Disembarkation: I posted the departure schedule for Miami earlier today (and attached the image again in this post). We were allocated 9:15am disembarkation time, but opted for the Express walk off instead as you had to vacate your cabin by 7am anyways. Also we had booked a rental car and planned to continue our trip to Fort Myers (where we came today) for a few more days so wanted to get off earlier. The process went smoothly, and although there were dozens and dozens of others in the Express walk off line, it went quickly. We left the breakfast room at 7:15am and were at the Budget by 8am.

 

Random thoughts:

• We had one incident in a full elevator with a YC guest, a ”graceful” lady with a need to state loudly her status and wave the wristband in the air. She used her wristband to go to deck 19 (we got on at deck 5 and were going to 11). All the other people’s selections were erased and we got up first. However, there was somekind of a glitch in the system and the elevator only went to 18, then back down to drop us off at 11 and others where they were going. The YC lady had a taste of her own medicine and got a free ride up and down again with us poor people. :') I laughed so hard after getting off (not at her), she seemed confused.
  
• I think this elevator ”cutting in line” allowed by MSC is not cool (erasing everyone else’s floor selections when a YC guest steps in). Luckily this only happened once.
  
• Other than the above, we didn’t really notice being the ”economy class”. I guess YC people stayed in their section of the ship.
  
• We didn’t have the best cabin steward. He took our used beach towels twice without replacing them. I had to go and find a crew member to get new ones, which luckily was easy. Once we run out of hand soap as he hadn’t refilled it. Had to leave a note to get it fixed. Otherwise he was very friendly.
  
• There were never long lines for bars, food or getting on or off the ship. All of this was handled very efficiently by the crew.
  
• We were very lucky with the weather (very warm all the time, no winds to rock the boat). All the water slides, zip lines etc. were open each day for the people to enjoy.
  
• We never noticed the sewage smell or poo odour (which someone had reported), other than when standing behind some pensioners in a breakfast line. ;p
  

Wrap-up: I appreciate people can have very different experience on the same cruise, depending on their expectations. We had realistic ones after reading the initial reviews and when comparing to our local cruise experience in Finland. Despite some of the poor initial reviews, we were happy to see that many of the initial issues had been fixed. Also we were lucky to not having to visit the Guest service desk once. At the beginning of our cruise, we decided to tune into a vacation mode, not let minor issues bother and have a great time. This is exactly what we did and had an amazing first Caribbean cruise.

 

Wow! What a great review! And a refreshing one after all the complaints.... And well written, with a bit of humour! I loved it! ;)

[kbklcamp]

You wrote a great review. Thank you so much and enjoy your time in America .

 

 

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[Estjali]

I agree 100% here. We never would even think to override the elevator, but did use it when we were the only ones on. However; we never could quite get it to work right. I"m sure that one was operator error.

 

OP: I love your review!! It literally glows with 'first cruise' excitement. I bet you're hooked on cruising now :). The whole thing makes me smile for you.

 

I do have one question though, Did you ever smell septic/sewer?

 

Hi BermudaBound2014 and thank you for the kind words. Going on a Caribbean cruise has always been on my bucket list and I’m very happy to cross that one off now! :D We loved our first cruise and would love to go back one day.

 

 

With regards to septic smell, as I mentioned in my last post on the review part, luckily we didn’t smell that anywhere on the ship. Hopefully that issue is a thing in the past now.

[Estjali]

Thank you for your thoughtful review! I think many have had their expectations appropriately set by reviews pointing out where the ship might fall short. Any ship will have pluses and minuses.

 

There was so much excitement built up that I think the early cruisers may - understandably! - had unreasonably high expectations. We will follow your example.

 

I must compliment you on your English, not only is your grammar exceptionally proper, so is your use of "everyday vernacular" :)

 

Thank you so much for your kind words TrinaLC, happy to hear you enjoyed my review. :)

[Estjali]

As a bella guest, I'm very happy to hear your review of the market place dinner experience!

 

I was wondering how were you able to request the 2 person table for dinner? Did you have to email or call them? Do you have the contact info by any chance?

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Hi oceantriumph, happy to hear the review has been helpful. We fully enjoyed our dinners at Market Place and didn’t request to be seated into the other MDRs after our great first dinner there.

 

We booked our cruise through a travel agency in Finland. I requested a table for two through them and they forwarded the message to the cruise line. Sorry but I don’t have direct contact details for this.