Is MSC for us? is Bella experience so bad?

[Out of Iowa]

I'm gold on Carnival; my husband has done just two cruises in his life.

 

We cruise in the Caribbean. We prefer lower-level (floors 1 or 2), mid-ship cabins due to seasickness experiences. We might have 1-2 alcoholic drinks on board, nothing more. Maybe five cola beverages in a week. We like dining room food - but wear nothing fancier than skirt/dress for me, khakis + polo-style shirt for him. We enjoy trivia and games onboard, a little bit of music, maybe a bingo game once per cruise, good shows (Carnival has dropped their quality lately) and head back to our cabin sleep early.

 

We are early risers - love to eat outside while watching the sun rise! What time is breakfast? Is room service for a fee an option for Bella cruisers (thinking we would get our kind of lower-deck cabin)? Which dining room might we be assigned? Is the buffet an option - and how is its food? variety? Compared to what is in the dining room at the same time?

 

Do you think we'd enjoy "jumping ship" from the Fun Ships to give MSC a try?

 

Thank you for your thoughts....looking forward to reading them!

[karmic50]

Make the jump! We enjoyed the Seaside very much. The main buffet serves breakfast earlier than the one on deck 16. The entertainment is top notch and the ship is beautiful. Yes, they have bingo throughout the week cruise with the last one being a free cruise. I would assume you would be gold on MSC as well. We are hooked on MSC with three more cruises booked!

[perakcruiser]

In my 10 MSC cruises I had Bella fourtimes and Fantastica fivetimes and a Suite onetime. The difference is very limited, actually the biggest advantage of Fantastica is that you get more Voyagers points. But if you want to have breakfast in the cabin of cause it is useful. Seems to be not the point as you wrote "love to eat outside while watching the sun rise". I don´t know if US pax still get drink vouchers, that of cause is also nice and much more value than the free photo the Rest of the World gets. Really no need to think to much about Bella or Fantastica. Most of the time Bella is sold out anyway and you have to take Fantastica. That is why we have 4 Bella/5 Fantastica.

Sure you should try it, the diversity of the cruise company makes life on the sea much more interesting. All the needs you wrote about will be fullfilled. Shows is a question of taste. Note that from the European perspective MSC are the fun ships, the US ships and the German ships are the serious ones :D

[Kateann61414]

I’ve done Bella once and fantastica once and you can’t tell much of a difference. Fantastica we got drink vouchers and free delivery on room service ($3 with Bella). When it was only a $50 difference between the 2 it was worth it, but the last cruise we were on and the one we have booked it was $150 difference a person which isn’t worth it at all.

[tallnthensome]

I sailed the Carnival Vista last year and just sailed the Seaside with my wife and kids with Bella. Bella made no difference in my absolutely wonderful cruise and we never felt or were treated inferior for one second. I worried too, beforehand. It was out first MSC cruise and the quality of the food and the service made the Vista look like a trip to Wal Mart. Vista was fun but the service and food including the MDR and especially the buffets on the Seaside were vastly superior than it was last year on the Carnival Vista.

[miataman19]

We're gold on Carnival and NCL. Never sailed on MSC. We booked 2 Yacht Club Suites in July 2019. I'm hearing nothing but glowing reports from friends that have sailed on Davina and Seaside who are also Gold on NCL and Carnival. We had a land based vacation planned for January 2019 until my TA called with a great deal for a Seaside sailing. $1200 for 2 inside with Bev on Us package and $100 onboard credit. Going to scout out the ship and see if the food and service NOT in the Yacht Club is as good as my friends say it is. Hopefully it will be.

 

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[Pluto_fan]

I highly recommend this thread started by OneParticularHarbour:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2626962

He has posted menus, food pictures (MDR and buffet), and daily bulletins, so you can get a great idea of food options, buffet hours, daily activities, etc.

 

In my opinion, the differences between Bella and Fantastica experiences are pretty minimal. But if you are thinking about the Seaside, the lowest and center-most cabins are Fantastica experience anyway. Deck 5, the lowest passenger deck, has Fantastica oceanview cabins in the middle, and Bella oceanview farther forward. All the insides on that deck are Bella, though.

 

Happy cruising!

[perakcruiser]

In another thread I wrote a couple of months before "After booking never check the price again, just look forward and enjoy". Great advice! Yesterday I booked on Armonia, thinking about Bella or Fantastica. In Bella their was no choice of cabins, only one available. Finally I decided to take it.

 

So after booking I wanted to check if I really got the last Bella. And certainly I did not follow my own advice and started a test booking, because I wanted to know if this was really the last cabin.

 

Well, yes, it was the last Bella Inside indeed, but after my booking and all Bella cabins gone the Bella price became the Fantastica price ;p

 

Well, not a big thing, I just lost 300 Voyager Points and the free photo, but a little bit annoying it is defnitely. Let´s see if I learnt my lesson this time :halo: