Seaside & Aurea Whirlpool Balcony review 1-19

[Scooters]

Mrs. ScooterS and I just returned from a week aboard the MSC Seaside.  This is about cruise number 8 for us.  It is our first time on MSC.  Other trips have been on Carnival or Royal Caribbean. We were on the Eastern Caribbean loop.  We are a married couple of 60-somethings.

 

We had an Aurea suite. Yeah, we got the one with the balcony whirlpool tub. We also got the upgraded drink package. The packages have changed since we booked.

The weather was as close to perfect as one could ever expect.  It was about 73-78 degrees each day and didn’t get much below 70 at night.  We had sunny or partly-cloudy skies all week.  We got about 1 hour of rain showers the morning that we got to St. Martin…. Again, a perfect weather week!!

 

There was little or no sickness apparent on-board.  I think that the spotless ship and a lot of luck helped.  There was hand sanitizer at each dining room entrance and most seemed to use it.

 

This was the most “International” of any cruise that we have been on.   In our previous cruises out of Galveston, the largest groups had been from the US or Mexico, with a few others on-board.    On the Seaside, I believe that we had people from more than 40 countries and many languages.  Key announcements were done in about 8 languages and printed materials were printed in multiple languages as well.  There were many, many Europeans on-board.  English was the go-to language for everyone.  In addition to the US, we really enjoyed meeting a folks from Sweden, Canada, Slovakia, Germany, France, and several other countries/languages! Only 2 crew members were form the US, the Cruise Director and one young lady at the tour desk.  It is amazing how well crew and customers from all over the world can get along on a ship.  Too bad that doesn’t happen in the real-world.

 

Here are some thoughts, in no particular order……

·       The ship is absolutely beautiful!  It has a clean, modern look, without being “over the top” modern. There is a ship-wide emphasis on maintaining that beauty.

·       The ship is spotless.  Cleaning and maintaining is truly a passion.  I can’t begin to explain how much time and effort the crew spent scrubbing and cleaning. 

·       The onboard shows are some of the best that we’ve seen. There is a lot of variety within the limits of the size cast that can be expected at sea.  Absolutely, make sure that you attend the Michael Jackson show on the last cruise day!

·       The balcony was great!  The whirlpool was “marginal” for us.  We used it a couple of times, but could probably could have done without.  See other posts and pictures about these whirlpool balconies.  You can see and be seen all up and down the line of the ship when you are on the balcony or in the tub.

·       We were on the13th floor.  Also, beware of the extended balconies below us on 9.   They are much larger, but are completely open to the levels above.  Not only can you be seen by higher cabins, your area can be the landing zone for anything that falls from above.

·       We had a small tub in our room.  It would have been helpful if we were travelling with small children, but a shower would have been fine for us.

·       The Aurea experience was expensive, but we think it was worth it.  The massage was great, and we went to the thermal suite every day. See note on the my-time dining.

·       Embarkation was eazy-peasey.  We were in line at about 11:30 we were on-board and ready to eat within about 30-45 minutes. The Aurea priority line sure helped after we went through security.

·       Disembarkation was super easy too. Our Aurea experience got us scheduled to depart at 8:05.  By 8:30 we through Customs and off the ship with bags in-hand. By 9:00 the Alamo Rental Car shuttle had us at the Airport to pick up a car.

·       Strong Recommendation:  Get a Porter when you disembark.  We had several bags (and one had a broken wheel). We zoomed through customs.  When we got outside, the porter got us right to the front of the line for the rental shuttle. Otherwise, I suspect that we would have been in the shuttle line for a half-hour or so, during the rush. That alone, was worth a nice tip!

·       Elevators were busy and sometimes there was a wait, but nothing too frustrating.

·       We got the “Deluxe” drink package.  In reality, we probably could have done just fine with the “Classic,” but it all depends on what you want and how much you drink the good stuff.

·       With “included” or “prepaid” drinks, the bars were always busy.  It seemed worst around the pools.  However, the drinks themselves were well-poured and plentiful.  I’ll give a special shout-out to Paul in the sports bar (you can’t miss the large black man from Jamaica). He knew how to make a drink and was a lot of fun. 

·       We ate dinner each night in the dining room.  With Aurea, we got the my-time dining, which we loved with the “unique” port schedules on this trip.  Our wait crew was excellent and took very good care of this. They were occasionally busy, but rarely rushed.  We really enjoyed the service and the conversation. I can’t speak of the specialty restaurants as we didn’t try them.

·       Breakfast and lunch (when not in port) were at the buffet for us.  The ship was completely full and that showed at the buffet.  It was a bit chaotic, but we always found a place to sit.

·       Make sure that you get the spa tour and try the thermal spa.  We went down every day.  The salt room was our favorite.  If it wasn’t in you package, it might not be worth the extra $70 per day/per person.  Hint: I have heard that you can use the thermal spa for the day, when you get another treatment (unconfirmed).  My wife got her haircut for only $39…..

·       The food…… The topic of much discussion.   The food throughout the ship was “OK.”  It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t great, it was “OK.”   There was a lot of variety at dinner, but not so much at lunch and very little change at breakfast.  If you are a true “foodie,” this may not be the cruise for you unless you want to hang out in the specialty restaurants.  The other 90% of us should do fine.

·       We didn’t spend as much time as many at the late-night parties, or the “contests” at the pool, but everyone seemed to be having fun.   Everyone was upbeat and really seemed to enjoy themselves.  We definitely had more fun than some of the cruises on,…… well you know a couple of the other cruise lines.

·       There were a few exceptions.  Some people won’t be happy with anything.  Special Message for the older man in the yellow shirt at the buffet on the last morning:   You didn’t need to loudly and repeatedly berate the young server because he ran out of scrambled eggs and couldn’t get a new pan out fast enough for you.   You are a grown man. You should be ashamed of yourself!  The crewmember kept his cool with you, but obviously took your tongue-lashing personally and disappeared shortly after your tirade.  I apologized to him through a supervisor behalf of the other customers who heard your tantrum.

 

Overall, I think that this is our new favorite cruiseline!  Yes, they need to work on the food a bit, and yes, everyone would have been a bit more comfortable if the ship was only 80% booked.  If there are questions, please fire away….

 

 

[livingis2me]

Thank you for your review.

 

We have the same type of room booked for this upcoming Saturday. Did you use the minibar? If so, did they replenish it each time the room was made or once per day?

[Scooters]

5 hours ago, livingis2me said:

Thank you for your review.

 

We have the same type of room booked for this upcoming Saturday. Did you use the minibar? If so, did they replenish it each time the room was made or once per day?

 

I don't think that it was restocked more than once a day.  We left them a note on specific items we wanted a couple of times, and they magically appeared the next time we got back to the room. 

[Scooters]

Oh yes,  one more suggestion......  There is a lot of closet space (for a ship's cabin).  However, the clothes hanging space isn't real wide. To make it worse, they hangers were all the wide "suit" type in our cabin.  

 

I would strongly suggest that you bring a bunch of cheap wire hangers (drycleaner style).  Sub them for most of the Suit hangers and you will have a lot more room....

[Scooters]

I keep adding as I think of more things.   We flew Southwest into Ft. Lauderdale and took Uber to our Hotel, Miami Hampton Inn Brickell.  The hotel was very nice, and breakfast was much better than most.  Many nice restaurants withing walking distance. Several have rated it in the Departures section.   The Hotel offered an $8 shuttle to the port on cruise morning.  

When we disembarked, the porter got us and our bags directly to the Rental Car Shuttle.   We didn't depart until Saturday Night, so we took a nice Florida drive.  Alamo was only about $60 for a medium SUV one-way from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

All Easy Peasey!!