My take on MSC. 10 pros and 10 cons.

[Stockjock]

I read a lot of comments, asking whether or not one should book MSC.  After 4 or 5 cruises on MSC, here's my take.  I've probably booked at least 8-10 cruises, but about half were cancelled by MSC, due to covid or other schedule changes.  But I've been through the process quite a few times.  

My general thought is that if unsure, once should consider trying MSC.  Even though I've experienced positives and negatives, I've never had a bad time on an MSC cruise.  However, pre-cruise frustrations may have taken months or years off of my lifespan.

Feel free to chime in if you have additional questions or comments to share.  

Pros:

1. MSC usually offers excellent value.

2. Their ships are beautiful, especially their newer ships.

3. While I haven't personally done Yacht Club, and while it isn't cheap, YC seems to offer more amenities than many other similar suite experiences.

4. Most entertainment is pretty good.

5. MSC's ships tend to be well-maintained, perhaps the best, or one of the best, at this in the industry.

6. Cabins are well-serviced and kept very clean.

7. Diverse international passengers who tend to be well-behaved.

8. MSC is ecologically and environmentally sensitive.

9. Tours are relatively well-priced.

10. Voyager's Club offers status match & meaningful discounts, at times.  Easier to advance due to status match.

Cons:

1. Customer service shoreside can be maddening.  Local service agents cannot fix many problems.  Italy's response can be slow or non-existent.

2. While improving, pre-cruise communication can be spotty.

3. Announcements in many languages, which while understandable due to their clientiele, can grow quite tedious.

4. While shows are decent or better, they tend to be short.  We actually like this, but some may not.

5. Muster drill process seems longer and generally inferior to updated processes on other cruise lines.

6. Food is hit and miss.  Rarely bad, but rarely especially especially good or memorable.  Mostly average.

7. Basics, such as Kleenex & washcloths, are not provided.  You may be able to get them by asking.

8. Previously, staff could be rude, snotty or unfriendly.  I did note substantial improvement on my most recent cruise.  They hired more Filipinos, which helped.

9. A lot of pressure to buy or upgrade drink or dining packages.  They tried to get me to spend $40 on wine w/a terrible rating, even though I had a drink package.

10. Voyager's Club, while potentially easier to achieve status via status match, offers fewer perks at top levels versus the competition.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Stockjock

[rdslone]

I have only one pro, they did not kill us!

[Selion]

25 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

Muster drill process seems longer and generally inferior to updated processes on other cruise lines.

Agreed.  Their current muster drill process is even worse than their muster drills before the pandemic. 

[CampNCruise74]

To beMostly on par, although arguably, No. 3 on Con's is only that way if you don't speak English as your primary language.  To be fair, if one speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French or German it might be characterized as appreciated first and foremost or impressive in my case if its the Captain of the ship speaking all those languages at once. 

[Gatordad1967]

fair assessment, although I found the food to be generally good everywhere on the ship.

 

[perakcruiser]

What @Stockjock did not mention - probably because it is not relevant for him - is the killer pro for most of the guests. "Kids cruise free" and the totally amazing free of any charges Kids Club and attitude towards young guests that is not even closely matched by any other line. 

 

Agreed with @CampNCruise74, yes, the multi-language stuff can be tedious, but it is also an

irreplaceable gesture of respect to all guests on board. OK, not all, but most. 

[Stockjock]

25 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

What @Stockjock did not mention - probably because it is not relevant for him - is the killer pro for most of the guests. "Kids cruise free" and the totally amazing free of any charges Kids Club and attitude towards young guests that is not even closely matched by any other line. 

 

Agreed with @CampNCruise74, yes, the multi-language stuff can be tedious, but it is also an

irreplaceable gesture of respect to all guests on board. OK, not all, but most. 

Yep, we don't have kids, but I can see where that could be a big advantage.

I'm coming at the multilingual situation versus other cruise lines I've sailed on.  Obviously, it's helpful for anyone who speaks those languages, but hearing a joke or announcement in 6 languages can get a bit old.  I understand why they do it, and also understand why it could be annoying to some.

[Nunagoras]

Good summary, thanks. A few notes:

 

The very international clientele can be a no-go for some on the American market.

I have never had that drinks and dining packages upsell. At least here in Europe, if they're doing it now, that is a novelty for me.

I'd add to the shoreside bad costumer service that their website is ugly. Currently the Portuguese version is by the most part outdated from early September for no apparent reason. No news from the next season's installments, or other news. No joy on the World Europa debuting whatsoever and all the past summer cruises are listed as if they were open for booking!... I know, that might to be a local sort of thing, but I give it as an example alone.

I wouldn't say the employees are rude. Quiet reserved professionalism at best. I don't want my dinner waiter to behave like if he was my best friend for the day! I want him to properly deliver what I order.

Not only the new muster drill process may be bad, I believe the whole check-in and check-out processes are the main negatives they have. Surely the credit card validation machines are a safety plus, but other than that, they should try to make the check-in process more costumer friendly. At least here in Europe it is usually a line creation for the sake of line creation with no additional advantage. With current technology it would to easily possible for them to add such a 30 seconds per pax check-in process, removing most of the lines!

 

Have a nice day!

[1kaper]

2 minutes ago, Nunagoras said:

The very international clientele can be a no-go for some on the American market.

I have never had that drinks and dining packages upsell. At least here in Europe, if they're doing it now, that is a novelty for me.

 

 

I sailed out of Port Canaveral.  When I boarded the ship there were staff EVERYWHERE holding menus of things to sell.  We sat in the  main area and had a drink.  We were approached numerous times to purchase an upsell.  They were at breakfast in the morning as well.

I think after the first two days it was done.  But I have to say I wasn't a fan. I have no issue saying no and I realize they are only doing their job but I would have preferred not dealing with it at all.  Or at least a lot less. 

[Stockjock]

11 minutes ago, Nunagoras said:

Good summary, thanks. A few notes:

 

The very international clientele can be a no-go for some on the American market.

I have never had that drinks and dining packages upsell. At least here in Europe, if they're doing it now, that is a novelty for me.

I'd add to the shoreside bad costumer service that their website is ugly. Currently the Portuguese version is by the most part outdated from early September for no apparent reason. No news from the next season's installments, or other news. No joy on the World Europa debuting whatsoever and all the past summer cruises are listed as if they were open for booking!... I know, that might to be a local sort of thing, but I give it as an example alone.

I

 

Have a nice day!

Even though the Euribia cruise I mentioned in another thread has been cancelled, they are still accepting bookings on it, which doesn't make much sense to me.

In 2020 and 2021, I had 2 cruises that had been cancelled, yet MSC didn't tell me for many months and in fact insisted that they were moving us all to new ships, which never happened.

I've previously mentioned the most egregious example I've seen.  They moved me from a 4 night out of Barcelona to a 20-night out of Brazil on a different date with no notification in any way (no e-mail, phone call, letter or text).  Fortunately, I happened to look closer not long before final payment.

Definitely some room for improvement in this area.

[LatinaInTexas]

Recently took my first MSC cruise in Seashore and you covered the big picture accurately. Of course everyone has their own take.

I hated the chaotic muster drill. Hated being assigned a 5:15 dining time and they couldn't get it changed. Didn't even notice any multi language announcements lol. Found the food pretty amazing but would have liked more choices to pick from at dinner in the dining room.

Found it really strange there were no washcloths in my cabin.

Overall everything else exceeded my expectations.

[Stockjock]

14 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Recently took my first MSC cruise in Seashore and you covered the big picture accurately. Of course everyone has their own take.

I hated the chaotic muster drill. Hated being assigned a 5:15 dining time and they couldn't get it changed. Didn't even notice any multi language announcements lol. Found the food pretty amazing but would have liked more choices to pick from at dinner in the dining room.

Found it really strange there were no washcloths in my cabin.

Overall everything else exceeded my expectations.

Speaking of changing dining times, here's what happened on a 2019 MSC cruise.

They made some changes and got the dining time wrong (early rather than late, which I had originally selected).  Because I had issues before when calling them to correct errors, I figured I'd just correct this one on the ship. 

Early, on day 1, I visited the Maitre'D and there was no one else waiting to talk to him.  I told him that I had booked late dining, but when MSC changed the reservation they moved me to early seating.  So I asked him to try to move me to a later seating.

He looked me unsmiling, with utter contempt and disgust.

He said, sternly, "Do you have ANY idea how many passengers I have on this ship?"

I replied that I wasn't certain, but quite a few I would imagine.

He said, again in a mean way, "Fifty-five hundred.  Fifty-five hundred passengers.  And *YOU* want early dining.  Am I understanding you correctly?!"

I replied, "Yes sir, I'd sure appreciate it.  We actually booked late seating, but it got changed when I did a promotion change."

With a disgusted look on his face, he changed the seating time and damned near threw my MSC card at me.

My GF and I still joke about this to this day.  I'll ask her, "Do you have any idea how many passengers I have on this ship?!"  She'll reply, "Fifty Five Hundred!  I have Fifty Five Hundred passengers and *YOU* want late seating!!!"

Edited October 17, 2022 by Stockjock

[LatinaInTexas]

5 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

Speaking of changing dining times, here's what happened on a 2019 MSC cruise.

They made some changes and got the dining time wrong (early rather than late, which I had originally selected).  Because I had issues before when calling them to correct errors, I figured I'd just correct this one on the ship. 

Early, on day 1, I visited the Maitre'D and there was no one else waiting to talk to him.  I told him that I had booked late dining, but when MSC changed the reservation they moved me to early seating.  So I asked him to try to move me to a later seating.

He looked me unsmiling, with utter contempt and disgust.

He said, sternly, "Do you have any idea how many passengers I have on this ship?"

I replied that I wasn't certain, but quite a few I would imagine.

He said, again in a mean way, "Fifty-five hundred.  Fifty-five hundred passengers.  And *YOU* want early dining.  Am I understanding you correctly?!"

I replied, "Yes sir, I'd sure appreciate it.  We actually booked late seating, but it got changed when I did a promotion change."

With a disgusted look on his face, he changed the seating time and damned near threw my MSC card at me.

My GF and I still joke about this to this day.  I'll ask her, "Do you have any idea how many passengers I have on this ship?!"  She'll reply, "Fifty Five Hundred!  I have Fifty Five Hundred passengers and *YOU* want late seating!!!"

OMG.I tried 3 times once I boarded to try and change mine. Basically I got the same vibe but after seeing the people before me leave in disgust and one screaming and yelling down the hall I took my table change and called it a day. I can just picture your scenario😂🤣

[Stockjock]

4 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

OMG.I tried 3 times once I boarded to try and change mine. Basically I got the same vibe but after seeing the people before me leave in disgust and one screaming and yelling down the hall I took my table change and called it a day. I can just picture your scenario😂🤣

I think that they've screwed my dining times on one or both upcoming cruises.  But I'm afraid to call MSC because it can change the pricing, cabins and/or promotion.  So once again, I'll address it once I'm on the ship.

May God have mercy on my soul.

[blueslily]

I've enjoyed sailing on MSC. I was aware before getting to the ship that I could just ask my cabin steward for a box of tissues and a washcloth. I did that Day 1 and I had everything I needed every day (sailing from Miami).

 

Staff were friendly. As others have noted, I don't really need the staff to act like we are best friends. I don't know them. Some Americans seem to want that type of interaction. I'm not sure why. I'm American and I don't care for really chatted people and I don't believe it's my place to be asking staff personal questions either. Americans do that all day on main US cruise lines. It must get tiring for staff. 

 

I have not had any major issues during the booking process. Once a mistake was made and it was fixed quick. It was not a mistake that is specific to MSC. Anyone on a different cruise line could have made that mistake. 

 

The ships are indeed beautiful. No complaints. Other than the Seashore has some odd layout on a couple decks for public venues. But, once I figured it out, I just followed the route and got from A to B. 

 

I travel internationally so I'm not bothered by different nationalities, foods, and languages. 

 

I'm on a cruise. Not sure why I would be grumpy about small stuff. Looking forward to my birthday cruise on the new MSC Seascape in February!

 

Happy cruising everyone. Definitely check out MSC. Save money and enjoy cruising 🤗🌞🛳🏝

[HikingPete]

15 hours ago, Stockjock said:

2. While improving, pre-cruise communication can be spotty.

 

I'm on my first MSC cruise in November, and I've definitely found that I agree with this, to the extent that even my own TA was obviously frustrated.

[asalligo]

18 hours ago, CampNCruise74 said:

To beMostly on par, although arguably, No. 3 on Con's is only that way if you don't speak English as your primary language.  To be fair, if one speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French or German it might be characterized as appreciated first and foremost or impressive in my case if its the Captain of the ship speaking all those languages at once. 

Wow, this is 2022 and we still have people not getting with the program and speaking English. I hate when I go to other countries, and they all pretend not to understand me. So not cool. 

 

[1kaper]

I think you nailed most of what I would have said.  We also had an issue where our dining time got changed when we got an upgrade but we had no issue changing it.  But we were also sailing very under capacity. 

My #1 Con for MSC is the drink packages.  I HATE how it is done.  Trying to figure out the different levels and what goes with what.  I was worried the whole time I would order a drink that wasn't covered by my package and be charged for it.  
I did eventually intentionally order two drinks with top shelf liquor in it and was alerted both times that it wasn't in my package and I would pay. 

There are so many questions on the drink package.  I suppose it is better for some people who would like to have an option of price point.  

[BklynBorn47]

20 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Feel free to chime in if you have additional questions or comments to share.

Just off the Meraviglia TA (Marseille to PC) where we had a great experience.
I agree with your PROs

As for the CONs

#1 We found the customer service pre cruise to be exceptional.  Never did we have a representative answer the phone as quickly as MSC did.  We needed this because we found the website terrible.

#3 We loved the International Vibe including the announcements.  I would try to understand the Spanish ones while my husband worked on his French and Germain.  Just our thing, I suppose. 

#5  We had an easy and efficient muster drill which I now think is because our muster station was the Broadway theater.  We relaxed in the seats and watched the video.  Just lucky I guess

#6 We thought the food was fine, especially the Italian dishes.  I liked being able to view the menus ahead of time on the screen in our cabin.  I’m allergic to fish and like to know what options I have before arriving in the dining room.  Twice in 18 days we opted for the buffet.

#9 NO ONE asked us to buy or upgrade anything except the photographers who kept suggesting we have our pictures taken. 

Finally the VALUE!  Our 18 day TA was not much more than the cost of flying home from Europe.
I am glad we tried MSC and will definitely book them again although after reading reports of short post TA Caribbean cruises, maybe not on one of them.

[Homosassa]

Based upon a conversation I had with my cabin steward when he delivered the requested box of tissues, the reason that tissues are not routinely placed in the cabins is as follows:

 

The tissue box holder was in the bathroom within reach of the toilet.  Passengers were using the tissues as toilet paper instead of the toilet paper.

 

The tissues were causing plumbing issues when flushed.

 

As a result, MSC has the policy that boxes of tissues will only be provided upon request.

[Gatordad1967]

16 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Speaking of changing dining times, here's what happened on a 2019 MSC cruise.

They made some changes and got the dining time wrong (early rather than late, which I had originally selected).  Because I had issues before when calling them to correct errors, I figured I'd just correct this one on the ship. 

Early, on day 1, I visited the Maitre'D and there was no one else waiting to talk to him.  I told him that I had booked late dining, but when MSC changed the reservation they moved me to early seating.  So I asked him to try to move me to a later seating.

He looked me unsmiling, with utter contempt and disgust.

He said, sternly, "Do you have ANY idea how many passengers I have on this ship?"

I replied that I wasn't certain, but quite a few I would imagine.

He said, again in a mean way, "Fifty-five hundred.  Fifty-five hundred passengers.  And *YOU* want early dining.  Am I understanding you correctly?!"

I replied, "Yes sir, I'd sure appreciate it.  We actually booked late seating, but it got changed when I did a promotion change."

With a disgusted look on his face, he changed the seating time and damned near threw my MSC card at me.

My GF and I still joke about this to this day.  I'll ask her, "Do you have any idea how many passengers I have on this ship?!"  She'll reply, "Fifty Five Hundred!  I have Fifty Five Hundred passengers and *YOU* want late seating!!!"

very selfish of you..... 🙂

 

[BklynBorn47]

11 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Based upon a conversation I had with my cabin steward when he delivered the requested box of tissues, the reason that tissues are not routinely placed in the cabins is as follows:

 

The tissue box holder was in the bathroom within reach of the toilet.  Passengers were using the tissues as toilet paper instead of the toilet paper.

 

The tissues were causing plumbing issues when flushed.

 

As a result, MSC has the policy that boxes of tissues will only be provided upon request.

That makes sense.  We requested tissues also and the cabin steward provided them.

[CampNCruise74]

19 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Good summary, thanks. A few notes:

 

The very international clientele can be a no-go for some on the American market.

I have never had that drinks and dining packages upsell. At least here in Europe, if they're doing it now, that is a novelty for me.

I'd add to the shoreside bad costumer service that their website is ugly. Currently the Portuguese version is by the most part outdated from early September for no apparent reason. No news from the next season's installments, or other news. No joy on the World Europa debuting whatsoever and all the past summer cruises are listed as if they were open for booking!... I know, that might to be a local sort of thing, but I give it as an example alone.

I wouldn't say the employees are rude. Quiet reserved professionalism at best. I don't want my dinner waiter to behave like if he was my best friend for the day! I want him to properly deliver what I order.

Not only the new muster drill process may be bad, I believe the whole check-in and check-out processes are the main negatives they have. Surely the credit card validation machines are a safety plus, but other than that, they should try to make the check-in process more costumer friendly. At least here in Europe it is usually a line creation for the sake of line creation with no additional advantage. With current technology it would to easily possible for them to add such a 30 seconds per pax check-in process, removing most of the lines!

 

Have a nice day!

TOTALLY agree about check in.  We recently were on Carnival Mardi Gras and I COULD NOT BELEIVE how well they did getting people on in an expedited way.  The online check in process with credit cards, kids registrations, pre-purchased internet plans we got, passport stuff, was all so easy.   MSC needs to send all of their people over to the Carnival check in desk to witness a well oiled machine and make changes accordingly. 

 

Check out was bad however on the Mardi Gras and they didn't advocate  people checking luggage and instead brining it off themselves which created a fiasco.  On the Mardi Gras you had to go get your departing luggage stickers from the main desk and not from your room attendant like MSC does, assuming they still do that for people not wanting to wheel all of their luggage off themselves.  I kind of felt they might be trying to free up labor by getting people to take their own bags off. 

 

On MSC, we usually stay on and eat a long breakfast at the buffet with a few cups of coffee and try to avoid the crowds and just leave later. 

 

For Muster on Carnival we just had to report to our station at our leisure the first day and they scanned our cards and we were done! Viola!  Easy Peasy!

[CampNCruise74]

2 hours ago, asalligo said:

Wow, this is 2022 and we still have people not getting with the program and speaking English. I hate when I go to other countries, and they all pretend not to understand me. So not cool. 

 

That's pretty myopic.  Uh Yeah.  It's 2022 and guess what the official language of Miami Dade County is?   Spanish.  Maybe they do understand you and might not feel their English is good enough to respond?   

Edited October 18, 2022 by CampNCruise74

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, asalligo said:

Wow, this is 2022 and we still have people not getting with the program and speaking English. I hate when I go to other countries, and they all pretend not to understand me. So not cool. 

 

I think that’s a total mischaracterization of my comments, and I think that if you read it again that will be obvious.  
 

The issue is not whether or not other people speak different languages, it’s that having to listen to the announcements or jokes in five or six languages can get old for someone who is not used to that, and perhaps even for someone who is used to that.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Stockjock