MSC Needs to add a better Variety of Carribean Ports

[lcpagejr]

I have enjoyed my past MSC cruises....  Several years ago. But to be honest...their carribean cruise option ports are bland and underwhelming. For a company trying to compete and be a player  in the N American market...they need to offer a better variety of ports.  No interest in sailing them again based on current ship offerings and port offering over next couple years

[mushroom]

Sometimes the size of the ship determines the availability of ports.  MSC has some pretty big ships.

[lcpagejr]

7 minutes ago, mushroom said:

Sometimes the size of the ship determines the availability of ports.  MSC has some pretty big ships.

Yes and No... Seems like San Juan is furthest East they go on closed loop cruises originating in FL. No St Thomas, No St Martin, No St Kitts, etc.  These are islands other lines big ships visit. Seems they are in love with Nassau which is always a stop even though their Private island is within viewing distance.  

[JT1962]

Most of their cruises spend at least one day at Ocean Cay, with some itineraries spending two days there. That limits how far they can go on a 7 day roundtrip cruise and still allow a reasonable amount of time in the other ports.   I’m sure that the cost of fuel, space availability in ports, contract terms with the ports, etc. also play a role in the itineraries.

 

They also offer some great itineraries sailing from St Maarten, Barbados, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by JT1962

[Essiesmom]

Looking at cruises on cruisetimetables for all lines, it appears San Juan is as far as you can go on a 7 day cruise.  Add a day and you can get St. Thomas.  If they skipped one of the ports on the current itinerary they could add St Thomas.  But don’t look for that to happen.  EM

[lcpagejr]

16 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Looking at cruises on cruisetimetables for all lines, it appears San Juan is as far as you can go on a 7 day cruise.  Add a day and you can get St. Thomas.  If they skipped one of the ports on the current itinerary they could add St Thomas.  But don’t look for that to happen.  EM

Nassau is a waste and should be dropped….I’ve done Nassau, a 4pm -12am stop in San Juan,  and St Thomas on 7 day cruises…. St Thomas has is only around 60 miles from San Juan 

Edited December 3, 2022 by lcpagejr

[GA Dave]

My cruise on Meraviglia is going to Aruba and Curacao.  I'm really looking forward to those.

[lcpagejr]

1 hour ago, GA Dave said:

My cruise on Meraviglia is going to Aruba and Curacao.  I'm really looking forward to those.

You'll enjoy that...Just got back from a 8 night Odyssey of Seas cruise wuth stops in Curacao and Aruba

[yellow-submarine]

2 hours ago, JT1962 said:

They also offer some great itineraries sailing from St Maarten, Barbados, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

 

Yes indeed, it make more sense to cover the south caribbean from these islands. It is very time effective. Also they do 7+7 day itenareries making a figure 8 loops around these islands which is a great idea.  But as everything it has it pros and cons: these islands have limited number of flights. Some have flights only 3 days a week, making it risky if just one flight is cancelled they can't put the passangers on an alternative flight in time for a cruise.

[neptuno]

Agree with OP.  MSC is cheap for a reason.  Anyone been to Ocho Rios lately, they dock at the industrial port.

[peder]

2 hours ago, neptuno said:

Agree with OP.  MSC is cheap for a reason.  Anyone been to Ocho Rios lately, they dock at the industrial port.

Which port is that on the map? I only see one terminal even remotely close to Ocho Rios, so I'm not sure which one you're referring to

[shipgeeks]

The lack of variety/exotic ports seems to be the case with any major cruiseline, esp on 7-night cruises. IMO, what MSC has in their favor is Ocean Cay, which is far superior to any other private island in the area.  And with some itineraries staying there overnight, it's a real winner.  I'm happy to just go there, and skip Jamaica/Nassau/Antigua/all the rest.

[CGTNORMANDIE]

Book a sailing on a smaller ship like Windstar if you want to go to interesting ports.  The MSC ships are too big and too fuel hungry to do much else.  We have resigned ourselves to just enjoy the ship and no longer seek tours or excursions to the islands…seen it, done that and been there.  When I first went to Nassau in 1971 it was quaint and interesting.  Paradise Island was still referred to as Hog Island…the original name.  Landing in Nassau today consists of making the 300 yard dash through the throngs of people and jumping on the Atlantis shuttle so I can make my deposit at the casino and return to ship.😳

[nautica34]

Would nice to have more Caribbean options on the 7 day sailings. Before Ocean Cay opened I was on sailings that went to St Maarten, St Thomas & Antigua (Antigua and St Maarten weren't on the same cruise) along with the other ports.  I have sailed longer sailings (10 & 11 nights) that included Aruba, Costa Rica, Columbia & Panama. 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

On 12/3/2022 at 9:16 PM, neptuno said:

Agree with OP.  MSC is cheap for a reason.  Anyone been to Ocho Rios lately, they dock at the industrial port.

I was on an MSC cruise earlier this year and in Ocho Rios they docked at the pier adjacent the cruise terminal and the city. I have no idea where you docked if you're saying they docked at an industrial pier.

 

To the OP,  try the MSC cruise out of Martinique. It goes to Trinidad, St Vincent and Grenada. We did this a few years ago and those southern islands are wonderful destinations seeing very few cruise ship calls. You want something different, there they are.

[Essiesmom]

10 hours ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

I was on an MSC cruise earlier this year and in Ocho Rios they docked at the pier adjacent the cruise terminal and the city. I have no idea where you docked if you're saying they docked at an industrial pier.

 

 

We were on Seaside, docked at the regular pier in Ocho Rios.  This is Pullmantur Monarch, docked at the industrial pier, sometimes called the James Bond pier, as i believe parts of a James Bond movie were filmed there.  

 

This is what it looked like next to that dock in 2010

 

 

Here you can see a Royal Caribbean ship at the main dock, and Emerald Princess at the industrial dock to the left.

 

 

 

 

[Selion]

On 12/3/2022 at 2:14 PM, JT1962 said:

They also offer some great itineraries sailing from St Maarten, Barbados, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Yeah, but have you checked the air fares to FDF or PTP?  At least for my area, it's more expensive than flying to Europe!

 

Years ago before Ocean Cay opened, I remember MSC used to sail to Costa Maya, Roatan and Belize on some of their western Carib itins.  No longer.  We get 1 to 2 days at Ocean Cay.  I like a day or so at a private island, but not at the expense of visiting other ports.

[ready2cruzagain]

13 hours ago, nautica34 said:

Would nice to have more Caribbean options on the 7 day sailings. Before Ocean Cay opened I was on sailings that went to St Maarten, St Thomas & Antigua (Antigua and St Maarten weren't on the same cruise) along with the other ports.  I have sailed longer sailings (10 & 11 nights) that included Aruba, Costa Rica, Columbia & Panama. 

MSC does do longer 11 night cruises to Costa Rica, Aruba, etc. on the Divina out of Miami. We have done this cruise twice and love it.  I just wish they would do it on a newer ship. Even though the Divina is my favorite ship, I like the newer spas.

[JT1962]

1 hour ago, Selion said:

Yeah, but have you checked the air fares to FDF or PTP?  At least for my area, it's more expensive than flying to Europe!

 

Years ago before Ocean Cay opened, I remember MSC used to sail to Costa Maya, Roatan and Belize on some of their western Carib itins.  No longer.  We get 1 to 2 days at Ocean Cay.  I like a day or so at a private island, but not at the expense of visiting other ports.

Yes, airfares are expensive to most of those locations, but it is an option if someone is willing to pay more for different ports than are offered from the US ports. 
 

I am sailing on the Divina in January with stops at Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel & Ocean Cay and in May with stops in Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya & Ocean Cay.  Both are 7 days from Miami with 1 day at Ocean Cay.

Edited December 5, 2022 by JT1962

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

7 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

We were on Seaside, docked at the regular pier in Ocho Rios.  This is Pullmantur Monarch, docked at the industrial pier, sometimes called the James Bond pier, as i believe parts of a James Bond movie were filmed there.  

I looked at my pics from this year's cruise and do see that "industrial dock" still there although no cruise ship was docked there during our visit. I guess if there's a second ship calling, one would have to go there. Monarch was scrapped in 2020, btw.  Thanks for sharing!

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

6 hours ago, Selion said:

Yeah, but have you checked the air fares to FDF or PTP?  At least for my area, it's more expensive than flying to Europe!

This is true. We were fortunate in 2019 to have Norwegian Airlines flying from Fort Lauderdale to Fort-de-France nonstop with low fares on our embarkation day. On the return though, we were forced to fly American and it was expensive.

[Nikita4]

The french antilles are Europe a french oversea territory. Purhaps its of this that the prices are so high?

[neptuno]

OP mentioned North American originations, not sure if that includes Fort de France.  But as one who frequently has sailed MSC from Florida, we enjoyed the Eastern caribbean quite often, St. Thomas, St. Maarten and even San Juan (the milk run).  Better was the Southern caribbean, longer, 10 or 11 nights on Divina.  Any stop at Aruba or Curacao, or Cartagena is worth a few extra nights aboard.  Colon, not so, next time we'll take transport to Panama City.  Bottom line is Ocean Cay is not worth it, although enjoyable for a day and a sunset, more than a day would only make MSC like a Norwegian Sun booze cruise, only without any decent snorkeling yet.

[Selion]

21 hours ago, JT1962 said:

in May with stops in Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya & Ocean Cay

That's an itinerary I'd jump on, but it's not available for Sep 2023.  Also, I just did a search for May 2023 and that's not showing either.  We know how MSC can be with itinerary & ship changes...

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

23 hours ago, Nikita4 said:

The french antilles are Europe a french oversea territory. Perhaps its of this that the prices are so high?

That's only part of the reason. The main reason is the lack of demand to go there by Americans which consequently leads to a lack of airlift from the U.S. For instance, only American Eagle and Air France fly to PTP from Miami and only JetBlue from JFK. Meanwhile, nearly every airline flies to SXM so you can find much lower fares.