Anyone been on MSC World Europa?

[GenghisQuan]

Eyeing a Western Med cruise in December, current choice is between MSC World Europa and Costa Smeralda, but I can't seem to find any reviews on either of these ships. Has anyone been on World Europa and give their experiences with this ship?.

[Essiesmom]

Scroll back a page or two.  Someone did a live from on the Europa repo.  
Actually, it’s on page 6.  When looking for threads on a particular ship, you can go to the upper left of this boards page,, and under the Find Your roll call is See posts about, and next to that click on select ship and a drop-down menu will list the ships.  World Europa is just listed as Europa.  
  You can do the same on the Costa board, but doubt you will find much, as Costa cruisers don’t have much of a presence on Cruise Critic.  EM

Edited May 5, 2023 by Essiesmom

[fowler9]

Was on the Costa Smeralda in April. Haven't been on the Europa but heard positive reviews. Have been on other MSC ships and have to say do prefer them to Costa. Depends on what you're after. Costa I would say suits the younger crowd more, quality of food not as good as MSC, bit more loud. However if price is a factor, I'm guessing Costa comes in cheaper than World Europa. For me, would choose Europa

[Stockjock]

I do have a booking on World Europa, but that's not for a few months.  I haven't been on Costa either.

Both cruise lines are polarizing.  You'll find customers that love them and who hate them.  In my view, these are probably the 2 most polarizing cruise lines sailing.

Despite some warts, I'd likely go with MSC.  It's a pretty good experience if you don't call them.  Food is acceptable and plentiful.  Their ships are beautiful and not so gaudy like Costa.

I've sailed on MSC 5 times with a 6th coming soon on WE.  I've always had a nice time on their ships, despite a some frustrations here and there (mostly related to land-based customer service).

If the price is comparable, I'd start w/MSC.  If Costa is much cheaper, you could look at trying them.  I would sail on Costa under the right circumstances.  During the height of the pandemic, they had some crazy cheap sailings.  But like everyone else, Costa's prices have increased quite a bit.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Stockjock

[Nikita4]

yes we are cruising on the World Europa in December/January in the Arabian Gulf. It was the second Cruise of the Ship and not really well organized. We traveled in the Yacht Club, and have long waits for Dinner and for Lunch on the Pool Deck.  There was not enough Staff for the hole Ship.

 

The Layout of the Ship is good, we like the inside and outside Promenade on Deck 6 with the Fast Food an Pizza Restaurant inside. The Slides and the Entertainment was good.
But the YC is bad, the restaurant, the Pool Deck and den TSL are too small.

It was our worst cruise ever... we don't want do cruise with this Ship in the future.

[B_A_H]

There hasn't been a review of the Europa's Mediterranean sailings; only the Middle East and repositioning.  To me, neither are really representative because of unique factors such as passenger mix (ME was packed with Russians) and provisioning and staffing which appear to be more difficult in the ME. The reviews I've seen are meh at best and have been from European and Middle Eastern cruisers who have different perspectives than Americans.

 

I'm sailing on Europa next Friday from Barcelona in YC.  I'll do a live or semi-live review from the ship.  I'm hoping that since the Med is MSC's backyard that some of the issues reported previously get ironed out. I've done the Med with MSC before and was in YC on Divina in January so I'll have something to compare against.