MSC Seaside 7-11 short review

[1kaper]

This was my second MSC cruise.  My first was last year during COVID restrictions, same itinerary, different ship (Divina last time). 

 

This year I cruised with my mother, sister, niece, a friend and her niece. 

We booked an inside cabin, Fantastica.  My sister booked inside with Bella.  She ended up in a wheelchair accessible room, which was quite nice.  

 

Embarkation

We had a 12:30 embarkation time.  By the time we got to port it was later, closer to 2pm.  We chose the line for "outside of check in time" and basically walked right through to security.  We didn't wait at any point.  It was very fast and smooth.  10/10. 

 

Muster Drill

When we got on, my friend had some seats.  We had a few drinks. Some went to grab some food.  We hung out there until rooms were ready - which was pretty much when it was time to do muster drill.  We went to our rooms, watched the drill, called in the code and then went to our muster station to swipe in. Ours was 2 floors down.  It was a zoo trying to get down.  People who had finished up were trying to get up the stairs, the rest of us trying to get down.  Once we got there it went fairly quick.  Except the next day I got a note on my cabin door saying their records said we did not complete the drill.  There was an announcement at breakfast about it but I couldn't hear what they were saying would happen if we didn't do it. I heard a number of other people saying they got the same note despite having completed it.  A bunch in our social media group had the same.  I called guest services to let them know, she was pretty unconcerned and told me not to worry about it.   To avoid any further issues, I called again and put in the code.  We did not get any more notices. 3/10

 

Room

The room was fine, it was clean.  As mentioned, it was my first inside room.  I can't say that I'm a fan.  I've only ever done balconies and I think I would continue to book balconies in the future, particularly if travelling with  my husband and kid. I feel like in a balcony room, if i come back to relax I still feel like I'm on a cruise.  

The beds were hard, same as my experience on my last MSC.  

 

Elevators

This was the first cruise we took that had the newer type of elevators.  I heard on Carnival you put in the floor you are going to, and the number of people in your party.  Here you only put in the floor.  The first day was an absolute nightmare.  I assumed they were using some of the elevators for luggage.  Every elevator that came was jam packed and stopped at every floor.  I thought the new system was to avoid that. 
Normally I would take the stairs but this time round I was recovering from treatment that severely limits my fitness level.  And I was travelling with my mom who is also very limited due to a heart condition. Going up the stairs several flights was simply not an option. 

Other days were better other than peak times.   But I noticed that if you were going up, everyone got the same elevator assigned, didn't matter what floor.  You only got a different elevator if you were going down.  Not sure how this is any different than that usual setup. 

The other frustration was that if you weren't standing right in front of the elevator, you didn't get on.  People didn't care who was first.  Sometimes you had to wait for 3-4 elevators before there was room on one.  If one happened to open that wasn't close to you, the people who came behind you just got on.  It was very frustrating. 

 

Food

The pizza, as always, was awesome.  I can't say that I ate much else at the buffet.  Breakfast buffet was fine.  We did eat at the late night buffet and that was always good.  MDR was hit and miss.  Italian night was my favourite last year.  This year it was not.  I had carbonara that was pretty tasteless.  I wasn't as impressed with the food as last time but it certainly wasn't awful for the most part.  There was a long, long line to get into the dining room the first night.  The second night we still lined up but it went quicker.  There was lots of cutting in line. 

 

Drinks

We had the easy plus.  I loved that you could order a drink that wasn't in the package and pay the difference.  I tried a champagne and a few cocktails.  I also got my woodford reserve in my old fashioned.  
Line ups were long.  The staff was working hard but the bars were often overwhelmed with people. If a server took your order it would take a long time to get (I understand they are busy) and it was often hard to get a server to take orders.  

The other issue was not all the bars were stocked.  They all had the same menu but you couldn't order all the drinks on it. They had a fancy Gin and Tonic menu that a couple of us wanted to try.  I never did find a bar that could make most of them, let alone all of them.  I think we got to try one and one of the ingredients was still missing. 

I did find a new favourite - the Hugo. 

 

to be continue...

[1kaper]

The ship

 

Overall I liked the ship.  Last year I found Divina was very  compartmentalized.  Maybe it was because some parts were closed due to COVID.  I found it wasn't hard to get around this ship.  I didn't find it too big.  Very few times I had to go to another floor to get across the ship.  It was clean overall. 

I did go to one washroom near the Shine bar on the first day. There was no soap in one sink.  At the end of the cruise it was still empty.  I would have expected that to be picked up. 

I like the Jungle pool area because it provided shade. 

A few of us did the zip line.  It was fun but pretty slow.  Not scary at all.  The waterslides were similar. 

 

Entertainment

I didn't do any of the shows.  We did karaoke two nights. Some of the group went to the silent disco.  We checked out the deck party one night but didn't love the music - just personal taste. 
 

Ports

We did Nassau and Ocean Cay.  I've been to Nassau a few times so I stayed on the ship and quite enjoyed it.  Some of my group went to Junkanoo Beach.  The rest went to Warwick Resort.  Both enjoyed their time. 

We rented umbrellas at Ocean Cay. And enjoyed floating in the water.  Again the bar was jam packed and took forever.  
We waited too long and the food court closed.  The two food trucks close to us had run out of food and closed as well.  We went over to Lighthouse Beach to get something from the food truck there. When we got back the bar at the lagoon was closing. Shortly after that they closed the lagoon.  Apparently it closes at 5:30 pm everyday.  I was not aware.  Lighthouse Beach stays open. 

 

Debarkation

Some in our group chose express debarkation. The rest of us walked off later.  It was chaos for both groups. The line up started near the exit, went back through the bar, past the chocolate shop, all the way back into the theatre, around and back up.  It was a long, hot wait.  The express people took over 45 minutes to get off.  It was more than an hour for the rest of us.  I have never experienced a debarkation like that.  From what I read, some floors were called more than an hour after their scheduled time to get off.  I know they were calling people to debark while there was still a long line.  0/10

 

Overall Experience

Overall we had a good time but I may  not be as quick to book another MSC as I was before.  I've sailed on full ships before and haven't experienced lineups and congestion like this.  

It was definitely a party atmosphere.  I know that shorter cruises usually tend to be more booze cruises.  That wasn't my experience last year, but it was a totally different circumstance.  Sea day at the adult pool was quite the experience.  Lots of very full people, people doing pushup competitions. A very different vibe than other cruises I've done.   
There was one man in particular we kept running into who was very drunk and was starting arguments with people regularly. 
I know there are rude people everywhere but I ran into a lot more of it this cruise.  As mentioned with the elevators, people cutting line (and not caring if they got called out).  There was even one lady who wouldn't move her bag so two people could sit down on the trolley instead of just one. 

 

We already had another cruise booked on this ship for September so I'll see if this was a one off.  It is also a longer cruise.