2023 Thanksgiving on Seascape - Fantastica experience, menus, dailies, etc. First time on MSC.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, GOLDENBONNY said:

you really don't know ?

We've cruised to Jamaica before, but never encountered manual searching of all passengers before. Plus, when we were on our balcony on the first night, we smelled somebody smoking weed, so Jamaica is not the only place one can bring it from.

Even if the MSC is searching for weed, this doesn't seem like a very efficient way of finding it, but it is a very efficient way of pissing passengers off.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

3 hours ago, mvh said:

So what exactly had the added charge? Just an extra main dish? You could order extra desserts as well as appetizers/sides? We probably won't since we try to watch the calorie intake and really over do that with the drk pckg, but I am curious.

yes, the appetizers and desserts were unlimited, and we certainly ordered a few each at times.

 

Pastas on the "always available" menu are considered entrees and would incur a $5 if ordered in addition to another entree. We asked the waiter if we could order them as appetizers for free, and he said NO.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, GOLDENBONNY said:

I wonder how would someone do that

well, there is a puff of ammonia that can be used, but people seem to dislike that method when they find out about it. It's not just MSC that I wouldn't trust with raw meat. I know it's marinated and it's supposed to kill everything unsavory, but I just don't trust it. Especially the day before traveling back home. 🙂

[lcpagejr]

"Card Activation Kiosks - a wonderful service. No need to stand in the long Guest Services line to make a deposit, to get the balance back, or to register your credit card. We've used it several times and were pleasantly surprised by the ease of use. Now, you gotta wait when you touch your cruise card to the reader plate until you hear a ding and then proceed to use the services"

 

The activation for credit cards may be for non US passengers?? All my past cruises on MSC, including the Thanksgiving Cruise, it told me my card was already registered  when I placed my room key card on the Kiosk. I did provide my credit card information during pre-cruise registration

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

7 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

"Card Activation Kiosks - a wonderful service. No need to stand in the long Guest Services line to make a deposit, to get the balance back, or to register your credit card. We've used it several times and were pleasantly surprised by the ease of use. Now, you gotta wait when you touch your cruise card to the reader plate until you hear a ding and then proceed to use the services"

 

The activation for credit cards may be for non US passengers?? All my past cruises on MSC, including the Thanksgiving Cruise, it told me my card was already registered  when I placed my room key card on the Kiosk. I did provide my credit card information during pre-cruise registration

 

Not for just non US.  Anyone can link a credit card that they haven't pre-registered.

[blueslily]

On 12/2/2023 at 7:04 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

 

Second, and a real deal breaker - the level of disorganization, especially when it comes to embarkation and disembarkation in ports of call. Good grief.

Why even bother putting the disembarkation deck on the tableau inside the elevator if the person can't see it until they call the elevator to the correct deck first?

Why the horribly long lines to get off the ship? Why are there only one or two disembarkation points with only one crew member manning the station? Why do we have to walk for a mile through the bowels of the ship just to get out? Why are they searching all the beach bags manually in Jamaica? What are they looking for? Why does it take over an hour to get back on the ship? Why are we standing in a hot area without any air movement? They are letting families with kids in strollers through, but elderly adults with walking canes and walkers are ignored.

If there is no line, they will not shorten a walk to the x-ray machine by taking off some of the ropes. You still have to zigzag through several turns. I can do it, but my dad can't. I actually asked for them to let my dad in because we were literally standing right next to the x-ray machine, there was no line, but they were still sending people to walk through the maze of ropes first.

 

 

Hi there, was the long wait to get back on the ship an issue at every port or just some ports? Was it a problem at all times when getting back on the ship or when it was close to sail away time? We will be on the Seascape next week and would like to try to avoid the long waits if possible. So, please let me know if there was any pattern to when the delays were worse OR when it was faster for you all to get back on the ship. 

 

Thanks

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you so much for your comprehensive review and food pictures too!  As I regularly post we have been blessed to cruise since the 1970s. Unfortunately the food aboard ships have become mass market catering primarily due to cost and the massive amount of food required to prepare for the massive amount of passengers.  It is what it is.  We have started sailing with smaller more luxury ships as we age and it does mitigate some of my issues. Nevertheless it is wonderful to read posts such as yours and glad you had time to spend with your family.  All the best!

[xcell]

Thanks for the review -- it is making me ache for my end of year cruise that much more.

 

How did you like the stops???

[Itchy&Scratchy]

2 hours ago, blueslily said:

 

Hi there, was the long wait to get back on the ship an issue at every port or just some ports? Was it a problem at all times when getting back on the ship or when it was close to sail away time? We will be on the Seascape next week and would like to try to avoid the long waits if possible. So, please let me know if there was any pattern to when the delays were worse OR when it was faster for you all to get back on the ship. 

 

Thanks

I was expecting it to be long in Cozumel (people on cruisecritic posted photos of 2 hour lines), so we got back way sooner than I would have liked. There was no wait. Our friends who went on a snorkeling excursion (non-MSC) said it took them a while to get back on the ship.

 

The long wait in Jamaica caught me completely off guard.  We came back early just in case - before 2 pm. Our friends stayed on the same beach longer and they told us it took them forever to get back on the ship.

 

Needless to say, there was a long line for the return tender boats in Grand Cayman at 2:30.  We were supposed to come back from our MSC excursion at 12:30 and I was even contemplating making a beach stop if we had time. Nope. Many MSC excursions were very late that day, so we decided that 2:30 was a good time to just get on the tender. After getting on the boat it wasn't too bad.  The ladies who were in our MSC line with said that they were on MSC on a European cruise and TA right before that, and didn't encounter such messy embarkation on those cruises.

 

An RCI ship was tendered next to us, and their tender boats were leaving from the same dock, and they had no line whatsoever. Maybe, they were in port longer, I don't know. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

2 hours ago, xcell said:

Thanks for the review -- it is making me ache for my end of year cruise that much more.

 

How did you like the stops???

they were nice, although we strongly prefer Southern and Eastern Caribbean. I will post my observations about ports of call later today. 🙂

[lcpagejr]

3 hours ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

 

Not for just non US.  Anyone can link a credit card that they haven't pre-registered.

You are correct. However, in typical MSC confusion...would be nice if they would clarify that those who provided CC to not prior to cruise could disregard! 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 minute ago, lcpagejr said:

You are correct. However, in typical MSC confusion...would be nice if they would clarify that those who provided CC to not prior to cruise could disregard! 

there were many announcements urging people to register their cards in the first couple of days.

 

I didn't preregister our credit cards because I wanted to make cash deposits. To my surprise, this process was very smooth and instantaneous. The night before disembarkation, my kiddo all of a sudden wanted an MSC ship lego set, after I already settled the account. Adding $21.50 through the machine, buying the set and then getting some change back from the machine was a breeze. By the way, I expected some kind of a gratuity to be added to the ship's price, so I added another 15% to the deposit, but there was no tax or gratuity.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Ports of call section. 🙂

 

Our first port was Ocean Cay. We were supposed to stay till 8 pm, but without any warning, MSC changed it to 4 pm.

 

Not exactly the paradise we expected... Sure, it's pretty, but it still needs a lot of work.

 

There weren't enough loungers for everyone, so I had to start my "relaxing" vacation by dragging 5 chaises from all over the Sunset beach to one spot. Many of them were already taken (and there were very few to begin with), so I got a really "good" workout I didn't intend on having. I was tired and sweaty by the time I got the 5th one dragged over. I went ahead of my DH and DS who weren't ready yet because I knew the beaches would fill up quickly, otherwise, he would have been the one collecting chaises.

 

The Lighthouse beach filled up while I was still SPF lotioning up on the balcony.

 

These were taken early in the morning:

 

 

There wasn't a bus service to Sunset beach (big minus for those with mobility issues), but it was a beach with the most natural shade and not too far from the ship. So, mom and I went ahead, and dad slowly hobbled over.

 

If you pick a place other than South Beach (or North Beach) or maybe, Lighthouse beach, YOU MUST HAVE WATER SHOES. The rocks on the beach are unbelievable. I thought Princess Cay was bad with their hidden sharp rocks, but this beach was on another level.

 

 

 

 

The water was a bit cold, but not as bad as we had in CocoCay. It was a beautiful aquamarine color. A little wavy on the Sunset beach side, and super calm on the lagoon side across the road (and a bit warmer).

 

The lagoon side with the rental location. No rocks.

 

We settled next to the Cactus bar.

 

I rented an umbrella for $15 prior to the cruise. Waste of money. First, Sunset beach had natural shade. Second, the rental station next to the ship didn't have any umbrellas. When my DH finally arrived, I sent him to get an umbrella at the rental station on the Sunset beach. It was a bit of a walk. Nobody was there to dispense the umbrellas. DH went twice and came back with nothing. I finally went and still nobody there. I asked a maintenance person who was cutting the grass and he sent me to the rental station across the road (see photo above) at the South beach. They had umbrellas, but no stands, and Sunset beach didn't have stands already in the sand (like the Lagoon side). Also, the crew member told us we HAD to bring it back to the rental station which we did, and that turned out to be a lie.

 

Not fun.

 

Maps... the one downloaded from the app was quite different from the paper one they gave out.

 

Downloaded pdf version showed 3 food trucks on Sunset beach. There were none. This version also showed a rental station on Sunset beach. It didn't have a person manning it.

 

Ocean Cay.pdf

 

Fooled me... we didn't get to eat until we got back on the ship at the end of the stay.

 

The paper version was more realistic. No food service anywhere near Sunset beach, and the rental station is in the correct spot at the end of the South beach.

 

 

Bar Service: the Cactus bar next to us had a very long line pretty much at all times. I managed to get a couple of waters/sodas. At the end of the day we decided to walk around, take some pictures, and found that there was nobody at the Ivory bar. We very happily got some yummy drinks. Per other child's recommendation, DS discovered a zero proof Miami Vice, which became his favorite. 

 

Lighthouse beach at the end of the day.

 

[lcpagejr]

2 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

there were many announcements urging people to register their cards in the first couple of days.

 

I didn't preregister our credit cards because I wanted to make cash deposits. To my surprise, this process was very smooth and instantaneous. The night before disembarkation, my kiddo all of a sudden wanted an MSC ship lego set, after I already settled the account. Adding $21.50 through the machine, buying the set and then getting some change back from the machine was a breeze. By the way, I expected some kind of a gratuity to be added to the ship's price, so I added another 15% to the deposit, but there was no tax or gratuity.

Lol… to the expected gratuity or tax… but you never know!! A simple announcement stating” if you already pre registered your CC… please disregard. But I do understand.., they would rather inconvenience us upfront then chasing down 100’s at end of the cruise! 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Next stop - Jamaica. We have been to Jamaica a few times before, but taxi prices after the pandemic became somewhat unreasonable, considering that we don't usually find Jamaica beaches to be all that picturesque. 

Upon reading some info on Jamaica subforum here on CC, I decided upon going to the closest beach to the left of the pier. I thought - dad could walk that far, right, since most reviews said that once you get to the end of the pier, you are almost there anyway.

 

Surprise! Carnival Horizon was docked next to that beach, and we were a lot farther away....

 

 

We left the ship and asked about a taxi. $5 pp to that beach. About 4 minutes away.... 🙂 Taxi driver decided to fill the taxi to the brim, and our child had to ride in my DH's lap. I guess, not the first time, since the Hampton Inn shuttle driver made us do the same. Keep in mind that our kiddo is well over 100# and 5'. He is bigger than some fully grown adults we know.

 

After a very brief ride we arrived at the public beach. $4 per adult and $1 per kid entrance fee was very reasonable, and $5 per lounger was nice. We couldn't use our inflatable, so the staff member stored it for us in the backroom.

 

We found some place in the shade and set down to the left of the entrance if you are looking at water. A few locals were hanging out  the tables, and the smell of weed was overwhelming at first. Not gonna lie - I was a bit concerned. But in the end it was all good - the smell dissipated, we went swimming, leaving one person at a time to guard our bags, the water was clear and warm, the beach was clean. Many people were using the inflatable park for an additional fee. An occasional "braids? massage?" person was a little annoying, but not overly intrusive. 

 

 

 

 

We had a lovely beach day, which was then almost ruined by MSC.

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

14 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

You are correct. However, in typical MSC confusion...would be nice if they would clarify that those who provided CC to not prior to cruise could disregard! 

I know.  I went to the machine, too, thinking there was still something that I needed to do on my first sailing with them in October.

[blueslily]

How was check in? Which forms did you have to show? I have everything printed out. Just wondering if anything changed since my last MSC sailing which was on Seashore. 

 

I have my cruise ticket ready to go. Will have the health questionnaire. We will complete that in a couple days since the cruise departs Saturday. Passports - check. Did they ask to see anything else? Im traveling with a couple people in tow that are new to cruising so I want them to have all their stuff ready to help speed up the process. 

 

Thanks 😊 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

9 hours ago, blueslily said:

How was check in? Which forms did you have to show?

It probably gets a LOT busier after 11. I suspect that our check in was easy because we showed up early. It was just like any other cruise line if not better.

We showed up around 11 instead of 1:30 and 2:30 assigned times, and got into the building right away, went through x-rays, and a minute later we were in front of a check-in person. He took pics of our passports, looked at the health forms but didn't collect them (I too printed and signed everything), took our pics despite me uploading our photos into the app, got our cruise cards, and we went to a huge waiting room to await our group 21 boarding. 

 

 

The wait took about 30 minutes if not less, but what took a long time was shuffling up the zigzag walkway in a very long line with all the people waiting to board.

 

The day before the cruise we received a text from MSC instructing decks 5-11 to use West entrance, and the rest of the decks to use East entrance of the Terminal C.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Grand Cayman - things didn't go according to plan. MSC Stingray excursion, among many others, was late. We were the last ones to arrive and the first boat to leave the sandbar. Many on our boat got injured to different extent due to the inexperienced captain. My dad had a bleeding gash on his sheen after being hit by the ladder, and I hurt my knee getting back into the boat. Another guy's leg got caught under the ladder when the boat was coming down after a big wave (this was no gentle bobbing). Boat captain kept leaving and coming back, reparking the boat. Ugh. 

 

Boat crew was more concerned about selling photos than about our safety. Didn't provide life vests to kids upon request.

No photos.

Will not repeat.

We had a wonderful 3rd party excursion to the Stingray city back in 2009 - nothing like this disorganized mess.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Thanksgiving in Cozumel.

 

Seascape supposedly docked around 10 am. By the time we got off the ship (sigh...), walked through the mall like terminal, and stood in a super long line to get a taxi, it after noon when we finally got to Playa Palancar.

 

The taxi was supposed to be $25 for up to 4 people, $35 for 5 people and $45 for 6-8 people according to huge posters and placards all over the pier. When we got into the taxi, the driver also said $35. During the ride, though, he started telling us that the price has changed and it's now $45. Insert eye roll. Hubs didn't want to argue and asked me to just hand over $45.

 

To a somewhat unpleasant surprise, Playa Palancar now charges $20 entrance fee per person. It doesn't even include a welcome drink like it does in some other similarly priced beach clubs. So, a beach day in Mexico cost me more than $200 this time. A little steep for a very short beach day, IMHO. However, DH is absolutely enamored with this beach club due to its beautiful beach and waterline. I used to like it because it was inexpensive, pay as you go, with a nice sandy beach for the kid (when he used to play in the sand) with umbrellas and loungers. I still like it because it's exactly what we want in terms of a beach break.

 

Large margaritas and daquiries are $12-17, and non-alcoholic ones are $7. I got a mango daquiri, DH got a mango-strawberry margarita, and DS got a mango/strawberry smoothie.  Yummy as always.

 

You can feed some chips to a few racoons on the premises. They don't want carrots. 🙂 They are junk food oriented.

 

We left sooner than we wanted because I was afraid of a long line to get back on the ship, but it was all good this time. However, on the way back there was no large taxi available, so we had to bargain for 2 regular sedans. Still cost us $45. 🙂

[mawvkysc]

Great review. Non YC info is needed. 
A few thoughts so far:

We’ve cruised NCL post restart. The food was awful. 
 

The water at your table was because of the drink package. Those without it got pitchers of water on my Meraviglia  cruise. 
 

We didn’t have elevator problems on Meraviglia. It didn’t have the smart elevators. The buffet on Mera was quite busy but not unbearable. You could always head aft and there was a back section of food and seating.  If you ever take a chance on MSC again maybe a different class of ship would work out better. 

We loved Ocean Cay but yes it was very hard to get a drink from a bar. In fact we found it hard to get bar drinks generally even on the ship. 

I liked  the format of your review!

[mawvkysc]

On 12/2/2023 at 3:22 PM, dsain said:

Thanks for taking the time to share!  We are doing our first MSC cruise after sailing with all the other major lines and good to see a non YC review.

Here’s a non YC review I did. I kind of do a comparison with a similar class RC ship. 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

And now - about the most enjoyable part of our cruise: the Easy Plus package and wifi. I booked it when I made a reservation, because the rate with "included" drinks and wifi was very attractive.

 

We do not drink alcohol at all, but we may get a cocktail or two on a cruise if we have OBC to burn through.

 

Since we had an Easy Plus package on this cruise, we decided to put it to good use. We definitely consumed many bottles of still and sparkling mineral water, kiddo enjoyed sodas and mocktails, I personally enjoyed 2-3 specialty coffees a day (they were very small), and both DH and I enjoyed a couple of cocktails a day. I can't handle more than 2 without being out of commission completely, so that's what I had, unless they weren't yummy and I abandoned them, getting something different in their stead.

 

As far as bars and bartenders go, YMMV.  

I believe a lot of people on CC were complaining that drinks were watered down, but being the cheap drunk and a weakling when it comes to alcohol, I thought just the opposite... 🙂

 

Beverages' taste and appearance heavily depended on who is making them.

 

After many tries, I discovered that Angela at the Casino bar makes the best (for me) appletini and lemon drop.

 

Hugo - didn't like it. I don't think it had any elderflower liquor in it.

 

Several times I ordered an appletini at another bar (Seascape, Shine, Marina), and the bartender would accept my order, get half way through making the drink and then inform me that he didn't actually have apple schnapps, so he was going to use another type of alcohol. The results were often unpredictable and not at all delicious.

 

I think this was a mango margarita: it was great!

 

Mudslide - too much alcohol. Basically, I guess what I wanted was a milkshake with a hint of alcohol and what I got was alcohol with a hint of a milkshake. 🙂 Very pretty!

 

 

 

White Russian. Also too much alcohol, but pretty as well!

 

 

DH had a few mojitos and we both really liked Mango Tropical Trooper. He also loved Lava Rock (a frozen drink), but I didn't find it on any menus.

 

I found this menu on our last night at the Casino bar.... lol

 

 

 

 

Probably a lot more readable in pdf:

 

QR_S_COFFEE-AND-BAR-LIST-GENERIC_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1694195722.pdfQR_Q_BAR-LIST-GENERIC_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1681927896.pdf

 

I didn't find any of the fancy coffees listed in the first file at any bars. When I asked what was available, because they didn't have a menu handy, I was told: espresso, americano, cappuccino and latte. I opted for lattes and cappuccinos - they were very good, but I am not exactly a coffee connoisseur.  I mostly ordered coffee with my breakfast at the buffet, directly at the Buffet bar, if the line wasn't too long. If it was, I'd come back later. I used a waiter service once, but he got back so late, the coffee was cold.

 

The wifi packaged worked fine in browsing mode (FB, email, reddit) and even played videos on reddit. We didn't try to stream, but I think DH listened to Spotify a bit.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

I've just remembered what I didn't like about the balcony - a very short back on balcony chairs. No head support at all, so you cannot doze off on the balcony:

 

 

 

RCI Allure chairs were just a little taller:

 

 

 

I liked tall Princess chairs (despite their very small balcony size):

 

 

 

[StellaGrace]

Thanks for your review. It was really thorough, informative, and easy to read.