Live Review, MSC Seashore - March 14-17

[alserrod]

Just now, squigglydownunder said:

Ah yeah, I don't imagine you'll get much American CWS coverage on a European sailing.

 

 

With streaming everything is possible. It is enough to have it in the menu for TV that.... if someone wanna, he can watch it.

Another issue is if they will play in the evening in Europe or whilst night (and Sports bar is closed).

 

 

[squigglydownunder]

2 minutes ago, alserrod said:

With streaming everything is possible. It is enough to have it in the menu for TV that.... if someone wanna, he can watch it.

Another issue is if they will play in the evening in Europe or whilst night (and Sports bar is closed).

True.

[nattie]

On 3/15/2024 at 10:59 AM, squigglydownunder said:

Yeah. That's new for me. I think every other cruise we've taken, they had the rooms gated off.

Princess lets you in the room immediately, but they do request that you just drop off your luggage. We normally pop in, drop luggage and go explore.

[tukogirl]

Thank you so much for this thorough review and all of this wonderful information! We are cruising in 2 weeks and this is just invaluable!

[nattie]

13 hours ago, tukogirl said:

Thank you so much for this thorough review and all of this wonderful information! We are cruising in 2 weeks and this is just invaluable!

+1

Thank you very much for your efforts to keeps us informed. They are greatly appreciated!

[Stealthdog]

Post Cruise Thoughts:

 

Please keep in mind that this is just one person's (two, really) thoughts and its based on comparing experiences we have had on other cruises.  Cruises experiences can also change, even on the same ship, so what we experienced could be different on the next sailing.

 

Service

 

Overall, I thought the service on the Seashore was ok.  We have never been on a cruise with terrible service, so we were happy with the service on board.

 

Bar Service.  The speed of getting drinks on board was pretty good for us.  We have been on sailings before where you could wait 15-20 minutes just to put an order in at the bar.  We didn't have that experience on the Seashore.  Each bar had multiple bartenders behind the bar, and one area where I think the Seashore exceeded was the waiters/waitresses did a great job walking the floor and getting drink orders from passengers.  We were even standing in line at the bar one time and a waiter came up to us to get our drink order and brought them to our seats.  At some of the theme parties, they brought out some portable bars which were great to help speed up the drinks for passengers.  The quality of the drinks was hit or miss and they probably need a little more training on the drinks.  This is based on receiving Mojitos with vodka instead of rum on a couple of occasions.  

 

Cabin Service.  Again, no issues here.  We very rarely saw our room steward, but our room was always well maintained and cleaned.  We don't usually have many demands, but whenever we needed anything (ie extra towels) they were prompt.  We even had a nice heart-shaped towel on one of the nights, which was greatly appreciated.  Overall the service in the cabin was similar to our experiences on other cruise lines and was fairly good.

 

Restaurant Service.  One caveat is we very rarely eat dinners in the MDR, so most of our evening dining service is specialty restaurants where you expect a higher level of service.  That said, restaurant service is probably the area where the Seashore needs the most training.  It wasn't terrible, but there were times we were waiting 15-20 minutes to place a drink order, and one breakfast we never had anyone come to get drink orders.  One night in the MDR, our waitress spilled a glass of wine that splashed on 4 people (at two different tables).  Fortunately, it wasn't the White Party Night, but she disappeared for about 30-40 minutes, presumably to go back to her crew cabin to change shirts because one of her sleeves was stained.  Noone covered down for her and we went most of the dinner without bar drinks or refills of water.  The supervisors on the floor should have recognized and ensured her tables were covered while she was gone.  Similar drink issues in the buffet.  They had devices on the table that looked like you could call for beverage service, but none of them appeared to work.  We only had one time the buffet where someone stopped to provide beverage service.

 

Internet Service.  On day one, there were multiple staff stationed near the photo shop to assist customers with getting onto the ship wifi.  The staff there were quick and helpful.  

 

We never had any engagements with the Guest Services or Excursions, so really no basis to provide comments.

[Stealthdog]

Food

 

Compared to MDR and Buffet experiences on other cruise lines and ships, I thought the food was better than average on the Seashore. 

 

MDR.  The quality of the meat (particularly NY strip) was much better than our recent experiences on Princess and NCL.  The MDR menu itself wasn't very exciting, but the speed of the kitchen, the presentation, and the quality were all good.  The two exceptions are the pasta and the deserts.  Quite frankly, the pasta was boring and simple - it was like something I make at home, and on an Italian based cruise-line I guess I had higher expectations for the pasta.  Several of the deserts (cheesecake and lemoncello cake) were very dry, and i didn't take more than one bite of them.  Grandmother's Chocolate Cake was the only good desert I had in the MDR.  The breakfasts were all standard - omelets, eggs to order, sides, breads, etc.  I thought the breakfasts in the MDR were as good or better than our other cruise lines/ships.  

 

The one major food issue we had in the MDR was lack of variety for special diets.  Eric switched to a vegan diet for health reasons and there really wasn't much for him in the MDR.  The menu would normally have 1 item available for appetizer and 1 item available for entree that were vegan.  The restaurant staff was pretty good in bringing him off menu things, but MSC should really step up its game in this department.

 

Buffet.  We were pleasantly surprised with the buffet.  We typically avoid it because of other passenger's behaviors (touching things with fingers, eating in line, rude behavior, and other hygiene things), but we didn't see much of that this time.  There was a really good variety of options in the buffet for breakfast and lunch, and it looked better than recent cruises we have been on.  There was also a good selection of vegan items, so more options for Eric than the MDR.  The pizza was pretty good, but it was American style and not Italian style, which is what I would have expected.  But, it was still better than most cruises we have been on.  

 

There were peak times where seating in the buffet area was difficult, so I'd recommend go earlier or later than the bulk of the crowd.

 

One area that was lacking on the Seashore that we have seen on other cruise ships was little cafes or free restaurants outside of MDR and the buffet.  Typically you will see a little coffee cafe that has complimentary sandwiches, pasties, etc and some type of grill that provides your standard burgers, hotdogs, and french fries.  Some cruise ships also have a restaurant that provide standard pub food (wings, nachos, etc).  The Seashore doesn't have this, so your food options are limited to the MDR, Buffet, Room Services, or Specialty Restaurants.

[Stealthdog]

Internet and On Board App

 

This cruise was probably our best experience with an on-board app and something that MSC appears to do much better than other cruise lines.  The App was easy to navigate and use.  On other cruise lines, I don't even bother using their on-board app because it is so bad.  The ease of MSC's app made me want to use it for everything.  From making reservations, easily creating your own daily on-board itinerary, checking the ship's deck plans, reviewing your on-board account....everything about it was great.  We didn't try to use the app texting system because we could just text each other anyways...so not sure how good the app texting is.   Well done with the app!

 

The internet service was also really good on board.  I'm assuming the Seashore was using Starlink because the speed of the internet service was really good with very little interruption.  I didn't bring my laptop with me to check the speeds, but for basic browsing, app-based games, emails, etc....no complaints at all.  One thing to highlight - I thought I read somewhere that you can't use FaceTime while on the MSC on board wifi.  That is not true - we used it daily while on board.

 

Ocean Cay has its own wifi connection.  So, when you leave the ship, you have to log onto the Ocean Cay wifi.  We just turned off airplane mode and went off wifi because we have free data in the Bahamas with our cell service.  But for those who don't, you will have wifi access on the private island as well.

 

Note - there is a little booth area near the photo desks where you can go if you have any internet/wifi issues while on board.

 

[qdog123]

Do you happen to have a copy of the mdr breakfast menu? Curious if they offer eggs Benedict.

 

[alserrod]

1 hour ago, qdog123 said:

Do you happen to have a copy of the mdr breakfast menu? Curious if they offer eggs Benedict.

 

 

 

Yes, they offer. 

 

You can read more menus in other "Live from...."

[Travelbonkers44]

I was on Seashore 10 - 14 of March. Loved reading your review. It's interesting how different your experience was to ours in a couple of areas, on back to back cruises. We had 5400 pax on board (double occupancy capacity is 4600), it was extremely busy at times. Bar service was usually 15 - 30 mins and very rarely less than 10. And the muster drill was an absolute breeze, the TV worked, the phone too, no traffic on the stairs 🙂 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. My full review is still being approved by CC but in a nutshell we loved most of our experience as well and Ocean Cay was a true highlight. And we also enjoyed the buffet. It was surprisingly well organised given the amount of people on board.

BTW yes, Seashore uses Starlink. I was getting 80 Mpbs download /. 40 Mbps upload at sea. Incredible:) 

Edited March 21 by Travelbonkers44