MSC Musica 8/08 We Went Open Minded, Came Back our Heads Down

[SweCruiser]

We are couple in mid 30´s from Sweden. We have cruised earlier with RCCL, HAL and NCL, all these cruises in last 2 years.

 

We took the cruise with MSC, bacause of nice itenary and with strong trust to an european company. We paid higher price than we have paid ever before.

 

Embarkation:

Uncontrolled chaos! Lot of people standing in lines, waiting for nothing.

The MSC stuff acting like police and giving rude orders to passenegers.

Our cabin steward (who was not speaking english) escorted us to our cabin. Elevators were not available, we had to walk stairs to our cabin on 11th floor. Buffet and swimming pools were open. We looked silently each other, when we saw the buffet which was like company cantin and swimming pool which was occopied by hunders of kids jelling and jumping.

 

Ship:

Musica looked nice in photos, bur reality was an other. It is really hard to navigate in the ship, it is the worst maze we have ever seen.

The materials are fake and the "wooden" floors are really cheap plastic imitation. All the furniture looks cheap and the textiles are allready aged and spotty. There is nothing special in this ship - it is boring!!

When you walk around, you here noisies under your foot, seems to be that metal plates are too thin! Floor covers are already worn out.

Pool area is not nice. No real band. No movies in big display. No adults pool. No control for kids. Pools are closed 7PM. No night swimming.

 

Cabin:

Typical balcony cabin. Small toilet. Small balcony. Bedding was from 60´s. Cheap lineans. You can feel the springs against your back. No free movies from tv. Tv is flat panel, but too small and not 16:9. No towel animals. No chokolade on the pillow. Daily program was allways delayed untill midnight. Single windows were extremely hot during sunny days.

We got fruit basket and batheropes. Cabing stewards was nice and shy.

 

Breakfast:

By the cabin service you can not get anything else but bread, pasteries, yellow acid (which they call orange juice), coffee, tea and hot chocolade. No fruits. No omelet. No salmon.

We did not try breakfast buffet.

In dining room the breakfast is almost as good as in the other ship companies. Biggest differece is the orange juice, which is terrible acid! Coffee is not good. There is only one type of tea available.

 

Lunch:

One time during the embarkation day in the buffet was enough. Awfull - like in school cantine. Very limited selection. Pure quality.

In the dining room you must order a lot to find something to eat. Pasta, risotto, pasta, spaghetti and risotto again. But the taste - tastes bad and cheap. Service was slow, but some waiters tried to be nice.

 

Dinner:

Same as lunch - nothing special. The one time we got beef (Gala night) it was uneatable. Italien passengers eated a lot with good appetite.

So if are on diet, this the right cruise line for you. We lost 4kg together! In the other cruise lines we had to take diet after the cruise!

 

Special reastaurants:

Sushi restaurant was OK. we enjoyed asian cuisine a lot. The broiler meet was uneatable. There was no soup offered.

The Italian special restaurant offered same tasteles food as the other restaurants. Fillet beef looked promising, but tasted old.

 

Midnight Buffet:

Pizza was OK. All the rest tasteles.

 

Ports:

Bari, nice old town, nothing more to see.

Katakolon, nice shopping, nice beach. (Walk, do not take taxi!)

Santorini, we took bus to IOA, beautifil city.

Mykonos, WOW something really beautiful.

Athens, Dirty and expensive. Acropolis was still there.

Corfu, we took the bus to nice lagoon bach in Paleokastritsa.

Dubrovnik, was something diffrent, fortress was nice

Venice, a must in the lifetime

 

Crew:

Italan crew was unfirendly and unable to say "Hello" without us saying it first. Indonasians were nice, but tired and pushed by italians.

Entertaiment:

All the 7 shows were almost the same. No real band, only palyback. No scenes - same curtain every night. Best show was childrens talent show!

Bands around the ship were OK. The violins near the reception were excellent! Once again, the pool band was missing!

Fellow Passeneger:

No hellos! Lot of pushing and running around. Rude. Kids jumping in the pool area without control. Lot of noisies in when you tried sleep. Ship was silent only between 03:00-05:00.

 

Summa Summarum:

Avoid! Do not go! There are other lines available. Do not waste your money! Maybe if you really love the Italan way,,,,

[cusyl]

Welcome to Cruise Critic, sorry you did not enjoy your cruise. We have not tried that cruise line yet, but they seem to have very good prices.

[Andy cruiser]

Hi swecruiser,

 

Nice to see a fellow swede on these boards.

I too have sailed with NCL and RCCL. I right now i was considering the MSC Fantasia but your review scared me to death....... I have never sailed with them but was onboard the MSC Opera a day in port in Goteborg and was eating in the restaurant. I liked the food I tried there. But of course their ships do not have the wow factor of RCCL or the restaurant options of NCL. But can it really be this bad?????

 

Andy Cruiser

[SweCruiser]

Dear Andy!

 

I am not joking. It could be nice for somebody cruising first time, but if you have seen RCCL shows or enjoyed Gagneys or Teppanayaki in NCL you will feel cheated with MSC. My wife felt bad from the smell of dining room after 4 days.

 

Go to NCL Gem and enjoy good italian food in La Cuccina.

 

With Kind Regards: SweCruiser

 

 

Hi swecruiser,

 

Nice to see a fellow swede on these boards.

I too have sailed with NCL and RCCL. I right now i was considering the MSC Fantasia but your review scared me to death....... I have never sailed with them but was onboard the MSC Opera a day in port in Goteborg and was eating in the restaurant. I liked the food I tried there. But of course their ships do not have the wow factor of RCCL or the restaurant options of NCL. But can it really be this bad?????

 

Andy Cruiser

[travelbug1948]

Hi

Firstly, It is always sad when your holiday is not enjoyed.

 

I must have imagined I was sailing on the Musica on 6/7 sailing with a large party because we all enjoyed it immensly and the only thing I agree with in your message was that the entertainment was not up to scratch but apart from that I think you should read other comments on The Musica before scaring off everyone else.

 

Once again I AM sorry you did not enjoy your holiday and I do understand it would not be to everyone's taste especially if you wanted a quiet cruise but in general all of us (a party of 8) enjoyed it thoroughly and getting 'on and off' the ship was done speedily and better than any airport departure or arrivals that I have ever witnessed.

 

Regards

Chris:)

[SweCruiser]

Dear Chris!

 

Did you really enjoy the food?

 

Did you really like the "orange juice"?

 

Did you really got good and nice service?

 

Are you an Italian?

 

I must repeat waht I said. MSC might be good for first timer, but if you have cruised before with any quality line, you will hate it!

 

OK! The island visits were well organised.

 

With Kind Regards: SweCruiser

 

 

Hi

Firstly, It is always sad when your holiday is not enjoyed.

 

I must have imagined I was sailing on the Musica on 6/7 sailing with a large party because we all enjoyed it immensly and the only thing I agree with in your message was that the entertainment was not up to scratch but apart from that I think you should read other comments on The Musica before scaring off everyone else.

 

Once again I AM sorry you did not enjoy your holiday and I do understand it would not be to everyone's taste especially if you wanted a quiet cruise but in general all of us (a party of 8) enjoyed it thoroughly and getting 'on and off' the ship was done speedily and better than any airport departure or arrivals that I have ever witnessed.

 

Regards

Chris:)

[Wendy-Europe]

Hi

 

I am sorry, that you didn´t enjoy your cruise - but I am surprised!

 

MSC must be magicians! You wrote, no elevators!

 

How could they remove 4 elevators just before you arrived?

 

Wendy

[MMDown Under]

Hi

 

I am sorry, that you didn´t enjoy your cruise - but I am surprised!

 

MSC must be magicians! You wrote, no elevators!

 

How could they remove 4 elevators just before you arrived?

 

Wendy

 

 

Elevators were not available, we had to walk stairs to our cabin on 11th floor.

 

Please don't shoot the messenger.

[PersistenzaretiniKa]

i've traveled 4 times or maybe even more with msc and also hen it was stil called stralauro. i'm going to sail with opera and i LOOK FORWARD TO IT. msc is very renowned for quality of food, maybe u don't like italian food, wich on mscs is MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH better than on costas. august is the period of familis so it' s normal u find a lot of kids around. if u don't like families i'd suggest u to book with another company. us italian in summer and holydays usually go to bad very late ( 3-5 am) so it's normal u can hear people around the halls all the night.

 

italians can be very rude, it's true, but why people should greet u if they don't know u? even the politer italian would greet u. if he knows u.

 

 

if u don't like italian people or italian food book on another company.

 

and anyway us italians are not all so rude as u portray us. if u don't have fun on such a "normal" ship as mscs it means that u didn't like the place u'd have go even before sailing.

[SweCruiser]

Dear Persistenzaretinika!

 

1. I belevie, that you have travelled 4 times with MSC, but have ever travelled with any quality company like RCI, NCL, HAL etc?

 

2. I loved italian food before MSC. I have had very good italian food in NCL and in RCCL!

 

3. Thank you for your info about Costa food. Now I know to avoid Costa!

 

4. Kids were OK, BUT there was NO control of kids. The jumping was forbidden, BUT nobody was intrested to controll that.

 

5. It is nice, that people have fun untill late, BUT everybody must priciate other peoples sleep in the hallways (and be silent)!

 

6. It is an international habit during cruisies to greet everybody. Specially stuff should greet all the customers! Obviously not an italian habit!

 

7. I will follow your instruction to book non-italian cruise line in the future and I will also recommend everybody TO THINK TWICE before booking MSC!

 

8. You are absolutely wrong! I am an european and I tought that an european cruiseline could do better that one form USA. I was wrong USA has so long tradition in cruising that companys are able to repeatly offer the cruise of the life-time and all passengers are trying to be nice to each other.

 

SO PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ME WRONG, I JUST WANT TO TELL PEOPLE WHO HAVE CRUISED BEFORE, THAT THEY SHOULD NOT REPEAT MY MISTAKE!

 

With Kind Regrds: Swecruiser!

 

i've traveled 4 times or maybe even more with msc and also hen it was stil called stralauro. i'm going to sail with opera and i LOOK FORWARD TO IT. msc is very renowned for quality of food, maybe u don't like italian food, wich on mscs is MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH better than on costas. august is the period of familis so it' s normal u find a lot of kids around. if u don't like families i'd suggest u to book with another company. us italian in summer and holydays usually go to bad very late ( 3-5 am) so it's normal u can hear people around the halls all the night.

 

italians can be very rude, it's true, but why people should greet u if they don't know u? even the politer italian would greet u. if he knows u.

 

 

if u don't like italian people or italian food book on another company.

 

and anyway us italians are not all so rude as u portray us. if u don't have fun on such a "normal" ship as mscs it means that u didn't like the place u'd have go even before sailing.