Mocat

We are considering booking a cruise on MSC cruise line and quite frankly, have never heard of it. Does anyone have any info/experience with this cruise line? We are looking to cruise Italy/mediterranean etc. We are an active early 60's couple. Thanks
Mocat

qwovadis

Have done a couple of cruises one with MSC one with Costa

MSC nice ships Italian flair good value pretty ships

Costa usually has the cheapest inside cabins from $299

for a 4 day out of Venice.

Saw them cruising out of Venice at sunset when I was

there in April everone looked happy on board.

As long as you are not to picky for great value

Well worth it for me.

cruises.priceline.com/promotion/msc-cruises.do

Get best booking deals usually also vacationstogo.com

Cruisecritic.com good ship reviews for you.

Happy Travels!

jacketwatch

Though I have never cruised with them I read alot and keep hearing the same thing over and over. Like QV said nice ships but spotty everything else like food, service shows and shore excursions. If you have cruised with say Princess, RCI or HAL MSC will seem like a disappointment in comparison. JM2C.

Rhea58

I have taken a Mediterrean cruise on the Splendida & doubt I
would sail a MSC ship again. They are actively seeking US/Canadian clients but do little in the way of service, the
food is soso, small children are free & run rampant.
Also a language barrier for activities & no port information.

As jacketwatch stated, no comparison to HAL, NCL, etc.

Mocat

Many thanks to all for the info. it's greatly appreciated. I have cruised before and do hesitate to admit that I'm picky, so will pass on this cruise line.
Have a good holiday weekend.
Mo

Tries2PakLite

We cruised with MSC last fall and were pleasantly surprised. We had cruised with Celebrity and were prepared to be disappointed, but the itinerary was what we wanted.

We sailed on the Musica out of Venice and went to Bari, (where we had a wonderful lunch), followed by stops in Greece, and a stop in Croatia. The itinerary was a bit frantic -- we did Santorini and Mykonos in one day! But it was a good way to get a feel for the countries.

The food was good and I found that if nothing appealed to me a good plate of spaghetti bolongese was always available. The service our first night in the dining room was spotty, so we spoke to customer service and got a new waiter who was wonderful.

The experience definitley has a European feel to it -- since it's an Italian line, we assumed that it would.

Would we cruise with them again? -- yes, if the price and itinerary were right.

Mocat

Thanks for the info!!
Mo

HannelieB

My husband and I have been on a 7 day Greek isle cruise from Venice on the MSC Armonia 6 years ago and a 7 day Med cruise last year from Rome with Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the seas.
We will be on the MSC Poesia in September on a Baltic cruise.
We prefer MSC for a number of reasons - except for the ice show on RC, the nightly show/entertainment was better on the Armonia, we also prefer the meals on MSC with 7 courses and smaller portions, as opposed to the 3 course, huge portions on RC.
The Navigator was bigger and shinier, but the cabins were the same basically.
The cabin steward on MSC was nicer than the one on RC.
Having said all of that, both were great cruises - to us, the itinerary is more important than the cruise line.
Good luck with whatever you choose!

LLING

I loved cruising, so I take every year a cruise to different itineraries and cruise lines. Last June, I took for the first time MSC in the Med. I was extremelly disapointed! Customer service is bad,and unfriendly.
MSC claims to be the only company with Italian flavour... for me and other travellers we considered it noisy and very loud, kids and teens running from one side to another of the chip 24 hours a day. We are unable to rest and to take a good nigh sleep.
Food: pizzas, plus pizza. Or the other choice is the restaurant with booked seats, where food is served that takes 2 hours each meal! If one wants room-service has to pay 5 Euros per dish ordered (!).
Communication language is a problem. Many crew members do not speak English.
I will never travell again with MSC. Moreover, I recommend to all my friends not to take MSC

lizfrompa

Just returned from a Mediterranean Cruise on MSC Poesia. This was our 11th cruise and first on a European cruise line. My main comment is "NEVER AGAIN"! This was the worst cruise I have ever taken. Both the food and service were mediocre at best... the best options were the pasta and pizza but I couldn't handle 8 days of it. They frequently ran out of coffee cups, glasses, silverware and ice in the cafeteria and the public washrooms were not kept clean and supplied. In addition many of the listed excursions were cancelled once on board. Overall everything was very disorganized as if this was their first cruise ever. The icing on the cake was that most of the passengers were European which would have been fine with me if they hadn't (for the most part) been so pushy and rude. The buffet was like a free for all. Overall it was not a pleasant experience and in the future I will stick with American cruise lines. FYI... I spoke with other passengers from the US, Canada and New Zealand who had the same opinion of the cruise as I did.

Rhea58

Sorry to hear your cruise seems worse than mine. The ONLY good thing about mine was a balcony cabin. As I stated earlier, they are seeking the American cruise market w/o a clue on how to
service that market. The crew, the food, the entertainment were all sub-par. Better luck w/future cruises.

charli

I never understand why threads from years ago are pulled up and answered. The OP has long gone.