6 Nights Roundtrip Southampton Cruise

Yacht Club delights

Absolutely first class from start to finish. Have read other reviews but this is mine. We were in Yacht Club with a duplex suite. Arrived in car park at 1120 in lounge on ship by 1145. You are treated as a VIP throughout. The ship is beautiful and well maintained. The suite was just as expected. A minor issue with the jacuzzi on balcony soon sorted. Our butler looked after us very well. Anything we needed, phoned him or left a note. Everywhere on the ship staff eager to please, had been trained very well. We had an electrical issue all over ship leaving one port, kept informed and was soon sorted. RESTAURANTS Top Lounge excellent. Menu changed every day, staff big smiles always. Nothing too much trouble. Good variety of food. Butchers Cut Great steaks, well cooked. Fish dishes also excellent. Can sit out in galleria people watching or inside. Indochine best for speciality restaurants we think. French/Vietnamese style. Awesome Saw the ABBA tribute show, well worth seeing. The comedian was very very funny. Will mostly appeal to British audiences. Music act “Christo” was so so good. Lots of genres. Very entertaining A brilliant cruise throughout

Beautiful ship, wonderful experience

Second sailing with MSC, and it's a very enjoyable experience again. The staff are great. The ships beautiful, great pizza, and very inclusive kids areas. The prices are also excellent. I have 3 more MSC cruises booked into 2027 and I can't wait. The highlight for my young special needs daughter was definitely the splash park. From what I could see, it was popular with other families as well. The outdoor deck space was fantastic, with plenty of areas to get away from the crowds and just enjoy the views. We were Aurea, so had a separate anytime dining room. The service was excellent. My only gripe would be that the starters weren't great, but the mains made up for it. The evening entertainment was quite good. They put the show on 3 times an evening which means everyone has a chance to see it. The galleria was also beautiful, and my daughter loved watching the ceiling change. Looking forward to our next time on Virtuosa in August 2026!

Amazing cruise - However was 50% occupancy

There is very little to criticise about this cruise and this ship. I must start by saying the ship was at 50% occupancy, and if you find yourself in the same situation, count yourself VERY lucky as honestly, it is the best thing that can happen on such a large ship. This ship is beautiful and very well planned in terms of how you navigate the spaces. This seems to be a common review of the ship it self, and often it is the amount of people that let it down, so half empty is perfect. I would say that it was comfortable at 50% so I would not want to be on this shop anywhere near 100% occupancy as it I can see it would be horrific in terms of service and space. Lets break down the cruise itself; EMBARKATION Even with less than 1000 people joining in Lisbon (the ship started in the Caribbean) this was not good. There is a new terminal in Lisbon and MSC and the Terminal operator seem to be insistent on not using it as designed and have made a total mess at embarkation process. From queuing for an hour just to drop bags (because most passengers hadnt bothered to attach luggage labels, we had but were not allowed to just drop them even though thats all we did once we arrived at the desk), to 3 people sat at a small table in a tiny space (the terminal space is huge but they pack you into a tiny corner) processing passports - if there were more people boarding this wouldve been truly horrific. GETTING ON BOARD This is always fun, and you immediately arrive into the Galleria which is breathtaking when you first see it, a really impressive space and very much the heart of the ship. You go to your cabin to pick up your cruise card which is attached to the door - I actually DO NOT like this as anyone could go by and pick up your cruise card quite easily. However we were greeted by the attendant who let us into our cabin early and was delightful (Sylvia - she was amazing, although moved off our cabins mid way through which was weird but i expect due to the unusual nature of people joining a longer cruise). THE SHIP ITSELF It really is a brilliant ship. It is well planned with plenty of popular spots not placed too close together to avoid bottle necking as much as possible - again this was 50% occupancy, I doubt it will work like this with 75-100%. It is a big ship, but its super easy to navigate so it doesnt seem like it. The lift system worked well where you enter your deck and are assigned a lift, this works better than everyone jumping in one, but might not work as well at high occupancy as if everyone is trying to use it then they will fill up quickly. The ship is equipped with 2 stablisers although i have to say i dont believe they were used, the ship was not overaly stable, it wasnt bad, but you will feel it even if you are comfortable at sea like i am - i understand they are not efficient and quite costly to use but it does take a way a little bit of the comfort - although that being said sometimes you dont even feel like you are at sea so its quite nice to feel the motion, but if you are prone to sea sickness just be aware. SAFETY DRILL They make a bit of a mess of this, something else Costa do well with their in room safety video. It is a traditional go to a point, hear the briefing then get taken to your muster point and back to room - it was frustrating for us as we went to the theatre for the video and briefing, our muster was the theatre but we were made to sit and wait for 15 minutes whilst they escorted others to their muster point, even though we were in ours and couldve been sent on our way, this was made frustrating by the fact our dining time was set at 5.45 and we were not allowed to leave the briefing until 5.40 so you can see the problem as we hadnt even had time to get ready at this point. THE CABIN The cabin was great, modern as you would expect and had everything you need - plenty of storage space so not sure how much some people are bringing when they complain about this. The bathroom is tiny - in comparison to Costa which is something they do better (although maybe the only thing they do better). The position of our cabin was towards the bow on deck 9, i would advise avoiding this if you are nervous at sea, it is loud during the night when at full speed, especially in the Bay of Biscay when the sea was a little rough as the waves are slamming on the hull and it sounds like god himself is trying to smash through the ship. It is also right above the bow thrusters so expect a wake up call at 6am when getting into port, its seriously noisy. It is well positioned for the ship itself though as its directly below the solarium and has easy access to the Galleria also. There is also a kettle which we did not know - and the TV options are great, be sure to look at Free movies - Wicked was on for us which was great when relaxing late evening. FOOD The food was good, not great but not bad either. We dined in the main restaurant and had a wonderful server and server assistant. The food was small in portion size but then the buffet is open almost 24 hours so if still hungry easy to go grab extra, and they happily send out extra servings in the main dining when requested. The buffet food both lunch and breakfast are again good but not great. Our dining time was 5.45. We initially were not happy with this but tried it the first night and for a cruise where we had no plans to get off at any point we actually ended up keeping it as it left our evenings free and we had no commitments in the day that made it a rush. If you have shore days where you will get off it is a really bad time though, even with kids. SERVICE The service i have to say was exceptional, the crew were extremely happy and relaxed, but very attentive and friendly - I have to caveat they had been on a ship at max 50% occupancy for a week when we boarded so wouldve been well rested and many mentioned having time to talk to passengers for the first time in a long time, so it shows when they are treated well how much of a difference it makes - you could see the worry hit their faces the last night of our cruise ahead of 6k people boarding in Southampton - even today i worry for them. POOLS There were a fair amount of pools on board and the size of the pools is unusually big. They are also heated which seems to be industry standard - not hot but warm and usable even when weather is only up to 20 degrees C. There were a lot of hot tubs on board, i counted 7 in public spaces (not including Aurea and YC) and they were rarely full (again this will change with higher occupancy) the locations of them were great although the side tubs on top deck outside are more wave pools when at sea. SHOWS The carousel shows are worth doing although i would suggest you could easily just watch one as they basically the same content with different stories - if you do this Chess makes more sense than the other one and is a little more impressive, we had less than 20 people watching on both our shows so clearly people even at 50% are reluctant to pay for these shows - this will likely change on 7 night 100% occupancy so if you want to see them book them when you get on boar (you book them at the Indochine reception desk) The main theatre is as you expect, the show quality is entertaining enough but dont expect west end or broadway. Also they now ban drinks in there, which honestly i cannot understand as it does remove the enjoyment a little to not have any refreshment for what can be an hour+ with getting there early etc. BARS There are a lot of bars on board and for the most part they work well. Favourites for us were the pub (which is a clear favourite) TV studio (but only for karaoke as it was not used at all really outside of this) and the sky lounge which is great during the day for somewhere quiet (bar is not open though) but very busy all night. The Virtuosa bar is a bit of a mess - it is the only space really with a ballroom type dance floor, but the bar gets WAAAAYYY too busy even at 50% occupancy, it is right on the Galleria and fills up all night, they have added seats which sit on half the dance floor but it just seems too popular for its design so is just a bit of a mess. DRINKS PACKAGE If you can get the premium extra as standard which MSC do sometimes, it worked out only £200 extra PP for our 5 night cruise which considering on board it is 89 euro per night is a massive deal and we deifnitely drunk more than £200 pounds worth. However, be aware, they have quietly added a 15 drink limit and they do enforce it. No this is frustrating to an all inclusive cruise, but in reality it is extremely difficult to manage to go beyond that and probably a good thing to limit it even if just for your own health. The options of drinks on the Premium Extra package is exceptional, pretty much anything goes, other than bottles of wine / champagne, it is a 14 Euro limit per drink but 99% of drinks are that or below. I cant comment on excursions as i never use them, i find them overpriced and often not worth it as there is always on shore excursion companies and with a bit of planning you can do it better yourself Also didnt really join in the activities on board, they all seem great we just prefer to do our own thing. THE APP It is okay but not great, the UX is a little frustrating but you do get used to it, i would advise spending some time just getting to grips with it as soon as board. The more you can use it the better tool it will be. DISEMBARKATION Like embarkation this was a mess. MSC really dont seem to understand how to manage this and is something i have noticed both myself on other cruises and in various forums and reviews. They just make a total mess of it buy trying to rush everyone out at the same time and causing their own problems. It was also annoying that 2 days before we disembarked we were notified at 11pm that the next morning we would need to go to the sports hall to do a face to face UK immigration check, this prevented any type of lie in as it was mandatory and also meant the sports hall was closed all day on a sea day. There was no advance warning of this and i can see they are trying to find a way to solve their issues but this just made it frustrating 2 days before you even disembark. Mornings are not a thing on this ship, either the noise that is made with the ship itself, crew drills which they decided to do from 8.30am one morning and went all the way to abandon ship, where they were piping the announcements into every room, even though it was a crew drill, immigration meetings last minute, if you want to relax and have lie ins on this ship i would recommend you change your plans. Overall it was a great cruise and so much was great but i feel this was more to do with low occupancy than MSC itself and i wold be very apprehensive to book a cruise expected to be high occupancy with them.