slow start- but well worth the wait

We boarded the ship in Lisbon. The queues were long, and the boarding process at the port felt quite chaotic. However, once on board, we were warmly greeted by the courteous staff. They were consistently friendly—whether it was simply saying good morning or offering helpful tips for exploring ports. We absolutely loved the staff onboard. Our waiter even made us an origami dragon during dinner, which was such a fun touch! On the final evening, the team surprised us with a dance show, and one of the managers even did the worm, which was totally unexpected and hilarious. While the weather wasn't great, the crew made sure there were plenty of indoor events and activities to enjoy. The theatre shows were fantastic. We attended Michael Star Walker, which was excellent—I couldn’t recommend it more. We also played bingo, which was a bit pricey at €20 per triple, but it was still a lot of fun. We visited the spa as well, and it was a relaxing haven onboard. We were lucky to get access for free as MSC Voyager Club Gold members. Tip: Make sure you know all the benefits included in your cruise package. As gold members, we received all our perks except robes and slippers. We simply asked at reception and they brought them to our room right away. Considering MSC is known as a more affordable cruise line, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of both the ship and the food. All meals were warm and delicious. We purchased the two-dining experience package, which was a great budget-friendly way to try the specialty restaurants onboard. We dined at Indochine, where the service was top-tier and the food was exceptional. Fun bonus: we were eating at the same time as the captain and his family! We also tried Butcher’s Cut, which had brilliant food and crew. If you go, try to get a table on the terrace—it offers a much better atmosphere. Our cabin was a Fantastica Balcony Cabin. It was average size for MSC but clean, modern, and for us, well worth the upgrade. Having a balcony made a big difference—we saw dolphins from our cabin and waking up to a sea view was an unforgettable experience. Disembarkation was smooth for us, but many passengers seemed confused about how the process works. MSC could definitely improve the clarity of disembarkation instructions for a better experience all around.

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.

Yacht Club for me!

Having read a lot of mixed reviews on MSC Cruises we have actively avoided sailing with them. So having done nearly thirty cruises with other lines we were checking on line for a cruise to somewhere warm and escape the UK winter for a couple of weeks. We by chance found a two week cruise out of Barbados but it was with MSC, so it was with some trepidation we made our initial approach. We went for a balcony midship and at a comfortable level. A few weeks later we were invited to bid for a suite and made a somewhat cheap offer. Unsurprisingly this was unsuccessful. MSC came back with a counter offer, it was for a duplex suite with a jacuzzi on the balcony in the Yacht Club for about £500 PP more than what we had already paid. We decided to go for it as we aren’t getting any younger and it might be our final cruise. We flew out to Barbados on a Virgin chartered plane, we were met at the port and sipped on a complementary glass of bubbly as we were shown to our suite. What a suite this was, as we entered the room it seemed larger than most we have had with the usual layout of a toilet/shower wardrobe and seating area. However that was just part of it, we had an enormous balcony with two sun loungers two chairs, a table and full size jacuzzi. Upstairs we had a walk in wardrobe, a second larger bathroom complete with full size bath. The upstairs was a mezzanine type with large picture window giving fantastic sea views. We had the usual room service steward and a butler who attended to all our reservations and so on. Being a yacht club guest means you have pre reserved seating at all the shows, a private smaller dining room, a private cosy bar and a private pool with sun soaking area. The service we received was second to none, and whilst we were free to explore the entire ship it was wonderful to escape to the peace and quiet of our private areas. The food was good, and I liked the fact that it was always hot! In conclusion, we really enjoyed the MSC experience. If we hadn’t gone Yacht Club I think being amongst very large crowds for a full two weeks would have been difficult for me. But I wouldn’t hesitate to go Yacht Club again, in fact we should have done it years ago.

Best bargain cruise ever

We booked this cruise purely on price, having already sailed on the sister ship. This vessel is, my travelling buddy was on his first cruise and had no idea what to expect The ship is huge and functional, lots of bars, plenty of choice on the menu and of course there is always the buffet which in my opinion is the one thing that lets this company down. The restaurant service was exceptional and attentive. The quality of the food was certainly on a par with any city restaurant We sampled most of the entertainment shows on board during the 2-week sailing and I have to say that as much as I wanted to dislike some of the options such as the Elvis tribute act, we left the theatres every single time full of praise come on well planned well-performed shows Accessibility in the grand theatre is not good. There are no handrails on the stairs and very limited wheelchair spacers, for a new ship. This is unforgivable, also the shortage of toilet facilities around the theatres at both ends of the ship is a problem when the shows finish With over 5,000 passengers on board, finding a seat to enjoy a drink, especially a quiet drink in the evening is always going to be a challenge, but there are plenty of bars and in fact on deck. Deck 7. Later in the evening when the speciality restaurant has closed, there are usually seats available on the balcony inside and above the Central Street Our cheapest possible inside cabin on deck 8 with plenty big enough with excellent storage for the two of us, we found it to be quiet enough with generally speaking the only noise coming. Not from the theatres and bars on the floor below, but from the waves crashing into the bow of the ship across the bay of Biscay As I mentioned, this trip was booked partly because of the ridiculously low price and yet at no point did we feel that we were on a budget ship or a budget sailing, I have sailed with a number of carriers and I have a preference, but I have to say that in terms of value for money and quality of service, this trip would be hard to beat The party nights on the ship were fun and well presented but clearly were not to the taste of some of the guests, their problem not mine, the fun was there to be had for those who wanted it Joining the cruise at Southampton was an absolute breeze and we were on and sat in the hot tub 10 minutes before our advertised embarkation time, likewise, after a leisurely restaurant breakfast, getting off the ship at the end of the cruise was a piece of cake. Cake we chose to bring our own luggage off but in fact had we presented it at midnight the night before. All the cases were lined up ready to be collected as we came through the baggage hall A very easy cruise and one that I would quite happily book again I note that the same trip is available in July 2025 for the same silly bargain price of 1,600 per cabin