MSC Cruises Reviews 98

We left the MSC Virtuosa this morning after a week visiting Lerwick, Shetland Isles and three places in the Fjords of Norway. It was very enjoyable. There were a few matters less than perfect (eg having to use tenders to visit Lerwick) but the ship sailed from Southampton so most passengers were English speaking and good manners. The service in dining rooms and cabin staff were very very good. Food was good, sometimes better than good. A beautiful ship, quite stunning, extremely smart and clean. Good entertainment in the theatre and live music elsewhere (sometimes too loud for us). Very good value and the fjords, with the great weather we had, just fabulous. We will book MSC again and again!

Update. Have been in communication with company and had we paid £100 to see a doctor, and had COVID been diagnosed, there is an isolation package and room service and free TV service. The negative COVID test threw us. It was definitely COVID so perhaps a doctor would have realised the test was faulty. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Caught COVID on the Virtuosa. Company couldn't have cared less. Staff were all lovely, but ship was too big, too many people. Very poor company policy towards sickness. Patronising response to emailed complaint. We were left to cope on our own, probably spreading the virus when we had to go to buffet. Ibuprofen cost £15 on board. Entertainment was excellent but very much a party ship. Music far too loud. Not for us. We won't travel MSC ever again.

So much wrong! Just a taste of why we will never do MSC again.
Queued and hour at least to check in. We normally come down to Southampton by coach. Normal procedure is that we get off the coach and check in and the coach driver delivers the luggage to the ship. Not this time. We had queued for about half an hour and then one of the port personnel tasked where our luggage was. We told her the driver was proceeding as normal and she told us “not on this ship, they don’t have porterage”. So we were sent back to our coach for our luggage. By the time we got on the ship we were hungry and thirsty. We went to the buffet and were told we could not have food or drink until after the safety procedure had been done.
Why is the cabin number on the door card? Lose it and it is an open invitation for the finder to take everything from your cabin. Security issue.
Use of App. – No instructions prominent anywhere about how to get on the ships (non-chargeable) wifi, unlike other cruise lines that have this information displayed clearly around the ship and l=there is notification in their cabins as to how to access the wifi just to use the app. Therefore, for us, no app. Having the drinks package we did not expect to be told by a waitress “if you don’t have the app you can’t have a drink”. We went to Guest Service (bit of a misnomer that) and fortunately saw Thomas who immediately produced a laminated menu. Thanks Thomas. We were told MSC are trying to cut down on paper usage. Could I suggest that instead of everything you do print is a money making exercise for you, you might consider your guests and what they would like.
Accounts system poor. Very little easily accessible information.
Overcrowded. The designers obviously used the biggest, bulkiest furniture they could find. Most of the venues could fit twice the amount of people in, however what good would that do? There is not the staff to cope.
Restaurant – The first evening meal offered an Arctic salad as a starter. However, cutting into it the lettuce was black and mouldy. The Maitre de offered a replacement but, well no thanks. During our cruise we had uncooked chicken, bad mussels (two unopened, four empty shells and two eatable mussels) on one plate. Menus unimaginative. Vegetarian options extremely limited. One night someone came round offering Limoncello. As it was included in the drinks package we accepted. It was served in special glasses and the chap said we were free to take them with us a a memento. Except that we were then asked for £9 each for the glasses. Guess what we did.
Tried the buffet for breakfast absolute chaos – cold porridge, inedible bread. Tried again at lunchtime, farmyard! cold burgers. The staff made excuses but much of the food was cold.
So we went to the Minuetto. First couple of days service was really slow. Three quarters of an hour wait to get in, then half an hour wait for a cup of tea. Happily the service did improve in there, but still not as good as other lines. Only once in 10 days did we get what we ordered.
Because we were not using the App we requested that a daily sheet be delivered to our cabin. It took three days for us finally to receive one and then only because we asked our cabin steward Elizaro. Guest service (misnomer) couldn’t manage to get it delivered!
Only go on this ship if you want to queue for everything! The staff and good but the ship is so understaffed it’s laughable. Management is top heavy. They stand around in their jackets chatting and watching the staff struggle to keep up. A good manager would see the problems and would take action. The bar service is the practically non-existent. Again because there are so few staff.
We were unable to book anything as we could not figure out how the public screens worked (and we weren’t the only ones!). However the shows in the theatre that we did see were not particularly good. Remember we are comparing this to other lines (not new cruisers, we have done about 34)
The electrics failed a number of times, why?
Bouquets to Thomas in Guest Services; James in Virtuosa Lounge; Omar in the English pub; Hakim and his wife in Blue Danube; Elizar cabin steward; Lulu in Minuetto breakfast and to the performers in the aerial show in the Carousel Lounge, it cost us an extra £15 each but my word was it worth it.

Absolutely beautiful ship and the crew were fantastic and friendly especially I Komang Suardita, Putu Ardiawan and also Intan. A credit to MSC Virtuoso and I look forward to returning.
Kelly C

Two words to describe this cruise, cattle market. There were too many passengers and not enough crew. If you like queing and aimlessly wandering around looking for somewhere to sit and then waiting 20 minutes for a drink,this is for you.

Revolting experience. Empty bottles broken glasses and plates of half eaten food EVERYWHERE. Huge gangs of hammered football lads and hens dominate 40-50 minutes wait in buffet queues. Just awfully depressing Babies in the pool, bare chested vaping / smoking / drinking blokes all sat on edge dangling feet in water. Screaming at the big screen footie match. Language n behaviour horrific

Dates: 23rd April - 4th may

Ship: Virtuosa

This is probably the worst cruise experience I have ever been on. I have never been disgusting at my experience more while on holiday. The bar staff had zero idea what they were making. This led to them making whatever they thought was correct when it came to drinks. Which meant it was highly dangerous to utilise my drinks package considering my allergies as they would just throw whatever they wanted into a mocktail with no care for the actual ingredients. That is if they could be bothered to make a drink at all. I was often told "we don't have that in stock" only to go back and hour later and get a different bar staff that would make the drink I had requested. Unfortunately I was consistently given unclean glasses and had to send these back almost every day. Especially at Lunch and dinner. The TV was broken for the majority of the cruise. To remedy this the staff sent a basket of pastries to a GLUTEN FREE room. And a bottle of champagne to a room with a NON ALCOHOLIC drinks package. It felt disrespectful and absolutely brain dead. My requests for the gluten free menus in advance was consistently denied and fobbed off backwards and forth on who's responsibility it was to the point I just gave up, and my poor travelling partner often went several days. Including the gala night without a single vegetarian starter to choose from. This is unacceptable. Among other things like long queues to eat, get back onto the ship and a ship that clearly cannot withstand the amount of guests it's trying to accommodate for. Not only that. When walking past members of staff to your outside cabin, it's never nice to hear them gossiping about how "this area is where the poor guests stay". Yes that is an actual quote YOUR STAFF used to another colleague. This was completely a terrible holiday and we collectively were so glad when it was time to go home. Something you should NEVER experience while actually away from home.

Went on our 3rd cruise on MSC Euribia.
This was not the relaxing restful break that I was expecting.

Our cabin 14115 was very noisy. Staff dragging furniture around every night at 1am and then again at 6am. Complained reception they said they will ask them to be quiet !!!! Nothing changed.

The food in the MDR was overcooked and luke warm. We only ate their once.

We had the 4 meal dining experience. 3 of the meals were lovely. but, unfortunately for me Hala Taco Cantina. 2nd course I found a hair in my salad ! they couldnt apologise enough. but, as dining experience was not offered a refund. just another meal there !!! I don't think so.

We had a meal in the Masters of the Sea. the food was very tasty but as it had come from the depths of the kitchen and took over half an hour to come. it ws cold.

The food in the buffet restaurant. was overcooked and lukewarm or cold. We lived on freshly cooked burgers and chips and salad and Gala pie !!! not the sort of food I was expecting on my cruise.

We visitied Hamburg. Aparently all the shops are shut there on a Sunday. MSC say customers would rather stop there just to look around rather than a day at sea!

The shuttle buses are an average of 14 euros each time. they differ slightly at different ports. MSC say they cannot make these any cheaper as this is what the pay !!

MSC do not offer monetary refunds !!! they will offer you a very standard Gesture of good will £50 onboard cruise credit only. So if you want a mediocre cruise and poor food and nosy cabins and overpriced shuttle buses then book with MSC.

This is my true experience on MSC and is based on my own experience.

Just spent 7 nights on MSC Euriba to Northern Europe which was good value. However, criticisms included…

Food quality in main restaurant was poor at best. We were in a party of 8 and did not enjoy any meals served up.

The ship was very noisy, difficult to find a quiet area to relax.

Not sufficient seating in the bars & venues for the number of guests on board.

Photographers bothering you every few steps.

The best entertainment in the evenings was in the Carousel bar but it repeated every 3 days.

New arrivals boarded at every stop (r stops on our 7 night cruise) and staff from all areas of the ship attend the safety program to guide passengers to their safety exits. During this time most bars were unable to serve customers.

Normally cruise with Cunard, more expensive but a vast difference in quality.

Whenever I take a ride to my memory lane and go back the the experience I had with MSC Euribia and the tour around the northern seas, immediately I feel better and makes me want to repeat that kind of vacation.
Maybe next time I will go for a longer cruise. I checked their website they have some nice deals such as the Caribbean one.
Anyway, I recommend the Northern Europe cruise. The scenery over there is amazing and I think the best way to explore that part of the world is by ship.
As for the ship, Euribia was fantastic. Modern and huge 😀
The staff was pleasant and friendly 👍

I have allocated by MSc Armonia an Obstructed ocean view cabin to Mediterranean countries from 24/11/23 to 02/12/23. There was a huge boat (not a life boat, more like a boat which MSc uses to transfer guests from port to the cruise) next to the window blocking the window. Therefore there wasn’t a any view of the ocean from the cabin.
I have raised the issue with Lawrence Ford( customer service supervisor ) . I have sent several emails to customer service but Laurence Ford claimed “ It is a obstructed ocean view cabin” though view was totally blocked.”
Laurence Ford asked me to send photo but my point is that cabin should be investigated so no other guest’ s holiday will not be ruined as mine did.
MSc also took seven hours to separate double bed to tween bed.
If there was “0 “ rate that’s what I will give MSc .

PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COSTS
RIDICULOUSLY OVER CROWDED
BUFFET WAS LIKE QUEUING AT A CATTLE MARKET
NO WAY NEAR ENOUGH SEATS TO ACCOMMODATE THE VOLUME OF PEOPLE ABOAD
IF YOU ENJOY QUEUES THEN BOOK MSC THEY ARE SPECIALISTS
30MINS EVERYTIME FOR A DRINK
NO SEATING
VERY VERY VERY POOR
FUN PASS COULDNT EVEN BE SPENT AS BOWLING AND OTHER THINGS WAS FULLY BOOKED
SO HAD OVER £100 LEFT ON THE FUN PASS AND THEY WOULD NOT REFUND

AFTER 2 EMAILS THEY INSULTINGLY OFFERED ME £50 OFF VOUCHER AGAINST A FUTURE CRUISE
HOW GENEROUS

I WOULDNT WANT A FREE CRUISE FROM THEM

COULDNT WAIT TO GET HOME

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AVOID AVOID AVOID

It was my first cruise on the Euribia to Norway. It was fantastic! We had a balcony hut with a lovely host - Manda. He took care of our hut and was always in for a chat or a joke. The ship was amazing. It was a bit busy on sea days but overall it was a great experience. The only thing that could be better is the volume of the music in the lounges. That was very loud sometimes.
We loved the cruise, the ship and especially the employees on the Euribia. Respect for these hard working people who are always happy.
We will meet again!

My second time trying to book with MSC.
Both times the cruise has been rescheduled to different dates with the original cancelled.
They didn't want to refund but offer an alternative instead - which I couldn't do. It took them a month to refund the deposit

To start off, 1 star is 2 or 3 too many. I sailed with my wife to Spain and France July this year. I chose this company because it was said that your holiday starts when you board the bus, as next time you see your luggage is at your cabin door, to take you to the port. I got the bus from Preston to Southampton. Wrong!! when we got to the port we were told to take out own luggage to the ship. I am recovering from a broken hip and my wife from full hip replacement, I was in agony and only got help on the 3rd request. 2 days into the cruise i developed a slight tummy bug and spent 2 hours at the ships sick bay, resulting ina 20 minute drip, 4 Imodium equivalents, resulting in a bill very near £300, the insurance paid this bill. 1st excursion went well, I use a walking stick and was slower than most, the bus left without us, wonderful, they clearly did not check passenger listings for the trip. Now the mini bar, a 10cl bottle of whiskey was £9, that works out at £90 a bottle, some price hike. a can of shaving foam from tesco was £1.5o, on board £5.50. Irish coffee £9.00 each seems all they wanted to do was fleece everyone at every opportunity. The ship was fine, just far to many passengers. Got to be honest, staff were excellent on all levels. Lunch and evening meals were set menus, food was very good but choice was very limited. You had to set your alarm for 5 am to get a sunbed notices saying not to do this were there , but I saw some sunbeds with personal towels on it for 4/5 hours and no sign of the owners. Notices were there telling bathers not to do this and towels would be removed, never saw that happen.

We booked a cruise in July so high season, overall good experience, very busy but well that was expected. The offer for little kids was not as good as pools were mainly for adults and older kids and the kids club was not engaging the littles ones, hence the 4 stars. The rest of team on board was great though.

MSC Virtuosa Southampton, Spain, France, Portugal

The good parts:
Plenty of choice for food at the buffet
Cabin attendant was fantastic

The bad parts:
The ship was overcrowded, everything was busy almost all the time.

Not enough bar staff, even double the number of allocated staff would not have been enough in most cases.

MSC cruises are a budget option (compared to the likes of Princess) however, everything costs money on the ship. Surprised that you get air conditioning for free to be honest as MSC seem to try their best to monetise everything.

The Arcade was run down, and the prices of the machines were just unbelievable given the quality. The kids had been promised some time on the games, but it was money not well spent.

3 evenings in the first week I had cold showers.

No management of people ‘reserving’ loungers with towels. There were cases where people would ‘reserve’ a lounger by the pool at 5am, get off the ship at dock and not actually come to their lounger until 3-4pm. Given that people were already having to sit on the floor because there weren’t enough loungers for the number of customers (see point 1) …

You can’t do your own laundry; you must buy a package which, like everything else on the cruise is overpriced.

The terrible:
There was a single lifeguard for the indoor pool, shared by at least 2 members of staff at any one time. Both staff spent time on their mobile phones instead of doing their job, given the nature of the job this is just unbelievable. They got called out by paying customers.

The people on the ground are largely over worked. There appears to be next to no management happening on board. Two examples:
1. It appeared that each bar was allocated 2 staff behind the bar and up to 2 staff taking orders from tables. Some bars are smaller than others and some bars are in far greater demand. I.e., the outdoor bars were in higher demand on warm evenings. However, there was no reactive measures taken when bars filled up with customers. It’s almost as if the company expects customers to manage the bar numbers their staff. Why not have members of staff acting as floaters that move between bars based on the demand at each bar??

2. Disembarkation. The ‘plan’ was that ‘self-assisted’ customers would leave from the two gangways from 0700-0730. All other customers had been assigned groups and would be called down by group every 5 minutes from 0730.
However, one gangway was down from 0700 until 0730 at the latest (possibly earlier). This meant that groups could not exit as scheduled and had to wait in their designated waiting areas. This was the first issue. The designated areas were only set up to take 2-3 groups at a time.
The delay went on for nearly 2 hours, which meant the designated areas now contained up to 12 groups instead of the planned 2-3.
During this time there was no member of staff allocated to the designated area to provide updates. There was no air conditioning, there was no way to get water or food. The only updates were that there was a ‘delay’.
No members of staff took responsibility.
How can one of two gangways being down for 30 minutes result in the ‘self-assisted’ customers taking 120 minutes to disembark instead of 30 minutes. Surely if x number of people that were due to disembark in 30 minutes via two gangways would take 60 minutes to disembark, maybe 75 minutes at most?? Bearing in mind that the second gangway was available after 30 minutes at most it should not have taken 120 minutes.
In the end we just left, I refused to be stopped. My young children were in tears and my elderly father in law was suffering.

Here’s some advice for MSC:
You should be able to obtain an average time to disembark a customer.
You know the number of customers requesting self-assisted disembarkment 2 days before the cruise reaches destination, so this first group will have an expected processing time.

You have a member of staff at each designated grouping point, this person is there to provide updates to the group and call each number as they should start their move to disembark.

A disaster happens, you can’t disembark as planned. Suddenly planned time to disembark self-assisted is going to take more time than planned. You provide the waiting customers with an ETA. You’ve already planned for a disaster, so the designated grouping plans are already capable of supplying waiting customers with water, food, air conditioning and entertainment. You open staff elevators and corridors to support the unexpected movement of customers. You open all restaurants with the offer of free food and water whilst they wait.

What you don’t do is just leave everyone without any update, hot, tired, hungry, thirsty, and unable to use toilets due to the unexpected numbers trying to share the location.

I'll never cruise with MSC again, I'll tell everyone to avoid

3rd - 17th June - MSC Virtuosa - Scotland, Iceland and Norway cruise.

Don't go on this ship if you are disabled. On 8th June we were taken to Isafjordur in Iceland. A tender service was required. This was a total, unorganised disaster. Only two tender boats were in operation to get 4000 passengers onto shore.

A lift that they were using for the disabled, broke and we were asked to go to the other side of the ship. We finally reached shore only to find that there was absolutely nothing at Isafjordur. We then had to try and get back. We waited several hours! When we finally were able to get off the tender boat, my disabled husband's rollator (walking aid) had been put somewhere else and he was left trying to balance on a moving platform until it finally appeared.

Disaster happened again the following morning when we were docked in Reykjavik. We had a coach trip booked for 9.30. We tried to leave the ship, only to find that, at that time, the only access was one steep access ramp at deck 6. Dangerous even for the able bodied and someone fell down it.

We were then sent to various decks only to find unorganised crew members trying to get suitable ramps arranged. When the ship docked all ramps should have been safely in place and organised ready for passengers to get off. This has been the case when we have travelled with other cruise companies.

At every port it wasnt easy getting on and off the vessel.

We have cruised before but have never experienced such appalling service.

For the reasons stated we would never cruise with MSC again. We would worry about getting off one of their ships if there was an emergency. There seemed to be a lack of experienced officers onboard.

It was also mentioned several times by various passengers that for a large ship and the volume of passengers involved, there didn't seem to be enough lifeboats and 4 tenders should have been used when we went to Isafjordur.

The whole ship seemed to be run by young, poorly trained, inexperienced people. It was badly managed.

Don't go on an MSC cruise, even if it is cheap, if you are disabled. It wasnt a pleasant experience.

Overcrowded hellish experience , Misery Sea Cruises.
The ship is impressive , however running at full capacity should never of happened as staff and venues cannot cope.
This causes passengers to become irate having to queue for the MDR's, Buffet and Bar's then once drinks ordered there was never enough seating so left to stand having pre dinner drinks. Before then onto a queue of over 1000 people to get into the main restaurant.
Alternatively enter the very definition of chaos that was the Buffett , an experience similar to a school dinner hall with decibel levels so loud you cannot have a conversation with your family and again no where to sit.
We are a fortunate and well travelled family with a positive mindset , who have been lucky enough to have travelled many countries throughout the world , staying at some fantastic and beautiful locations in brilliant hotels. We have also in recent years got into cruising and MSC is the 4th cruise line we have travelled with. I can honestly say the 5 nights we endured with this shambolic company onboard with their unfortunate staff was the worst experience of our travelling life.
Take notes MSC , your staff are at breaking point (after an interesting chat with the bar staff) , your passengers are disappointed and future repeat business will not happen.
Senior level management need to address these major issues, the dedicated crew providing the customer service cannot deliver a good experience for passengers if the ship is over crowded , reduce the numbers and give your paying customers a better experience.

Just got back from a 5 night cruise. The ship was packed to the gunnels with an extra 2000 children of the 4300 capacity. They se e Ed to enjoy themselves and naturally confined themselves voluntarily to the children’s zone. All the parents I met said their kids loved it in there.
Yes stuff was busy but the crew were always friendly and there was always somewhere else to be if a place was too busy. Passengers I encountered were all friendly and happy. I enjoyed the food (& the drinks) and being looked after for s few days. Overall unbeatable value and really enjoyable. (I’m sure the weather contributed too)