Booked this cruise due to itinerary and not wanting to sail from UK.
Having travelled with other cruise companies our expectation of MSC was to be of the same standard.
Dining on board has always been a memorable experience.
Due to the Italian influence we were looking forward to dining on board.
How wrong could we be with all our expectations!! We booked two weeks on board and found it unacceptable that we would have to change rooms for our second week, not only that but we would have to vacate the room by 8am on that date.
Check out on the last date was 7am despite not docking until 9am.
We were also placed in a disabled/wheelchair friendly room so all equipment was at waist height including the shower.
We booked this cruise many months ago so it’s not like this was the last available room.
This room backed onto service area and as a result was very noisy as this was the area were suitcases ere load and unloaded not the early hors of the morning Staff were very rude particularly reception when discussing our complaint about the room.
Bar staff were unattentive – we had to get own drinks from bar despite them walking past and ignoring passengers.
Dining staff looking busy but not clearing tables.
Evening meal we had to pay for water.
Tea and coffee not available as part of the meal, needed to go to the coffee bar where there was also a charge for this.
No healthy options other than fresh fruit at any meal time.
Jacket potatoes always served with sour cream and chives! Lack of variety in food.
Cold food.
Menu repeated on second week on board.
Entertainment day and night same second week as first.
Felt sorry for those on a 37 day cruise having to endure same programme and meals 5 times.
General standard of entertainment poor.
We thought we had stumbled across a bar with karaoke, only to find it was the professional act! Working knowledge of English very poor, aware this is an Italian ship but English is the standard language on all ships.
Asked for porridge got poached egg, wholemeal toast proved impossible to order despite being on menu and pointing to this.
Asked for glass of water, got hot water in my dirty coffee cup!! Passengers on whole where very rude, we witnessed people not being able to get out of lifts due to others barging in, disembarking at ports not adhering to queues, pushing and shoving at buffet queue.
Entry and exit on reception, guests were ignoring the queues and going in the exit to get to next available person! Hand hygiene not adhered to, no gel in dispensers.
The list is endless, we were not on our own in these observations.
Dining was definitely not a pleasurable experience rather the opersite more a chore.
Ports of call were fantastic and are deserving of a much better cruise company to enhance the experience.
We had to n a daily basis remind ourselves why we had chosen MSC and that was purely for the ports.
NEVER AGAIN.
