Overall, we had a great holiday, but there are some reflections on the ship worth noting.
We really enjoyed the locations we docked at and found something to do in each, even if just enjoying a local walk to explore. Madeira was a particular highlight, having never been. The place itself was lovely, and we enjoyed the opportunity to do the basket ride down the hill. However, having paid £73 per person (x4) for the MSC-led trip, we didn’t quite expect to have to wait in a queue for three and a half hours! We anticipated it might be two hours, but the wait time was disappointing and did limit the time we had to enjoy other parts of the island.
The ship experience was mixed. Overall, it was very clean, and despite hearing lots of complaining about food, we found the food to be more than adequate in the main dining and buffet restaurants (what do people expect when cooking en masse on a more “budget-friendly” ship!). Shout out to Avinash and John, who were our servers in the main restaurant – they were awesome!!! We did visit two of the speciality restaurants (Teppanyaki & Butcher’s Cut), and both were excellent! Food was fantastic, and the staff were wonderful. Overall, the staff across the ship were great, always helpful and almost always quickly available if/when needed. The entertainment was mostly good, but some of it was a bit underwhelming, though watchable. The paid shows were incredible, though it was slightly disappointing to have to pay to watch some specific things. The cabins were stocked as you’d expect and mostly well kept during our stay. We did find some inconsistency with the availability of towels (large, hand and bath mat) and found on some occasions that not enough had been left for the two of us in the cabin. However, this was quickly resolved when raised.
Our biggest ship complaint was the lack of seating! Both inside and out combined, there is simply not nearly enough seating for the capacity of the ship. Sun lounger capacity was pathetic versus the number of passengers. Beyond that, even trying to get a chair outside was incredibly difficult on a sea day. On one of the evenings when we had high winds, those who might usually sit outside on deck 15 (where there was often entertainment) were all indoors – it was chaos!! The design of the ship is simply not equipped to manage that number of passengers unless some can be outside at all times.
The parade area where the shops and bars are is very nice… until the theatre turns out, while a dance class is also taking place, as well as a quiz in the Virtuosa Lounge. You can’t even walk to the lifts if you’re trying to get somewhere else, it’s that packed! We did enjoy the parties which took place in the parade, we enjoyed the quizzes and we enjoyed the theatres, but everyone in that space all at once – JEEPERS!!!
The fact that you couldn’t walk a full lap of the entire ship and stand at the front unless you were a Yacht Club member was also hugely disappointing! How can a ship not have a complete promenade deck available to passengers – that’s part of the fun of sailing?!
Overall, we did have a great holiday, but we made it so and didn’t allow any of the points above to spoil it for us. I can’t say the same for other passengers, who just seemed to spend their time grumpy or complaining. We were just happy to get time together as a family and enjoy ourselves while we were there.
