Our first time on MSC - Sailing on the MSC Seashore
We recently had the chance to sail on the MSC Seashore – one of the newer classes of MSC ships that sail round trip iteneraries from florida. We are going to tell you all about our expereince! Honestly, going in to this cruise, we were very nervous about sailing with MSC because of all of the devisive reviews we have heard. MSC is a very hit or miss cruise line with some sailors – but we wanted to experieince it for ourselves.
We are going to break this review into what we felt were the pros and cons of this trip aboard the Seashore. Read on below to find out what we thought of this ships food, entertainment, offerings for kids, service, and more! A couple things this review will not include are any notes about our stateroom, or Ocean Cay – MSC’s private island. We are going to dedicate entire posts to those two!
PRO – The Ship
We really loved the design and flow of the ship. The theme was New York, and MSC did a really good job theming all of the areas of the ship to make it fit the New York vibes. We have sailed mega ships many times but this one felt really nicely laid out and the public areas definitely felt separated from one another. We loved the wrap around promenade deck the allowed you to get close to the water. This ship had an incredible five pool areas – The Yacht Club Pool area, the Main Pool area, the kid’s pool area, the jungle pool area, and the adult’s only pool area.
CON – The Elevators
We just have to take a second to gripe about the elevators. Waiting on an elevator on a cruise ship is definitlty nothing new. With thousands of people on vacation (and no one wanting to take the stairs) some waiting is definitely to be expected, but the design of MSC Seashore’s elevators was bizarre. They had the new kind of elevators, wehere you enter your floor and the next elevator going to that floor would get you. In theory – it seems like that would actually save a lot of time on waiting, but in practice it did not. When you have 30 people waiting to go upstairs from deck 5, the elevator seemed to think “all these people are going the same way, so I’ll send one elevator to save a trip.” This kind of process led to waiting for a second and third elevator sometimes to get where you were going. Definitely frustrating.
PRO – Options for Kids
This was our first trip on MSC so we cannot speak to all of their other ships – but the Seashore definitely had a ton for kids to do. There was of course the kids clubs – but most cruise ships have a kids club. The Seashore had a lot of special things for kiddos too. One thing we have never seen is dedicated buffet line for kids. We did not have our kids on this trip – but wow what a good idea. It kept small kid traffic out of the main buffet lines and it offered kid friendly food in their own buffet line – at their height so they could serve themselves.
The arcade on the ship – dubbed the Hall of Games, was quite large for a cruise ship and offered everything from traditional stand up games to intense VR offerings. The kids pool area was on another level also – complete with slides, splash areas, and more. Capped off by soaring octopus tentacle columns, this area even had a fun net/rope adventure trail suspended over the pool that was super fun to explore.
CON – The entertainment (Overall)
It’s hard for us to call this a con, because the entertainment and shows MSC Seashore did offer were truly amazing, but they didn’t really offer that many of them. Each night there was an offering in the main theater, and a variety show in the lounge. Both of those were super fun and the production value was outstanding, but compared to other mega ships, the options were limited and often filled up quickly.
CON – The Food (with one caveat - the Pizza!)
So the food on board was just not very good. On this trip we ate in 4 locations – the ship’s buffet, the ship’s main dining room, the ship’s gellateria, and one of the ship’s specailty restaturant.
The Buffet – The buffet was very hit and miss. One area MSC excels in was their pizza. This is one option you could get late if you were partying late into the evening. The pizza was honestly really good. I think this probably harkens back to MSC’s Italian Heritage. We also ate our breakfasts in the buffet. They had a pretty common assorement of breakfast items you would expect on the buffett of most other lines.
The Main Dining Room – We only ate here once and did not feel the need to go back. Unfortunately, the food just was not good. I ordered a steak and my wfe ordered chicken. The steak was overcooked and the chicken was frankly not edible. We did also get some pasta that was ok. The service was great, but the whole experience took 2 and a half hours, with 30 minutes between courses. Being experienced cruisers, we are used to lengthy dining times – but this was definitely excessive.
The Gellateria – Being an Italian based line, I honestly had very high hopes for the gelato – and MSC did not disappoint. There are three locations on board – one at the chocolate bar, one at the jungle pool area, and one at the adult pool area. All three had great service, and even more importantly – great gelato!
Hola Tacos and Cantina – This was the one specialty restaurant we tried on board. There were several, and we would have tired them had we had a longer cruise than 3 days. This food was pretty good. The portions are tiny, but for $17.99 you could upgrade unlimited food – so that wasn’t too big of a concern for us. The margaritas here were killer – and you could even get a pitcher. This was the best meal we had, outside of the pizza for sure.
CON – The Bars
If you are not a drinker – you can skip right over this section. If you are looking to get the most of the your drink package – then read along! We did not enjoy the bar service on MSC Seashore. The bartenders themselves were great, but it often took 15-20 minutes to grab a drink because they were so understaffed. On other ships, you often have 5 or more bartenders working a busy bar, but MSC rarely had more than 2. They were working extremely hard, and moving as fast as they could, but with 20+ people standing there waiting, it was hard for them to meet the demand.
PRO – MSC’s private island.
We absolutely loved MSC Ocean Cay. So much so that we are going to write an article about it specifically. (Coming Soon)
PRO – The Room
We really enjoyed our stateroom. It was laid out nicely and the balcony offered stunning views of the ports as we came and went. The mini bar was definitely a nice feature. If you want to learn more about the room – check out our review of the room here. (coming soon!)
PRO – The price! One of the most important factors for us to consider when we are debating a cruise, is the price. Some lines cost as much as 3 or 4 cruises on MSC so that was something for us to consider. We paid only 464$ for two people in a balcony room (base fare) which was an amazing deal. Shoutout to our travel agent for always scoring us great cruise deals. You just can’t beat that price these days as crusing contintues to become more expsensive. I definitely think that for that price you have to just be happy with the expereicne that you get, and for that price we would definitely sail MSC again.
Thanks so much for reading our review of MSC Seashore. We were definitely nervous to finally give MSC a try, but we were so glad that we did. The price just definitely could not be beat. We are definitely anxious to try MSC again. The big things we would try next time are the Yacht Club, and more specialty restaurants.
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