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Old 27 Jan 20, 04:39 AM  
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#11
duchy
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Originally Posted by Floridag1rl View Post
We have been on 2 MSC cruises, my advice would be to stay well clear especially if you are used to the high standard of P&O. The food is not very good, the service is appalling, most of the crew don't speak English so they can't communicate with you. Be prepared to not go into your port and have your excursions cancelled because there are not enough English speaking people on board. I am not exaggerating we thought the ships were beautiful but nothing else. I will only book and English speaking cruise line now (UK or American).
Perhaps you can specify which ship, when you cruised and whether it was a European or US based cruise as your experience appear at such odds with others ?
Missed ports are a bit like airline delays ... sometimes unavoidable due to weather ... how many did you miss and why ?
Personally I avoid the allBritish ships and announcements in multiple languages ... well we can all quote them from Disney can’t we ?
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Old 27 Jan 20, 07:27 AM  
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SquishTheWhale
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Originally Posted by Floridag1rl View Post
We have been on 2 MSC cruises, my advice would be to stay well clear especially if you are used to the high standard of P&O. The food is not very good, the service is appalling, most of the crew don't speak English so they can't communicate with you. Be prepared to not go into your port and have your excursions cancelled because there are not enough English speaking people on board. I am not exaggerating we thought the ships were beautiful but nothing else. I will only book and English speaking cruise line now (UK or American).
I try not to be too negative on here as some love MSC but yeah that was essentially our experience as well. Minus the cancelled excursions but I can swap that out for massive difficulties we had over a pre purchased photo package.
The Meraviglia was stunning but we will never sail MSC again. Amazed you gave them 2 chances lol!
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Old 27 Jan 20, 07:41 AM  
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Funny just reading an article in the newspaper which says Which just found them to be the worst cruise line. Sounds like one to avoid.
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Old 27 Jan 20, 08:16 AM  
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Originally Posted by YorkshireT View Post
Funny just reading an article in the newspaper which says Which just found them to be the worst cruise line. Sounds like one to avoid.
The big problem with the Which? survey is they are not doing a like for like comparison. You would certainly expect a cruise line that costs an indicative £299 pp per night to be rated higher than one costing £162pppn (not sure what those prices are based on). The comparisons are based on small sample numbers - 68 and 67 respectively for Viking and MSC.
Cruise lines cater for very different demographics - I know folk with children (who sailed on MSC and wanted a cheap deal) who had a fantastic time.
I guess it’s all about expectations - sail MSC with Viking expectations then you’re going to be very disappointed.
I am a fan of Which? and a subscriber, but this survey is quite meaningless and its methodology was panned by cruise industry bodies last year.
Just my two penneth.
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Old 28 Jan 20, 11:37 AM  
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We have booked a 4 night MSC mini break in October. Southampton to Hamburg. I reckon there will be a lot of Brits as it's the October half term holiday. We only paid £129 each for a balcony so we were prepared to give it a go and see what it is like.
The bonus is we get to visit Bruges and maybe even Efteling.
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Old 4 Feb 20, 08:30 PM  
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We had a great Med cruise with them in Oct 2018. We thought they were excellent given we paid just over £700 for 4 of us for 7 nights. I, personally, wouldn't choose a transatlantic on the Magnifica as we prefer the mega ships for that but for a port intensive cruise it was great. Food and service were good and we only encountered one rude staff member at the pool bar, we always find one on every cruise so far. The staff in the inside bar were excellent and would recognise us and know what drinks we wanted in advance. The indoor pool was great and we used it every day, a big bonus on this ship. NCL is our preferred cruise line and we also enjoy Disney Cruise Line but given the price point I feel MSC are a great option.
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Old 4 Feb 20, 08:33 PM  
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Originally Posted by SHREKS OTHER1/2 View Post
I have cruised with them ..Beautiful ships , food fine .But and a big but I don't like timed dinning .I felt every night like I was at school have a drink @ 7 meal @ 7.30 show @ 8.30 drink 9.30 . I much prefer anytime dining and sat at different tables .This is my view ..I love NCL although I am about to try Princess in March . Would I sail with them again .YES ...the itinerary would have to be what I wanted , but for their base price you cant go wrong .But start adding things and then the price rises inline with other lines
I thought Aurora and above is anytime dining ?
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Old 5 Feb 20, 11:02 AM  
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Someone else said that to me aswell ..we had to eat at the same time each night and there were 6 of us squashed into a corner .we couldn't even change tables .We were also sat next to a table of Italians ..who no matter what time they came were always served before us ..which really got my goat .Hubby would not let me say anything and told me to chill ! . this was 3 years ago this March so things may have changed .Hopefully on Princess to give it a try next month
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Old 5 Feb 20, 11:06 AM  
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SquishTheWhale
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Originally Posted by duchy View Post
I thought Aurora and above is anytime dining ?
It starts getting expensive then though, at that price you could just pay for a cruise on a better line. We were allocated a 5.15pm dining time which we hated.
Would never cruise again with a line where we couldn't do anytime dining (without paying through the nose extra for it!)
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Old 5 Feb 20, 11:09 AM  
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Originally Posted by SHREKS OTHER1/2 View Post
Someone else said that to me aswell ..we had to eat at the same time each night and there were 6 of us squashed into a corner .we couldn't even change tables .We were also sat next to a table of Italians ..who no matter what time they came were always served before us ..which really got my goat .Hubby would not let me say anything and told me to chill ! . this was 3 years ago this March so things may have changed .Hopefully on Princess to give it a try next month
We were very pleasantly surprised by Princess. Not that I thought it would be terrible, but we chose the cruise for the excellent itinerary and price and felt we were compromising on the ship experience as we usually love megaships on NCL etc. While the Crown Princess was smaller with less facilities, there was so many positives such as a fantastic entertainment team and great food.
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