This was our family’s first cruise on MSC, and having read both positive and negative reviews, we went into this cruise with fairly low expectations. We are a family of easy going travelers who enjoy both sea and land based vacations, and I do most of the vacation planning. I figured how bad could it be if I didn’t have to cook or clean for a week, and we were going to be entertained ?
Just to preface this review, I booked this cruise in February ( 9 months in advance), with a balcony and an inside for the kids. We upgraded the kids to a balcony on a 4th of July flash sale, and paid in full at that time. This was all done through our TA and all MSC paperwork emailed to me. Then, 3 weeks before the cruise, I called MSC to prebook packages, but they wouldn’t speak to me as I had booked with a TA. I had our TA contact MSC to prebook AND prepay all our drink packages and excursions, as I didn’t want a hefty bill at the end of the cruise. It took them a while to get it all figured out, but it finally got done, credit card charged and receipt from MSC emailed to me outlining what I paid for. Then I went online and did online check-in for all of us, and printed out the Web Check-in document MSC provides.
Day of Embarkation we arrived at the terminal around 1:30 pm, and waited in line about 30 mins. Not terribly long, but it was fairly chilly in there with the AC being very strong at some points in the line. Once we got to the front, DH split off with DS and I took DD. We were both notified that they could not locate our reservation, and they were going to have to contact a supervisor. 25 minutes later, and no updates in between at all, we are told “we have you on the manifest, but no other record of you.” 15 minutes after that, they were able to print us cruise cards, and we boarded the ship. At this point we knew we needed to switch room cards to put the kids in their own room, so we headed down to guest services to take care of this. This was actually handled fairly smoothly. Then off to the casino to pick up my prepaid packages (which I wasn’t feeling very confident about, considering my lost reservation). I was right to be concerned, as they had no record of them, and sent me back to deal with guest services.
This 8th deck balcony cabin has a tub/shower combo, but no sofa, only a small loveseat/chair.