MSC Magnifica Review

4.0 / 5.0
383 reviews

Felt Like They Just Gave Up

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on MSC Magnifica
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captainregular
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Nov 2015
Traveled with children

We just got back this evening, and I wanted to be so much more positive. We're Americans living in the UK, and we've cruised once, in the Caribbean, with RC, and maybe we were just spoiled, but...

The layout of the ship isn't too bad, although the closing (and locking) of certain restaurants for most of the day means you'll have to go up and over quite a few sections of the ship if you go from back to front. And the cabins fill decks in between the top decks and lower decks (with most of the restaurants and bars and shops, etc) so you'll find yourself taking the (usually quite crowded, and our cruise was not that full) elevators to cover the gaps from decks 13-16 to decks 5-7. 8-12 are all cabins, which were quite nice. Balconies on most of them (including ours) and there were small but laid out quite nice. The TV was worthless, but we didn't come on a cruise to watch TV anyway. It would have been nice if the frequently changing TIME shown on the TV was correct for the ship. It was never even close.

The food is my biggest complaint. For starters, I got food poisoning on day 2. I had nothing on shore, so I know it was from ship food. Fairly certain it was roast beef on the deck 13 buffet. But, hey, nobody's perfect, but it did not make for a good start. On top of that, then menu - What is labeled on the buffet, or what your options are in your designated "fine dining" restaurant. We had about a 1/3 chance of getting what we ordered, getting something that was on the menu or just getting...something. My son ordered from the kids menu (in the "fancy" dining restaurant) a ham and cheese sandwich. It's on the menu. "Hot ham and cheese." They first brought him an appetizer plate of cold cuts and then brought him 3 cheese pizzas. In the buffet, what's labeled is NEVER what you're getting. Fish sticks? Nope, rice croquettes - shaped like fish sticks. Roast pork - naw, that's a chicken breast. Beef - there's your pork. Also, they must have been rationing ketchup, salt & pepper, and spoons, because good luck finding them. The quality of the food was pretty good, and the variety was ok. The pizza, while lacking the American quantities of cheese, was also consistently good and always available. Very good, thin crust and well done but never burnt. There is tap water always available at the buffet, in little cups, juice only for breakfast, all other drinks are extra. The "fancy" dinner provides ONE 1L bottle of water per party, anything else is extra.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Katakolon (Olympia)

Amazing area, we also did the museum nearby. Don't shop at the shop they take you to, there is one literally about 20 meters down the path. Try the local beer for 1 euro, it's actually not bad, and the souvenir stuff is cheaper.

Istanbul

Very neat to see the city this way, it's quite beautiful.

Istanbul

Wonderful. Got a bit carried away at the spice market, bought baklava (which was strangely awful) and they have VERY high pressure sales. Stand your ground, and when you only want two of something and they vacuum-seal a dozen, make them re-do it, you didn't ask for that.

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