We chose this cruise because of the itinerary. All of the cities were places of interest to us and we had not visited them before. We took advantage of the pre cruise add on. Our hotel, Le Germaine, in Montreal had just re-opened after an update. The update is quite modern, think chairs hanging on chain from the ceiling. The hotel is in an ideal location for walking to downtown. The bed was comfortable, shower large and wonderful, and the staff could not have been any better. The pre cruise itinerary enabled us to tour not only Montreal but also Ottawa. Oceania had quick embarkation and fast delivery of our luggage. The Riviera cabin with a veranda was perfect for us. The furnishings were standard but the linens and towels were pristine and new. Our cabin attendants, Suresh and Wilmer, kept our room cleaned and the refrigerator stocked at times when we were out, so we never knew they were even around. Our short conversations with Wilmer were pleasant and his smile and friendliness made him a standout in our mind. This was a very casual cruise with no formal night. Most of the female cruisers dressed in slacks and nice tops for dinners. A very few wore a dress. Men don't need to pack even a sports jacket. Laundry use of washers and dryers was free and detergent was supplied. Had I known, I would have packed less. Dining at the specialty restaurants was excellent, as was the service. We especially loved the Red Ginger and were lucky to get 2 nights there. The watermelon and crispy duck salad and the Sea Bass entree were outstanding. Check with restaurant reservations to see if there is room to add extra to your 4. Thanks to Oceania for including the specialty restaurants without an uncharge. Loved lunching at the Waves Grill. A main Dining Room tip: orders at shared tables will not be taken until the table is full. Entertainment was mostly very good. There was one magician that we didn't like due to the shrill yelling kind of delivery he had. He might have been a great magician but his delivery made the magic go away. One comedian was great the first night but a following night had too many "fart" jokes to be funny. Yes, our crowd was old-er but come on. Boutique options were limited. I was interested in the perfumes etc. at one shop. I observed that the clerk was quite friendly with the 2 customers in front of me. However, when I stepped up and asked questions, I felt that I was treated almost rudely by said clerk and not a valued customer. Perhaps I didn't have the look of $$ ? We loved all the ports that we visited but think the ship excursions were over priced. EX: 2 hour walking tour at 119.00 per person! Book from a local or go on your own at most places and you will do so much better than the Oceania excursions. The only exception was the 2 day hop on in NYC. I thought that one was reasonable. On tender days the wait to get off was terribly long. One day we didn't get off until noon. There must be a more efficient way for this. Disembarking was swift, our luggage was gone from in front of our cabin the night before to claim before boarding our bus to the airport. We did so enjoy our trip but would caution that this was a ship of elderly persons. This is not a cruise for children. I would not recommend it for those who are looking for lots of shipboard fun. There were daily Mensa quizzes, trivia, bean bag toss, golf, an art scavenger hunt, and a few other activities. Perhaps this was in part to the ports and time of year. I don't know about Caribbean experiences on Oceania. Enjoy your trip! PS. Points were given for joining in on the quizzes, trivia, etc. At the end of the trip there was a point redemption for awesome items. I scored a fleece lined windbreaker, t shirt, and purse holder! Read Less

Oceania is my favorite cruise line, always has excellent food and service. From the stewards to the servers in the dining areas, always outstanding service. Dijon and Suprano took good care of us, always available to our needs. Sedeep in the grill in the Terrace Cafe always greeted you with a big smile and asked you what your needs were and often brought our hot dishes to our table if time permitted since my husband is disabled. Jason also assisted him with breakfast ordered an omelette and bacon and brought it to his table. Buddha in the Toscano was outstanding. He provided extra assistance by cutting his food in bite size pieces since he had noticed he had a walker. Mark in the Polo Grill was great too. He also assisted my husband with his steak. All were very caring and helpful, always with a smile. glad I was able to cancel some excursions in New York city because of weather and schedule a panoramic one. My only problem is not enough accessible rooms/cabins. If you look around what is the average age of most your guests and they’re in walkers, wheelchairs, and have walking canes. They put a chair in the shower, it was so big that there was no room for him to step in the shower and it did not fit in the tub either. If you could at least position some hand rails in the shower and tub to hold on to while taking a shower it would make a BIG difference for your physically challenged guests. It would also help every one during rough seas. I already made a reservation for an Alaskan cruise for next year so we could get a handicapped cabin. The Regatta has ONLY 3 Handicapped rooms available in the whole ship an they are inside cabins Read Less

Weather in northeast was far too cold to enjoy the beautiful cities of Canada and New England. Embarkation looked like a greased pig rodeo with two individuals (later three) controlling the crowds. The "herder-in-charge" was too busy chatting with guests (at the head of the line) to keep the processing running smoothly, with agents waving at him frantically to get his attention to send over another person to check in. The subordinate, on the other hand, was constantly distracted by questions, problems, and other issues so that people were jumping the line to check in. When the chatty man in charge noticed the line jumpers, he verbally attacked the other who was facing the crowds. They finally added a third person to make their system work properly. Ship was beautiful. Cabin was clean and well kept. Water was NOT softened leaving the skin and scalp very dry. Dining was good, but not great as there were not too many "simple food" options for people with dietary restrictions. Food too rich. Service was exceptional. Read Less

The price leaving NYC 13 day cruise was great we even got a balcony , the balcony was tight for luggage space, ,embarking from NY was smooth , disembarking was havoc , The main dining food was not that good ,they push specialities dinning ,thecrew was inexperienced and very new to working on a ship,but very eager to please, and we took care of our waiter, assistant waiter and steward with cash gratuities, most ships allow you to go down to guest services and get envelopes to give cash ,do not allow the cruise line to decide who gets your tips, its there job to pay for higher earning labor ,which comes out of your purchase price. Alot of guest did get sick coughing due to (we were told)very cold air conditioning and hot weather, it plays with your lungs.Save yourself $125 to $175 from going to ships Doctor, bring a z pack or antibiotic, benadryl,inhaler albertoul de-congestion etc, just in case , If you go to one of the islands ,stop at a pharmacy and try and get cough medicine with codeine, works great on suppressing coughs. The maitre d were in main dinning room great overall I recommend this ship especially if they can keep cost low. If you have the money great spend it, but if your on a budget, this ship can be negotiated, just dont get stupid with spending on excursions, and alcohol if your looking for a beach for example in Aruba it will cost you $49 dollars on ship excursions ,were as a local bus will take you there and back for $2.50 each way,Curacao anther ex, $59 dollars tour to town , blue curacao liqueur factory, and beach, $25;to $30 neg. same tour in van with locals, for first ,timers,newbies,, who are inexperienced , go to ship excursion , By the way the ship cancelled their new island,(not ready) and we went to Jamaica instead, not my choice: but it was class act by MSC who gave every cabin $100 back and %20 off next cruise, they were not obligated to do that and are allowed to change ittertinary any time, MSC PROVED TO ME THEY ARE A Class Act Thank You Read Less

First off there was nothing to do unless you are a trivia person and you need another useless bag or wine stopper that gives free advertising for the princess line. The Caribbean Princes was dirty my room had used bandages stuck to the balcony door handle. The computer system allowed my computer to get three viruses and even if you want to use your own server then leave your computer at home they block you so you cannot contact your family. Second if you are older or handicapped don't believe them that they will accommodate your needs both on the ship and on anyone of the excursions. They refused to loan or rent any of the 30 or 40 wheel chairs they have on board for an excursions but they will tell you that a rental will be available at the excursion sites. Don't believe them they are lying. This was the worst ship we have been on. The so-called entertainment staff had a Romanian woman who started yelling at everyone at a trivia game because she was missing one golf pencil and said we were not to take the pencils and papers until she gave them to us. This same woman refused to allow anyone to use the restroom when we were waiting to dis embark in the designated dining room. Also if you are diabetic don't go on any excursions because even though they tell you you will be able to get something to eat don't believe them and bring something. We went to Williamsburg and every thing was closed for the season. they even make you cross through an open field in the dark. I tripped over tree trunks and rocks because there was no light to see by and the tour guide was in such a hurry he would not slow down for those of us who were slower. Read Less

After having been on 4 Silversea cruises, we chose the Canada and New England cruise at this time to be able to sail into NYC. It was a thrilling experience! We have sailed on the Wind, the Spirit (twice), and the Cloud. Each cruise was excellent. We loved the small-sized ship, and the crew was exceptional. The personalized service of Silversea, from the butler to the maitre d'hotel, was also superb. We were always greeted with a friendly smile and many times, greeted by name at the reception area, excursion desk and restaurants. We were disappointed with a windy day which prevented us from anchoring in Newport, but the crew and staff immediately planned activities for our unexpected day at sea. Although not a new, glitzy ship, we noticed updated decor as the ship was refurbished last year. It was understated elegance in all the public areas. We ate in all the restaurants except the grill due to weather. The food is outstanding, as we had remembered from all of our previous cruises on Silversea. The afternoon tea was a favorite time, with Trivia with the cruise director. We would have preferred the enrichment lectures be more in line with the ports we visited, giving history and landmark information. The excursions were very enjoyable. Read Less

We just got back from the Canada New England cruise. I will start out with our meals at night, they were absolutely delicious-every single night from the appetizer to the dessert. Also, we had exceptional service from our waiter Ikadek and his assistant Marcos. They both had had great sense of humor, and had great attention to every detail, we always looked forward to seeing them at mealtime. Next our room attendant was Shawn and our room was cleaned twice a day with the cutest little towel animals on our beds at night. We ate in the Windjammer at breakfast and lunch and so many choices and everything we had from the waffles, ham that melted in your mouth to the carved meats for lunch and also hotdogs and hamburgers. The shows at night with the dancers and singers were Spectacular!! Those people are really talented. Now for the reason we will forever cruise with Royal Caribbean, one of the days Nick, the Activities Director, had all the veterans meet in one of the bars to meet each other and tell what branch of service and a little about what they did, that was so special, and if that wasn’t enough, on another day, they had all the vets meet in the Centrum and had the band the song for each branch of service and at the end they played God Bless America. There was not a dry eye in the house. I told Nick, “I will Love You Forever for doing this.” Read Less

We had always wanted to see the fall leaves in the NE and this trip did not disappoint. The ports were perfect and even when weather prevented us from going into St John the cruise staff made it a fun day at sea. Our room had plenty of space with lots of drawers, shelves and closet space. We like an interior room because we spend most of our time out and about watching shows, playing games, listening to music or walking the ship. We also like the darkness because we could sleep a little later without daylight coming in. The food was fantastic, lots of seafood and chocolate. There is something for everyone. The Horizon buffet is very good and not your typical cafeteria food. The entertainment on this cruise was some of the best I’ve seen. There was music, all types, comedy and tons of interactive trivia gameshow type activities. We have been on many cruises and this ship is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I was worried when I saw how many passengers it held but it never felt crowded. The Piazza is very large with tons of sitting areas so lots of people could be there but it was never cramped. Read Less

We chose this cruise because it offered opportunities to visit California and enjoy a cruise. However, many seniors and handicapped people were on this cruise. I felt they were not as accommodating for them. The elevators could not accommodate walkers, wheelchairs, scooters and able-bodied cruisers. They were so small that they could hardly accommodate 12-13 people when the capacity was 18. They need to figure out a way to help the handicapped if they want them to be assessible to all areas. They did have 3 pool areas; one for families, one for adults with no children, and one for those who wanted more privacy. Be selective about the excursions. Some of them are not worth the money. For example, our San Diego excursion cost $60 each to take a 4-hour city tour where you really did not get to spend time walking and checking out the local sights. The marina had an area just down from the ship that was great with shopping, tours, and restaurants that was within walking distance. The wine tours, Carmel and Monterrey were very nice. Espanada Mexico was a very poor tour to the shopping area; I would not recommend that tour. We heard that the Steinbeck excursion was very good as well. Do some research before your choose your excursion. Sometimes, it is just nice to enjoy a day on the ship and walk to nearby areas. The staff was very friendly, helpful, and make the trip great. Embarking and disembarking went smoothly. I would definitely take this cruise again. Read Less

Our class chose this destination on a majority vote for our 45th college reunion. We wanted a cruise that would take us to the East Coast and Canada for the Fall Foliage. Our travel agent suggested a Princess cruise based on previous clients' recommendations. The embarkation was smooth and all the staff were very helpful and showed us the way to our stateroom and the dining room for lunch. Our stateroom was in a quiet location, clean, had a balcony, and the space was just right for my husband and me. The bed was very comfortable and the comforter was light and warm. The Medallion made it so easy to get in and out of our room, go through lines when exiting or returning to the ship. It also made it easy to shop, pay for drinks or other items on the ship; we did not need to bring our wallets and money on board. The food, entertainment, service and staff on the Regal Princess were all first rate!! I will return to this ship for another cruise with family and friends! Read Less

I'm always curious to see if my assessment of a cruise ship matches the typical review of it I read here on Cruise Critic. Reviewers correct on the food, entertainment and things to do ... mostly pretty mundane. But the ship itself is in immaculate condition after a fall 2019 retrofit. And the crew was one of the sharpest and friendliest I have encountered on the high seas, except for a few letdowns in the dining room. Also love the size of the ship, easy to get around with a max of 1,400 passengers. Our New England and Canada fall colors cruise encountered some storms and we could not get in to Bar Harbor or get off the ship at Halifax. An extra wine tasting was added, and it's nice they do them, some lines don't, but HAL uses mostly cheap wines . One habit I find distasteful is their tendency during wine tastings and Lido food service to begin to shut things down too quickly. Other lines not so bad on that score. HAL loves these Microsoft classes but after a decade it's gotten old as people now focused more on cell phones than laptops. Our cabin with a small porthole was fine but several people related horror stories about plumbing problems and rude service at the front desk. HAL needs to revisit its offerings of things to do .. why not try some new, creative things instead of the same old same old you have run for decades! The food? In typical HAL fashion had some great lunches and dinners and a a couple that were flops. Soups not as good as they used to be on HAL ships. We don't even try the Pinnacle anymore because they just can't cook a steak right! The stops we made were fine ... loved Quebec City and the North End of Boston. Also enjoyed small towns Charlottetown and Sydney and their friendly people. Found the casino in Sydney and also their nice waterfront boardwalk. People complained that there is nothing at the pier at Port Canaveral. Overall glad we did the cruise and HAL is fine if you don't get thrown for a loop by a few things not to your liking. Read Less

We chose this cruise because it was a new location to cruise to for us. We never like to cruise for just 7 days so we actually booked this as a B2B2B cruise and were on the Regal from Oct 12 to Oct 31. It was our first time cruising out of New York. This was also our first time on the Regal and the first time on a medallion class ship. We arrived in NY the night before we cruised and stayed in a hotel near the pier. Boarding was easy and quick with the medallion. Our first 14 days on the ship our room was E437 an obstructed view balcony category BW. The truth was the view was not obstructed because the room looked over the small pilot lifeboat, in other words the view was great. The last five days we spent in room D501 a BB class balcony room. Both rooms were very nice and served us well. In room E437 our room steward was Carlos and he went out of his way of taking care of us and our room. I know he went home on Oct 31. In room D501 our room steward was Eduardo and he did a very good job but not quite as attentive as Carlos. The ship was in very good shape. It is a large ship with some very nice areas. I really wish it had the walk around promenade deck but it does not. I did use the gym on the ship frequently and all the equipment was in great shape. The Piazza is where many activities go on. At times the music can actually be a little to loud and echoes through the 3 floors of the Piazza. The elevators by the Piazza are very frustrating and if you really want to use an elevator go to the front or rear elevators during busy times or you will wait forever for an elevator. We had anytime dining for our first time. We found if we agreed to share a table we would wait for long periods of time for service, in fact one time they forgot to take our order and we had to bring it up to get the service. We found if we had a table for 2 the service was great and quick. The food itself was good, not great but good. We did not eat at any specialty restaurants. We did eat at Alfredo's as well as get pizza from the area by the pool as well as burgers and hot dogs a few times. These areas were good. The entertainment it the main theater was very good. The comedians they brought in were also very good. Keep in mind the theater does fill up early especially as the cruise goes on. After the first night if you were not in the theater a good 30 minutes before a show you might have trouble finding a place to sit. I like cruising with Princess it is my favorite cruise line and I have cruised on my lines. The Regal was very nice but not my favorite Princess ship. I never did find a favorite place on the ship, I did find some favorite crew. I would cruise on the Regal again without hesitation. We did cruise through some heavy storms a couple times and the ship handled the storms well. The waves were even crashing over the windows on deck 5. Cruising New England/ Canada was a first for us. It was a beautiful area but nothing that made me want to go back there. It is a lot like where I live so it was nothing real special to us. I did enjoy the area it just didn't make us want to come back. One thing that did happen while we were onboard was during our last 5 days on the ship a large group of people came on the ship. This group was there for the people of the TV show Lt. Joe Kenda Homicide Hunter. We did see the star of the show and his wife and even had lunch with some of the actors from the show. The group did not bother anything you just noticed them because they wore a lot of different t-shirts about the event. Read Less

I wanted to see Canada during colorful Fall weather and I was NOT disappointed. Love that we have graduated to suite category now. Butler and Concierge are really nice touches. Was not as impressed with Teppanyaki chefs as I have been on other ships. Although the food was good, their flare was not impressive.. Cagney's Steakhouse was great. Moderno Brazillian Steakhouse was not great except for the filet mingion, which was delicious. The other cuts were cooked too done, even tho I told them medium. .Breakfast there was good.. Shows were good and a great variety.. I do not like the fact that very few cabins have shower stalls. Majority have tub/shower combo and this one was too deep for me to get my leg over. I wish they would take this into consideration of us older folks. . It was not a handicapped room, but there was a grab bar by the toilet, which I appreciated. Read Less

This cruise option had the best port schedule for a Canada cruise. Disappointed that Portland Maine port was cancelled. Day at sea as a result was very rough. Room was terrific, as was our steward. Enjoyed Norwegian's flexible meal schedule options, did not miss having an assigned waitstaff. Ship layout was easy to follow after the first few days. Spa and spa services were terrific. Liked the readily available places to take a seat throughout the ship, if you need a rest. Sales were fun, found inexpensive gifts/souveniers to bring home. Booked all our excursions prior to the cruise, which took a lot of stress off the trip. Recommend booking spa services and spa membership prior to departure as well. Other cruises have a hard sell on board about specialty dining and beverage packages, appreciated no hard sell from Norwegian. Other than one day of bad weather, had great trip. Read Less

It was horrible from the beginning. MSC was NOT prepared to deal with NY. They did not make the right arrangements with the longshoremen and the Stevedore unions and got it stuck up where the sun doesn’t shine. No excuse they need to prepare. 3 to 4 hour waits to check in. People getting sick and requiring medical treatment. No priority boarding. It was a fiasco! They also were showing NY travel agents the ship and those people were getting off while people who had waited in line were trying to board. Not enough ramps not enough computer a complete disgrace. Left over an hour late. They claimed that rough seas caused us to miss Sydney port of call but word has it they did NOT make proper arrangements to stop there and even Canada said the heck with you. Most of the crew just arrived the same day, they were being shown around the next morning. No Satellite TV or sports broadcast. No NFL or College football, no baseball playoffs and NY Yankee fans were pissed and I don’t blame them. No news ! It was like we were lost at sea and we kind of were. MSC was in total disarray. Food was terrible. Buffet was weak, some water and juice dispensers did not work. Ran out of Coffee many times and no one to replenish. Poor selection and quality. Poor choice of deserts and fruit. Ice cream was out at the pool deck which was freezing rain. No cookies. Their pizza wasn’t even very good ! LOL ! Main dining room was just as bad. Poor cuts of meat and bad menus choices. Long waits to be served. The SPA was also a disgrace. One Steam room was not working and never got repaired. Only two of the three warm chairs worked and on Rough sea days they drained all whirlpools bot outside and in the SPA. Entertainment was ok but Cirque du Soleil was a rip off with watered down drinks and the show had to be stopped due to technical difficulties for 15 minutes. They credited everyone $300 for inconvenience of missing Sydney but it was no where near enough for their incompetence. People didn’t get drink packages, people didn’t get on board credits from the travel agencies. I didn’t get mine and when I called my agent he said it was definitely paid to MSC so they were really screwed up. I inquired but never got it. Ship is just fair. Poor design compared to others like Seaside and Celebrity Edge. No officers to be seen even at the VIP Black card party that was a joke. They probably were afraid to be confronted. I didn’t speak to one person that was happy and yet MSC is in complete denial. Be careful of cruising on them. They have expanded too quickly and are not prepared. They really should be ashamed. The $300 OBC that they gave everyone was no where near enough for their incompetence ! Read Less

This cruise was a disaster from start to finish! I can't believe we paid so much and got so little in return. - Embarcation was a HUGE fail. There were no signs or people providing information regarding luggage at drop off. There were 2 stations to hand off luggage. We waited in one of the lines only to be told we were at the wrong place (EVEN) we needed to go to the other one (ODD). How were we supposed to know? The guys handling the luggage were extremely rude, but probably employed by the port not MSC. - Inside was chaos. I wish I had taken a picture. Thousands of passengers trying to make their way with no signs and very few staff directing traffic. Where is the priority line? Good question. My guess is there wasn't one. It took us 2 hours to onboard, but we were "lucky" because it took some passengers over 4 hours. There was only one gangway open! REALLY? I have been on smaller ships, and we regularly had 2 gangways. We heard a lot of possible explanations/excuses, but I have no idea if any were true. Once on the gangway we were shocked to see only one MSC crew member scanning cards. There were two stations, but they were only utilizing one. Ridiculous! - Safety on board was not a priority. The Muster Drill, which is mandatory and emphasized on other ships, was a Cluster. - Despite making our dining reservations immediately upon boarding, we were dismayed to find out that they had all been cancelled the next day. We had issues re-booking and getting the dates/times we had originally selected. - The food was sub-par with the exception of Butcher's Cut. Unfortunately, we didn't have that until our last night. We had the Tryptic dining package, and were surprised by the limited options afforded to us. On our other non-MSC cruises we have had our choice of anything on the menu, with only a few items upcharged (i.e. lobster). Not so on MSC...I was charged $3.84 for a side of mashed potatoes in Ocean Key despite the fact I did not want any of the options offered. So my dinner was going to be mashed potatoes, and they arrived cold. I couldn't believe they still charged me. - The SPA had a number of issues. Poor design in the ladies locker room had the door opening to the lobby, which could cause some unwanted exposure. The lockers are stacked 3 high, and if you are assigned the top one you would need to be 6' tall or stand on the bench (another safety issue). There was water on the floor, but no mats to help prevent slip and falls. There were only 3 thermal chairs, and only 2 were working. Other facilities were not operational as well, yet crew were still trying to sell Spa Packages throughout the cruise. There is apparently no limit to how many they sell, despite the obvious overcrowding. -The captain skipped one port and shortened the stay at Quebec City. This was to be the highlight of the trip, and we looked forward to seeing the fall foliage along the St. Lawrence. Instead, we left at 1am, and missed it. We were told it was because the impending bad weather, but I can't help but think they were trying to avoid refunding another day's port fees. We had been running behind since we left New York. The embarcation issues delayed our departure by hours. It's hard to believe that a ship this large could not make up time. I know weather issues later in the trip are not under MSC's control, but I don't think we were getting the full story. -The phones would not allow anyone to leave messages. Such BASIC functionality, like so many other things on the ship...FAIL! -The TV didn't work the majority of the cruise. Their Highly Sophisticated Satellite System was another bust. We spent over $400 on internet...which was not great...but our only option. - The lines at the Customer Service desk were always long...filled with disgruntled passengers. Sadly, we spent a lot of time there. -The cabin design was odd.I suppose it was intended to be "sleek". However, the safe was located on one shelf in the closet. This limited the drawers to two. The depth of the closet was too shallow, meaning the clothes had to be turned at an angle in order to close the door. There were no other shelves or cubbies around the desk which would have been most helpful for storage. We ended up leaving our suitcases open on the sofa. - There were 2 positives for me on this cruise...our cabin steward was great and they had Dr. Pepper on board. I love DP! Only one bar (in the buffet) would keep them in the fridge, so I didn't get a cold can like I prefer...but still loved having it. -There were 100 people in our group, and our travel agent was with us. He worked non-stop to try and resolve the issues...meeting with ship department heads everyday. I can't imagine how much worse it would have been without him. SUMMARY - this was our worst cruise ever! If I could rate it lower, I would. We are Diamond Plus on RCL, Platinum on NCL, and have cruised on other lines as well...including one other MSC. I can't imagine EVER taking a chance on MSC again. Read Less

Introduction: MSC Cruise Line is a new entrant to an American market. MSC is a registered company in Switzerland but operates from Geneva, Italy. The company was originally founded in Naples, Italy as Mediterranean Shipping Company (that gives them their current name). MSC appears to be diversifying in the cruise market from its original business of shipping. The company is privately held. However, they are expanding their presence in the cruise market by adding newer and bigger ships aimed at penetrating the American market. Altogether, we have taken nearly 50 cruises worldwide for the past 30 years with various cruise lines. This was our fourth cruise experience with the MSC Cruise Line. The breakdowns of our cruises with MSC cruise line by the ships are (2) with MSC Divina, (1) with MSC seaside and (4th- this) one with the largest ship Meraviglia. We rank Divina as number # 1 of our choice, Seaside as Number # 2 of our choice and Meraviglia as our poor selection. The name Meraviglia in an Italian-English dictionary means something remarkable, amazing, marvelous, astonishing or wonderful. Unfortunately, our experience taught us that this ship did not live up to the meaning of this word. It was inaugurated approximately one year ago, started cruising in the European market and just recently crossed Atlantic and entered into the American market for the winter season. The company has been in the cruise market for the last ten years or more. According to their web site, they have 18 cruise ships deployed covering the world cruise market and new one MSC Virtuoso will be soon operational, making their cruise liner with a fleet of 19 ships. MSC virtuoso will be even more high tech and slightly larger. The comparison of the cruise ships that we have traveled with MSC is given below. MSC Divina MSC Seaside MSC Meraviglia Comments 3502 5179 5655 Passengers 1308 1413 1536 Crew size 2.52 3.66 3.68 Ratios-passengers to crew 1093 ft 1060 ft 1034 ft Length Passenger to Crew Ratio: As a rule of thumb, when the passenger to crew ratio increases, the quality of the service to the passengers will decline. We felt excellent service with MSC Divina, little less with Seaside but considerably less with Meraviglia. As per our observations, the reasons were more than passenger to crew ratio that was unacceptably high with this ship, when compared with their own ships and ships of the other cruise liners. We observed the following factors influenced their quality of services. 1. The inexperienced and overworked crews. 2. Insufficient crew size to maintain quality of service needed for the large ship while serving over 5,000 passengers. 3. Unorganized services for embarkation, disembarkation at the port of calls, the breakfast, the lunches, and the dinners. 4. Poor leadership of the officers. Why we went with MSC- Meraviglia: We decided to take a 10-day cruise to Northern Canada, just to check off our bucket list based on our past favorable experience as a Black card member with MSC cruise line. We assumed that New York port, where a large number of ships arrive and depart; with two hours plane trip one way from home offers more conveniences and advantages. However, our cruise experience became very unpleasant with this cruise ship, so we decided to share our review and experience with other future cruisers, who can derive their own conclusions. Undoubtedly, we were impressed with some of their high tech features, which were incorporated in such newer and larger ships such as navigation devices, dockings and stability controls and other facilities that give you the feelings of resort-like lifestyle. The electronic display (that worked as a large computer tablet); placed at strategic places, for booking the onboard shows or dinner reservations, ships maps etc are a helpful and desirable feature. However, we were shocked by the total chaos and disorganization that became evident that we experienced in several service areas. This can be clearly attributed to the insufficient and inexperienced crews for servicing over 5500 customers on a timely basis. Obviously, the crew ratio to the passengers on board was one critical element but we also discovered that crew size was not present to its rated capacity as advertised. However, we felt that the ship was nearly full, if not completely full, carrying cross Atlantic passengers from Europe as well as new American passengers that were picked up from New York. We will review step by step our experience with various facilities onboard the ship, ports of calls and ancillary services. Embarkation in New York We took an early morning flight to fly to New York that required us to get up very early in the morning. The flight was smooth and we landed on time. We collected our luggage and took Super Shuttle to the port. As expected with usual busy traffic in New York downtown, it took over an hour to get to the port around 11.00 AM. At the cruise terminal, the line was already formed in the cold weather; the people wanted to have their luggage dropped off and get out of the cold to wait in the cruise terminal for the processing to start. Most of the ports and cruise lines have a quick procedure and facility for checking and dropping off the luggage to the ground crews. The ground crews collect the luggage beginning at 10.00 A.M. that will be delivered to your assigned room after embarkation. There were no luggage crews present and the luggage checking did not start until noon. The passengers waiting to embark on the ship found this delay unacceptable. Just like other cruise lines, why there were no luggage crews scheduled at 10.00 AM to receive the luggage? We were able to check our luggage around 1.00 PM due to long lines ahead. After checking in our luggage, we have to stand in long lines due to the long lines of people waiting to be processed. Nearly, the 30 to 40 percent cruise check-in people were absent judging from the empty terminals. This caused additional delays. The lines were getting very long and the people were jumping ahead of their turns. Although we had a Black card membership that allowed us the priority check-in, we were refused entry and not allowed to go into the priority area. The unmanned empty computer terminals gave us the indication that the long day is ahead of us. Some elderly people who had to stand in line for more than 3 hours and need to use the restroom facility were asked to go through luggage screening again. This again caused additional discomfort and anger among the passengers. The normal procedure used by other cruise lines is to collect boarding passes after luggage check-in, have processors take and verify your passport and credit card, take pictures if needed and assign the call tag for boarding and room key. Then you can wait for your embarkation call assigned to you and proceed to embark while going through carry-on luggage screening by the machines. You are in and at your option stand in for picture taking and skip and head towards embarkation. For reason unknown to us this process was not followed by this cruise ship during the embarkation, the process was changed as well as understaffing did not help. The terminal assigned was a small place, thereby creating overcrowding, long wait, and confusion. It took almost 5 hours of wait before most of the people were able to embark. Some Yacht club members were able to check in on a priority basis but not all Black card members. This was the most frustrating experience with most of the passengers. I tried to locate cruise officers but none was visible or available in the terminal. The contract union workers were not cooperative and were rude. One officer that I talked to after boarding the ship blamed it on the union. Market Place: The Market Place on the 15th deck area was always crowded unless you got into the service area at the time of the opening (General Buffet restaurant in the upper deck). We did notice that the seaside ship included two restaurants, another one mostly used by Yacht club members but non-Yacht passengers can also utilize it. This helped distribute the passengers and reduced overcrowding. These alleviate the overcrowding problem that we experienced almost every day at the Market place. The menus of both open restaurants at the seaside were identical. The Meraviglia only had one market place that acts as a general cafeteria, excluding regular dining rooms (no cost) and specialty restaurants (with cost). We did not find another designated place for eating as they had at the seaside. With the weather getting colder and windy, we cannot use the pool area. Some menu items vary in “hot serving” station every day, but in other areas like Pizza, ethnic and salad stations, they were unchanged. If you did not make it in time during the opening hours, good luck to find a table and a chair. Due to a shortage of crews, some of the serving stations were closed and the place was very crowded all the time. However, once you find the table, the self-service for food was reasonably quick. However, at beverage stations the chaos always prevailed due to lack of equipment to serve the passengers. The juice dispensers were often mislabeled. The most troubling aspect was that the hygienic requirement for food handling was not monitored. To avoid the Norvac Virus attack, some cruise liners are not allowing the passengers to touch the food but it is served to them in the self-service area. They also don’t allow the passengers to touch the serving spoons. Although we did notice the installation of hand wash booths (a great improvement and healthier method) at the entrance, there was no enforcement on passengers by the crews. The floor below the beverage stations required more attention for keeping them orderly and cleaned to avoid the passengers slipping or sliding. Ports in the Itinerary: Upon embarkation, we learned that our two-night stay at Quebec City will be cut to one day from two days and we will be issued $ 25.00 per passenger onboard credit. The reason cited was the whale migration of the season. Many passengers wondered that such events are repetitious annually and predictable, why was this not pre-configured in pricing and itinerary construction. The onboard credit must be spent on the ship or you lose it. Any saving on port charges must be refunded in cash that was not refunded for Quebec City; perhaps it was not refundable due to embarkation. The second issue popped up when just hours before the arrival at our first port stop at Sydney, the captain announced that due to bad weather at sea, we will be skipping the port. For that, we received an onboard credit of $ 300.00 per cabin as a refund to the cruise price along with port charges of $ 25.00. Both refunds were in cash. Next port of call was crane brook that was a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada. Sydney was close by and there were enough time and weather turned favorable. If Captain wanted to reconsider his stop that he omitted and if the dock was available, he would have an opportunity to restore the schedule. Not having that information, I cannot make a definite conclusion on the availability of docking the ship, but time and weather-wise; it was possible to make a stop after crane brook on our way to Quebec City. Dining Rooms: Although crowded, the evening service at the main dining room was slower but not bad. The menus varied but were not comparable to other cruise liners but most regarded the evening dinner as not the problem. We had to waste our time at customer service by standing in line, to correct billing errors. The wine steward forgot to take the card of the user and placed the charges on our room without any signature. We had one such incident and some of the others had similar problems. It appeared that 30 to 40 percent of crews were first-timers. Prior to crossing Atlantic, they must have relieved the old crews in Europe and took over a new consignment of crews. We talked to various people and they seem to be overworked, covering more tables and they were thinly spread out. Our lunch experience in the dining room was very poor. We had to sit there for two hours to complete our lunch menus. Generally, the dining rooms are closed after 20 to 30 minutes once they are opened, so the inside customers who are seated are promptly served and second seating if required can be opened up. Keeping the dining room open all the time allowed new people to arrive and waiters had to get them started with the menu, bread, and drinks. The same waiters would have to delay serving the second or third portion of the lunch for those who are already seated. This created a delay for all and took two hours to finish lunch. I think their lunch procedures must be reviewed and compared with other successful cruise liners of their size to ensure that they are properly staffed and have the right procedures to get the customers in and with no more than an hour. We ordered our dessert but it never arrived, after waiting for 30 minutes, we left and went to self serve market place. Customer service: There was a computer breakdown either on the ship or downloading the passenger data from the main office or perhaps both. This created huge problems in billings and there were many wrong charges applied to the room but they belonged to other rooms. Onboard credits that were included with our cruise bookings, never showed up and we had to take our booking papers and stand in line for an hour to prove that we were due that credit. All these problems had to be resolved by the customer service manned by four to five people and they were very busy all the time with long lines and they did what they can to correct billing errors, review the benefits and charges applied. With the breakdown of computer or data loss, they had to enter the data manually and they were two days behind but finally got caught up prior to the end of the cruise. This big computer glitch may have also created unnecessary delay at the time of embarkation and they had to manually reenter the data for many passengers. This may explain the reigning chaos and confusion seen on the face of the crew. I spoke to an officer who was aware of the problem but blamed the embarkation delay that delayed the departure by three hours and may have contributed to the skipping of the port due to the union rules observed by the New York Port Authority. Some passengers from the city of New York hotly disputed that statement. I requested the meeting with the captain but the captain choose to remain invisible and I never met him except at a welcome party from the distance. Future cruise consultants: We see no reason to travel again with this cruise line. Our reason to see the cruise consultant and to make her aware of the contracted package, we bought did not produce the requested result and her attitudes were disappointing and so was her remark that “it is no big deal”. There were others who had the same problems. It appeared to us that they were focused on booking future cruises until we reminded them that unless they fixed this cruise first, there will be no future cruises. During the last three days of the cruise, we started receiving our package in pieces, unlike other cruises we took with them, where the package was sitting in the cabin on the first day of embarkation. Internet: We were looking to get some internet access to check-in our flight back home when we were still sailing on the sea. They had a day package for $ 39.00 and were labeled as “24th”. When you try to sign on, they showed a 24-hour clock with start and stop time clock. The stop button did not work. We had to go back to customer service, who did not know how to fix it, so they brought their IT guy down. We talked to the IT man with the following suggestion. Rename the package as a “one-day” package, since it is unlimited and get rid of the clock. He implemented that suggestion and we were pleased about that. Shows: The shows were better organized for booking and checking. This operation was well organized. Their Cirque du Soleil at Sea - MSC Cruises was great and worth buying at the time of booking at discount. All other free shows were comparable to other cruise liners. Two performances allow all to take advantage of these entertainments. Club Member activities and Events Consistent with other cruise liners, there were welcome, Black member and Yacht club events but they were not organized in the places like sky lounge that are private and quiet, but were thrown open at Plaza Meraviglia (Promenade-Main deck) 6, where shopping gallery and franchised restaurants are located (not owned by ship). The captain was generally absent from some of the public events and service was not properly organized. Some of the passengers were not happy when one Gelato private operator ran out of cups and cones. The passenger managed to get a glass from a nearby bar to complete his purchase. Cabin: We had an outside cabin with a balcony that is always a nice and enjoyable feature. Unfortunately, the weather was colder than normal, so we could not take advantage of that. This ship has many cabins with the outside balconies and it is very useful in the warm weather. In general, the cabin accommodation was perfect. However, TV service was not useful. There were not enough channels in English for the American market and the satellite service was poor. The major free news channels like CNN, BBC and others were not available that you generally find with most of the other cruise lines operating in the American market. The TV featured the review of your onboard activities, reservation and billing details were excellent provisions and that is not generally not found with other cruise liners. Onboard movies will require payment, while other cruise liners have free service and sometimes a small movie theater featuring new releases. We have furnished enough details for the cruise line to make some amends for American markets or passengers to consider when booking future cruises. Disembarkation: Disembarkation at the end of the cruise was smooth and we encountered no problems, like we experienced with ports of calls in Canada that we stopped. Generally, at the port of call, there are two doors opened, one for disembarkation and another one for pre-embarkation upon the conclusion of the tour or the visit to the town. We found that either due to lack of security machines or lack of personnel, they did not open two doors, resulting into long lines and delays. This was unnecessary for this size of the ship. Read Less

Took over 4 hours to get check in and almost as bad getting off the ship apox 2 hours.The ship itself was beautiful they did a very good job on the lay out, but they need more crew mates for this size of a ship.Food was so so needs a lot of improvement,the buffet was just most ship just OK nothing special.Had a inside cabin and it was the smallest inside cabin I ever had.,been on 18 cruises.Overall they need to get there act together.Entertament was top notchAll the shows were very good just about the best I have seen on a ship.I almost Forgot to mention we were supposed to dock at Quebec for 2 days never happen 1 day and out to sea.main reason for booking the cruise.Try to make to review as best I can but I just can’t come up with any other points.The Botton line is that they better stick to shipping and sell off the cruise business Read Less

The new ship and the ports are the two points that had us booking The confusion to get onboard was discouraging, but after that, it was great Perhaps it was because it was the first sailing out of NY. Perhaps it was the crowd. Perhaps it was poor organization. There was no priority boarding when we arrived. We were in line over 3 hours. Fortunately , I was able to keep friends informed and they waited several hours before coming to the port. We booked Sonar for drinks and show. The show was very disappointing. There were three pre-made drinks offered and they were watery. We will try the other show next time. The steakhouse experience was great. We did find out that the drink package was not usable. Wish we had known that before the wine. Try the tomato soup and sandwich appetizer. It is delicious. We are looking forward to our December 1st experience Read Less

It was the Snowbird 13 day cruise and we wanted to visit Quebec City while seeing all fall colors. Where do I begin? Cabin had stains on carpet, dust under TV and, after one week, had to request a sheet change. The main dining room food, although good, had a very limited selection. Buffet was very good and service in both main and buffet was great! Entertainment was terrible and the night we were looking forward to "Can't Stop the Rock" was cancelled at the last minute without notifying passengers. Excursions okay but only two guides stand out as really good and two very bad. The L'ile de Orleans tours with winery had a guide that talked mostly about her drinking and didn't cover economy or history of island. The tour to Bay of Fundy, NS, also had a poor guide, Mike, that didn't know much of island's information, economy or history. Very unorganized in almost everything. Out of comment cards in English, no box to put them in, out of wash clothes one morning, operator gave wrong info for weather channel, really difficult to sign up for Galley Tour (took six phone calls and finally walked down to restaurant to book). Very old movies shown in theater. Library had very small selection with few books. We booked direct with RC and requested window table for two. It was not done and had to plead to get what we wanted. They had no record of it even thought it was noted that we preferred window seat on our confirmation. Tables set much too close together in main dining room even though many tables empty. It was very loud and servers couldn't even fit between tables. Our "spacious ocean view balcony" room was a good size but balcony was very, very small. Never would choose RC again. Oh, one last thing, I made some of these comments while on cruise and requested a call but never received any. Read Less

I choose the cruise based on a lot of ports and few sea days. Found out that that was no shuttle from the train station to the ship. Had to walk a half mile with my cane leading the way. Our room was under the bridge and was very drafty with wind coming in around the balcony door most of the trip. It was next to impossible at every port to get a wheelchair for disembarking the ship. I had to wait sometime 15 minutes, even though there were plenty of wheelchairs, just not at the exit! Food at the specialty restaurants was very good, except for Moderno. Service was very slow and the meats when they did come were tough as leather. The worse part of the excursions were a lack of flexibility in going on the trips. One day we had heavy rain and wind all day to the point that our bus driver could not see the road very well. NCL should have given us the option of not going on the excursion with no penalty. Due to the weather, our ship was diverted to Boston instead of Newport. NCL was not able to arrange any excursions or even a shuttle. The buffet restaurant was typical cruise food, but nobody bothered to tell us that the lines served totally different items from each other. The biggest aggravation for us was the lack of standard 110 outlets in the cabin, which I found out is the same issue ship wide. Read Less

Restaurants: special dinning was not worth the price. the food was not great quality and served warm. The servers were very good and tried their best to assist. The meat in Cagney's was extremely poor quality and stringy. The main dinning room turned out to be better than the special restaurants (disappointing) Entertainment: the acts in the theater were excellent as was the entertainers throughout the ship. The Irish comedian and the female comedian were great. the dancers and the band were very good. Captain: Many thanks for keeping us safe during the storm and seeking safe shelter. He made the right choice, even though I missed my night in New York and lost my money for theater tickets. Better safe than sorry! Ports: Boston was a surprise but an excellent stop. You should consider spending two days because of all the attractions. Quebec City was enjoyable as was the excursion at Portland. Overall, the cruise was relaxing and mostly enjoyable. Read Less

Chose this cruise for the itererary and timing - peak fall colors in Canada and New England. Food was average, service was slow, dining room service was very slow. Ports of call and disembarkation was smooth except for the last one - New York City. Got in late, very disorganized exit and the transportation to the airport was a mess. No one knew which bus went to Newark, which one went to Kennedy and which one went to LaGuardia. Entertainment on the ship was very good. The cabin was small and the layout hard to maneuver. Shore excursions were average, seemed priced about average. One thing missing on the ship was any link to the ports we were going to see - only one presentation on any of the ports and this was well after the midpoint of the cruise. Information about the ports we had visited and then some about the ones coming up. Other cruises have a presentation for each port the day before arrival with tips about local foods, drinks, attractions, warnings(about pickpockets) and something interesting about the port that only someone that had been there would have. One port was substituted due to weather - going to a dock instead of tendering. Also lost the last day of NYC as we were anchored riding out high seas and high winds. I would recommend the trip to others but would also set their expectations based on our experience. Great fall colors, easy travel, average food and room, good entertainment. Read Less

Very disappointing cruise. Not the agenda but the overall vibe and feel of the experience. My expectations for the price paid was first class yet from cabin cleanliness , management team to the buffet food, I would rate it very below average. Many employees especially senior staff avoided interaction by being on the ships phones as they walked by. Cabins was dirty and attendant did nothing more than make a bed. No table cleaning, no dusting, no vacuuming no scrubbing of toilet floor or tub. Caught the steward on at least 4 occasions just loafing in the room or daydreaming on the balcony. Food quality very average at best. Too much repeat ( or slight variation with different names] does anyone really like bread pudding that much to have it everyday ? Soups all tasted same, salad bar was poor choices and actually ran out of lettuce day 10. As for itinerary, great as originally planned and switching Boston from Newport was a bonus but missing the full day and overnight in New York City was a negative. Appreciate NCL taking cover from the storm overnight on Wednesday but trying to get answers why the ship didn’t sail earlier on Thursday to reach New York to arrive at least by noon on Friday. Shortly after leaving the cove north of Boston at 6 pm The Bridge report on the TV showed arrival at 10 am Friday which would have been acceptable. It also seems it would have been achievable at approximately 300 nautical miles assuming 20-22 knots speed. Ship never achieved more than 11-12 knots and actually headed towards Nantucket to hang out most of the day on Friday. My guess is they were trying to save $$$$ on docking costs instead of trying to please the paying customers. Many guests were questioning staff but very poor communication and answers as to WHY! As if NCL was afraid to be honest about it. Final complaint was the number of tender ports even though the ports had usable piers that were occupied by other cruise lines. This seems to me that NCL made the decision that it is cheaper to tender than pay dock fees. Tendering is a time waste for the paying client when there are piers available. Is this way for cruise line to improve their Gross Profit? Read Less

Just back from a 14 day cruise. I have sailed with Celebrity before so I knew what to expect. Stateroom attendant great. Blu restaurant service outstanding. Tuscany restaurant very good n- food and service. Skip Sushi on 5. Eat at Qsine at least once for experience. Buffet very good all-around. Entertainment mostly home runs; a couple of grand slams. Great cruise director. Most accessible and able captain of any cruise I have been on. He understands the business he is in and his staff/crew reflect his philosophy/worldview. Very nice ship - recently refurbished. Embarkation exceptionally good. Can't say there was anything that really stood out as exceptional, bc all was good. Maybe that the entertainment was much better than anticipated. My only complaint is they are chintzy on alcohol - and there is no good reason for that. Most drinks couldn't taste or feel any alcohol. And I know alcohol! Read Less