MSC Orchestra Review

4.0 / 5.0
394 reviews

Great Ports, Basically a Floating Hotel

Review for the Mediterranean Cruise on MSC Orchestra
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lttlsparklz
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Dec 2017
Cabin: Balcony Stateroom
Traveled with children

We were on the 12 day MSC Orchestra over Christmas. MSC is now marketing itself as a family-friendly line, however, they do not have the ship or the experience to do this well yet. All of the kid venues seemed literally smushed into the boat in odd places (during the last referbishment), and overall the boat felt very cramped and crowded, despite not being booked to capacity. Perhaps the newer class ships are better for this.

The kids club is offered almost all day long, though there is a lot of TV watching (the MSC tv show) and other screen activities as they do not have a lot of kids, so they often combine all ages together and I suppose that's an easy way to entertain them? This was disappointing for us, as my daughter loves the organized, structured activities on other lines. So she opted to go for only an hour a day, and many days, she opted to not go at all.

The food is really good, although it is European in both style and portion size. Be sure to order multiple dishes. We enjoyed the MDR, though the seating is odd and staff is friendly, but not personable. I loved the food, though it is a bit rich. I did miss the variety of eateries that are offered on other ships. Also, the buffet is really packed during peak times, and during non-peak times, there is limited food available. There is no free ice cream on the ship.

Cabin Review

Balcony Stateroom

Cabin B2

The cabin was a standard balcony room, though it felt smaller than on other lines. It was fine overall.

Port Reviews

Barcelona

The aquarium is tiny... there are much better around the world, we walked through the whole place in about 30 minutes. We spent most of the time shopping at the mall next door.

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