A little background, I am a 22 year old and went on this 8 day cruise as a spring break trip with my significant other and another couple. Last year cruised on the Norwegian Jade 5 day (on its last cruise before it's remodel) to Costa Maya. After last year, I wanted to go big on a cruise this year that was a nice ship and went to the Eastern Caribbean islands. Many of the cruise liners with newer ships were just way out of the price range, I really wanted to go on the Norwegian Escape but the price was just too much and they changed the itinerary last second to go to the gulf of mexico due to the hurricanes. Anyways I came across the MSC Seaside and the price was ridiculously cheap, I thought it was too good to be true (starting at $529? REALLY?). Anyways, I did research and had a little faith about MSC trying to break into the market and we booked it. Leading up to the cruise, I was a little worried due to some of the negative reviews on this site. I never really write reviews, but I had such a great time that I want to share my experience since some of the reviews are just seeming to paint a bad picture (maybe from competition), but many of the "major flaws" in the other reviews were not there in my experience. I had an amazing time.

Now for my actual cruise experience. Our boarding time out of Miami said 4:45, We showed up at 2:30 and were on the ship in our cabin in under 30 minutes. On my Norwegian sailing out of Tampa, it took like 2+ hours. Maybe that is just a port thing, but I was impressed. Our bags were also at our door the next time we came back to the room after we ate. The first thing we did on the ship was adventuring around it. The ship is MASSIVE. There are so many things to do but the first was to go up to the top deck and take pictures of the sunset with the Miami skyline. Then we went over to the deck 16 infinity bridge, wow, just wow.

Back to the room, we had an interior room, I usually like having a view, but the price was right for an interior. We also did the Fantastica package so we could pick our location and get the free drink vouchers. The room was beautiful and bathroom was top quality. Not sure if this was because we are novice cruisers, but we did not know that you had to put your cruise card in the door slot for the power to turn on. We thought our power was broken, but it's great and very green to conserve energy. The MSC Seaside uses the exterior door lighting system to inform whether someone is in the room, Do not disturb, or to request to have your room made up. This was awesome. Our room was made up perfectly every day, and in the days where we took a nap and messed up our bed, our room would be made up by the time we came back (when we pressed the make up room button). Our Steward was phenomenal and kept us feeling like 5 star guests. Read more