MSC Opera Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I was excited to take my mom on her first cruise. I've been on many cruises and it's my favorite way to cruise. I wanted to try out MSC and I liked the ports available. First, I made some assumptions. I assumed that as a European cruise line they would be more accommodating for gluten free. I also assumed that if I planned ahead, called customer service, and documented my interactions they would ensure easy accomodations for my mom, who has mobility issues.
I also paid for a suite to ensure there was enough room for my mom to move around and we could take advantage of breakfast in the room and priority boarding.
Customer Service Before and on the cruise: I called several times to ensure that certain arrangements were made. I found customer service to be cross and completely disinterested in answering questions or providing support. This was both by phone and email. Because of COVID there are a number of additional items that had to be dealt with in advance, for example, getting a COVID test in advance of the cruise. As someone traveling to a foreign country, I reached out to the cruise line to see if they had any advice on how to best manage the ore-cruise test in Barcelona. I was given a very short answer of " that is up to you to figure out". This being one of several cruises I've done during COVID, I was very shocked at the blunt response. The other cruise companies were not on their way to make sure that we had the testing options available to us.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Suite Aurea
The Suite: The suite was only slightly larger than the average cruise room size and the balcony was quite small. The suite on this cruise was about the same size as a standard balcony room on a Celebrity Cruise. We did have a benefit of a full size shower. However, it's designed with a very high step in, which made it very hard for somebody who's physically limited in movement to get into the shower. This was one of the things I called in advance in regards to, to ensure optimum cruising for my mother, and was ensured there would be no issues.
There was a large walk-in closet for all of our clothes. Plenty of space to store things. I really appreciated this. That said, the door to the closet would not properly close and as a result the closet light stayed on 24/7. This made it hard to sleep at night because it was a bright light. I asked room service to have somebody fix this. Nobody was sent and I used a heavy object against the door to keep it closed at night. Again, I would relate this to short staffing on the ship.