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Poor

Average

MSC Bellissima

MSC Meraviglia

MSC Seaview

MSC Splendida

MSC Seaside

Me and wife wanted to try out this new 2019 ship and love watching Cirque de Soleil. Got a great price on an inside cabin but had to many customer service problems. This is our 1st and will be our last cruise with MSC. 

Our our ship excursion we were given a sticker with our group number and were told to wait to be called. After 3 time that I ask another agent and he told us that the bus had already left 20 minutes ago. I explained to him that we were told to sit and wait untill called. He responded  "NO he did not tell you that".  Luckily another group of 2 and  3  passengers were also told the same thing.  Manager  appologized and told us to pay taxi for the 7 of us to try to catch the tour bus at the first stop. She left but we then realized that 7 adults couldnt fit in one small 3 row taxi cab so we had to make arrangement to get a van and pay more. The MSC manager should have stayed until we left to make sure we were taken care of.

There was alot of little problems with the customer service that we will never travel with MSC. On one reentry we had to wait in line 30 minutes in the 95 hot room. They only had 1 security agent and 1 xray machine to check people in. The room had no air or fans. Absolutely NO excuse to go through these conditions on a VACATION.  Overall alot of the staff does not know what or where things are on the boat. The buffet has alot of dead times where very little food is available Not one  time did any employee mention washing your hands or sanitizer before people are entering food area.  It was rare to see anyone use sanitizer or wash there hands before the buffet lines. This seems like a serious health safety problem on this boat.  Cirque shows were good. The other shows were average. Cant believe that one of there shows is a hand shadow show. Every port has new passengers embarking and disembarking so you have to listen to the safety announcements every day in 7 languages.  I could go on and on but this cruise line is a JOKE. I have traveled with Carnival, Holland, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian and have never written a bad review of there ships.

1st & Last MSC Cruise

My family of 25 decided to celebrate my mother birthday on a cruise to Europe.  What a disappointment.  We flew from New Jersey, New York, Florida and Georgia for this joyous occasion.  This ship seems to be only concerned about packing people on a ship and dropping off to different stops without having space to have any entertainment.

1. They nickel and dime you for everything (soda, ice cream, tea, lemonade) previous ship we sailed all was included

2.  The nightly dinners were tasteless and not a great variety.  After a couple of nights we stop going to dinner and went to the market place

3. The Marketplace wasn't must better but we had no other choice.  The do not have a variety of foods and most of the time you had to wait for them to replenish

4. Nothing to do at night except take in a 20-30 minute show (different every night), Karaoke 3-4 nights and different dance training every night. We are use to having a selection of entertainment every night be it comedy, games etc

5. The Casino is very small and roped off for smoking/non smoking   If you have issues with breathing do not go in because the smoke comes over the rope.

6. The reception desk can only answer questions but not take payments.  You have to go to a kiosk to make payment and if you need a receipt for the credit card payment you must go back to the reception desk for printout.

7. We attend the Cirque du Soleil show, very disappointing

This experience has changed my mind about cruising and I will never cruise again.

Not worth the money

Cruise critic, notes from the brand new MSC Bellisima...

The newest of the MSC fleet, Bellisima is massive, wide, and very, very crowded. Ship. 

There are advantages to its size, but many disadvantages too!

The price for its size, comes as opposite to your logic, the balcony suites!! Shoe boxes, (better) have been reduced in width to accommodate more rooms (boxes)! The design has changed the interior to putting the bed near to the window and the sofa next to the heads. On that front, there has been no shortage of hot water, at night the sound of those rooms above, having a shower or running water, can be loud. 

Everything is bright and new, yet only weeks old, signs of blistering rust, fester in awkward places. The crew as always, are Great! really helpful and accommodating. Some we have known from previous MSC cruises, don’t like the larger ship. It has lost its personality. For the the girls, women and wives, there are plenty of shops! If your in the market for watches, some extremely expensive(€53k)!! Down to tacky 2x €40!

This ship was designed specifically for the Med. and less dangerous seas, not for open seas, ask those who travelled out from Southampton! Not good.

The shopping plaza will blow your mind! It’s roof is an LED, picture scope, changing scene every few minutes, similar to that seen on the Dancing on Ice back drops. A wonderfull sight to see! Truly beautiful. From previous cruises, the traditional leaving port to Andrea Botchelli and Sarah Brightman singing ‘time to say goodbye’ has been deleted, no longer to thrill the passengers as this Cruise Director ( probably the worst we have ever witnessed), refused to play it!? Andrew Botchelli was in Southampton for the christening ceremony with Sophia Loren, he will be less than enamerored, when he finds out! He was so pleased to learn of the accolade.

Shame really, out loud on the tannoy, it fits well with the MSC image, as the ship leaves the port, the recording blasting away!

Other cruise lines now do the same, but MSC was first!

The food is Good, really good for bulk cooking. The most picky eater would not go hungry.   I have no intention of being rude, but how some of the foreigners stack up their plates,only to ditch it 10 mins later. With such a very large passenger number, queueing for food is a nightmare. This very much is the same for getting on and off the ship! Long waits! Double the passengers, but not the staff or exits and it’s a disaster waiting to happen! As above, there are quite a few other matters that can apply too! The theatre, emergency practice, let alone forbid it should ever happen for real! Hey? Perhaps the captain will get off first! Costa on the rocks sir? With ice?

One of the other nigly small items is the changing of the drinks packages. One thing other lines should have followed(Cunard)!  Obviously MSC found they could screw you out of more money this new way! and the new fantastica package goes far less further than it did!

The once formal evening has gone. Not one evening suit to be seen. Shame! Yes shame, we forget the ladies love to dress up!  On the Gala night, shorts and tee shirts were seen on many! Bad news is, the staff did little or nothing to stop it.

The ship! Yes too big! Too crowded, too many queues, oh yes! There was enough deck chairs, but no staff to organise how far they could go! Main areas were jammed in 2 cases. The ship? An absolute joy to sail in. Even the most sea sick person could manage! Very little roll or pitch! Well done the designer or ship architect.

NOW YOU CAN TAKE YOUR MOTHER!

There is some good entertainment on board. The nightly shows are well put together as are specialty shows like ‘Circ Du Soliel’, but the ad says, specify!  Gourmet food. It is not!   Wet, over cooked veg, hard over-baked specialty Potatoes are part of this act! Now in the bin. I did have cause to complain that one time, as my plate went back with no other replacement in sight. But those artists

Bellisima, not for the older passenger

We have just returned from a 7 day cruise in the med (Barcelona Marseilles Genova Naples Messina and Valletta) and we were quite disappointed with the MSC Bellissima. It is not as beautiful as the MSC Seaside and there is no 'vibe' . The main attraction is supposed to be the 80-metre-long LED dome which turns out to be an overcrowded shopping mall.  The Cirque du Soleil at Sea  is supposed to be the other big attraction but there is an extra charge for that.  The captain is barely visible or audible (we only saw him at the photo opportunity with captain event). The music is quite dull and depressing and there are very few daytime activities and most are chargeable. I have attended a Zumba session on a previous cruise which was held  in one of the big theatres. It was free and great fun. Not on the Belissima! The Zumba started 15 minutes late as the teacher had to collect the fee and it was held in a tiny room that doubled up as the spinning studio in the gym area. Luckily there were only 5  (!) people attending. The gym is far too small for a ship this size and there is no area for floor work or stretching. I ended up stretching on the floor (no mats) in a little corridor outside the toilets with people stepping over me.

The other thing that bugs me is that on formal nights people are allowed to attend formal dinner in t shirts. Very few people wear dinner jackets and that is sort of fine. However can people not make a tiny effort and wear a shirt with maybe a tie, instead of a scruffy red tshirt?  MSC should enforce a minimum clothing standard in the formal dining rooms on formal nights.

The food was fine with plenty of choice at the buffet. I would have liked longer opening hours which would have helped us avoid the 'scrum' that regularly occurs in the buffet area. Also, it would be nice if MSC stopped people from filling bottles from the water machines as this is not hygienic.

Disappointed

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