MSC Musica Reviews

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This was the worst cruise we have ever been on.The staff were surly and rude, with a few exceptions. The reception staff were the rudest I have ever dealt with. We were even sold a ticket for a non existant shuttle bus to the airport in Bari, and were charged 30 euro's for it. The food was good although a little unimaginative. We were charged extra for everything, even water and coffee. The coffee served with breakfast was disgraceful..absolutley undrinkable, possibly by design so that we have to buy our coffee from the bar. The ship had to change course due to bad weather. very little information was given to passengers as to what was happening, very disorganized and badly handled. The ship was nice, our cabin was good and was kept very clean. The overall impression was that it is not a very welcoming atmosphere on the ship. With a few exceptions the staff were not pleasant or helpful..one got the feeling that the passengers were just a nuisance

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This was our first cruise so we don't have any other to compare. I booked and then found cruise critic and read some of the bad reviews. 1. The cabins and the ship are very clean. 2. Service is awesome, the staff is everywhere, you don't have to look to far and they all work hard and are friendly. 3. The MSC excursions are worth every penny, we cheaped out one day and regretted it, we wish we could do that port over again. We walked out and were just going to find a good restaurant etc but we encountered plenty of locals offering bargain excursions, so we chose one for $20.00 euros each. The tour was just okay, nothing to write home about. At the end of the tour we still had 3 1/2 hours left so the tour guide asked if we wanted to walk, she pointed right and said go left, so we asked her are you sure, go left, yes, yes...No we ended up walking 6 miles on a bad road with no hope of grabbing a taxi, we finally made it to the ship on time. We had already booked 2 MSC excursions so we decided to add two more, good choice, all the MSC excursions are fun and no worries about getting back to the ship in time. A couple of the excursions we had to be taken on board by boats because of either no dock or too many ships docked, we went out first and were on the island by 7:30 when the non-excursion members started disembarking at 8:00 a.m. so this was an advantage. At some ports MSC offered a shuttle to the city center and they had shuttle buses bring you back every 10 minutes for about 8 or 9 euros. Great deal! The excursion buses were always full.

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Flew BA Gatwick to Venice Marco Polo, landed at 10.40 and in cabin at noon - possibly the quickest we've ever embarked! First impressions of the ship were really good - very clean and a high quality decor. The same can be said of our balcony stateroom on deck 11. Plenty of room and storage, a nice balcony and a perfectly adequate bathroom. We had been allocated second sitting dining due to booking relatively late and did try to change to first sitting but after meeting our table mates the first evening we were pleased we didn't change. Gary & Barbara (Canada) Cam & Serge (Canada) and Pat & Elizabeth (Australia) were great company and contributed greatly to our enjoyment of this cruise. The food was perhaps not the greatest I've ever had but there was a good choice and although portions were not large, up to six courses ensured a full belly every time. The only disappointments are that no drinking water is provided (free) and coffee was not served at the end of the meal. First night out of Venice - which ranks only second in my opinion to Valetta as a sail-away - the Captain warned us that 60 mph winds were expected and things could get a bit bumpy but never really noticed much personally. Unfortunately the winds continued next morning and when we arrived in Bari it was still at 45 mph and too dangerous to dock. As there were passengers disembarking and embarking in Bari it was necessary to sit it out until the wind dropped and we docked in Bari at 9.00pm and left at midnight. The knock on effect was that we would miss Katakolon the next day - a shame not being able to visit Mount Olympus in Olympic year. A letter arrived from the Captain offering a 25% discount off a cruise taken within the next year! However every cloud has a silver lining and we were afforded an unexpected day at sea spent catching a bit of sun on the best day weatherwise of the cruise. Santorini next morning and had to queue for tender tickets from 6.30 am ( why didn't they do this the day before when we were at sea?) and were on Tender 10 so got off about 10.00 am. There was a long queue for the cable car but I'm told less of a queue for the donkeys!!! Spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering the streets of Fira but there was some drama getting back down to the harbour with a long queue for the cable car and time running out fast but we got on the last tender back. Next port of call was Mykonos, and arriving at 7.30pm. we decided to stay on board as the shuttle bus to the town centre was 8 euros - a mistake as our tablemates caught the local bus from the port at 1.50 euros which dropped them off at the same place as the shuttle! Day 5 was Athens and we had prebooked a tour with Achtypistours (www.achtypistours.gr) and were delighted to discover that we had a 12 seater minibus to ourselves and although our driver Spiros informed us that he didn't speak much English he was informative enough and took us to all the sites before dropping us off at the Acropolis for about 2 hours which was just right. Day 6 Corfu and it started raining! Again it was 8 euros for the shuttle bus but the local buses run from the port into the old town for 1.50 euros. However as the Greek Orthodox Church celebrated Easter a week later than the rest of the Christian world it was in fact Good Friday and there was a procession through the old town of the cross, choirs, bands and scouts which made the day despite the weather. Day 7 Dubrovnik and raining again! Local bus from just outside the port to Pile but you will need to purchase local currency (kuna) from an exchange bureau in the bus station outside the port - about 7 kuna to 1 euro and bus is 10 kuna. Despite the rain we walked the walls of the old town (70 kuna - tickets from inside the main city gate)in about 1 1/2 hours and decided it was a place to revisit in better weather! Returned to Venice next morning (still raining)and found it difficult to get information from MSC as to what we could do in Venice as our flight was not leaving until 17.35 that afternoon. Eventually found out ourselves that we could leave luggage for 4 euros at the port, there is a free shuttle bus to the People Mover outside the port which costs 1 euro to get to Piazzale Roma where you can catch the Vaporetto (water bus) to the Piazza San Marco for 6.50 euros. each way. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the value for money that MSC Cruises provide. Food was good - as a tip breakfast in L'Oleandros is far better than the usual hustle & bustle of the buffet and you get English Breakfast tea. Didn't use all the bars or showrooms but found L'Enotaca Wine Bar very acceptable and the shows we did see in the theatre were vey good. Service was not excellent but then again you weren't always being pressured into buying things as on other cruise lines. All in all great value for money.

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We just had the same BAD experience with MSC (Musica) 1 week ago. We took a 8 days cruise out of Venice down to Bari, Greek islands and Croacia. They never advised in any of the route advertisement about a 2nd embarkation port (Bari) and due to bad weather we had to wait + than 8 hours till we could dock, what made us to loose the next day port of Katakolon in Greece (Olympia), ended up stuck inside for 3 days ! Besides that, there was a complete lack of organization to get out of the boat on every port, a really stressful & almost dangerous situation with people pushing and shoving...a lot of rude people around. Food was average, no creativity at all, no local typical foods, just a cheap offer of stuff that had the same taste every day. I'm sure any of us can do better at home. Entertainment was terrible, every night it was the same singing & dancing show, with a different figurine, besides the annoying presentations of the entertainment director that had to speak everything in 5 languages, so a big waste of time. Even the employees were unhappy & complaining about how the company was holding food and using low quality ingredients and about the way they are treated overall. MSC, never again ! Even if I have to pay 100% more for another company. We made several other cruises with Princess (scores a 10), Carnival (9), Norwegian (6) and MSC would score no more than a 3 in my 0-10 scale.

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We travelled from Venice to Rio de Janeiro (18 nights) in December 2011. Check in was fast (we had done web check in which speeded things up), and were shown to our cabin much earlier than most cruise lines would allow. There had been an error with our dining request, but this was rapidly sorted out on board. Our category 11 cabin was clean and comfortable with good quality balcony furniture, and the cabin had ample storage space for 18 nights. All the public rooms on the ship were very stylish and spotlessly clean, and service everywhere was of an extremely high standard, although you may need to be patient when it comes to language as this is not primarily an English speaking ship. We were impressed by how many languages most staff spoke - we are not used to waiters who have a reasonable knowledge of four or five languages on top of their own. We particularly like the way the ship was organised regarding noisy and quiet areas. If you wanted to get involved with activities then that was easy, and if you wanted a quiet area (both inside and outside) then this was possible. The food in the Buffet was the best quality and with a lot of variety at lunch of any of the 14 or so ships we have been on. The main dining room (Maxims in our case) was not so successful, with food ranging from excellent to poor, Music around the ship was well controlled and of a good standard in areas like the atrium. We liked not being permanently bombarded by loud piped music. There was a fair variety of entertainment in the Theatre with 17 different shows over the 18 nights, including classical recitals. Multi-lingual announcements can get a bit boring, BUT all credit to MSC for keeping these to a minimum. We will most certainly be looking to use this cruise line again. We only went on one shore excursion, but this was well organised with a knowledgeable guide, and was most enjoyable. One Warning. If you want a fully American experience then don't come. If you are American and want to meet and mix with people from a range of countries/cultures and enjoy European style dining and entertainment then give it a try. This was our first time with MSC and it was much better than we had expected.

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