MSC Orchestra Reviews

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Our embarkation at Livorno (which isn't available in the drop-down menu above!) was perfect. We arrived at 2 pm for a 7 pm departure and were on the ship in 10 minutes. Then a white gloved attendant took us to our upgraded cabin, 10164. Everyone we dealt with that day and every day on the ship spoke very good English and I never had a problem communicating. Our balcony cabin was lovely, every bit of nice as our Celebrity Equinox cabin two years before. Our steward was a young woman who took exquisite care of us. When we were getting our 30 pieces for 25 euros laundry ready mid-cruise, we mentioned it to her and she patiently waited for us, helped us fill out the form, and then took it right to the laundry. It was waiting for us in our cabin the next day, in great condition. Although our waiter and our dinner were always good to very good, the buffet food was almost always cold, and only the salads and pastas were good. Even if we arrived at the buffet line the second it opened, the other things were cold. However, the attendants at the huffet were helpful and dirty tables were cleaned immediately. I especially enjoyed breakfast on the aft part of the buffet. Breakfast in the dining room was much better but we also enjoyed going to L'Incontro Bar on deck 5, ordering capuccino (about 2 euros each) and helping ourselves to the fresh pastry there. My only other complaint was the port call schedule. You can't do much with a five-hour port call, and you can't do much in Valencia, Spain at 1 pm when everything closes for the afternoon siesta! This was by far the biggest problem of the cruise. Although I will say we never arrived to a port later than scheduled, nor left later than scheduled. All schedules were met. They were just terrible times! We could not have enjoyed Taormina and Castelmolo out of Catania if we hadn't pre-arranged a private tour. I highly recommend Sicily with Mario! There were some problems with Italians who didn't know the meaning of a line. However, since we have spent plenty of time in Italy, including 18 days before this cruise, we were used to this. We either relaxed and let it go or did ot allow anyone in front of us, whichever mood we were in. We became friends with the diners at the tables on either side of us (we were at a table for four that we shared with family) and were very comfortable among the other passengers. There was some language difficulty with other passengers, but for the most part, everyone spoke some English, and my daughter speaks Italian. The entertainment was very good and the lounges were very pleasant. Drinks were priced reasonably and our first formal night, they were all free. Our Cheers beverage package kept us overflowing in water, beer and wine at dinner and in the buffet. In summary, I would judge the port times carefully before choosing an MSC cruise again, but I would gladly cruise on MSC Orchestra again!

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Nope not good at all. Seriously disappointed. When we booked it showed arrival at approx 8.30 in most ports, travelling overnight to the next port. This didn't happen & in reality we travelled overnight, stopped, then arrived in port at approx 12.30pm. back on board for about 17.30. It took ages to get off due to 3 & 1/2 thousand passengers all wanting to get off, much pushing & most of the Germans refusing to queue thought it was their right to walk to the front of the queue. We bought a "Cheers" package but it turned out that you can only drink during your "sitting" and are not allowed to remove bottles from the restaurant. You are removed from the restaurant after approx 2 hours in which time you could not consume the ??40 per day drinks charge. Trips were extortionate & if you chose not to go one you are left in a port (an industrial one) in the middle of nowhere by which time when you get to somewhere, you need to think about getting back. Staff were not too friendly & sometimes downright unpleasant, with the exception of the restaurant staff (not including La Piazetta in this, they were downright rude, the manager even had a go at them in front of passengers, shouting loudly about how they were going to lose their jobs!). Also the 15% service charge per person per day was added along with the 4g we paid upfront. All in all not good & I for one am never going on a cruise again & would certainly NOT recommend MSC. NEVER AGAIN!!!! Embarcation was a nightmare, it took hours of queueing (several times over) & we didn't receive our luggage until after midnight. (we were on board @ 4.30). Not sure I understand what the attraction of cruising is, it escapes me. Port was Livorno.

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I read many reviews before boarding the MSC Orchestra for an 18 day Transatlantic cruise, many comments were negative but I boarded the ship with an open mind. My First impression on boarding the ship she was beautiful and clean, however I felt the reception and shop area's very claustrophobic, The ship left from Santos but our group boarded in Rio,the cocktail of the day was a Mohito...by 6pm the ship had run out of MINT, this was not replenished for the rest of the cruise so no Mohito's, I have cruised many times and never have I experienced a ship running out of supplies, not only mint but Tonic water (so no Gin and tonics),milk (went to the powdered stuff), red wine (Chianti for heavens sake, on an Italian ship) nearer the end of the cruise. I felt sorry for the bar and wait staff as they had to field the angst of passengers. Breakfasts were always the same no variety, The dinners always cold except for the soup at the buffet. The buffet area was always crowded and people pushed and shoved to get to the food,I had a pair of tongs litterally snatched from my hand as I reached for the bread rolls. The ship was excessively crowded and you could not get near the pool or find a table on the pool deck as the Brazilian and Italians had scooped up everything by 7am. This line is not geared to English speaking passengers and frankly I feel they don't want us. As for double dipping on the gratuities well it has all been said before.

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Hi there, got back on Sunday and had a really good time until our last day. Disembarkation was a nightmare. It appeared to us that once you had settled your bill and been given your embarkation instructions you were of no consequence. The procedure is that you are given a colour and time to be at a certain place. We were warned that there would be no tanoy announcements so were prepared. We decided to wait on the pool deck for our time of 11am in the Shaker bar and made a move at just before 10.30am. We got to the bar and it was totally empty. There was a cleaner there and she told us that everyone had gone. Oh dear, panic. There were two other couples with us who had transfers to Milan the same as us. We were making our way quickly to the exit when an announcement was made that any remaining passengers should quickly disembark as the ship was about to leave. More panic!! By that time we were worried about the bus we were supposed to be catching. When we got off the ship our luggage was not where it was supposed to be and had been moved. Eventually we found our cases and were directed to where the buses were. We were put on a very small bus as obviously the main transport had already left without us through no fault of ours. We still don't know how this happened. Gripe No. 2 -??? I seemed to spend our first couple of hours on the ship phoning and running backwards and forwards to reception. I had ordered a bottle of wine and canapes to be in our cabin on arrival and had to ask Reception where they were. They were eventually delivered at about 7.00pm when we were already supposed to be at dinner. Anyway, we enjoyed them as we had altered our sitting to 2nd which is the time we had originally ordered. I also had to go to Reception three times to ask for our drinks vouchers which I had ordered only to be told each time to come back later. Gripe No. 3 - My Sister's suitcase was delivered shortly after we embarked but mine did not arrive until about 7.00pm. Gripe No. 4 - We really could have done without the two and a half hour journey from Milan to Genoa, especially on the homeward trip. When we originally booked the cruise we were supposed to be flying to Genoa which would have been much better but some time after booking were told that it had been changed to Milan. Our departure airport was altered too from Gatwick to Heathrow?? On the whole we enjoyed our time on the ship. We found the staff very helpful and polite, especially our two cabin boys. We got used to the scrum for food at lunchtimes. In fact, we enjoyed this food much more than in the evening. We felt that if folk couldn't find anything to eat then there must be something wrong with them. The excursions were good; expensive but our guides were excellent. Not sure whether we will do another MSC cruise -We got on well with the germans, spanish, portuguese but found the Italian passengers to be very rude and unfriendly. We did try to be friendly with them but to no avail. Ah well, we tried! Another point I'd like to make is that some of the staff were asked if they received any of the service charge we were all paying each day and they told us that they did not???? Hmm! I wonder. Anyway, on the whole we enjoyed it and I would definitely like to take another cruise some time. I think I am hooked.

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Myself and my partner have just returned from 8 night cruise with MSC aboard there ship called the Orchestra. We try get away every second year without the kids and we were looking forward to having a great time. We had cruised before and this was a completely different experience for us. We found the ship to be beautifully designed and very well kept and the itinary was very good (west med). However that was as far as the positives went for us. The food was adequate at best and very repetative the same food every day with little variation in the main dining room. the evening dining room had only two options of appetisers, starters, mains and desert's there was also a charge for water 2.42 a litre at dinner and throughout the ship. Alcohol and decent tea and coffee were very expensive for a cruise ship especially when you have to add 15% service charge. The service was not very good at all, no welcome on board and most staff bar the dining staff were in any way friendly. They rarely spoke to us the entire trip only to sell alcohol or some other products. The entertainment on board was very poor with little to do all day on board unless you went to the casino.....the library the books were locked away, the evening entertainment was catered to larger groups of nationalities - Italian, Spanish or German only and they even had certain bars blocked off for certain groups which we were not allowed access too. The whole experience on board was boring and unwelcoming. The age bracket of the majority on the ship was over 45 or under 20 approx and very few between 20 -45 and we are both 30!!! There was only 8 people we meet on the trip that spoke English and all said they felt exactly as we did about the trip. One woman got off in and said it was like getting out of jail....she couldn't wait to go home. last night we were kept awake all night by the staff moving luggage around the corridors or shouting down them to each other it was disgraceful - silent disembarkation my eye!! By the end of the end of the trip we felt so happy to get off the ship - it was a relief to be going home. Overall I would recommend cruising with NCL, Royal Caribbean, Holland American or Fred Olsen instead. I would never recommend MSC to anyone. It was a complete waste of money

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