MSC Seashore, now sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida, wasn’t great. Seaside, the prior Port Canaveral MSC ship, was so much better! Seashore might have been great before its move to Canaveral, but the entirely new crew was short staffed and not ready. See what we liked – and what no one told us about MSC Seashore – in this updated review and ship tour.
#msc #msccruises #mscseashore
Here is a more in-depth discussion of MSC’s issues upon this cruise: https://www.freshandfelicia.com/msc-seashore-cruise-ship-at-port-canaveral-review/
We hope Captain Stefano can pull things together soon.
46 Comments
Rather than waste time with the official MSC post-cruise survey that will probably be ignored or lost (like our yacht club newspaper and pillow selection), we wrote an extensive MSC Seashore review in our official Cruise Blog detailing the many MSC Seashore failures here: https://www.freshandfelicia.com/msc-seashore-cruise-ship-at-port-canaveral-review/
FINALLY someone who is HONEST! Thank you for having the guts to tell the truth. People are so scared to admit their vacation wasn't perfect. Every single cruise has its problems, but it seems these were easily preventable.
O man, we have a schedule cruise coming up in Christmas week on this ship, hopefully some of the major issues are resolved by then. Thanks for your video.
Omg I thought maybe I’ll try but no .. thank you. I’ll stick with Celebrity and Princess.
When do you book Hola? Its not available on my app and we cruise in 10 days
Had a great experience on this ship- Id stay away from weirdo’s that wear captain gear. 😂🎉
You’re a Weirdo. A captain suit. You must of wanted to be a captain but couldn’t. And your negative comments are not accurate. I had a great time on this ship.
OMG! I hope they fixed some of these. Seascape was not bad in May
Sailing on Dec 3rd. Ohhh buddy.
Worst cruise I every been on terrible food and staff…waited for drinks no sense of urgency. My last MSC
Worst bacon I have ever seen. It’s fatty and practically raw! MSC needs cooking school!!!
Can you guess which ship I am booked on December 2023?
My first time on the Seashore.
So much metal in my body I often get strip searched by TSA. Your video reminds me to bring a stack of dollar bills to tip the security at the terminal. I know the drill. Turn your head and cough.
After 46 separate cruises on various cruise lines, In my humble opinion your review of the MSC Seashore was very tainted, unrealistic, deceptive and unfair. Since your review was bordering on potentially libelous, there's no need for me to respond to your reviews. To anyone else reading this comment, the MSC brand is an excellent European themed geared cruise line. The MSC Seashore is a fabulously clean ship with good daily entertainment with an excellent array of food categories. MSC is comparable to NCL brand but at a better cost factor.
Appreciate your honesty. And sarcasm and humor are always welcome. Every other review is so boring!
Very interesting, thank you for the honest review.
This was to be our fourth cruise on an MSC cruise. Seashore was a 2 out of 10. I wanted to get off the ship just as it was getting away from the dock. First, we waited 1 1/2 hours in hot sun to board the ship (some passengers were there for 3 hours). Here was 5000+ sitting in the sun. Second, when finally on board at 4:05 PM, no lunch was served because it was closed. Third, our 5:00 pm dinner did not begin until 6:30. Fourth, dinner service was sssllllooowww. Fifth, dinner servers were not accommodating and non communicative. Sixth, not much to do except for drinking at the bar. I will NOT be back on MSC. They have lost their quality.
This was the cruise from Port Canaveral to Ocean Cay then Nassau that was SUPPOSE to sail last Thursday night, right? My wife and I were on this ship which just happened to be my very first cruise. I found myself nodding my head in agreement with just about everything you said. While our party had no problems boarding on the first day, we learned shortly after that our first night of beautiful scenery would continue to be the wharf at Canaveral. OK, the weather sucked so we completely understood and this delay afforded me the opportunity to get used to the crowd which I'm very uncomfortable with. I too found the food very bland, always lacking in the proper amount of salt and other seasonings. As we continued on to Costa Maya and Cozumel, we had the opportunity to eat in two of their specialty restaurants, the Butcher Block and the Japanese place. Loved my steak at the Butcher Block but my Shogun dinner at the Japanese disaster was a waste of money. I guess if you go there to be entertained by the corny jokes of the cooks, then this is the place for you. If you want good Japanese food, don't bother. All in all, this cruise for me was a disaster, making me very hesitant to do something like this again. Lastly, between the "buffet beasts" and the jackasses who ran into my wife as we were disembarking, there is no way I'm getting on a ship with so many people again.
For anyone saying that he is exaggerating, we were on the 7 day as well which followed this one. This is my personal review from many many sailings:
-check in was over 5 hours (we arrived at 11, and didn’t get on board until 4:00
-lunch buffet closed at 4:00 so we were SOL as our early dinner (which we selected late and was assigned 5:30pm dinner and could not change to what we actually selected) was not gonna happen until 6:30pm
-cruise director failed to announce when we were docked at the MSC island
-on the MSC island, they brought food off of the ship, and due to the delay in bringing the food off, lunch was delayed, we ended up going back to the ship after realizing it’s the same food on board
-wait time for drinks was a minimum of 15 minutes anywhere, not sure maximum as when we waited 40 minutes we would just walk back to our rooms to get beer from our mini fridge, even if the only 2 beers on the boat seemed to be Heineken and Corona (both being hard to come by on some bars)
-room attendant didn’t come 2 times a day even though they said they weee supposed to, so we ended up with soiled towels from our jacuzzi that we had to use to shower in the mornings with
-elevators did not work majority of the time
-by the 3rd day the ship was out of high end bourbon and the only IPA on board (we were gonna upgrade our drink package for the bourbon but thank god we didn’t). The only bar that had the bourbon was the Brooklyn Bar. Since we didn’t upgrade our drink package, we told the bar tenders at that bar multiple times we were ok with the $5 charge of the difference in the alcohol, but we still ended up with Jack Daniel’s whiskey multiple times
This is just a small glimpse of what we went through, I could keep going on and on (such as we ordered wine and champagne in our room but got 2 bottles of champagne, our excursion was cancelled by MSC on the MSC island without an explanation and we have still not received our refund, food not labeled it contains pork but then when we went around the buffet it’s labeled as containing pork somewhere else) but if you got this far you get my point. Our Facebook group was nothing but comments such as this with ways this ship lacked compared to carnival, Norwegian and RC. First time on MSC, and last time on MSC (My Shittiest Cruise)
I think they are just having growing pains. I’ve heard some other stories about them and see where they are wonderful. Hopefully they will get this shit together otherwise they need to fire the captain
Funny that you all keep bashing carnival, because when I sailed Mardi Gras in April, it was 1 hour and 10 minutes from the time we left the airport in Orlando, until we were IN our stateroom onboard. And they don’t pull crap like excluding an entire bar from the drink package. In fact, the ship has 2 specialty dining venues besides the MDR that are included in the fare. As for Italian night and the comment about no Italian food, I can assure you that regardless of what some of you may think, there is more to Italian food than spaghetti and lasagna. And in case you want to actually be informative and less cynical in your reviews, the name of the crystals in the stairs is Swarovski.
Already booked for February for the first MSC cruise and we're worried. Too many counts of bad experiences. We planned on just quietly enjoying the balcony, mostly, and Ocean Cay overnight. We don't do too many bells and whistles, but some of the basics just seem to be lacking considerably. We can only hope that they get things together over then next few months.
We just got off the Thanksgiving horrible cruise. Embarking was a disaster couldn't load until 2 because people on your cruise wouldn't get off the ship or pay there bills or even one jumped in the water. Food was awful. To get a drink u had to wait forever and men got chosen over and over before a female to order before the female that was waiting before them. It was my 1st and my last with MSC. Disembarking wasn't bad that was organized and we were all off the ship and all cleared by 11:30am how I know because I left a bag and had to wait for the whole ship to empty to get it brought out. And let me not forget I bought the $80 arcade card before hand so my son had $130 to play well the damn thing never stopped and he ended up with a $1800 arcade bill.
Sheesh, this ship never had a chance with you!! Everything was a problem, you might be the most negative person on YouTube!!!
Thank you for sharing.
I do cruise reviews also mate. That looks almost exactly like our MSC Seaside experience at Port Canaveral for the April 27th 2023 sailing. The ship was almost 200 crew short due to delays on Visa approvals (lets clarify that isn't MSC's fault but the US Govt) as the ship had just come over from Europe. We had an easy embarkation with almost no wait so that was better. We had the Fantastica experience. Our experience was compounded by 400 Expedia cruise travel agents onboard who got priority for everything, so service was even slower! We learned from the MSC Seaside experience NOT to book Seashore for the month of November when it first arrived but wait till December as crew staffing and training would be improved substantially. Ocean Cay has some very soft sand beaches we visited, so you look like you went to the one that wasn't. We have done 10 Carnival cruises in the last 5 years, and those cruises were all outstanding on almost every level. RCCL was a little less outstanding but good none the less. MSC will no doubt be great eventually in my opinion. They are definitely on a learning curve! When I did my video review of MSC Seaside I realized there were far more positives than negatives on that MSC Seaside cruise.
when did you do this cruise?
Dude I totally want to cruise with you and your people. You are freaking hilarious 😂
First you guys or first for MSC Seashore?
Also November 2023 right?
So dramatic 🤦🏾♀️ you get what you pay for. Expecting 5 stars service for a few hundred dollars is not it lol try a Ritz Carlton yacht next time, you might have better luck 🤷🏾♀️
Just great, we are on it Dec. 7th. hopefully our room, the Grand Suite Aurea will be a good experience.
All true. Absolutely a train wreck! My family just got back from a Thanksgiving week cruise last Sunday. It was pretty bad.
There were a few good things about it. One was that there were some staff that were exceptional. I met a hairstylist who was happy to educate me on my hair and did a fantastic job on cut and color. (She told me it was her first week working on the Seashore.) The spa did have some good daily deals on treatments. I took advantage of a free hair consultation (where I met the stylist) and went back the next day for an appointment for a hair cut. The next day’s special was full hair treatment which included hair cut, color, scalp massage, wash & style for $120. Great deal.
The All You Can Eat deal at Hola for $17.99 per person is the best money we spent on the entire cruise.
Now to the complaints: as was stated in the video, communication was the worst throughout the entire cruise. Either no one seemed to know anything or they disagreed with one another or were completely wrong about everything.
We waited 3 hours in the sun (standing on concrete) to board. No one was managing the lines and it was a labyrinth of people sometimes winding in random patterns. While waiting, I personally saw one older woman treated by paramedics for heat exhaustion. (Someone must have let MSC know because at that point, I saw a couple of staff bringing 4 oz cups of water around to people waiting in line.) We weren’t told anything for a long while and the lines did NOT move. We later heard that the ship’s arrival was 2 hours late (could have been for a good reason – I have no idea because they didn’t share). It would have been nice if they had mass texted everyone and let us all know boarding would be late and given us instructions or options. We all would have been much more comfortable waiting in the shade or another location until they were closer to being ready.
Once we got on the ship, we had to hurry up and wait. Muster drill is a train wreck. Hurry to your cabin and watch the appropriate video. Dial the number listed on the video from your cabin phone to acknowledge you watched the video. Go down to your muster station to scan your cruise card. Oh, but you MUST NOT use the elevators to go from your cabin to your muster station. Sorry, my dude. I cheated. I have joint problems. I could not walk down 6 flights of stairs to the station then back up to my cabin. (I have heard that they usually lock the elevators, but everything was so chaotic with the ship being late and people still boarding, they didn’t this time.) We got a letter the next day saying we had not completed the muster drill, so we needed to attend a mandatory safety briefing. My husband called and told them we had done it and explained what we did. They told us to disregard the letter since we had done it. The same thing happened to my parents.
Next, we had to hurry to dining where we waited a long time to eat. I asked for a cheese pizza for my 9 yo daughter. The server brought a pizza crust with ONLY a small amount of cheese on it. (Ummmm, MSC is supposed to be famous for its pizza. Cheese on a barely baked crust and no sauce at all is not how pizza works.) She eventually ate fries. Thankfully, they had salt on the table because there was absolutely no salt at all on the fries. (Why didn’t we order her chicken tenders / nuggets as most kids love those? I’m so glad you asked! There were NONE on the entire ship. The closest we could get was a grilled chicken breast.) Anyway, the pizza was hit or miss for us. Sometimes great, sometimes weirdly chewy or just plain weird. (One slice we had from the buffet that appeared to be cheese pizza had a lot of onion on it.)
The layout of the ship is terrible. I kid you not, I walked around a mile each way to take my kid to the kid clubs from my cabin.
Speaking of the kids clubs, we were told we should sign up our kids on the first night. There was yet another line to stand in with no communication on what we are supposed to do. The line was extremely slow. It took an hour and a half to get my daughter registered.
For the waterpark, everyone (including adults) has to sign a waiver before kids can play which means (yep) another line to stand in.
They could have saved a ton of time by just having the paperwork in the cabin for us to fill out there.
My husband had to go find our luggage at 9 pm because it hadn’t been delivered to our room yet. I was thankful I had put Apple Air Tags in our luggage.
The food is bland and mediocre (at best) EXCEPT at Hola. Hola is the BEST place to eat on the ship.
The elevators constantly had problems. And I do mean CONSTANTLY. There was not one day where all elevators functioned properly. Gossip on the ship was that a family was stuck in one elevator for awhile near the end of the cruise. (I’m so sorry for them, but if it had been my kid – who is suspicious of elevators anyway after getting stuck in the parking elevators at the Georgia Aquarium for a minute last July – we would have had to start therapy immediately.)
Most staff were undertrained and they were short staffed. As a result, eating at most restaurants resulted in hours long meals. Average was 2 hours. Buffet was quicker but they tended to run out of food and plates at typical dining times and shut down most stations during non peak times. Most bars were running out of some sodas by the last couple of days. Last day, coffee wasn’t available at breakfast and they were underprepared for serving everyone. Room service was super slow most of the time. Breakfast room service was usually an hour or more late.
Ocean Cay was yet another Charlie Foxtrot. My mom paid for a cabana. Now when you pay for a MSC cabana, you get no choice at all, but it tells you that you get a cabana with a number.
Most reasonable people think, “oh, I got cabana number 12.” Nope. For whatever reason, they list a cabana number that has absolutely no relation whatsoever to your actual cabana number. To further confuse matters, when we got on the ship, she got her tickets for the cabana and the number was suddenly 14. Ok. Fine. We get to Ocean Cay and have to ask for directions for cabanas. Go to the Blue building. Got it. Nope, not THAT blue building, the one down the street. Ok. Then we are sent a long way further away to a small cabana stand. They say, oh you don’t have 14, you have 11 – with no explanation – and vaguely point in the direction of the cabana and indicate it’s far away. They hand us 4 towels. My mom politely tells the guy we have 5 people in our party. “Oh, no, you only get 4 towels per cabana.” My mom asks why that is since 6 people are allowed per cabana. He argues it is the rule. I think she mentioned the proper hygiene of using separate towels and he finally gave in and gave us another towel.
We ask if there is transportation to the our cabana. (We have already walked for a while and my body is not happy and my parents are older with health issues.) Nope. No transport. So, we walk another mile or so. We get passed by a tram full of people – 🤔 – twice. We get to our cabana, but people are in it. Oh, maybe we misheard and it is supposed to be 14. 14 is full. We go back to the cabana kiosk and tell the MSC staff there are people in 11 and 14, did we misunderstand? No, our assigned cabana is 11. One staff treks out there then returns saying no one is there. We go back, the same people are sitting on the couch inside the cabana (the staff did not go all the way around the wall). My stepdad speaks politely to the people and they finally get up and leave. The water provided in the cooler is in a metal bottle lined with plastic (🤷♀️) and it has a weird taste. Unlike RC cabanas, service is NOT provided at the cabanas. So, we had to walk to the nearest bar (which was not nearby) or food truck to get drinks & food.
It was just uncomfortable and awkward the whole time. The lack of communication just made it seem so disorganized.
I know MSC is popular in Europe. (We met a lovely older couple from Holland at lunch one day who said they only cruise on MSC. The gentleman cheekily said “because it’s cheap!” 😁) Maybe Europeans don’t expect so much? Or maybe other ships are run better? I have no idea, but I don’t plan to go on another MSC cruise to find out.
Holy schnikeys!!! This is unsettling. Sounds like easily fixable issues. Did Tim tell the staff captain he used to be a Carnival cruise director?
9:20 apparently no one dresses up on MSC either 😂
10:29 LMAO!!! Where is Michael Jackson?
11:08 is this typical EUROPEAN behavior?
13:46 this is actually an interesting idea. ANY American restaurant would make a KILLING on a cruise ship. Starbucks is crushing it on Royal Caribbean!
Trust l believe everything as l just came off MSC Seashore 4 days ago..3.5 delay to board, left 2hrs 20 min late… Ocean Cay was OK, bartender hooked those drinks up, Costa Maya..👎🏿👎🏿👎🏿Cozumel that should have been the all day port. TV channels for the birds limited to about 5-7 channels… only great experience was getting off… But l will admit our steward was Great 👍🏿 👌🏿 he stayed on top of room and towels..
Many employees do not speak English well
Msc is the worst cruise company ever, they only want money and more money. Zero quality, it shouldn't be allowed to be in U.S
You’re funny 😂 when you said “that’s the customer service desk, but that statement is a oxymoron” 🤣
MSC Seashore is a large and luxurious cruise ship operated by MSC Cruises. It was launched in 2021 and is the largest ship in MSC Cruises' fleet. The ship has a sleek and modern design, with plenty of outdoor space to enjoy the sun and fresh air. There are five tiny pools and a kids water park. There are also multiple hot tubs, a sun deck, and a track. Inside, the ship is gaudy. The décor is 80s flashy and sometimes tacky. There are plenty of places to hide and unwind. There are 15 bars and lounges, a casino, a two theaters. There are also 11 restaurants serving a variety of cuisines – but NO ITALIAN! Most MSC Seashore cabins are spacious and comfortable. They come in a variety of sizes, and many cabins have a balcony, so you can enjoy the ocean view from the comfort of your own room.
Pros:
Plenty of outdoor space
Yacht Club suites have excellent service
Spacious and comfortable cabins
Great choice for families, couples, and solo travelers
Cons:
Some reviewers found the food to be average
The ship can be over crowded during peak season
Some of the public areas can be noisy
Lack of English fluent staff
Debarking is a nightmare
Good Pizza?!!!! It’s the absolute WORST pizza I’ve ever had!!! Thin floppy crust, barely any toppings at all including hardly any cheese and the sauce had any taste. HORRIBLE!
Not gonna lie – we are HUGE MSC fans! We realllly want them to get it together. Just booked a second Seashore cruise for February 2024. Let's see if it's any better.
Sorry to say but you sound very sarcastic and come across as a malcontent. We sailed on MSC several times in the yacht club, food was awesome, crew was friendly and attentive. We used to sail the Haven on NCL but have switched because this is better. Maybe you need to stay on Carnival.
I have been on seashore, seaside and Divina. All YC. And I had the exact opposite of an experience that you did. In fact you’re very cynical and come off as a cruise snob. The issue is you my guy. The problem people have with MSC outside of YC is also their own faults. They treat the staff terrible. I have seen staff almost in tears because of people like you. You literally said the Swarovski stair cases were a waste. This is a completely biased video. I don’t even like that I watched the whole thing and gave you the view. You even made fun of an overweight woman at the pool who had her belly showing. SMH. The problem is you.
Just did the 4 day Bahamas. Thank goodness only 4 days !!! We would not have survive a longer cruise. First the Pro-good price. good embark and disembark. Went very smoothly. Good comedic show…would not suggest for kids. Great drinks! Now the cons- rooms not very clean at least on 14th balcony room where we stayed. Our Steward was not enthuse about his job. Room service is worst then waiting at DMV or on hold for cable!! FOOD ON CRUISE WAS HORRIBLE!!!! VERY BLAND. Chocolate was very expensive. Stores did not have great selection. Cruise director presence was not felt. Staff seem miserable. No excitement!!! Elevator was a disaster waiting to happen. Overcrowded.
Ship was very understaffed. MSC misses a good opportunity to sell drinks because not enough waitstaff.
I can definitely say this cruise was the worst cruise I have ever been on 12-7-23 !!!!!