MSC Cruises

[bostin01]

Hi All.

Well I've taken the plunge, and booked an MSC Cruise on the Opera, from Southampton - Netherlands - Norway, for 7 nights.

We have cruised before, however with P+O from Southampton across to the Caribbean which has to be said was fantastic.

The reason I went with MSC this time was I could get a balcony room for the same price as an inside cabin on P+O for a similar cruise.

While I am mindful of the 'get what you pay for' rule, I was wondering if any of you have used MSC and how did you find it? My research so far indicates drinks prices are considerably higher on board than P+O, and the gratuity structure is a little different.

My other question regarding alcohol, when I have travelled with P+O, you could buy your duty free from the shop (1 litre spirit circa £8)and then take back to your room to soften the drinks bill a little (basically get loaded before going out (tight git)), is this option available with MSC?

Cheers.

Bostin.

[Old Merc]

We went with MSC on the Lirica from Abu Dhabi around the Gulf of Oman.This was our only cruise so can not compare them with others.We loved it and would recommend them to others,had no complaints,very good service with nice friendly staff who appeared to really enjoy their job.
On our cruise there was a 15% service charge on every thing you buy 24/7,also there was about 14euro? a day cabin service charge added to your bill.We went for all inclusive drinks deal,I can`t remember the cost but we just? about came out on top.If you all are regular drinkers and can knock them back I would think about it as that 15% on everything does add up.
Have a nice cruise.

[johnfm]

I had the misfortune of an MSC Red Sea cruise at Christmas.

Boat was fine. Staff were really poor. Standard of food was quite average compared to a Caribbean Cruise I had been on 5 years ago.

Hopefully you will get better food on a European cruise.

[bostin01]

Cheers for the replies, hopefully I get lucky on this trip then, and catch them on a good week

Going back to my question ref the duty free side. Were you able to purchase drinks from the duty free and take back to the cabin?

Bostin.

[Loose_Cannon]

I hope you get lucky - our MSC cruise (our first) was an awful experience overall and put us off cruising for good. Everyone (British) who was on the cruise said the same thing, some of them very experienced, and said to stick to Royal Carribean, NCL etc.

Everything was an expensive extra, even on boarding after a 12 hour epic transfer due to snow delays, the first on board "welcome" coffee cost £££s, which really should have been complimentary.

Watch out for the pre-booking of expensive transfer buses at the ports - they will tell you it's a long way into whichever town you are going to, then you will find taxis and occasionally local service buses (for pennies) waiting

MSC were just the most arrogant bunch of Italian tts