MSC Cruises
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MSC Virtuosa - So much wrong
So much wrong! Just a taste of why we will never do MSC again. Queued and hour at least to check in. We normally come down to Southampton by coach. Normal procedure is that we get off the coach and check in and the coach driver delivers the luggage to the ship. Not this time. We had queued for about half an hour and then one of the port personnel tasked where our luggage was. We told her the driver was proceeding as normal and she told us “not on this ship, they don’t have porterage”. So we were sent back to our coach for our luggage. By the time we got on the ship we were hungry and thirsty. We went to the buffet and were told we could not have food or drink until after the safety procedure had been done. Why is the cabin number on the door card? Lose it and it is an open invitation for the finder to take everything from your cabin. Security issue. Use of App. – No instructions prominent anywhere about how to get on the ships (non-chargeable) wifi, unlike other cruise lines that have this information displayed clearly around the ship and l=there is notification in their cabins as to how to access the wifi just to use the app. Therefore, for us, no app. Having the drinks package we did not expect to be told by a waitress “if you don’t have the app you can’t have a drink”. We went to Guest Service (bit of a misnomer that) and fortunately saw Thomas who immediately produced a laminated menu. Thanks Thomas. We were told MSC are trying to cut down on paper usage. Could I suggest that instead of everything you do print is a money making exercise for you, you might consider your guests and what they would like. Accounts system poor. Very little easily accessible information. Overcrowded. The designers obviously used the biggest, bulkiest furniture they could find. Most of the venues could fit twice the amount of people in, however what good would that do? There is not the staff to cope. Restaurant – The first evening meal offered an Arctic salad as a starter. However, cutting into it the lettuce was black and mouldy. The Maitre de offered a replacement but, well no thanks. During our cruise we had uncooked chicken, bad mussels (two unopened, four empty shells and two eatable mussels) on one plate. Menus unimaginative. Vegetarian options extremely limited. One night someone came round offering Limoncello. As it was included in the drinks package we accepted. It was served in special glasses and the chap said we were free to take them with us a a memento. Except that we were then asked for £9 each for the glasses. Guess what we did. Tried the buffet for breakfast absolute chaos – cold porridge, inedible bread. Tried again at lunchtime, farmyard! cold burgers. The staff made excuses but much of the food was cold. So we went to the Minuetto. First couple of days service was really slow. Three quarters of an hour wait to get in, then half an hour wait for a cup of tea. Happily the service did improve in there, but still not as good as other lines. Only once in 10 days did we get what we ordered. Because we were not using the App we requested that a daily sheet be delivered to our cabin. It took three days for us finally to receive one and then only because we asked our cabin steward Elizaro. Guest service (misnomer) couldn’t manage to get it delivered! Only go on this ship if you want to queue for everything! The staff and good but the ship is so understaffed it’s laughable. Management is top heavy. They stand around in their jackets chatting and watching the staff struggle to keep up. A good manager would see the problems and would take action. The bar service is the practically non-existent. Again because there are so few staff. We were unable to book anything as we could not figure out how the public screens worked (and we weren’t the only ones!). However the shows in the theatre that we did see were not particularly good. Remember we are comparing this to other lines (not new cruisers, we have done about 34) The electrics failed a number of times, why? Bouquets to Thomas in Guest Services; James in Virtuosa Lounge; Omar in the English pub; Hakim and his wife in Blue Danube; Elizar cabin steward; Lulu in Minuetto breakfast and to the performers in the aerial show in the Carousel Lounge, it cost us an extra £15 each but my word was it worth it.