At
the request of Lisa Simpson, I am publishing her letter
to MSC regarding her cruise on board the MSC Orchestra
January 10th, 2009
Lisa Simpson
January
28th, 2009
MSC
Cruises
Main center Naples
Via A. Depretis, 31 80133
Naples –
Italy
Attention: Customer Relations
Re: MSC
Orchestra January 10 -17, 2009
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would
like to start by mentioning that my husband nor myself have
ever cruised before but do travel quite frequently to 5 star
plus resorts and after this cruise have been left with
doubts if we will ever cruise again.
We were so excited to be going on this cruise
as I mentioned it was our first. We flew to
Ft.
Lauderdale from
Toronto
and boarded the ship. The boarding seemed to go very
smoothly.
The ship was absolutely beautiful and
a decent size. Once on board though looks can be deceiving.
We discovered that our dinner seating had been changed from
early to late. We had the early (6:30)
seating pre-booked by our travel agent and it was also
confirmed by your offices.
I went to see about changing the time from
8:30 p.m. to
6:30p.m.
and after one hour of waiting in line one of your staff told
me that I was wasting my time because there was nothing left
for the early seating. He was very rude and had a very
snide tone to his
voice – I
told him that after waiting for an hour I would take my
chance and continue to wait. After another 30 to 45 minutes
I was taken into the office and had my seating changed to
the early seating. There seemed to be no problem. However,
these fellows omitted to telling me that the dinner had been
changed to 5:15p.m.
By the time this was all completed it was too late to have
dinner in the dining room anyway. It was the next day when
I was planning on getting ready for
6:30
dinner that I was told it had been changed to
5:15
for the Sunday seating. Then Monday I was told once again
that the seating had been changed to
5:15
– I inquired about the time and one of the staff said that
that was the time for the remainder of the week and that it
had all been changed on the first day. Why didn’t someone
tell me this when I changed from early to late?!! 5:15
is way to early to eat dinner especially on a cruise!! If I
had known that they also changed the late seating from
8:30 p.m. to
7:00p.m., I would have kept that seating! So I
sucked it up and moved on.
Back to the first day. My husband received
his luggage within the hour of getting our cabin. I had to
call 3 times to inquire where mine was and I was told that
it would be delivered according to deck which was nonsense
as people on the decks above us already had theirs too. It
was approximately 5 hours after boarding the ship that I
finally received my luggage. I sucked it up and moved on.
The second day
we arrived in Key West.
Leaving the ship and boarding again seemed to be no
problem. However, we were told that we could not bring back
any alcohol (hard liquor) and we could bring wine if it was
not in excess. We did not bring any wine but others did and
only some were allowed to bring it on board while others
were told they had to wait until the end of the cruise to
receive it – this is not proper; what is the rule for one
should be applied to all. Wasn’t my problem, so I didn’t
pay too much attention to it.
The third day
we arrived
in Cozumel. This day was ok but seemed
to be very rushed by the time you get off the ship, tour
around and then get back to the ship in time to get cleaned
up for dinner at 5:15.
The fourth day (Tuesday)
we were at sea for the day which was nice but there were a
great deal of people using the pools and I assume from the
colour of the water they were also using it as the
washroom. Too may people for such a small pool – needless
to say we did not use any of the pools the entire cruise.
While we were catching some sun we found it very odd that
not one waiter or waitress came around inquiring if we would
like something (anything) to drink. This didn’t happen once
during the whole cruise. It was a beautiful day so we
decided that because of the weather and dinner being so
early we were going to skip our seating in the dining room
and get something to eat later at the buffet as we didn’t
want to be rushed once again.
We went
back to our cabin, got cleaned up and dressed and went to
the buffet. It was 8:10p.m.
when we arrived at the buffet only to find it closed. We
were told that it was open until
8:30p.m.
every night. The fellow there (I’m assuming the Maitre
d’) told us that we could have pizza – we thought “ok lets
have pizza” – then he informed us that we had to pay
for it!! I couldn’t believe my ears, they decide to close
the buffet early without notifying anyone and then offered
you food that you had to pay for!! No way was I going to do
that. We went back down to the reception to inquire about
what we were supposed to do for dinner and we were told by a
girl at the desk (very rudely) order room service! The only
thing that resembled food on the room service list was a
turkey club sandwich – that wasn’t exactly what we had in
mind for dinner, plus we were told that we couldn’t have it
delivered to a lounge area but rather had to go back to our
cabin and wait for it there. (which usually took 2 hours)
We told the girl that this was unacceptable and demanded to
speak to someone “higher up” than her. She then proceeded
to call the purser (first time we had seem him since we left
Florida) After explaining everything to the purser his
response was the same, order room service or wait until
breakfast if we didn’t want to pay for pizza. I then told
him that I was going to get really upset if he didn’t become
more accommodating and fast. This was one of the rudest
behaviours that I have encountered. Next thing I knew the
head waiter (Maitre d’) from the dining room came out and
told us that he could seat us at the second seating. When
we walked into the dining room, we couldn’t believe the
empty tables in there. Why on earth weren’t we offered this
from the beginning?
The fifth day we arrived in Grand
Cayman.
Leaving
the ship this day was a total mass of confusion. Staff were
handing out numbers for people to leave but were not calling
the numbers in any type of order. We had to wait
approximately 1 ½ hours to get off the ship (via Tender).
This was uncalled for – very poor organization at the least.
Grand Cayman was beautiful but again
it was a rushed day due to the organizing of the tenders and
having to be back on the ship and be at dinner by
5:15
as they (the maitre d’s) didn’t like it if you showed up
even a few minutes late.
The sixth day
we were at sea again. Basically a repeat of day 4 with the
exception that we made sure we were at dinner in the dining
room for fear of not being fed.
The seventh day
we were at Cayo Levantado. Once again, leaving the ship
this day was another total mass of confusion. Staff were
handing out numbers again for people to leave but were not
calling the numbers in any type of order. We had to wait
approximately 2 hours to get off the ship (via Tender).
Everyone was also told (by the girls at the excursion desk)
that there was absolutely nothing on the island
except the beach and that there was a BBQ for the ship
guests. When we got to the island, there were craft
vendors, a hotel, a beach bar and the BBQ was an extra
cost. Once again we were misled and once again I sucked it
up and moved on. The beach was very nice but again too
short of a stay as we had to hurry to get back on the ship
to leave for Ft.
Lauderdale.
All in all we found the places that we
visited to be great but not long enough at some of the
ports. It seemed to be a very rushed and hectic week for
us. As we have nothing to compare cruising to, we made the
most of it and had fun but it was not what we were expecting
or what we had heard cruising was all about. I do not think
that I can recall one person on this cruise saying that they
were having a great time. Paying for the pizza bar, ice
cream bar and coffee (if it wasn’t with your dinner) was
very shocking. The pop and alcohol we were prepared for but
you couldn’t buy a pop card with unlimited drinks. Even in
the fitness centre I had to pay for bottled water. We found
these things to be very disappointing.
Our 2 waiters (1 was from Indonesia and I
believe the other was from Bolivia) in the dining room were
absolutely fantastic; they were more than accommodating and
very friendly. Our cabin staff (also from South America)
was very good also, always fresh towels and the room was
made up promptly everyday and we never saw them – they never
intruded. For these reasons we withdrew our tips from the
charges and dispersed the monies to those who we thought
actually worked for it and deserved it. I would never have
given any tips if I had thought the Italian staff was going
to receive any as they were the most obnoxious people on the
boat. If you as a guest were not 20 years old, wearing very
little clothing and not Italian, you did not get good
service.
We are frequent travelers and
do not make a habit of commenting on our travels but the
service was just not what it should have been and definitely
not what we should have received. Again, we made ourselves
have a good time but really have doubts about cruising again
and if we do it will probably be with a different cruise
line.
Thank you,
Lisa Simpson
