Nicole Ramsdell
Itinerary: Mediterranean
Sailing Date: July 3rd, 2010
Age: 43
Occupation: Self employed
Numbe of Cruises: 3
MSC
Cruises-For so many reasons don’t bother
We booked the MSC
Sinfonia from Livorno Italy in July 2010.
Although I have been on smaller cruises, this
seemed like a good option for my retired mother
and me to see some new sites and have a new
experience. Unfortunately, these gigantic
cruises are a failed concept and coupled with
other issues, made it an entirely disappointing
experience. This is by no means a “Luxury”
cruise nor is it billed to be, but I guess I
kind of expected more. I thought once we booked
& paid for the cruise, that would be the
majority of the outlay. That was in incorrect
assumption.
I call this cruise
a failed concept because the entire IDEA of a
cruise is to be able to sail to different ports
& get a flavor of each place. Primarily, these
boats are so large that they are forced to dock
at freighter terminals that are typically MILES
away from the locations you are scheduled to
visit. Thus, to actually visit the ports that
are promised, one needs to pay daily for
shuttles or pricey tours, to each city. Then
the big kicker is that you are only in each port
for 5-6 hours. Sometimes the hours of port are
not just inconvenient, but crazy-1.30 am-12
noon???? Unless my 72 year old mother wants to
party the entire night in Ibiza, what is the
point??? More on Tour Excursions detailed
below.
In addition to
visiting ports, there is more outlay. Drinks
(sodas, juices, mineral water & alcoholic
beverages) are more expensive than most
restaurants in Europe & you are a captive
audience (they don’t let you bring your own
alcohol on board).
Of course there
are shops on board which is convenient when you
have forgotten something, although pricey.
However, it seems like at every turn they are
selling stuff on deck, so it often feels like a
floating flea market.
The most
disappointing issue is the Management. I have
had a few problems and asked for the Managers
name so I can write a letter and have been
denied this information!!!! It seems the buck
stops nowhere and each desk employee is happy to
explain how every problem is not their fault.
We were even accused of ‘not trusting’ an
employee. However, given the fact that we got
different information from each person we asked
for help, it does feel like you don’t know which
story to believe.
I feel like in
being denied the name of a manager, a great
disservice is being done, as the managers don’t
hear the complaints or issues. How can these be
fixed if they are not being heard??????? One
can only assume that the Management prefers it
this way. The Desk personnel are often quite
snippy; however dealing with issues and unhappy
customers, is part of customer service in the
hospitality industry. Then sitting next to them
in the lounge, having to listen to them complain
about their jobs, seems a bit unprofessional.
Especially, when I felt like no one wanted to
listen to me when I had a complaint or an issue
that needed resolving.
The food is
reasonably good at the dinner seatings, but the
breakfast and lunch buffets are like a feeding
frenzy & is nothing exceptional. I have found
things in my food that I didn’t want to, at
nearly each meal at the buffet, and there seems
to be an issue with clean dishes, glasses &
flatware.
The one shining
light seems to be the wait & housekeeping staff.
ALL the waiters and waitresses and housekeeping
staff greet you daily and ALWAYS have a smile on
their face. I cannot say enough how well they
both do their jobs.
Summing it all up..if you want a vacation on a
large, impersonal, floating bus, go on an MSC
cruise. If you want a more meaningful
experience, look for a smaller cruise line.
Details on other problems experienced:
Onshore
Tours/Excursions: We had ENDLESS issues with
the off shore excursions. Firstly, the MSC
website allows you to download paperwork to book
these tours in advance & at a slightly lower
cost. This sounds convenient, but as it
happened our paperwork was lost, even though I
had received a confirmation that my fax went
through, so we ended up paying full price on
board. Then, once we did book, one of our tours
was cancelled and we were not informed early
enough to take another cruise. Luckily we found
an independent tour guide (at a lesser cost than
the tour offered thru MSC cruises) to give us a
personal tour. It is worth noting that the MSC
tours are quiet expensive; at least 40-50 euros
per port (minimum 7 x 40=280 additional Euros
per adult for sightseeing if you care to see
every port). I actually would not mind paying
these prices if I felt the tours were a value,
however once you get off the ship, you are
loaded onto buses & most of the tours are
conducted in this fashion. It would be nice if
these tours were more personable.
On another
note: if you take the tour in Tunis that
includes the Medina market..don’t bother to buy
anything there-it’s like a feeding frenzy for
tourists & everything is marked up 200%!!!
There is a REALLY
lovely, clean shopping area directly in front of
where the ship docks. Prices are marked on the
merchandise & the shopkeepers seem much more
respectful of their clientele. I only wish I
had waited to buy everything there.
The MSC Valencia
City Tour & MSC Taromina Tour were decent.
There is a bit of
on board bait & switch too-you need to be aware.
My favorite example is the daily Bingo games.
It is advertised that you can win 300x the cost
of your bingo ticket (yes you have to pay to
play), which seems like an interesting risk,
however they don’t properly explain that the
large payout is only offered for the ONE
‘magic’ number that is called; thus if you don’t
get bingo on the statistically slim number, you
win only 25 x your investment.
Then there are the
costs for internet use-60 Euros for 2 hours
(!!!), or if you get lucky you can get the
special which is 40 Euros for 24 consecutive
hours.
We also sent in
Laundry for next day service..in by 10 am & back
by 5pm the next day. 48 hours later, we finally
have it back, but it took us NUMEROUS calls to
the desk and it was only after 36 hours did they
bother to call & follow up what had happened
with it. I just wish they had done that on the
first call.
