MSC Cruises Reviews

Thursday 24th May 2012

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Msc Poesia

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Spend your hard earned money elsewhere	1 of 1 people found this review informative

Reviewed By: C, San Clemente on 5th Feb 2010
Cruise Line: MSC Cruises	Times cruised before: 6-10
Cruise Ship: MSC POESIA	Sailed: January, 2010
Destination: Caribbean	Age: 46-55
Cabin: Inside	Occasion: Family holiday

I have just returned from the January 23rd sailing of the Poesia with 50 of my family members. I'd have to say that the stage entertainment was excellent, though the food was of uneven quality; some nights were commensurate with a cruise, but some nights were really no better than a mediocre coffee shop. The issue that was the most difficult was the room that my husband, I, and our son shared. It was at the very stern and rocked quite dramatically. I think it is because the ship is very rectangular. It is quite like a shoebox in the water; any waves make it pitch quite a bit. When looking at other cruise ships, all the others have some tapering to the hull to deflect waves, this one had none at all so on windy days with some waves, the ship moved more than any I had ever been on. Perhaps this ship was designed for the calmer waters of the Mediterranean, but it is not at all suitable for the typical waters of the Atlantic. It was worse than any of the many cruise ships I have ever been on and I have cruised in the Caribbean during hurricane season when conditions are very windy with high waves. But that wasn't the worst part of our room. Even though we were on the 12th floor, the mechanical vibration from the rudder and engine created so much vibration in our room that it was as if we were in a non stop earthquake. I tried to fall asleep in my berth, but it was as if someone was constantly and violently shaking the bed in time to rhythmic mechanical motions of the engine and rudder. The walls of the stateroom were constantly rattling and loudly squeaking. I am not a princess or one to complain unnecessarily, but this room was uninhabitable. We toured another stateroom of other members of our family that were in a room directly below us and it was the same. They had a 3'X5' mirror on the wall of their stateroom that was constantly, loudly rattling against the wall so that it was absolutely impossible to sleep. Their beds were also shaking violently. I tried to get a different stateroom but the staff at the reception desk was absolutely uncooperative. On the third night, I met with their customer service representative and spoke to him for a good 20 minutes. He insisted that the motion was from the waves. I told him over and over that the waves were only part of the problem but that the mechanical movement from the engine and propeller made the room uninhabitable. I was so tired from the first night in that horrible stateroom that I slept most of the next day in complete exhaustion. My sister-in-law allowed me to sleep in an extra bunk of her stateroom midship the next two nights. My husband and son however, remained in that horrible room. After speaking with the staff each day and getting no assistance from them, I was finally able to prevail with getting another stateroom by the 4th night. A number of people in our party became ill over the cruise with the flu. I think they contracted it on the ship. For some it was very debilitating requiring injections of anti diarrhea medication. Our room stewards did an excellent job of keeping the room tidy but I don't think the crew was as clean as they should have been. For example, at breakfast one morning, six of our family was eating at tables in the 13th floor cafeteria. Two tables away a sweet little girl in a high chair threw up with projectile vomiting that spewed over the table, floor, and her high chair. It was a horrific mess. The parents tried to clean up some of it, but there was more than they had the means to clean. It was at least 10 minutes before the staff came to clean it and they did a cursory job at that. The dishes were cleared and they wiped the table though from my angle I could see quite clearly that there were still flecks of vomit on the table. The high chair remained at the table with the seat of it and the floor coated in cups of vomit. My party sat two tables away and watched as people cleared away. I was absolutely horrified as the staff motioned for two recent arrivals from our family to be seated at the unclean table. It was horrible! There was a vomit coated high chair and floor at one end of this six person table, and the staff tried to seat my family at the other end. I was glad I was there and motioned them away before they actually sat down. Our family sat two tables away while we wondered how long it would take the staff to clean up the vomit on the floor and high chair. No less than 20 minutes later, the vile mess was untouched. I finally asked the staff in a polite manner to clean it up. It was at least another 5 minutes before they came with cloths and a mop to clear the vomit. Another experience with lack of cleanliness and vomiting at an eating facility occurred on Tuesday. We had a family luncheon arranged for 50 people. We had a section of the formal dining room set aside for us and we were having a nice time. Suddenly, two members of our family at a table adjacent to mine became violently ill and vomited all over the table and chairs. A third followed so that the table was covered with a horrific mess. I don't envy the staff for the mess they had to clean up, but they did a cursory job given the potential for the spread of flu. Yes, the table cloths, dishes, and vomit covered chairs were removed, but the staff did not wipe the table with a disinfectant before putting the new tablecloth on. I stopped them and asked them to wipe the table with a disinfectant, they stalled and a few minutes later returned to complete putting the new tablecloth down without using disinfectant. As I mentioned before, the food was of uneven quality. I don't expect prime rib every night, but what was offered in many instances was no better than I could have had at Denny's. In fact, Denny's is superior in some instances. The Chicken Cacciatore on the first night was particularly awful. The chicken patty was made from preformed and prebreaded chicken, not unlike the chicken fingers that are served at a typical McDonalds. It was covered in crushed tomatoes that were completely lacking in any spice. The lot was then covered by a rubbery piece of melted cheese. I remember thinking that I hoped the meals would not all be this bad. The food on the last two nights were good, however, I was disappointed in the lack of food in the evenings. Our family sat at the early seating at 5:30 pm. After dinner, we went to the stage for entertainment or to dancing. By 9 pm many of us were again interested in some sort of food, but there was none, absolutely none, available in the cafeteria. Each night we had to wait until 10 pm for a paltry display of thin crust pizza. The sauce and toppings on the pizza was far from inspired, but the worst part was that the thin crust was most often burned black as the staff has not yet mastered the use of the pizza ovens. If one stayed up for dancing past 11pm, it would be best to pack a few pizzas in their pockets as even the paltry pizzas were only served for an hour. One evening there was quite a nice deck party hosted by the ship. There was a good amount of merriment; dancing and games. However, there was absolutely no food served. One would think that an evening party would include some sort of appetizers to satiate the revelers, but there was none. Being hungry is not what I anticipate ever happening on a cruise ship. The shore times are not conducive to excursions. In particular, the port time in Puerto Rico is from 4 pm to 11 pm. We bee lined from the ship to the fort for some sightseeing, but the late port time allowed us only 15 minutes in the fort before it closed for the day. While the ship’s decor is attractive, there is an enormous amount of hard surfaces in genuine stone, faux stone, or glass. While these surfaces look very attractive and are typical for current decorating trends, it creates much ambient noise from sound vibrating off hard surfaces. It was almost impossible to have a conversation between six people seated at a table in the cafeteria during meal times. The formal dining rooms were better in this regard and were our preferred choice for all meals. The pools and outdoor spas are only open from 7am to 7 pm. Given these experiences, I would not recommend this cruise line to any one.
Quality of Food
Very uneven quality. Somewhat overdone lobster. Good steak. Burned pizza. Horrible morning baked goods except the croissants. Eggplant was good. Good gelato. House wine is terrible.
Entertainment
The jugglers, contortionists, strong men, and dancers were all good. The costumes were excellent. The first show was dull because of the repetition of chorus line arses. They were attractive but were overdisplayed. The shows were a bit risque for children.
Shore Excursions
Least favorite was Puerto Rico because it was a phenomenal place to be but the excursion was from 4pm to 11pm. All the museums and other historic buildings were closed by 5pm. Tortola was really wonderful.
Staff
The waiter for our dinner seating (first seating, table 750) was wonderful. Very attentive and brought whatever was asked of him. The room stewards were very friendly and helpful. The recreation staff were also excellent. The staff at the reception area in customer service and the purser's were awful. I listened to them as I was waiting in line while other customers were explaining their concerns. The staff argued with each customer instead of solving problems.
Children's Facilities	n/a

Onboard Activities
Not really. The main bar was reserved each night for a private event so the other common areas had to alternate between music and activities.
Cabins
Absolutely not. The issue that was the most difficult was the room that my husband, I, and our son shared. It was at the very stern and rocked quite dramatically. I think it is because the ship is very rectangular. It is quite like a shoebox in the water; any waves make it pitch quite a bit. When looking at other cruise ships, all the others have some tapering to the hull to deflect waves, this one had none at all so on windy days with some waves, the ship moved more than any I had ever been on. Perhaps this ship was designed for the calmer waters of the Mediterranean, but it is not at all suitable for the typical waters of the Atlantic. It was worse than any of the many cruise ships I have ever been on and I have cruised in the Caribbean during hurricane season when conditions are very windy with high waves. But that wasn't the worst part of our room. Even though we were on the 12th floor, the mechanical vibration from the rudder and engine created so much vibration in our room that it was as if we were in a non stop earthquake. I tried to fall asleep in my berth, but it was as if someone was constantly and violently shaking the bed in time to rhythmic mechanical motions of the engine and rudder. The walls of the stateroom were constantly rattling and loudly squeaking. I am not a princess or one to complain unnecessarily, but this room was uninhabitable. We toured another stateroom of other members of our family that were in a room directly below us and it was the same. They had a 3'X5' mirror on the wall of their stateroom that was constantly, loudly rattling against the wall so that it was absolutely impossible to sleep. Their beds were also shaking violently. I tried to get a different stateroom but the staff at the reception desk was absolutely uncooperative. On the third night, I met with their customer service representative and spoke to him for a good 20 minutes. He insisted that the motion was from the waves. I told him over and over that the waves were only part of the problem but that the mechanical movement from the engine and propeller made the room uninhabitable. I was so tired from the first night in that horrible stateroom that I slept most of the next day in complete exhaustion. My sister-in-law allowed me to sleep in an extra bunk of her stateroom midship the next two nights. My husband and son however, remained in that horrible room. After speaking with the staff each day and getting no assistance from them, I was finally able to prevail with getting another stateroom by the 4th night.
Overall Rating

1 of 1 people found this review informative

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Opinion: Disagree Comment by anne ball, liverpool (05 Feb 10 18:26) about this REVIEW

we have cruised on this ship and found it rather good! i cant understand some peoples negative attitudes sometimes

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Comment by Holland, BOLTON (07 Feb 10 21:11) about a COMMENT by anne ball (05 Feb 10 18:26)

Maybe you didnt get a negative experience when you were on board. I thought the whole idea of leaving feedback was so others can make informed choices, Not to be put down for leaving an honest opinion, If the need to be so negative about other people leaving an honest opinion is so strong, maybe you should sign up to facebook. Dont put people off leaving an honest review.

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Comment by C, San Clemente (05 Feb 10 20:48) about a COMMENT by anne ball (05 Feb 10 18:26)

It was absolutely awful. I doubt you would have a positive opinion if you also had a cabin that shook violently, an unconcerned staff, poor food, illness caused by uncleanliness from the staff. I am a patient person, but the Poesia was a horrible cruise.

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Comment by Holland, BOLTON (07 Feb 10 21:13) about a COMMENT by C (05 Feb 10 20:48)

Well done, Your review was a good one

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Opinion: Disagree Comment by Chaffey, Weymouth (05 Feb 10 18:18) about this REVIEW

we had an inside cabin [ 8163] and found it to be superior to an inside on the QM2 we went on last year-the bathroom was definately larger and far nicer. Some noise/vibration from the bow and stern thrusters when berthing but nothing noticed when underway. Food was fairly good and you can pre-pay for a block of 7 bottles of wine at an average cost of $15 a bottle and chose from a list of 20 odd wines-most seemed ok to me. Ship is new and v.nice-the entertainment is excellant and bearing in mind that we paid £375 each for a 7 night cruise good value. Downside is that this is a `family` ship so there were rather a lot of children on board not to mention some scruffy adults!

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Comment by Holland, BOLTON (07 Feb 10 21:16) about a COMMENT by Chaffey (05 Feb 10 18:18)

Snob comes to mind

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Comment by Chaffey, Weymouth (09 Feb 10 10:14) about a COMMENT by Holland (07 Feb 10 21:16)

No,but I like to keep clean and smart-perhaps if your party washed their hands more often and used the gel dispensers around the ship they would not have got ill. I like to treat the staff with respect and that includes dressing well and not allowing my children to run riot. I had excellant service from the crew on the Poesia-it all depends on how you treat people but if you slob around all day stuffing your face with chips you may well be shown a certain amount of distain by the Italian crew[ and richly deserved ]

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Comment by Thomas, Newport (05 Feb 10 17:46) about this REVIEW

It all sounds very unpleasant. I have exerienced unhepful and dismissive reception and customer services staff - what a misomer that is - and not just on cruise ships! Now seeing so many other critical remarks about them I am convinced they get trained in the same 'School of How to Repel Customers and their Complaints'. If they had a ha'porth of business sense they would surely realise that, whilst they might frighten customers away in the short term, many will not give the company future business. What you describe as flu, with diarrhoea and projectile vomiting, sounds very much like the dreaded norovirus. I bet you were glad to get home but what a disappointing holiday for you. What shines out - once more - as a beacon of good cheer and good service is the attention paid by the waiter and the room service staff.

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