MSC Cruises Reviews

Ms.Janet has been doing our bookings for years and our relationship make us confident for all her offer and assistance. So we like that she became our sole agent handling our bookings.

This was our first MSC cruise. As an Italian line, the majority of the passengers are from countries other than the USA. About 20% of the passengers were from the States, so traveling with a companion, family or friends, I believe, made the trip more enjoyable. The Seaside is a smart ship, so booking specialty restaurants and shows were a simple process. There are 4 specialty restaurants, two all inclusive fine dining restaurants and several buffet, pool side options and coffee shops. Beyond the itinerary of this cruise, the theatrical productions were A+, New York quality and not to be missed. Our balcony cabin provided extra living space, were private and the seaboard side of the ship had the best views while in port. The ship is incredibly stunning and activities are available for all ages. The in room television is limited but pay per view is abundant. The staff are friendly and accommodating and the daily specials are abundant. Book your excursions and spa treatments before you sale for special discounts. The spa and beauty salon discounts are good once you board and specials are available for laundry services. The specialty restaurant special promotions were priced well. We highly recommend the Pan Asian restaurant.

Arthur was extremely professional and helped us with many different changes including accommodating our friends on this trip. Thank you very much Arthur window

Arthur, our booking agent at Affordable Tours, was simply fantastic. If I didn't want him all to myself the next time I need a cruise, I'd tell everyone to ask for him. Well.... I guess I just did. I and two other family members got on the cruise late through a cancellation, and it was a real scramble to get everything in place. Arthur was totally on top of it all, kept calling the cruise line on our behalf, arranging everything when I couldn't get through, and was just as sweet as pie every time I bothered him about something. He is absolutely THE BEST. Though no fault of Arthur's, the cruiseship we were on had some kinks to be worked out. We lost hot water four times in our cabin, of course always right when we needed to take a shower because we were headed out for dinner or an excursion. The t.v. worked very intermittently. They charged for every drink, even non-alcoholic ones (including water), and the drink packages that obviated the need to pay every time were VERY expensive. (e.g. $29 day/per person for non-alcoholic drinks). Wifi was quite expensive, too, and then, at least for us, it didn't work. Even the agents on board tasked with helping ppl in this regard couldn't make it work. Nice ship, though, and I imagine they'll get the kinks worked out with time. And the staff was all super nice and accommodating. It was great to have a deck to sit outside by ourselves when we wanted to be alone. All in all, a very diverting experience! (Oh, and the Cirque du Soleil shows were AMAZING!!!) THANK YOU ARTHUR!

MSC Island Ocean Cay is amazing.

once again Jason has provided us with an outstanding vacation,will be booking my next one soon ty

Several items were in limited supply or missing. Service in the main restaurant was at times quite slow.

Service was very good, food was good, shows need some production value but entertainers were very good.

The staff was amazing the waiter from the restaurant He was amazing his name Is Deu. He was Professional and everything all the food and he recommended us my Husband and I the food and the Dessert and we love everything he recommended The food was delicious and the staff was very polite they asked is it morning afternoon or good evening the shows was ok we did not like the opera and the Oder show was ok to much singing The one did we loved is The Michael ..... Jackson and it was one only Comedy show you should have more like the others cruise ship and. Professional shows. Like Carnival...

MSC ARE GREAT and fabulous in all they do. I really enjoyed my self and all was well organized. Well done MSC Seaside

Professional service provided by Boris, thanks a lot.

Our cruise on the MSC Seaside was fantastic and everything hoped it would've the Yacht Club Experience was very relaxing and special.

The FREE drinks package was not to my liking. Although it said free it was not. There was a surcharge on every drink purchased and that was not to my liking.

Thank you Affordable Tour and Soazig for your outstanding support.

A great experience for my 13 year old daughter to realize how many more cultures there are too experience. This was here first international trip. She now has interest in learning a foreign language. MSC delivered on most expectations. When there was a gap, the ship staff did EVERYTHING to exceed expectations.

The only problem that I had was the code that wasn't added to our cards so we could get bottled water during lunch and dinner. After I called affordable tours they fixed it by the next day.

We had not sailed with MSC before but were pleased with the cruise.

We had a good time :)

I enjoyed a lot with my family. It was a great choice.

Pete is a professional agent, who provided excellent service to my booking. Yes, I would book with him again. If there is any thing that I would improve- that would be the way to distributed the shipboard credit to the clients. I booked 3 cabins with MSC with only one master booking number. I wish, it is broken into 3 booking numbers, and with a master booking to link all 3 together to show that we have volume booking. By doing so, the ship board credits will be evenly distributed to 3 cabins separately, thus, we can have independent accounting for our own billing and have freedom to spend ship board credit without any dispute. unfortunately we had dispute on the shipboard credits, which add some stress to our pleasant vacation. I do not know if your computer program is smart enough to break the ship board credits by each cabin. But that is exactly what I would recommend to do in the future booking to avoid any dispute. Regardless, we had a great time. Thank you so much.

It was a fantastic experience with both AffordableTours.com and MSC, being the first time Cruise traveler. The booking process, information and their responses where very professional and credible. They made my booking and cruising so seamless and enjoyable. A big thanks to you and your team. Will certainly look forward for my next family trip with AffrodableTours

Excellent experience working with Bianca. Loved the ship...MSC Lirica. A perfect experience!

This is only about the cruise. MSC is a very dressy cruise. They had three gala or elegant events and at least 75% of those seen at night were dressed appropriately. Next, passengers should allow at least 3hrs from leaving the boat to check-in time for their plane or they will not make it. There are many long check-in lines. Our cruise consultant did not have the daily itinerary of the cruise and their daily day parties. That would be very helpful.

Second time on msc seaside. love the outside eating and availability. Highly recommend.

Most modern ship and largest inside cabin of any if the many cruises we have been on. Also best and least crowed ship and leadt crowded and best run land tours. Good shows. Ship design however stresses form over function. Could not stand dining room food and buffet was the same every night and was mostly italian with few choices and meats - mostly pasta We lost weight on the cruise. Passengers mostly Italian and can't recount how many times people cut in front of us in lines but that was ok just had to get used to it and expect it. Had good cruise though to countries othrr cruise ships did not go.

Marcie was wonderful. This was my 1st cruise so I was pretty nervous about it and had lots of questions. Marcie was there for me every step of the way. Even when I couldn't get on to the MSC website, she walked me thru the steps and got me online. It was such an amazing trip, I am very excited to try it again next year. A very special thank you to Marcie for finding this for me and making sure that everything was absolutely perfect!!!

Best in entertainment. Smaller staterooms and balconies

As usual Jason. found us the ideal room on the divina What a pleasure to always book with affordable tours.Thank You.

Overall a fantastic experience. One negative experience is that we were told that we each had $25 USD of on-board credit, but when we got to the ship there was only $25 of on-board credit total. After we spent the $25 each of on-board credit and were disembarking, we were not allowed to get off the ship until our balance was taken care of. We stayed under $25 each but the ship understood it to be $25 total. We had to go to the guest services counter as we were leaving the ship to explain our situation and they eventually let us off the ship with a cleared balance but not without several rounds of questioning. It left us with a bad final experience to an otherwise great cruise.

The trip was all we expected. It was a great experience of many countries. Every place had something different to offer and learn about. The itinerary was wonderful.

Our first cruise - and really enjoyed it.

Traveled with my sister, she has recently had knee replacement, so she could have used a little bit more moving space

Dining room service and menu did not add up to my expectations. Dining experience was cramped and delayed everytime.

Megan was really helpful in finding us a great cruise at a great price.

Everything went as planned overall the ship and the staff exceeded our expectations thank you MSC cruises

Our Travelling Group was delighted with the special itinerary and accommodating service. We all found our own Special elements on board.

Everything was fantastic! We missed a pretty big port- Cannes- because the ocean was too rough for the tender. It was unfortunate - but they had our safety in mind. However, I as many of the other passengers had hoped that they would have had a contingency plan in place- especially later on that afternoon when the water was much calmer. Other than that- things went perfectly. I would also book through Affordable Tours again and Autumn was absolutely great! thanks again for the trip of a lifetime! I will be in touch! Lisa

enjoyed the cruise very much. However, was amazed that MSC charged highly for water and soft drinks.. On other cruise lines i have enjoyed these for free. Aso, I booked second seating, which i thought would be at 8:30 as this had been my experience with other cruise lines, but 9: was too late for me

Misti was awesome and extremely helpful. we appreciate her.

Jennifer was very nice to deal with and returned inquiries quickly.

The agent Jason was helpfull before and during the cruise with any issues i had. The cruise its self was great and the staff were really professional and nice. I would definitely recommend this agency to other people to take cruise. I will also book my future cruise trips with this agent.

Loved the new ship,so much outside available,outdoor seating,outdoor eating,beautiful ship,truly the ship that follows the sun

This is a new ship with a few things to work out. The interior and size is amazing. The food, and specialty restaurants are very good. The entertainment is first class, the accommodations are excellent. The gym and spa are first class. The instructors are very good.

Once again, another fantastic cruise on the MSC Divina.

MSC staff and AffordableTours account sales is professional who concerned customer request and try the best to fulfill customer dream.

MSC was below the high expectations we normally get on cruise lines. They were about 90 percent.... Small things were not taken care of. Food was adequate but not exceptional. Deserts were lackluster and buffets never changed. They became boring...

The majority of the passengers were from Europe mostly Italy This was fine for me but if a client wants to attend a cruise with more English speaking people chose royal Caribbean . A beverage package is a good idea on this ship or you could buy drinks as you need them. The cost is much less than RC. For example a piña colata is 7.00 dollars on MSC versus 14.00 on RC. The beverage package is about $30.00 U.S. a day. The food is slightly better on RC. The ship was very clean.

I loved the shows for every night. They all seemed a cut above what I would expect on a ship. The captain knew about 8 languages and opened up one show in all of the languages. The captain came to the theater more than once to make announcements and it was nice to see him, unlike most cruises. I was impressed by MSC and cannot say enough good things. Our room was well maintained and clean and our steward came in several times a day and gave us clean towels, etc.

The ship was beautiful, our room was outstanding. The whole experience was beyond my expectations. Can't wait to book my next vacation.

Exceeded Expectations: I was surprisingly happy with this ship and this trip. If you wish to get a feel for the minutiae of this cruise, it's well covered by other reviews; read them after this. By the way, the itinerary (Italy, Turkey, Greece) is interesting and educational.

Herein, I'm having other observations: about guests, nationalities, drinking, entertainment, dancing and relaxing. As a Canadian, I'm polite and easygoing. If you don't know Canadians, sorry, it's the national character. Personally, I'm gregarious and like to exchange conversation with people I meet. I seek this during my travels, and I was looking forward to meeting this challenge in Europe. In American waters, I meet plenty of nice and interesting people, English speaking, some even from the US. On this European vessel, "das ist" more fun, which I enjoy anyhow. Indeed we met nice and interesting people, both guests and hosts, of many languages and places, with whom we communicated as best we could, and that was "magnificent". That is part of fun and charm of travelling for us, and I hope the same for them. A new experience for me was hunting for language during lunch. I would promenade through the ship's dining room (leaving the hostess behind) enquiring with guests at the tables whether they spoke English. Then I would politely ask if I could join them for lunch. How presumptuous? Well, I will confide that I enjoyed a couple of pleasant meals gathering with new people and making friends. I believe they did likewise.

On this European ship, I noted that beverages incur an additional cost, including water at supper (but not water at buffet). Well, Americans (herein I mean people from the eponymous continent) are I think not used to that. Be prepared. Actually, included with our cruise ticket were tokens for one bottle of water at supper. Still this did not deter people from drinking to their livers' content. Sniff! Also noteworthy is that waiters in the buffet (on this Italian ship) do not hover to refill your coffee. This staff work sufficiently hard that they should be relieved of this chore. Yes, get up from your chair, walk over to the coffee station, get in line again with your cup and refill yourself. Hint: get 2 cups right away. Personally, though I'm more resourceful.
Regarding several comments (in other reviews) about the scrum and lack of manners at the buffet, I walk a bit further to where the crowd is not and where the queue is short. I keep clear of hungry, rampaging foreigners. I content myself with foods that are currently accessible, and return for more when the frenzy subsides. What could be more courteous and safe? By the way, I liked the pizza.

We were partial to reading and sightseeing in the high atrium on the Positano deck where it was sunny and protected from the wind. But it was well nigh impossible to obtain refuge from people conversing loudly. Please excuse my peevishness on this matter. About evening entertainment in the theatre - well we all have divergent taste in food, as in art. Like the waiters, these artists and singers, dancers, acrobats, really put their hearts into their work. If you can't see that, you should not be in the theatre. Sure, they're not all supremely talented, but many are, yes! I appreciate and applaud them. If you're bored, bring your ipad to touch and read. Further regarding entertainment, we really enjoyed dancing on board. This is a rather select activity which is infrequently mentioned, but we are ballroom dancers and we dance a lot. We liked meeting other dancers on the floor and getting acquainted. The music and musicians in several venues were all agreeable. We observed that Europeans get active and dance no matter how awfully they writhe, unlike their American counterparts who are mostly lazy and embarrassed.

Finally, about relaxing on ship. Get with the program! Don't complain! Delight in your time away from routine and appreciate the journey. Smile, say "guten tag", be friendly and polite. Do I have to tell you how to have good time. Puhleese.