Rachel and I have cruised on 12 Royal Caribbean ships over the last 2 years. We take a group of our YouTube subscribers on a group cruise every year and this year we decided to try out MSC.
We have never been on an MSC cruise and didn't know what to expet so we decided to go on a 4 night cruise on the MSC Seashore to check it out for ourself. Here were are observations when comparing to Royal Caribbean.
Food:
The vFood was on par with Royal Caribbean. I really like the way they do main dining in restaurants instead of a giant room, it feels more intimate. The staff in the Manhattan restarant (where we ate) was excellent and very attentive. There were a lot of options in the buffet and because there’s so many stations, there were never long lines. The hours for the buffet were great and I really like that it’s open from 10pm to 2am for pizza, sandwiches and salads.
Entertainment:
The shows are not quite as good as Royal Caribbean but they were very good, especially the one on the final night. The illusionist was incredible but our comedian was downright horrible. My biggest complaint is the shows are short, only about 35-40 minutes. I love the way the events like The white Party, dancing with the crew, and other things are in the main area and you can view them from deck 5,6 or 7. Makes it feel less crowded. Our cruise director Neil was the best I’ve ever experienced.
POOLS:
There are several pools throughout the ship and they are spaced out so it doesn't feel crowded. Unlike on Royal Caribbean where there is one deck with all the pools, on the Seashore, the pools are on different decks. Some people may hate this but we liked it. The kids waterpark, Pirates Cove, is on a different deck than the others and this results in less children in the main pools. There are 3 other pool areas; The Jungle pool on Deck 16 which has a retractable cover. That's great for rainy or bad weather days because they are able to enclose the area. The main pool, called the Long Island Pool, is on deck 18. The Long Island Pool is where most of the poolside events happen and it's where the outdoor TV is. Then on Deck 8 at the rear of the ship, there's and Infinity Pool and this area is adults only. In addition, the Yacht club has its own pool and there are 15 whirlpools throughout the ship. The pools never felt crowded and there was always a place to lounge.
Crew and Staff:
The senior staff were amazing and always around, especially the captain. When we went to ocean cay, the captain was even shuttling people around in a golf cart. You always found him wandering the ship and would stop and ask if you want to take a picture with him or have any questions. As far as the lower level crew like waiters, bartenders, and cabin attendants, they aren’t as personable as we’re used to on Royal Caribbean and don’t speak English as well as what we’ve seen on Royal. They do speak in their native language to each other whenever they’re communicating with each other. One time I was asking for peanut butter in the marketplace and it took three people to understand what I was talking about.. We did have a very good room attendant and provided all the services we asked for including towel animals, even though evidently that is not something they normally do. He went above and beyond and one day even made kissing swans and covered our bed in rose petals. I would say the staff is the biggest difference between Msc and Royal.
Bars:
There are a lot of bars throughout the ship and we never had to wait long for a drink even though the ship was fully booked. There aren’t as many roving servers for drinks though and in the theatre, there is no one walking around to take drink orders.
Drink package and getting drinks:
We purchased the Fare that included Wi-Fi and drinks. All soda is given to you in cans and they will give you more than one at a time as an opposed to on Royal where you can only get one can and then have to come back later or go to a different bar. When I would order a drink for me and my wife, they would give me both drinks, even though she wasn’t there and they just put one on my name and one on hers.
They don’t have as many specialty coffees that are included in the drink package as they do on Royal Caribbean but they do have espresso, cappuccino, Americanos. There is also not a menu for the specialty coffees.
One thing that is really nice is there is no receipt for you to sign when you order a drink and no push for extra tipping. In fact, we wanted to give a server an extra tip and they do not allow you to do it on your room so if you don’t have cash, you can’t give an extra tip. I kind of like that because you don’t feel obligated to give extra. I will say they were very heavy-handed with the pours on alcoholic drinks. .
One downside is the only place to get free water and coffee (if you don't have a drink package) is in the buffet marketplace. That area is open even when the marketplace is closed for food, but you have to go all the way to deck 16. There is no promenade Café or Pearl Café that has coffee.
One big con people will have is you can’t bring any water or soda on board and there is no SODA only package. Also, if one person gets a drink package, even the non alcoholic one, the other person has to as well. This includes children. So if you travel with your kids and you get the alcohol package, the kids MUST get the minors non alcoholic package.
Internet.
The Internet had good speeds and we had no problems watching YouTube and even uploading a video for our YouTube channel. The only thing is whatever device you activate on day one, that is the only device you can use. There is no logging out that device to login another device. So if you are like me where you like to use your phone and then log out the phone to login your iPad or computer, you can’t. You would need to have a one person two device package. This is important for us since we are full-time Youtubers and usually upload videos or live stream.
FUTURE CRUISE DESK:
We were so happy with MSC that we visited the Future Cruise desk and booked two more MSC Cruises. We booked the World America for January 2027 and the World Atlantic for January 2028. Their future cruise desk has incredible perks. If you book on the ship, your deposit is only $200 and you get a $100 onboard credit. That’s on top of any onboard credit offered with the cruise you pick and if you book a year in advance and are a Voyagers club member you get an additional $50 per person on board credit. For those two cruises we booked we will have $275 in on board credit. When you add in the fact that I found a deal for our cruise on the World America with a fare of only $2600 for an Aurea balcony, including Wi-Fi and alcohol, the Future Cruise deals are incredible The best part is your deposit is fully refundable and you can change your ship and sail date or completely cancel your cruise all the way up until 90 days prior to your cruise. Royal only gives you 90 days and after that it is a $100 per person penalty to change ship or sail date.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, some things are better than Royal and some things are not as good but when you look at the cost, it’s worth it. We are able to sail on MSC for half of a Royal cruise and it includes WiFi and drinks. We are not leaving Royal and have 4 scheduled with them this year but now we have a lot more options and can save money. If you have any questions or are looking for good rates on MSC, I'd be happy to help find you a great cruise, including Alaska 2027 for under $2000 per cabin