5-Day Cruise to the Bahamas and the Caribbean on MSC SEASHORE

After a less than enjoyable Mediterranean cruise on MSC, we stayed away. We then heard some positive comments about their sailings from America so we tried them again. We shouldn't have. While the ship itself was beautiful and well maintained, we weren't impressed with the food or the level of service. In fact, we had an unfortunate experience shortly after embarking involving our WIFI package. We sought assistance because we had difficulty setting it up on my wife's phone. We were told that I had inadvertently purchased two 2-device packages instead of one and if we paired our phones with my plan, we'd get a refund on the other. After being repeatedly promised the refund was coming for nearly a week, we learned that we had been given bad info and too bad if we had wasted a lot of time. My wife doesn't drink so I buy my wine Ala carte. My first tiny glass of wine was $16.50. I then bought a bottle for $43.00 so I managed to get a bit more value for my money. Oh yeah, the elevators on board are irritating, slow and grossly inefficient. Even when it's not that busy, a 2 minute wait or longer was not unusual. The only real positive of the cruise was that they did offer open pickleball play every morning even if they had only one court that was partially obstructed. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. Overall, we were not impressed and will not sail on MSC in the future.

My first ever cruise and to be honest I didn’t think I would like it, but it was fabulous!! Now it’s all I can think about doing! Will definitely do this again in the near future! The staff was great! Also one of the server was amazing went above and beyond! His name is Hermanto showed me and my partner so many tricks which made the cruise more entertaining! Also his assisten server Jason was extremely nice! Loved talking to them both!! Room service Was amazing she always came and helped me a lot when I was having some problems in the room. Everyone was soo nice! Also the casino was great don’t like to brag but I made 90 dollars from it! If any help was needed everyone that worked in the cruise would come running to help. There was a good gaming options as well! Nice rides in the pool!

Embarkation

Our embarkation from Port Canaveral was very easy and pretty quick. We dropped off our luggage and went upstairs where they checked our boarding passes and passports. This line took less than 10 minutes. We then went through security which was also very fast and then to check in. MSC's check-in is kind of the old fashioned way where they call each party up to a desk, but it went fairly fast. Onboard we went to our muster station where they scanned our boarding passes and we went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry-on luggage.

Cabin

We had a Balcony Suite with Whirlpool. Our room was already ready as soon as we got onboard. The room was very large and we really enjoyed the extra space. It has roughly the same layout and design as a standard balcony cabin, just with more space. One of the features we really liked was the large walk-in closet. This would be a nice feature for families traveling together because it gives lots of storage and has a door that locks, so it could be used as an extra changing room while someone is using the bathroom. The bathroom was smaller than expected given the size of the room. It wasn't really any larger than a standard cabin bathroom except it had a tub/shower combo. The shower was actually the worst part of the room. It had a fixed glass divider which only covered about a third of the tube. This let water spray everywhere. It looks nice, but isn't practical. The balcony was about 3x the size of a standard balcony and has a small, but nice. whirlpool. This balcony is on the corner of the middle section where the ship curves, so it isn't very private. Other passengers can and will look at you in the whirlpool. Our cabin steward kept our room spotless and would come by twice a day to clean, swap out towels, etc.

Ship

The ship is very nice and modern. It never felt that crowded even on sea days. We could usually find chairs near the pool without too much problem. The water park is also a really nice feature. The water slides were very fun. We spent multiple afternoons riding them over and over when they weren't busy. My favorite was the inner tube slide. You can ride in a single tube or a double with a partner. The overall design of the ship is nice and pretty easy to navigate once you learn where things are located.

Service

The service on this ship was incredible. We had anytime dining, but they would seat us in the same section with the same waiters every night. They were very friendly and quickly learned what we liked. After a couple of days, they would bring wine, coke zero, and other things without being asked. The bar staff were also very friendly for the most part. They would stop to chat and joke around which made things fun and relaxed. Our cabin steward would always ask about our day when we saw him in the hallway.

Food

We found the food to be very good on the Seashore. We never really found anything that we didn't like. The breakfast buffet always had good selections Lunch was also very good. MSC has some of the best pizza at sea. The new restaurants added during the recent dry dock were also a hit. The poolside chicken restaurant had good tenders and sandwiches and the most amazing fries. The Red Cactus BBQ restaurant on deck 8 was also great. The pulled pork and burnt ends mac and cheese were standouts. The main dining room selections were also very good.

Entertainment

We attended all of the shows in the theater and enjoyed each of them. They have a very talented cast and we liked the variety of singers, dancers, acrobats, magician, etc. Most of the shows are only about 30-40 minutes long which is nice since they don't require a large time commitment. The only show that was just okay was the Showtime at the Rouge. It was supposed to be a variety type show, but consisted of mostly singing. We didn't really care for the singers (just personal taste). The other acts in the show were much better.

Spa

Our room was part of the Aurea experience which included access to the thermal suite in the spa. This was our first time visiting a ship spa, but we enjoyed the heated beds, aromatherapy room and showers. The sauna and snow rooms were popular, but not for me. The thermal suite also features a large hot tub which was nice.

A few areas for improvement:

While we had a great time on this ship, there were a couple areas where things could be improved. The biggest issue I noticed this time on the Seashore was that some areas were a bit hot. I'm not sure if they were having issues, but some areas like the casino need to be cooler and have more ventilation. Our cabin was a little warm the first day but this got better when we left port. We would definitely recommend bringing a fan for some extra ventilation in the cabin. Another area for improvement would be having more staff in the casino bar. The casino bar was very busy most nights and the staff seemed pretty overwhelmed at times.

Overall we really enjoyed everything about this cruise. We enjoyed the itinerary, the ship, the crew, the food, the entertainment and pretty much every aspect of this cruise. This was my third time with MSC and can't wait to sail with them again.