MSC EURIBIA Reviews

MSC Euribia Yacht Club: a beautiful ship, but an inconsistent luxury experience

General overview

MSC Euribia is a beautiful, modern and exceptionally clean ship. Before travelling, I had read reviews describing crowded public areas, but that wasn’t my experience.

There was plenty to enjoy, particularly the entertainment, the attractive Yacht Club spaces and several excellent members of staff. However, the food and service were inconsistent. At approximately €7,000 for our week, or €1,000 per night, I expected a higher standard and greater attention to detail.

Yacht Club offers a comfortable and attractive experience, but on this sailing it fell short of the food quality and service I would expect at that price. For our next cruise, we are considering spending more on Regent Seven Seas or Explora Journeys, or trying Royal Caribbean again.

1. Entertainment and onboard atmosphere

I would rate the entertainment 8/10. The theatre shows were enjoyable and well produced. While not Broadway level, they were still high quality.

The White Party, followed by the continuation in the Attic nightclub, was great fun. The singers and pianist in Yacht Club were another highlight, bringing talent and elegance to the evenings.

The Helios wine-tasting experience was excellent and reasonably priced, with a very knowledgeable sommelier. This was one of the standout experiences of the cruise.

2. Dining, drinks and restaurant service

The Yacht Club restaurant has an elevated feel, with attractive décor, a pleasant atmosphere and lovely background music from the pianist. The included wines offered a good variety and quality.

Lunch and dinner generally ranged from good to very good, although rarely excellent. Highlights included the salmon, bluefin tuna tartare, snails and several delicious fish dishes. My partner found the beef average, while the lobster pasta had an overly strong fishy taste.

Desserts were a particular strength, with an excellent variety, including cakes, crêpes Suzette and crème brûlée.

Elvis deserves special recognition. He was extremely polite, knowledgeable about both the menu and wines, and attentive throughout our meals. Unfortunately, service across the restaurant was inconsistent. Sometimes staff did not know who had ordered each dish, or another waiter would arrive to take an order that had already been taken.

Small details also detracted from the setting. The cheap-looking plastic flowers on the tables felt out of place against the otherwise elegant décor.

Breakfast was particularly disappointing. Even a basic omelette was overcooked, dry and almost cardboard-like. The Yacht Club buffet food we tried on the first day was also bland and poor, and the server was not particularly courteous.

Outside Yacht Club, Hola! Tacos was delicious and good value. Our experience at the sushi restaurant was less positive. We asked about a walk-in when it appeared half empty. After checking with a supervisor, staff told us it was full and suggested returning in 40 minutes, which conflicted with our spa appointment. I appreciate that empty tables may be reserved, but the dismissive manner and lack of apology were disappointing. We raised this with the concierge and showed a photograph, but the issue remained unresolved.

Afternoon tea was excellent. However, having previously experienced it daily, finding it offered just once during this cruise was disappointing. Every other day would be a reasonable compromise.

The Top Sail Lounge was beautifully decorated, but its snacks did not match the surroundings. Some were soggy, and the crisps were poor quality. Cocktails were also mixed: the premixed Pornstar Martini was disappointing, while the Cosmopolitans, espresso martinis, salted caramel martinis and Hugo Spritzes were very good.

3. Suite, butler service and Yacht Club facilities

Our Deluxe Suite with terrace was spacious, clean and comfortable, with plenty of storage and a small walk-in wardrobe near the bathroom.

The minibar had a good selection of refreshments. On previous sailings, miniature spirits were available; this time, we were offered a choice of one complimentary full-sized bottle from a selected range at the start of the cruise.

English-language television options were limited, and there was no way to connect our streaming services, such as Netflix or Apple TV. We also experienced a problem with the on-demand movies. When it could not be fixed, the concierge offered to cover an alternative paid entertainment option, which was a thoughtful gesture.

The hairdryer could be improved. Its cable was fixed inside a drawer, making it awkward to use while seated. A better-quality hairdryer would also be welcome in a Yacht Club suite.

Our butler appeared stretched between too many responsibilities, including duties ashore during port calls. He provided the basics, such as delivering breakfast when requested, but we rarely saw him. My impression was that this reflected workload and staffing rather than a lack of effort.

Kumar, our junior butler, was excellent. Our suite was consistently spotless and beautifully organised, and his turndown service was impeccable.

The Yacht Club sun deck was spacious, with comfortable, premium-feeling loungers and a pleasant swimming pool. It was very quiet during our October Norway cruise, although that may be different in warmer weather. For such a large area, having only one small jacuzzi felt like a missed opportunity.

The forward-facing restaurant and Top Sail Lounge were among the most attractive spaces on the ship. Yacht Club’s quieter atmosphere suits us well, although the service and dining need to be more consistent to justify the premium.

4. Spa and treatments

The spa facilities were impressive, with several saunas and steam rooms, an ice room, a salt room and two jacuzzis. The main drawback was the enclosed location in the middle of the ship, with no outside views.

The theatre is directly above the spa treatment area, and noise from it could be heard during treatments, detracting from the relaxing atmosphere.

At busy times, the spa became less relaxing. Some guests ignored the quiet areas and left towels everywhere. More active monitoring by staff would help maintain the environment.

Our massage was excellent. The facial, however, was disappointing. It was presented as a deep-cleansing treatment with pore extraction, but the extraction felt cursory. A warm towel was used rather than a steamer, and the overall experience felt much closer to a facial massage than the thorough cleansing treatment advertised.

Overall, the spa facilities and massage impressed us, but the noise and disappointing facial detracted from the experience.

If you need a gluten free diet, this is not the cruise for you. In the buffet there is not a dedicated gluten free area. You have to ask for GF bread and they keep sending you to the next station. When someone does help you, there is only pre packaged nan bread and a pre packaged hot dog bun. The nan bread is what you will get in the restaurants, too. It is not very good and is prepackaged. The restaurant manager does a good job of ensuring you have a good gluten free meal. There are 6k passengers and many people are sick. They have a store, but no acetaminophen or lozenges. There is just a very small area with some shelves for pharmaceuticals and essentials which seemed depleted on day two and they aren't getting more supplies.. The vast majority of the store is high priced perfume, purses, electronics..... The food is mediocre. There are too many people to accommodate in the buffet. They actually stop you from entering the buffet because it is so congested.The nightly shows are sold out from the beginning of the cruise and there aren't enough seats for a cruise ship with this many people. This my last MSC cruise. I'm currently on this cruise and sitting out on my balcony at 0500 because I am sick and can't even get Tylenol or a throat loosened. Incredible.

msc was the worst cruise i have ever…

msc was the worst cruise i have ever made

1. Food quality and presentation

The overall quality of the food in the buffet was very basic compared with what we expected from MSC.

• Pizza was frequently served cold, while the hot pizza was kept in a less accessible and less visible location.

• Better-quality food was sometimes placed in less prominent areas, after passengers had already passed numerous stations offering more basic food.

• The salmon at breakfast was hidden and was not openly available to passengers. In order to receive salmon, we had to specifically ask a member of staff for it. It was not presented as an ordinary, freely accessible breakfast item. A passenger had to know that it was available and specifically request it. This created the impression that access to higher-quality food was being deliberately restricted.

• For example There was also a restriction on the amount of lamb ribs passengers could take.

• Even when salmon was available, its quality was disappointing and it was not prepared properly.

• The steaks were of poor quality and did not meet the standard we expected.

• On one occasion, when I received a steak in the steak restaurant that was not satisfactory, I was not offered a replacement at no additional charge and was instead directed to the order other steak, where an additional payment was required.(after I already paid extra money for the restaurant).

• Surprisingly, the food in the restaurants was in some cases of lower quality than the buffet food. This is contrary to what passengers would reasonably expect from a restaurant compared with a buffet. As a result, many passengers preferred to eat at the buffet.

• The better-quality cakes were placed at the back and were difficult to access, while the less appealing cakes were placed prominently at the front.

• Chamomile tea was unavailable because the supply had run out, and it was not replenished.

Overall, the food experience gave us the impression that higher-quality items were being limited or made less accessible, which is not what we expected from an MSC cruise.

2. Additional charges and high prices

Throughout the cruise, there was a strong impression that passengers were repeatedly being asked to pay additional amounts for services.

For example:

• The internet package cost approximately €40 per day, which is a very high price.

• The beverage package cost approximately €140 per day.

• Regular water served at the tables in the restaurants was charged separately.

• The transfer/visit to Kiel involved an additional charge.

The overall impression was that the price paid for the cruise did not reflect the actual cost of the holiday, with passengers repeatedly being asked to pay additional amounts for services that we would reasonably expect to be included or more fairly priced.

3. Flåm Railway – approximately four times the market price

One of the issues that particularly concerned us was the handling of tickets for the Flåm Railway (Flåmsbana).

The price offered by MSC was approximately four times higher than the price available online when purchasing independently.

Despite this very high price through MSC, passengers who attempted to purchase tickets independently discovered that no tickets were available.

The impression was that MSC had purchased a very large number of tickets in advance, leaving passengers with little or no opportunity to purchase tickets independently at the normal market price.

We find it very difficult to understand why passengers should be effectively left with the choice of paying approximately four times the market price through MSC, when tickets at the regular price were no longer available.

This situation was, in our view, unfair and damaging to passenger trust.

4. Severe overcrowding

The ship was extremely crowded in many areas:

• The jacuzzi areas were very crowded.

• The dining areas were overcrowded.

• Shows and entertainment venues were extremely crowded.

• It was often difficult to find available seating.

In addition, some tables in the lobby were apparently reserved or closed approximately two hours in advance. For example, passengers arriving at around 5:00 PM were not allowed to use certain tables even though they were not actually being used at that time.

This significantly reduced the comfort and enjoyment of the cruise.

As avid cruisers who set sail at least once a year across lines like Celebrity, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Azamara, Norwegian, and Carnival, we know what a seamless cruise experience looks like. We recently returned from our voyage on the MSC Euribia, and while we went in with open minds, the overall experience fell significantly short of standard industry expectations. If MSC is serious about expanding into the North American market and appealing to US travelers, there is a substantial gap to bridge between their current service delivery and what seasoned cruisers expect.

Ship Cleanliness & Health Concerns The most glaring issue throughout our voyage was shipwide cleanliness and basic hygiene. Hallways were routinely littered with leftover room service trays, garbage, and piles of dirty bedding. The buffet was chaotic and unkempt, frequently resembling a war zone during peak hours, with food-covered floors that understaffed crew members completely ignored. Most off-putting was watching staff wheel clear bins overflowing with slop and uneaten food directly through the restaurant, passing right alongside active dining tables and buffet lines.

Sanitation concerns extended into the beverage program as well. When we purchased the premium drink package, we expected the convenience of sealed bottled water. Instead, we were issued reusable bottles to fill at public spigots—an eco-friendly idea in theory, but a severe sanitation hazard in practice. Guests routinely touched their bottle rims directly to the spigots, contaminating the water source for everyone else. Furthermore, the lack of basic guidance was frustrating: guests without drink packages were forced to pay for water, and staff failed to mention the existence of complimentary water stations until late into the cruise.

Dining & Service Friction While minor hiccups happen on any ship, the food and beverage execution in the Main Dining Room was consistently disappointing. Dishes were notably bland, culminating in a breakfast where our Eggs Benedict arrived inexplicably smothered in brown gravy instead of Hollandaise sauce. The bar service was equally frustrating; when ordering a standard dry gin martini with no vermouth—a very common order in North America—the bartender argued that it was "impossible" and "not a real martini," leaving us feeling shamed over a simple request. The house wine selection, featuring subpar options like The Federalist, also felt well below baseline expectations.

In the stateroom, standard basics like facial tissues and washcloths were missing upon arrival and had to be specially requested. Public lounges often felt congested and poorly managed, with non-ordering guests hoarding bar seating for hours without staff intervention. While some crew members were polite, we encountered an unusually high frequency of curt, indifferent service, with several staff members even feigning language barriers to avoid assisting us.

Minor Positives & The Final Verdict To be fair, the trip was not entirely devoid of good moments, though they felt like isolated exceptions rather than the standard:

Specialty Dining: The specialty restaurants were genuinely excellent, offering high-quality meals that stood in stark contrast to the main dining room.

Spa Experience: The onboard spa was top-notch, professional, and thoroughly relaxing.

Stateroom Attendant: Our cabin steward was prompt, polite, and kept our room immaculate.

Incredible Ports: The destination ports were stunning and offered beautiful shore experiences.

On paper, the cruise might have looked like a reasonably priced getaway, but in reality, it turned out to be one of the most costly vacations we have ever taken. Value isn't just measured in dollars; it's measured in time—our most precious, non-renewable resource. We spent an entire week of our lives and a substantial amount of money on an inferior product with a cruise line that seemed far more interested in shuffling passengers through ports than ensuring we actually enjoyed our trip.

Ultimately, a good spa treatment and scenic port stops cannot make up for widespread hygiene issues, subpar food, and consistently frustrating service. For a company attempting to break into a competitive US market, this level of operation is unacceptable. While we share this feedback in the hope that MSC takes drastic corrective action, these few silver linings were nowhere near enough to rescue a deeply unpleasant vacation. As seasoned travelers, we know what quality cruising looks like, and we can say without a shadow of a doubt that we will never set foot on an MSC ship again.

**MSC Euribia – A Very Disappointing Experience**

Our experience on MSC Euribia was extremely disappointing. The panels inside our cabin made unbearable creaking noises, making it very difficult to sleep at night. We reported the problem, but the solution offered was unsuitable for us.

The ship also feels overcrowded and unable to comfortably accommodate so many passengers. There are enormous queues almost everywhere, making it difficult to relax and enjoy the facilities.

On top of that, there is a constant feeling that MSC is trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of its passengers through endless upselling.

Overall, a frustrating and exhausting experience rather than the relaxing holiday we expected. I would think twice before booking with MSC again.

Highly un recommend and the most important feels like my money was spent for nothing. The number of pepole is so big that guest relations doesn't have a chance . It appears they knew about the room problem but they sold in anyway

As a first-time cruiser, I realize this travel style suits families or those with limited mobility, but it severely lacks authenticity. Small Norwegian villages were completely swamped by passengers, though larger cities handled the crowds better.

The ship feels like an inescapable tourist trap. The commercial vibe is relentless: unexpected default service fees, constant upsell (Spa, food, drinks), and a €50 diner package where our prepaid drink package is than invalid, which only make sense if your goal is to rip off people.

Cabins were clean and the staff friendly, though bar service was disorganized with queues at big events. Main dining was unmemorable, and the buffet was a crowded, noisy nightmare during rush hours. The pools and gym are simply too small for these crowds.

Excursions were pricey but well-organized escapes from the fake, Americanized "Club Med" entertainment. Overall, this offered poor value for money. I prefer independent travel.

Stay away from this.

Terrible service, rude staff pushing to get tipped and insisting on getting you to spend more on wine and drinks.

Our first cabin was right next to an engine room where we couldn't sleep and it took us a long time to get assigned another one.

Their way of saying sorry? One spa day when they initially promised the whole week.

We also contacted the customer service to try and get a different time slot for dinner service, imagine our surprise when on board we learn that we still had the early slot? They openly lied to us and this alone is not acceptable.

And now we're stranded in Flam, which is the most disorganized, horrible port I've ever been to. Because of an accident nobody's leaving this place wasting one more day doing nothing instead of visiting.

Will never book again a cruise like this and you should avoid it too.

We did a family cruise during May 2026 on the MSC Euribia round trip from Copenhagen through the Norwegian Fjords. This was a Yacht Club cruise and our first MSC cruise starting and ending outside of the US.

Overall, the cruise was a relaxing, however we were somewhat disappointed with the Yacht Club experience.

Embarkation and disembarkation in Copenhagen was fast and efficient however the YC area in the terminal at Copenhagen was quite a let down. While not there very long, the area is small and unremarkable. While some drinks were available, there were no snacks to speak of other than a plate of candy at the table.

The ship itself is beautiful and was kept very clean. While we thought the ship layout was nice overall, we personally prefer the outdoor areas on the Seaside class ships much more. The Yacht Club area for smokers was extremely small and not very comfortable for a cold weather cruise. There was absolutely NO spots to get out of the wind/rain unless we went outside of the YC portion of the ship.

Port stops in Geiranger, Alesund, Flam, and Kiel were great, although weather did not always cooperate, but that is not a knock on the cruise or MSC, it is what it is. The itinerary was a great itinerary and should be experienced at least once in a lifetime.

Dining in the YC restaurant was acceptable, but not outstanding. We understand that this was just the second sailing after the ship escaped Dubai, but the YC restaurant staff was new and not very well trained. The YC Chef did his best to rectify issues and did quite a few "off menu" or "special requests" to make up for many of the misses in the restaurant, overall the quality of food and service was a miss.

Specialty dining at both Le Grille and Hola' Tacos were excellent and were highlights of our cruise.

The YC staff (other than at the YC Restaurant) were good, but not excellent and not what we have experienced on previous YC cruises. Service and interaction within the Top Sail Lounge was mediocre and slow for the most part, but there were some staff that went out of their way to make it a bit more elevated. We were surprised that the standard YC "White Night Party" that we are accustomed to on USA-based cruises is NOT a thing on the Euribia. Whether that is a European thing or a preference of the YC Director is unclear, but it was explained to us that it was not appropriate or desired for the staff and the guests to "mingle" or "have fun together".

We still enjoy MSC and the YC experience however we think we will stick with US-based sailings on the Seaside EVO-class ships.

The ship it self is well build well managed and well run, all the stuff are doing an exeptional job round the clock, room service and house keeping is perfect, the person in charge of our room was Mr. ZIAUL he takes his job seriously and works hard we thank him for his great personality, food is good considering the number of people they are serving almost round the clock, bars, wine selection and coctails are good. Naturaly there could be few things one can complain but I sure think that it will be unfair to all the stuff who are doing almost round the clock running in the hope to make guests happy so I sure will pass that. All an all it was a good experience. All workers are almost burning their feet with a smiling face just to make about 6000 guests happy and they are doing a great job.