MSC MUSICA Reviews

My wife and 2 daughters (aged 18 and 21) had an amazing cruise with MSC Musica. The ship was amazing as was our room. The itinerary was great as were the excursions. The staff were fantastic. Sukla, Jackson and David made each night in the restaurant a lovely occasion. Their service each night was impeccable as was the quality of the food. The show team was absolute class as was the entertainment team. A special mention must go to Camilla whose quality, energy, enthusiasm and interaction with guests was another level of brilliance. We also had interaction with Oliver and Hamza who were also brilliant. My daughter has just graduated from a performing arts college and has aspirations to join a cruise ship team as a dancer or part of the ents team herself. She was so impressed with MSC she has already applied. As an independent travel agent I would highly recommend MSC

I would leave 0 stars if possible. This is our second MSC cruise and first cruise since the pandemic and our second MSC cruise (we took one MSC cruise 10 yrs ago and that was our only other horrible cruise experience). The ship and cabins are dated and look and feel dirty. The waiters harassed us daily to try and get us to sign up for a drink package and guest services was a joke. The negatives: 1. Our cabin was not cleaned and filthy on the first day of the cruise, so we had to leave so they could clean it. That already starts the cruise off badly. 2. We were in balcony room and there was constant LOUD noises from the vents all night. 3. We could rarely use the room’s balcony since someone was always smoking on theirs and we couldn’t breathe when we tried to sit on ours. 4. The one excursion we took in Sardinia was disappointing and not worth the money. 5. Guest services is a joke and we’re not helpful until the end of the trip when we showed them pictures and video proof of our experience. 6. The food was below average for a cruise, even in the dining room. 7. MSC no longer has the one night of steak and lobster in the main dining rooms. You now have to pay extra, and the waiters are persistent in trying to get you to pay. The positives: 1. The shows were good. 2. The itinerary is a good one with one sea day. 3. They tried to make it up to us but it was the day of disembarkation and at that point, we were done. Save your money and take it to Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Princess. We were with family that had never cruised before and I was so embarrassed.

The cruise was great, fantastic and friendly staff. TJ from the entertainment team was great.

Some of the casino staff could occasionally be rude, but some were great. Good variety of shopping and great deals.

Entertainment was good, loved the theatre performances. Pool/Jacuzzi as expected was crowded most of the time.

Food is the only place they can make a lot of improvements. As a vegetarian, I had limited and repetitive options. They have an ethnic food corner; which wasn’t operational during dinner. Many times when they ran out of items, they weren’t replenished. The restaurant usually had 2 vegetarian main options but sometimes it was just 1. They really need to add more international variety (other cruise lines have a better variety).

Rooms were fine, decently sized. Photographers were amazing, we ended up with some of the best pictures we’ve got taken.

Excursions are expensive and I advise you to book your own.

We really enjoyed this ‘extra’ cruise we booked at the last minute. We wanted a bit of rest and sunshine and that’s what we got. We managed to avoid storm Therese and just saw lightening disappearing over the sea as we arrived by taxi the night before the cruise on the way from Tenerife South airport. From then on we had reasonable and sometimes even sunny weather and although some said there was a bit of rocking on the way to Madeira, we didn’t feel it.

The food in the main restaurant, L’Epoche, was fabulous and we didn’t have one bad dish. We had top notch service from Waiter- Satriya from Indonesia. We were on ‘anytime dining’ and requested we had him each time and mostly this was possible.

The entertainment was good too. We stayed on the ship a lot and joined in the daily quizzes and music quizzes too and enjoyed them and even won a couple of times.

The musicians were also skilled and one in particular made our cruise. It was singer Jayson from the Philippines who mostly sang songs in English that were well known in U.K. While we were there I noticed he sang an Irish song for a couple who had requested it. he said he had learned it especially and they sang along with others in delight. This prompted us to ask for a request and as he didn’t know music by Paolo Nutini, Jayson spent every day learning one especially for me! He sang it to us on our last night and it finished our cruise off in style. We sang along and danced and felt so special. I hope to see him on Virtuosa or any of the ships that come to Southampton. He would go down well in the English pub onboard.

The theatre productions were also good and entertaining.

Our balcony cabin on the 11th deck was fine. It was kept clean and tidy by our excellent steward Yashil.

He had a knack of never getting in our way but cleaning the room around our lazy routines!

We both had treatments in the spa. My husband had a massage with Alma and enjoyed it and I loved my manicure and pedicure with the lovely therapist, Thandiwe. Thandiwe has very good people skills and was very particular and skilled.

The only two negatives were in the Wine bar music by Roberto was often too loud- could hear it from atrium spoiling music there from Aubrey.

Also, the smell of stale smoke outside the Cigar lounge and the casino drifted all away across to other side of the ship. This is just horrid if you don’t smoke.

We came away well rested and very happy with the ship, its staff and the itinerary. We would happily go on the ship again even though it is older and smaller than we are used to. Next cruise in May is on Virtuosa which is larger and newer but we also have Magnifica booked in July which is similar to Musica. We love what MSC offers and enjoy all the variety classes of ships.

On the first night of the cruise a bartender yelled and berated me at the bar after I "politely" asked for a drink. Many people witnessed this and I was humiliated. I reported the incident and a meeting with the Bar Manager was set up for the following morning. I showed up at the agreed time but the Bar Manager sent their assistant instead because they were on their "break." When I didn't hear anything after a couple of days I insisted on speaking to someone higher up. I had a meeting with the Manager of Guest Relations where I was offered a free family dinner at their specialty restaurant which served only sushi. I don't like sushi so I declined that offer and was then offered a free massage. I have never had a massage and wasn't interested. I proposed that I be reimbursed for my drinks package payment and was told that because I had begun using my drinks package. That this would be impossible. This meeting was on the 6th day of a 7 day cruise. Was I supposed to not use my drink package all week while I waited for a resolution? I then decided to leave the meeting as I felt they were not going to make a serious offer.

With all that said, I did really enjoy the theatre shows. They were 35 minutes long, high energy and had great singing and music. I also want to point out that the dining room servers and the room attendant were very good. However, after all is said and done, I will never sail with MSC again.