Thread: MSC Orchestra has off-key first voyage

MSC cruises' 2,500-passenger Orchestra is a handsome ship, finely finished with marble and rich woods, and programmed with quality entertainment and lively night-time activities. Unfortunately, its recent U.S. inaugural struck a note so sour that many first-time MSC passengers said they wouldn't sail the line again.

MSC Orchestra has off-key first voyage - Cruises - MiamiHerald.com

Looks like poor planning to me!

Though some staffers were cheery and efficient, others seemed indifferent or even rude. Food service was slow; several passengers received the wrong orders and much of the food was overcooked. Buffet lines were sometimes hours long. Some cabins were cleaned later in the day than usual; services like maintenance and separating beds from a king to twins were slow or simply never happened. A group of gamblers waited more than an hour for a croupier to come to the craps table after being told they would wait only a few minutes.

Other issues seemed to stem from a culture clash with a crew unfamiliar with American-style cruising. The Italian staffer conducting the English-language trivia game had such a heavy accent that she was barely understood. Menus were sometimes unsuited to U.S. palates: one dinner appetizer choice was canned tuna salad in pastry, and an entree described as ''sliced steak'' turned out to be roast beef. Several passengers said they were unable to get popular American cocktails at the bars.

Iced tea, artificial sweeteners and brewed decaf were unavailable; these items will be on board soon,

Cultural shock at its most interesting. I loved when we went to London and had lots of little shocks like the above.

I`m with Char, Poor planning and training.
I guess they will iron out all the kinks in no time

Originally Posted by *Lars*

I`m with Char, Poor planning and training.
I guess they will iron out all the kinks in no time

I just came back traveling on the MSC orchestra ship and had a very bad experience, this is my 4th cruise and if it had been my 1st with this ship, i would not have gone on another ship again
They say its express check in- which we did the night before, well it never happened, no one knew about it and i still waited on a long line to check in. The first night, I waited almost 7hrs to get my luggage delivered to my room. In asking the cabin steward where they were he had no reply- didnt speak enough english to even understand. I explained its 1 hr before my 8:00 dinner and i need my clothes- gave him a $20.00 and funny how 25 min later my luggage appeared!
POOR STAFFING! POOR QUALITY FOOD!POOR MGMT... everything was a delay...even getting just iced tea with your dinner! Food was always over cooked! My cabin was dirty when i arrived and tipped the cabin steward to re-clean it! Even the excursions to the islands were not properly ran, and lots of long lines to always wait on.....including the buffet that always ran out of something and took too long to replace, repetative food. Cups were always short supply...NO ICE....ran out of BANANAS! I hate to say it...it was just clearly poor on everything.
The ship was beautiful, and kept pretty clean....if you asked for any information as to where photos were being taken,or whats going on at the pool deck,or any special events taking place...they clearly didn't know or even understood what was going on! Sorry my vote is -0!!!!

Hey nadia

I am so sorry to hear that your cruise wasn't what it should have been. There have been a lot of negatives lately and we do wish MSC would get their act together!

Hopefully, your next cruise will be wonderful!

Amazing. How is it possible for the embarkation staff to not know about the Express Check-in when that info. came out of their North American HQ, which btw, is located right here in Ft Lauderdale, FL, last October 20th. How is that possible?. This is baffling. Just hope their get with the program very soon as they have been in business too long for these blunders to still be occurring.

I know from past cruise experiences that this is not the way to be running a cruise ship. I also forgot to mention on one of the nights at sea, the boat was rocking pretty badly and many people aboard got very ill- the ones who went to the onboard medical ctr were told there is no medicine left-just go lay in your bed the whole day and don't get up. They had no more dramamine- i myself was sick and had to borrow from friends. The next day we went to antigua and i went to buy some beach toys for our kids- mind you there was 5 and all toys had to be the same. The store only had 2 left. I asked if she had anymore and she said uhhh yes but they are in storage and i am not sure if and when we will even be taking them out! It was $21.00 ea set- do you not want to make anymoney...go get more! SHE NEVER DID! all staff was just SO LAZY!

Nadia, I'm a travel agent and I've been hearing and reading a lot of bad experiences by both the general public and other travel agents who've cruised with MSC. There are just a couple of instances where I've read of good experiences with MSC.
When I sit in on their training webinars, obviously things sound rosy. I would love to cruise with them and experience their service first hand.

Nadia, had the same sort of experiences on my last Holland America cruise, so I can definitely sympathize with you. All I can say is that MSC is going to have to spend a lot of time and money and really change their ways to reverse the bad reviews they are getting.