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MSC Musica slightly out of tune |
| Reviewed By: Illidge, Normanton on 28th Nov 2008 |
| Cruise Line: MSC Cruises |
Times cruised before: 3-5 |
| Cruise Ship: MSC Musica |
Sailed:
November,
2008 |
| Destination: South America |
Age: 56-65 |
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My husband and I have just returned from a 19 days -18 nights transatlantic cruise from Venice to Brazil aboard the MSC Musica. The service we received both at the airport and embarkation left rather a lot to be desired. On arrival at the port we were left standing in a queue outside a building for a full half hour to hand in our own luggage, we then moved over the road to another building only to be told we had to wait outside as the check in area was too crowded and another half hour passed by. On gaining access to the embarkation desks we proceeded to look for the express check in as we had checked in on line before leaving home. This was absolute chaos, and more closely resembled a crowd at a football match. In total we were over three hours checking in, in what can only be descibed as very poor conditions.
We were in the first sitting for dinner and due to our luggage not having been delivered to our cabin in time we had to attend dinner in the clothes we had been travelling in all night. We finally received our cases at approximately 10p.m.
The food on board was always cold, and especailly at breakfast, it was generally served out of order with the cereals arriving after the cooked food. A lot of new Brazilian waiters had been taken on board and they just had no idea of what to do or what was expected of them, and the majority of them spoke very little or no English.
The daytime entertainments programme was very poor with no cutural items included. One day the highlight of the day was musical chairs, and this was for the adults! The evening shows were generally quite good, which did compensate to a certain extent for the poor day time programme.
The shore excursions were generally quite good and not too expensive, but the organising of the passengers collecting their coach numbers was something to behold due to the total lack of organisation. I do appreciate that having so many different nationalities on board must create some difficulty, but we have travelled on ships like this in the past and there has never been a problem.
On our final day after docking in Santos we were due to take an 8 hour tour of Sao Paolo as our flight did not depart until 9p.m. and we felt this would help to pass on the time. Everyone had to be out of their cabins by 7 a.m. and we were all assembled in different lounges waiting for our disembarkation time. We finally left the ship at 11.30a.m. with all of the 2,800 passengers being herded in to the terminal to collect their own luggage. We all entered through a rather narrow entrance and having retrieved our luggage then had to do a u-turn and go back out the way we came in. Pandemonium is the only word to describe it, with many tempers becoming frayed and much shouting and arguing. MSC's ability to organise anything leaves rather a lot to be desired. We finally find our coach only to be told that the tour was now cancelled as there was insufficeint time to carry out the suggested itinerary as some of the passengers on the coach had to be in the airport for 3p.m. to check in. We were taken to a restaurant for lunch and this was the first good meal we had had since leaving home. We paid $150 for this tour, so needless to say I will be trying to claim some money back, but I will not be holding my breath until it arrives.
The MSC Musica is a beautiful ship, but the cabin was not over large. We had an outside cabin with a balcony and we spent a lot of time enjoying the peace and quiet, one of the highlights being whale watching.
If you a travelling on and MSC cruise check on line for your permitted baggage allowance. I made several enquiries as to what our limits would be and had several differing replies. It was only at the 11th hour I found out by checking in on line for our flight that all of the previous messages were wrong and that we had a much larger allowance than anticipated.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| In the Restaurant for evening dinner and breakfast and buffet lunch. | | Entertainment |  |
| The least enjoyable was the two classical singers who performed more for their own pleasure than the passengers
The most enjoyable was the general singers and dancers, in particular the Irish dancing | | Shore Excursions |  |
| The best was Rio de Janeiro, the least favourite was Salvador de Bahia | | Staff |  |
| Our personal waiter at dinner. | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities | |
| Total lack of anything interlectual. | | Cabins | |
| | Overall Rating | |
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