Food:

Food quality in the dining room is excellent and compares favorably with Celebrity or Royal Caribbean. The menu has been changed for the Caribbean cruises to appeal more the American tastes. Prime Rib on the first night was outstanding as was the mahi-mahi. Again everyone I spoke with was very pleased with the quality, and presentation of the food. The menu choices are extensive with a choice of several main courses after an appetizer, salad, soup (including some delicious cold soups) and assortment of cheese if you wish and of course you just have to have dessert all of which was outstanding. The meal is not rushed and service is of the relaxed European style. If your clients want to eat and run this is not the ship for them. I felt the service in the dining room was a notch below what I have experienced on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity but still very good. This may be an effect of the no mandatory tipping policy which I will cover later. Lunch and dinner in the buffet is standard cruise ship fare. Just a little more emphasis on European tastes as about 20% on board are a mix of Italians, Spanish and Germans. For breakfast and lunch there is a choice of the two dining rooms, buffet or near pool area is the grill with the usual hot dogs and hamburgs and on the opposite of the ship pizza in the afternoon. Soft ice cream was available near the pool area every afternoon from 2:30pm to 4:00pm. Food quality in the dining room for breakfast was the weakest area on the Opera. With breakfast they need to work on cooking breakfast more for American tastes while in the Caribbean. There is no alternative dining on the ship and seating is the traditional style with early seating at 6:00pm and late seating at 8:30pm. By the third night some members of my group were grumbling a bit about the slowness of service in the dining room for dinner. I spoke with the head waiter and service the rest of the cruise was much improved. There were several buffets both at midnight and at noon during the days at sea. The buffets were mainly Italian specialty foods, all of it very good. Another hit was Tea & Music at the Piazza di Spagna lounge each day at 4:00pm which of course featured much more than tea with a wide assortment of pasties guaranteed to add inches before the end of the cruise.

Entertainment:

Entertainment on the Opera was the best I have ever experienced on a cruise ship. Classy is the term that best describes the entertainment in the main showroom. A very energetic cast for the review type shows in the main theatre with some outstanding guest acts. Acts included an excellent magician and illusionist which featured a giant boa constrictor which created many screams when he brought it out in the audience. On the third night Marian Cristea on the Violin and Andrei Mihalache on the piano, both from Bucharest, Romania who have appeared in concert all over the world and have appeared with the flutist Ghe Zanfir presented a classical concert. It was an outstanding performance of incredibly beautiful music. They were joined for two numbers by Enrico Scotto, an outstanding young Italian tenor who received three standing ovations. All three of them appeared throughout the week with the Enrico Scotto presenting a concert as well. There was also a pair of acrobats who did several acts which were very close to Cirque du Soleil even using some of the music. The musical performances were enhanced by excellent dancers who on one evening presented a version of Riverdance which was as good as you would see on Broadway. Another evening featured Spanish dancing.

For those who are want of an upbeat sound there was another lounge which featured another excellent singer as well as a piano bar. For the late night crowd there is a disco that starts up at about 10:00pm. Also on board was the Studio Band which played anything from rock to reggae to Donna Summers. On the pool deck they were joined by the Animation Team a group of highly energetic young people who led the crowd in a combination of line dancing and aerobics as far as I could tell. All I know is that they were having a lot of fun. The Animation Team also conducted various games on board especially on the sea days. There is a casino that is on the small size by design as casinos are just as popular with Europeans as they are with Americans. If you are booking clients who want to spend a lot of time in the casino this is not your ship. No movie theatre on board but bingo has not been forgotten along with dance lessons, arts and crafts, digital photo lessons, and lectures during the days at sea. This cruise featured Harvey Feldman a retired American ambassador and a China specialist.

Fellow Passengers:

Average age seemed to be about 45 years old with a fairly healthy mix of younger couples, families, even some babies on strollers, and older passengers. About 80 percent of the passengers on MSC in the Caribbean are Americans with the rest being Europeans with most of those from Italy as you would expect. On this cruise it seemed to be middle to upper income levels. Many with whom I spoke were experienced cruisers who thought they would like to try something new. One note for those who may be offended by partial nudity there was some topless sun bathing around the pool on several days. We did not experience any rowdy behavior and passengers were polite and respectful of others.

Gratuities:

The official tipping policy on MSC is that tips are optional at the discretion of the passenger. There is some confusion as this is not clearly stated in the brochures which give the standard tipping guidelines. However, it was emphasized on board during a travel agents seminar during the cruise that the official policy is that tipping is not required. Tips are not charged to the passengers on board accounts and tip envelopes are not distributed to the cabins the last day of the cruise. If a passenger wishes to tip a staff member for outstanding service they must go to the reception desk and ask for a tip envelope. All tips must be in cash and cannot be charged to your on board account. MSC stated that all staff members are paid a higher than average salary and do not have to depend on tips as part of the “wage”. The flip side of this policy is that you don’t get those cute towel animals in your cabin and the level of service is less personal.

Disembarkation:

Leaving the ship was painless process. We needed to have luggage outside the cabin by 2:00am and be out of the cabin by 7:30am. Breakfast was served in both the dining room and the buffet up top. We were assigned to gather in one of the public rooms according to the color code on the luggage. Once our color was called we breezed through immigration, found our luggage and passed through customs. Busses were waiting to transport those heading to the Fort Lauderdale airport and we were on our way back to the real world.

Service Issues:

I sought out many passengers on board trying to get a good cross section in order to gage the overall level of satisfaction with the ship, staff and the overall cruise experience. Those who expressed concern were mostly experienced cruisers who have sailed on some of the premium lines such as Celebrity, Holland America and Crystal. The MSC style is much more European without the pampering that experienced cruisers have come to expect. MSC is aware of this issue and is working to make the service more personal. If your clients fit this profile you should use caution in booking them on MSC. The one thing that might mitigate this is the current cruise fares that MSC is offering. However, if the client is not getting the service they expect they quickly forget about the great price. The Opera is only eight months old and there seemed to a lack of organization. This is especially true with the communication between the staff on the ship and the MSC office. MSC has recently moved offices to Fort Lauderdale but still have a few employees in New Jersey.