MSC Poesia- a travel agent's review

MSC Cruise Line is relatively unknown in the US market, although they are a big player in Europe. They are family owned and have started bringing ships into the Caribbean a few years ago. This year, their new ship the MSC Poesia will be sailing from New York City to New England and Canada in September and October before heading down to the Caribbean.

This review was written by a travel agent colleague of mine after her 3 day cruise aboard the Poesia. She posted this on a travel agent site so this I would consider this to be very honest and unbiased.

MSC Poesia Cruise Review

by Jan Shaughnessy

Sailing Date: April 24th, 2010
Itinerary: Bahamas
Occupation: Cruise Professional
Number of Cruises: 70+



INTRO - There has been so much negative written about the Italian style MSC Cruise Lines. So when the opportunity arose for a special three day cruise, I decided to try them out and see for myself.

I flew out the same day as the cruise. I usually try to fly out a day prior to a cruise in the event of delays, which on this day did happen. I was scheduled to leave Nashville at 6:15AM and just as we were to pull away from the gate they announced a "Ground Stop" in the connecting city of Atlanta due to severe thunder storms. We sat on the plane for over two hours waiting for the storm to pass and clearance to take off. Once in the air things went smooth, I connected in Atlanta and arrived in Ft Lauderdale approximately 12:30PM. I found my travel companion Deb, another Travel Agent, reading a book by the taxi stand. We arrived at the pier at 12:50PM and found no lines waiting to check-in. We were greeted by friendly staff who quickly checked our passports, swiped our credit cards, and took our picture for the boarding card. It was a quick procedure. Even the dreaded embarkation picture (which I usually skip), went quickly. MSC uses a scanner gun on your Boarding card for quick embarkation/debarkation instead of the kiosk most cruise ships use. We were stepping on board at 1:00PM and was greeted by a smiling white gloved crew member. He asked our cabin number and pointed us in the right direction. Other crew members were also in the stairwells to offer assistance along the way.



The first order of business was dropping off our carry on luggage and going up to the Lido deck for lunch. In this case the Lido deck is the Foscolo deck. We would check out our balcony cabin later. The Villa Pompeiana Cafeteria was busy, but I noted it was spacious and still had plenty of seating . It was a bit congested as the buffet was one long buffet, instead of separate islands as on some ships. People have a tendency to stop at the first line they see, when in fact the buffet had a second side. The buffet consisted of a grill area with hamburgers, hotdogs, french fries, and delicious looking Italian sausage. It continued with a variety of salads,fresh fruit,rolls and bread, carved meat, several pasta choices, and several hot dishes. A separate dessert bar completed the buffet. A self-serve ice cream machine could be found else where on the deck. There were many ice tea/punch/coffee stations around the buffet area. I chose some fresh cut up fruit and a pasta dish and found it tasty. After lunch we explored the ship until the mandatory lifeboat drill at 4:30PM. The drill required you report with your lifejacket at a designated lounge on the ship. The drill only took about 20 minutes. The ship departed for our first port of call Key West, at 9:00PM.

THE SHIP - The MSC Poesia came out in 2008. She is 89,000 ton and 964 feet long(Correction- the tonnage is 93.300.) The Poesia is a beautiful ship with a combination of soothing and very rich colors of turquoise, browns, blues, purples and red. She is very rich looking with lots of marble, brass, windows, and mirrors. The mirrored walls throughout the ship added to an expansive appearance, and could easily and often were mistaken for a walk through area. Most areas are spacious and open and gave the ship an appearance that it went on forever. The ship was sparkling clean. I noted no room service trays laying around in hallways, and no ashtray stands cluttering the elevator areas. Hand sanitizer dispensers could be found throughout the ship and not just at the dining venues.

The ship consists of 16 decks. Entrance to the ship was on deck 5 which also has some passengers cabins, the reception desk, Le Rendez-Vous Bar, and one of the main dining rooms. Decks 6 and 7 were the main entertainment and shopping decks. On these decks you will find the other main dining room, the Teatro Carlo Felice main show lounge, the Casino Royale, internet cafe, a small library with books in several languages, photo shop, duty free shopping, and many different bars and lounges. My favorite lounge was the Zebra Lounge. The decor of this lounge was exactly as it's name indicates; everything Zebra! While it may sound over the top, it was not. The lounge is expansive and mirrored walls make it seem even larger. The black and white decor flowed well. The Teatro Carlo Felice main show lounge also amazed me. The rich deep purple seats were contrasted with wall and ceiling twinkle lights that changed different colors. The casino had all the normal slots and table games. What I noticed most about the casino was the layout. Table games were centered together with slot machines on the outer rims. Short divider walls seemed to help cut down on noise. The casino also had wider aisles for a clean walk through the casino to other areas of the ship. Casinos on some other ships make me feel like I'm running a mine field, zig zagging to walk through.


The MSC Poesia Swimming Pool

Decks 8 through 12 are all passenger cabin decks. The corridors had very good lighting. Deck 13 has the pool, bars, spa, buffet cafeteria, and an ala carte restaurant. A large theater screen was above the pool, but the volume was never on and I only saw MSC Cruises being shown on the screen. Deck 14 has some cabins, a jogging track, disco, and the children's area. On this three day cruise I didn't notice a significant amount of children. MSC does offer children sail free specials on many of their sailings. Some of the children's areas were being worked on during this sailing. Deck 15 has shuffle board and mini golf and Deck 16 has a sport center and Solarium.

Elevators were plentiful and quick on the ship. Some stair wells had sets of four elevators and some had three. There were times the ship could be a little tricky to get around as all elevators didn't go to the top floors. The ship also had a few dead ends where you would have to go up one floor and back down.



ENTERTAINMENT - I found the entertainment in the main show lounge each night to be very good. It was different in that there was no live orchestra, and out of three nights only one song was sang live. The songs for each act were pre recorded music. I wondered if the reason for this was because of the large mixture of nationalities. The acts consisted of a lot of dancing, acrobats, and Cirque du Soleil. The costumes, stage props, and backdrops used in the acts were fabulous and creative. I give a lot of credit to the young entertainers who were very talented. Each show we saw had a theme, they were "Island", "Atlantis", and "Euphoria".

Entertainment in the other bars and lounges varied in music style. Closing times of these places varied with the latest being 1:00AM (depending on attendance). I never saw any of them overly crowded. The casino was popular. Smoking was allowed in the casino but I didn't find it overwhelming as on some ships. In fact, I barely smelled much smoke at all. Smoking was restricted to certain open deck areas, certain lounges, and was forbidden on balconies and discouraged from smoking in your cabins.

Day time activities on this three day cruise were very minimal. I don't know if that's normal for MSC, or if it was due to the fact this was a special cruise with no sea day. We had two port days of Key West and Nassau, where most people went ashore. I saw very little planned activities in the daily program. Not even the ever popular Bingo. Some activities that were scheduled were morning stretching and aerobics, a morning and afternoon dance lesson, and a couple quiz/trivia games. The Balinese Spa ran daily spa specials. Unlike other cruise lines that have European operated spas, this spa had Indonesian's. All of the Spa’s on MSC are owned and operated by Aurea Spas –which originates in Bali. The Spa employee’s are all from Bali.

FOOD - This was the part of the cruise that I was most interested in checking out for myself. I had heard and read so many reports that the food was bad on MSC cruises. I didn't find the food to be bad at all - just different. Different doesn't mean something is bad. Admittedly, everyone's taste is different.

I didn't make it down to the main dining room for Breakfast. The buffet breakfast was typical of most cruise lines. A variety of fruit, pastries, cold meats, cereals, and the normal hot items of eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, and french toast. I didn't see anyone making made to order omelets. There were some small pre-made cheese omelets.

The lunch buffet was similar as I described on embarkation day. The grilled items were the same each day, hotdogs, sausage, fries, and hamburgers. The carved meat changed, and the hot dishes changed in the variety of veal, beef, chicken, fish. I think what I noticed most about the lunch hot dishes was they were more like casseroles. Instead of individual pieces of broiled or baked fish,poultry,or meats; most were mixed with vegetables and sauces.

Dinner was where I noticed some differences also. The number of choices of appetizers, salads, and desserts seemed more limited. Main entrees offered Vegetarian, a pasta dish, beef/veal/, fish, and poultry. The first night I ordered a chicken filet dish. It came with a large, thin, lightly breaded piece of chicken with steamed vegetables. It reminded me of the delicious Wienerschnitzel that I had in Vienna. The chicken was moist, and the breading was not heavy. It was very good. For dessert I tried Blueberry Cheesecake. It too had a good flavor and was very good. The second night I ordered Prime Rib medium. This was probably the only item that I was a bit disappointed with. It wasn't tough, but it was overly tender either. It was a bit bland. It lacked the tasty seasoning and flavor I am used too with Prime Rib. The third night I ordered a pork chop dish. It too came lightly breaded. It was thick and moist and very flavorful. I assessed the breading must be more of a European way of cooking since two of my three entrees came breaded. On most cruises I've been on these same items would be baked or broiled. The left side of all of our menu’s offer Chicken, Fish or Steak- prepared as the client wishes…so they can be broiled or baked and served plain.

Bar prices seemed reasonably and on par with other cruise lines.I believe that our Bar drinks are much LESS expensive than other cruise lines…and in fact, they are less expensive than what you would pay for the same drink in a local restaurant in the city where you live. The cost of the Martini’s on our ships are $6.25 and a glass of wine costs $4.00….. that is very reasonable, don’t you think? I did notice they used Pepsi products instead of Coke. The soda and beer cans were also only 11oz versus 120z. Each day they would have a drink of the day and coffee drink of the day at special prices.

Casual dinner buffet was only offered on the last night from 6:15-8:15PM. Pizza was offered each night from 6:00-10:30PM. The second night was formal night and a "Buffet Magnefique" (Gala Buffet) was held from 11:45-12:45. Picture taking was allowed for 15 minutes. The other two nights light sandwiches were served during this midnight hour.

CABIN - I had a balcony cabin forward on deck 10. The cabin location was quiet. The cabin was 152sq ft and the balcony 40 sq ft. The cabin had two twin beds which convert to a queen, two very small three drawer night stands with very shallow drawers which were hard to open, a small round table and one small stuffed chair. There also was a small vanity with two small drawers. The hair dryer took up one drawer. The closet was adequate and had more storage with larger drawers. We never could program the safe to work. The cabin also had a flat screen interactive TV with internet access. The TV could be used to order room service, excursions, and check your on board account. The bathroom seemed slightly larger than most bathrooms I've seen. It had two small corner glass shelves to store bathroom necessities. The shower had shampoo and body gel dispensers and still had a cloth curtain. I was very pleased to always find hot water in the shower. A flyer in our cabin informed us that balconies were hand cleaned every day by the cabin steward. It informed us on Port days a more thorough cleaning was done to remove salt, and to keep our curtains and balcony doors closed. A large oversized floor to ceiling mirror on the wall helped give the cabin a larger appearance. The cabin also had lots of overhead lighting.

ITINERARY - This short three night cruise made two stops. Key West and Nassau. The ship offered several excursions in each port ranging in price and activity level. Prices ranged from $30 for a 1 1/2 hour glass bottom boat ride to $87 for 4 hours of Kayak and Dolphin Watch. Deb and I had both been to Key West before and chose to explore on our own. The ship docked at the Navy base pier know as "The Mole". You must take the complimentary Conch Train from the pier to Mallory Square. You aren't allowed to walk off the base. Once off the Navy base some passengers opted to be dropped off at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. We learned the State Park played an important role during the Civil War and Spanish-American War. It has a beautiful beach for picnicking, swimming, snorkeling and fishing. The beach has a refreshment stand. It is the preferred beach of locals. The park also has a Fort with guided tours. Mallory Square is the meeting point for drop off and pick up of the Conch Train to go back to the ship. Tickets can also be bought for the Conch Train to explore Key West further. A trolley is also available. Key West is an easy walkable town. Duval Street is approximately one mile long. Strolling down this street you will find a variety of shops, bars, and restaurants. Popular places in Key West are the Hog's Breath saloon and Sloppy Joe's; a popular hang out of the famous writer Papa Hemingway. Renting a Motor Scooter or golf cart are other means to explore. Walk along the water front at Mallory Square and you'll find more shopping and restaurants. We enjoyed sitting on the waterfront while sipping on a drink and eating Conch Fritters and Quesadillas. Other activities you might enjoy in Key West are Golfing, Kayaking, Fishing, Museums, and the Butterfly Conservatory.

Our next stop was Nassau, Bahamas. Again, Deb and I had both been there before. We had heard that the famous Straw Market may have changed so we wanted to check it out. We discovered Nassau is building a new Straw Market where the original one had been many years ago before burning down. No specific date was posted for re-opening. For now the present Straw Market is further down Bay Street and is crowded and hot to walk through. Many people like to visit Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island when visiting Nassau. It is a quick taxi ride or water taxi ride from the pier. Nassau has many other activities of snorkeling, glass bottom boat rides, power boats, Pirate's Museum, and Botanical Garden and small zoo that may be of interest to first timers.

SERVICE - Overall service was very good. Crew was friendly and accommodating. On the first day of the cruise we met our cabin steward and asked him to separate our beds. He quickly attended to our request. One thing that was noticeable was the crew were unobtrusive. Waiters weren't pushing drinks by the pool or in the main show lounge. In fact; you probably would have to flag them down if you wanted a drink or go up to the bar yourself. Waiters also left you alone at dinner. They were quick to take your order and clean dishes away, but they didn't come around asking if everything was alright. I didn't attribute this to rudeness or lack of attentiveness. I concluded it was perhaps the European style to not intrude. Absolutely!

OVERALL - I would definitely sail on MSC Cruises again. This was only a short three day cruise in the Caribbean and some things I experienced may be different when they sail on longer European itineraries. One complaint I had often heard about MSC concerned the announcements in so many languages. I didn't find this to be a problem. Announcements were kept to a minimum. They were given in five different languages and English was always first. The other major complaint I had heard before sailing was about the food. I found it different, but definitely not bad. The lack of planned activities also didn't bother me. I found it made for a quieter ambiance, relaxing and refreshing. This may be different on longer cruises. I think if anyone sailing on MSC cruises is briefed on the differences and knows what to expect, then they should have an enjoyable cruise.

I have locked in rates on virtually every sailing from NYC in September and October of 2010. We also have locked in rates on every Baseball theme cruise in November 2010 through Feb 2011. Kids sail free is available on many of the sailings so give me a call to book your cabin.