MSC Cruises Reviews 

I booked a long-awaited cruise with MSC to Northern Europe expecting a relaxing and memorable vacation, but instead experienced frustration, disappointment, and extremely poor customer service after my cruise was cancelled.

The cancellation was handled terribly. Communication was unclear, delayed, and offered little empathy for passengers who had already invested significant money into flights, hotels, excursions, and vacation time. Instead of offering meaningful compensation, MSC offered nothing but a refund. This shows absolutely no responsibility or professionalism for the disruption in our vacation.

Trying to get answers from customer service only made the experience worse. Representatives provided inconsistent information, long wait times, and little effort to help resolve concerns fairly. Based on many other passenger experiences online, this appears to be a recurring issue with MSC cancellations and customer support.

A cruise cancellation can happen for legitimate reasons, but how a company treats its customers afterward matters most. MSC failed badly in that area. Offering ZERO compensation while customers are left dealing with financial losses, stress, and ruined travel plans is unacceptable.

I will not book with MSC again and would strongly caution others to carefully consider the risks before choosing MSC cruise line.

Just back from a cruise on the MSC Davina. I am 100% sure my wife’s drink was spiked. In 48 years I have never seen her in that condition. If you search Google for spiked drink symptoms she had every one of them. I sincerely think the ships doctor is NOT ALLOWED to mention drinks being spiked on board to keep MSC free from bad publicity. He said my wife had to much to drink, namely 30% of what she has on a nightly basis. NOBODY WILL EVER CONVINCE MY WIFE DID NOT HAVE A SPIKED DRINK ON THE MSC DAVINA
On the plus side the staff in The Black Crab Restaurant was perfect as was our room cleaner.

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Who did it? Another passenger? A member of the bar staff? Who and why?
I really never want to see my wife in such distress ever again. As seasoned cruisers this is our first and last EVER cruise on MSC.

For a first time cruiser, I will not cruise again, thanks to my experience on MSC Armonia. Our room was not ready or clean when we were told it would be. The shower had black mould growing up it, as well as the floor. When we reported the filth, the cleaning supervisor hung up on the Guest Relations staff member. He insisted that the shower curtain be replaced and the cleaner refused. The cleaner kept on removing the toilet paper so there was never enough. The lifts didn't work and so were over crowded. We had to pay for water at the buffet. The security staff were extremely rude and abrupt on embarking. The evening that the ships captain came to the theatre, it was too full, so we had to sit on the stairs. A member of staff came and shooe'd us away saying that the captain was coming and we weren't allowed to sit on the floor. In the dining hall the waiter didn't want to serve us as we had not purchased a drinks package and told us that he was anyway getting off at the next port. We had to serve ourselves in the dining hall at the breakfast as the waiters were too busy to notice that we neede service, so left going to the restaurant and went to the buffet anyways. Mostly had no place to sit in the buffet and had to sit outside on the deck. The lady waiter at the desserts table, literally dropped the cake on your plate upside down as it was such a chore and effort for her to serve one.
No, I don't think I'll ever use MSC again. We were told that you can give them your debit card details, so that there wouldn't be a steep bill at the end of the cruise, which we did, there was a steep bill at the end of the cruise as they never debited the card on the day.
Loads of empty promises... very disappointed in MSC.

Decent aqua park for thrill seekers with rough water cannons, slides and dodge obstacles but nothing for toddlers and very poor outside single pool.

Drinks package changed after booked with now less choices available for those who purchase the easy package.

Once on board there were only certain sections of the ship that honered the purchased drinks package (with the occasional whispered message from bar staff reminding you that your choice of drink was chargeable) but at least you got a discount on if you did persue a selected branded ( Murphies normally £9 but £7.50 after discount).

Our only one fine dining restaurant Teriyaki experience felt rushed with no atmosphere crammed in to 2 hours with next sitting guests entering the restaurant whilst my wife was still eating her desert.

Some parts of the ship are showing signs of neglect after a brief 6 years after being built patched up with gaffer tape or panel covers falling off.

Kids club is very well managed in a mindful secure part of the ship for most parts of voyage some times upto 10 hours through the day but these were a bit random ( one day 10 til 7 with lunch with another day 10 til 5 no lunch)?

Cabins were made reasonably well as to standards what you expected by good honest friendly house keeping staff but cabins neglected with needed deep cleans.

We had cob webs above our bed and thick surface dust around the floor level air conditioning unit filters and black mould in the shower around the inside silicone door frames.

Our other members of the party had broken half dropped curtains to the inside balcony.

Some of the port destinations were very poorly selected for this route with no beeches at any of the 6 stops for example Lanzarote closest 3 miles away.

Vego in Spain taking 70 mins for disembarking due to the exit ramp on deck 6 being to steep with 3+ staff carrying or aiding wheelchairs off and given this was only a 5 hour stop it didn't feel very relaxed.

If I could Give no Stars I Would This Cruise Literally Sucked To Be My first Cruise Their Island Sucks Nothing To do If Anything I Would Rather have 2 days in the ACTUAL *Bahamas* instead of MSC’s island the sand was so deep and The Water Made me itch So Bad .THE FOOD WAS BLAND AS HELL .

Worst cruise I’ve ever been on. The food was disgusting. The staff was not helpful and super rude. I looked forward to getting off the ship. Not even worth it.

We spent 12 nights on virtuosa couldn’t get a seat at any of the bars the ship is all about money from the minute you board and at the end they put unknown extras on your bill after you disembarked 55.70 to be exact wish we had t gone it was not the holiday we expected

Took a one-week cruise from New York to the Bahamas during a trip to New York in December on the MSC MERAVIGLIA.
The boarding was very smooth; we arrived at the port and had to queue for numerous sections to be processed, but it was very well organised, and we were on board within 90 minutes. The ship was lovely, food was excellent in the restaunts and breakfast /lunch was good if you ate away from the buffet, which was basic.
Evening entertainment was reasonably good, but limited spaces, so you had to book early each day. The day's activities went live not long after midnight the day before, so you had to book quickly.
The staff on the ship were amazing, especially our assistant waiter, Tsering, and our waiter, Moh; they were both fantastic and could not have done more for us.
Disembarking was a very quick process; luggage was already waiting as soon as we got off the boat.

Conflict with attendant and missing items. Post cruise support is ridiculous. Their online "lost and found" page takes information and leaves your status on "pending." When you call, everyone acts dumbfounded and directs you to call a number that hangs up on you.
The cruise itself was decent, however, some of the staff was highly unprofessional and the post cruise support is lacking. Cruisers look for an overall experience and overall I'd give my first (and possibly last) cruise a 2 star.

No. 01: Butchers take advantage of the circumstance and increase end-user fees. The worst shipping company in the world.

I paid $580 for contract 188799096 through your authorized partner (Cruceros.com / Cruceros.pe). The payment was processed and confirmed. The next day, I was told the cabin "wasn't available" due to an AI error, and they demanded $200 more to "help me" get another one.

This is a classic Bait and Switch scam. They are holding my money and claim the refund will take 25 business days. They are playing with customers' capital. I have already contacted my bank to file a chargeback for fraud and services not rendered. Be very careful with this agency!

Oh woww… apparently I’m not the only one with one star review!!!
This is my second holiday with MSC Cruises, and to be honest, I am very disappointed with the customer service.

My recent trip was not linked to my account, which meant my MSC Club status was not updated correctly. I contacted the call centre about this issue, but I was told they could not help and that I needed to send an email to the MSC Club team instead.

I followed their instructions and sent the email, but one month later the issue is still not resolved. My cruise is only a week away, and my trip is still not connected to my account. As a result, I may lose the benefits that should come with my status upgrade.

This experience has been frustrating and disappointing, especially as a returning customer.

I need to eat (and drink ofcourse) glutenfree and filled in a form months before we left on the cruise. We are on the Lirica boat now and we have to have breakfast early, or the restaurant is closed and only the buffet is open where I can't eat glutenfree. And early is before 0930 or 1 day before 1000.

At lunch we have between 1200 and 1330 to lunch in the restaurant and there are beautiful desserts, but for glutenfree a dry cake, pre-wraped, or dry cookies. So why do they want to know who is gluenfree??? This is really sad. Glutenfree snack? Only one kind of sticky glutenfree bread. Glutenfree pasta? Nope...

I drink and read in the same bar every night, but the waiters don't come when my glass is finished, don't start a nice conversation and don't offer you chips or something.
I don't feel taken care of at MSC. Luckily we often get of the ship and have a great holliday.

Everything was shambolic the embarkation, the food the higher ranked staff, the pricing on excursions, the poor quality of excursions, the hygiene standards the ,overall experience was never again MSC and to save any other English speakers the heartache don't cruise from South America to Europe

.For some, my rating might not be an issue, but for me—as for many others—it certainly is. I believe they should exercise much stricter control regarding the issue of marijuana. It is incredible, yet true: it is very unpleasant for non-users to open their balcony and be forced to smell that strong, offensive odor. Honestly, that is the only thing standing in the way of this place being nearly perfect

MSC Virtuosa you should be ashamed!
We are currently on a cruise to the canaries from Southampton, my wife is quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair, she has a severe disability but we try to do as much together possible, I think that’s how we stumbled on cruising. This is our forth cruise but the first with MSC. We filled out all the specific forms required (special needs forms!) I won’t get in to the name of the forms as there is much more wrong with this cruise ship, one of the benefits of cruises is everything is flat so moving around onboard is generally easier than hotel holidays. The 2 main problems we have had so far are getting from our van to the check-in, when I asked for assistance to get my wife and her wheelchair, her shower chair and our cases to the check-in I was informed in a no nonsense way that there were no outside porters available for this cruise, no matter how much I explained it was impossible to get everything into the terminal on my own it was still a straight no “we don’t have any so we can’t help you, you’ll have to make your own way”, this was really strange as all we had ever done before was pull up at the terminal and unpack the van and our cases etc. the van was then parked by one of their assistance people. The cases and shower chair were taken from us and a porter took us through the access routes onto the ships, this was with Royal Caribbean and P&O. It didn’t start like the others but we wouldn’t let this put a damper on our holiday. The first night we attended the theatre we were told that my wife would have to park her chair in the walkway behind all the seats and that I would have to leave her there and sit in a seat that was down some stairs in front of her. Now my wife has no use of any of her limbs, she can’t get things for herself not even to scratch her nose so how did MSC think it was appropriate that I leave her and sit on a row a couple down in front of her. We asked if we could get a chair so I could sit next to her but was told there wasn’t the facility to enable me to sit with her. We left the theatre disappointed but more angry than anything else’s, how in this day and age can a cruise line as big as MSC care so little that on a ship that was refurbished last year has vs no facility for people vongond to a wheelchair. So the next day we went to the carousel and b low and behold it is exactly the same in there as it is I. The theatre. We feel lucky that we went on Royal Caribbean first, if we had come on here first we would never have been back on a cruise. What we know now is we will cruise again but definitely not on MSC, get your act together you are stuck in the past, my wife is NOT. a secondclass person and should be afforded the same courtesy as every other passenger, not have to park her chair on a walkway then sit on her own, I stood next to her chair and was told I had to take a seat WOW this was b like a punch in the gut!!
Just been to reception and was told “I’m not sure what we can do but it’s on record now” I don’t care it’s on record I care that it’s treating my wife differently to others regardless of the facts she is confined to her wheelchair!

I have been double billed for NUMEROUS transactions on board. I’ve reached out numerous times as well to support and no one has gotten back to me. It’s basically THEFT.

Over R150,000 in charges have been billed to me.

I purchased the drinks package as well, so it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to rack up a bill that large.

This money owed to me is also all OUTSIDE of the actual amount paid for the trip. This was all on board.

Hopefully someone will get back to me!

This year I booked 2 rooms at different times. 45 days before sailing we are now told that someone over 21 must be in the room with my son (the 2nd booking). When booking, no prompt was given saying you must have a 21 yr old in the room, but they did take my money! My son booked excursions, still no prompt. He called to confirm his booking, no mention of this policy. When we called to add another person is when this policy was told to us. Then they had the nerve to want to charge us for swapping ppl into the room! I did not pay. This will be my LAST time sailing with them.

Ruined special occasion unacceptable experience
We booked the premium package and suit with MSC Cruises on the MSC Armonia for my mum’s 80th birthday, but the experience was unacceptable. The cabin was worn and shabby, food quality was poor, and the onboard water tasted awful so we ordered bottled water yet we were charged despite paying for a premium package.
Despite submitting medical needs in advance, the ship was so overcrowded we often couldn’t access food, which led to dangerous blood sugar swings for my dad. Reception staff repeatedly ignored concerns and gave conflicting information. I was even stopped from leaving the ship to pay disputed charges I had already raised, which was extremely distressing especially as conditions were documented on medical forms
This was a complete failure to meet basic standards of care and service, and it ruined what should have been a very special family celebration. I would not recommend.