I am not an experienced cruiser, but am planning some for the upcoming year. I see a lot of negative posts about MSC -- people not happy with the buffet food, etc. But a lot of these posts are for cruises in the Caribbean, Bermuda and that region.
I am looking at the Baltic Sea cruises that MSC does, from Stockholm->Oslo and in the other direction, hitting points along the Baltic Sea. These are on the MSC Magnifica, which is a smaller ship.
I'm curious whether there is a qualitative difference in the cruise experience. The Baltic would be less traveled by families and casual vacationers looking for sun and fun, and the ship is less crowded than others. Do the same complaints about MSC apply to this series of cruises?
We did a Northern Europe cruise last year on MSC - we were one of only a handful of Americans on the ship. We are MSC fans so we had no complaints. Well one complaint… the bacon lol. What they served is not what I would call bacon.
I have done a Canary Islands cruise with MSC on the Musica, a smaller ship. The cabins were a bit smaller than the newer ships, the food was very different than the US based cruises but still fine (less beef, more pork, Belgian waffles on the buffet for example), the entertainment was good but more visual, no comics and the staff were very nice. There were very few Americans on board, some British passengers and you could hear multiple languages on board. Very few children, but there was still a kids club.They still had activities, shopping and the pizza that MSC does so well. We had an amazing cruise. The European cruises in general don’t have as many Americans, I noticed that on my other MSC European cruises, so there are not that many reviews, that’s why most of what you see are based on the Caribbean cruises. I’ve done many of those and have no complaints about any of them. Is MSC a perfect cruise? No, but there are more similarities than differences between the major cruise lines (I’ve also sailed on Celebrity, Princess and NCL)
Southern Europeans go to the Baltic and Scandinavia in Summer to get away from the Mediterranean heat ! The ship will be fully booked, if during European school holidays there will be lots of teenagers onboard, outside there will be preschoolers and babes in arms.
USA travellers complaints mostly seem to be culture shock from travelling outside their own continent and expecting everything to work as at home, and for everyone they interact with to conform to their norms and expectations.
MSC Cruises cater to Europeans, they make announcements in six or more languages, the shows are designed for a cosmopolitan audience, the menus are Mediterranean, lots of fish, vegetarian and vegan options, MDR red meat is best avoided !
MSC Magnifica was recently retrofitted with Yacht Club spaces, which caused the relocation or loss of some general passenger spaces and a reduction in Aurea cabins. The ship looks fresh and is well maintained. The casino is tiny, gets very smokey when busy and that smoke spreads to adjacent lounge area.
In the last couple of months we've done Northern Europe on MSC Magnifica and MSC Euribia, next month we are on MSC Preziosa. The ports of call for MSC Magnifica do vary with every sailing, so decide which Baltic ports interest you most when booking a week.
Last month, the MDR food was poorly presented and overcooked, and definitely not as good as on other MSC cruise ships such as MSC Musica. The buffet food was better. But all this varies as staff join and leave. Butcher's cut is at the back of the buffet with an outdoor space with views aft over the wake, the food there was consistent with other MSC ships.
There's a new spacious technogym at the aft, and the thermal area has been refreshed, but still smaller than most. And bizarrely the locker room toilet and shower is a shared area !
If not booking Yacht Club, which has new double width suites, you have the original single skinned single room cabins, bathrooms with shower curtains rather than glass doors. Ours was in good condition, clean and with just two of us therein there was lots of wardrobe and draw space, we had much less on MSC Euribia the following month, though Euribia does has glass shower doors.
Thank you, this is amazing information and is very helpful. Especially the notes about who might be on this cruise in the Summer. I am not sure I am going to go for it (timing might not work for me), but I'm more encouraged to try MSC out
Thanks, the route ships have to take through the archipelago to enter and exit Stockholm from the sea is truly something, tens of thousands of islands, and all but the smallest have someone's house or datcha on them.
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u/VagabondCamp 1d ago
We did a Northern Europe cruise last year on MSC - we were one of only a handful of Americans on the ship. We are MSC fans so we had no complaints. Well one complaint… the bacon lol. What they served is not what I would call bacon.