MSC Armonia

A total nightmare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jan 24th, 2020

I and a few other people were not allowed to get on the cruise ship. Although it was 4:45pm, the ship was scheduled to leave at 6pm, we were told it was too late to embark. We were then told that we had the option of meeting the cruise ship in Falmouth, Jamaica which we agreed to. However when we arrived at the terminal in Falmouth, we were told that the cruise was cancelled. I spoke to an MSC agent in Jamaica who was not helpful; we were stranded in Jamaica. There was no sort of communication, I did not receive a courtesy email or phone call from the cruise line. We had to return home. So much for a vacation!!!

Our first cruise was great!

Jan 21st, 2020

This was our first cruise, and we didn't really expect to like this sort of vacation. But we actually found that we did like the relaxed pace, and the fact that it seemed more European.

Small Ship, Big Benefits...

Jan 16th, 2020

MSC Armonia is a nice, small ship for a week cruise in the Caribbean. All the staff, except for Customer Service Desk staff, are super friendly and welcoming. Stick to the buffet for food, and definitely visit The Pizza Bar (WOW), and of course the Gelato Bar - neither disappoints. Too many days at sea though if you skip a port, which is very tough on a smaller ship, but we made to. $2200 for two on a balcony suite is totally steep compared to other companies, but this Italian ship is good for traveling Italians. Their private island, Ocean Cay, truly is THE BEST PRIVATE ISLAND IN THE BAHAMAS! Small ship, big benefits!

Disappointing Basic Cruise - will not bother again

Jan 16th, 2020

Overall we will not return to or recommend the cruise line based off of the poor planning and the little attempt to recover. It is at mediocre experience sailing with MSC. I had not even bothered yelling at anyone but I kept getting your survey emails. A decent company would now at last offer something to save face but I doubt it will happen. A swindle of a cruise line offering "European excellence" that did not exist during our trip. Terribly, Terribly disappointed that I chose your line over another when I have so little chance to vacation.

Worst ship I’ve been on

Jan 15th, 2020

MY REVIEW OF THE MSC ARMONIA, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY. I sailed on the MSC Armonia on December 16 through December 23, 2019. I took this particular voyage because the ports and dates were convenient for me. The ship’s passengers were made up of approximately 40% Americans 15% Canadians with the balance of passengers from everywhere else in the world including Chile, Brazil, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The Armonia is the oldest ship in the MSC fleet. In 2014 an insert was welded into it’s middle to add an additional 193 cabins. The Good: Evening meals were served in the main dining room (MDR) with the optional buffet. The dress code was not enforced in the MDR, and I like that. On the two dress-up nights I observed passengers in shorts, jeans, hats, flip flops and tee shirts along with passengers who were dressed in tuxes and gowns. I thought the food was fair and the service did take a little long. The MDR service was better than what I experienced on Norwegian Cruise Lines. The poolside grill served great hamburgers. The patties were made from quality meat and not over cooked to where they became dried out hockey pucks. The pizza onboard was fantastic. You will probably not find better pizza on any other ship. Several different types were offered daily which included marinara, sausage, Hawaiian and vegetable. One of my breakfast favorites which is lox (smoked salmon) was served in the buffet several days during the week. On the first night of the voyage the entertainment staff ran a game called King versus Queen where teams of contestants had to either name the Michael Jackson or Queen song within a certain amount of time or the opposing team could steal if not named in time. I thought that was a lot of fun and got all the passengers in the lounge area involved. The bar service was good. Bartenders worked really hard to keep up with the amount of passengers onboard. I found the amount of bartenders were undermanned at times. The cruise activities staff were all very friendly and eager to please. The young men from the entertainment staff always asked unaccompanied ladies to dance. That was something that I’ve never seen on any other cruise line. The entertainment staff was very good mixing it up the passengers and very energetic. The games that were run by the activities staff were fun and the activities staff was always very enthusiastic. The newly developed private island Ocean Cay was very nice with lagoons, beaches, restaurants, bars and food trucks. Lunch was served on the private island, which consisted of burgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob, hamburgers, french fries, baked beans and salads. The food was very good. The private island had Wi-Fi available for those who paid for it. THE BAD Embarkation: I thought embarkation took a little bit longer then I expected. They didn’t have enough agents to keep up with the amount of people checking in. Because of the insert of cabins into the middle of the ship, access to some cabins on deck 7 forward was a little tricky for those effected. Passengers had to walk up to deck 8 or down to deck 6, walk to the forward part of the ship and access deck 7 forward. The MSC pier agent upon check gave me a little map (see photo) to get to my cabin because she thought I was on deck 7 forward. It’s too bad that my cabin assignment was deck 7 aft. Thirty minutes later, I figured it out. The Cabin: Upon entering my cabin for my first look around I discovered that my cabin safe was not bolted to the wall. The shower stall in my cabin was way too small. Telephones in the cabins were 1970s technology without cabin voice mail. MSC forces you to muster outside for the drill and insists that you bring your stateroom life jacket. I have not done that on any ship since 2009. One night there was no hot water in the shower for anyone onboard. On day three I found a $29 unauthorized charge from the private island on my onboard account. The cruise line/ship does not link a credit card to your onboard account either at online registration, or upon check-in at the pier. They advance you $300 in credit until you link your credit card to your onboard account at one of the various kiosks around the ship. If you don’t link your credit card and reach the $300 limit, your card is shut down. I found this out the hard way. The daily announcements were in five languages and were made several times a day. That got a little monotonous but eventually I got used to it. The Entertainment: 90% of the DJ music in either the disco, main lounge or deck parties was geared to 15-year-olds. The DJ played pounding euro-techno type of house music, which I detest. If you’re over 30 you didn’t hear any adult music. At 12:20 AM Sunday morning everything closed except for the casino, disco and late night pizza. The band in the main lounge was very good but usually finished at 11:45 PM. Other than the disco there was not much else to do on the ship. There were no songbooks or computer to look up for songs at karaoke. The activity crewmember took your name and song that you wanted to sing. If it wasn’t in their database of songs found in the DJ booth in the rear of the karaoke lounge, you later found out that you were not put on the list to sing. The production shows were all singing and dancing with no dialogue due to the numerous languages spoken onboard. They ran approximately 35 minutes. I would have liked to have seen some comedy or magic. The ship had the worst silent disco I’ve ever attended on any ship. I tuned into the 80s music channel. The DJ played a 30 second sampling of 80s songs for an hour and twenty minutes. The sampling of songs is the new trend among kids and DJs but it’s not for me. I was disappointed that I never heard a full song. The Food: The buffet food temperature was sometimes cold and eating utensils were hard to find. The buffet tables were not cleaned fast enough. The area was much too small for the amount of people onboard. With the additional number of cabins put into the ship, the designers did not increase the size of the buffet, kitchen and seating area making it hard to find a seat especially in bad weather. I found the food served in the buffet pretty good but with few options. The gelato bar was awesome but was undermanned having one employee, which resulted in long lines every day. The food portions in the MDR were sometimes small with the meats overcooked. One of my tablemates was served undercooked chicken. The Ship Design: I found the ship design to be very strange. On most ships the MDR is in the rear of the ship or off to the sides from the main promenade. The Armonia’s MDR is in the middle of the ship on decks 5 and 6. Thus you had passengers transiting the MDR during meals to get from one end of the ship to the other. There were no adult’s only areas on the ship. The towel exchange was never open on pool deck. On most ships beach towels are in your cabin upon arrival and new ones replaced everyday. On the Armonia you had to ask your cabin steward for beach towels. The ships Lounge chairs were poorly and constructed of a European design from the 1970s (see photos). Disembarkation from the ship started very early. You had to leave the ship by 9:30 AM. I was told that if I didn’t leave the ship at 9:30 AM security would be called. I’ve spoken to other passengers who had laundry lists of complaints regarding the services onboard. Passengers that frequented Carnival, NCL and Celebrity were not very happy. The UGLY I came back to my cabin four days into the cruise and discovered large black specks of dust from the ceiling air vent on my bed (see photos). That was pretty gross. I couldn’t control the temperature in my cabin. My cabin temperature would not go below 68 degrees. The temperature in most public areas in the ship was way too warm. It’s almost as if when they put the insert with the additional cabins into the ship they didn’t increase the size HVAC system. The MSC Armonia made the 2019 list of the worst cruise ships in the world. Being that this ship is so old, in my opinion it should have been taken out of service 10 years ago. I would be very interested to sail on another more modern ship within their fleet like the MSC Seaside. When I sailed on the Armonia I truly felt that I was part of an international community, meeting great people from different countries and cultures. Would I sail on the MSC Armonia again? The answer is …. soon.

Good cruise overall

Jan 10th, 2020

what we liked about cruise 1.Shows were awesome. The entertainment team or the dream team was really good as well. Liked that different dance lessons were made available and taught by a very good team 2.Kids club(mini and junior) worked well. Love the fact they are open later compared to some other cruiselines. Like the fact that we could leave the kids in Kids club and take an excursion with a peace of mind. 3.Ocean cay was nice. Liked that the Kids Club team were also planning some activities for the kids on the beach. We ate from the food trucks and omg! The burgers were simply awesome. 4.Service at marco polo dining room was really nice- Lewis Ricky brought special indian food from kitchen without even asking. He very quickly understood what we wanted and needed and provided it to us which made us order from indian menu next few days. Goan fish curry from indian menu was awesome. The Indian Appetizers were really good. 5.Santa coming and giving presents to each and every kid was a nice gesture. 6. Our rooms & bathroom gets cleaned so fast that we simply love coming back to a nicely made room. Great thanks to Edwin Moreira. 7. Pillows and mattress were really comfortable. Sheets are soft and clean. What we didnt like 1.Buffet was repetitive. Breakfast buffet was the same every day. No variety at all. Omelette station never added salt and didn't add salt even on request. There were only 1 waffle machine which made 4 waffles. Waffle is a favorite among kids and adults. It would be great if there were more waffle machines. The food did not get replenish fast enough, and tables did not get cleaned fast enough to make them available. We always struggled to find seating in buffet area. Looks like ship was not used to running full capacity, because we did not experience this in other cruise line. 2.Italian food in dining room like pasta lacked salt and seasoning on multiple occasions. 3. Last day was open seating in the restaurants. Our new waiter was no even aware of the separate Indian menu available. That got me thinking, if we got this waiter for the duration, would we have enjoyed the awesome indian food? We may not know there were any available. Aren't all your waiters briefed on what's available? 4.Timing in cayman island didn't work.When you are going to use tender boat, where we wasted so much time waiting for our turn to get on and transported, and especially when we did not dock in George town, now travel time to the 7 mile beach was much longer. you need to spend longer time on that island compared to others but ship spent longer time on other islands and cayman was too short. I felt so rushed and my wife didn't even bother to swim because it's all so rush and as soon as we get in, we would need to get out to head back to the ship. What's the point of going to one of the best beaches and not able to enjoy it? 5.Bathroom in my oceanview cabin looked smaller than some of the interior bathrooms i have seen in some other cruiselines. The shower curtain sticks to us while in the shower and it is suck a yucky feeling. 6. We always had to ask for pool/beach towels.It never got refilled on time since they were always running short of those.We heard multiple complaints about this and we too complained. .We were told by the steward it was like "Gold" .Again it looked like ship was not equipped to run full capacity. 7.There should be a common / shared drier or ironing area like some other cruise lines. Last day on Ocean Cay and not enough time to dry our swimming clothes we had to pack our wet clothes and by the time we got home it was nasty. 8. I understand Ocean Cay is new. But people who worked there seems uptight, irritable, impatient and rude with an attitude especially the drivers of the buggy that took us. We were at the presentation of Ocean Cay by our cruise director the day before we arrived and i think more information should have been informed to us. (For example, from where to where the buggy picks up and drops when we asked, the driver seemed irritated. We just let him take us and got off) Ocean Cay is very windy. Maybe better planning with plates and cutlery could be planned as the light paper plates i was carry got flipped and food on the ground in seconds.

Not the best curse We have had

Jan 9th, 2020

If you only speak English I would not take this curse.

Horrific and would never travel on this cruise line again. I wouldn’t recommend this to my enemy and I am being so serious.

Jan 3rd, 2020

My experience is 1 that I don’t want to think about. I actually think that MSC staff spoilt my cruise experience. I think the island was great and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t want to get back onto the ship because I was upset by the staff attitude, behaviour and unwillingness. I would also like to add that MSc doesn’t offer you a good WiFi connection in your room and argues that being UNLIMITED data has a restriction according to Guest service worker (Mr Williams) In regards to the dinner service that was overall a 2 out of 10. I suggest this ship get pulled of the market and a serious review be done.

MSC Armonia Cruise

Jan 3rd, 2020

I will never take this Cruise ever again. This was the worst Cruise I've ever been on.

Horrible

Dec 30th, 2019

Horrible no TV first night, port of call Cayman Island waste of time we took small boat there it was time to come back Cold repeated food everyday!Nasty food needs more diversity and diverse people Christmas show boring staff disrespectful not room staff