MSC MUSICA DISGRACE

My friend was a crew member on a cruise a while ago, for 9 months, and so had been excited for a while to book a cruise as a passenger. So for my birthday this year, we decided to go on a cruise and booked the MSC Musica from 16 Nov – 19 Nov 2018. We booked a year in advance and were so excited that it was a new ship in SA and so we were expecting everything to be ***** and span and the service to be top-notch. We pre-booked our first seating of dinner as well as all-inclusive drinks vouchers so that we could just relax on the trip with minimal admin.

Our experience however was dismal to say the least!!!!

We arrived early thinking that we could unpack, get settled, get our drinks vouchers etc. organized before the sail away party. However, on our first trip to reception (at which the lines were ALWAYS about 20m long, if you were lucky – probably due to the staff at reception not understanding English AT ALL) we eventually made it to the front of the line to find out that our drinks vouchers were not on the system. We provided our receipt and proof of payment and were given no apologies/explanations. We were just told that this happens and they will have to email the people in the office to find out what happened. They said this would take a day minimum to get back to us and we must just keep checking reception to find out if it is sorted out. This alone is terrible service! We specifically did not take too much cash onboard as we had PRE-booked everything we needed and avoided reception at all costs due to the rudeness and lack of understanding and length of the lines. We then enquired how we would be able to get drinks in the meantime as now we had no options. We gave a few hundred rand to the receptionist who just provided us with a receipt and said we can go to any bar and give our cabin number and receive a drink. We were then also told our cabin would only be ready at 2pm. This info had not been in the pre-boarding info and so we were SHOCKED as we did not come prepared with our costumes under our clothes etc.

We went to the bar to get a drink, with our receipt from reception in hand. They also could not understand what we were trying to say and were incredibly rude. We explained that the receptionist had said we just needed to bring the receipt but they said no, we need a cabin card. We then had to stand in an even longer reception line in order to speak to reception AGAIN. We got a different receptionist eventually who proceeded to load the money onto the cabin card and gave that to us. We were just so confused why that had not been done then in the FIRST PLACE??

We then could finally go get a drink but the restaurants were closed and so we had to get food at the buffet and due to the fact that no one could enter their cabins, there was no space to eat and we ate on the floor with all of our carry-on luggage surrounding us. The food was also tasteless and stale. After lunch it was after 2pm (so from 10am until this time we had just been struggling) so we went to the cabin to find my luggage outside the door but not my friends’, even though we checked in together. We waited for a while but eventually called reception who hardly answer but eventually did and we asked where the luggage was. They simply proceeded to tell us there was some luggage at reception and we must come have a look if it is ours. No apologies, no explanations. We just asked how we were supposed to know that we must come find it. Again, no apologies and no explanations! Furthermore, even if there was an announcement, we could not hear announcements in the cabin and so had to run to stick our heads out the balcony to try and hear any announcements. This is very inconvenient and most importantly VERY unsafe, as if there was an emergency announcement how would we know?? We proceeded to reception and got shown a room where there were a ton of bags and people searching with exactly the same problem – 1 bag being delivered and the other cabin bag not delivered to the room. I asked how this could be and again – no apologies, no explanations. We were just told this happens all the time. I told the man that that is actually even more of a problem not an excuse. Our bag was however not there! We eventually tracked down my friend’s bag by walking the decks and coming across it on a bell hops cart. We had now MISSED the sail away party!!! We then proceeded to later find out (when we were trying to get back in the cabin) that our cabin cards (which were brand new and on our beds) did not work and so had to go BACK to reception to get new ones. The drill was also VERY unsafe and unacceptable! No one could hear the speaker and the passengers were all allowed to blow their whistles and chat away. Disorganized!

We waited for 2 hours in the engine room the next morning for the dingy boat to take us to the Portuguese Island. It was hot, no refreshments provided AND we got shouted at continually for standing ‘in the wrong place’ when that is where we had been led to by the staff. We eventually got to Mozam, only to find out that most of the food stations were closing!! It had not been our fault the boat was so delayed to the island! The last dingy off the island was at 4 and so a lot of people were wanting to leave only then. However, it did not appear that this had been planned for prior, as the queue to get on a dingy was about 500m long and we had to wait another 2 hours approximately to get back on a dingy. At this point also, the weather had gotten so bad that the wind was whipping us and we were sitting in the line shivering with about 20 MSC staff members just standing there glaring at us. The water was so choppy that when we were finally on the dingy back to the ship, every time we would ramp over a wave, we would get drenched in water and when we arrived back at the boat, I was genuinely scared for my life as people were falling and being hauled off the bopping dingy back onto the ship. This is unacceptable. People’s lives as well as children’s lives are in MSC’s hands and no one could care less. When we got back on the ship, there was a higher up staff member in white who I just asked why they had not taken us off the island earlier if they had pre-known what the weather would be as it was not safe. He just told me ‘OK’ as he also did not appear to speak English. I though English was a pre-requisite for staff??? What if there is an emergency and no one understands you??

Our drinks vouchers had STILL not arrived and we were so shattered that we simply went to bed without dinner. Reception called at 10:30pm to tell us the vouchers had arrived and had we not received a note to that effect under our door. We had NOT and proceeded to tell them that. Again, no apologies, no explanations – just that we must come fetch them. We said we’ll fetch them in the morning as we were EXHAUSTED from standing in lines all day. We tried to then order room service. The person did not understand English either and we had to keep repeating ‘What food’ and they kept shouting back ‘You want fruit?’ When we fetched the vouchers on Sunday (after another long wait in the line) – again, no apologies, no explanations and at this point we couldn’t even spend all the vouchers in the remaining time and had spent so much cash! Our checking out procedure was also abysmal and we ended up leaving the ship after the next cruise had already started boarded so had to try and find our OWN way off the boat. At this point we were in absolute tears!! One pays A LOT of money for a ONCE in a life time trip with a RESPECTED brand such as MSC and this is the service one receives? If one is paying in Dollars one expects the service to be of an exceptional international standard. My friend was so confused and disappointed, especially as an ex crew member who KNOWS how strictly they were treated and how service was ALL it was about. I have also been on a cruise before and we were treated like royalty – as one would expect. It is simply unacceptable and I want an explanation as to what happened as everybody on the cruise was absolutely appalled.