Comments on: MSC Cruises Review http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/msc-cruises-review/ Ever thought of leaving your job and cubical to travel? Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:59:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: S Cary http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/msc-cruises-review/comment-page-1/#comment-835 S Cary Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:35:25 +0000 http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/?p=981#comment-835 As prominent cruisers we were horrified at the events that unfolded. We booked ourselves on what was supposed to have been a fantastic holiday. Booking through Starlight Cruises for the New year cruise 26 Dec 09 - 6 Jan 2010 to first experience FALSE ADVERTISING - An advertisement which advertised many different specials of which Starlight would only honor one. This was then reported to the advertising board. Our cruise unfolded as follows. Arrival in Durban at 9h15 only to stand in a hot warehouse until 12h00 to be called for boarding another hour through customs to eventually get into our room at 14h15. The realisation that more than 60% of the employed staff DO NOT SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH and barely understand it.No explanation as where we need to go or what to do. We were then told that we would eat dinner at 18h30 - we were not given any other options or time, this was way too early to eat. Thinking it could only get better, we were only more disappointed. Our cabin was tiny and had four of us shoved into it barely giving room to get dressed and having the most ridiculous shower with a curtain that sticks to you and a floor you slip on constently. We then race off to dinner and receive the worst food we have ever tasted. Most of the food was badly prepared, over cooked or raw and tasteless. (the so called chef needs to go back to school and learn how to cook as he has no clue). Asking for coffee at dinner is a joke as they refuse to serve it. Now when you book your cruise through Starlight you are informed that you will be automatically charged $4 per adult and $2 per child for tips per day. This amounts to $12 a day which is R94 per day. We then realise when ordering a drink of any kind, buying cupons or fetching your own stuff you are charged a 15% service fee, when we asked what it was for we were told its a legal charge for service, that would be great if there was any service. My Question is WHAT SERVICE as it is non-existent. You are served from plastic cups,plates,glasses which are filthy, damaged and full of germs. Spend the duration of the time repeatly begging for someone to serve you. some days we waited 5 hours before a waiter was even present and even when you fetch your own drinks you still pay a 15% service fee. The next best thing is everything is way overpriced and all in dollars. You pay for all coldrinks, ice-cream, coffee, coctails,beer, wine etc. They only serve coffee at breakfast,lunch and tea which tastes like dishwater. We then go to breakfast and stand in a cue of 50 people to get something they said was breakfast (as other cruises put it -"if I had to feed this to my dog it would bight me") this applied to tasteless disgusting lunch and a tea time that was a joke, my childrens birthdays have better food. The other disgrace was the number of uncontrolled children on board ranging from babies to 15. The children aged 3 - 12 ran around unsupervised, bumping people over,screaming, messing and stayed up until sometimes 2 in the morning. We were told they cannot control this. They had no activities for your 8 -12 during the day that was exciting. Teenagers ruled the roost. A number of times we noticed along with other cruises 12 year olds drunk which meant that they were allowing underaged drinking. Then you have the junior night club and teen night club. The teen club was between 10 -11 pm for ages 13 -17 why then did they allow men aged 30 - 40 to rome around this club and they were not parents. A bit disconcerting for a parent. We then played bingo and payed $40 dollars which is R225 for one game only to be overriden by young children playing as well, what happend to gambling been 18 and over and in all due respect when playing for a cash prize its gambling bottom line. You then go into the casino and have children walking through it all the time, crupiers talking to each other while people play cards which is just unacceptable and on top of that have 10 and 12 year old walk in and start playing slots - no control. Going to the theatre shows at night is a night mare again adults are standing and small children are sitting in chairs to watch shows that are not meant for their age group in any way. No seating control and most of the time you could not see anyway due to the number of people standing. then you get your photo's to be charged $19.90 per picture and they are distorted and out of focus. When I asked for assistance I was ignored and then had to put up with a columbian lady staff member screaming blue murder at me, hubby went to call management and I had to endure being told by a romanian staff member that South african standards are too high and that and I quote "All south africans are racists and that is why we are having a problem" For heavens sake this is a south african cruise. To top it off the director of Starlight was on board and when approaching him he was most disinterested, his answer was send me an email. So the experience of cruising with Starlight and MSC Sinfonia is as follows: 60% + NON ENGLISH SPEAKING STAFF NONE EXISTENT SERVICE NO SUPERVISION FROM STAFF - RE CHILDREN NO LIFEGUARDS AT POOLS UNDERAGED DRINKING UNDERAGED GAMBLING BEING TOLD SA'S ARE RACIST EXSTORTION ON FEE'S AND PRICING DIGUSTING FOOD OVERALL FALSE ADVERTISING. OVERBOOKED SHIP NO SEATING SPACE EVER IN SMOKING SECTIONS BAD ATTITUDES ALL ROUND QUES, MORE QUES AND MORE QUES PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT WAST YOUR MONEY BOOKING ONE OF THEIR CRUISES it is a complete rip off, what you see on the website, advertisements and tv is not what you are getting The only thing they are intersted in is how much money they can make. Another site with many complaints is hellopeter.com As prominent cruisers we were horrified at the events that unfolded. We booked ourselves on what was supposed to have been a fantastic holiday. Booking through Starlight Cruises for the New year cruise 26 Dec 09 – 6 Jan 2010 to first experience FALSE ADVERTISING – An advertisement which advertised many different specials of which Starlight would only honor one. This was then reported to the advertising board. Our cruise unfolded as follows. Arrival in Durban at 9h15 only to stand in a hot warehouse until 12h00 to be called for boarding another hour through customs to eventually get into our room at 14h15. The realisation that more than 60% of the employed staff DO NOT SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH and barely understand it.No explanation as where we need to go or what to do. We were then told that we would eat dinner at 18h30 – we were not given any other options or time, this was way too early to eat. Thinking it could only get better, we were only more disappointed. Our cabin was tiny and had four of us shoved into it barely giving room to get dressed and having the most ridiculous shower with a curtain that sticks to you and a floor you slip on constently. We then race off to dinner and receive the worst food we have ever tasted. Most of the food was badly prepared, over cooked or raw and tasteless. (the so called chef needs to go back to school and learn how to cook as he has no clue). Asking for coffee at dinner is a joke as they refuse to serve it.
Now when you book your cruise through Starlight you are informed that you will be automatically charged $4 per adult and $2 per child for tips per day. This amounts to $12 a day which is R94 per day. We then realise when ordering a drink of any kind, buying cupons or fetching your own stuff you are charged a 15% service fee, when we asked what it was for we were told its a legal charge for service, that would be great if there was any service. My Question is WHAT SERVICE as it is non-existent.
You are served from plastic cups,plates,glasses which are filthy, damaged and full of germs. Spend the duration of the time repeatly begging for someone to serve you. some days we waited 5 hours before a waiter was even present and even when you fetch your own drinks you still pay a 15% service fee. The next best thing is everything is way overpriced and all in dollars. You pay for all coldrinks, ice-cream, coffee, coctails,beer, wine etc. They only serve coffee at breakfast,lunch and tea which tastes like dishwater. We then go to breakfast and stand in a cue of 50 people to get something they said was breakfast (as other cruises put it -”if I had to feed this to my dog it would bight me”) this applied to tasteless disgusting lunch and a tea time that was a joke, my childrens birthdays have better food.
The other disgrace was the number of uncontrolled children on board ranging from babies to 15. The children aged 3 – 12 ran around unsupervised, bumping people over,screaming, messing and stayed up until sometimes 2 in the morning. We were told they cannot control this. They had no activities for your 8 -12 during the day that was exciting. Teenagers ruled the roost. A number of times we noticed along with other cruises 12 year olds drunk which meant that they were allowing underaged drinking. Then you have the junior night club and teen night club. The teen club was between 10 -11 pm for ages 13 -17 why then did they allow men aged 30 – 40 to rome around this club and they were not parents. A bit disconcerting for a parent.
We then played bingo and payed $40 dollars which is R225 for one game only to be overriden by young children playing as well, what happend to gambling been 18 and over and in all due respect when playing for a cash prize its gambling bottom line. You then go into the casino and have children walking through it all the time, crupiers talking to each other while people play cards which is just unacceptable and on top of that have 10 and 12 year old walk in and start playing slots – no control. Going to the theatre shows at night is a night mare again adults are standing and small children are sitting in chairs to watch shows that are not meant for their age group in any way. No seating control and most of the time you could not see anyway due to the number of people standing. then you get your photo’s to be charged $19.90 per picture and they are distorted and out of focus. When I asked for assistance I was ignored and then had to put up with a columbian lady staff member screaming blue murder at me, hubby went to call management and I had to endure being told by a romanian staff member that South african standards are too high and that and I quote “All south africans are racists and that is why we are having a problem” For heavens sake this is a south african cruise. To top it off the director of Starlight was on board and when approaching him he was most disinterested, his answer was send me an email. So the experience of cruising with Starlight and MSC Sinfonia is as follows:
60% + NON ENGLISH SPEAKING STAFF
NONE EXISTENT SERVICE
NO SUPERVISION FROM STAFF – RE CHILDREN
NO LIFEGUARDS AT POOLS
UNDERAGED DRINKING
UNDERAGED GAMBLING
BEING TOLD SA’S ARE RACIST
EXSTORTION ON FEE’S AND PRICING
DIGUSTING FOOD OVERALL
FALSE ADVERTISING.
OVERBOOKED SHIP
NO SEATING SPACE EVER IN SMOKING SECTIONS
BAD ATTITUDES ALL ROUND
QUES, MORE QUES AND MORE QUES

PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT WAST YOUR MONEY BOOKING ONE OF THEIR CRUISES it is a complete rip off, what you see on the website, advertisements and tv is not what you are getting
The only thing they are intersted in is how much money they can make.

Another site with many complaints is hellopeter.com

]]> By: C Thomson http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/msc-cruises-review/comment-page-1/#comment-752 C Thomson Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:13:13 +0000 http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/?p=981#comment-752 We were on MSC Splendida in July 2009. Our luggage was missing for the entire cruise. We finally got it at 6pm on the Friday to have to hand it back 6 hours later! Poor complaints department, and poor customer service in my opinion as the offered a 20% conditional discount for a future cruise! Our holiday costing £5000 was ruined and like we will use them again! Very poor company in my opinion! Still the baggage tags did prove our luggage had a much better holiday than us! We were on MSC Splendida in July 2009. Our luggage was missing for the entire cruise. We finally got it at 6pm on the Friday to have to hand it back 6 hours later! Poor complaints department, and poor customer service in my opinion as the offered a 20% conditional discount for a future cruise! Our holiday costing £5000 was ruined and like we will use them again! Very poor company in my opinion! Still the baggage tags did prove our luggage had a much better holiday than us!

]]> By: Lauren http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/msc-cruises-review/comment-page-1/#comment-734 Lauren Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:15:12 +0000 http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/?p=981#comment-734 We would have loved to.... except the buy in was WAY too high! The competition on board was nothing, so it could have been a money maker. Look into blue hair (old fogie) hold'em cruises. We would have loved to…. except the buy in was WAY too high! The competition on board was nothing, so it could have been a money maker. Look into blue hair (old fogie) hold’em cruises.

]]> By: Nomadic Matt http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/msc-cruises-review/comment-page-1/#comment-730 Nomadic Matt Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:12:05 +0000 http://www.abandonthecube.com/blog/?p=981#comment-730 I LOVE CRUISES! but I love hold em even more. I think I would have ended up at those games all day every day lol I LOVE CRUISES! but I love hold em even more. I think I would have ended up at those games all day every day lol

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