For years, Disney Cruise Line (DCL) has been our family’s go-to for vacations at sea. Whether it’s the unmatched service, the familiar magic, or those oh-so-perfect split bathrooms, it’s hard to beat the DCL experience. But we decided to branch out—just a little.
For our most recent adventure, we booked a 7-night cruise on MSC’s newest ship, MSC World America, sailing for the first time ever with MSC. Myself, my wife, and our tween daughter took a leap of cruise faith, snagging a last-minute upgrade to Yacht Club accommodations thanks to MSC’s bidding program. We documented each day in individual daily cruise reports (check those out for the full play-by-play), but this post is for the big picture: How does MSC stack up to Disney Cruise Line?
We’ll walk through our experience—from stateroom to food, service to ship design—and compare it head-to-head with what seasoned Disney cruisers like us know and love. The good, the bad, the Eggos, and everything in between.
Let’s get into it.
Stateroom
MSC World America: As the ship is still basically brand new, the stateroom was what you would expect—beautiful and immaculately clean. Everything was shiny and polished. Plenty of outlets spread around—including a mini USB on each side of the bed—and ample storage space in the drawers and closet.
One semi-drawback that seems to be sweeping newer ships is that not only do your lights not function without a stateroom key inserted in the slot, but the AC also turns off. While I can understand the reasoning and energy conservation efforts, I don’t care for this, as who wants to return to a warm, musty room after a day ashore or by the pool? Luckily, since we received wristbands along with our keycards, we were able to keep a card inserted at all times. T
he lighting and thermostat controls also offered a variety of customization, as you could adjust the output level of each individual light within the settings. While this was a nice feature, we quickly realized it wasn’t worth messing around with much. This also included the DND or Make Up Room lights for the room host.
The only issue I saw overall with the room was the design of the sliding door to the lanai. The inside handle was the traditional rotating handle that releases the seal on the door to open it. The outside, however, was just a fixed handle, so there was no way to seal the door shut from the outside. If you’ve ever encountered this, then you know that when the ship is in motion and the door is closed but not sealed, it creates a persistent whistle that can quickly annoy those remaining inside the room. Not a huge thing, but if one family member wants to sit outside and relax while others are resting inside, they either have to listen to the whistling or turn the handle on the inside—literally locking you out.
Our room host was a bit below average. We had to ask multiple times for him to convert the sofa sleeper back each day instead of leaving it pulled out, and he took forever to perform daily upkeep. Anytime we approached him with any needs, he acted put out. We began to wonder by midweek if we were even supposed to go directly to him or if it was expected that we make all inquiries to Primas, our butler, to convey to him. The other major fail—not a single towel animal waiting for us in the room all week! I jest, a little, but what’s a cruise without the towel animals?
- Rating: 4.5
- DCL Comparison: I’d call this stateroom pretty much a wash to any standard stateroom on DCL we’ve stayed in. Overall square footage was a touch smaller, but that is subject to room types and ships, so it’s hard to do an apples-to-apples with so many variables. The biggest difference is the DCL split bathroom model, which for families can be a lifesaver. When compared to the Concierge level (Yacht Club equivalent) rooms on DCL, though, that would go to DCL for upgraded stylings, wood paneling, and marble countertops. Since we’ve only experienced this MSC stateroom, I can’t say if those aspects are any different in other stateroom categories.
- The Winner: DCL Concierge rooms get a slight nod over MSC Yacht Club.
Dining
MSC World America: Prior to boarding, we purchased a specialty dining package for 3 evenings at a cost of $111 per person. Purchased onboard, this would have cost $135 pp, so it’s absolutely worth doing in advance—not to mention it then counts toward your loyalty point accrual. We also received a complimentary specialty dinner as part of our Diamond status (acquired by taking advantage of MSC’s status match program).
The plan going in was to eat at each of the specialty dining rooms: Butcher’s Cut, Eataly, Teppanyaki, and Paxos using the dining package, while visiting Hola either à la carte or the all-you-can-eat option. That would have left one night each to try the MDR and buffet. After reviewing the Paxos menu, we decided to skip it and double up at Butcher’s Cut. The other change came with the Yacht Club dining becoming an option, which ended up trumping the MDR and buffet for dinners in exchange for the Yacht Club dining room and La Brasserie.
- Butcher’s Cut: As the line’s premier steakhouse, I hoped for more. It was good, but like Texas Roadhouse or Longhorn’s. I wish I’d tried Becca’s NY Strip or Ribeye, as the Surf ‘N Turf and Wagyu had small portions, especially with the Wagyu upcharge. The decor was nice, but no view—seated by a window staring at a lifeboat was a letdown.
- Rating: 3.5
- The Winner: DCL’s Palo steakhouse is no contest over Butcher’s Cut
- Eataly: We enjoyed this meal and locale. Food quality was excellent, presentation gave a boost. Our favorite specialty (non-Yacht Club) dining room. Nothing extravagant but solid.
- Rating: 4.0
- The Winner: Eataly is closer to DCL MDRs than something extra, so DCL wins as there’s no upcharge.
- Hola! Tacos & Cantina: Great food, minimal cost—comparable to a local Mexican restaurant. The $25 all-you-can-eat is a good deal (don’t waste a dining package credit), and à la carte pricing was fair for a light meal.
- Rating: 4.0
- The Winner: Hola! ties with DCL’s Donald’s Cantina (on newer ships), though Cantina is counter-service on the pool deck vs. Hola’s sit-down.
- Teppanyaki Hibachi Grill: You can’t go wrong with theater while your meal’s prepared. The restaurant design wasn’t ideal for this, but the food’s preparation and taste made up for it. Our chef was entertaining; I’d do it again.
- Rating: 4.0
- The Winner: DCL has no hibachi, so MSC wins there.
- Main Dining Room: Did not experience.
- Buffet: One lunch, one walk-through. A one-and-done. As Forrest says, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
- Rating: 1.0 (the pizza saved a rating of 0)
- The Winner: DCL’s buffet crushes MSC’s with peel-and-eat shrimp, king crab, and daily specials.
- Yacht Club Restaurant: A big Yacht Club perk, available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other than the Eggo experience (I’m not sure I’ll get over that!), it was nice. Same menu daily for breakfast and lunch, varied for dinner, and pretty good. Ocean views off the bow and elegant decor gave a fine dining ambiance. Without the specialty package, we’d have dined here most nights.
- Rating: 4.0 (would’ve been 4.5 without the waffle)
- The Winner: MSC’s Yacht Club dining room is a win, as DCL Concierge lacks this. I would love to see DCL add something like this, but to be honest the MDR’s are hard to beat already.
- La Brasserie: The gastronomical highlight. This Yacht Club-exclusive dinner, in the transformed buffet space, felt like the Yacht Club dining room with a quiet setting and sea views. Servers were fantastic, food was phenomenal. Family-style service encouraged ordering everything to share. Wish we’d done it earlier for a repeat.
- Rating: 5.0
- The Winner: La Brasserie ties Palo Brunch—both family-style, all-you-can-eat, but Palo’s $55 pp upcharge vs. La Brasserie’s Yacht Club exclusivity.
Overall, MSC’s “specialty” dining matches DCL’s MDRs (which I love), but DCL’s no-extra-charge policy for extra dishes is a huge plus.
Drink Package
As part of our Yacht Club experience, the Premium Extra Package came included. To be honest we would not have selected a drink package otherwise and would have done out of pocket. We don’t drink any alcohol so it was only used for coffees and sodas. MSC World America does offer Coke Freestyle machines in a few places (the buffet and Burger & Bites) however if you’ve been following any reviews or Facebook groups you’ll know that there have been a multitude of issues with them since the inaugural sailing.
Our experience was about half the time we went they were either missing the majority of the options or out of service entirely. Even when they were operating they never had the full allotment of menu options like vitamin waters. They showed on the screen but were forever grayed out. Another one we’ll say great in theory-poor in execution.
When we did the pre cruise planning, I calculated out that even the N/A Drink Package averaged out to $31 a day per person. For 1–2 coffees and a soda per day, the math didn’t make sense, as we drink primarily water throughout the day. This is definitely something that you should use our MSC Drink Package Calculator for prior to sailing and find the right package for you.
- DCL Comparison: All DCL cruises include fountain beverage service on the pool deck and all eateries, the alcoholic drink packages consist of basically discounted 6 packs of beer-not much to offer in the way of mixed packages.
- The Winner: DCL for the included fountain beverages.
Itinerary
As I mentioned back in my day 1 report, this particular itinerary was a draw in and of itself. We enjoyed both ports of call and Ocean Cay Marine Reserve was top-notch.
Port & Terminal Experience
In regard to PortMiami—you can keep it. The new MSC terminal, though, seemed very nice and worthy of its newest ship. We were in and out of it so quickly that it’s hard to say much specific about it. The passport verification process was seamless, and with facial recognition on debarkation, you barely broke stride.
The parking garage was a bit of a disaster both coming and going. After breezing through disembarkation and collecting our luggage, we were greeted by a twenty-minute wait in line in the garage for one of the three (out of eight) working elevators to get to the third level. There were no escalators or other options but to stand in a hot, muggy parking garage with a few hundred of your closest friends to cram in like sardines. I’m going to put that on Port Miami and not MSC, though, as we were clearly out of the ship’s jurisdiction.
- Rating: 2.0
- DCL Comparison: I’ll take either Port Canaveral or Port Everglades over Miami any day.
MSC Yacht Club
I honestly feel like pulling the trigger on the upgrade bid saved the cruise for us. The only place I found peaceful enough to relax on a sun deck, offering both sun and shade, was the Yacht Club. I would have likely spent most of the week out on our lanai without it. The Zen pool, for adults only, was always crowded and, while not rowdy, definitely wasn’t a relaxing atmosphere. Not to mention, there was absolutely zero reprieve from the sun. Having the dedicated Top Sail Lounge and dining room was pleasant for that little extra charm. The butler service was nice but seemed at times unnecessary.
- DCL Comparison: The DCL Concierge sun deck gets a nod over Yacht Club in that it offers more seating options (padded chairs, clamshells) along with the lounge chairs and also provides more shade versus sun options. The food and beverage service on the Yacht Club sun deck gets the point over Concierge. So those balance out. While DCL doesn’t have a dining room, they do offer a nice selection of snacks placed out in the lounge throughout the day, switched up a bit each day. The overall level of service between the two is very similar, but DCL always has a little extra touch. As they are not directly apples-to-apples, I’ll say both are great and have their own advantages. I don’t think you can go wrong either way here.
The Tween Perspective
It was definitely a different experience for our daughter. Early on in the cruise, we realized that the vibe here was not what we were accustomed to; more on that below. A typical day for her on DCL, especially sea days, is to abandon us after breakfast and go meet up with other tweens either in the youth clubs or roaming around the ship. There didn’t seem to be much of that going on with this sailing.
While she did meet up with a group (the forced friendship) after the first day, it seemed they were all tied up with family activities or split into smaller factions at random times. As the ship is so new, everyone was taking it all in and seemed to be sticking together as families instead of venturing off independently.
I know she had fun; it just wasn’t what she was hoping for in those regards. The youth clubs seemed fairly empty during the day, and even though they had planned activities, it seemed even those had low participation until the later evening offerings.
The Ship: MSC World America
MSC World America is without a doubt a gorgeous vessel. Shiny surfaces everywhere you look, whether it’s polished handrails, clean glass panels, or mirrored staircases. The overall cleanliness was impressive. There is no shortage of activities to take advantage of, like the Jaw Drop slide, Cliffhanger Swing, water slides, pools, ropes course, bumper cars, arcades, and more.
In some cases, it could be viewed as almost too much.
That all comes down to your style of vacationing, though. As we prefer a more laid-back approach to cruising, we honestly didn’t partake in the majority of these aspects. If we want to stand in line for a ride or slide, we can go to any of the theme parks/water parks around Orlando whenever we want, so doing that on a ship doesn’t appeal to us.
This is actually one of the reasons we chose to go on World America, though—to see how we liked sailing on one of the newer “mega” style ships that have been taking the ocean by storm lately with Royal’s Icon and Carnival’s Excel classes. It didn’t take us long to realize it wasn’t something we were missing.
The smart elevators are another thing that are great in theory, but unless they have an attendant in the elevator lobby educating guests on their use, they actually caused a lot of confusion the first few days. We had another huge advantage in the forward elevators with our Yacht Club wristband, though. Once in the elevator, you could swipe your wristband and select your floor. Poof—you now have an express elevator that will bypass any other floors until you reach your desired destination!
I’ll admit there was a little devil on my shoulder that wanted to simply ride the elevator around just to mess with people.
@scottsanfilippo “Hey, that elevator skipped us!” It sure did. Jason shows us how those staying in the Yacht Club on #MSCCruises #MSCWorldAmerica get VIP service in the ship’s smart elevators. The smart elevators are used on many ships these days, and to use them, you simply select the floor you’re going to on a display outside the elevator (a selection should be made for each person in your party). The display then tells you which elevator car to go to! For Yacht Club guests, once inside, you swipe your keycard or wristband to activate VIP service which will bypass all other requests and take you directly to the floor you entered. Love ’em or hate ’em… smart elevators are here to stay. I don’t mind them as long as people know how to use them. When they don’t know how to use them, they create log jams. What do you think of smart elevators? #travel #cruise #elevator #cruiseship
A few design flaws as I see it:
- The not-so-grand entrance when embarking into a mundane hallway instead of a promenade or atrium.
- The shopping mall feeling while making your way through the shopping and dining districts with a lack of exterior views to remind you that you are, in fact, on a ship.
- The only entrance to get to the Panorama Theater, one of the marquee entertainment venues, was directly through the casino. While not an issue for adults, do you really want to trot your littles through a rowdy casino getting to and from the show?
- The Yacht Club sundeck pool was accessible only by climbing down ladders into four-foot-deep water—no stairs or zero entry. Not very friendly for those with mobility issues or older guests.
In general, the atmosphere of this ship was very different from what we are accustomed to. After contemplative reflection and talking with other cruise enthusiasts, I’ve come to a few factors for this. First, of course, is the different cruise line, as each will have a certain clientele base that frequents them. As this is an Italian cruise line, it makes sense that we noticed a higher volume of foreigners onboard; linguistics tell me they were from all over Europe. We have also determined that the Miami-centric cruisers differ from those that sail out of Port Canaveral primarily. Lastly, the type of ship, being a “floating theme park,” attracts the vacationer that wants to be active all the time.
None of these are meant in a negative way, just an observation on how it differs.
Some of these traits did lead to some unusual manners and behaviors, though. Maybe it’s a US thing, but I always thought it was customary to allow passengers to get out of an elevator before getting in. Almost every time the door opened, we had people shoving past us to get into the elevator. Or was this a result of the confusion many had over the “smart” elevator system? There was also a lot of rude behavior in general from both passengers and staff members.
Nothing obscene, just a number of little instances.
Another thing we couldn’t get used to was the regularity of staff, on duty and in uniform, making use of guest areas. Practically every time we went into the Coffee Emporium, there would be staff waiting in line to get their shot of caffeine. Now, I don’t begrudge them getting something to eat or drink, but generally, there are designated back-of-house areas for them (we passed the Crew Bar during our behind-the-scenes tour).
To compound that, you’d think they’d at least acknowledge you in line and give a simple greeting, let alone step aside to allow paying guests to go first. We saw this not only getting coffee, but one evening, walking through the sports bar, there was a table with three crew members, again in uniform with name tags displayed, having a drink.
Walking through the buffet, there would be entire tables taken up with staff having lunch while guests were all around them. While walking around the ship, you constantly saw staff staring at their phones; half the time, they’d avoid even making eye contact with you in passing. This is not the type of crew interaction we’re accustomed to. I’m not sure if this is an MSC thing or is customary on other lines as well, but it’s absolutely something you would never see on DCL.
As a former cast member at Walt Disney World, I can say that those actions would be grounds for instant reprimand and up to termination.
At the end of the day, though, this is still an impressive ship that will surely be the prize of the MSC fleet for years to come.
- Rating: 4.5
- Disney Comparison: In style, there isn’t a true comparison within DCL to the mega ship. Whether or not that is a pro or con really comes down to your personal preferences. I will say it’s a telling sign that the next three ships commissioned by DCL to be built are actually smaller than the current Wish and Dream class (approx. 4,000 passengers) and will hold around 3,000 passengers, compared to the mega ships that are 6,000+. It seems clear that DCL is targeting a different type of cruise atmosphere and going against the grain of all the other major lines.
Overall Value MSC vs Disney Cruise Line
At the end of the cruise, having had time to digest everything, I’d say it’s actually a comparable value to what we’ve had with DCL. By that, I mean we paid approximately 80% of the cost of DCL, once factoring in all the extra charges that would be included, and received about 80% of the experience.
There was a lot of good, mixed with a fair amount of meh. It just lacked that “it” factor or really anything exceptional that would make you want to run to the future bookings desk. It’s hard to trade churro Mickey waffles for Eggos and not have fireworks at sea, but as long as they aren’t passing out the red bags (IYKYK), at the end of the day, if you’re cruising through life, it’s not a bad way to spend a week.
Would We Cruise MSC Again? (The Million Dollar Question!)
All things considered, you’re wondering if we’d do MSC again.
And my answer may surprise you.
Yes, we would.
However, I think we answered our questions about sailing on any mega-style ship as a hard no. Now that we have a baseline of how MSC operates, we’d go into it with tempered expectations and maybe a better strategy for day one to get those reservations taken care of. Maybe a voyage on MSC Seashore (which Scott just got off of!) is on the horizon. But before that, we have a couple of DCL firsts to check off the list later this year – I look forward to taking you on a Magic (November) voyage to see what Treasure (December) we can dig up in the sands next. Of course, thank you also to Scott for all his helpful edits and sharing of our cruising hobby!