The day everyone dreads has finally arrived. No, not the day we call on Nassau, Bahamas, but the final day of the cruise. So far on this 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on MSC Seascape, we have visited Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico; and today Nassau. Why cruises continue to call on Nassau is beyond me. The United States State Department has a Level 2 travel advisory in effect for the country, which states:
Exercise increased caution in The Bahamas due to crime.
The majority of crime occurs on New Providence (Nassau) and Grand Bahama (Freeport) islands. In Nassau, practice increased vigilance in the “Over the Hill” area (south of Shirley Street) where gang-on-gang violence has resulted in a high homicide rate primarily affecting the local population. Violent crime, such as burglaries, armed robberies, and sexual assaults, occur in both tourist and non-tourist areas.
Activities involving commercial recreational watercraft, including water tours, are not consistently regulated. Watercraft may be poorly maintained, and some operators may not have safety certifications. Always review and heed local weather and marine alerts before engaging in water-based activities. Commercial watercraft operators have discretion to operate their vessels regardless of weather forecasts; injuries and fatalities have occurred. Due to these safety concerns, U.S. government personnel are not permitted to use independently operated jet-ski rentals on New Providence and Paradise Islands.
Many cruise lines will put warning notices in staterooms, on the daily program, or in the app, advising guests about alerts such as this, or when additional personal security measures should be taken when ashore. However, MSC didn’t provide any.
Crime in Nassau is nothing new and tourists are prime targets for it, however all the major cruise lines continue to make stops here, and even worse, in Freeport. Over the years, Nassau in particular has tried to improve their image by transforming the old, dilapidated port into a modern new one full of shops, restaurants, bars, a marina, and even an amphitheater. But once you’re beyond the security fences and cross the street to the Straw Market or Senor Frogs, you’re on your own.
Seasoned cruises don’t even leave the ship when docked in Nassau, but if you insist on finding something to do ashore, only book excursions directly through the ship’s shore excursion department. Most people will just head over to the Atlantis Resort and Casino for the day, or do one of the “swimming with the pigs” excursions.
Since none of the cruises I’ve been on lately have called on Nassau since the renovations were complete at the port, I took about a half hour trip ashore to check it out. I do have to say, they did a fantastic job putting lipstick on a pig. Since we were the only ship in port today, many shops were closed.
We had a full day in Nassau, arriving a little before 9am and we stuck around until 6pm to begin our trip back home to Miami.
Final Overall Review Post
Since this is the last day onboard, the majority of this post will talk about my overall review of this 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on MSC Seascape, but before I do, let’s talk dinner.
Hola! Tacos & Cantina on MSC Seascape
Diner tonight was in one of the ship’s specialty restaurants, Hola! Tacos & Cantina. Located in the atrium on Deck 8, this small space has a bar that serves up typical Mexican frozen drinks and beers, while the restaurant offers up tacos, burritos, nachos, tamales, and more.
The menu has two options, you can go for the all you can eat for $17.99 which allows you to order as much as you want of anything off the menu, except drinks, or you can just order ala carte.
I went with the all you can eat and started off with a small order of nachos with chicken. While the portion size was good, the melted cheese on the chips was cold and the tiny bit of chicken that was buried in the pile of nachos was dry, cold, and flavorless.
For the main course, I opted for some tacos. Two Barbacoa street tacos on soft white corn tortillas and two Chili Con Carne in a hard yellow shell taco. The barbacoa ones were deliciously seasoned with plenty of beef and a spicy kick. These are two-bite tacos, as they’re small. The Chili Con Carne ones were your typical hard shell taco size tacos, but were rather bland and stuffed with more guac than meat, making them more of a guacamole taco.
I mulled over trying a few other tacos, but nothing impressed me so far, so I ordered up a Modelo and Arroz Con Leche (rice pudding) for dessert, which turned out to be the one good thing about dinner.
While service was average, myself and other people in the restaurant were having problems with the servers understanding the menu and understanding us. For example, the table next to me, a group of four, all ordered margaritas on the rocks. They came out frozen, so they asked for them to be remade on the rocks. They came out frozen again. At that point, they just drank them. Later, when the manager came around to check on tables, they told them about the drinks and how they wanted them on the rocks. The manager said she would take care of them… but in a few moments, a server came over with… you guessed it… four frozen margaritas.
Another table across from me ordered “one of each taco.” Their server brought them one taco.
This was my first bad experience in a restaurant onboard.
After dinner, it was off for a walk around the ship, where things were pretty quiet. Most have already gone back to their rooms to pack and prepare to get up early for debarkation. Myself included.
So, now let’s get into the overall review of this cruise.
Stateroom
For this cruise, I was booked in a Fantastica Balcony Stateroom, as I indicated in my Day 1 report. Cabin 10107 was located on Deck 10, forward. The room could accommodate four people, with two twin beds that convert to a king and a convertible sofa. Storage space was a bit on the light side, as I’ve had smaller staterooms on other ships with more storage and closet space.
Being on the 10th deck made it convenient to get to the dining, entertainment, and lounges on decks 8, 7, and 6, but a bit of a hike to the buffet and Marina Pool on decks 16, 18, and 20. This stateroom was located right near a bank of elevators, making it perfect for getting around.
The stateroom had comfortable furnishings, was laid out well, however, you will only find two US and two European power outlets in the whole room and they are located at the desk along with two USB ports. There is only one USB port at the bed.
The balcony was a good size and had two chairs and a foot rest. It was wide enough that you didn’t have to sit sideways and you had plenty of room to spread out. My biggest complaint about the balcony was the noise. Directly below was one of the ship’s hot tubs. These are used constantly during operating hours and are open to kids and adults. When kids are in it, there’s a lot of yelling and screaming, which makes it difficult to enjoy some quiet time during the day out on the balcony.
My only complaint with the stateroom was the bathroom. To say it was small would be an understatement. The only way to sit on the toilet without your knees being jammed into the base of the sink, was to sit sideways. Standing in the shower, your shoulders are just about 2 inches away from the wall on either side. Larger individuals will find the shower very difficult to use and fit in. Water pressure in the shower was horrible!
Stateroom are serviced twice daily as opposed to once a day on Carnival Cruise Line. I didn’t get any towel animals, and I only saw my stateroom attendant one time and that was on embarkation day.
More detailed information about the stateroom can be found in the Day 1 report.
MSC Seascape Food
Each daily review touches on the food I had that night. On most cruises, I typically avoid the main dining room and dine at specialty restaurants, but wanted to experience the MDR on this ship. However, my assigned dining time was 7:30pm, which was too early for me. I made an attempt to get to the dining room one night for dinner, but missed that time because of having other things going on. So unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience the dining room this cruise.
The buffet selections for breakfast were the usual things you would expect. There was a great variety of hot and cold items and different hot breakfast sandwiches each morning. Lunch and dinner selections were varied and the food quality at the buffet continues to improve greatly on MSC, as this has been a consistent complaint of cruisers, so it’s nice to see improvement in this area. The pizza… well, fantastico!
For this trip, the specialty restaurants I dined at all the ship’s specialty restaurants except for Ocean Cay, as I don’t enjoy much seafood and there are no non-seafood options on the menu.
If I had to put stars on the various restaurants, they would be:
- Main Dining Room (Free) – Did not experience.
- Butcher’s Cut Steakhouse ($59 package deal or ala carte) *****
- Kaito Teppanyaki ($varies on teppanyaki experience) ****
- Kaito Sushi ($ala carte) – ****
- Hola! Tacos & Cantina ($17.99 AYCE or ala carte) – *
- Sports Bar ($ala carte) – *
There is no separate Italian restaurant on board as it’s an Italian line and that style of food is available in the MDR daily.
MSC Seascape Fellow Passengers
MSC, being an Italian line with deep routes in Europe, attracts a large number of international guests who fly here for Caribbean vacations. While they are growing rapidly in the American market, international passengers tend to make up a large percentage of the passengers onboard. That leads to issues with communcation with fellow guests. For example, one night at the teppanyaki restaurant, I was at a table where nobody spoke English and they also didn’t get the concept of the teppanyaki experience.
Some guests will pretend they don’t speak English, simply to avoid conversation with Americans.
A few passengers decided to do some topless sunbathing at the pool, which is the norm in Europe, and some Americans were up in arms over it.
There weren’t many families on board and the average age was 50+ for this cruise. But if you’re bringing kids along, there’s a kid’s club, water slides, arcade, and activities all day long for them to enjoy. It is a family line, so activities are centered around passengers of all ages.
So were the passengers similar to those on Carnival? Absolutely not. In fact, Carnival fans who want a party atmosphere 24/7 would be disappointed.
Where the passengers similiar to those on Royal Caribbean? Yes, with less families.
What about comparing them to Holland America? For those staying in the Yacht Club, they would be considered the Holland America passenger.
It’s hard to really say who MSC caters to, as their ships are always full of such a mix of diverse groups of passengers from all around the world.
Entertainment
Here is another area that MSC has vastly improved upon since my first cruise on MSC Divina a decade ago. Stage production shows are top-notch and comparible to those you’ll see on Carnival or Royal Caribbean. They have definitely stepped up their game in this area. Live music can be found everywhere around the ship during the evening and the energy is electric throughout the ship at night, making it the perfect for night owls who like to party till 1 or 2 in the morning.
However, don’t expect huge sail away parties, or games and music around the pool all day long. This is where entertainment is lacking. A lot more can be done around the pools and various areas during the day, especially on sea days. This was a complaint of many on board who were expecting at least a bit of a pool party during the afternoon.
Evening entertainment consists of production shows and guest entertainers/comedians in the main theatre, cabaret and acrobatic acts in the ship’s Le Cabaret Rouge lounge, dual (not dueling) piano players in the ship’s Times Square area, continuous music and dance parties in the ship’s atrium all night, a silent disco night, and multiple deck and theme parties throughout the cruise. There’s absolutely no shortage of things to keep the party going at night.
Embarkation
Embarking this cruise was a breeze! The full details of the quick and painless embarkation process plus the ability to go directly to your stateroom to drop off your carry on luggage, in my day 1 report.
Debarkation
On MSC Seascape, all guests are asked to vacate their staterooms by 7am, regardless of when you are scheduled to disembark. Luggage tags are distributed the night before for those looking to check their bags off the ship. The number on the tag cooresponds with an aproximate time you’ll be able to get off the ship as well as your meeting location. Even though some may not be disembarking till 9am, you still must be out of your room by 7am.
For those who want to carry their own luggage off, like myself, you can be the first off the ship as soon as we’re cleared by customs and immigration.
Since I was doing self-assist, or self-debarkation, I didn’t check my luggage, but kept it with me to carry off myself in the morning.
The ship arrived in Miami around 5am, and self-debarkation was scheduled to begin at 7:20am. I left my room at 6:45am, went around the corner to the elevators, fully expecting to end up carrying by bags down to deck 6 as elevators would be full. Well, I got an empty elevator car. I was pretty much one of the first people in line, which makes sense, as many of these international guests probably checked their luggage and have late flights. At exactly 7am, we were cleared and debarkation began.
The whole self-debark process is usually a complete mess regardless of the cruise line, but this was anything but.
Once in the terminal, facial recognition was used to clear immigation making this a smooth process. I was in my car at 7:15am and back home in Delray Beach a little after 8am.
Both embarkation and debarkation was a pleasure on this trip!
Overall Rating
I’ve been a fan of MSC since my first cruise on them ten years ago. I’ve watched the many changes the line has made to ships, service, food, and entertainment in order to cater to the American market they are quickly expanding in.
Are they perfect? No.
Is there still room to improve? Yes.
Are all the negative reviews about MSC valid? No. The majority of the complaints about MSC center around food and they continue to improve in this area making menus more “familiar” to Americans. However, the menus are still very Medeterranian centric focusing on fresh, simple ingredients, while Americans tend to want fried, sauced, and gravied foods.
The ship is simply stunning and the crew are constantly polishing, dusting, vacuuming, and doing whatever it take to make the ship sparkle. While it does have some quirkly layouts as far as getting around and those unisex communal bathrooms, the Seascape is a exceptional destination in itself.
While not a five-star experience, but if I was in the Yacht Club accommodations I’m sure it would be, this cruise on MSC Seascape earns a very solid 4-star rating!
It was great to be back on MSC and look forward to being back again soon!
Thanks for following along on my latest adventure at sea.