MSC World America Eastern Caribbean Cruise Review

Day 2 onboard MSC World America was our first sea day as we made our way toward Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, and sea days on a ship this size are always interesting because this is when you really find out how well a vessel carrying thousands of people handles having everyone onboard at the same time.

Before we get into today, if you missed Day 1, that covered my Brightline trip from Boca Raton to Miami, the usual PortMiami traffic nightmare, MSC’s ridiculously easy embarkation process at its new terminal, a look at my Fantastica Deluxe Balcony stateroom on Deck 11, the MSC for Me wristband, sailaway, and dinner at Butcher’s Cut Steakhouse. Day 1 was a pretty easy start to the cruise, but the first sea day is where everyone settles in, starts exploring, and decides they all want breakfast, lunch, a pool chair, and entertainment at exactly the same time.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Puerto Plata, and it’s worth pointing out that when Carnival cruisers hear “Puerto Plata,” they often immediately think of Amber Cove. They’re not the same thing. Amber Cove is Carnival Corporation’s purpose-built cruise destination outside the city, complete with a big pool, swim-up bar, shops, restaurants, and everything you need if your idea of a perfect port day involves getting off one floating resort and immediately entering another land-based one.

MSC World America, on the other hand, is headed to Taino Bay in Puerto Plata proper. Having visited both several times, I’ll take the actual city every time because I’d rather spend a few hours walking around, checking out the architecture, seeing what daily life looks like, and repeatedly saying “no” to pushy taxi drivers than spend another day sitting next to a cruise-port pool. That’s tomorrow, though.

Breakfast Without Fighting Over Bacon

Sea day breakfast on a ship this size does not automatically mean heading to the buffet and entering combat over bacon and hash browns. World America has several other options, and if you’re not in a hurry, I’d recommend taking advantage of them.

Hexagon Restaurant was serving the “Tour de Brunch” from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., which gives you a much more relaxed option than the buffet and also lets you sleep in without feeling like you missed breakfast entirely. Yacht Club guests have even more choices, with breakfast available at both the Yacht Club Grill and the Yacht Club Restaurant. The Grill offers a smaller, more casual breakfast menu, while the private restaurant provides the full sit-down experience.

Available on: MSC World America

From the Bakery

Selection of Pastries

your choice: croissants, pan au chocolate, Danish, muffins

Toast

wheat, gluten free

Bagel

whipped cream cheese

English Muffin

butter, jam

Coffee and Juices

Fresh Pressed Orange Juice

$6.00

Cappuccino

$4.25

Espresso

$2.50

American Coffee

Tea

Iced Tea

Lemonade

Arnold Palmer

Juices

Cracked and Scrambled

Eggs Your Way

fried, scrambled poached, hard or soft-boiled

Build Your Own Omelet

choice of Cheddar, bacon, ham, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, onion (egg whites available on request)

Eggs Benedict

English muffin, hollandaise, choice of smoked salmon or ham

Lobster Benedict

English muffin, hollandaise, sauteed spinach

The Grand Tour

Steak, Egg and Chips

United Kingdom. patte fiat, two fried eggs, thick cut chips

Huevos Rancheros

Mexico. corn tortilla topped with chicken, fresh salsa, and a fried egg

Bucatini alla Carbonara

Italy. pancetta, cream, egg yolks, Parmesan cheese

Jumbo Cheeseburger

United States. 8-oz beef burger topped with brisket, onion rings, American cheddar and bacon on a brioche bun

Karaage Fried Chicken

Japan. stir-fried rice with bacon, jimmy egg

Chana Masala and Aloo Bhaji

India. chickpeas and curried potatoes, traditional fried bread

Pain Perdu

France. custard-dipped, thick-cut brioche with berries, whipped cream

Shakshuka

Tunisia. two eggs baked in a spicy tomato sauce with peppers, onions, garlic and spices

The Petite Tour - Lighter Fare

Cold Cereals

assorted dry cereals

Oatmeal

brown sugar, cinnamon

Granola

cinnamon, raisins

Tomato Soup

grilled cheese

Chia Coconut Pudding

fresh fruit salad

Yogurt Parfait

balsamic strawberry, homemade granola

Caesar Salad

add grilled chicken or salmon

Doremi Bites

French Toast Sticks

maple syrup

Chicken Nuggets

choice of dipping sauce

Mac and Cheese

in a creamy 5-cheese sauce

Mini Cheeseburger

Sides

Crispy Bacon

Breakfast Sausage

Grilled Ham

Corned Beef Hash

Hash Brown Potatoes

Fresh Fruit Salad

Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake

chantilly cream, fresh strawberries

West Indies Bread and Butter Pudding

toasted butter brioche bread in cardamom cream with caramelized banana

Brownie a la Mode

rich chocolate brownie, served warm with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream

Ice Cream

daily assortment

Drinks Around the World - Smoothies

Strawberry Yogurt

$14.00

yogurt, pineapple, vanilla, strawberries

Watermelon

$14.00

watermelon, cantaloupe, banana, yogurt milk, lime

Drinks Around the World - Mimosas

Classic Mimosa

$14.00

orange juice, bubbles

Tiffany Mimosa

$14.00

Blue Curacao, Sprite, bubbles

Drinks Around the World - Spritz

Hugo Spritz

$14.00

elderflower, bubbles

Strawberry Basil Spritz

$14.00

strawberry, basil, bubbles

Drinks Around the World - Bloody Marys

Bloody Mary

$14.00

Mr and Mrs T, vodka

Spicy Bloody Mary

$14.00

Mr and Mrs T, gin, celery salt, chili, bacon

Drinks Around the World - Martini

Espresso Martini

vodka, dark creme de cacao, espresso, coffee liqueur, simple syrup

⬇ Download PDF All MSC Restaurant Menus All MSC Bar Menus

🖼️ Menu Images

This is one of those areas where World America benefits from having so many dining spaces. The buffet is going to get most of the attention because it’s quick and easy, but on a sea day when nobody has anywhere they need to be, I’d rather sit down, have someone bring me coffee, and avoid starting my morning shoulder-to-shoulder with a few thousand of my closest new friends cutting lines.

Dr. E, Cruise Directors and All Those Announcements

I know there are people who specifically choose cruises based on who the cruise director is going to be onboard. After more than 25 years of cruising, I still don’t understand that concept, but for a lot of people the cruise director can apparently make or break the trip. Why? I have no idea, but it’s definitely a thing.

MSC World America’s primary cruise director since launch has been Eversen Bevelle, better known onboard as Dr. E. He joined MSC after working for Carnival and was the cruise director when World America entered service in April 2025. Earlier on, he went by “The Reverend Dr. E,” but somewhere along the way the Reverend disappeared and now we’re just left with Dr. E.

Dr. E from MSC World America (Photo credit: Facebook)

If you’ve sailed with him before, you already know his thing. Every announcement starts with him singing “good morning,” “good afternoon,” or “good evening,” and he does it every single time. Some passengers absolutely love that kind of cruise-director personality and enjoy having a familiar voice constantly popping up throughout the day. I’m not one of them.

My ideal cruise director is almost invisible. Open the show, introduce the act, tell me if something important is happening, maybe show up at a major event, and then disappear again. I don’t need a running commentary over the public address system every time there’s a gold-by-the-inch sale, bingo session, spa special, art auction, or something else someone onboard is trying to sell me.

World America also has a lot of announcements throughout the day, and some of them are both long and loud. Once the English version is done, you get the Spanish version, so whatever was just blasted through the ship comes right back at you all over again.

To be fair, MSC has improved this considerably from the early days when it first started making a serious push into the U.S. market. Back then, announcements could be repeated in English, Spanish, Italian, and French, meaning you’d sometimes hear the same thing four times. Now we’re down to two, which I guess is progress, but if you’re sitting somewhere looking for peace and quiet, even two can feel like one too many.

Beverage Tasting (Events?) on MSC World America

I do like my beverage tasting events, and World America has several of them scattered throughout the cruise. The catch is that not everything MSC labels as an “experience” is really an event in the traditional sense.

Take the Bourbon and Bacon Experience at Elixir. It sounds like something you’d sign up for and attend at a certain time with someone guiding you through bourbon and bacon pairings, but it’s really more of a specialty drink pairing you order at the bar for $30. The Highland Park Experience is the same.

The Macallan Whisky Experience is different. I did that one on a previous World America cruise, and it’s a proper tasting held in a small private room just off Elixir. For $30, it’s actually a pretty good deal because you get to sample some pours that would cost considerably more if you ordered them individually at the bar.

The Macallan tasting on MSC World America

There’s also a $30 beer tasting held at Masters of the Sea British Pub or the All-Stars Sports Bar, and that one is structured as an actual tasting event. I signed up for the Macallan tasting again on this cruise, but the beer tasting conflicted with a wine tasting I wanted to attend later in the week, so a decision had to be made.

Wine won.

None of these tastings are included with MSC’s beverage packages, so even if you’ve already paid for drinks, you’re still paying the additional fee for the event. That’s something worth knowing before you start signing up for every tasting on the schedule and wonder why your onboard account suddenly looks like you should be attending the next Friends of Bill W meeting.

Lunch Options Are Everywhere, Until Everyone Chooses the Buffet

One thing World America definitely does not have a shortage of is food. At lunchtime, you can grab pizza, burgers, hot dogs, Greek food, sushi, specialty dining, or sit down for something more substantial depending on how much effort you want to put into the meal.

La Boca Grill up on Deck 18 serves pizza, burgers, hot dogs, cookies, and other grab-and-go items near the pool. Paxos has its regular sit-down Greek restaurant along with a takeout window where you can pick up lighter items and eat them outside on the World Promenade. Down on Deck 6, Pizza & Burger is almost always busy and serves MSC’s very good pizza well into the night.

Up at The Harbour, families can grab drinks and lighter bites without dragging everyone away from the slides, ropes course, Cliffhanger, and other attractions. Several specialty restaurants, including Eataly, Butcher’s Cut, Kaito Sushi, and Kaito Teppanyaki, are also open for lunch, which can actually be a good time to try them if you’d rather keep dinner open for something else.

The main dining rooms don’t serve lunch, but Yacht Club guests have their own lunch options at the Yacht Club Grill and private restaurant. So there are plenty of choices, which makes what happened at the buffet later in the afternoon even more ridiculous.

Plenty of Pool Chairs, Which Was a Surprise

One of the things I expected to see on the first sea day was the usual sea-day chair war around the pools, but surprisingly, that really wasn’t happening.

There were plenty of available loungers around both the main Mar Azul pool and the adults-only Zen area at the back of the ship. This sailing wasn’t completely full, which obviously helped, but even on a not-quite-sold-out cruise, I’ve been on plenty of ships where every decent chair is claimed before breakfast. That wasn’t the case here.

Main (Mar Azul) pool on MSC World America

There are two of these pools - one on each side - in the adults only area on MSC World America — There are two of these pools – one on each side – in the adults only area on MSC World America

One of the Zen Pools on MSC World America

The main pool still had plenty of activity going on, but there was enough room to find a chair without circling the deck multiple times. The Zen area was also surprisingly manageable, which makes it a good option if you want something quieter.

World America generally does a pretty good job of spreading people among several outdoor areas. Then I went to the buffet, and it was…

…an Absolute Hot Mess!

I wandered through the main buffet on Deck 18 with one simple goal: make a quick salad.

That plan lasted about 30 seconds.

Sea-day lunch at a cruise ship buffet is notoriously chaotic, but World America took things to another level. The main buffet is split into two sides, with both serving essentially the same assortment of food, including pizza, along with dedicated gluten-free and kids sections. There’s a good amount of seating, and there are even some tables outside, so in theory there should be enough room to absorb a crowd.

A look at the buffet seating area on MSC World America

In reality, the entire area was wall-to-wall people. Every station had passengers lined up, the walkways were packed with people moving in every possible direction, and even when there was an obvious line, that didn’t stop some people from deciding the line didn’t apply to them.

Just trying to move through the buffet was a challenge, and once you actually managed to get food, you faced the next challenge of finding somewhere to sit. I looked around the entire Deck 18 buffet and couldn’t find one empty table. If you don’t like crowds, this is absolutely not where you want to be at peak lunch on a sea day.

There is another option upstairs on Deck 19, where World America has a smaller buffet with a more limited selection during breakfast and lunch. At night, that space becomes La Brasserie, a secondary dining venue for Yacht Club guests. If you just need something quick and don’t care about having the full buffet selection, going upstairs is probably the better move.

I decided to skip the salad.

That’s how bad it was.

Yes, World America Has a Barber Shop

Here’s one of those little “did you know?” things rather than something I personally took advantage of for obvious reasons: MSC World America has a full-service men’s barber shop.

Other MSC ships have barber services as well, but the one on World America has a cool vintage theme that makes it look more like a traditional old-school barber shop than something tucked into a cruise ship spa. It’s another example of just how much random stuff is packed into a ship this size.

I’m told it isn’t cheap, which is probably not surprising considering this is a cruise ship. But if you boarded looking like you needed a haircut and suddenly decide halfway through the week that the vacation photos aren’t going to fix themselves, you do have options.

Gala Night on MSC World America

Tonight was Gala Night, and while not everyone onboard takes the suggested dress code seriously, plenty of passengers still use it as an excuse to dress up, take family photos, and make the evening a little more special.

MSC adds a few traditional cruise-night touches, including the Captain’s Presentation at 8:15 p.m., where the ship’s senior officers are introduced and the captain appears before guests have the opportunity to have their photo taken with him. It’s one of those old cruise traditions that still lives on.

The main dining rooms also serve a special Gala Night menu, and yes, there’s lobster. Put complimentary lobster on a cruise ship dining room menu and suddenly people who haven’t been on time for dinner all week somehow remember exactly when their seating starts.

MSC World America Main Dining Room Gala Dinner Menu - Night 2

Available on: MSC World America

Starters - Daily Specials

Creamy Salmon Rillettes

fresh cucumber caper salad

Eggplant Parmigiana

au gratin with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil tomato sauce

Steak Tartare

raw marinated tenderloin, capers and shallots, Dijon aioli

Lobster Bisque

sherry and spices, finished with brandy

Starters