Steve and I cruised for a week on MSC Sinfonia by MSC Cruises. How did we experience this trip?

For both Steve and I the week on MSC Sinfonia was our second sea cruise and our first with MSC. Philippe and Christophe, friends of ours, highly recommended the company. I was a bit wary. Partly due to what read beforehand, partly due to reputation and partly due to prejudice. “An Italian company?”

Hard product

The hard product, the hardware, the ship is more than decent. We really enjoyed the cabin. We like the lay-out of the ship. We slept like babies, the theatre is great, the pools are nice. I was unimpressed by the gym.

Soft product

The soft product? Well, there’s room for improvement. The food wasn’t great all the time. Lunch time at La Terrazza was a battlefield.

There were two main issues which frustrated us many times: chaos and lack of communication.

The first day was a small disaster. But even afterwards the crew often couldn’t follow its schedule.

Communication

*Sigh*

Bad communication, lack of communication and getting lost in translation were issues. A few examples.

Steve ordered a wine and got a hot chocolate. Those even don’t sound the same.

The menu at Il Covo restaurant was unclear. On normal days the dishes were nicely laid-out by starters, mains and dessert. On gala evening not. So which is which? Which do we choose? We expected four courses but got three.

As was asked by the crew, we went to book a seat on the tender to Mykonos. We weren’t at that point aware Mykonos was cancelled. Why not put up a sign? Or announce earlier? It would have saved us queuing for (half) an our.

There were all little things who added up to more frustration.

Conclusion

If I’m to book MSC in the future, I will adapt my expectations. I hope chaos was down this particular crew’s leadership.

How did we experience this cruise? With mixed feelings.