We booked a 7 night Northern Europe Trip on the MSC Virtuosa. We were only able to take advantage of 5 nights due to leaving the passports behind in our hotel, but we did not miss any of the ports. We have sailed on MSC before, on the Seashore, and enjoyed our experience. We chose Virtuosa this time mostly because we were stuck in Germany and there wasn’t many other options.
We had two rooms in the Yacht Club. Room 14008 and Room 14012. There’s one room between our 2 rooms but it wasn’t a big deal. The rooms were nice – plenty of space for two people. We have sailed a few times in the Retreat on Celebrity, and I must say, for a comparable product at a lower price, Yacht Club is a good product. Similar to the Retreat, the Yacht Club comes with a butler, priority embarkation/disembarkation, premium drink package and premium internet package included. The things special to MSC is that we also get daily newspaper, and complimentary access to the thermal suite. Unfortunately my kids were not old enough to be allowed in the thermal suite (nor were they old enough to drink). I think both the Celebrity Retreat and the MSC Yacht Club offer much better products than the NCL Haven.
The Ship
The ship is beautiful. Then again, I say that about every ship. But I really do think the ship is beautiful. The main stretch of the ship reminds me of Fremont Street in Las Vegas. It really doesn’t look like a ship. It looks more like a shopping mall.
The ship has a nice water park, with ropes course nearby. Even though the weather was pretty cold, my kids enjoyed the waterpark very much. Unfortunately, our butler spoke so little English and told us the ropes course was closed (when it wasn’t) and by the time we found out it wasn’t closed, it was too late, so my girls never got to do it.
The ship also had a robot bartender. His services were not included in any kind of drink package, and the drinks weren’t cheap here, but we ordered one just to watch it done.
The robot could make alcohol-free drinks, as well as custom made drinks. The tables in this space had huge touch screens on them that allowed you to play galaxy themed games. The drink comes in a special cup that is yours to keep. It was definitely a family friendly activity that was worth a visit. By the way, you can watch all the action even if you don’t order a drink!
Service
Overall we were satisfied with the service. The excursion desk was extremely helpful when we lost all of our reservations since we embarked at a different port than planned. They were able to reinstate everything. The Yacht Club restaurant service was good but the waiters often didn’t know or didn’t understand what alcohol we wanted. (Asking for Chopin vodka will guarantee some blank looks.) My biggest gripe was the butler who spoke very little English, but he did work hard and try his best.
Food
Like the Retreat on Celebrity’s restaurant, Luminae, the Yacht Club restaurant is open 3 meals a day and the menu changes everyday. That is a huge advantage compare to, say, the Haven restaurant on NCL, which has the same menu every day. Something else I found where this ship was winning – protein shakes or just shakes in general. You can find some decent shake options at the sports bar and the spa bar. Shakes are included in the premium drink package that comes with Yacht Club.
Since the Yacht Club restaurant’s menu was sufficient, we never tried any specialty dining. Many Americans would find the MSC food to be bland. I actually enjoyed them. By day 3, we started seeing salt and pepper shakers on the tables.
Since we spent New Year’s Eve on board, the ship did have a little special celebration with a special menu, which was nice.
Entertainment
We typically enjoy all of the entertainment on every ship we’ve been on, and this was no different. The shows on MSC seem to be more singing focused, perhaps to accommodate the various backgrounds their patrons come from. There was also some acrobatics that was very good. One of the shows we saw was of Christina Ellinas from The Voice UK. The ship had an entertainment special for New Year’s Eve as well.
Activities
Since we missed 2 days of our cruise and we had excursions everyday, we didn’t get to do too many activities on the ship. One of the things our kids really looked forward to was the Master Chef at Sea. This was the biggest letdown of the whole trip I believe. My kids are fans of the show and have some experience in cooking – certainly not at the level of the junior chefs we see on TV, but they thought they would get to actually cook. No. There were TONS of kids who entered the “contest” and all everyone got to do was spreading some icing looking thing on what looked like donut cakes. Then the crewmember would put all of the finished products on plates, with names on them, most of the time completely messing up the icing in the process. Then they would go through dozens of plates to pick the “winner”.
Kids Camp
The kids camp on MSC are Lego themed and both of my kids did enjoy their time there. The camp opened long hours and there’s space for basketball and other physical activities.
Miscellaneous
We celebrated our 3 year anniversary on this trip. They always ask if you are on the ship to celebrate anything and we did let them know this. Our butler did a good job of decorating our room and making us feel special which we appreciated.
Conclusion
Thinking back, I’m glad we booked this cruise last minute. It was expensive, to pay for 2 rooms at full price on both rooms even though our kids couldn’t drink or use the complimentary spa, but we had a great experience overall. I was so hung up on the fact I left our passports in the safe and lost 2 days of the cruise that I was having a hard time enjoying it all at the time but now looking back, I’m more at peace with it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the passports again!