We have holidayed on MSC twice. I highly recommend the Aurea Experience which has priority boarding and disembarkation, anytime dining in a dedicated restaurant or main restaurant area, excellent waiter and room service, complementary access to the spa area and special sundeck, free room service, cabins with the best views, right to chose your cabin before the trip. Aurea is also a lot cheaper than Yacht Club.
We ate at The Butchers Cut. The food and service were fantastic. As for the additional paid for shows, they are cheaper if bought before the cruise, £9 as opposed to £15 onboard. When we were in the MDR, all the waiters did a little bit of singing and not just the female waiters.
Great to watch, have recently booked to cruise on this ship later in the year. Will be first cruise since 2018, owing to ill health I had to spend 2 years locked away with face masks etc so am very pleased to be getting back to normal life again.
Welcome back to cruising Ian - there's a few crowds and enclosed spaces to prepare yourself for mentally, but its also pretty easy to avoid the worst of it if its still uncomfortable to be in those scenarios... Have a great time either way!
@@MattsOceans Thanks - I'm fine, recently was at Eurovision so crowds don't worry me (anymore). One matter that is relevant is how cruises were regarded as places where illness can spread very quickly, probably this is why everyone is encouraged to wash their hands before entering the dining rooms and buffet areas!
We are booked for 2 weeks on Virtuosa in October - our first time with MSC and cost was the big factor. Your review was really useful, thanks. We normally use the speciality restaurants but based on your experience I don't think we'll buy a package but take a look once we are on board! One thing nobody ever mentions is the library, do MSC have one? It's usually my favourite quiet space on busy ships but a few lines seem to have stopped doing them - is kindle to blame maybe?
Hi Matt, I was on the same cruise and would agree they have upped their game since my previous cruise to Norway with them last year. I have to say though at 4200 passengers it was full enough for me and would not want to be on board at full capacity. The food was very good and as one of our party didn't like mushrooms and onions they always found a nice meal to eat and the service was very good. The entertainment, as you say has improved, with some really good acts and whilst Arkymea was very good, saw it last year, we also watched the other show which wasn't particularly good. I did find disembarkation at some of the destinations was also a bit slow to the point where you could not board the coach at time for your excursion so would have been cut a bit short. Funchal would agree Madeira was fab and did the toboggan run which was great fun. We tried Hola and thouroughly enjoyed it and thought it excellent value for money and you can choose your spice level. Kind regards
Thanks again! Our early dining time pushed our evenings earlier than we perhaps would have wanted, but it did keep us away from the worst of the crowds... I don't think you would ever get more than a couple of hundred more adults on the ship but you could get 1,500 more kids... Which would be a challenge!
Cant wait to get on the Virtuosa in 2 months. All i want to do is eat at the buffet and drink every kind of cocktail i can get my hands on.... sit by the pool... by the deck... enjoy a couple of sunsets and see a few port cities. I went the extra mile to try the Easy Plus package this time. I hope it will be good
@@MattsOceans we seem to have similar levels of expectation of service which must resonate with me. Off to ACE next week with BA however our return flight has been leased out to Avion Express. One to look into for a story maybe? I am getting reports on FlyerTalk that they are pretty awful and at my 6’7” it looks like it won’t be fun.
Thanks Steve! Sailing quite close to the copyright winds with that finale but no adverse consequences yet! If you like kids, August is your month! If not, pick another month!
We went on the Virtuosa last year on a Northern Europe Cruise and had a great time! Only issues we had was the lack of seating in some of the bar areas, other than that we couldn't fault it
Thanks Chris - the Virtuosa bar in the Galleria was comically hard to get a seat at mid-evening... Our answer was to start our evening around 5pm and we never had an issue!!
Hello Matt, Thank you for your informative Virtuosa cruise videos. Your honest, unbiased approach really stands out, and I find your channel uniquely helpful. I have sent you an email through your blog if you don't mind with some questions I have about my upcoming trip on the Virtuosa. I would really appreciate it if you would find the time to read it and reply. Thank you!
Great video but I would respectfully disagree with you on the muster drill - by having everyone descend at the same time, it gives an idea of how it busy would be in an emergency situation when things wouldn’t be staggered (albeit done without the panic!) We had a great time when we did Iceland & Norway on MSC Virtuosa and found the crew superb and food fantastic!
That's a really good point actually... Although as you will have probably experienced yourself, MSC simulates how busy a muster might be in the Galleria Virtuosa every evening around the time the party starts!!!
Great insight. May I ask does your mum use a mobility scooter on the ship and if so can you use one for getting on and off the ship. I'm sailing October 24 on Virtuosa for the first time however have recently damaged my knee
She doesn't - she just hangs on to me!! You do see scooters aboard although I believe there are some restrictions to do with batteries and recharging.... Quite a few people rent devices from the port or perhaps the ship. There's an assistance form / process when you make a booking. Some of the gangways can be quite steep so would be challenging on a scooter....
Matt, completely agree with you. We'd a wonderful time on the same cruise as you and the same disembarkation chaos; it took us 2 1/2 hours to get a taxi from the Horizon Cruise Terminal! (We even had the same experience of being pushed aside by a Yacht Club Butler who, I am pretty sure one of these days will get a resounding punch on the nose for his rudeness from a less tolerant passenger!) Really love MSC Cruises and that was number 10 with them! Horizon Cruise Terminal in Southampton, however, is another matter; it's very poorly managed and swamped by traffic. I would have serious doubts about repeating that, especially as I had a disabled passenger with me.
Thanks Gavin. We slowly inched past the taxi queue and I felt for you... Last year on and off and this year on was not an issue at all - just that particular disembarkation was a nightmare. Had some comments that disembarkation since ours has been straightforward too.... Guess we were just unlucky...
Interesting to see a really positive review of MSC as of all the cruise lines they do seem to attract the most flak from all the UA-cam reviewers. Still not sure its for me though. The ships are just too big. I think as I get older smaller is better and i’d be wary about travelling on anything 2000+ now. Interesting to hear that the shows are now 30 - 40 mins. As I thought that even the 45 min length they have generally been in my experience often feels a bit rushed & short.. And as for a 5.30 dinner!! I can only think Is this an option carried over from American sailings where ridiculously early meal times are the norm. And finally - how did you find the sea days as I know they’ve been a bête noire of yours previously?
Thanks Tony. I certainly understand the hesitancy about the larger ships. I think the larger ships even acknowledge this with the "ship within a ship" concept - although the Yacht Club had other drawbacks on the virtuosa as I'm sure you've seen! I think the shows are short as they cram 3 into an evening as the theatre only has 900 seats... It didn't feel that rushed if I think back... I felt that the 5:30/8:30 split may have been a continental thing where those nationalities tend to take longer to eat than perhaps us Brits do (assuming you're British!) 5 sea days was a few too many but its the price you pay for a UK departure which is much better for Mum. I coped... I bought the wifi package specifically for those days so I could do a little "work" - I say "work" as I enjoy what I do and it doesn't feel a burden to do stuff while I'm on "holiday" these days. So I coped with the sea days!
@@MattsOceans Would be interesting to here how the experience on the “ship within a ship” compares with the standard offering on a more upmarket brand as I suspect the costs are similar. The only more upmarket line I’ve tried so far is Windstar (very low visibility in the uk but loved it) although was going to try Regent Seven Seas before Covid intervened
Very easy - there's a "Manage My Booking" section on the website where you can specify your requirements. If that doesn't work for whatever reason, find your stateroom attendant as soon as you get to your cabin and ask them to reconfigure it! Have a great trip
Hi Matt. I'm sailing on the Virtuoso to Spain & France this month, and your videos have been helpful. I'm considering the Canaries in August, but am concerned about the number of sea days. Do you think the Canaries is a good itinerary & do they offer good deals for those booking on board? Thanks.
Hi Paul. I think you'll know after a few days on the France and Spain cruise if you'd be happy with a longer one with more sea days. I found it ok, although the Canaries aren't a riveting destination at the end of all of those sea days if you're all about the destinations... The rebooking offer is ok - I got a modest on-board credit but you'll get double the status points for a cruise booked this way as well as the ability to get the fare discounted if you notice the it get cheaper after you've booked. So in that regard its a low-risk option although other cruise lines are a bit more generous
erm... sweet caroline is/was a neil diamond original. Can't believe Elvis sang this lol, now hijaked by certain football fans lol. grea video Matt. dinner at 5.30? no thanks lol. I guess I'm a european and the later the dinner service would be great...
Thanks again - I googled whether Elvis did sing that song as I was sceptical but I found a video of him singing it! Not one he was famous for certainly! I think the dinner timings are set with European diners in mind!
I’ll be on this ship next August going to fjords. I’ve heard it gets very busy - do you have any tips in terms of which bars are quieter, or times of day I’d be more likely to get a seat?
The experience is quite different in the Summer holidays when you can add 1,000 kids to the equation.... Head for bars away from the Galleria and for a sun lounger, the only real answer is go early... If you're not so bothered about being close to or in sight of the pool, there's a lot more options higher up the ship.
@@MattsOceans Thanks! I'm not bothered about the pool, so higher up sounds good to me. I'm hoping the summer holidays won't be *too* bad with kids to Norway compared to, say, a cruise to the Mediterranean -- but obviously will still be very busy!
That's a really good question and one I always think about before a cruise but rarely remember to test when aboard! It doesn't feel as salty as an ocean but doesn't also feel as chlorinated as a municipal swimming pool...
The waterslides were definitely salt water and jacuzzis definitely chlorine… the pools I think were probably chlorinated but nowhere near as heavily as the hot tubs (I might be wrong on the pools though) 😊
We were on that same cruise sadly your video did not truly reflect the positives of sailing down to the canaries and I might add we stayed in YC first and last time over priced over rated.
Thanks Gareth - good feedback! I say I enjoyed it but for me, someone who doesn't love sea days and likes to have large and interesting ports to visit on my cruises, the UK to the Canaries isn't perhaps the best choice! Thanks for the feedback on the yacht club too - a few people have said its not worth x times the price of a regular cabin...
Love your videos. Info on gluten free dining options would be very helpful.
Cheers and happy cruising.
I've made a mental note to look at other dietary options on future cruises - thanks
We have holidayed on MSC twice. I highly recommend the Aurea Experience which has priority boarding and disembarkation, anytime dining in a dedicated restaurant or main restaurant area, excellent waiter and room service, complementary access to the spa area and special sundeck, free room service, cabins with the best views, right to chose your cabin before the trip. Aurea is also a lot cheaper than Yacht Club.
Thanks - the Yacht Club is very expensive so that may be a good option for many
We ate at The Butchers Cut. The food and service were fantastic. As for the additional paid for shows, they are cheaper if bought before the cruise, £9 as opposed to £15 onboard. When we were in the MDR, all the waiters did a little bit of singing and not just the female waiters.
Good to know about the show...
Great to watch, have recently booked to cruise on this ship later in the year. Will be first cruise since 2018, owing to ill health I had to spend 2 years locked away with face masks etc so am very pleased to be getting back to normal life again.
Welcome back to cruising Ian - there's a few crowds and enclosed spaces to prepare yourself for mentally, but its also pretty easy to avoid the worst of it if its still uncomfortable to be in those scenarios... Have a great time either way!
@@MattsOceans Thanks - I'm fine, recently was at Eurovision so crowds don't worry me (anymore). One matter that is relevant is how cruises were regarded as places where illness can spread very quickly, probably this is why everyone is encouraged to wash their hands before entering the dining rooms and buffet areas!
We are booked for 2 weeks on Virtuosa in October - our first time with MSC and cost was the big factor. Your review was really useful, thanks. We normally use the speciality restaurants but based on your experience I don't think we'll buy a package but take a look once we are on board! One thing nobody ever mentions is the library, do MSC have one? It's usually my favourite quiet space on busy ships but a few lines seem to have stopped doing them - is kindle to blame maybe?
Thanks. No library on the Virtuosa sadly... I think society is moving away from old fashioned reading of a good book....
Hi Matt, I was on the same cruise and would agree they have upped their game since my previous cruise to Norway with them last year.
I have to say though at 4200 passengers it was full enough for me and would not want to be on board at full capacity.
The food was very good and as one of our party didn't like mushrooms and onions they always found a nice meal to eat and the service was very good.
The entertainment, as you say has improved, with some really good acts and whilst Arkymea was very good, saw it last year, we also watched the other show which wasn't particularly good.
I did find disembarkation at some of the destinations was also a bit slow to the point where you could not board the coach at time for your excursion so would have been cut a bit short.
Funchal would agree Madeira was fab and did the toboggan run which was great fun.
We tried Hola and thouroughly enjoyed it and thought it excellent value for money and you can choose your spice level. Kind regards
Thanks again! Our early dining time pushed our evenings earlier than we perhaps would have wanted, but it did keep us away from the worst of the crowds... I don't think you would ever get more than a couple of hundred more adults on the ship but you could get 1,500 more kids... Which would be a challenge!
Cant wait to get on the Virtuosa in 2 months. All i want to do is eat at the buffet and drink every kind of cocktail i can get my hands on.... sit by the pool... by the deck... enjoy a couple of sunsets and see a few port cities. I went the extra mile to try the Easy Plus package this time. I hope it will be good
Have a great time!
I’ve not been in a cruise and I’m not keen but I still watch the videos!
Thanks! Appreciate the support... I try to make the videos entertaining even if cruising isn't your thing
@@MattsOceans we seem to have similar levels of expectation of service which must resonate with me. Off to ACE next week with BA however our return flight has been leased out to Avion Express. One to look into for a story maybe? I am getting reports on FlyerTalk that they are pretty awful and at my 6’7” it looks like it won’t be fun.
I'd definitely be keen to give MSC a go after your videos, really liked the finalle too :) I'll just remember like you say to avoid school holidays!
Thanks Steve! Sailing quite close to the copyright winds with that finale but no adverse consequences yet! If you like kids, August is your month! If not, pick another month!
We went on the Virtuosa last year on a Northern Europe Cruise and had a great time! Only issues we had was the lack of seating in some of the bar areas, other than that we couldn't fault it
Thanks Chris - the Virtuosa bar in the Galleria was comically hard to get a seat at mid-evening... Our answer was to start our evening around 5pm and we never had an issue!!
What time of year did you go?
Hello Matt,
Thank you for your informative Virtuosa cruise videos. Your honest, unbiased approach really stands out, and I find your channel uniquely helpful. I have sent you an email through your blog if you don't mind with some questions I have about my upcoming trip on the Virtuosa. I would really appreciate it if you would find the time to read it and reply. Thank you!
I hope I helped!
Great video but I would respectfully disagree with you on the muster drill - by having everyone descend at the same time, it gives an idea of how it busy would be in an emergency situation when things wouldn’t be staggered (albeit done without the panic!)
We had a great time when we did Iceland & Norway on MSC Virtuosa and found the crew superb and food fantastic!
That's a really good point actually... Although as you will have probably experienced yourself, MSC simulates how busy a muster might be in the Galleria Virtuosa every evening around the time the party starts!!!
We sailed msc virtosa…last year …London to Dubai….amazing…only downfall was the Chinese tour groups….nerveragain
It's not for everyone....
Great insight. May I ask does your mum use a mobility scooter on the ship and if so can you use one for getting on and off the ship. I'm sailing October 24 on Virtuosa for the first time however have recently damaged my knee
She doesn't - she just hangs on to me!! You do see scooters aboard although I believe there are some restrictions to do with batteries and recharging.... Quite a few people rent devices from the port or perhaps the ship. There's an assistance form / process when you make a booking. Some of the gangways can be quite steep so would be challenging on a scooter....
Matt, completely agree with you. We'd a wonderful time on the same cruise as you and the same disembarkation chaos; it took us 2 1/2 hours to get a taxi from the Horizon Cruise Terminal! (We even had the same experience of being pushed aside by a Yacht Club Butler who, I am pretty sure one of these days will get a resounding punch on the nose for his rudeness from a less tolerant passenger!) Really love MSC Cruises and that was number 10 with them! Horizon Cruise Terminal in Southampton, however, is another matter; it's very poorly managed and swamped by traffic. I would have serious doubts about repeating that, especially as I had a disabled passenger with me.
Thanks Gavin. We slowly inched past the taxi queue and I felt for you... Last year on and off and this year on was not an issue at all - just that particular disembarkation was a nightmare. Had some comments that disembarkation since ours has been straightforward too.... Guess we were just unlucky...
Interesting to see a really positive review of MSC as of all the cruise lines they do seem to attract the most flak from all the UA-cam reviewers.
Still not sure its for me though. The ships are just too big. I think as I get older smaller is better and i’d be wary about travelling on anything 2000+ now.
Interesting to hear that the shows are now 30 - 40 mins. As I thought that even the 45 min length they have generally been in my experience often feels a bit rushed & short..
And as for a 5.30 dinner!! I can only think Is this an option carried over from American sailings where ridiculously early meal times are the norm.
And finally - how did you find the sea days as I know they’ve been a bête noire of yours previously?
Thanks Tony. I certainly understand the hesitancy about the larger ships. I think the larger ships even acknowledge this with the "ship within a ship" concept - although the Yacht Club had other drawbacks on the virtuosa as I'm sure you've seen! I think the shows are short as they cram 3 into an evening as the theatre only has 900 seats... It didn't feel that rushed if I think back... I felt that the 5:30/8:30 split may have been a continental thing where those nationalities tend to take longer to eat than perhaps us Brits do (assuming you're British!) 5 sea days was a few too many but its the price you pay for a UK departure which is much better for Mum. I coped... I bought the wifi package specifically for those days so I could do a little "work" - I say "work" as I enjoy what I do and it doesn't feel a burden to do stuff while I'm on "holiday" these days. So I coped with the sea days!
@@MattsOceans Would be interesting to here how the experience on the “ship within a ship” compares with the standard offering on a more upmarket brand as I suspect the costs are similar. The only more upmarket line I’ve tried so far is Windstar (very low visibility in the uk but loved it) although was going to try Regent Seven Seas before Covid intervened
Booked a 2 night taster to Bruges next year, how easy is it to request the room made with twin beds? Thanks!
Very easy - there's a "Manage My Booking" section on the website where you can specify your requirements. If that doesn't work for whatever reason, find your stateroom attendant as soon as you get to your cabin and ask them to reconfigure it! Have a great trip
Do MSC have cruise participation with bingo and games on board? Also is there any free games like billiards, shuffleboard?
It's a very British style cruise out of the UK - daily bngo, quizes, trivias, games and so on. There were also deck games available
Hi Matt. I'm sailing on the Virtuoso to Spain & France this month, and your videos have been helpful. I'm considering the Canaries in August, but am concerned about the number of sea days. Do you think the Canaries is a good itinerary & do they offer good deals for those booking on board? Thanks.
Hi Paul. I think you'll know after a few days on the France and Spain cruise if you'd be happy with a longer one with more sea days. I found it ok, although the Canaries aren't a riveting destination at the end of all of those sea days if you're all about the destinations... The rebooking offer is ok - I got a modest on-board credit but you'll get double the status points for a cruise booked this way as well as the ability to get the fare discounted if you notice the it get cheaper after you've booked. So in that regard its a low-risk option although other cruise lines are a bit more generous
erm... sweet caroline is/was a neil diamond original. Can't believe Elvis sang this lol, now hijaked by certain football fans lol. grea video Matt. dinner at 5.30? no thanks lol. I guess I'm a european and the later the dinner service would be great...
Thanks again - I googled whether Elvis did sing that song as I was sceptical but I found a video of him singing it! Not one he was famous for certainly! I think the dinner timings are set with European diners in mind!
I’ll be on this ship next August going to fjords. I’ve heard it gets very busy - do you have any tips in terms of which bars are quieter, or times of day I’d be more likely to get a seat?
The experience is quite different in the Summer holidays when you can add 1,000 kids to the equation.... Head for bars away from the Galleria and for a sun lounger, the only real answer is go early... If you're not so bothered about being close to or in sight of the pool, there's a lot more options higher up the ship.
@@MattsOceans Thanks! I'm not bothered about the pool, so higher up sounds good to me. I'm hoping the summer holidays won't be *too* bad with kids to Norway compared to, say, a cruise to the Mediterranean -- but obviously will still be very busy!
Hi, thank you for the information. Can I ask a really random question......Do you know if the water in the pools is sea water or chlorinated water?
That's a really good question and one I always think about before a cruise but rarely remember to test when aboard! It doesn't feel as salty as an ocean but doesn't also feel as chlorinated as a municipal swimming pool...
The waterslides were definitely salt water and jacuzzis definitely chlorine… the pools I think were probably chlorinated but nowhere near as heavily as the hot tubs (I might be wrong on the pools though) 😊
We were on that same cruise sadly your video did not truly reflect the positives of sailing down to the canaries and I might add we stayed in YC first and last time over priced over rated.
Thanks Gareth - good feedback! I say I enjoyed it but for me, someone who doesn't love sea days and likes to have large and interesting ports to visit on my cruises, the UK to the Canaries isn't perhaps the best choice! Thanks for the feedback on the yacht club too - a few people have said its not worth x times the price of a regular cabin...
If you had a 50 pence uk coin in your hand, i would need a spanner to remove it😂🤣😅👻👻
What's wrong with that!!!
You cant get your way there are rules
Not sure the point you're making! Thanks for watching though