MSC Meraviglia Review

4.0 / 5.0
829 reviews

MSC fails miserably to cater to the American market.

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on MSC Meraviglia
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NJGreek
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Sep 2019

Quick caveat that while this was my 25th sailing, this was my first (and will be my only) sailing on an MSC ship. It didn't take long for my group and I to notice that MSC caters to the European market, not the American market. This is blatantly apparent when it comes to customer service. MSC has a "it is what is is" mentality when it comes to delivering poor customer experience, which they did quite often during the 18-day transatlantic sailing. FIRST: MSC doesn't keep time well. Disembarkation was later than scheduled on most ports which caused tours to either start hours late or be rushed missing key sights. MSC's response, "you're the first one to complain so..." A refund was denied and I was told that someone will contact me. Nobody did. SECOND: MSC decided it was a good idea to drain all pools in the thermal spa area for several days during their transatlantic tour. I invested $300+ on access specifically for their hot tubs so when I found out that they will be out-of-service for a long period of time I asked for a refund. MSC's response? "take it up with the spa since they are a third-party company." Spa company's response? "take it up with MSC since you bought it online." THIRD: Most employees will not know the answer to your questions and if they don't, they'll guess. If you ask 5 employees the same question you'll get 5 different answers. I was asked to put a card on file when my on-board balance exceeded $300 euros. When I proceeded to put my debit card on file the lowest pre-paid denomination was much higher than I expected to pay. When I asked what will happen with the remaining unused funds I was told that it would get credited back to my debit card. On the last day, as I was disembarking with luggage in hand in NYC the machine made a loud noise and I was told that I owe a balance. When I visited the reception desk I was told that they owed me several hundred dollars and that I'll get it in euros. A refund on my debit card was not feasible despite the information that was provided previously. Now I have hundreds in euros that I'll have to spend 1/3 of it to convert to dollars. I will never sail with MSC again.

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