Stevo B Posted December 14, 2019 Report Share Posted December 14, 2019 Always been loyal to Royal over the years mostly cruised in Australia and have been nosying at MSC, I have seen a few things on Google re MSC loyalty Black Card loyalty programme. Does anyone have first hand experience of MSC and its loyalty system. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted December 14, 2019 Report Share Posted December 14, 2019 I haven't sailed with them, although I was tempted a couple of times when first looking at cruising. I can point you to a couple different reviews that have been written here and on other sites. First off, this review of the newest ship, Meraviglia... In addition, @monorailmedic has sailed on MSC's Seaside. He wrote up a live blog on his site cruisehabit.com Also pinging @Lovetocruise2002, who also sailed Seaside last year to try her out and compare with Royal. The big thing to know about MSC is that while they're working hard to break into the North American cruising market, they are still very much a European line in terms of entertainment, service, dining (much slower pace in the MDR), and other areas. Everything I've read from everyone who's reviewed them uniformly says that if you keep that in mind so you adjust your expectations accordingly, they're a good line. The only other major item of note that I've read is that they can be a bit... classist? That is to say, if you get a cabin in the Yacht Club area, your experience will apparently be miles above what the folks in the non-YC cabins get. Not sure how accurate this truly is, at least on the newer ships; I seem to recall @monorailmedic saying that their experience on Seaside was fantastic, and they were "only" in a regular cabin with the Fantastica experience package. But it is something I've read, and may just be a case of passengers who didn't go in with the right expectations about the line. Hope this helps! Lovetocruise2002, ChessE4 and Srp431 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted December 14, 2019 Report Share Posted December 14, 2019 8 hours ago, Stevo B said: Always been loyal to Royal over the years mostly cruised in Australia and have been nosying at MSC, I have seen a few things on Google re MSC loyalty Black Card loyalty programme. Does anyone have first hand experience of MSC and its loyalty system. TIA If you are looking for an actual comparison of cruise lines, I did a review on the Seaside. A bit of background about us before you venture over there is that we are predominantly Loyal to Royal but we wanted to give the Seaside a try. If you are looking for a comparison of loyalty programs, @twangster always says that the Crown and Anchor program is one of the best ones out there compared to other cruise lines. I cannot comment much of MSC's program as we couldn't even match to Black when we sailed the Seaside. We were only Emerald on Royal at the time the we did the status match so we did not receive many benefits. However, I believe that @Andrew72681 has looked into this quite a bit (if I remember correctly from some of his posts). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted December 14, 2019 Report Share Posted December 14, 2019 As an MSC Black Diamond member VIA a status match this is the top tier level for MSC. It includes a 5% discount and priority boarding/debarking on embarkation day and at the end of the cruise. Black was renamed Diamond. There are some perks on board such as a tasting menu in a specialty restaurant (once), chocolate ship, diamond party once per sailing, chocolate dipped fruit, robes and slippers and a dance class. No other cruise line that I am aware of provides complimentary drinks every single day of the cruise. Only Crown and Anchor does so once you achieve diamond. My MSC diamond status expires next year. You have to sail once in a three year period to retain your status on MSC. Currently Crown and Anchor status is achieved for life. In the interest of full disclosure I've never sailed MSC but I have looked into the loyalty program extensively. I have no cruises booked with them at this time. MSC isn't friendly to solo travelers. JLMoran and ChessE4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jticarruthers Posted December 15, 2019 Report Share Posted December 15, 2019 I sailed Seaside with the Diamond/Black status match early last year. I dont recall a lot of specifics off the top of my head but can go back through my memories and see what i can dredge up. In general I found Seaside with Black perks for a fraction of the cost of Royal to be a slightly lesser experience but significantly better value. Definitely trended back towards the cruise market a few years ago with a more dressy/formal/fancy experience throughout, shows were more generic (acrobat, juggler, rather than broadway show) since they were trying to cater towards a multi-lingual base, food was solid. They were trying to figure out their drink package at the time (this was right after Seaside launched). I recall having some free drinks from a package that came included, something from our Black status and then having some more from the type of room we chose. All in all it was cheap but confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monorailmedic Posted December 17, 2019 Report Share Posted December 17, 2019 We enjoyed Seaside quite a bit - which isn't to say there weren't things we'd have preferred differently. MSC still really over-complicates (in my opinion) some things, such as drink packages, the different "levels" such as Fantastica, Aurea, etc. It's already hard for people to try anything new with the right expectations, and the way they do some of these things adds to that challenge. That said, we enjoyed the cruise quite a bit, finding the food and service good. Many complain the buffet is repetitive, and to some extent it repeats more than other lines, but like the packages complicating things, the fact that around the large buffet you'll find two or three stations with unique things every day - but not market well and with changing locations, many don't notice them. For our tastes, Edge and Seaside have had the best entertainment at sea. Of course, if you don't like the style of performances (more into acrobatics, dance etc than story-line) then that doesn't matter. This is like saying that a line has the best food because their seafood is off the charts - if you don't like seafood, then the quality of said offering doesn't matter. Our friend Ric sailed Seaside and didn't love it though, he found service and food very much lacking (but he did enjoy the entertainment like we did). Is part of this personal preference? Probably, but he and I are reasonably well in sync on most things, so I suspect that there is a lack of consistency as well - something that I'm confident any RCI cruiser can relate to. He recently sailed Meraviglia though and had a much better set of experiences. As for their loyalty program, I honestly don't pay too much mind to them. It's nice that they allow a generous transfer status from other lines, but do keep in mind you need to sail again within a certain period (48 months?) in order to "keep" your matched status, or it goes away forever. You can find the live blog from my sailing at the link below, but I'm happy to answer any specifics I can.https://www.cruisehabit.com/tags/msc-seaside-live-blog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L454S Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Have done MSC twice, once in a balcony cabin on Divina, and once in a yacht club cabin on Seaside. It is a bit different here and there, but overall bang for the buck is better than most. I still prefer RCI, but a lot has to do with D+ perks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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