MSC Opera - recent Panama Canal 10 day cruise - brief review

Ok. I'll hit the major points. My background is about 25 cruises on
the standard mid-level lines, Holland-America, Royal Caribbean,
Carnival, Celebrity, and several British lines.

Did a recent 10 day Opera cruise - Dec 19th - 28th - South from Ft.
Lauderdale to Jamaica, Cartagena, up to the Panama Canal, Costa
Rica, Mexico, etc.

Check in was quick, quick, quick. Disembarkation was the same, with
no hassles with immigration coming aboard and everyone doing the 6:30
or 7:30 line up to see an immigration officer for 10 seconds.
Haven't done a cruise since last Spring, so maybe it's this way for
evey line now, but it was efficient and wonderful. You go thru'
immigraton very quickly AFTER you disembark, not early in the morning
on the ship. And breakfast was served till at least 9:30 or 10:00 on
disembarkation morning. Very civilized.

Rooms were smaller than average apparently, but you couldn't tell it
in the room as they were wider than average (though shorter), and felt
much bigger (with the exception of the smallest shower in cruising
captivity!) The ship decor was elegant, beiges and blues, but
undistinguishable from any other new ship (it was completed in March
2004, or so). Very elegant, generally very very clean.

Staff were very friendly and tried hard - all spoke English - or a
close approximation. So did all the passengers, and I estimate about
20 per cent were from Europe. So it was annoying that most
announcements were in about 5 languages. It gets very annoying
after a while to hear an introduction that goes on for 10 minutes. I
expect they'll shift to English only fairly shortly - for their North
American product anyhow.

Food was very good to excellent for the dinner restaurant seatings.
It was basically good continental food with choices largely like the
other lines, very well prepared - exactly to your request. In
addition to the main choices, you could always order steak, chicken or
fish if you didn't like the offerings. There was usally a regional
Italian specialty dish offered, and highlighted as such, and they were
GOOD. The menu offered about 7 courses - appetizer, salad, soup,
pasta or risotto (all very varied), main course choices, desert, and
cheese or fruit plate. Coffee was not good - weak and bland.
The breakfast and lunch buffets were good, but repetitive - with a few
changes daily. The formal restaurant lunches and breakfasts served a
limited menu, with less choice (and nothing really different) than the
buffet lunches and breakfasts, so really not much point to them aside
from being served.

For completeness, there were outside grills for hotdogs, hamburgers,
etc, and often a seving station for a pasta of the day, salads, etc,
at lunch near the pool.

Evening shows nightly were overall easily the best and most varied of
any cruise line we've used. The talent was amazing, and the
innovation and energy outstanding. They put together spectaculars
for Xmas, which aside from being great theater, were remarkable in
that those shows would not then be used afterward as part of their
regular rotation. Impressive. Most nights had great costumed dance
acts and production numbers - it was not the 2 production shows of a
normal one week cruise. They were all great.

Annoyances? Yup, they were there - but very, very minor, and I think
it'll change over the next months. I mentioned the language issue;
it was definitly non-essential overkill. Folks have already
mentioned that the only drinks freely available during the day were
coffee and tea. You could get juice at breakfast, and iced tea in
the formal restaurants at night, but not at any other time - other
than thru' room service. Needs to change. And they were slow to
clean tables during any of the meals. Staff seemed to stand around
talking to each other, but were not quick to clean off dirty tables -
very different from my experiences with the other lines. I'm sure
this will all change.

Smoking wasn't the issue I thought it might be. Staff do not quickly
enforce the ban on smoking in non-smoking areas, and sometimes break
it themselves. Still, it wasn't really a general problem, and I think
that with some feedback, MSC will deal with the issue over here.

And, just for something a little different, this was the first ship
I've been on, that didn't have a urinal aboard! It's Ok, we didn't
have to hold till we disemabarked . . . toilets were abundant.

All in all it was an extremely pleasant experience and a really great
cruise in a beautiful ship, with superb entertainment, excellent
food and staff that (generally) are trying hard. Overall, it was a
far better cruise than the average that are provided by any of the
lines I mentioned at the top of this review - and we look forward to
trying them again.

Stan

"M. Souris" wrote in message
...
All in all it was an extremely pleasant experience and a really great
cruise in a beautiful ship, with superb entertainment, excellent
food and staff that (generally) are trying hard. Overall, it was a
far better cruise than the average that are provided by any of the
lines I mentioned at the top of this review - and we look forward to
trying them again.

Stan


Nice review Stan. I'm sailing on MSC OPERA in January and can't wait.

Ernie

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:27:55 -0500, M. Souris wrote:

Overall, it was a
far better cruise than the average that are provided by any of the
lines I mentioned at the top of this review - and we look forward to
trying them again.

Stan

Looks like MSC is going to be a keeper. Nice review, Stan.

What cabin did you have and, optionally, what did you pay pp?

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:27:55 -0500, M. Souris wrote:

Overall, it was a
far better cruise than the average that are provided by any of the
lines I mentioned at the top of this review - and we look forward to
trying them again.

Stan

Looks like MSC is going to be a keeper. Nice review, Stan.

What cabin did you have and, optionally, what did you pay pp?

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:59:32 -0500, E.k.R. wrote:

Nice review Stan. I'm sailing on MSC OPERA in January and can't wait.

Ernie

I got a good feeling about this cruise, Ernie. Ship size, touch of European
style, but they had better be True Premium as they say at balcony rates
near $250 plus pp/day.

I told them it was all up to Roller, they will live or die in the US market
based on what your review claims.

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:59:32 -0500, E.k.R. wrote:

Nice review Stan. I'm sailing on MSC OPERA in January and can't wait.

Ernie

I got a good feeling about this cruise, Ernie. Ship size, touch of European
style, but they had better be True Premium as they say at balcony rates
near $250 plus pp/day.

I told them it was all up to Roller, they will live or die in the US market
based on what your review claims.

Chrissy Cruiser wrote in
:

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:59:32 -0500, E.k.R. wrote:

Nice review Stan. I'm sailing on MSC OPERA in January and can't
wait.

Ernie

I got a good feeling about this cruise, Ernie. Ship size, touch of
European style, but they had better be True Premium as they say at
balcony rates near $250 plus pp/day.

I told them it was all up to Roller, they will live or die in the US
market based on what your review claims.


The biggest problem with the balaconies is that though they call them
suites, they are no larger than Celebrity standard balconies

"Chrissy Cruiser" wrote in message
...
I got a good feeling about this cruise, Ernie. Ship size, touch of
European
style, but they had better be True Premium as they say at balcony rates
near $250 plus pp/day.

I told them it was all up to Roller, they will live or die in the US
market
based on what your review claims.


You are too funny! I agree the balcony rates are not quite the bargain that
the insides and outsides are. I'll be sailing in a standard outside cabin.
For my sailing, standard balconies (Cat 10) ran $1045 per person ... or $149
pp/day. Not too bad. Jump up to the larger Cat 11 which they call a suite
(and it's not), and the rate jumps to $1795 or $256 pp/day as you mentioned.
Inside cabins started at $495 or $71pp/day which is a true bargain.

I think the biggest downfall for MSC in the US is the smaller cabins and
limited balconies. The new ships MSC are constructing (MSC MUSICA and
sister) will address this problem. They are being built in France off the
same hull-platform as CORAL PRINCESS and well be loaded with standard
balconies. I have a feeling MSC MUSICA might find it's way to N. America
year round. I just hope with the larger ship and quest to attract
N.American passengers MSC doesn't become just like the rest of the pack.

I can certainly live with a smaller (but well designed) cabin with no
balcony to experience something a little different. One thing everyone has
been raving about is the entertainment and "Animation Team". Funny enough,
I was prepared for the entertainment to be low budget at best. I didn't
think it would be a stand-out MSC feature, but over and over again I hear
it's the best people have ever enjoyed on a cruise ship. It seems to be the
one point people are unanimously happy about. I'm anxious to see it myself.

If anything ... you can count on me to be truthful about the MSC product. I
know it won't be perfect and I'll be watching for the "potential factor".

Ernie

ps - I understand CEO Rick Sasso has been meeting the ship at every
turnaround in Ft. Lauderdale. Things are being enhanced and tweaked with
every cruise. This is a very good sign.

I got a good feeling about this cruise, Ernie. Ship size, touch of
European style, but they had better be True Premium as they say at
balcony rates near $250 plus pp/day.

I told them it was all up to Roller, they will live or die in the US
market based on what your review claims.

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:26:08 -0600, jcoulter wrote:

The biggest problem with the balaconies is that though they call them
suites, they are no larger than Celebrity standard balconies

I understand that the terminology is confusing but square footages don't
lie (unless they put the balcony into inside of aside from the sq ft
statement).

If you look at some of the MSC photos Ernie posted, these cabins look
humongous.

I got a good feeling about this cruise, Ernie. Ship size, touch of
European style, but they had better be True Premium as they say at
balcony rates near $250 plus pp/day.

I told them it was all up to Roller, they will live or die in the US
market based on what your review claims.

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 08:26:08 -0600, jcoulter wrote:

The biggest problem with the balaconies is that though they call them
suites, they are no larger than Celebrity standard balconies

I understand that the terminology is confusing but square footages don't
lie (unless they put the balcony into inside of aside from the sq ft
statement).

If you look at some of the MSC photos Ernie posted, these cabins look
humongous.