MSC Cruises Continues to Grow:

Family owned Italian line, MSC Cruises, has made strides into the North American market since 2004 and continues to fine tune its product to suit American tastes. The company's five-year plan will see the 89,600-ton MSC Musica enters service in the Caribbean, MSC Lirica homeport in New York City year-round and an MSC ship on the West Coast for Alaksa cruises.

MSC markets itself as 'Premium Class with an Italian Signature'. While an MSC cruise is a distinctly Italian experience, the use of 'Premium Class' has caused some commotion. There have been many disgruntled passengers and travel agents who found the on board product did not live up to its billing. North American cruisers equated the marketing term 'premium' with superior service, cuisine and amenities and so were disappointed with the more mid-level experience on MSC. Agents and passengers are now better informed and most realize MSC is a great bargain.

The price is certainly right with one week Eastern Caribbean cruises going for as little as $495 per person this season and for that, you certainly get a lot more than you paid for.

This is a line that is definitely worth trying.

The On Board Experience:

Aboard MSC Opera in the Caribbean, I found a beautifully decorated and immaculate ship with a distinctly European ambience, Italian officers and mostly Italian crew, outstanding and varied entertainment, some of the best regional Italian cuisine at sea (in the dining room) - inspired by the slow food movement - and excellent Balinese Spa treatments by Balinese staff. The cruise experience is traditional and quiet. There's no pressure to spend money and on board products are well priced including good quality Italian fashions, sunglasses and jewelry available as well as a variety of duty free liquor, cigarettes and cosmetics. Breakfast and lunch are open seating with early and late dinner seatings (6:00 p. and 8:15 p.m. respectively), plus casual alternatives in the lido cafeteria and grill. Dress code is resort casual except on formal nights - there are two on a one week cruise. Currently there are about 80% American 20% European passengers on board in the Caribbean with the reverse numbers in the Mediterranean. There was a mix of age groups on board our cruise with many couples under 50. The mid-age is 55 on seven-night and 60 on 11-night sailings.

Outstanding Entertainment:

The entertainment aboard MSC Opera certainly deserves special mention. Performers on board are outstanding. Every evening, musicians perform in the various lounges including a jazz trio, Latin trio and solo piano in addition to the disco. The Caruso Lounge is particularly lively in the late evening with the audience joining in the fun and games. Two classical concerts were well attended with standing ovations for both. Passengers actually showed up for the rehearsal of the second classical show, tenor Adrian Mocanu was so popular.

The after-dinner stage shows presented in the theater, are created by Arts Media of Milan. Artistic Director Alberto Sprduto and choreographer Claire Simpson have designed highly imaginative, colorful programs for MSC which are performed with great passion. The quality of performers is extremely high with classically trained Russian, Romanian and Spanish dancers able to perform any style of dance. Accomplished acrobats perform Cirque du Soleil style spots during most of the shows. On my cruise the Soprano Mihaela Bozagiu and Tenor Adrian Mocanu were also included and their performances were exquisite both technically and emotionally. (Their rendition of Vivo Per Lei was the best I have heard.) Four stage shows were performed during the one week cruise.

A large deck area behind the swimming pools is used daily for games and dance classes. The cruise staff called Animators or Pagliacci are also entertainers and create a lot of light hearted fun and mischief around the ship. Art auctions and bingo are available but understated with no hype about the snowball jackpot.

Since bridge and engine tours are not allowed for security reasons, the cruise director has come up with an excellent way of showing passengers these areas of the ship. He put on a powerpoint slide and video show of the technical aspects of MSC Opera. It was extremely informative and detailed showing the inside of an azipod and a stabilizer being tested during drydock in addition to the engine and bridge areas of the ship. It was the first time I had seen such a presentation during a cruise.

Baseball and music theme cruises operate on may Caribbean cruises and offer a unique opportunity to meet baseball greats and leading musicians. Stan Bahnsen organizes the baseball events for MSC and he was on board our baseball theme cruise along with Greg Luzinski, Pete Mackanin, Graig Nettles, Frank Howard and Gary Peters. Hitting, pitching and batting clinics, interview, q&a, storytelling and autograph sessions drew a large crowd. The six legends of the game mingled with passengers throughout the cruise and their presence certainly enhanced the cruise experience. Note there is no charge for passengers to participate in the theme cruise events.

Caribbean Itinerary Highlights:

MSC Opera's seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise spends most of the time at sea so there's plenty of opportunity to enjoy the ship. There's an evening call at San Juan and a 9am to 3 p.m. call at St. Maarten but the two calls in the Dominican Republic highlight the itinerary.

Improvements Being Made:

Many changes have been made, and continue to be made, to bring the MSC ships in the Caribbean inline with American tastes. Smoking, often a problem on European lines, has been restricted to five, small areas on board ship with restaurants and show lounges smoke free. In the Caribbean, the few announcements that are made come in English first, followed by Italian, French, Spanish and German.

Dinner seatings are 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. in the Caribbean, earlier than in Europe where later dining is the norm. The Grill is now open to 9:30 p.m. for those seeking an alternative to the dining room, and there's a light, supper buffet in the Cafeteria from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. although food in the dining room is far superior to the casual offerings. Since Americans dine earlier than Europeans, there's a need for late-night snacks. For those wanting something later, there's a 24-hour stateroom menu, two late night buffets during the week, and late night snacks are offered in all lounges and by roaming waiters with white gloves and silver trays from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. An on board training program is underway to polish the dining room service, although we had no problems in this area.

Aboard MSC Opera, there were complaints about the hard beds and small showers and cabins (most are 140 sq.ft. and the oceanview with balcony do not have an indoor seating area). Also, shore excursion details were lacking. Rick Sasso, President and CEO of MSC Cruises USA, is well aware of the shortcomings. An improved mattress system is in the works as one of the many changes he plans for the line and he is working with the shore excursion departments to make improvements to their literature and in-cabin video. Cabins will be larger on the new MSC Musica which will replace MSC Opera in 2007-2008 in the Caribbean.

Musica will also bring more amenities to the Caribbean. New on board, in addition to the amenities of Opera and Lirica, will be a Sushi Bar, wine tasting bar, cigar room, aromatherapy, thalassotherapy and chromotherapeutic hyro-massage in the Spa, a larger, three deck theatre, an art gallery, electronics shop, tennis court and golf simulator. There will also be a supervised children's and teen's program for three age groups and teens will have their own games room and disco, a welcome addition to a line that offers reduced rates for children 12 and under. (Right now there are supervised play rooms for ages three to eight, open three times a day. Older children and teens have an arcade of virtual reality games and only a few activities with the cruise staff during the cruise.)

Something Different:

Passengers who want to duplicate the experience they enjoy on Carnival, NCL, RCI, Princess, HAL or Celebrity may not find what they want on MSC. There's no freestyle cruising or Signature of Excellence upgrades or a supper club with dancing. However, those looking to try something new, who want good value and enjoy Italian cuisine and culture will not be disappointed with an MSC cruise.