We recently went on a cruise on March 11, 2024. We cruised the MSC Magnifica. There are a lot of mixed reviews for MSC. Join me as I give you my honest opinion of this cruise line. Where they could make improvements and where they succeeded in my expectations.
The key points in this article:
- Affordability
- Food and Drink
- Activities
- Communication
- Entertainment
- Excursions/Destinations
- Overall Rating
A quick overview of MSC and a little information about The Magnifica.
MSC Stands for Mediterranean Shipping Company. The cruise line was founded in 1987 by Italian businessman Gianluigi Aponte. The company’s headquarters is located in Geneva, Switzerland. MSC Cruises is known for its Mediterranean heritage, with a focus on providing guests with Italian hospitality. It is a family-owned and operated company committed to environmental stewardship and sustainability.
The MSC Magnifica is an older, smaller ship than others in its fleet. Coming in at just under 1000 feet long. Her size isn’t noticeable unless you are in the port next to Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, which is just under 1200 ft long. She can accommodate up to 2500 travelers. This was a pleasant amount. The ship never really felt crowded.
The Magnifica’s maiden voyage was in 2010, and she underwent refurbishment in 2014. While there are a few things that are showing their age, the ship is in very good condition and does not feel run down.
We went on an MSC cruise in March 2024 it was a very affordable cruise and an incredibly enjoyable experience. I would highly recommend taking a cruise on this cruise line.
We booked a 4-night cruise to the Bahamas. The price per person was $199 plus taxes and port fees. The fees brought the total to $331 per person. That price included all your meals, accommodations, and activities on board the ship. I have two adult children who came along with us. Instead of trying to cram us all into one stateroom, we requested two separate staterooms. Most cruise ships allow up to four people per room. However, we felt like four adults would be a little bit cramped. We did request that our rooms be adjoining, which they did accommodate. It was nice because it was like a suite and everybody got their own space.
We had originally booked an ocean-view room with a porthole. This was my first experience on a balcony. It was wonderful but not necessary to enjoy the cruise. The cruise was only 4 days long. We spent very little time in our room.
Let me mention one disclaimer. We got lucky they upgraded us to balcony rooms last minute. We did nothing for this upgrade. They do not know about this review or my website. I decided after our experience that I should write this review.
Cruise ship staterooms aren’t known for being super spacious. However, our room on the MSC Magnifica felt very spacious. We had plenty of room to put our suitcases under the bed and lots of closet space to hang our clothes. We even had a little loveseat couch and a desk in our room.
The Balcony Room on the MSC Magnifica
Food & Drinks
Tip – Check all sides of the buffet- they are not the same.
One thing I really liked about the MSC cruises was there was only one restaurant you had to pay extra to eat at. The rest was all included, and the buffet was open from 6:00 am to 2 am, almost 24 hours. It would close for half an hour to an hour in between meals and snacks, but the pizza bar was open the whole time.
The pizza was delicious. Many other reviews have said this and I agree, very good.
Anytime you were hungry, there was always something tasty to eat. The fruit and vegetable selections on the ship were wonderful. I don’t eat a lot of meat, I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I never felt like I didn’t have the type of food I wanted to eat available to me.
Breakfasts were wonderful. I am a picky eater and don’t eat the traditional bacon, eggs, and waffles for breakfast. I eat more oatmeal, granola, meats and cheeses, yogurt and smoothies. They had it all!
Not to worry though, if your style of eating is eggs, bacon, and waffles for breakfast they had plenty of choices of different types of eggs and breakfast meats
There was fruit served every meal, melons, kiwi, pineapple, apples, oranges, and bananas. Unfortunately, there were no berries unless it was in the desert.
Lunch had basic choices of hamburgers, grilled cheese, hot dogs, and fries. Be careful to walk the whole buffet. We found that each side was not identical. One section of the buffet would have some sort of fish and pasta, rice, or quinoa dish. We found these specials to be the better choice, as the grilled cheese was nothing to brag about.
We ate dinner in the dining room every night. It was pretty good, with a few hit-or-miss meals. However, the steak and fish entrees were excellent every night.
The table service was lacking. Our waiter was very nice but very slow at bringing dishes out and clearing dishes. You were lucky if you got your water refilled. I ordered coffee with my dessert and never got it. In hindsight, I wish we had tried the buffet for dinner at least one night. Next Time!
Drinks were pricey. A well drink would cost you $10.00. They had a heavy hand and the drinks were good. The drink of the day would run you $8.00 each. The drink packages were too expensive for us to benefit from. We couldn’t consume enough to make it worth it on a 4-day cruise. A 7 or 8-day cruise would make it worth it for us. Iced tea, tea, coffee, and lemonade were included.
Activities
The activities on the MSC Magnifica were great. There were so many things to do, it was hard to pick sometimes because you had to miss something. You never had a moment to be bored. There was always something fun going on. We participated in several very silly games like the Olympic games, a scavenger hunt, giant basketball, and several other cheesy, but very fun things. There was a lot of comedy on the ship. We also took several of their dance lessons and did karaoke. Each night there were dances and disco parties to go to.
Broadway- Not Really
Tip –It’s not worth seeing these shows, skip them and go to another activity.
The Broadway-style shows on the MSC Magnifica were severely lacking. I would not recommend going to them. The last night was a circus show. That was by far the best and probably closest to being able to be called a Broadway show, and even then, it’s a pretty loose thread. The other shows were like professional karaoke singers/ rock concert style. There was no real good acting or an actual show to be performed. It was just singing through different eras of music. We love musicals and were very unimpressed.
If Broadway shows are what you are expecting. (since that’s what they call them) I would not go on MSC. They are not that level of entertainment.
The musicians on board in the lounges and bars were much better at singing through the ages.
Communication Issues
Tip- Check with the excursion desk on the first day. I will probably purchase my excursions on the ship in the future.
I really feel like the communication before the trip was lacking, but once onboard things seem to be pretty easy to figure out.
The excursions were good. However, MSC is not great at letting you know what’s actually available on their website. Their communication about their excursions is terrible as well. We booked our excursions ahead of time as they suggested through their website. Once we got onboard the ship, we discovered there were several other excursions we would have booked instead. They did not show up on the website. A couple of them would’ve been more fun than what we had booked. We were stuck with what we had because we already booked them.
Even more frustrating was the lack of communication on what you needed, where to meet, and what time your excursion was. You would receive your excursion tickets delivered to your room each night around 8pm for the following day’s excursion. It had the time of your departure but nothing about where to meet or what to bring. Their little paragraph blurb about the excursion was all you got, and it wasn’t much.
The first excursion we embarked on was a paddleboard outing on their private island, Ocean Cay. It proved to be very enjoyable, and our tour guide Greg, was fantastic. However, we found out they had a night paddle board excursion where they illuminated the bottom of the board and pointed out fish. We would’ve rather done that. It was only $4 more per person, $64 instead of $60. But it wasn’t advertised online, only on the ship.
Our excursion on Nassau was supposed to be on Nassau, An Eco Walking Tour. We were told the night before that we needed to meet at 8:15 am, Group 4. There was no other information. We had to go to the information desk to find out where group 4 was meeting. In the morning, we disembarked the ship and waited in group four. While waiting, we were told we would be getting on a little boat to go to another island, where we would be at the beach and water park. We were prepared to do a walking tour. We had no beach clothes, swimsuits, or towels with us because the excursion we booked didn’t specify any of those things. Unfortunately, there was no time to go back to the room, we had to go with what we had and hope for the best.
You pay a premium for these excursions. This one was $121 a person. It would’ve been nice to have all the details days in advance, not the morning of while waiting in line. However, walking tour excursion was educational and we had a great time.
My advice is unless there’s an excursion online that you have to do, no matter what, I wouldn’t book anything until I got on the ship. I would book once you could see the entire list of excursions that are being offered.
Another pre-trip communication issue we had was they didn’t specify what the dress attire was each night on the ship for dinner. On previous cruises we’ve taken, we would have a formal night or Hawaiian night. We discovered the ship had a white night but would not have known if it had not been for other reviewers. The white night was a big deal. They had the biggest party that night.
The daily program would be delivered to the stateroom each night for the next day. That’s where you would find out the next day’s dress attire. We parked formal clothing just in case but never needed them. Advance notice of these nights would be nice so you could plan what outfits to bring. This is minor of course, because it’s not required. However, it is nice to be able to fully participate in everything.
Excursions / Destinations
Day 1 Leave Miami, Florida
Day 2 MSC Private Island, Ocean Cay
Day 3 Day at Sea
Day 4 Nassau, Bahamas
Let’s talk a little bit about our destinations and the excursions we took. On day 2 of our 4-day trip, we stopped at Ocean Cay, MCS’s private island in the Bahamas. This island was gorgeous, my husband and I were ready to pack up and move here. The island is an Eco-marine preserve. They can never build any of those giant water parks and things you see from other cruise companies. When MSC first purchased Ocean Cay, it was a desolate island. It had been mined for sand for Miami and many other places. I believe it was mined for something else at one point too. During the mining, the whole ecosystem was destroyed.
MSC acquired it with a vision to restore it back to its natural beauty, to encourage the natural habitat to regrow. Their marine biologist live on the island and monitor the island’s health. They’re reintroducing sea coral and fish species. I believe they said they had their first sea turtle hatching last year. It’s very impressive what they have done and depending on what tours you take, you’ll get to hear a little history about it. This really makes me feel good about choosing MSC. With MSC you’re supporting an amazing cause, the rebuilding of this island allows us to enjoy nature the way it was intended and for us to coexist with it.
Ocean Cay
Tip- book your room on the Starboard side (right). Your room’s view will be of the island.
This little island is absolutely beautiful, it has several beaches, lagoons, and bays. You can snorkel, swim, book several excursions, or just relax on the beach. The buffet lunch provided on the island was excellent. It was probably the best lunch the ship provided. The quality and variety of food was very good. They had Caribbean jerk chicken, some sort of jerk fish, Hamburgers, veggies sandwiches, pasta salads, potato salads, lots of fruits and vegetables, and traditional bohemian rice and bean dishes. All of it was delicious.
Beach activities were running all day. We took the paddleboard excursion, and it was fun. However, paddle boarding on the ocean is a little rough, and even though the excursion was for beginners, I felt like it was difficult for some, myself included. We are beginner paddle borders, but we kayak all the time, so we have a level of experience.
For us it would’ve been more fun to take the night glow, you stayed in the bay, and they lit the underneath the paddle board so you could see the different fish, little sharks, and other sea creatures. That was more appealing to us, but we didn’t know that was an option. Back to my previous statements about communication issues, you may want to wait on booking excursions until you’re on the ship since they offer a much bigger variety from the ship than on their website.
The nice thing about our day at Ocean Cay was we really had all day. We arrived at 9 o’clock in the morning and didn’t leave until 10 o’clock at night. We could walk on and off the ship all day, it was a very short walk which made it simple to go back and forth. Our balcony faced the island, perfect for sitting outside and overlooking the activities.
Tip –If you book a balcony room, request it be on the Starboard side. The ship backs into the port, so you should be facing the island if you book the side.
MSC does a short light show on their lighthouse. You can see it from the ship or watch it on the beach. They did two of them, and there very short, about five minutes long, both different. However, they are good and worth watching. It was a perfect end to the day.
Ocean Cay was by far one of our favorite parts of the trip. I can’t say enough good things about their private island and what they’re doing. If Ocean Cay is on your itinerary, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Moving onto our next destination, Nassau.
Tip #1- be prepared for panhandlers.
Tip #2 –Print a map of Nassau before you leave. The Queen’s Staircase is within walking distance of the ship.
After spending a beautiful day on Ocean Cay, we were a little underwhelmed with Nassau. This is not a destination I would choose to go to again. I mentioned earlier that communication about their excursions is lacking. When we booked our excursion we thought it was going to be an Eco-walking tour in Nassau. Later we found out the Eco-walking tour was on an island outside of Nassau, called Blue Lagoon. It’s a beautiful little island, but it’s definitely had tourist trap vibes.
The Eco walk was wonderful, and there was a lot of history on the little island. It used to be a salt mine. Pirates would raid them for the salt. Salt was very valuable since it could preserve meat. Lunch on the island was good, they had hamburgers, jerk chicken, baked beans, corn on the cob, and salad.
There are also several other excursions on Blue Lagoon island, you can swim with dolphins, sharks, and stingrays, but it felt very zoo-ish. It was not Ocean Cay, where you could sit and enjoy nature. I was crowded and nosey.
When we got back to Nassau, we were glad we ended up on Blue Lagoon.
As we got off our boat and went into the city, we were bombarded with individuals trying to sell us something, bracelets, carvings cigars, you name it, everything. They swarm you and don’t care about personal space. They are pretty much right in your face trying to sell you things. So you’re trying to be as polite as possible and get through the crowds to get moving on the streets. It’s annoying chaos and congestion.
There’s a very small section of the city that looks like a very cute, very quaint beach town. But if you go right past the main street you can see so many of the houses are in disrepair. So many people have got to be living in some form of poverty and the island is really not being taken care of by their government.
We walked to The Queens Staircase, it was monumental. There was no plaque or information station, just run-down buildings and shacks everywhere. People selling junk out of every nook and cranny. At the top of the staircase, you’ll fine Fort Fincastle. We paid $14.00 to get into the fort.
Fort Fincastle was tiny and the plaques were in disrepair, as much of Nassau appeared to be. From the fort, you had a birdseye view of the island. The fort was built in 1793 the protect the island. The fort near saw action. One of the plaques said the water tower was open to the public from 9 am to 5 pm 7 days a week, but they had chain-link fences and chains wrapped around everything, so you could not go inside.
Their government needs to do a better job of preserving the island’s history and keeping things cleaned up. They have a gem of an island, rich in history, and they are letting it decay. I would’ve loved to of been able to read more plaques or take a tour where people would tell me what the history was and there just wasn’t a lot of opportunity for that.
We felt that Nassau was not well taken care of. For a major tourist destination, they could do a better job. It’s sad for us personally when we see that history isn’t being preserved. It’s particularly heartbreaking because Atlantis is a huge resort, drawing in the crowds wanting to avoid what we saw and making tons of money. There’s fencing all around Atlantis and there are mansions lining the beaches. There’s a lot of money in Nassau, it’s just not trickling down to the people of Nassau.
We are big fans of historical preservation and Eco-preservation. We enjoy learning from the past and we felt that is not the priority of this particular destination. I don’t see myself ever going back to Nassau. There are other places in the Bahamas I’ve not been.
So let’s wrap this up with a final review of MSC Magnifica and the MSC Company
I’d say affordability is top-notch. You don’t feel like you’re constantly being charged extra for things that are supposedly included. With just one restaurant requiring additional payment, the rest of the amenities are all-inclusive
MSC’s pre-trip communication needs improvement
In terms of destinations. Nassau was awful and I would not go back. Ocean Cay was fantastic and I would book a trip just because Ocean Cay was a port.
Overall, I would recommend taking an MSC cruise without hesitation. We had an absolute blast. Unless you’re extremely particular about food or luxury standards, you’ll agree. The ship offers just as much enjoyment as larger ones, with better value for your money. There are ample opportunities to dine, party, relax, and explore. My family will definitely be cruising with MSC again.
“Adventure Is Worthwhile” – Aesop
As always, thanks for stopping by for some Salty Inspirations!