MSC MAGNIFICA REVIEW: THE ULTIMATE GRAND VOYAGE REVIEW 2024

This year we decided to take the ultimate vacation – a Grand Voyage cruise from Italy all the way to Miami! The cruise lasted 3 weeks (exactly 21 days), so we spent a pretty long time exploring the MSC Magnifica cruise ship.

This blog post is going to be a detailed review with some tips and tricks, as well as some pros and cons of travelling with MSC.

BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE CRUISE

We have been planning a trip to Miami for a long time and this cruise seemed like the perfect opportunity. Our choice ended up being the MSC Magnifica cruise ship. We chose MSC as we were travelling from Europe and MSC had the perfect repositioning date for us.

We boarded the ship in Genoa, Italy and the 3-week cruise to the USA cost us 1100 euros per person. Our choice was the Bella experience – this includes the cabin, food, and activities on the cruise ship. Gratuities are also included in the price.

BOARDING THE MSC MAGNIFICA

Boarding a cruise ship is very similar to boarding a plane, so nothing will particularly surprise you. We handed over our luggage outside the cruise ship, and went through the check-in.

Our check in time was from 10 to 11 a.m. but we entered the ship after 12. During check in, you show all the necessary documents, in our case that was our passport and we also needed the ESTA document to enter the USA as Europeans. When you finish checking in, you go through the control and get on the cruise ship!

OUR MSC MAGNIFICA ITINERARY

These were our ports of call along the way:

• Rome (Civitavecchia)
• Palma de Mallorca (couldn’t moor due to bad weather so we had to skip it)
• Malaga – 2 days (instead of Palma)
• Santa Cruz de Tenerife
• Funchal, Madeira
• St. Maarten
• Road Town, British Virgin Islands
• Puerto Rico
• Miami

MSC CABINS

There are several cabin options on a cruise ship, and you will choose one depending on your budget. The cheapest are interior cabins that do not have a window. After them come cabins with a window, cabins with a balcony, and the largest suite cabins.

We initially booked the cheapest cabin – indoor one, but they upgraded us to a cabin with a window. My recommendation is that, at least on longer cruises, you don’t take interior cabins in order to have at least some daylight. I don’t know how I would’ve survived 3 weeks without a window if we hadn’t gotten the upgrade. Our cabin consisted of a bed, 2 armchairs and a small table, a TV, a large wardrobe and a bathroom that was quite spacious.

Our time in the cabin was wonderful. We spent quite some time there during our days at sea and it was very comfortable. Our housekeeper was excellent, very kind and quick. They clean the rooms during every meal so you’re always in a clean and cozy room.

The only problem we had was the creaking of our cabin during one very stormy night. It was so loud we couldn’t sleep for hours, but we were aware that the weather conditions are mainly at fault. It never happened again.

FOOD & DRINKS

Food on MSC is known for being worse than on American cruises. To be fair, for the price you pay for an MSC cruise I can’t say I was disappointed. We were mostly satisfied with the food.

You can choose whether you want to eat in the restaurant or at the buffet for each meal.

Breakfast is always the same in both restaurants. The buffet offers the standard breakfast: eggs, various salami and cheeses, cereal, croissants, yoghurt, fruit, and the like. If you skip the buffet and go to the restaurant, you have a bit of a fancier breakfast. There they offer 5 options that are available every day and they are more of a brunch type of food such as eggs Benedict, eggs Florentine, waffles, etc.

We’ve enjoyed the repetitiveness of the breakfast meals because we always knew what we’ll be able to choose from each day.

For lunch and dinner, the menu changes daily, and depending on your preference, you can go to the buffet or the restaurant. We often looked at the menu at the restaurant and then decided where we would rather eat.

Some dinners at the restaurant were delicious, while some were a total miss. We weren’t too mad about it since we could always ask for something else or just go to the buffet afterwards.

At the buffet you could always find something you like, because there were at least 10-15 different meals to choose from. We really enjoyed mushroom pasta, lasagna, chicken with rice and roasted potatoes.

In the afternoon from 4 to 5 pm, they also have a snack bar where you can get sandwiches, biscuits, and various sweets. Along with that, the fast food buffet with burgers and pizzas is open all day until 1 am, so you’re never hungry!

MSC CRUISE ACTIVITIES

People often worry about what they’ll do on a cruise, since the time spent at sea can be long at times. On this cruise we had around 10 days at sea, and 6 of them we were crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

 Onboard, you can choose whether you want to have lazy or active days and pick your activities accordingly.

There are countless bars on the cruise ship with live music, workshops and quizzes. If you have a drinks package you’ll love the bars, but if you don’t, you probably won’t spend much time there. You can be by one of the two swimming pools or in one of the 4 jacuzzis.

The swimming pools are not that big honestly, and there were always people in the outdoor one. The indoor pool was empty most of the time so it was a better choice. The jacuzzis were always full. If you want to spend time in a jacuzzi more privately, you can buy a spa package and have a private jacuzzi and sauna.

If you’re up for a bit of activity, you can play some of the sports like football, tennis or basketball, or lighter versions like ping-pong or foosball. The ship has a huge tennis/basketball court at the top deck, which is a great place to be in the mornings and during sunset! You can also use the gym, which has excellent equipment. It has one of the best views on the ship, which definitely helps while exercising.

In the evening, you can go to the theatre for a show or to a party in the club. The theatre shows were okay. We enjoyed a few tribute shows to singers which were very fun and well made, but we didn’t really enjoy other performers as much, such as circus acts or tap dancers. The shows could definitely be more attractive. We haven’t gone to the theatre as much as we expected.

Every day you’d get a schedule with all the activities happening the next day. It included all organized activities such as learning to dance, languages, various workshops and group games, promotions of various shops and the like. We often used the MSC app to set reminders for things we wanted to attend and it would remind us 30 minutes before.

ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

If you decide to go on this cruise with children, don’t be afraid that they won’t have anything to do. MSC Magnifica really has a lot of content for children. For the youngest, there are playrooms where they can play with their parents, or they can be looked after twice a day at a certain time. That’s usually during breakfast and before dinner.

Older children have special rooms where they can play board games, foosball, and Playstation. If you don’t want to separate from your children, you can be together at the swimming pools, play ping-pong, or participate in workshops.

There weren’t that many children onboard with us, but the crew still held interesting workshops for them such as drawing, trivia games, ping pong competitions and so on.

MSC EXCURSIONS

Excursions are something you can do with MSC or independently. If you organize the trips yourself, the trips will certainly come out cheaper, but there are certain guarantees offered by trips through the company. One of them is the fact the cruise ship has to wait in case the excursion is late. If you are late on your own, they will leave without you!

We haven’t taken any of their excursions since they were 3 times more expensive than what we planned ourselves. Most of the older guests opted for that option though, as it’s more carefree.

Excursions are easy to organize because the cruise ship usually stops very close to the city itself. You are only a walk away from exploring the city. Some of our favorite trips were Malaga, Tenerife, Madeira and Puerto Rico. We organized all the excursions independently, and if you pay attention to the time, there is no fear of being late.

CONCLUSION

I was absolutely blown away by this type of travel! If you like stress-free travel, this is the perfect option for you. Imagine – you spend the whole day exploring, return to a perfectly cleaned cabin, go to a nice dinner and go to sleep. Tomorrow morning you wake up in another country and ready to explore the city again! Sounds perfect to me!!

I liked travelling with MSC and would definitely do it again. The cabins are excellent and the food is good enough for the price you pay. I really missed having internet connection, but sometimes it’s good to switch off. Not having drinks included is a con for me, but I can sacrifice a few cocktails and sodas for incredible destinations all over the world.