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One of the concerns we’ve seen people mention about cruising with MSCMediterranean shipping company The world’s largest privately held shipping company. MSC have both cruise and shipping operations. is dining, including the quality of the food and the overall dining experience. You may have heard similar concerns and wonder if they are valid in 2023. This was our experience on a 7-night cruise onboard MSC Virtuosa in March this year.

Our cruise visited Rotterdam, Brugge, Hamburg and Le Havre, and we travelled in an Aurea deluxe balcony. That Aurea experience may have impacted the overall dining experience. However, it didn’t change our menu in the various dining venues on board.

Dining experience

For breakfast and lunch when Minuetto was the only main dining roomMain Dining Room MDR refers to the main dining venue or venues on board a ship. This is usually the large complimentary or included dining room or rooms on a ship. (MDRMain Dining Room MDR refers to the main dining venue or venues on board a ship. This is usually the large complimentary or included dining room or rooms on a ship.) open. Upon arrival, a server would welcome you and inquire about your language preference and the number of guests in your party. A server escorts you to a table and provides you with a paper menu. Another would ask if you wanted water or any drinks. Once you have looked over the menu, then someone will come to take your order. Food and drink service was usually pretty fast without a long wait.

In the evening, a server would welcome you and escort you directly to your assigned table, which remained the same each night. If you were an Aurea guest, the Maître dMaître d’hôtel The Maître d’hôtel, which is “Master of the house” in French. Normally shortened to Maître d. They are also known as the head waiter. This is the person in charge of the “front of house” of a formal restaurant. They are normally who you would talk with regarding any special requests around seating or dietary requirements in advance of being seated. You will normally find them at the front desk on entering a venue.’ would greet you instead and provide the waiter with your table number. We had a lovely window table in the Aurea section each evening we dined in the MDR.

Rushed dining and table spacing

Before our trip, we read comments about the rushed dining experience. Other comments noted that the tables in the main dining room were uncomfortably close. This is undoubtedly an area that the Aurea experience would have impacted. During our cruise, the MDR had two seatings in the evening. The first was at 17:30 ship time, and the second was at 19:45 in the Minuetto dining room. If your assigned MDR was Opera or Symphony, it was 18:00 and 20:30. If you had Aurea, my choice dining, you could arrive in Minuetto any time from 17:30 to 20:45.

Looking at those sitting times, you can see there was about 2 hours available to eat dinner. After that 2 hours, the team needed to prepare the dining room for the second sitting. You may have felt rushed if you typically take longer than 2 hours for dinner. As for table spacing, sometimes it did feel like you were sitting on top of other guests, even if you had a two-seat table. You can see how close they were in this photo from a lunchtime where the Aurea “my choice dining” does not apply.

Aurea dining room

Aurea cruisers typically have their dining room in Il Campo or a dedicated section in another MDR. For our cruise, it was a section of the Minuetto dining room reserved for Aurea guests. Due to “my choice dining”, we never felt rushed in that area, and the spacing between tables seemed more generous. Plus-sized cruisers may still want to check in with the Maître d to ensure your table is not too close to the table behind if you need a bit more space. One evening, a waiter serenaded us, passing around the tables and asking if there were any requests.

Food choice

Another area that has concerned people is the variety of food choices available. I’ll share some sample menus and meals we had in the MDR in a gallery. We have sailed with Princess Cruises several times and hold platinum status, so we often compare the two lines. Whilst the menu options at breakfast were plentiful on MSC, the dinner menu felt limited compared to Princess. We struggled to find something we fancied on the MDR menu a couple of times. We would use a different venue on those evenings, either the buffet or Masters of the sea.

This guide relates specifically to the MDR, not the Yacht club, which has a slightly different menu. If you are interested in the Yacht Club menu, stay tuned as we’re cruising YC in May. We didn’t see lobster or a rump/rib-eye/sirloin steak in the MDR on the evening menu, although I tried an upsell €18 T-bone steak option one evening. The meat was lovely, but the roast potatoes accompanying it were not very good. I could have asked for fries instead of the roasties, but we wanted to experience the menu as written, so you didn’t have to.

Gala night

The gala evening dinner, where you would usually see a lobster tail and similar premium dishes on Princess, was less inspiring on MSC. Tracy went with the Porcini mushroom risotto, and I went with the classic roast, duck a l’orange. The risotto was nice, and the duck, not so much as the duck and croquettes, was quite dry. I had a nice cheese plate to follow. Considering this was the gala or formal night, it didn’t feel that step up that a gala dinner normally would.

Breakfast

The breakfast menu felt quite comprehensive, and I didn’t notice any changes from one day to the next. My usual choices were the eggs benedict, a full breakfast or cold cuts. Tracy also tried the eggs florentine one morning. Breakfast food was always lovely and served both quickly and hot. The drinks were a different story. Drip coffee varied between ridiculously weak, looking like milk in the cup with hardly any colour. Or if you were unlucky enough to get the dregs of the jug ludicrously strong with a side helping of coffee dust at the bottom of your cup. I asked for a cappuccino instead of coffee which was always lovely if a little cold occasionally.

Any discussion of breakfast would not be complete without mentioning the juice. It was nice to see grapefruit juice listed. It is usually missed off the menu on Princess but has always been available when I’ve asked. On MSC, we both tried juice one morning, and it was enough to put us off it for the rest of the cruise. On Princess, the juice always seemed like proper fruit juice; however, it tasted more like squash on MSC. I’m not sure if it had been over-diluted or if there was a problem with the batch we were given, but it was unpleasant. It tasted more like a fake chemical grapefruit than fresh fruit. It may have been a one-off, but it took us half the day to shift the flavour from our mouths.

Lunch

When it came to lunch, there were usually a couple of salad choices, a burger or sandwich, sometimes a curry, and desserts. Each menu usually featured at least one vegan and a couple of vegetarian options. Some dishes we tried included the burger, a matured Cheddar cheese with piccalilli sandwich and some salads.

Dinner

The dinner menus could feel quite eclectic. You would usually always have a salad, pasta and a classic roast option. The always available selection included pasta, fish, chicken, beef or a curry. Each evening would feature a rotating choice of fresh bread rolls to accompany your meal.

The salads would often feature walnut prepared in one manner or another.

One evening I asked for the steak Diane. Unfortunately, it was overcooked, very tough and dry. Whilst the waiter offered to swap it, we didn’t fancy anything else on the menu by that point, so we left and had a burger in Masters of the sea instead.

Conclusion

There was usually something on the menu we fancied trying despite the sometimes limited selection. If not, there was always another venue or option available. We chose speciality dining at both Hola and Butchers’ cut.

The pub which did a cracking fish and chips, which was probably our favourite meal on the ship. They also did burgers and hotdogs.

The buffet is always another option, and has a broader selection of food. I’ll do another post covering other dining venues, as this post has already gone on too long.

I hope I’ve shown you a little of what the dining was like and what things are like in the MDR in 2023.

When we sailed on MSCMediterranean shipping company The world’s largest privately held shipping company. MSC have both cruise and shipping operations. Virtuosa during a rainy March, the British pub quickly became one of our favourite spots. With an extensive selection of beers, wines, spirits, and mixed drinks, it’s a haven for those seeking a refreshing beverage. Additionally, they serve a small yet delicious selection of snacks. For those without a drinks package, the pub offers daily specials, including up to 20% off various drink brands.

The venue

The design of the pub is pretty reminiscent of a stylized British pub. Offering a variety of seats and tables. There are bar stools at the bar and along a breakfast bar-type seating area. Some two and four-seater tables with normal armed chairs and some alcoves surrounded by deeply upholstered bench-style seating. There is a dedicated little area for an entertainer who visits a couple of times a day. With a small dance floor area in front of the entertainer’s cubby.

The decorations include reproduction pub signage for different beer companies. Various pictures and maps adorn the rest of the walls. The end where the entertainer performs features cabinets full of books, model ships, and knick-knacks.

The drinks

In the pub, you could get the majority of the drinks that were available from the ship-wide drinks menu. There were also some extras not available anywhere else on board and the draught Guinness was especially good. Murpheys, Newcastle Brown ale, Lagunitas IPA and a cider were also available on tap. John Smiths was available in a can and quite a few different beers, including some from Birra Baladin in bottle.

Birra Baladin appears to be the chosen craft brewery to be stocked on the ship. They did have several different craft styles available including pale ales and a Belgian dark strong. Unfortunately, it tasted like they used the same yeast for the Belgian Dark Strong and the Pale ale. This meant the pale ale wasn’t really clean enough for the style. Anyway enough beer geekery. The bar stocked a decent range of spirits for fans of mixed drinks. Wines were also available, although I didn’t check how wide a wine selection they had here.

Prices here were around €9 for a draught beer or glass of wine. €9.50 for a bottle of beer. Mixed drinks were the same as around the rest of the ship.

The food

There are four main snack offerings in the bar, a hot dog, two different burgers or fish and chips. There was an additional charge for food, however, these prices were not excessive. A Sir burger, cheeseburger or fish and chips were €4 and a hot dog was €2.50. You also got a side of fries with your burger/hot dog or large fries/chips with the fish.

All the food here was good, especially the fish and chips. You got several chunks of proper fish fillet coated in a nice crispy batter. Sachets of ketchup, mayo, salt and pepper were also provided so you could pick what condiments you wanted.

The entertainment

There are several televisions above the bar which were normally showing a selection of sports or news channels with subtitles. When satellite signals permitted, they would also show major sports games here. On our cruise, they showed the Liverpool vs Manchester United game, much to the delight of Liverpool fans. Less so for the Man U fans who watched their team lose 7-0.

Each evening there would be live music, with an entertainer to the fore of the venue. This was Dario on our cruise who played a selection of contemporary and classic songs. As the evening went on the drinks flowed for a while, you could often hear folk singing along or dancing on the small dance floor area. Check your daily planner for times and details, however, on our cruise, Dario would be there from about 7:30 PM.

One of the many things I love about cruising is how easy it is to try new things. It’s not just the new places to go and new sights to see. There is always something you haven’t tried before on the menu at one of the dining venues or bars onboard.

While some cruisers debate the value of drink packages, it’s hard to dispute the freedom that a good package brings. Especially if you were buying a package of services that include the drinks anyway. Princess Plus package or MSC’s Aurea and Yacht club experiences both include drinks.

After many Princess cruises, we recently took our first cruise on MSC. There were countless new drinks we hadn’t seen before. I love trying a new drink knowing that if I don’t like it then I can leave it. If I get something else I haven’t just paid my hard-earned money for two drinks. One drink for the price of two isn’t fun.

Things were very different when we cruised on MSC Virtuosa compared with Princess. Here are 5 differences between the Princess and MSC drinks packages.

Counting drinks

There are always variations and limitations between different packages. If you have an alcoholic drinks package from Princess, there is a 15 drink per-person-per-day (pppd) limit on alcoholic drinks. Whilst I’ve not hit this limit, on a hot sea day it is easy to get through lots of drinks. A beer here, a cocktail there, wine with meals, an after-dinner brandy or an alcoholic coffee soon add up. Once you hit that 15-drink pppd limit any further alcoholic drinks will cost you the full price.

Onboard MSC there is no limit on the number of drinks you can have. Want a 17th or 18th drink, then get your order in.

It’s worth noting that you won’t be served by staff on either line if you are seriously drunk. Regardless of if you are within your 15-drink limit on Princess.

Package costs

Princess has a flat rate price for each of their packages. At the time of writing the Princess Zero-Alcohol Drink Package is USD 29.99 pppd.

Onboard MSC the situation is not so clear. The pppd price of a drinks package varies by region with different prices for the Caribbean and Mediterranean. The length of your cruise also changes the pppd prices with shorter cruises costing more per day than longer ones.

You need to log in and check the site to find out the price for an MSC drinks package.

More expensive drink charges

One huge difference between Princess and MSC is how they handle charging for drinks above your package limit.

On Princess, a Remy Martin XO cognac cost $19 which was above the $15 limit for our package. Princess charges the difference between your drinks package and the cost so I would get charged $4 instead of $19. The other $15 counted as one drink against my limit.

MSC charge full price for any drink above the package limit! A €17 Remy Martin XO would cost the full 17 Euros even when our package included drinks up to €13. I did enjoy the Armagnac Janneau XO which is included in the package up in the sky lounge on occasion.

Included venues

Make sure you check what a drink package includes. It is probably even more important to check exclusions.

Princess is very inclusive when it comes to venues.

“Private Islands and all onboard Food and Beverage Venues and other areas such as the Theater or public spaces that offer beverage service.”

Princess includes Hot chocolate or speciality coffee at International Cafe on plus and premier packs.

With MSC there are limitations on where you can use your package.

“does not cover the specialty restaurants and signature venues”

MSC will charge for any hot chocolate or coffee at Jean-Philippe regardless of the limit on your package.

In practice, this is not always straightforward. Butcher’s cut didn’t charge us for our drinks. Hola tacos and cantina, does include some drinks but others were not. If in doubt, make sure you ask. Staff will happily let you know if something is included or not.

Drinks package availability

It’s best to buy a drinks package before you sail as it is usually discounted in advance. If you want a package after boarding on Princess you can only buy it on embarkation day. The drinks package is not sold later in the cruise.

On MSC you can add a package at any time before the cruise. You can also add it after embarkation day. If you are drinking more than expected then you can scan a QR code and add it to your cruise.

Conclusion

We always travel with a drinks package as long as it offers reasonable value for money. But make sure you understand what is, and is not included before you commit to one. Neither cruise line offer refunds once you’ve bought it.

I hope you find this look at some of the major differences between the two line’s drinks package offerings useful. Was there a difference that surprised you or one that I missed? Please let me know in the comments down below.