Costa vs MSC
Last year we went on our first cruise with Costa Cruises, and this year we had the chance to try MSC Cruises. These are our impressions:
Considering the very poor reviews Costa gets, we were extremely skeptical when we booked the cruise and honestly didn’t expect anything good because of that, but we were pleasantly surprised. Our ship was the Costa Pacifica from 2006, recently refurbished (we primarily chose the itinerary, that was our priority).
Our MSC cruise was on the MSC Meraviglia, and the sailing was part of its repositioning from America. We embarked in Lisbon, spent 6 nights onboard, and disembarked in Barcelona. Given all the positive comments we had seen about this ship, our expectations were very high. I can’t say we were disappointed, but the difference between these two cruise lines is definitely not as huge as people here make it seem.
What was better on MSC compared to Costa was the dinner selection in the main restaurants. The food was genuinely high quality and diverse, and we really enjoyed it. We liked that the menu changed every day, some dishes repeated, but overall there was good variety. On Costa, the dinner menu was basically the same every day. Also, MSC offers complimentary water at dinner, while Costa charges for bottled water. It was also nice that MSC had tea, coffee, and lemonade available throughout the day, not just during breakfast and snack hours like on Costa. Another thing we really liked was that, unlike on Costa, we could actually enjoy the hot tubs and pools here.
That said, I think this had less to do with the cruise line itself and more with the passenger demographics onboard. On MSC Meraviglia, the crowd was mostly older passengers because it was a transatlantic cruise, and they didn’t seem particularly interested in those facilities. However, once Europeans boarded in Marseille (we are also from Europe), the situation changed a lot, the pools and hot tubs became packed with children and teenagers who didn’t know how to behave. We had a similar situation on Costa as well (the main issue there was children occupying the 18+ hot tubs, which really drove us crazy).
What we actually liked more on Costa was the buffet (which may be controversial). For us, the buffet food on Costa was much more diverse, there were shellfish and seafood, and they offered dishes typical for the country we were visiting at the time (for example paella or churros in Spain). Don’t get me wrong, the food on MSC was good quality, but we missed the variety. It’s nice that MSC always has pizza available (which isn’t the case on Costa), but Costa’s food definitely isn’t as bad as people constantly claim here.
What was significantly better on Costa were the shows, as well as the whole system and overall quality. Meraviglia has a much smaller theater (around 1,000 seats for approximately 5,000 passengers), and reservations are required. When we boarded in Lisbon, almost everything was already fully booked until the very last night of the cruise. This system is terrible because people reserved multiple time slots, so we barely had a chance to book anything ourselves. Since they do allow walk-ins if the theater doesn’t fill up, we managed to see 4 out of 6 shows, but waiting in line for 15+ minutes (some people waited over half an hour) is unacceptable in my opinion.
Besides the fact that Costa didn’t require reservations, the quality of the shows, the variety, and the production itself were far better and more professional. Maybe this had something to do with the transatlantic itinerary on Meraviglia, or the fact that MSC also offers paid shows, but we were honestly very disappointed. In our opinion, only one show was on the same level as the shows on Pacifica.
One thing we got from MSC that we didn’t get from Costa was a huge complimentary upgrade. Even though we booked an interior cabin on both cruises, on Meraviglia we received a premium balcony cabin for four people, with a massive terrace and sun beds. We noticed MSC seems to do this quite often, and it was definitely a great experience.
Overall, even though we still slightly prefer MSC, our opinion is that the difference between these two cruise lines is nowhere near as dramatic as this subreddit often makes it sound. I should also mention that the prices were very similar. So if you’re considering booking Costa but negative reviews are scaring you off — go for it.