Solo Cruising with MSC Cruises: my review
Solo Cruising with MSC Cruises: my review
Cruising solo can be a daunting concept, right?! Well, in this post today, let's unpack what it's like with one of the many cruise lines that I've cruised solo with in the past: MSC Cruises. Before we get started, if you're new here, then I'm Fraser. Thanks for stopping by today - over the last few years, I've taken lots of solo cruises, and I've been reviewing them over on my Youtube channel: Fraser at Sea (yes, come and subscribe, if you haven't already!). The purpose of this website is to act as an extension to my YouTube world, and it offers me a way of continuing to show you as much of the cruise industry as possible.
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Anyway, let's get to it - let's start talking about my experiences with MSC Cruises. For more MSC Cruises posts, click here after this article!
First off, who are MSC Cruises, and which of their ships have I cruised on? Well, they’re an Italian cruise line - headquartered in Genoa, Italy, and they’re once of the most successful in Europe. They don’t just cruise in Europe - and over the last few years they’ve massively increased their presence within the American cruise market, and are (at the point of writing this post) in the process of building a brand new bespoke terminal in the cruise ship capital: Miami!
I've cruised on a wide variety of their ships - going from the much older ships to the much newer! My first ever MSC cruise was onboard MSC Orchestra back in 2018 (this ships pretty old in terms of their fleet), and I've then cruised multiple times on MSC Virtuosa, spent 10 nights on MSC Meraviglia, and also spent 3 weeks onboard MSC World Europa. If you'd like to see some of the ships themselves before continuing with this post, you can check out my full ship tours of both MSC Virtuosa and MSC World Europa below:
So, what's it like to cruise solo?
If you're currently considering your first solo cruise, you might have similar fears to what I had before mine - would I be really lonely onboard, or would I make some travel friends? Would a solo and a single traveller be considered the same thing, therefore making it more of a speed-dating vibe onboard? This point is SO important - I'm so clear that a SOLO traveller is very different to a SINGLE traveller - think about it...
On my first MSC cruise a few years ago, I found there to be very little going on from a solo traveller point of view. However, my more recent cruises on the other ships have been very different, and so this review will cover what I've found in my more recent cruises. We're going to talk about a couple of key topics:
Cabins - what type of cabins can you book as a solo traveller, and how high will the supplements be?
Solo traveller meetings - do these exist?
Anything else that the cruise line are doing to support solo travellers?
So, let's start at the beginning - cabins!
Onboard the Meraviglia Class (and newer) cruise ships (so MSC Meraviglia, MSC Bellissima, MSC Grandiosa, MSC Virtuosa, MSC Euribia, MSC World Europa and soon to be MSC World America), you'll find cabins that are specifically designed for one passenger. This means that you'll get a much smaller cabin that what you would if you booked one designed for two, but it also means that you'll often save a lot of money! Some of the cheapest cruises I've ever taken have been in these small solo cabins from MSC, and I really can't complain for what I've paid! Here's some pictures of a recent solo inside cabin from my time onboard MSC Virtuosa:
Word of warning though - these cabins really are quite small - you'll often find that your bed will be bigger than a single, but it'll be pushed up against the wall on one side. You're not going to have much space, but I genuinely think these cabins offer everything you need when travelling solo for cruises up to 7 nights long! Any longer than that, and I'd maybe consider upgrading to a bigger cabin! You also need to watch that, with these cabins, you don’t end up paying more than what you would to book a cabin for 2 people, as a solo. As the market operated on a ‘supply and demand’ basis, it means that pricing will fluctuate depending on the sell-through rate of cabins on the ship. You can read more about that in one of my other posts: here.
Another point you need to be aware of - be sure to properly inspect the deck plans on your chosen cruise ship - MSC do have a number of cabins that are TINY. For example, on my recent cruise onboard MSC Meraviglia, I booked a solo cabin that featured only a sofa bed, rather than an actual bed. Additionally, this cabin was a double-adjoining cabin, meaning that I could hear everything from the doors on both sides of the room which were connecting to the next cabin - far from ideal! If you'd like to see more of this room for yourself, just check out the below video. You'll see this room type on your ship deck plan states that it's a 'sofa bed' in the room - I wish I'd done my research before booking it!
After researching this room post-cruise, it would seem that this cabin is designed to be an ‘add on’ to either of the rooms next door, providing you with an additional bedroom if, for example, you’re cruising with family members (eg. children), and would like a little extra space.
Now, let's talk supplements. If you've never cruised before, then a solo supplement on a cruise is when you pay extra to book a room for just one passenger, as the room could have been sold to a party of two. For some cruise lines, the supplement will be the entire cost of the second passenger (I know - I think this is ridiculous, too!), whilst for others it'll be a percentage value of your single cruise fare. This is where MSC really perform well, especially on European cruises. I consistently find MSC ships deliver the best 'value for money' solo cruise fares, due to the fact that they operate much lower solo supplements than the other cruise lines.
Yes, booking a solo cabin will generally score you a decent fare reduction vs paying for two, but the supplements on 'standard' cabins with MSC are often fairly low. Note: by 'fairly low' I mean you should be expecting to pay about 40% of the second passenger - believe it or not, this is a really good price! This isn't always the case though - I find MSC to have fairly decent prices for itineraries in Europe, but I do find it much more difficult to book these rates on ships departing from a US cruise port. For example, I recently priced up MSC Seascape out of Miami, and couldn't find a single date across a whole month where the single supplement wasn't at least 80%, which is too steep for me, I'm afraid! As a result, I took a cruise on a competing cruise line (which allowed me to get some lovely photos of MSC Seascape, ha!).
Pricing aside, let's move on to think about solo traveller meetings...
I've been on some cruise ships before (not MSC) who do offer solo meet-ups, but these aren't hosted by a crew member, and are in a public bar. This makes it incredibly difficult to identify other solo travellers - think about it - when one solo traveller meets another, there now aren't any solo's in the room! I've never understood why cruise lines do this, as it just increases the awkwardness for the solo!
In contrast, MSC have been excellent on my recent cruises in this area! I've found that, usually on embarkation day, MSC will organise a meet up specifically for solo travellers. This will be a private function in a 'closed' venue on the ship. For example, on recent MSC Virtuosa cruises, this event has taken place in the TV Studio (the karaoke venue), or the Virtuosa Bar (one of the main bars onboard), with a roped off section for solo travellers. I was most impressed on Virtuosa when they even came out offering complimentary drinks and canapés to the solos - what a fantastic way to make your guests feel welcome - well done, MSC Cruises!
I've found MSC's position on solo traveller meetings to be fairly consistent across ships - on my MSC Meraviglia, MSC Virtuosa and MSC World Europa cruises, these meetings would be daily, allowing solo's the chance to meet up before dinner for a drink - great idea!
Finally, is there anything else that MSC are doing to make solo travelling a little easier for those on their own?
This is where MSC really does come into their own! On my recent cruises, I've found that I've been seated with fellow solo travellers when I arrive at my assigned Dining Room for dinner! This is a wonderful move from MSC, as it allows you to have dinner conversation with like-minded travellers - I can't count the number of times I've been sat at a shared table with couples on a cruise ship with people who openly discuss finding the concept of me being there 'alone' awkward and uncomfortable - no, thank you - you’re not helping!
I really hope this is something that MSC continues to do - I love it! I should add at this point - if you don't want to share a table with other solo's, it's usually pretty simple to switch to sit elsewhere. As much as I do love sitting with others, I also sometimes really enjoy relaxing and enjoying dinner at my own pace - I always find that the restaurant Managers are more than happy to move reservation to a solo table (if they have space!).
So, would I recommend MSC Cruises for a solo cruise? Absolutely!
I find that MSC Cruises are one of the best value cruise lines in the industry today - their ships are absolutely gorgeous, and they really try hard to make solo travellers feel welcome onboard. Yes, they're a little 'different' to some of the American cruise lines you might be more familiar with (you’ll start to see more on this point in my other posts), but I'm a fan!
That's it - my review of travelling solo with MSC! If you enjoyed this post today, then please think about heading over to my Youtube channel and checking out my MSC Cruises content. Every video watched, and every subscriber on the channel, really helps my content creation journey, so thank you if you do head over there! Wherever you are in the world, thanks for reading today, and have a great day!