If you remember back into August Adam and I scored two free 10 day MSC cruises while in Atlantic City from our credit cards and hotel status. We decided to use the first one on the MSC Seaside sailing the Southern Caribbean from Martinique for 7 nights.
While I’m sure we could have pulled this off for much cheaper sailing from Miami, we like to minimize sea days and maximize interesting islands and places we haven’t been on our itinerary. By far our biggest cost of this trip was the flight from Greenville to Martinique. Yay! for not having to drive to CLT or ATL and only having 1 layover though. We combined this with Thanksgiving day saving an extra vacation day and getting 2 days on Island before embarking.
Booking Process & Upfront Costs
After returning home from Atlantic City I spent some time going through all the MSC itineraries 10 days and under. I was interested in some European ones and also this trip to the Southern Caribbean to the remaining islands we hadn’t been to. Once I knew the sailing dates and departure location I wanted, I made a quick call to the MSC casino booking department as found in the Ocean Casino travel brochure and they found my information right away. I had status matched in Atlantic City on 8/13 and was able to book on 8/28.
There were a couple unexpected situations. First was MSC classifies rooms by different levels (Bella, Fantastica and Aurea) and our cruise offer included an Ocean View room with Bella. The only Ocean View room available was designated as Fantastica. So in order to book this cruise we needed to pay $29.50 per person to upgrade or we would not be able to go. This also allowed us one cruise change if needed, to be assigned a room then, free breakfast via room service and the ability request a dining time (this is crucial if you don’t want to eat at 9:30pm). I was only asked to pay the expected $400 deposit which would be returned as onboard credit plus the $59.
The next day we ran into a BIG problem. After committing to $1000 flights, I found out our MSC reservation was cancelled. I had been trying to log into the MSC portal to see my itinerary and it just wasn’t working right. I kept getting error messages. I gave it 24 hours then called in to see what was going on. “Your reservation was cancelled at midnight because the payment was past due”. Excuse me? I gave a lady my credit card on the phone and received an invoice.. Looking back I never received a “confirmation” just a “booking option” which I gave a verbal approval for before giving my payment info. Luckily after some scampering the woman on the phone was able to reinstate our room and I got the real confirmation. Crisis averted.
Another nice thing MSC does is status match to other cruise lines and hotel chains. Adam has status with Hyatt and I have status with Wyndham so we both used those to match to MSC gold once we booked the cruise. This got us 2 drawstring bags and 1 hour in the thermal spa.
Martinique
We arrived 2 days early in Martinique. Our only other flight option was to arrive the day of the cruise and that’s always risky business, especially with American Airlines. I knew going into this experience that as a French territory there would be very few english speakers on Martinique. After a travel day that started at 4am I was a bit overwhelmed when we actually got there. I can count to a whole 5 in french, say hi, bye, yes and thank you. And somehow only Spanish words kept popping into my head. I still can’t believe how different all the islands are even though they are so close in proximity based on who occupied them longest or most recently.
Although we had just time changed, the islands do not, so we suddenly lost 1 hour when we arrived. There was just enough time to pick up our car rental from Sixt, stop at the grocery store for snacks/breakfast and find our airbnb near Les Trois-Îlets before the sun started setting. We couldn’t get the internet to work, our hotspot was not connecting, google translate wasn’t working offline. It was a bit of a hot mess. Since the steep hills were terrifying on the way up in our little Dacia Duster, we decided to walk back down the hill to grab pizza from a pizza vending machine that I looked up ahead of time. It sounded safer than me trying to guess ingredients in french.
The area was just stunning; views of the bay and city. We spent our only full free day driving around the island. Starting from Les Trois-Îlets we went around the peninsula to Le Diamant, back through Fort de France, along the west coast to Saint-Pierre and up into the mountains in Le Morne Rouge. We visited the Memorial of the Catastrophe documenting the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century from Mount Pelee. And got exceedingly lucky that we arrived just in time for the last tour of Gorges de la Falaise (Cliff Gorge). This excursion requires you to pay 10 euros per person for a guide into the gorge. You hike down by yourself and meet the guide at the mouth. We had a group of about 8 people, none of which spoke english. This hike/wade through the river was magical. Like The Narrows but without all of the people (I assume, we were at Zion in winter). It ended with a waterfall and what I assume with higher water levels would be a pool to swim in.
I had booked our airbnb knowing that our hosts were very friendly, but also spoke no english. There was a bit of a panic because I could not give him our arrival time without my hotspot working and we caught them a bit off guard early in the evening. They offered to bring us aperitifs and homemade snacks. It was a fun, albeit awkward, time trying to communicate and also for me to try not to eat anything that would spiral into a bad reaction and ruin the whole trip without being rude.
We woke up early the next morning to hit the trails on the Mount Pelee volcano. It’s currently an active volcano; at least seismically. The hope is that if you go early you will get clearer views before the afternoon clouds and rain move it. We started our journey with some cloud cover which was honestly for the best. It kept the sun from heating us up too much. We also had to drive 1.5 hours back to Fort de France and board the cruise ship between 3 and 4p.
This hike was hard, but also so rewarding and fun. I have never had to do so much climbing and bouldering vs just walking. When we got to the split I read reviews on AllTrails that explicitly said go clockwise. There were lots of people standing around and a VERY steep looking opening. We passed them thinking it was an overlook but I checked my map and that’s where we wanted to go. Suddenly we had visibility into the crater and it was stunning and very intimidating. We moved through it quickly and had to climb the entire way back up. There were lots of good hand and foot holds. More and more views started to peek through the clouds.
When we reach the top we opted not to do the the portion called “the chinese”, which was an out and back section for additional views of the whole island. Mostly because visibility had been poor and we just didn’t think we should add an extra .5 mile and 100 feet. We then started to decend and I understood why clockwise was best. You could see people climbing a stretch that looked like a mile uphill. The “steps” or rocks were unevenly spaced and more jagged. It was really only .3 miles (always that damn .3 miles!), but a 530ft increase in elevation. We had done 275ft over the same distance. We started to see the people we left behind at the split. One had enough english to ask which way was harder. I didn’t lie, “This one looks harder”.
It’s unusual that a descent takes us as long as the ascent. This down was painful. So many uneven stairs, water damage to the trail and slippery rocks. In the end the entire 4.5 mile 2000ft loop took us 4.5 hours. It took our bodies 3 days to recover.
The MSC Seaside
Once we dropped off our rental car the shuttle took us back to the airport. Obviously the ship does not leave from the airport so we decided to use the public bus instead of pay 35 euros for a taxi. I had watched several videos of how to use their buses before we left but as soon as we were there I couldn’t remember which bus name we were taking. Luckily another couple that looked cruise ready was boarding so we followed them. I had also pulled up google maps transit info before losing wifi so I was able to track the stops to where we wanted to get off. It was such an easy process aside from the initial language barrier. It cost just over $3 USD for us both, but no one checked our tickets.
When we arrived at the port we were a little early for our window. They held us out in a tent in the parking lot. Once it was time they let us through to a never ending queue in the heat. For the most part if was a free for all with multiple lines merging and people cutting. I think I pissed some people off with my hand luggage because they thought I needed to check it like theirs. But they didn’t speak english and I didn’t speak French so it was just a lot of passive aggressive (ok they’re french, it was aggressive aggressive) talking and gesturing at me. It took us about an hour and a half to make it through the line. One shocking thing about at least our MSC ship is they took anyone’s passport that was not EU at embarkation and kept it the whole cruise.
Once on the ship we got to see our room. We got so lucky to be assigned an accessible room, 5169. It was HUGE. We didn’t have a couch, but we had 2 chairs, 2 portholes and a very large bathroom. Overall I was not extremely impressed with the ship itself. It is very large and holds 5,000 people at max capacity but overall felt similar in finishings and amenities to the other ships we have been on (Royal Adventure of the Seas & Explorer of the Seas and Carnival Elation & Legend). There were a lot of areas that were off limits to the lowly normal passengers that were for Yacht Club suite rooms only. The biggest area this ship stood out in was the amount of pools and areas for kids. There were 4 pools open the the public: Adults only in the back, way up high was the main pool and then there was the Jungle pool that was indoor/outdoor and a kids waterscape with 3 slides.
Food: It was not my favorite. I am most partial to Royal Caribbean, but it has also been over 6 years since we sailed with them and my diet and pandemic times changed a lot of things. Since MSC is catered toward European travelers, there was a variety for more Mediterranean palates. Salads and lunch meat at breakfast, more fish than other meats and SO MUCH BREAD. The pizza at lunch however was excellent.
We were still in the minority speaking english, but most of the staff did speak it. This seemed to be because it was local islanders from Martinique and Guadeloupe but also easier to get flights from France to the French islands. That leads me to the most interesting thing about our experience with MSC. Guests embarked and disembarked basically every day. We got on in Martinique, people got on and off the next day in Guadeloupe and 2 days later in Barbados as well. Half of our 6 ports! We also ran into an issue with currency. The ship had been in the US then was transitioning to Southern Caribbean for a season then back to Italy. There were guests who boarded in Cape Canaveral a week before us and paid for things on the ship in USD. The day we got on everything was transitioned to Euros. My $400 deposit paid in USD was converted at a not so favorable rate and there was a lot of confusion as to what things like gratuities were going to cost.
Overall I felt the staff was friendly but less sales-y and pushy. When you’re on an American cruise line it almost feels like their job depends on getting people to participate in activities. On MSC if no one showed up after announcing the activity one time the crew member left or busied themselves talking to friends. The entertainment was more varied because of the language barrier (although most entertainment staff fluently spoke at least 5 languages) and started off better than it ended. Jugglers, strength acts, a violinist, a magician and some more normal performances like a rock show and a Michael Jackson tribute which we skipped.
The casino on this ship felt relatively small. BUT they did have one coin machine where I lost plenty of money and had lots of fun. I think it was definitely a more American game because people kept standing around to watch me play.
Guadeloupe
Our first stop was Guadeloupe. The exhaustion and soreness from our hike had settled in. We did not have any plans here simply because it was Sunday and finding something to pre-book had been impossible. We decided to do a short walk around town, use the internet in port and enjoy lunch on the ship. I do think it is a very beautiful island (also with a recently erupting volcano) that would have been fun to explore.
We also used this time to visit the thermal spa, which was incredibly relaxing. It had a sauna, steam room, salt room, hot tub, cold snow room and special lounge areas inside and outside. It was the perfect spot for our bodies to recoup after hiking.
St. Lucia
This day was our big excursion. I had found a group to book off-ship excursions on Facebook that got good group rates. We took a 1.5 hour drive through the jungle up and down, winding all around to get to the Pitons, the big attraction in St Lucia. I had originally wanted to hike them but our bodies were still in no shape for that! Once there we got on a speed boat to a resort beach between the Pitons for an hour, went back to the small town of Soufriere for included local lunch, went to see a very commercialized waterfall and took a relaxing and smelly mud bath. I wish someone would have warned me that my swimsuit, towels and my body would smell like sulfur for a very long time. Here’s to hoping laundry detergent helps.
Barbados
We had previously visited Barbados in 2015 on a Royal Caribbean cruise. That time we went to the beach to paddle board and learned to paddle surf. This time we had used the same Facebook group to sign up for an all around island history tour. This one didn’t work out so well. No one told us our tour didn’t have enough people to run so we showed up and waited over an hour for someone who wasn’t coming. A bit annoyed we missed the opportunity to join another group, we did a quick loop through downtown Bridgetown and stayed at the port the rest of the day. This was the first port where my hotspot worked and the only one right from our room so we took the day to relax and do some internet things before a sea day the next day.
The sea day was very odd. Everything is so close together that the boat basically floated in the ocean between Barbados and Grenada for the day to make it feel like we were in the middle of nowhere. This made my motion sickness slightly worse. I could have done without the sea day and stopped at Dominica or Trinidad & Tobago. It was all in all a good rest day because Adam seemed to have caught someone’s cold from the ship and wasn’t feeling great.
St. Vincent
Our plan was to try and get a cab and water taxi to Fort Duvernette. Adam didn’t particularly feel up to it and we were worried we would get stuck out there on a small island if we couldn’t get a water taxi back. Instead we joined a taxi tour in port to see some local sights and an area they used to shoot Pirates of the Caribbean. This island was very pretty and lush with very little through the middle of it because of it’s volcano. Overall the tour was nice to see the island but lack luster compared to ones we’ve pre-planned. The guides on those are just much more excited and helpful. Our driver seemed to be doing a job and maybe slightly resentful of tourists.
Grenada
Our last stop was a good one, but I have never been so motion sick in my entire life. We took a safari like vehicle 45 minutes out of town to tube the river and see their national park. Our guide was wonderful, pointing out so many different kinds of plants and giving us their uses or letting us try some. We tried local lemongrass, cinnamon leaves, fresh turmeric, a cacao plant and more I can’t remember. So much good information. And then there was tubing which was a blast. I’ve never had so much fun on an excursion. It wasn’t just floating like we do at home. And it wasn’t just one fun section of rapids. The entire trip was rapid after rapid with little breaks to catch your breath and 5 workers keeping everyone moving and from getting stuck. Oh and splashing us so we were never dry. Adam even got to jump off a cliff at the end (I’m not allowed to cliff jump, especially in foreign countries).
Then I got so motion sick I think I hyperventilated until my hands, arms and legs were going numb. We stopped to see Mona monkeys but I felt too awful to hold one. Probably better than getting pooped on or bit. We luckily stopped long enough for bathrooms and shopping that I could get a little Coke in me and stay abreast of the worst of the nausea. After our tour and lunch we did more walking around Grenada to buy spices. If I were to go back to one of the island I think I would pick this one because I just loved the whole feel.
Final Thoughts
Overall we always come down to the same conclusion: we don’t really like cruising. I like the places it takes me. I enjoy not worrying about where or what to eat. And it certainly feels longer than other trips we take. But the food choices always wear on us. We’re not into the kitschy shows or theme nights. It’s hit or miss if I’ll get motion sickness. People love to travel even when they’re sick and ships are known to spread everything. We also came to feel uncomfortable with the cruiser mindset especially on these islands. They want to be waited on on their special trip, which is understandable but hit with the stark contrast of how the tour guides, etc live on those island it’s hard to watch and swallow. We had someone on one of our tours on a poorer island ask our driver if he’s even been on a cruise. The pain in his reaction was hard. We would much prefer to engage with the location and learn the people a little more in addition to doing the touristy thing.
It was definitely a fun use of our free cruise and I never regret seeing new places. We were also pushed further outside our comfort zones. In Spanish speaking countries we have some proficiency. In French we floundered a bit more. We learned how to get an international drivers license, exchanged currency for I think the first time in our travels and made connections with new people.
Cost Breakdown
Our cruise itself was truly 100% free. The cash price for the same room was just over $2,000. We paid $59 for the room service upgrade and made a $400 deposit that was indeed refunded to onboard credit as 347.83 euros. We were able to pull 35 euros out at the casino in cash and played bingo, Adam did the zip line and we ate gelato. Our gratuities were only 10 euros a day per person. I haven’t figured out where they got that number based on their website but I’ll take it. At one point someone at the front desk told me it would be 115 euros per person, so I left too much extra credit on our account. They would not let me leave any onboard credit for individual gratuities for our waitstaff and none of the stores or casino were open that last morning when we received our bill. In a last minute attempt to use the 100 euro overage we got drinks and played a bunch of games in the arcade.
Since most of our accommodations and food were free we spent a lot more on excursions and activities than we normally would. All tour prices below include fee and tip.
