I recently had the fantastic opportunity to sail on the MSC Armonia for 7 nights from Venice to Tenerife. I would be travelling and sailing with my work colleague Lee who also wanted to experience an MSC Cruise. I hadn’t sailed with MSC before and although I knew they offered a Mediterranean style of cruising. I was very interested to see what their experience would be like first hand.
What would I think about them, would I enjoy my cruise experience on the Armonia ? You can read on to find out.
Any pictures can be blown up to full size by clicking on them.
The Msc Armonia is a Lirica Class Ship with a maximum capacity of 2163 passengers and 700 crew. I would describe her as a mid-sized cruise ship. She was originally registered in 2001 with Festival Cruise lines and was taken over my MSC and became the Armonia in 2004.
I wrote a live daily blog whilst I was away on my cruise which you can read by clicking HERE. My daily blog did have some information on places we visited however I would like to focus this particular blog on my experience with MSC and the Armonia, rather than the places we visited.
My Cabin
We were very fortunate on this cruise to have a balcony suite as our cabin. You may have noticed that there is a double bed on the photographs, I took the photos when we arrived, we soon changed the beds to twins. Although Lee and myself got on very well, we weren’t too keen on sharing a bed together !
As you can see the cabin was very spacious and had a balcony, a bathroom with bath and shower overhead, a small walk in wardrobe, minibar, sofa and table. To begin with we thought it was strange that there wasn’t a safe in the cabin but then we found that it is hidden behind the mirror, very James Bond.
We were up on Deck ten in cabin 1090 which was to the rear section of the ship.
The cabin was nicely furnished, the beds were comfortable and I couldn’t have wanted anything more from the cabin and rightly so with it being one of the highest grade cabins on the ship.
The Ship
The ship was medium sized, I normally like larger ships but I must say I was happy with the Armonia's size she certainly felt large enough for my liking and had plenty of places to go to. The ship was in very good order. Everything was clean and well kept. Nothing really looked tired or worn out at all.
The ship has a couple of large swimming pools out on the main deck along with two hot tubs. There is also a mini golf course and sports court at the top of the ship.
Overall she was a nice looking ship. Here are my thoughts on most of the ships public areas.
The Red Bar
The Red bar is situated mid-ship of deck seven. It is a glitzy looking bar that has an up-market feel to it. I did chuckle to myself though wondering why it was called the “Red Bar” as all of the furnishings were orange. That being said it was a nice bar/lounge area and in the evenings often had a pianist and singer performing.
La Fenice - Theatre
The main theatre of the ship is located on the forward of decks 5 and 6. The theatre has plenty of seating and a mixture of fixed and movable chairs and plenty of tables. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the theatre but I did go and watch a show one evening called Cleopatra, you can read what I thought about it in the entertainment section further down this blog.
The White Lion Pub
The White Lion pub is situated to the forward of deck 5. I must say I do like a good pub and I have to say, I think this is one of the best pubs I have been to on a ship. The pub has lots of little nooks and crannies and captures the “proper pub” feeling well. One thing that I noticed right away about the pub is that smoking was permitted throughout. It didn’t bother me that you could smoke, in fact although I quit in May this year I do admit to a couple of cheeky smokes due to the novelty of actually being able to smoke in a pub again like old times. I didn’t find that the pub got too smokey at all though, so at least it seems well ventilated. There is usually a singer performing in the pub during the evening time as well.
Cafe San Marco
Cafe San Marco is situated at the forward of deck six just behind the theatre. It is a nice little cafe bar with an open view to the reception atrium below.
There is a piano where a pianist will often perform in the evenings and a menu with a large selection of speciality coffees. I tried the Mocha chino and the Caramel Latte, both were very nice.
Armonia Lounge
The Armonia Lounge is a large show bar style lounge situated at the forward of deck seven. In the daytime the area is normally empty or used as a meeting point. In the evening the lounge comes to life with all sorts of entertainment on the main stage. You can read my comments on the entertainment here further down my blog.
Palm Beach Casino
The Palm Beach casino is situated mid-ship on deck six. I didn’t spend too long in the casino, as much as I love a hand of blackjack I managed to resist the temptation in the end. I did have a couple of drinks and a good wander around the casino though. The casino isn’t vast but certainly not small. There is a bar, plenty of slot machines and lots of gaming tables including most popular casino games. The atmosphere seems good in the casino and in the evenings was not too busy, not too quiet. Smoking is permitted inside the casino.
Bar del Duomo
Situated midship on deck five the Bar del Duomo is another show bar type lounge with a bar, a stage and lots of seating. This area is normally pretty quiet during the daytime but generally has performing artists and dancing on the stage in the evening.
Starlight Disco
The Starlight disco is situated on the aft of deck twelve. It is a large area and the disco itself didn’t open till 11pm. The disco has a modern nightclub feel to it. On the first night we went up to the disco just after 11pm and wondered why it was so quiet but in true Mediterranean style more people turned up a while later and the atmosphere was really good in the end. We had a really good time in the disco and met lots of people from all sorts of places, we never wanted to leave when it closed at 330am.
The Entertainment
When I am on a cruise the entertainment in the main theatre isn’t a major factor to me personally, however I always like to go and watch a show to see what it is all about. We went to the main theatre one evening to watch their Cleopatra show. I must say that I was impressed, the show was quite interesting as rather than it just being singing and dancing there were also a contortionist act and strong men acts performing in the show. Everyone I spoke to that watched the show agreed it was very good.
The entertainment in the Armonia Lounge in the evening was more of a light hearted affair with things like a passenger “X-factor”, lots of games on stage and dancing. One night I went to watch the show called Romeo and Juliet, this was hilarious. The show had couples doing numerous humorous things to show their love for each other. One part had the couples pretending to be animals on the stage and was very funny indeed.
The entertainment in the Red Bar was usually a pianist with a lady singing along side him. This was nice and suited the atmosphere of the bar well.
There was often a singer in the White Lion pub in the evenings. It did give the pub more atmosphere and he wasn’t a bad singer at all, it did make me smile though because his foreign accent was so strong, it definitely gave the songs a different personality.
There was also an animation team on board the ship who would always be around trying to encourage people to dance and have a good time (not forcibly). There would be lots of exercise and dance classes up on the main deck in the daytime also.
The On-board experience
The experience I had on the MSC Armonia was different to what I had experienced to British and American cruise liners that I had been on previously. If I were to describe this I would say, imagine if you were staying in an American or UK hotel and then compare that to a Mediterranean hotel. MSC are different but I didn’t find that to be a bad thing at all. MSC are trying to capture the feeling of being in a Mediterranean, multi-lingual and fun floating hotel resort.
Like in the Med the atmosphere is very laid back and relaxed. For example when it came to the first gala evening on board I put on my dinner suit and bow tie and went down to the Red Bar for pre-dinner cocktails. When I went down I saw that many people on the ship were still in casual clothes like jeans. I thought this was a little odd to begin with based on my past experiences but I thought to myself that I quite liked that the whole thing wasn’t too regimented and you didn’t have to dress up if you didn’t want to.
Announcements on the ship are made in about five languages but they didn’t come blaring into the cabin and they are relatively in-frequent anyway. Most often the entertainment hosts will talk in a host of different languages but again I quickly got used to this and I felt it just added the the Mediterranean feel.
I like to have fun and don’t always take life too seriously and because of that I was happy with the whole ambience on board the ship. I always felt relaxed and happy which to me is how I would like to feel when I am on my holidays.
The Service
I personally found the crew to be very good on the Armonia. There was a nice mixture of crew from lots of different parts of the world. The service was on the vast majority very good and the crew seemed happy and cheerful. The crew seemed to often have a good time and I would see them sometimes having jokes with one another, I liked this. Many of the crew members had lots of personality and it was nice to get to know a lot of them over the duration of the cruise.
Our cabin steward was a nice fellow and our cabin was well kept and serviced many times on a daily basis.
The service at dinner time was generally efficient but it was the only time that I felt that there was a language barrier, again it didn’t bother me, I was relaxed, happy and having a good time.
The service at the bars around the ship was fantastic, the waiters and waitresses were fast and very friendly. I would like to thank all of the staff that we dealt with on our cruise, thank you for making sure we had a fantastic time. I have to do a shout out to the barmen in the Starlight disco especially Komang he was a top barman a true credit to MSC.
The service charge on the ship was 7 euro per person per day, I know some people like to have this removed and do their own thing but I just pre-paid the tips and was more than happy to do so after the service I received.
The Dining
Marco Polo Restaurant
We had dinner every evening in the ships main restaurant, the Marco Polo Restaurant to the rear of deck five. We were very fortunate to have two really lovely couples share the dining table with us, we were more often than not the last people to leave the restaurant as we were still sat talking after our meal.
The dinner each evening was from a different theme like Italian night, French night etc. The menu selection each evening was enough but not as expansive as I have seen elsewhere, it was sufficient though.
Whilst the quality of the food on the Armonia wasn't the best that I have experienced on a cruise ship, I did think that it was of reasonable value when you consider the comparative price of the cruise. The food was at times very good, others not so good and I would say that overall that the food was satisfactory. It just didn’t give me the “wow factor” that I have experienced on other ships previously. I did however enjoy the dinners, the mood in the restaurant was good and we had a lovely time with the other couples on our dinner table.
One thing about the food that was noted is the fact that it more often than not isn’t served hot. This is how it is in the Med and wasn’t a problem with me but is worth bearing in mind.
One thing about the food that was noted is the fact that it more often than not isn’t served hot. This is how it is in the Med and wasn’t a problem with me but is worth bearing in mind.
On Italian night there was a big procession of chefs coming through the restaurant followed by a big people train dancing around the restaurant.
La Brasserie Cafeteria
The Brasserie Cafeteria is situated to the rear of deck eleven. The Cafe has ocean views on both sides of the ship and a small al-fresco dining area on the rear. The selection of food was more than enough for breakfast and lunch and I loved to sit out on the rear of the ship in the sun to eat. Once again the food was of a satisfactory standard. There are stations for coffee and soft drinks available in the buffet area also. There is also a midnight buffet open till just after 2am although this was mostly sandwiches and soft rolls which were very good actually.
Deck Grill
I ate most of my lunches on the cruise from the Grill situated on the open part of deck eleven. There are two main stations, one serving freshly prepared Italian pizza (which was very good) and the other serving burgers, hotdogs and fries.
Also during lunchtime hours there would be a chef that would cook fresh pasta for you. It was lovely to sit in the sun in the fresh sea air having lunch.
The Allegrissimo Drinks package
Although there are other drinks packages available on MSC cruises I would like to talk about the one that I purchased on board the Armonia.
This drinks package in my opinion is an absolute bargain, a hidden gem of the cruise industry !
This package would normally cost £20 per person per night if pre-booked with your agent, as I didn’t know I was going on this trip till shortly before I left I was too close to sailing to add it before-hand so I paid 23 Euros per day with an extra 15% added for gratuities.
The drinks package included unlimited amounts of the following :-
Soft drinks, bottled water , speciality coffees, smoothies and freshly squeezed orange juice from the vitamin bar, draft beer (Heineken, Newcastle Brown ale and Murphys), a massive selection of cocktails, house wine by the glass (I drank the red and it was very good for a house wine), a large list of premium spirits and liquors and ice cream from the ice cream bar.
The spirits are served in 40ml servings as opposed to the 25ml or 35ml in the UK. Doubles were ok as well so for example I would order a double Jim Bean and coke, this would normally cost 13 Euro by itself, two of them took me over the price of my package alone !!
I would personally say that the drinks package is a no brainer even for people that drink little or no alcohol. If you do like to drink alcohol then not taking the Allegrissimo package would be missing a fantastic opportunity in my opinion.
Overall verdict and thoughts
As MSC are different in some respects to other cruise lines I have experienced, I found it took me a day or two to get my bearings and work everything out. Once I was settled in to life on-board I must say that I really loved my cruise experience on the MSC Armonia and it is on that I will look back on fondly in the future.
The ship was not without faults and the food wasn’t as good as I have experienced on some other ships. What I would say though is that the cruise was really good fun, laid back and had lots of charm and personality. I came away from the cruise feeling that I had really enjoyed it.
Whether you would enjoy an MSC cruise really depends on your personality, outlook on life, sense of humour and expectations. I personally had a fabulous time sailing on the Armonia and I would definitely sail with MSC again !
