Partly to give the cruise line a second chance, but significantly because we had a large gap in our travelling plans with a little bit of annual leave to use up and this was a cheap option we could book fairly last-minute, we recently decided to spend a week cruising on MSC Virtuosa. We’d first cruised with MSC Cruises and on this same ship a year earlier and the experience with sticky surfaces, overcrowding, bad food, and a horrible atmosphere aboard (including a threat to punch me from a fellow passenger) had resulted in me writing at the time:
Would we cruise with MSC Cruises again? Out of the UK with a mainly British crowd? Absolutely not.
Taster Cruise Aboard MSC Virtuosa
And yet here I am proving myself to be a liar, not far off twelve months later, having just got back from seeing whether a week cruising on the same ship and out of the same port and with a mainly British crowd was the same, better, or worse. What can I say? I’m fickle. I’m impulsive.
Cruise Details & The Boarding Process
This was a seven-night cruise, from and to Southampton with port stops at La Rochelle, Getxo (for Bilbao), A Coruña, and nobody’s favourite French port, Cherbourg, all of which we’d visited before. We were looking forward to the first of the French ports because we’d enjoyed a trip there several years earlier (before Covid) and wanted to see if a quirky little place for drinking still existed. But with this being a late booking and there being not a lot of chance of any decent excursions being available we opted to just treat this cruise as a more casual, bimble-about sort of cruise in each of the ports, even deciding that we’d see what Getxo had to offer rather than eat a chunk of available time in port travelling to and from the more popular Bilbao on public transport.
Although we had a boarding time of midday we knew from last time that we’d not be able to get to our room before around half past two and also knew from last time that the ship would be hectic initially. We therefore arrived a little closer to two. We parked in West Quay (pricing at this time was £7 per day and thus far cheaper than port parking) and walked the fifteen or so minutes to the terminal. As with the year before the embarkation process was very easy with barely a pause in walking from dropping off the main case, passing through security, heading to a check-in desk then heading onto the ship.
It was busy but not appallingly so in the interior spaces on Virtuosa and this was likely largely down to the ship not having fully boarded its several thousands of passengers yet, of course, and also it being a nice enough day for people to head to the top deck. There were lots of children aboard too so families clearly wanted to take them to the pools and sunshine early on. We’d not expected so many children given the school term time here in England but schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland had broken up already so many had taken advantage of this well-priced chance for a holiday. Still, seating was at a premium to start with so we retrieved our cruise cards from the cabin door (we hate this system of leaving the cards there), dropped our hand luggage off, and eventually got a seat inside L’Atelier, a bar we’d come to mostly enjoy on our first time on Virtuosa. Massive queues were in there to book speciality dining and to fetch drinks, it was hot, it was noisy, the tables were filthy, it took ages just to get a drink, some people didn’t think the queues applied to them, and the early impressions were not great.
Skipping ahead, though, it did get a lot better after this boarding day bedlam eased off. Muster took place around four, as expected, we had the TV on, got to the end of the video, dialled the number, then shot off like lightning (if lightning walked), down two flights of stairs to our muster station (the theatre), scanned our cards, walked into the theatre, then out of the theatre, and headed back to a bar to sit down because there was no point fighting against the crowds moving through the ship and on the stairs. We were actually the first to muster at our station but apart from avoiding the crush of fellow passengers there’s no other benefit as none of the bars will be open until the process completes some 45 minutes later.
Our MSC Virtuosa Experience
We loved our cabin. We’d paid a little extra to get the premium drinks package (it’s well worth it for us) and to choose the cabin we wanted of those still left when it came time to booking. We picked 9066, a starboard-side balcony cabin, near the front, and with a double-sized balcony that had a metal lower portion rather than glass. We’d pick this cabin because it totally suited how we like to cruise, spending time in our own private space and with actual legroom to stretch out and move around without playing musical chairs with your partner or sitting side-on to the sea and getting neck ache. Thank you for attending this regular moan about the stingy sizes of some balconies on modern ships.
The food was hugely improved from the weekender cruise of the year before. Largely it was okay without being spectacular, but there were no problems with food temperature or textures this time around. We were both at Diamond level loyalty despite this being only our second cruise with MSC, thanks to the loyalty-matching they utilise, so used one of the perks to book the Indochine restaurant early in the week’s cruise. That was a much better speciality experience than the year before in Butcher’s Cut although the starter portions were too large and we should have gone for the French dessert option as Asian cuisine struggles to produce desserts we like. Otherwise, we dined in the Blue Danube restaurant every day at 19:30 and had great service in there and absolutely fine meals every evening. The breakfast or lunch buffet wasn’t as chaotic as it had been either and it was always possible to get a seat. Since we knew from experience that you must get cold items first if you want your hot items to still be that way when you sit down we didn’t have any noteworthy problems here. Afternoon tea, though: go early if you want a fighting chance of there being much left, and expect some people to disregard the queues. It’s because people are horrible things.
The diversity of the passengers was very surprising, and positively so. We had anticipated that this would be a highly British cruise, and while that is still true there were large pockets of cruisers from abroad on the ship. We heard French, Italian, German, Japanese, Indian, and several other languages, as well as lots of Scottish and Irish accents, and American too. It was more international-feeling than most of the international cruises we’ve taken and we loved that. If you sail out of Southampton on P&O or Princess as we often do then it’s reasonably rare to hear any language other than English spoken.
We don’t really do entertainment on cruises so can’t comment from first-hand experience about what it was like but our regular co-diner at dinner mentioned that he’d watched one of the best shows he’d ever seen while cruising on one of the first nights. We did go and see the Christo Rocks show in the Carousel Lounge one evening just to say hello to him (a side-quest from someone we know who knows him) and he was very talented and friendly. We could also hear a duo perform from our regular spot in the Champagne Bar most evenings and they were very good. And during a special event for Diamond and Blue Diamond level passengers to meet the officers (more on that odd experience when I eventually write up the full details) there was some acrobatic rope-jumping from a trio who would normally perform in the venue and they were very talented.
The Champagne Bar became our place for this cruise. We’d expected to spend time in L’Atelier again as it had provided some good people-watching opportunities on our first MSC Virtuosa cruise but that was before we discovered available seats in the Champage Bar and, more importantly, glasses of Lanson being included on the drinks package. The bar staff also got to know us quickly, stopped bothering with checking or scanning our cards for orders (and we saw very few other people getting treated like this), and often had new glasses pouring as we were finishing up, and even getting bumped ahead of other people queueing at the bar sometimes. For instance, a waiter might walk around to take some orders from other passengers, spot us, gesture, get a nod, head back around the bar himself to pour us drinks, bring them over, then carry on with his order-taking stroll. This level of actually making us feel special is probably the best we’ve experienced at sea.
MSC Virtuosa Cruise To France And Spain
A quick look at the ports we visited during this cruise aboard MSC Virtuosa now. The ports are usually the main reason we pick cruises but as I’ve already said this was more a necessary break at the right time and an affordable price so they were somewhat secondary.
La Rochelle, France
The first three of the ports we hit on this cruise were repeats of a week we’d spent on Sapphire Princess in 2018 and a pleasant surprise had been La Rochelle (a last-minute replacement port) during which we’d discovered a street art-decorated corner of the city serving great food and beer. As that had been pre-Covid we weren’t sure it had survived the period but I’m pleased to say that it had and it proved to be very popular with the locals as the afternoon progressed. We also visited a bunker museum which was excellent, popped our heads in some churches, and enjoyed the architecture and general look of the city.
A quick tip if you’re visiting La Rochelle on a cruise ship the size of MSC Virtuosa: you will need to take a half-hour shuttle bus to and from the ship so get off as early as you can and get back to what will absolutely be a huge queue to return with plenty of time to spare. We were lucky getting off, just walking straight off the ship, across the dock area, straight onto a bus, and off in minutes. We stood in a queue down a side-street in the sunshine for about twenty five minutes before we could start the return journey, only to be met by another ten minutes of queuing outside the port security office before getting back aboard, so with transit time too that took about an hour and a quarter.
Getxo, Spain
We do want to return to Bilbao at some point but didn’t fancy spending time on a shuttle bus to the train station, time on the train to the city, then all that in reverse to get back, so thought we’d just see what Getxo had to offer instead using the power of just our own feet. The answer here was interesting architecture (it’s a fondness of ours) with highlights provided on plaques all along the waterfront walk from the ship. And not only that, but a UNESCO World Heritage Site and fabulous bit of engineering in the form of the Vizcaya Bridge. Great to see it in operation and perhaps if we return then we’ll take a trip on the gondola or perhaps even up the towers and over the platform.
A Coruña, Spain
The hottest of the three ports we visited was A Coruña, as we’d expected, so it was a very slow walk with lots of stops in whatever shade we could find here. We made our way around the waterfront to the Castelo de Santo Antón and really enjoyed the visit and the views here, and all for just a few Euros entrance fee. We hit a military museum, the botanical gardens, and went to the María Pita house museum where you can head up three stories for views over the roofs of the city. All three of these locations were free to visit.
Cherbourg, France
We’re not fans of Cherbourg as a port, generally because there’s been very little open when we’ve visited before. However, a large ship in port on a sunny Friday seemed to change things up a bit and there was a huge market taking place that just brought the city to life. Some bars were open that shouldn’t usually be and we spent a lovely few hours in a place called La Saucée with a few chats with the owner and that was thoroughly nice. In addition we hit the Parc Emmanual Liais again and visited a large, dark, and empty church which was unusual. We like unusual.
MSC Virtuosa Week’s Cruise Conclusions
This was a vastly different experience to the weekender of the year before. After those first few hours aboard it never got crowded on the ship at all and once we’d found our bar and settled into our day and evening routines this became a happy, relaxing, interesting cruise. Some fabulous staff in the dining room and the bars, and a general feeling that everyone aboard was enjoying themselves, staff and passengers alike.
We had plenty of chats both on the ship and online on Instagram with fans of MSC during this cruise on Virtuosa and it was great to see and hear the love people have for the line. That hadn’t been our feeling from the first cruise, of course, but we’d quickly come around to really appreciating what MSC offer early on during this week aboard. There was a good blend of catering well for families, providing very late night options for the party crowd, and putting on several themed nights. The ship was not lacking in entertainment options for all ages, had bars with distinct styles and drinks specific to each, was arguably beautiful, and kept clean well if you forget the boarding day chaos.
The value for money for an MSC cruise is impossible to overlook. There are those who we’ve heard say “Well, we’d only do MSC with Yacht Club” and that’s fine, but we didn’t think we’d have felt the cruise was as good if we’d had to pay that much extra for just a separated area of the ship and a little more flexibility in dining. Watching groups of people following a butler to venues or disembarkation points really did lower our opinions of the abilities of the sort of people who pay for Yacht Club to walk to places that nobody else has trouble finding.
So, finally, to repeat the question I asked on the previous MSC Virtuosa cruise: Would we cruise with MSC Cruises again? Yes, we would. Not the weekenders, but MSC are definitely in our pile of options to consider for spending a week or more hitting new destinations.
We had an absolutely lovely time on MSC Virtuosa this past week.