Just returned from a Norwegian cruise on MSC Virtuosa.
It was our first time cruising and overall, a little disappointed.
The ship was magnificent and very clean. Waking up to a different view while cruising down a fjord was an amazing experience. I was getting up at first light, and going on deck to take it all in. Unless you’ve actually been in the fjords you probably don’t realise some of the destinations are 100 miles inland). One examples is Flaam, which is beautiful. It has a population of 350. And yet Hull seems to be finding technical problems in accommodating cruise ships.
The worst part was that the ship was just too busy, with 6000 people. The first couple of nights felt really chaotic. Things did calm down, but service was often slow and there were just not enough seats. A couple of nights, we visited every bar on the ship and couldn’t find anywhere to sit down, so actually ended up back in our cabin. It seems the ship is designed for warmer climes, where everyone can spread out onto the bars on the deck.
Surrounded by so many people, I learnt what the phrase ‘being entitled’ actually means. I just think we have become so selfish. Some people are incredibly rude and we witnessed several examples of awful behaviour towards staff. The service was sometimes not great, but it was pretty clear that it was more a lack of staff rather than individuals.
We’ve come to the conclusion that cruising is probably not for us.
