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Mediterranean Shipping Cruises

MV Armonia

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: David Darman
# previous cruises: 31 to 40
Date of Trip: January 3, 2005
Itinerary: South America

Although the cabins are smaller and the gross space to passenger ratio is lower compared to the mass market competition, the ship is designed well and one never feels crowded or cramped ( except perhaps in the tiny cabin showers). MSC promotes a supposedly Italian/european influence aboard its ships which I found to be most notable in the cruise director's staff which is a lot more animated than most lines and in the wait staff's decidedly unanimated approach to service. As English may not be the primary language on this vessel North Americans may find the environment a bit more exotic. Moreover, there were oodles of young kids on this Brasilian waters cruise ( I suspect there was a special discount for children sharing cabins with parents - I do not know if this is a common feature of MSC or was unique to this run.) Other than pasta and risotto being available at every meal, I'm not exactly sure what a " European influence " is , but whatever it may be I like value for my money and didn't get it on this voyage in terms of food, service , or entertainment. MSC needs to shore up its act on the Armonia.

There was nothing out of the ordinary with respect to the public areas except for the seemingly haphazard layout of the shops. The casino felt empty because there were only a few gaming tables in the area designated as the casino. The two tiered theatre had good sightlines. None of the lounges ever seemed crowded except when the activities'staff was conducting a program of one sort or another. The twin dining rooms were unpretentious but comfortable. The library/card room, tucked away in a small area outside the theatre, seemed like an afterthought. It was not used much. On the pool deck both the ice cream/juice bar and a rock climbing wall remained inoperable. There was no public movie theatre - a definite desideratum as the cabin TV programming was sparse.

The usual complement of public eating spots, but room service came with a charge except for a lacklustre continental breakfast. Aside from the twin dining rooms on deck 5 and 6 there is a cafe on the pool deck 11 and a grill adjacent thereto. No specialty restaurant, but a pasta and risotto were available at every meal. Unfortunately these offerings suffered from a lack of variety. I think it is not an exaggeration to rate the food served on this cruise as substandard. Meals served in the dining room were consistently disappointing. Tough cuts of meat and improperly thawed fish. Mundane desserts. The pizza served at the poolside grill was more like foccacia than pizza and bad foccacia at that. The lunch buffet appeared to be recycled leftovers. Food trays were not provided in the buffet so one had to load all food on the supersized dishes made available, often by gloveless wait staff. Servers were not attentive. Of course, the flip side of not being approached by pool waiters to purchase a drink is...not being hassled by pool waiters to buy a drink. Appetizers were never offered in the bars and midnight buffets were finger foods served by wait staff on trays. One night the offering consisted only of warmed over pizza - doubly inedible.

Cabins were small, but well designed so there was no sense of being cramped except that the bathroom showers were too small for a large person to take a comfortable shower. All rooms had a mini fridge and tv and adequate closet and storage space. On this itinerary there was hardly any tv programming , pay tv or otherwise. The cabin steward was an oasis of good service in an ocean of underperformers - including management.

The ship's song and dance troupe were fine dancers ( as usual some singing was mimed) , but the presentations numbers suffered from a lack of production values, to wit, amateurish scenery, lighting, costumes and choreography undermined the performances. Other musical soloists were fine. Lounge acts were unremarkable and I was disappointed at the absence of real dance music at any of the entertainment venues. We tried the disco, but frankly, I found the hip hop lyrics that were blaring from the loudspeakers to be annoyingly vulgar.

The gym had 1/2 dozen treadmills that sometimes required a waiting list. There were adequate cable machines to stay in shape while afloat especially since no one was going to overeat on this cruise. If you wanted a sauna there was an extra charge. I didn't use it.

The overwhelming majority of passengers were Brasilian as one might expect on a 7 day sailing round trip from Rio de Janeiro. Since the staff is largely european, english did not dominate conversation. Of course passenger demographics are a function of ship's location. As mentioned above, there was an inordinate amount of kids so I suspect MSC was running some kind of promotion for children with parents. I do not know if this is common for MSC.