3 Dining Experiences on an MSC cruise ship that you MUST try!

One thing’s clear - when it comes to the topic of ‘Dining’, MSC receives incredibly mixed reviews: some claim that they left their cruise after losing weight and constantly feeling hungry, and others claim there to be no issue. Wherever you sit along this line, this isn’t what we’re going to answer in this article. However, I don’t think it would be right to have an article showing aspects of MSC’s dining offering that ignores this point completely - let me tell you where I sit on the line of opinions here…

When I’m cruising with MSC, I’m usually paying significantly less for my cruise than when I’m cruising with some lines that MSC are usually ranked against. For example, I cruised with both MSC and Royal Caribbean multiple time last year, and my fares with MSC were at least a third cheaper than what I was paying with Royal. Therefore, in my opinion, I shouldn’t be expecting every element of the cruise experience to be the same quality (in this case, that logic applies to the food). If you look at this from a hotel point of view, a Holiday Inn will be cheaper than a Hilton - is it right for me to expect Hilton-standard food at the Holiday Inn? You get my point, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today, so let’s move on!

Now, whatever your view on MSC food overall, I don’t think you’d be able to disagree with my 3 recommendations in this post - if you’re planning to cruise with MSC in the future, you MUST check out the below Dining options if available on your ship. Ok, let’s get started…

3. Hola! Tacos & Cantina

I’m not one to ever hide how I feel about this option - I think this is among the best Speciality Restaurants I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship, both from a price and a quality point of view. In here, you can expect a super relaxed environment (which I really respect for an extra-charge dining option on a ship - I find that lots can be quite stuffy and formal…), casual service, alongside good quality and tasty food - ideal, right? Let me show you the menu:

From a price perspective, I really haven’t been able to beat this with many other restaurant options - the menu you’re seeing above was taken from my cruise on MSC Meraviglia from the USA, so the prices are displayed in $ (USD). You can either order your food from the a-la-carte menu, where you’ll pay for each item individually, or you can opt for the ‘unlimited’ / ‘all you can eat’ option for $17.99 (this was €16.99 on MSC World Europa for my European sailing) - you’re not going to get much cheaper than that! I found the best option for that was to go for the ‘all you can eat’ upgrade, and then ask the staff to just order you whatever they’d recommend. Note: this only works if you’re not fussy - I’m more than happy with any Mexican food, so I’m always happy to take their recommendations, as they’re working with it everyday!

Another point to note - I’m not a big tequila fan, so have never explored it, but they have frozen Margarita’s from a slushee machine in here. I have tried the non-alcoholic one (and it was lovely), so I’d imagine the other would be, too!

Let me show you some of the food I’ve eaten in here - my mouth’s watering just writing this article!

In terms of availability, you’re not going to find this restaurant on every MSC ship. Infact, it’s predominantly found on the newer ships: I’ve cruised on World Europa, Virtuosa and Meraviglia - they all had it, but when I was on Orchestra, she did not! You don’t need to book this restaurant in advance - the prices you’re seeing are what you pay onboard, and you haven’t been able to save money by booking this in advance on any of my cruises to date. Check individual deck plans for your ship before you board - you don’t want to miss this one!

2. Butcher’s Cut

This is the onboard steakhouse, and you’ll find this on most MSC ships (but, just as with my Hola! point, always check your individual ship deck plan to be sure).

The Butcher’s Cut restaurant itself is a beautiful one, regardless of which ship you’re on. I’ve found that the only difference between ships is the size of the actual restaurant, but the decor remains almost identical throughout the fleet. For example, on MSC Meraviglia, this restaurant is HUGE, but it’s much smaller on Virtuosa. They’re always nicely dimly lit, plush environments, with expensive wines in beautiful fridges and display cases (yes, they have wine in here for $500 a bottle…!). Service in here is very different to what you’ll experience in Hola! - it’s much more luxurious and what I’d call ‘refined’ in here, rather than the kitchen diner feel across the hall.

In terms of options here, you’ve got a couple of different options for dining: you can either order each item individually on an a-la-carte basis, or you can opt for a ‘Dining Experience’. My recommendation is the latter - I’ve done this on every single one of my MSC cruises, and it’s always been fantastic. First off, let me show you the menu, then I’ll explain why I’ve opted for the ‘experience’ rather than a-la-carte - my answer may surprise you…

Looks great, doesn’t it? Well, now it’s time for me to let you into a little secret - I’ve never paid for a meal at this restaurant! Yes, it’s a ‘Speciality’ restaurant and not included in an MSC cruise fare, but there’s a secret that not everyone knows about…

I’m a Diamond-level member of MSC’s loyalty programme (Voyagers Club), and one of my perks is a meal at Butcher’s Cut. The meal that’s offered is the ‘Dining Experience’ menu, so it’s brilliant! You don’t need to be a long-term cruiser to become a Diamond Member - you can status match to another cruise line, or several other brands - you can find out more information about the MSC ‘Status Match’ offer by clicking here.

Now, let me show you some of the food I’ve had in here before. I’ve never had a bad meal in here, and always leave completely full up - here’s a glimpse:

My closing point on Butcher’s Cut - it’s experiences like this that allow you the option to turn your overall MSC experience from one that focusses often on the value side of cruising into a much more luxurious affair - I can’t recommend this one enough!

That bring us to number 1. If you’ve read my article on top things to do on World Europa, you may already know where this is going, but it’s time to talk about something that you can do on every single MSC cruise ship - let’s talk about their pizza…!

1. Experience some of the best pizza at sea!

My last two recommendations for dining opportunities with MSC have been activities that you’re going to need to pay extra for. However, this one’s totally free of charge (well, unless you order Room Service, but there’s really no need given how readily available it is!).

As you’ll probably know, MSC Cruises is an Italian cruise line, headquartered in Genoa in Northern Italy. I find that, with Italian cruise lines (Costa is the other that I’ve cruised on), they’re really proud of their heritage, and they do ensure that they do pizza and pasta particularly well. Let’s also be honest - if they can get their passengers full of pizza and pasta, it’s a relatively inexpensive way to feed a crowd, isn’t it?

I’ll tell you where you can find a slice of goodness in a sec - let me show you what I’m talking about first:

Ok, so where do you get this? On every MSC ship that I’ve cruised on, pizza will be readily available at the buffet from around mid-day (when the lunch service kicks off). It’ll then be available ALL DAY, finishing after the ‘midnight snacks’ close, which will be around 2am on the larger ships. It might finish a little earlier if you’re planning on the smaller, older ships - check your daily schedule for details.

If eating at the buffet isn’t your thing, then you can usually get pizza from the poolside grill / lido grill too, in addition to one further venue if you’re cruising on the biggest ship class in the fleet. On MSC World Europa, I was delighted to see that they’ve opened a new dining venue onboard, which has clearly been designed to take away food demand from the upper decks due to such a high passenger count onboard. This brand new restaurant may not have the most imaginative name out there (it’s just called ‘Pizza & Burger’), but it delivers ‘what it says on the tin’ PERFECTLY! Down on Deck 6 of the ship, just along from Guest Services, you can pop in at any time of day to pick up pizza slices, burgers, fries, wedges, cakes, and various other snacks (there’s not a huge variety of healthy snacks here, but then you just need to go upstairs to the buffet to get that, if you’re that way inclined…). Here’s some photos of ‘Pizza and Burger’:

If you find yourself craving pizza ‘out of hours’, then you can order 24/7 via the Room Service menu. For this, you’ll be ordering full pizzas, rather than just slices. I can’t advise on pricing or quality of these actually - I’ve never done it - but I don’t imagine it to be overly expensive, and I guess it means you won’t need to leave the nightclub at 1.30am to get your fix if you’re more of a night-owl than I am…!

If you’re planning a cruise with MSC, please do try these 3 things, and pop back and let me know how you enjoy them (I’d recommend fries with your pizza for maximum enjoyment…). If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read today, please do check out the other posts across my site - why not sign up to my newsletter to stay updated with what’s changing on ‘Fraser at Sea’? Also, remember to check back - I’m frequently posting updates on here, so you’d be most welcome!

If you’d like to see more from onboard MSC, why not take a look at one of my ship tours? You’ll find so much more over on my YouTube channel (are you subscribed?!) - all you need to do is tap the video below to check over on YouTube: