Entertainment and activities
As a family brand, MSC Cruises has a real focus on entertainment and activities on board. As such, you can expect tonnes of thrills for all ages on board.
Due to Covid-19, there are of course certain limitations to activities on board. However, if I’m honest, it didn’t really impact on the overall experience – the one take away is that you need to just be a little more organised and proactive if you want to do certain activities (more on that below). Most things, such as shows, can (and really should be) booked via the MSC for Me App. This was super simple and easy to do.
Le Grand Théâtre
The main Theatre on board hosted a variety of shows and entertainment throughout our cruise. In fact, what was impressive was that every night there was a totally different show with a totally different look and feel. All the shows had a revue style, featuring well-known songs and impressive dancing and acrobatics. There’s a reason to the approach for MSC, as usually their ships host multi-national guests, the shows need to be accessible to all. But in all, they’re good fun.
On top of this, there were a number of other activities in the Theatre on our trip including game shows and comedy.
The Carousel Lounge
Situated right at the aft of the ship, you’ll find the Carousel Lounge. A staple on MSC Meraviglia Class ships, this large lounge overlooks the wake of the ship and features an almost circular stage, complete with LED screens and impressive acrobatic capability. The reason for this is usually the Lounge features Cirque du Soleil at sea and so has been built with those requirements in mind.
Alas, there was no Cirque on our cruise, but instead we had entertainment in the Lounge every evening. For our cruise this came in the form of the Soul Sisters. Every night of our cruise they would perform a completely different set list of songs, with a different look and feel. Honestly, it produced such a good feel and vibe – you could tell everyone who was watching the show thoroughly enjoyed it – If you are on a ship and you see them playing board, I cannot recommend going to watch them enough.
Red Gem Casino
Next to the Carousel Lounge you’ll find the Red Gem Casino (which you have to walk through to get to the Lounge). This is a large space so there’s plenty of room for people to play a variety of games, if you want to.
Galleria Virtuosa
I’ve said how the Galleria really is the beating heart of the ship, and that there’s so much going on here all-day long. This is for a number of reasons including live music being played in the various bars on board – whether that’s a Latin band playing in the L’Atelier Bar, more contemporary music being played in XX or a live acoustic musician in the pub.
On top of this there is also the LED Skydome that frames this whole area. This is forever changing into different scenes, look and feels, with special performances taking place at intervals across the day.
Sportsplex
Heading upstairs you’ll find the Sportsplex. This multi-purpose venue is used for a variety of things including for the kinds’ clubs, sports events and in the evenings for parties (on some cruises, though not the one we were on).
This complex also houses a number of areas for fun and thrills. This includes a large arcade, featuring all the latest arcade games and machines, bowling lanes, F1 simulator, VR games and a 3D simulator.
Savannah Aqua Park and Ropes Course
Heading further upstairs you’ll find the Aqua Park and Ropes Course. The Aqua Park features a variety of slides and interactive water play areas for kids. And surrounding this you can find the Himalayan Ropes Course.
The only downside on our cruise was that the various outside activities didn’t seem to be open enough.
What do you think about the all the entertainment and activities on board MSC Cruises? Let me know in the comments and across social media.
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