A way too early review of MSC World America

MSC World America is the Swiss company, not throwing down the gauntlet, but answering the throne gauntlet from Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line.

It's a mega ship that deserves that title. It has some minor flaws, which can be It's a mega ship that deserves that title. It has some minor flaws, which can be said of Royal Caribbean Oasis and Icon-class ships as well as Carnival's Excel Class.

Related: Norwegian Cruise Line ship leaving fleet, cruises cancelled

It's important to note that these are our thoughts on the ship with a mostly media and travel agent contingency onboard. Those groups tend to use the bars more and not the swimming pools as much. 

We had been on the ship for less than 10 hours when we recorded this. These are thoughts of what we experienced initially, and it's important to know that some of these early ceilings are used to fix minor problems.

After we finished this video, there was a formal naming ceremony that was not the most exciting, and later that night, a live drone show that was absolutely spectacular.

We are not generally impressed by fireworks or drones, but this took the technology places we have not seen it go before.

Here's a quick look at our first impressions of MSC World America.

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MSC World America has a lot to like

Daniel Kline: I am Dan Kline. He is Dennis Post. We are Come Cruise With Me.

We are on the deck of the beautiful MSC World America. We're going to give you our original thoughts. Now, we've been on the ship for like, what, four hours?

This is not a comprehensive review. We are outside the Fizz Bar. This is the champagne bar.

There are bottles of champagne everywhere. It is very sunny. We apologize for how squinty and looking at the sun we are here.

But my initial impression, the ship itself is beautiful, but it's flawed. And I hate to say that. The hallways in a lot of the places are choke points.

It almost feels like it's a zombie apocalypse movie, and the goal is to get people into a choke point. 

That said, the open areas are spectacular. You've got 6, 7, 8 all wide open.

The whole ceiling is the American flag. It's the MSC World America. It is really well done, but that is a very odd design feature.

Dennis, what did you think of your original opinion here?

Dennis Post: Yeah, the wow factor when we walked in, the main atrium, beautiful. American flag going across the ceiling. Beautiful staircases.

Everything was amazing. But again, we found ourselves in a couple spots where we're trying to navigate on the floor. Really tight areas might jam up.

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Kline: Yeah, there's a place where you go from the comedy club to the gin bar, and it's like a back alley. At one point, I'm like crawling through, and I know I'm not the smallest guy in the world, but it feels like we're on here with a few hundred, maybe a few thousand people. This ship has a 5,600 capacity.

I wonder about that. Now, it is the third world ship, so maybe they've done this before, but I'm not sure they're aware of Americans. We are not as skinny as our European friends.

The cabins are beautiful, but they're typical MSC, a little bit small. The American outlets look like European outlets, so you have to force your plug in. I think that's going to be off-putting to a lot of people.

That said, there are a lot of USB ports. It is very easy to connect to hook up. 

Overall, the pool deck is stunning.

It's the nicest pool I've ever seen, the largest, and then the adult pool area is multiple pools. It's sort of split up because the ship has an open area. Really, really well done with plenty of shade, a really nice bar.

Dennis, anything else you want to add?

Post: Casino. We liked the casino. Wide open, spread out.

The bar was amazing.

Kline: Spectacular casino bar. Really big casino bar. I know we're very bar-oriented so far, but we haven't done anything.

We went to the buffet. The buffet is a little bit tricky. It has a lot of little stations, so if you don't really do a walk around, and I'm talking like maybe a third of the back of the ship, you're going to miss things.

There was a shrimp cocktail station. We totally missed it. There is a lot to discover here.

We will do an update at the end of this three days. I will do something again when I'm on this ship in June. 

I am Dan Kline. He is Dennis Post. Come cruise with us soon.

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