Fergus

I would recommend making yourself an MSC account. I did that at the same time as booking my cruise and, even though it's not the sleekest/best functioning website out there, I've been able to book excursions, purchase a drink plan, look up port times, and get lots of information about the ship. And as of this past weekend, did our online check in. I think all of those things will save us time once we board the ship.

I read the fine print in the Cassis excursion and it does say that you transfer to the little train, so that's good to know! Thanks for your advice!

We're traveling on MSC Grandiosa this coming May, and have several choices in the port of Marseilles. I'm 7 weeks out from having had a total knee replacement; I'm doing very well with recovery, but still wanting to get as much information as possible before I make a final choice so that I don't drastically over do it at our first stop! The excursion description for Cassis says that a coach then a mini-train will get you to the town (I read somewhere that the coach has to let you out on a hilltop outside of town?), then you have a couple of hours on your own. The Aix excursion is a shorter coach ride, but includes about 1.5 hours of walking. Has anyone done this excursion? I'm looking for details on what the walking terrain is like (cobblestones, pavement?) and if there is shade and/or benches or other places to take a quick break during the tour? If we were going to be there on a market day, I would have chosen the Aix excursion regardless of the walking, but we're not. At either place, we just want to see the local area a bit - don't have big expectations for museums, etc. I would appreciate any input! Thanks!

We will be behind you by a few weeks (mid-May) on the Grandiosa. (Hope you will post a review when you return!!) My status match request got me a Gold status on MSC, just FYI.

We have an MSC cruise booked for the Med next year. Our last cruise was Norway last year. I almost wept when I saw the MSC excursion prices - they are miniscule compared to Norway, LOL! And very comparable or even lower than what we've typically seen in the Caribbean.

We've stopped there a few times on Carnival. St. Maarten has absolutely the most beautiful beaches of any island, IMO.

I will add a tentative vote for Norway. Definitely a balcony is a plus there. At one of our stops, a very small town, we were almost within arms reach of a field full of sheep with tinkling bells on them. BUT. It rained every single second of every day of our 9 day cruise in June of 22. We were prepared with rain gear, but it was a huge disappointment to have to do everything WET, and it also meant that we missed sooo much of the beautiful scenery due to fog, clouds, pouring rain. (We visited Iceland for 4 days after our cruise, and, nope, we didn't see the sun at all there either, although it technically didn't RAIN the whole time. We landed back at our home airport, where it was 100 degrees and sunny and got off the plane feeling like moles who had been trapped in a cave for 2 weeks.)

The one that will always stay with me was in Cozumel, probably 25 years ago. Our kids were about 5 and 8. We decided to get off the ship, rent a car, and drive around the island for the day, stopping at whatever looked interesting. The ad for the car rental place had a picture of a PT Cruiser on it - remember those? They were new then, and the kids were convinced that's the car we would get. My husband went into the rental office, came out, had us follow him around the corner to a parking lot. There, in all its glory, was our vehicle.......an old Partridge Family plaid VW Beetle convertible. Our kids were absolutely speechless and so excited. We got in, tootled around Cozumel all day, snorkeled, saw nude sunbathers at one remote beach, the kids drank Cokes from bottles for the first time ever. I have a permanent memory of looking around at their faces in the back seat and thinking that it was the greatest day ever.

We learned our lesson the hard way on our last cruise. Flew from US to London, had transfers to Dover to get on our cruise ship. Our luggage did not arrive in London from JFK. We each had a carryon with a change of underwear and shirt, meds, etc. with us. Got on the ship, asked customer service for help. Nada, nope, nothing (we had booked our flights through the cruiseline.) My husband did all the tracking down, finally found a kind soul who found and shipped our luggage to our first stop. We got on our excursion that day and it coincidentally went right by the airport. The driver let my husband off, he picked up the luggage, and taxied back to the port. We will ALWAYS cross pack in the future, and we will probably purchase either tiles or air tags or something. That was a miserable experience.

Do the Troll Road/Aksla excursion - both are amazing. We made several other stops as well - unless my memory is failing on which day we did this, we stopped at a restaurant in the strawberry growing region and were served an amazing strawberry cake. At the bottom of the Troll Road, we were provided lunch at a restaurant - very authentic Norwegian food.

We did 4 days in Iceland following our Norway cruise and used Nordic Visitor. Their services were impeccable. We had a rental car and a "suggestions" book/map that reviewed sights that we could choose to see. The hotel reservations they had made for us were all in order, no issues at all. Highly recommend!

Take the excursion! The Troll Road is beautiful and some of the other things you see along the way are as well. The weather wasn't good at all when we were there, but it was still worth it - the Aksla overlook too. Weather was the only problem we had with our Norway cruise in June 2022. (Besides the fact that we had no luggage for 3 days, had to track it own with no help from cruiseline, finally found it and got it shipped to our first stop.) It rained, drizzled, was foggy and cloudy every.single.moment of our 9 day cruise. We flew to Iceland for 4 days after that, exactly the same. We never saw sunshine for one second during our whole trip. While that didn't completely ruin the trip - because the portions of Norway that we could see were lovely, it was a disappointment for sure. Hope you enjoy your cruise!

Great advice - particularly about the stray luggage - we're hoping NOT to have that wonderful experience again! Thank you all!

Can pax in the same cabin purchase different drink packages, or do all have to purchase the same one?

Doing 7 day Med circuit on MSC Grandiosa. Anyone have tips or info needed to make our boarding easy and quick? We plan to arrive in Italy a few days ahead of time, but haven't decided exactly where we will stay. (Trying to avoid a luggage nightmare we experienced last year in Norway - went 3 days without our luggage, had to track the pieces down completely on our own, finally found someone to ship our bags to one of our stops, unexpectedly drove by the town's airport on an excursion, they were kind enough to let my husband off to retrieve our luggage and take a cab back to the ship.🤪) Thanks in advance!