ISABELLA

All things good to know.

Thanks for clarification.

55 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

As I advised in the MSC thread, the situation you are talking about is the result of a cruiser who, when advised far in advance of the cruise that that particular sailing had been chartered, refused to take the offers in the notice of a fare refund or moving the booking to a new date (OBC was also offered).

 

Instead, he insisted that he still be allowed to retain his booking and after MSC then offered an alternate cabin on the chartered sailing, escalated his demands and threats to the point that the cruise line notified him in writing that he would be arrested at the pier if he attempted to board the ship.

 

Somehow, all the facts of the  story are never included when the poster shows up to routinely bad mouth MSC.

 

More interesting is the fact that the poster continued to book numerous MSC Yacht Club and proceeds to harangue the on board crew about his grievance.

How do you know all these details? Maybe we are talking about different instances.

5 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Celebrity has the same language in their contract, it really is quite normal to include these provisions in cruise contracts.

 

In the past few months Celebrity has unilaterally cancelled cruises, moved ships planned to be in one location to a different one, double-booked hundreds of cabins and had to cancel cruises and move people to the following year...

 

This stuff happens on pretty much every line.

 

In the grand scheme of things, having one cabin moved to a different sub-category is not actually a huge event.

 

Annoying for sure, but not the end of the world...

I don't think you will like to pay for the suite with all perks and be downgraded to a regular cabin. Not a comparison to the end of the world.

Hopefully this is just an error on X part. 

We were considered to try for the first time  MSC Yacht Club. Before we booked I found out that in their contract they can change cabin without any notification and even more some people got downgraded from YC to a regular cabin. 

25 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Yes and they can even bump you out of YC into a regular balcony with no reduction in fare. Plus no access to YC.

 Then to top it off, you will need to purchase Internet and booze package.

Personally had it happen.  

This is insane. Why would anybody even book under these rules? Even it doesn't happen often, possibility of it  will ruin my vacation.

I was considering our first MSC - YC cruise. We only want balcony suite. Can MSC change our Balcony suite to an inside?

1 hour ago, hcat said:

What's inside?

How does it taste?

Taste was very good.  Alkaline balanced, bottle had BPA free liner. Made in USA. 

Thank you so much for all your opinions. Seems that  YC is winning over Haven. We have tried Haven for the first time few months ago and really enjoyed it. Although, I want to point out that we enjoyed Haven's food and service, out butler was very accommodating, but we didn't like NCL perks and didn't care for the ship - way too crowded everywhere outside Haven.

I do agree, since X raised prices so much for AQ and Retreat, it seems that product is way overpriced.

I think we will give YC a try. 

Question to all who sailed in YC, Haven and / or Retreat.

How do you compare all of them?

Cons and Pros?

Which one you like better?

All information is greatly appreciated.

23 hours ago, basenji56 said:

I hate the aluminum cans. Between the wetness and my surgically reduced grip strength, I often can’t get then open 

There were not cans. They are bottles with screw on top. I liked them. Water stays cold longer.

On 7/29/2023 at 3:47 PM, t18c97 said:

I wonder if this change and the other recent ones is the new  CEO trying to make her mark on the company?

Doesn't look like a good mark. Losing customers is not a good thing. 

19 hours ago, miched said:

Thanks.

 

  I always book non refundable.  I also use  future cruise certificates.   The cruises that I have booked have always increased in price so booking a refundable and then switching to non refundable wouldn’t be feasible.   It would end up costing more.  I don’t book cruises to cancel.   The $200 isn’t much if I do have to cancel.   It is cheaper than insurance and the refundable price.  

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

I believe that if you cancel your NRD booking, you will loose your full deposit, not just $200.

21 hours ago, miched said:

How does it work changing non refundable to refundable and then canceling?   🤷‍♂️

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

You cannot change from NRD to RD for the same sailing without canceling the cruise and loosing your deposit

21 hours ago, paulh84 said:

We did our first Princess cruise on the Regal Princess in April. The common description of the cruise amongst us was mediocre. The attention to detail, the finishes (as you mentioned, chunky hotel wine glasses opposed to Riedel you'll find on Celebrity), food that was not horrible but not great, mystery wine, friendly but indifferent service. The shower curtain in the cabin. For a ship that debuted after Celebrity's S class, the cabin finishes felt very dated like a 90's hotel. This was a pretty inexpensive cruise. If I was comparing Celebrity vs. Princess solely on price, my opinion is that Princess should be cheaper. It felt more like Royal Caribbean without the kids and waterslides than it felt like Celebrity. 

 

I was shopping a Mediterranean cruise for next year. Longer than 7 nights but we can't commit to 14+ cruise nights + travel days. Princess has a big weak spot in that segment. Celebrity excels in the 9/10/11/12 day cruises. 

 

I would maybe try it again for the right price and itinerary on the new Sun Princess. Princess seemed to have pulled more Carnival features on to that ship than I would prefer so I'm not rushing to book yet. 

We are Loyal X cruisers, former Loyal Princess cruisers ( last one was about 16 years ago), cruising on Equinox coming November and booked 14 days on Sun Princess next May. After reading all Pro and Cons X vs Princess, we hope that maybe sailing on brand new ship experience will be pleasant.

Prices are higher due to demand, inflation and value of the dollar.

On 1/22/2022 at 6:42 PM, BettyCruiser said:

Moving from refundable to nonrefundable is like a price adjustment. It would be adjusted to the current nonrefundable price, so if the price has gone up since you booked the saving may be reduced. 

 

To move from nonrefundable to refundable I believe would be a cancel rebook.  

Canceling NRD cruise will cost you paid deposit plus repriced under current  promo

When we were in Istanbul over 10 years ago, restaurants take CC, small vendors takes everything - Euros, dollars...

We just returned from our  first Haven cruise in May. I agree with other posters that Haven experience is very nice ( we will do it again), but exploring the rest of the ship ( Gateway) was not very pleasant - very crowded with smoke smell in some areas. I think X ships are offer a better ambiance overall.

On 7/11/2023 at 9:23 AM, 39august said:

You don't actually rebook if price goes down. You keep your original booking number and just get the price difference. If you cancel and rebook, you lose whatever perks you had with the original booking number. 

Also, if you cancel your cruise booked with NRD, you will loose your deposit. Keep the same booking #.

😆

I hope they don't upgrage to a different cruse line

I can see next change coming will be MDR at charge like any restaurants and the only free food will be in OV cafe. After 30 cruises on X, we have only 1 booked for this November. We will evaluate our loyalty to X after the cruise.  

7 hours ago, retired dude said:

my wife and i dress nicely for dinner in the mdr or specialty venues  every night...No tux or formalgowns, but nice dress clothes...For us it is a matter of respect for not only us, but also our fellow passengers..My parents taught us that your appearance means alot and we are not a part of the narcistic segment of our current population...

I am so agreed with you. I am not a fan of "Free Style". I was disappointed the way people were dressed on our recent NCL Haven cruise. I don't care to see people's PJ in the evening, walking around the ship. Nicely dressed people enhance overall cruising experience, like it used to be. 

Cultural decline is seen everywhere. 

Hank,

I have been reading about your tips and advices for years. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

We are planning to be in Naples mid to end of May next year. We will twice in Naples during our 14 days cruise - beginning and the end. I have been to Capri and Pompaii in the past, but my DH has not. How crowded Amalfi will be in May if we choose to do Amalfi Coast tour? Most likely it will be a private tour. Thank you so much.

We just took our first cruise in Haven, not sailing with NCL in 20 years, we mostly sailed with Celebrity ( over 50 cruises in total).  We sailed on Gateway, 9 days Caribbean. We absolutely had no issues or complaints in regards of " Haven" experience and product.

Our suite was specious with jacuzzi tub in the room, plenty of closet space. Our butler was very accommodating, although we didn't have a lot of requests, just coffee with almond croissants and muffins in the morning and real cream for coffee, not non dairy little things they had . She was keep asking if anything we need or want. Suite was cleaned every day. In regards of Haven restaurant - fantastic service overall, minor issues, not worth talking about. Never had problem to substitute of some side dishes. Food was very good, and I am very picky about it. Overall great experience. I thought it was worth  $$$$. It worked great for us to have own space and not to be in the middle of the crowds. We have some health issues to consider. We didn't like NCL perks as much as Celebrity.  Internet perk is useless, even we paid to upgrade, it was spotty and slow. Ship overall felt very crowded and not very well designed. We will go in Haven again, but it will have to be for a right itinerary and price.

On 6/2/2023 at 5:51 PM, islabahia said:

There were so many problems with our suite (TV not working for 24 hours, air conditioner leak late at night necessitating a move to another suite (jetted tub did not work, unable to adjust room temperatures (bedroom warm, living area cold).  Butler was sub par to say the least.  Many of these issues were mentioned in our cruise survey.  It was so bad that before we disembarked, we were given several FCC’s as “an apology”.  Have already cancelled an upcoming December 23 cruise and will use the FCC’s next December on what will be our final X cruise.  Next for us is Regent or Oceania.  

We just tried our first Haven  suite cruise on NCL. Very much enjoyed it. We don't like NCL ships or NCL  product in general. But we thought that Haven is good alternative. And it was cheaper than AQ. 

Food and service were excellent.