Tapi

According to the MSC website, the baby club will be temporarily unavailable. In addition to that, it says that children under the age of 2 will not be required to take the pre embarkation Covid test at the port. When we last sailed on MSC, (7 months ago), they had designated “vaccinated areas” but these were basically areas where kids wouldn’t be allowed anyway (some adults only bars/decks, the fitness center) etc. My kids were too young to be vaccinated at the time, and the restrictions didn’t affect our enjoyment of the cruise. We enjoyed our meals at the dining room, and we went to the main theatre for performances like we normally do. We also went ashore without restrictions. Do keep in mind that the wording on the MSC website is continuously evolving, and what it says now could be invalid tomorrow. For example, when we sailed, it didn’t mention the required pre embarkation test at the port for our kids that were too young to have the vaccine. All the website specified was that they’d be required to take a test a few days prior, which they did. However, we were required to show at the cruise terminal at 10:00am, go to a separate area for testing, and then we waited in another area for results. After that, we were allowed to continue to the check in area where we finally showed the results for the tests that we’d taken a few days prior. From beginning to start, it took about 3 hours. As a side note, they reassigned us to a different stateroom at the port due to “staffing needs”. Long story short, go with a bit of patience, an open mind, and willing to accept any last minute changes in policy. After everything was said and done, we had a wonderful cruise vacation!

Quick answer: Read the fine print. Not all insurance policies cover the same things. Some policies may compensate you for any non-refundable amount (including the deposit portion of your cruise fare) while others may not. Others may just offer you a partial amount. Even when two different policies say that they cover the same things, the wording may be different which may exclude certain instances. I give you this example: A few years ago, I purchased insurance with a “cancel for work reasons” clause. One of the policies that I looked at specified that a refund would be issued “if a pre-awarded vacation was canceled by the employer”. Another policy specified that a refund would be issued “if required to work by the employer”. Well, since I technically didn’t have a pre-awarded vacation, I went with the second policy. Sure enough, when my employer couldn’t give me the time off, all I needed was a letter from them, stating that I had to work on those days. A full refund was issued by the insurance company without any issues. So long story short, read the fine print of the policy that you intend to purchase so that you know exactly what to expect.

Carnival’s Spirit class will also fit under the bridge, and they are comparatively younger than the Fantasy class of ship, so those ships could allow sailings from Jacksonville to continue even after the Fantasy class of ships are gone. However, there are only four of them in the Carnival fleet and they will most likely be deployed where they can generate the most revenue (and short, cheap cruises from Jacksonville may not fit the bill). Another option that has been on the table for many year is to develop a cruise port that is east of the bridge (Mayport was long discussed as an alternative, but that never materialized). The current cruise terminal was meant to be a temporary cruise terminal until a permanent one could be built, but somehow it became permanent. Without a firm commitment from Carnival or from other cruise lines, I doubt that a true, permanent cruise terminal will ever be built.

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this topic! Another one for me was Peggy’s Cove. I had visions of this idyllic quiet, sun drenched village, but when we got there, we arrived at the same time as 20 tour buses. The weather was overcast, cold, and rainy so everyone tried to huddle into the one little shop selling hot chocolate. Not fun. Lastly, the Mona Lisa. I had read that it was smaller than many expected, but I didn’t realize until I got there how small it truly is. Add the hundreds of tourists gathered around it, preventing others from getting a closer look, and you have all the ingredients for an underwhelming experience.

Hello World cruisers: I’m someone who starts researching ports of call and planning activities ashore well in advance. I like to have everything planned and booked. Not a “let’s go ashore and see what we can find” kind of guy. While that has worked fine on shorter cruises with a handful of ports of call, researching and having activities pre planned and booked for each port of call on a world cruise sounds overwhelming. So, what do seasoned world cruisers do? Do you research and plan each port of call? Do you only plan activities on some? Go with the flow? I’d love to read your feedback! Thanks for your time!

We packed for 10 days in the Mediterranean in one carry-on per person. It worked. Just plan on wearing some outer garments more than once, but bring enough under garments to change into after a long, sweaty day of sightseeing. Summers in the Med can be brutally hot.

I've also experienced this on tours where they have professional photographers taking photos who then sell them at the end of the tour (usually for a hefty fee). By telling tourists that they're prohibited from taking personal photos, they are forcing tourists to purchase their overpriced photos if they want to take some paper memories home.

Who remembers being escorted to their cabin upon boarding? The last time I remember experiencing that was on (defunct) Majesty Cruise Lines in 1996. They had employees lined up wearing white gloves as we boarded the ship, and they would check your stateroom number and escort you to it. Mind you, this was not some luxury cruise line. It was a cruise line doing quick 3-4 night cruise to the Bahamas from Miami.

When room keys looked like this: I actually remember when I sailed in 1991 aboard the Carla Costa (built in 1951). She had traditional metal keys. Also, there were no "sail and sign" cards. For identification, passengers had to wear a plastic bracelet. That's all that was checked when going ashore and returning to the ship. I also remember purchasing drink voucher booklets. They had a table set up at the lobby and entrance to the night club where you could buy them using cash.

Depends on the ship. What ship are you on?

NAAT from Walgreens has been our test of choice for all our travels during covid (both cruise and air). No wait, test results back in an hour, and FREE! :)

Do these reduced deposits still come with the disclaimer that they are non-refundable?

It's been a few months, but we didn't have to do that when we sailed to the Bahamas in September.

Yes, its an inconvenience for sure. Unfortunately, the cruise line can do that without advance notice. Consider yourself lucky that NCL emailed you informing of the time changes. When we did the Med on another cruise line, we found out that the times at EVERY single port had changed once we got on the ship! No advance notice whatsoever. Like you, we had booked independent tours based on our original times. Even our airport transportation. We had to scramble to adjust our tour times from the ship. We made it happen and it all worked out, and in the grand scheme of things, it turned out to be a mild nuisance. It was still a wonderful trip! Hope you have a great time, even with the time changes.

I need to keep checking mine. I thought that, by moving to a ship with more inventory, that prices would go down. But so far they are almost $1,000 more than what I paid when I booked this cruise. I’ll keep checking. Maybe closer to final payment I’ll see some drops.

I agree that the MSC and HAL are very different, but respectfully, I don't think that it should translate into the OP being "very disappointed" with MSC. The OP mentioned that they frequent both Carnival and HAL and enjoy them both. To me, Carnival and HAL are more different than MSC and HAL are, so I have a feeling that the OP won't necessarily be very disappointed. To the OP, the things that I most enjoy about MSC are that their ships are nicely appointed and nicely decorated (definitely more pleasing to the eye than Carnival). I do appreciate the more multi-cultural, multi national vibe onboard. And although MSC is considered a mass market, budget minded cruise line, fellow passengers seem to dress up more, specially in the evenings. It provides a bit more upscale feel to the cruise, even though its still casual and buget minded.

My first cruise was 41 years ago, aboard the Cunard Princess. At 16,000 tons, she was a tugboat compared to modern cruise ships. I was a 7 year old child then, but I still have very vivid and wonderful memories from that trip. My grandfather paid for the entire family to come along. A few years ago, I found the super-8 movies that my dad took on that trip and I had them converted to digital for future generations to enjoy. Watching those movies, I was surprised at how many details I could remember from that trip. At the time, Cunard Princess and Cunard Countess (identical sister ships) were both departing from San Juan. One of the memories that I have from that trip was looking over and not understanding how we could see our ship across from us if we were standing on it, and my dad laughing and explaining that there were TWO identical ships. The photo that I'm including illustrates how that was confusing in the mind of a 7 year old.

Another vote for Stefano's Rome Cabs. We pre booked transportation with them from the FCO airport to our hotel pre cruise, from the hotel to the port on the day of the cruise, and from the port to the FCO airport on the day we returned. Absolutely wonderful and professional service. We were also able to pre-pay online before hand so that was one less thing to worry about. Can't say enough good things about the service that we received.

Well, I’ll give you our experience when we took our 1st son on his first cruise when he was a little over 13 months old. We quickly learned that trying to abide by any car seat rules that we were used to back in the US would be a big waste of our time. We brought a car seat that converted to a stroller. We used it to fly down to Ft. Lauderdale, and that was pretty much the last time we used it for its intended purpose. As much as we tried, it just never happened. I remember trying to take a taxi. We got in the taxi only to realize that there were no seat belts to anchor the car seat. The driver ended throwing the car seat in the trunk while me wife held our son between her legs as tightly as possible for our short drive into town. At the next port we took a tour bus, and once again there were no seat belts to anchor the car seat. The best part was the look of complete confusion from the tour operator. My wife just held our son on her lap and hoped for the best. After that, we realized that attempting to use the car seat would be a losing battle, so we stashed it in the stateroom closet, not to be seen again until we were ready to fly home. We learned our lesson from that first cruise, and by the time we took our next one (when our son was 18 months old), we were ready. We researched all ports of call and learned what activities didn’t require motor transportation. We looked up activities within walking distance from the port, and other activities where the means of transportation was a boat. Since we drove for this other cruise, we ditched the car seat altogether and left it in our car. Doing some advance research for activities that didn’t require ground transportation simplified things and made this cruise a MUCH more enjoyable one. And by the time we had our second child, we were pros at cruising with little kids.

I agree.I thought it had just the right amount of development with plenty of secluded and unspoiled areas. I did notice some construction when we were there in September, and I was told that it will be a new pool complex. Hope they don't spoil this little slice of heaven.

I would strongly recommend two cabins. Chances are that, on Carnival, it may be more cost effective to do two standard cabins than one suite that could accommodate 5 passengers, not to mention, how uncomfortable (and potentially awkward) it may be for mom and dad to share one cabin with a daughter and her boyfriend. I've priced out 2 cabins vs a suite several times, and almost every time, two cabins is more cost effective.

I haven't been to Coco Cay since it became Perfect Day (most likely BECAUSE it became Perfect Day), but I agree with you. The good news is that there are some private islands that still remain fairly undeveloped, where you can still enjoy unspoiled nature. Half Moon Cay is a slice of heaven, with stretches of secluded beach and no crowds.

Have you traveled much since Covid started? If the answer is no, I get the obsession with cleaning and sanitizing. It can feel a bit scary getting back to travel after being bombarded for two years with health and safety measures. I travel for a living (on a weekly basis), and believe me, at the beginning of Covid, I was obsessively cleaning everything. I wouldn't even iron my clothes without sanitizing the iron with a wipe and wearing gloves! It was insanity. But the more I traveled, the more I realized that these measures were unnecessary overkill and had little effect on my ability to remain healthy, so I stopped obsessively cleaning. I still take precautions (washing my hands frequently, not touching my eyes, nose, and ears, and I avoid some places and scenarios that may be more conducive to viruses spreading). In other words, I still take basic precautions that I should've been taking any way before Covid. And I still haven't gotten sick with Covid. . I humbly recommend that you allow yourself to enjoy your vacation without obsessing unnecessarily. You have a better chance of getting sick by doing every day activities at home, than from a cabin steward cleaning your stateroom.

Definitely not. In addition to the risks involved, specially this summer with crew shortages and the increased possibility of cancellations or delays, there's also the possibility of miss-connected luggage (trust me, it happened to us going on an Alaska cruise, and we flew nonstop. The luggage was NEVER found). Not fun going on a vacation without any luggage. In addition to that, the time change makes for a crummy start of a cruise if you don't give yourself a few days to acclimate to the new time zone. My wife was a mess the first 24 hours after we landed in Rome. I'm glad that we were not on the ship yet. Whatever savings you may envision will be quickly eroded by any of the variables mentioned above.

I have cruises booked all the way into the Spring of 2024, but not because I fear that prices will go up, but because these are cruises that I genuinely want to take. And I’m not sticking to Carnival. I’m actually finding better pricing and more interesting itineraries on other cruise lines. I am looking at squeezing in one extra Carnival cruise this summer, and I’m actually shocked at the rock bottom pricing that I’m seeing on some sailings, specially considering how historically expensive summer cruises are.