Katgoesonholiday

Loved the review and we are very much looking forward to our YC cruise in April 2019.

Just one question, what was the dress code at dinner like? Was there any nights that followed formal code?

We very much enjoy dressing up for dinner - my husband and sons in their suits and I in my long gowns - however I have the impression from other posts that this will be a little over the top and smart attire is the way to go rather than formal. This doesn't bother us one way or another but it would be good to know what clothes to bring as we are going to be trying to do this with carry on only this time.

Good point about the movies - one of my kids favorite activities is to order room service and have a family movie night in our cabin. They also enjoy grabbing pizza and watching a movie on the big screen by the pool.

We cruise with our three sons who are completely uninterested in going to the kids club. The good news is that it isn’t compulsory!

Instead plan on hanging out together in the pool, making up a family team for trivia, have relaxed time with books in a nice lounge, check out the board games available, enjoy meals and shows together, and plan some great excursions together.

We’ve taken the boys on five different cruise lines, including Disney, and had a great time every time without using the kids clubs.

I recently found out that your membership expires if you don’t cruise in a certain timeframe - but that doesn’t seem applicable here.

From the website: “MSC Voyagers Club membership is valid for three years and subject to a minimum of one cruise every three years. If the last cruise disembarkation date is over 3 years or no cruise has been completed in 3 years after the enrollment date, membership will expire. For example: if the last disembarkation date is January 1, 2015 and no cruises are completed by January 1, 2018, the membership will expire. If the registration date is January 1, 2015 and no cruises are completed by January 1, 2018, the membership will expire. Should your membership expire, you must subscribe to the MSC Voyagers Club again. A new Club identification number will be assigned. Check out now your membership expiry date in the MSC Voyagers Club online private area!”

I’ve enjoyed the photos and menus posted! It’s still nearly a year till our cruise but I love reading about the Seaside and it’s Yacht Club.

Today it’s the first anniversary of the death of my sister’s husband by suicide. It was completely unexpected - like a bolt from the blue. He had had issues with depression, had bipolar tendencies (undiagnosed) and had attempted suicide after his mother died many years prior, but everything was going well for them. They had three beautiful children and big plans for the future.

In the last twelve months we have minutely examined every word, every action trying to understand why he would choose to die when there was so much to live for. In the end it comes down to one key factor (which was highlighted by the coroner in their report) - if he had not been drinking alcohol that day he would still be alive. He rarely drunk but when he did it had a profound affect on him.

Alcohol is widely recognized as supressing inhibitions, but it is also a depressive. On a person with underlying issues such as despression, even a moderate amount of alcohol can cause them to become suicidal and remove the natural inhibitions against completing the act.

This is why I find callous statements like those above to be so ignorant and lacking in any insight or empathy. All I can do is echo the poster who said that they hope this person’s family is never affected by the tragedy of mental health issues and suicide.

My heart goes out to this family. The pain that they are going through can not be quantified. They will have so many questions and so few answers and they will blame themselves and constantly question what they could have done differently. I hope they get good support and counseling.

I’ve learnt....

....I can’t count on my kids wanting to go to the kids club so I can have a relaxing vacation. In fact, my kids hate going to the club and just want to hang out with us. *sigh*

....I have three or four outfits I love to wear during the day. More clothing is totally superfluous.

....dressing up for dinner is a surprising amount of fun. Even the kids love putting on their suits and looking flash.

....never ask the kids to put their arms around each other for a photo shoot. And don’t expect to get more than two poses before they have had enough and start rolling their eyes and grumbling.

....cruising is an awesome way to get a taste of many different places when traveling with kids - especially when one of them is autistic and needs familiar routines.

....hubby and I don’t get our moneys worth out of a drink package but Mr16 has manages to do so within the first two days.

....courtesy and politeness go a long long way when interacting with the staff who make your holiday happen.

....stairs are better than the lifts except when wearing ridiculous shoes with an evening gown.

....and finally, shoes that hurt your feet and limit your ability to use the stairs are just daft. Far better to get a lower and more comfortable pair.

Our first cruise was in the Yacht Club on MSC in the Mediterranean. It was an incredible experience and hooked us on cruising. We had just turned 40 when we took this cruise and found there were many both older and younger than us in the Yacht Club.

MSC has very beautiful ships with modern decor. The Yacht Club gives the feel of being on a smaller more luxury ship without a similar price tag. We loved it and will heading back for 20th wedding anniversary next year.

I feel yucky after drinking white wine unless I take an antihistamine. I get an allergic reaction to the histamines in the wine and it gives me a headache that only codiene can knock out. Since I love white wine, I take a antihistamine tablet before drinking wine.

Awesome review! I really enjoyed it

Thanks for the fabulous review and photos! Since reading this we have booked on MSC Seaside in Yacht Club for our 20th anniversary next year.

Hi, will be on Majestic in March with a stop in Vietnam, cruise personalizer says visa fee will be $56 USD for US and Aussie passports. Previous recent Sapphire passengers have reported lower amount was charged even though cruise personalizer listed the higher amount. Do you remember what was charged ?

I’m really sorry - I wish I could help! However I can’t remember off the top of my head and I can’t find the folder containing all my travel docs and receipts. If I do find it, I’ll be sure to return to this thread and update you.

Hi all! My review of our South East Asian cruise has been published. Feel free to ask any questions,

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=606125&et_cid=3037603&et_rid=99625148&et_referrer=Boards

I boarded our most recent cruise with an Apple Watch 2 which I used for telling the time, reminders and tracking exercise. Partway through the cruise it got smashed when it fell onto a tile floor in the shower (I should have just worn it as it’s waterproof) so at our next stop I bought the Apple Watch 3 which also tracks flights of stairs. I absolutely freaking LOVE that feature. On my best day I did 77 flights of stairs.

what cabin were you in?

 

 

 

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d704 & d708

The power outage in Penang happened around 1pm ish. My son was in the bathroom and thought his brother had turned out the lights to spook him!

They had back up power running pretty quickly and from a passengers point of view it only seemed to affect the elevators and charging our drinks - I’m sure there was more to it though!

We found the crew to be amazing. Our two younger sons have special needs and the wait staff in particular were wonderful at dealing with their quirks. We also found the photo gallery staff very friendly and always ready to chat and give advice.

The ship, however, was disappointing. It is in dire need of refurbishment. We had booked and prepaid the Ultimate Balcony Dining package but cancelled it after we saw our deck 9 minisuite balcony. It was rusty, the glass was cloudy, the surface was an unattractive blue rubberized mat that smelt funny, and Skywalkers collected condensation and rain and dumped it directly on our balcony in our own personal waterfall.

We were also periodically afflicted over the 21 night cruise with the noxious smell of sewerage in the aft section of the ship, including our cabin and Club Fusion, and near the Wheelhouse Bar. It was absolutely vile. We spoke to guest services and they said they would notify the deck supervisor. The smell went for a few days but came back again several more times throughout the cruise including yesterday. Others we spoke to also noticed it.

Speaking of smells, whoever thought it was a good idea to carpet parts of deck 14 & 15 should be made to lie on it on a hot day. It was almost always saturated with water and stunk. Ugh!

We ended up tendering to the Aao Makum pier on the opposite side of the island. Our tour operator was happy to change the pick up plans on the day when we realized where we were going to be landing - and we had a wonderful day in Phuket!

We ended up tendering to the Aao Makum pier on the opposite side of the island. Our tour operator was happy to change the pick up plans on the day when we realized where we were going to be landing - and we had a wonderful day in Phuket!

My husband and I would like to do this on our upcoming 21 night cruise, however neither of us are big eaters - I had gastric surgery years back so am definitely limited.

We’ll be traveling with our three sons in the next cabin and we’re planning on asking for the balcony divider to be kept open for the cruise. Our eldest son is 16, lean as a rake, and vociferous. Do you think they would mind if I slipped uneaten food through to him?

We chose early dinner seating as were were traveling with our three kids. However, we did find this meant we felt there wasn’t enough time between meals - especially on days that we went to afternoon tea.

Last year we were at Red Hook terminal by 10:30am for our Cunard transatlantic and the terminal was a ghost town! It was lovely walking on board, getting a drink and relaxing!

A few weeks later we waited till nearly last minute to board our Southampton cruise and it was stressful. We felt like we almost missed a full day. We had to go pretty much straight to the muster station. The kids got hungry and cranky waiting for the safety briefing - they wanted to explore not be cooped up in the theatre without the ability to order anything.

In a month we board Sapphire Princess in Singapore. I don’t know what the terminal is like but we will are eagerly anticipating boarding and won’t be leaving it till late afternoon again!

Sorry if I’m being a bit obtuse here, but surely it doesn’t matter how well you clean your own cabin if the cabins around you have issues? The cabin attendants don’t change cleaning cloths between cabins, do they? So the cloth used to wipe down your bedside table has likely been used to wipe down the bedside table of at least three or four cabins around you. Would you insist on cleaning EVERY DAY after your cabin attendant has been through? Ugh!

We practice frequent hand washing, avoid touching our faces, and eat with cutlery in the main restaurants. That’s the extent of it and it works for us.

We’ve done loads of long haul flights overnight and they are generally grim. I find the best way to get through them is a sleeping pill.

Nowadays, where possible, we choose daytime flights so we can sleep in a good bed at the end of the flight. In six weeks we fly to Singapore (only 10 hours so not too bad) and have chosen a 1:30pm flight so we can sleep in our own beds, enjoy the in flight entertainment system with no expectation of sleep, and then sleep once we get to our hotel. Our flight back to NZ will be at 8am so planning the same scenario. I’m hoping this will be much easier on both us and the kids. Our last long haul flight was 16 hours of me being squished between two restless and uncomfortable children who couldn’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time and ended up completely exhausted.

***also posted in Princess forums***

We are in port in Phuket from 9am till 6pm and are planning a two hour session at Flying Hanuman ziplines starting at 1pm.

They do a complimentary transfer but since we won’t be staying at a hotel, we (2 adults + 3 kids) need to nominate somewhere to be picked up.

Any suggestions?

We are in port in Phuket from 9am till 6pm and are planning a two hour session at Flying Hanuman ziplines starting at 1pm.

They do a complimentary transfer but since we won’t be staying at a hotel, we (2 adults + 3 kids) need to nominate somewhere to be picked up.

Any suggestions?