Beamafar

Different demographic onboard non-US sailings - especially Med ones - where there’s a great mix of nationalities, so no one particular one dominates. Usually makes for a great vibe. Having said that, one of our less enjoyable YC experiences was on a 28 night repo from Dubai to Japan, where the demographic was made up predominantly of 2 particular nationalities and the atmosphere bordered on unpleasant. Nothing but complaining the whole cruise. One of our best was in YC, 23 nights total, Meraviglia from New York to Canada B2B with NY to Miami, taking in the Caribbean. We met so many wonderful people on that cruise from GB and, especially, US, all CCers and had a wonderful time.

I haven’t experienced any problems with the site. Hopefully I won’t have next week, either.

You can use cash in the slots in the casino or you can charge an amount to your cruise account. You don’t need to pre-load cash to the account if you’ve registered a credit card to your account. There isn’t a special onboard card for this. You just register your cruisecard in a machine and input the amount to be charged to your account. It’s very straightforward; directions are on the machines and the casino crew will assist if you have any problems.

No - you get the full YC benefits. The YC crew treat you the same, regardless of which cabin category you’re in.

That’s a good point!

For our upcoming cruise, we have the old Aurea benefits included, so it’s possible that they have the algorithms set to differentiate bookings. Looks like it depends on when you booked whether the packages will be accepted in the SRs or not (our October booking is a very recent one).

The SRs are still covered in next week’s cruise booking, but it clearly states in our October booking that speciality restaurants are not covered: The Package covers all the above served in our bars, buffet and main restaurant. What’s more, it also includes Ocean Cay and other exclusive destinations, but does not cover the specialty restaurants and signature venues (Venchi 1878 establishments or Jean-Philippe Maury venues, MSC Virtuosa Starship Club). Compare that to the wording for next week’s booking: The Package covers all the above served at our bars, buffet, main restaurant and specialty restaurants. Whats more, it also includes Ocean Cay and other exclusive destinations, but does not cover the signature venues (Venchi 1878 establishments, Lavazza Coffee Shop, Jean-Philippe Chocolate, Coffee, Crepes & Gelato, Starship Club, Hola! Tacos & Cantina).

Thanks so much for this, really appreciate it. Not too happy to hear that this site may be blocked by the ship’s wifi. Not techie enough to know how to use a VPN as a workaround.

Still some confusion around the issue. The situation will become clearer after all the repositionings and the Summer season gets underway across the fleet.

Then you’ll get €50 OBC. The three stated that you’re seeing are just to indicate the amount you’ll get in OBC in that particular currency, depending on which is in effect onboard. USD onboard - $50, Euro onboard - €50 (which is on Med and other sailings) and £40 (British Sterling - GBP - Great British Pounds) which is the currency onboard for some sailings from Southampton.

@trintrav I’m hoping that your absence is as a result of you having too good a time onboard, but I’d love to hear how your cruise is going. There is so little about this particular ship, and, while the itinerary you’re doing is the last of the season, things like bar and restaurant menus are of particular interest to me. I understand that most items in the YC lounge are included, but have you gleaned any more information about drinks price increases on the regular bar menus and what’s included in the packages? Are they still allowing you to just pay the difference in price for items outside your package? What percentage is the service charge, if so? 15 or 18%?

G, a poster on WE has stated that they had managed to pay just the difference to purchase a drink outside of their package: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2924945-live-from-the-world-europa-boarded-in-abudhabi/#comments We were told in advance that if you spent over 13 Euros on any one drink you would be charged the full price of the drink…not the difference between the two. We learned that starting with this cruise, you now pay only the difference. In this case, 1 euro.

Having different currencies across the fleet will only confuse this issue even further. It took MSC some time to sort out the mess they made when they included Easy in Aurea bookings, but offered Premium as a promotion for a Fantastica booking. Methinks it’ll take it a while for them to cop that they’ve made a mess of this. In the meantime, the poor crew on the ships - especially at Guest Services - are in for a torrid time.

Our October booking is through a TA. The MSC confirmation (which I always request from a TA, apart from their confirmation invoice) shows the inclusions - gratuities/ drinks package etc, so I know they’ll be shown when I log in. I would have your TA check into it.

Is the limit indicated where you log into your booking? Ours for next week shows the limit as €13; our October Med cruise shows it as €14. PE was included in the fare so I can’t say whether we’re paying the old or new drinks package price. As the changeover hasn’t rolled over across the fleet, yet, the situation is still unclear.

That’s the equivalent of €13 for cruises in the Med, which is the old limit. The new limit will be €14, reflecting the increased drinks prices. Seems that there’s gonna be a lot of confusion around this issue.

Hopefully there will be plenty of reviews before we sail, P.

It’s a 7 night this year from Piraeus (Athens).

Hope Mr CT isn’t too bad and can enjoy what’s left of the cruise.

Thanks for checking it out, CT. Perhaps they’ll wait til the onboard currency is changed to £

I have a feeling it’s on other ships who have increased their prices, too (some ships won’t change mid-cruise, but will wait til the home port to do this). trintrac is on World Europa and made reference to purchasing a drink which was €1 above the €13 limit on PE. There was rarely (if ever) drinks at just €1 above. My belief is that the €13 drinks have increased by that amount, thus taking them outside of the package limit. The limits seem not to have been increased, yet, which is where the problem lies. No idea when these will increase, but they are showing as increased on a booking I have for October.

On my booking, for our upcoming sailing, it shows the limit as €13 for PE. On our October booking, it shows a limit of €14.

Patron Silver would have been covered before. It strikes me that the drinks prices have risen, (items that were €13 are now €14) but the drinks package limits haven’t (still €13 for PE - according to one poster, the limit is not due to increase until later in the year). There’s a discussion around the Premium Extra package on another thread on the subject.

Is there any chance you could post a photo of any of the bar menus outside of YC? I’m curious to see if the prices have increased and what the PremExtra will cover.

Thanks a mil. 👍