Beamafar

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. 👍

Hi CT. Apparently MSC has introduced a new policy in the last couple of days whereby, if you purchase a drink outside of your package, you only pay the difference plus service charge. A) Have you come across this on Virtuosa (there are reports on the forum from people on both Seascape and World Europa that they’ve encountered this)? B) Do you know what the service charge is onboard? I read recently that it has increased from 15 to 18% on US sailings, but remains the same elsewhere. However, a poster on WE mentioned 18 cent on a €1 extra charge for a drink but wasn’t sure, exactly.

I certainly will!

Thank you. I thought as much, both that there was a second venue and that the Broadway show was probably in the main one. Wanted to make sure so I can keep an eye out for it. 👍

I’ll be just as irritated 😤 if we experience similar next week. We paid almost $1000 to upgrade to PE.

Wow - sounds like there’s a serious lack of communication on the subject. Drinks package prices have increased, recently, as had drinks prices. But the price limit should also have increased (as has always been the case before now).

Usually Oberon is available on US sailings and Cicogna on most others. That’s been my experience, anyway.

Which venue was the Broadway show in, the main theatre?

First of all, apologies for posting on your thread without first wishing you well on your cruise. The wine list is one of the first things I check, whether in YC or steerage. There are a couple of wines that are my go-to and are only available on the top drinks package or in YC - Oberon and Cicogna. When having white, that Woodbridge Chardonnay is the only potable one for me.

I won’t be of much use to you on the subject of POCs, P. We’re not very adventurous when it comes to exploring and rarely do excursions. I may not have internet for much of the cruise to do a live report, except when in EU ports, but, if there’s anything you want to know about the ship, I’ll try to respond to before your cruise. It’s the only one of the 4 Musica-class ships we haven’t been on. We loved the other 3 - Magnifica twice, Poesia and Orchestra once.