Beamafar

The waiting is the hardest thing. We booked in May and bid not too long after that. We’re sailing next Saturday; looking forward to finding out the outcome in the coming days one way or the other.

Can I suggest that you add to the spreadsheet that the corkage fee will apply even if you purchase either the Premium or Ultimate drinks package? (On Celebrity, they waive the fee if you’ve purchased one - Az newbies could assume the same would apply).

We’ve sailed on MSC many times, sometimes in YC and other times not; we had just as good a time when not in YC.

That’s interesting as I thought it was because there wasn’t an alternative. Maybe Az was just “pushing the boat out” (pardon the pun) to make the inaugural special. MSC used to have a drinks package which covered all drinks by the glass, which included Veuve (and Johnny Walker Blue!).

Thank you, yes, I’m very familiar with NF as it’s included in MSC Yacht Club, which I’ve experienced on a number of cruises. Not a great one (love Veuve Cliquot) but will do in a pinch. 😁

I’m reading practically everything that’s being posted on both boards (and re-reading a lot of the threads). I plan to purchase the Ultimate package and was considering bringing some champagne onboard to enjoy in one of the speciality restaurants - hence the question. We’re due to embark next Saturday 🤞so trying to get my head straight around the Azamara policies.

There’s no corkage fee if you purchase a drinks package, is there? (Sorry - it’s probably been answered a million times, but we’re on Celebrity a couple of weeks after our Journey cruise and I’m beginning to confuse the 2 companies’ policies 🤪)

No need - I was curious. I hadn’t thought to check the spreadsheet. Thanks for clarifying. Speaking of, I’m not sure whether to be optimistic about our bid, seeing what others bid up from a verandah to a CC and were successful. We put in a similar bid. I suppose it’ll very much depend on how many others have put in higher bids and how much inventory is available. ETA - there is no indication on our bid as to whether it’s weak or otherwise, though it looks from the slider that it’s in the weak zone. I’ll post a photo of its position when I hear from Az about the outcome.

The minimum bid was £185pp, according to your post, so how did you bid less?

Totally with you on this. While it’s nice to have a suite (had one on a 14 night on Millie and are booked in one on Edge), we still enjoy cruises in non-suites. I see many posting similar on the MSC forum about once you’ve done Yacht Club you’ll never go back to ‘steerage’. This has never been the case with us. We’ll do a suite (either in The Retreat or YC) if we see value in it; otherwise we’ll have just as good a time outside the suite class.

We have a cruise booked for December 2023 and it’s showing on the app.

1. LCV level: Adventurer 2. Ship, cruise date, length & region: Journey, 6th August 2022, 11 nights, Italy Intensive 3. Cabin type booked: P1 - Club verandah plus (aft) 4. Cabin type bid for and bid & strength of bid Bid on a CC. Minimum bid required: €185 pp. Maximum bid: €1400 pp. The price difference between the P1and CC, should we upgrade, would be €4600 (€2300 pp) approx. Currently pending. We should know by next Friday whether our bid has been accepted or rejected. I will report back with our bid offer and the outcome when Azamara has responded. Just like @Grandma Cruising we’re really not pushed if the offer is rejected; we’re very happy with a sunset verandah which has some of the perks that a CC offers, such as in-cabin liquor and priority boarding.

OK … gonna try posting the following, for the third time 🙄 It’s a pity that MSC doesn’t operate its packages as some other lines do: pay the difference in price when buying a drink outside the package allowance; allow that only one of a couple to upgrade. We have Easy included for next March’s cruise; we’ll probably have to upgrade as Easy is of no use to me (DH would be fine with it). I wouldn’t bother if I could just pay the difference in price for higher-end alcohol and purchase bottles of wine to enjoy at dinner.

Found it - thank you! 🙏

Other lines are increasing prices for onboard services, such as speciality restaurants, too. Making up for losses during the pandemic, probably.

Where can I see what dining time is assigned on my reservation? We’re waitlisted for Select and would like to keep a check on it.

Yeah - I thought I should have qualified that after posting. 😁

I‘’m sorry to hear this as I had the same problem in the Martini Bar (and other venues) on Millennium back in 2016. Music was played way too loudly and it was impossible to have a conversation with other passengers who tried to engage with us. It was our first X cruise and that, with some other issues, convinced us to never cruise on Celebrity again. We’ve booked Edge for September and hope there will be some quieter areas onboard. I say this as someone who enjoys live bands in the lounges at night.

Azamara has done a deal with Carlsberg, it seems.

Having given it some more thought, and finding a Ryanair flight direct to Nice, the day before embarkation, for half the cost of Aer Lingus, we’ve decided to go ahead and book it. We weren’t confident that our luggage would transfer planes with the 55 minute layover in Schiphol - never mind us making it. It’s a small price to pay for the lessened risk. If we encounter any problems with the Ryanair flight, at least we’ll have the following morning’s flight bookings to fall back on.

As @CruisingFox27has said, JWB was included in the PremiumPlus package (which you had to upgrade the included YC package to). Unfortunately MSC no longer offers that package; the highest one has a price limit of $15/€13.

It was asdf ;lkj in my case. This is how autocorrect reads it: Asda ;lujan 😆)

Cheers. We’re torn between an Az and an X cruise for next year (though X is winning out as it’s on Beyond, and we like big ships).

Is there any benefit to booking a future cruise while onboard? Is there a reduced deposit for doing so?

I was wondering if that was an option. I didn’t want to book anything, then still have an outstanding FCC (not that $300 will make much of a dent in the fare, lol).