Motegi

Other mega ships on NCL and Royal also require you to book shows in advance. The theater to passenger ratio is small so they need to better allocate the seating for each show. The smaller ships don’t require this on MSC or other lines.

As far as dinner is concerned MSC will assign you early or late seating like most cruise lines.

For specialty restaurants you will have to make a reservation again like most of the mainstream cruise lines.

For the tender tickets do all members of your party have to be present? Or can one person go down to get tickets for the party?

Oh, here's one... How about the Starbucks gold card benefit of free refills on simple coffee and tea products as long as you're in the store... I'll be finding this out on the Panama Canal cruise in the upcoming weeks. :)

Refills. That would be amazing.

Pam and I were on it in Feb of this year after the dry dock and in Feb of last year before the changes. Actually the cabins we booked in the forward section of Lido were the ones that changed from 4j interior window into Captain’s Suites and Scenic Ocean View cabins.

We really liked the changes both to the public areas as well as the cabins. Even though our favorite cabins were the old 4j on lido with the balcony over the bridge,we really liked the new Scenic Ocean View cabin with the wall to wall, floor to ceiling forward facing window and sitting area.

The ship was very clean and now it has the 2.0 upgrades. The only things that cannot be changed are the inability to access the aft dining room without going up or down a floor and across. It confused a lot of our fellow cruisers. The comedians were very vulgar but funny. However, the shows in the main theatre were below average. The dining room breakfasts were great but the dinners were hit or miss.

Actually, we are booked on the Victory for a second time this year in November!

Sounds very complicated...

So your PVP recommends booking one of your parents into your cabin and your husband and other parent in the other cabin?

What I see happening is that they require you to purchase Cheers for the parent assigned to you cabin when you sign up. Then after you board when you switch cabins m I don’t know if they would let you remove it. And when you put your husband into your cabin they may add it to his as well...

It could work out as you hope or it could be a big mess... hopefully the casino offer is great enough to make the risk worthwhile!

I didn’t need PIN numbers when I did it in February for 8 cabins. Just booking numbers. Although it required multiple calls. You might try talking to a different agent.

Do they give the 5% to everyone in the booking? Or only the one with the status?

Everyone who is a member of the MSC Voyagers Club gets a 5% discount. Since they status match with other cruise lines, hotel, and airline programs basically anyone who travels would qualify.

You don’t even have to be a member before you book the cruise. You can sign up and call in right after you book it.

Yes.

You need each cabin’s BOOKING NUMBER.

We just did this with 14 of our friends and family in February. You need to call Carnival customer service line and have them LINK the booking numbers. You cannot use cabin numbers, names, confirmation numbers, or anything else. Only the BOOKING NUMBERS.

Even after linking the numbers you will need to talk to the maitre d at the main dining room when you board and ask to have a table for your group.

Also if your party is larger than 10 you will likely be broken up into two tables.

Good luck!

If you preorder it will probably be in the room when you get there. If you order after you get on board there will be a delay.

OK, thanks

Have fun! The Divina is fantastic!

I got the VIP photo card. We went the first day to pick up the card and link it to room card. I tried to give the photographers the VIP photo card but they all refused it and would only take the room card. Throughout the week I checked the photo kiosks and the photos were on both the VIP photo card and room key. However when we returned they did not show up the photo website. About half appeared 5 days later and the others appeared after I emailed about it. The only picture we never received was the one on the pier in Antigua

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the report!

I heard that they would transfer them to your mobile device before the end of the cruise. Did they offer this service for you?

There are electronic kiosks onboard that you can use to link your credit card to your account before the end of the cruise.

We made the change and kept the same booking number.

I signed up for the VIP photo card package for my Seaside cruise in September.

From what I’ve read from others who have used this the key is to go to the photo center when you first board and ask for your VIP photo card and also ask to have it linked to your room card. Whenever you have a photo taken have the photographer scan your VIP photo card or the room card that is linked to it.

Also periodically it is recommended that you check on the photo kiosks to make sure that the photos are being uploaded to your VIP photo card account. You may have to ask the photo department for some to be moved over as it appears that they are occasionally omitted. I wouldn’t wait until the last day to do this because it usually gets crazy in the photo department.

Before you disembark you can ask to have the photos transferred to a mobile device. I understand that this means a cell phone or tablet and not a USB thumb drive.

Who did you call to get the 5 % off?

Call their customer center. Keep your MSC Voyagers Club number handy. When you talk to the rep just ask for the discount.

I highly recommend calling when they first open in the morning or you may have an extended hold time.

If you call later in the day you can select the option for customers wanting to book a new cruise.

It seems like nobody ever picks up if you select the option for having an existing cruise reservation. I’ve waited for over 45 minutes on that line before...

We’ve only seen embarkation day partial closure for luggage transport on our cruises as well.

It is not going to be anywhere near as cold as you think. Temperatures leaving Vancouver will be in the 60's, and it could be in the 80's or higher in Fairbanks. The ony time it is going to be below freezing is near glaciers.

So just don’t set your camera batteries on the glacier and you’ll be fine!

Good question. It would probably be quite variable depending on the camera used, temperature during your trip, and the number of photos or videos that you expect to take.

For my cruise, I am anticipating that I will be taking far more photos and videos than what I normally do on a cruise so I will therefore be bringing more batteries than usual. I will also likely carry my batteries on an inside jacket pocket if the weather is particularly cold but I doubt it will be in June.

It's doing 1/2 the year in Alaska and 1/2 in the Caribbean so that's not likely the case. Go-Karts, Laser Tag, and water slides are definitely for kids!

Speak for yourselves! Pam and I will be signing up for the go karts and the laser tag as soon as we get onboard! :p

I would look into MSC as well. Have your son call their European customer center and ask, tel:0203 426 3010

https://www.msccruises.co.uk/en-gb/Conditions-Of-Carriage.aspx

Their conditions of carriage don’t seem to specify any limitations except for those under the age of 18.

Gnocchi. Only saw it once on the Divina during our 7 day sailing.

Sorry to hear about your predicament.

We had a group cruise in February where one our friends became ill just a couple days before the cruise and he decided not to go.

If I were you I’d try to sell it to someone cheap. If you find a buyer, call the customer line to add them to the booking and pay the name change fee. This way you’ll recover a little money on the cruise fare.

Otherwise call and cancel before departure to recover the ancillary fees.

Pam and I like to get on the ship early. We won’t pay for FTTF on Carnival but will try to get the earliest boarding time. We like to enjoy lunch on the first day and have some drinks before the muster drill. On one cruise we boarded late so by the time we got on all the bars and restaurants were closing so we had to wait until the drill ended. We hadn’t had lunch and I nearly passed out during the drill. All of the bars were jam packed as soon as the drill ended. So now we make sure we get on EARLY.

Pam and I are NCL fans and happened to take our first cruise on MSC last June because it was the only departure and itinerary that worked for our visiting family from overseas.

We are so glad that we did!

I don’t think that the differences are as extreme as some make it out to be. Every cruise line has its differences with regard to dining, entertainment, website, perks, rewards programs, etc. Its up to the passenger to learn the particulars.

What we enjoyed about MSC were the production shows, the elegant atmosphere, the relaxed attitude, theme parties, and the Italian influence.

Now with the Drinks On Us promo and the lower pricing MSC is a fantastic deal!

We’ll be on the Seaside in September!

Well I'm happy to report that the strategy worked.

We got upgraded this morning from a Guarantee Oceanview up to a Balcony cabin on deck 14!

The Oceanview category must have sold out overnight so they assigned us to the next available category.

We're super excited about it!