hova

Pretty sure you have incorrect information! There is no crew mafia. Nobody is getting or not getting extras based on whether they pay their daily gratuities. Passengers are treated equally whether you hand an envelope of cash to the crew members or leave auto grats in place. The staff is more concerned about getting a 10 on the survey, and wouldn’t take a chance on not giving 100% service to passengers and having that disgruntled passenger give them a bad score.

Three months ago during the Symphony TA, I successfully used the TP Link AC 750 in our cabin which coincidentally was on deck 12 Aft. No issues at all, and we were able to hook multiple devices up to it while in our cabin. Speed was good, and easy to connect once you configure it to ship wifi.

We applied for our Nexus renewal in early July, and they were approved at the end of October (4 months). They mailed the cards, and it took a month for them to make it to our mailbox. It wasn't a fast process, but they eventually made it. Just a note, to make sure that you "Activate" your card once you receive it.

Currently on the SOS in the middle of the Atlantic doing our Trans Atlantic cruise. WIFI has been excellent. Plenty of speed and no outages yet. No issues!

Once the shuttle takes you to the drop-off spot, you can walk to the train station.... it will take about 20 minutes and is a good way to see the downtown and along the port area. We walked to and from the train station without issue. Last November the ticket office at the train station (the one who sells the all day Cinque Terre passes) didn't open until 9am, so you may want to consider that if you need the train passes.

The cabin assignments are likely an IT function, as the system could run a program and automatically assign the available cabins to the guarantees (saving the manual labor). They likely have it set up so assignments are random. I really don’t think they have personnel looking at C&A status and deciding which cabin to give them!

On a recent trip to Europe and then cruise in Mediterranean and back to Florida, we bought an esim card through Airalo. Nothing to install, but some phone settings configuration was necessary. We had plenty of data for the entire trip for about 15-20 USD. The data worked in all European countries. We also had internet on the ship, so we were covered whether we were on land or sea. Keep in mind, this particular esim card was data only, so if you wanted to make a phone call, you needed to do it through WhatsApp. We could pretty much use our phone data package for anything else, including facetime, emails , maps or general surfing. If making phone calls is essential, I assume there is esim cards available to buy. By going this route, you don't need to buy a phone, or switch sim cards, but having some technical savvy is helpful. You can also buy and configure the esim at home, and then activate it once you get to your destination. Also, if your trip is to the Caribbean, there are cards for that area as well.

Did a recent TA on the Odyssey. I had surf & stream and it worked great the entire way, except twice when they switched to a different satellite (at least that was my understanding). When this occurred, we couldn't connect for 30-60 minutes. hova

Actually the walking isn't too bad. Google maps has it at 3-4 miles (if you take the metro to the starting point and walk from there). Reserve your Sagrada tickets in advance to avoid lineups! Good luck!

On our last trip to Barcelona, one morning we took the metro to Park Guell, and from there walked to the Sagrada, and then continued the walk through Gothic and ended up on Ramblas where our hotel was. We toured everything at a leisurely pace, and it was very easy to do in a day, but its lots of walking, so I would recommend the Cable Car for the second shorter day. hova

On our recent Odyssey TA, our waiter actually hung out at our table for extended periods of time. We have always enjoyed getting to know our dining staff, but this became overbearing. I don’t think he had enough tables to keep him busy (we had several empty tables in our dining room area), so he would come over to our table and talk to my wife for several minutes each night. He would go on about his separation from his wife, custody of the children, payments to his wife, and why they separated in the first place. It was all very personal information that we felt uncomfortable hearing. It got to be so much, that I traded chairs with my wife so that she would be tucked in the corner, and he couldn’t get around the table to stand beside her. This plan sort of worked, as then he would try to engage me in long conversations. I would only answer him in yes/no statements, and try not to engage him too much. After a couple days, he moved on and became best buddies with some people at a nearby table. I did give him a good rating on the survey, as the actual dining service was excellent. I think it’s important for the waiter to ensure he is providing good service, but he should keep the chit/chat at a professional level.

Pretty sure that cancelling the crab season in Alaska won’t impact the lobster on RCL. But I do agree that 2 lobster is likely enough.

I just checked my online booking for October 23, 2023 and they updated my ship from the Euriba to the Fantasia. It would have been nice if they had emailed me and let me know! There is no increase on my OBC, so not sure if I will get one or not. I will likely end up cancelling anyways, and rebooking with a ship of my choosing. I am starting to understand why there are so many comments about the MSC customer service.

I don't know your history with MSC, but I don't get your logic. If I didn't like the customer service or food, I would pick a different line for my upcoming cruises. Could you explain why you keep going back to MSC? On a side note, I have cruised with most lines, except for MSC, but recently booked a Mediterrean (Euriba) and Trans Atlantic (Seashore) for 2023, so I am genuinely interested in your response. hova

On the Koningsdam May 14. - 21, we had 1188 passengers (double capacity is 2600) and 900 crew. Best service ever! We won’t expect those low numbers for our next cruise.