JayceeP

The OBC gets credited to your account on your final day of sailing. So you will either have a smaller balance owing than what you spent or MSC will owe you money if you spent less than your OBC (unlikely obviously).

Both of my Canadian CAD and USD Credit cards (MasterCard) worked fine.

Coming back from Cayman was a PIA. The Mealtime drink packaged is not supposed to include breakfast drinks (I found this out toward the end of the cruise) but I was served bottled water all week for free for some reason. I found the drink package was treated a bit inconsistently and sometimes I needed a voucher and sometimes I didn't. I ordered old fashioned's in the MDR but had to use a voucher, however at the bars I had to pay. I'm assuming they just let me stack the drink package with a voucher in the MDR whereas at the bar it was outside mealtime hours hence why I had to pay. The Old Fashioned's at the MDR were awesome... but not quite the same when I ordered from the bars. Also, I thought I read that at supper you could get bottled beer but they would only give me house wine or Heineken... Either way it was pretty good value and the mealtime drinks along with the vouchers was a great combination.

I was on this sailing and I would agree with everything. I really enjoyed the MDR as well and found the food more memorable than what I had on the Royal Princess back in April 2015. The food must contain decent ingredients too because I only gained 1-2 pounds post cruise which sort of surprised me.

We were out early in full force to get our chairs but we actually used them. I did notice some chairs unused for quite some time which would definitely be annoying if you were trying to actually use a spot. I think the monitoring approach would be a fair way to go.

All the pre-cruise complaints I read were overblown. Then again, a server on the ship joked about how people will complain about anything... even the lighting... and it is true. I just don't dwell on these sort of things. The only thing that really irked me on the trip was that I found most of my negative encounters with other passengers were European. This is petty but things like barging in front of us to get into elevators (we had a stroller), walking into the elevator before people get off, cutting disembarkation lines or even buffet lines. etc etc. I don't want to dwell on it but it gave both my wife (who is foreign herself) and I a bit of a different opinion on European travellers. Given that I have never left North America, this was my most European encounter and I just expected friendlier people (and yes we had friendly encounters).

Another slight negative, the singer in the atrium played the same songs every night and did multiple sets every night singing those same songs. A server actually pointed this out which I didn't think was very professional but, it is what it is.

Well, I've never seen rude or selfish older passengers scream uncontrollably, push all the elevator buttons, run down halls knocking on the doors or do cannonballs into the pool. :rolleyes: Have I just been lucky?

Sorry- not trying to hijack.... I hear you but I have seen them cut in front my wife and I with our baby in a stroller while we wait for an elevator (we were there first?) and then make it seem like a burden when I tell them to make room. Lots of places on Seaside was like a “me, me, me” mentality amongst the older passengers. Buffet? Me first. Elevator? Me first. Doorway? Me first. Disembarkation this morning was hilarious with some passengers just all of a sudden forgetting how to speak or read English with clearly the sole purpose of cutting the self-disembarkation line. Witnessed it several times. Meanwhile we were waiting 15 minutes before our spot in the line even moved. That one really ticked a few people off.

Don’t get me wrong, lots of people were endeared by our sweet little boy and the staff always made a point to say hi. All I was really getting at is each age group can have its bad apple or two and their weren’t many little rebels on board. I don’t be think MSC attracts the rowdy crowd.

Ps- I did get in the elevator once or twice and several buttons were pushed lol. I might do a brief review so I don’t end up taking up other peope’s threads like I have done just here. Enjoy your cruise!

I just got off today. The “smell” was present but only in ththe Jungle Water Park area and it’s wasnt that bad. I only noticed it a few times. All this hooplah about cancelling over it are way over blown. Having said that, there were reports that the smell problem was worse. I never smelled it in the buffet either nor did I ever hear anyone complaining about smells.

I’d be no more worried about out of control kids than rude or selfish older passengers.

Just got off the Seaside. I grabbed a late night slice of pizza several nights (like at 930-1030pm) from the 16th Buffet. Wouldn’t say it was closed evenings unless you are referring to closer to midnight, in which case I was in bed.

On Seaside currently. Have not noticed this smell except for on the top deck waiting to use the water slide. I’ve noticed lots of rude old people on board though. Lots of very nice ones too though! Lol. Some people have no respect for a person with a baby and stroller.

I’m on Seaside currently too. The sewage complaint is overblown. I have noticed it moderately up on the deck waiting to use the water slides.... but that’s it. Nowhere else have I smelled it. I’m also 6’4, 205lbs and the rooms don’t seem much different than any others. I do find the ceilings to be a bit lower in some of the hallways but I could just be wrong too.

The decor could be a bit better but the Amenities on this ship are much better for families than, say, Princess. More things to keep kids busy.

@JayceeP - did you go yet? I wanted to wing it, too! The falls are so close to port!

So, we are currently in Ocho Rios and just had a great day at the falls. We walked off the ship early (not long after 9am) and got to a triage type of point. I explained we just wanted to take a cab to the falls and explore. I was referred to what actually ended up being more or less a tour/excursion but cost $32/pp round trip and included a pass to the falls. This was good because we ended up with a guide (C Folkes) and his videographer and other people were in our group too.... pretty sure they were from an MSC Excursion. Anyway, not quite exactly what we planned for as we were on a guide schedule but one climb was enough anyway. The price was fine with me and we saved $23pp as the ship excursion is $55.

Everything was easy. People were very nice and the shop area the guides shepherd you through after are kind of pushy but, honestly, nothing I haven’t seen before. The vendors were all accepting of my polite no’s.

If this is how these tourist vendors conduct themselves daily, then I would have no hesitation making a recommendation. Having said that, go at your own risk as I don’t want to be held accountable for any bad experiences. I am just giving a brief summary of my own personal experience with a family of 5.

PS- our guided tour was through “Dolphin Cove.” Again, we stumbled upon them after we left the ship near the first “checkpoint” area. Good luck.

@JayceeP - did you go yet? I wanted to wing it, too! The falls are so close to port!

Not yet- we board tomorrow. Still haven’t booked anything so looks like we are winging it!

Thank you. Now I am leaning toward just walking off the ship and grabbing a taxi in port to take us over to Dunns River and just sort of “wing it.” Mom and toddler are staying on the ship.

This pretty common. Most credit cards tend to charge a foreign transaction fee in addition to whatever spread you pay on the currency conversion. That's why when I booked our Caribbean cruise, I acquired a USD Credit Card and avoided all of that (I'm Canadian).

Just put what you want in Google Maps.... a CVS appears to be not far..

Yeah I guess if you are comparing different car rental bookings it might not be different. If I change my return to MIA the price is more than my current booking. We could just take regular taxis (no car seat requirement)? But I think we’ll just take our rear facing car seat without the base so that it’s very lightweight, and easy to deal with, and secure it via seatbelt in an Uber or regular cab if need be. The private shuttles that have car seats available will cost nearly $300 for our family to go FLL-Sunny Isles, Sunny Isles-POM, POM-FLL.

Thank you for the info. The challenge is we have an infant and therefore require a car seat. Debating on whether to just pay for shuttles pre-cruise or rent a car with a car seat. Want to avoid bringing one with us if we can.

Flying into FLL. Dropping the rental car off at different location is insanely expensive.

All I want to know is what traffic is like getting in and out of POM approximately between the hours 1030am-1pm.

I am not looking for advice on numbers or cost or anything else.

Thinking of dropping everyone off at the MSC terminal on Sat March 10th and then taking the rental car back to FLL. Form there return back to POM via Uber by myself. Just wondering how the flow of traffic moves in and out of the port on a Saturday if I was aiming to drop everyone off around 1030-11am.

Thank you.

Onboard now and elegant night was tonight. Table next to me a guy in a tee shirt and his two boys in warm up pants.

Yeah... that's a little too casual for me in a MDR, even on non-formal night. I'm surprised they allowed the family in.

Instead of starting a whole new thread, it sounds like you folks would know...

 

We're sailing on the Seaside in March. Wife hasn't decided on the drinks package yet. What beverages can we expect, at no additional charge, in the Dining Room in the evening?

Depends on your experience. The mealtime drink package was included with our Fantastica balcony. We are sailing in March as well. My understanding is it includes non-premium alcohol. If you do not have any sort of package you would only expect water and standard juices. Soft-drinks would be extra.

What's the difference? Premium drinks?

Edit: wait, I see what you mean. That's enticing actually.....However, with 12 drink vouchers and mealtime drinks included already, I don't know if I see myself drinking an additional $28.50/day worth of alcohol onboard.

Correct. That is what you will get.

 

With the free beer/wine/soda at mealtimes we didn't get close to using all of our vouchers. So I hid my extras under the "carpet" in the safe. Hopefully a lucky cruiser finds them.

Are you sure? Not trying to confuse the conversation but when we booked our Fantastica Balcony and Interior cabins we were told 12 vouchers per person for the first 2 guests only (i.e. max 24 vouchers per room).

I wear suits 5 days a week at work so I'll be wearing nice jeans and an untucked dress shirt to my meals except for formal night of course.

How about kids and teenagers? Are they expected to wear a suit or are nice khakis with a tucked in dress shirt sufficient?

Lets be real here...EVERYONE knows daily gratuity/service charges are in addition to your cruise fare for ALL the mainline cruise companies. It amazes me how people play "dumb" on this topic!!

Playing dumb? No one is playing dumb. I am simply stating that some people get frustrated paying their vacation, in full, months in advance only to find hundreds of dollars of additional charges during the trip. Also, in reference to your comment about playing dumb, MSC is not particularly clear about daily gratuities. If you are a new cruiser and simply go on the website, it is not exactly easy to find out about additional fees and many new cruisers would likely expect that once their booking is paid for, that's it. There is no mention of additional gratuities during the booking process nor is it easy to find this information on the website. It is there. I know it is. But, you have to search and dig for it before you can find it. Again, for the awesome perfect cruise people on this website. No problem. For someone who is new, how can you just say "oh, you're playing dumb." Go and search "daily gratuity" on the MSC website and tell me how many search results you get? Here, I'll make it simple: ZERO. Try "daily service fee." I'll make it simple again. ZERO results when searching on the MSC website.

You can't say this isn't by design. Why wouldn't a cruise line want to talk about all the extra fees like daily gratuities, drinks (no menu prices on the website), specialty food etc that is not included during the booking process? Because all this stuff adds about $1000 to the cost of your vacation, that's why. This information is all segmented so it's therefore harder to get an aggregate number on costs.