couplelovestravel

We are going on our first MSC cruise on the Seaside and are Diamond Status.  I see one of the benefits is a Complimentary speciality restaurant "tasting menu".  Can some explain how this works.  Do I have to have a reservation in advance to eat at one of the specialty restaurants and does this count as a meal or do we also have to have reservations for a meal?
 

On 7/28/2023 at 10:29 PM, cellfree said:

1) I would suggest using husband’s Marriott status.

2) Yes, you each submit your own proof from wherever.

3) Do the booking in your husband’s name first, although whoever has highest status will receive the benefit, such as “Butchers Cut” meal, but it is for two regardless of whose name is first on booking. And even if both of you are eventually Diamond, it is still one dinner for two per cabin. Make sense?

We used my husband's diamond and they matched him with diamond.  I used my RCCL gold status and got matched to Classic.  Was hoping for Gold, but at least he got Diamond.

On 7/2/2023 at 5:05 AM, Mark_T said:

Diamond on RC will not get you Diamond on MSC...

 

Where can I find this information?  I would like to see the other cruise matches

I have a question.  My husband is Ambassador Elite with Marriott and Diamond with Hilton, from what I have read it is probably best for us to submit the diamond for him; however, that is his status and not mine.  I am guessing I cannot piggy back on his status.  I have gold status with RCCL, Gold with Carnival and Silver with NCL.  I guess I have to submit my gold to get my own status, is this correct?  Also if he is Diamond and I am gold and he books the cruise, will I be able to have the same benefits such as cocktail parties or anything like that?  Hope that was not too confusing.  Thanks

My husband is Diamond with Hilton and Ambassador Elite with Marriott.  Does anyone know which one would be best to submit or can we submit all of them.  With him being Diamond at Hilton, does this mean he will be diamond on MSC?

Have no idea when your cruise is and you may have already gone.  We have been advised several times on cruises, not to get our hair braided due to possible lice.  Just FYI

We have booked our transfer through EC Minibus and they take you straight from the port to London Hotel.  I wanted to go straight to London, as I have no desire to go to Stonehenge.  We want to maximize our time in London.  I do not know what day you will be there, but there are night bus tours and also Ghost Tours.  

I was on the Dawn In May and I enjoyed the Landslides without Bailey's. It basically was a delicious milkshake.

I am taking some tea bags with me and a cup.  At least I can add a tea bag to my water and have a little tea taste, luckily I do not drink sweet tea.

We leave on Aug 25 and a lot of people are having issues.  The general consensus is to pick the worst picture of you on your camera feed and it will go through.  

On 7/16/2022 at 5:45 PM, PATRLR said:

Our category (BB) did not include the perks.  After adding in the cost of a handful of drinks, the dining package, etc, we saved about $600

Actually, our fair was not a Sail Away.  But, until I saw this one, I'd never seen one without perks that wasn't Sail Away.

 

There is nothing free about it.  You are charged $20 per day per person for gratuities, but you also pay extra for your room (they increase your rate).  We booked  a 10 day cruise, it was going to cost us $400 In gratuities and also $400 extra for our room.  I don't think I we will drink $800 worth of alcohol in 10 days.

All these ports are great.  Number one suggestion I have is to try to eliminate bringing a checked bag so you do not have to be concerned about lost baggage.  If unable to do this, make sure you pack your most important items and a lot of your clothing in your carry-on bag, including coats or anything you may need for the weather.  We found this out the hard way when visiting London and all our cold weather gear, including coats were in our checked bag, which got lost. (we did get it 3 days later).  I hope you are staying in London for your last few days.  There is so much to do in London.  My favorite city.  Copenhagen:  look into a free walking tour.  We did Copenhagen free walking tour and had Jared as a guide, best guide we have ever had.  Also do a boat ride. Belgium:  Bruges and Ghent are charming cities.  Google transportation.  I believe there is a bus you can take from port that is much cheaper than cruise, but I do not still have information.  We are doing Flanders Fields.  We have been before and the area is beautiful.  Berlin:  this is over a 3 hour train ride from where we dock.  Unless you really want to see Berlin, I personally do not feel like it is worth it.  Paris:  unsure what excursions they are offering.  Versailles is a nice place to visit, as well as Normandy.  Of course a day in Paris is a great option.  Belfast we are doing an excursion to Giant's Causeway with Odyssey tours.  Dublin we are doing HOHO bus.  Dublin is a great city.  We also did a free walking tour here as well.  Also Guinness is located here and does tours.  London, Buckingham Palace is doing tour through October, Parliament tours, Westminister Abbey, Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Jack the Ripper tour, London Eye, British Museum (free and they have everything from other countries that these countries want back, i.e. Rome and Egypt).  Go to the direct websites and do not look on Viator and Get Your Guide.  You can book your own tours through websites.  For instance I am booking Buckingham Palace tour right now at tickets.rct.uk.  Have a great anniversary. You will have a blast.  We are doing a similar cruise in August and I have already visited most of these ports.  

On 5/26/2022 at 8:08 PM, Laminator said:

Schipol has been a mess for a few weeks now. Hours long lines for departure with many missing their flights. Arrivals have not been a piece of cake either. Supposedly a plan will be announced tomorrow in an attempt to resolve the issues. That plan may include up to 30% flight cancelations. Please make sure to continuously check your flights and allow extra time. 

Frankfurt is no better.  Lufthansa is a freaking mess.  Short staffed.  Cancelling 1000's of flights and are losing everyones luggage (short staffed on bag handlers).  American flights from Frankfurt to US have all been cancelled (these are only the American planes, not affiliates like British airways). We were flying from Frankfurt to Vienna Friday night and our flight was cancelled.  The place was an absolute madhouse from all the cancelled flights.  

Sorry to jump on here, but I have a question.  We are doing our first B2B in August.  Ship is arriving and departing from Amsterdam.  What happens on this day?  Do we get off the ship?  What happens to our belongings?  Can I do an excursion?  Do we have to do a Covid test for next leg of journey?  I have no idea how this works.  Thanks

On 6/28/2022 at 9:25 AM, carlmm said:

Sure, the reservations will generaly work. Only if there is some kind of irregularity like a train has broken down or something, your reservations might not be valid anymore.

Even than, you still hold a first class ticket and the 9 Euro local trains second class ticket does not affect you.

On 6/27/2022 at 11:04 PM, emkenya1 said:

Hi and yikes!  We were able to reserve seats on a first class train for a trip in 2 weeks. Safe to say these will be honored by the rail system in your experience?  Thanks in advance!

You are probably on an ICE train and you should not be effected too much, especially since you have first class and seat reservations.  This mainly pertains to regional trains, but it is quite hectic at the train stations right now.  

At this time, I would not consider taking the train on your own.  Germany is issuing 9 euro a month tickets for any regional train.  The train system is completely over crowded and trains are continuously running late.  I went on a weekend trip this weekend and the trains were standing room only (even saw an ICE train that was standing room only) and all my trains were running 20-35 minutes late, which means you are likely to miss any connections that you may have.  These tickets will be on sale June, July and August.  We live in Germany and I am done with trains for the time being. 

38 minutes ago, josumello said:

We have b2b backed in January on Vision of the Seas. When I go to cruise planner for dining it says not available until on board.

Does this seem right?

I did call C&A and unfortunately the agent didn’t have a clue. 
 

TIA

Is this for a cruise in Europe.  We just did a cruise in Greece and was told that Europe does not allow you to make dinner reservations in a advance; however, we were able to make them a month out.  I am taking another European cruise in August and they are letting us book dinners.  

On 5/12/2022 at 3:08 AM, styles27 said:

We sailed NCL for the first time last month and we declined the “free” (not free at all) package because it would have cost us $420 to add it. 🤔 Wait…I thought it was free? 

No way do we drink enough to justify that. Our bar tab for the week including some sodas for my grandson and a few Starbucks was about $120 so we definitely came out ahead on that one. 

 

Cruised on MSC November 2021 and accepted the all in Easyplus drinks and WiFi which cost us $160 total for the two of us for the week. Now that’s a big difference from NCL’s “free” drink package. 
 

I think NCL needs to drop the “pick up to 5 free at sea” lingo from their marketing because they’re far from free. 

 

I talked with Rep this morning.  Just getting quotes for sailaway.  She gave me quotes and I advised her she is charging $200 more per person to get the "free" at sea, plus then charge $20 per person per day on top of the extra $200 per person for the cruise, so my 10 day cruise would be an additional $400 per person, or $800 for a couple for a 10 day cruise.  I don't drink that much.  

23 hours ago, ChC said:

 

Depends. On Jade I took the package because I intended to do excursions in almost every port (that was 6 ports in 7 days until it was reduced to 4 in actual cruise). So that was a good saving. But, should I not plan to take more than 3 excursion in a 7 days cruise, or 4 excursion in a 10-12 days cruise, I would not take the package, not worth it since I am not a drinker. 

 

I guess everyone is different, for a drinker, the package is OK. For non-drinker, the calculation really is:

1, How many excursions you are to take? and

2, Are you intend to go to speciality restaurant for dinner and if so how many times?

 

For now, NCL Free at Sea is still a cheaper pricing point when you consider RCL is looking at £40-50 per person per day for a drinking package, and Princess is not far behind when you take out daily gratuities (crew appreciation as they call it). I guess people really need to look at their own needs and habits to come to their own conclusions. For me, I am more than likely not to take it unless there are other factors influence my decision (dream itinerary that I want excursions or travelling with a drinker who may take the package etc.)

you can still get the excursion package without getting the drink package.  There is no extra charge.

On 5/7/2022 at 10:29 AM, ChC said:

I drink little alcohol. I am the occasional drinker. And I prefer Coca Cola than Pepsi. I also refuse to pay overpriced water.

 

But I do take the drink package only because from UK point of sale there is no gratuities to be paid. Otherwise I will be the first one to refuse it. Not worth it. So I totally understand all you guys above me here.

We do not drink enough to warrant package, but I am curious about what you mean by UK point of sale.  We are doing British Isle Cruise in August

Are you going to Ephesus?  Highly recommend Ephesus Shuttle.  They did a great tour.  

On 5/22/2022 at 5:36 PM, iloveglee said:

It does seem to be that way.  I contacted them via live chat and she said this was the case.  As it goes we rarely take excursions anyway, we prefer to do our own thing.  There were a couple we may have considered on our cruise, each of them only costs £23.  We only have the one credit, so obviously even though there is £17 remaining, the second person has to pay in full.  But - looking at it positively, it means that each of you only end up paying £11.50, and given that the tour we were looking at could be challenging to do it independently (due to the time the ship leaves), it might be worth it. 

 

On another thread, there are questions about them not serving alcohol in port in greece, which is an issue that probably requires some looking into.!!

I took cruise out of Athens on May 1.  If you have a drink package already booked, you can order drinks in port.  If you do not have a drink package, you cannot order until you are out to sea.  

Just took a Greek cruise with these packages.  As someone just said, $50 shore excursion is for the room, not per person.  If you book an excursion that is $25, one person pays $0 and the other $25.  The drink package is not free, you are still charged $20 per person, per day for gratuities.  We paid $280 for gratuities that were added on and I do not even drink alcohol.  We are booking B2B cruises in August and will not do the drink package again.  You pay more for your room and then have to pay gratuities  

On 5/16/2022 at 6:49 PM, KeithJenner said:

When we sailed on the Jade back in April, we had read reports from the previous cruise, where there was no bar service on embarkation day until a while after we left Athens. There was talk that this would apply at all Greek ports, but that wasn't the case.

 

The following week, we experienced the same thing. No bar service on embarkation day until a while after sail away.

 

I haven't seen any comment on this since, so assumed that it had been resolved, but today I have seen a couple of posts on Facebook from people who are in Santorini today saying that there is no bar service there, and in other Greek ports.

 

Obviously, this is a significant thing for cruises around the Greek Islands, especially as there are some late port times in some places.

 

We never did work out what the problem was, and I don't know what can be done about it, but anyone sailing Greece in the coming weeks should be aware that this could be a problem.

Hello Keith.  We went on cruise on May 1.  We were allowed to have drinks while in port in Athens.  They told us if you already had the drink package you could order.  If you did not have a drink package or purchased once on the ship, you could not order drinks until out at sea.

I am sailing on the May 1 cruise to Israel.  NCL called everyone and advised us we would need a PCR test within 72 hours of sailing. It appears you will also need a antigen 24 hours prior to boarding and you will receive an antigen test before boarding.  On sea day, Tuesday, we will receive another PCR test for Israel.  Of course this is for sailing of May 1.  Restrictions have literally changed daily.