eagletwo

1 hour ago, JT1962 said:

As Mogsmom said, there are as many opinions on the food and many things on MSC. Most seem to either love it or hate. I found the food to be comparable to or better than the food on other lines I have sailed (primarily Carnival & Royal Caribbean). I sailed in a Fantastica Balcony and ate in the main dining room, buffet and steak house (1 night). 
 

My recommendation is to give MSC a try. I was pleasantly surprised based on many negative reviews I read prior to my cruise. They have some great rates and Ocean Key is excellent. Worst case scenario is you’ll find it’s not for you, but you may find you have a new option for cruising.

 

Some things I found regarding food: 

 

- There are usually less choices on the dining room menus than other cruise lines, however, you can order multiple items from each section on the menu. 
 

- There tends to be less beef than on other cruise lines sailing from the US.

 

- Shrimp Cocktail, Steak & a few other items cost extra in the dining room on nights other than “Elegant” night. 
 

- The menus are more European than most lines sailing from the US, but I always found items I liked. 
 

- There are almost always a chicken, fish / seafood, pasta, vegetarian and one other meat item on the entrees each night. 
 

- The Steakhouse was excellent. I had the 3 Course Tasting Menu. 
 

Below is a link to my post after my cruise on Meraviglia in January that includes some menus. These may not be the same as what you might see if you book a cruise, but will give you an idea of what they serve: 

 

 

Wow! Best response I’ve seen on Cruise Critic in a long time. Well said. 

On 7/13/2022 at 11:22 PM, vicky3vicky said:

I would like to bring a blender so I can make my smoothies in the morning. I couldn't find it on the prohibited list so should I bring it?

 

Are you the person that asked John Heald, Carnival Ambassador this question on his channel?

Guess we were lucky to get status match from Princess back in 2020. Elite transferred to Diamond on MSC. We have sailed again in 2021 and kept the same status. We have another cruise booked on the Meraviglia in October and have the same status. 

We have sailed MSC twice. Both times in YC. We are booked on Meraviglia October 23rd in a Premium aft balcony. Food was good in the YC, not great. Having been on 6 Princess ships, food and buffets have also been good. Never been wowed by food venues on any line we have sailed so far. I hope we enjoy the MDR on the Meraviglia. 

As stated, check your account. We had a few charges on the Divina in the sports bar while bowling. The YC concierge removed the charges. 

9 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

 

Bring a few smaller bottles in your luggage.

Thanks!

How about in Denali?

How did you handle getting distilled water for the CPAP?

How do you order distilled water for the land portion before the cruise? Will be in Denali for three days before boarding the Noordam. 

Wife plays slots on any ship we cruise. Wins big sometimes and helps pay the fuel bill on a few cruises. Great entertainment. We have seen big winners on every cruise. It was their lucky night. Tight slots, no idea. 

Yeah, feel your pain. We had a back to back trip on the Regal and Enchanted late November and early December 2021. Our Medallions shipped in early November 2021 for two cruises. The ones for the Regal showed up a week before the cruise. We booked a month before. Our Medallions for the Enchanted shipped about the same time, we booked a year in advance and did everything on the Medallion app to order the Medallions. Medallions for the Enchanted arrived at our home the day we drove to FLL for our Regal cruise. Daughter sent them by USPS and they arrived at our hotel the day before our Enchanted cruise. 

I forgot to mention we were on a Princess cruise and our drink package worked on the island. Carnival charges for drinks, drink package not included on the island, which is wrong as they take the booze off the ship you paid for and charge you for it. 

We had a regular bungalow on Princess Cay and really enjoyed the day. Service was very good. We ordered food to be delivered and it costs extra. Would not do the food order as it was expensive and they brought food from the buffet and it was cold. 

Holland air is a real disappointment. 

I have been trying to book through Flightease for the past 3 weeks.  Get an error message at the end of the booking to call Holland air. Spent many hours on hold and never got through. The issue with Holland air should be embarrassing to the company. Even the reps I talk to say there can be a 2-3 hour wait to speak with an air rep. Really!

Good morning all. We get off the Noordam in Vancouver on May 29th and tranfer to Seattle by bus. Will have a Covid-19 test before boarding the ship in Anchorage and the Canadian arrival app done. 

Checking the Canadian Government website, it shows no requirement to have a negative Covid-19 test to enter Cananda by ship for fully vaccinated passengers and the US site shows the same,  no requirement to have a negative Covid-19 test to cross the boarder into the US by land. Am I missing something?

On 5/2/2022 at 5:41 AM, ski ww said:

Final payment is tomorrow and our TA told us that our flights were cancelled by HAL & we were using FlightEase. Our TA could not get through to HAL to find out what is going on, she's on hold for hours. She also said HAL's FlightEase is a mess, & told us to try booking our own. Not a happy cruiser. 

Our TA is having the same problem. 2 hours on hold, 3 days in a row with no answer. FlightEase site will let you go through the entire booking process and when you get to the last page and hit book, it gives you an error message and a number to call. 

3 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

Did you use a TA to book the cruise?

 

I've had issues similar (slow speed, not loading the page, unable to complete, etc) and I end up emailing the TA with the Flight Ease flight info and she ends up booking it. 

 

 

Thanks.  I was on the phone with my TA this morning and he had the same issue and error message using Polar Online, which is how air is booked with Holland and Princess for a TA. He has been on hold for the last hour and thirty minutes with Holland trying to speak with someone in the air department.

21 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

maybe try another browser and/or machine (tablet, laptop etc).

 

What is the error?

Thanks, but I have tried on my laptop, IPAD, work computer, wife's laptop.  Same problem.  You get an error message "We are unable to prcess your request.  Please try again later or call us at the number listed on the page for assistance. 877-932-4259"

When you call the number, the people at Holland are getting the same error message when they try to make the reservation.

Sorry, we leave from Columbia, SC to Seattle and return. Denali land tour, Noordam to Vancouver.

I have been trying to book flights for the past two week for a trip that starts in Seattle and returns in August. Ever time I enter all the information and get to the last page to book, I get an error message. Called Holland twice and had the same results. Any ideas on what to do?

Have to fill out a request form from HAL to transfer the booking to TA. Easy to do.

The free bottle of wine has never been what we like. They do offer a 50% off the wine list. We were able to buy a discounted bottle of wine for another night in the steakhouse. Worked great. 

On our Enchanted Princess cruise November 30, we had about 2300 passengers. We had Club Class dining.  First night we loved our servers and asked to be seated in the same area every night and for breakfast and lunch on sea days. We were accommodated 90 percent of the time. We had a table for two and they were close together, not bad, but you could have a conversation with the table next to us.
 

Loved the Enchanted Princess and the cruise. Staff on the entire ship were awesome! 

We have hit the limit once, but have come close a few times. We average 11 drinks a day, but do stay hydrated with water during the day.