mscdivina2016

5 hours ago, bucfan2 said:

You're delusional and/or simply entitled if equating the general 2am partier w/ the general 5am sun watcher.  

How do you figure?

Everyone is different. Why is an early riser and better than a night owl?

Both have the ability to disturb the other. The entitlement would go to the early riser IMHO. They would be the first to disturb anyone else sleeping. That is the number 1 reason I wont book a cabin under the sun deck as the set up is very loud each morning.

On a side note, if they did not ask us to leave top sail we would have stayed there. They even carried all of our existing drinks to my room after topping everything off.  I believe they were going to shampoo the carpet that night as I saw crew I never saw before show up.

33 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

You had a former H9. If neither the agent nor NCL can find another stateroom for you, maybe ask for a Spa pass. You'll be very close to it.

When we stayed in that room it did come with the spa. One deck down it was.

 I would prefer the upgraded drink package 😁

5 hours ago, jdevine said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I am hoping people can assist me. We are going to be cruising on MSC at the end of April in the Mediterranean. I am hoping everyone can help. What are things you wish you knew about MSC? Are there things I should be doing to make this the best cruise? We are 2 rooms totaling 6 people (3 adults, 18- Boy, 15-boy, 12-boy) We usually cruise Carnival if that helps. 

 

Thank you in advance. 

Joe

Use a TA!!

If something goes wrong you will find a TA invaluable.

Costs you nothing and you probably can get a kickback as well.

4 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

On some ships, there is no in-between. On some  ships, only the Haven suites give you butler/concierge service.

 

 

All "HI" staterooms are outside of the Haven enclave. Depending on ship, the HI was formerly a H9 which included Spa access. On those ships, the ones that became HI lost Spa access. On Joy, the HI used to be Concierge Class that did not have Haven access but gained Haven access when they became HI. 

 

Some CC forum members are a better source for stateroom information than any phone rep, travel agent, or website. 😉

 

 

That was a screen shot during my booking. I found out I was not able to check in as it's 21 days out not 30.

 Same TA gave erroneous info it seems.

 After looking at a deck plan it's the exact room we had before on the Encore.  It's not in the enclave which is why we don't want that room.

 I don't know how they are going to fix it.

4 hours ago, GPPhilly said:

I would not want to be in a room next to you.  I don't think it is appropriate to have a party in your room at 2 am.  

Butler did not say anything when they brought additional glasses, cutlery, ice and even an assortment of snacks..

Took over a half hour but it did come.

 We drank the bottles we got on the 1st day and had a couple of pizzas as well .

You may not be late owls but we feel the same at those who are up at 5am or shortly thereafter on their balcony before the sun comes up.

 Being in a room under the sun deck is also bad at 6am.

18 hours ago, bob10173 said:

Especially with all other balconies looking down on our balcony on deck 9.

That's a thing. On Seashore last month one couple had one of the rooms with a hot tub on its balcony. From YC we all could clearly see them. Not wearing clothes did not bother them.😲😁

45 minutes ago, GPPhilly said:

I hope you are joking ??

No I am not joking.

We get kicked out of top sail so they can clean and out on the sun deck, they have everything put away and tied up despite our request to have some set up.

6 minutes ago, mafig said:

My take.  I enjoyed the Haven restaurant, even though it doesn't change.  DH still talks about how he had lobster every night.  I also like how they do breakfast.

NCL's policy on water is just crazy.

Our cruise on Norwegian Joy Haven was overrun with kids.  No adult could use the pool And the hot tub was always taken by this couple that talked so loudly, the  whole ship knew all their business.  How much they had in the bank, the properties they owned, etc.

However, on MSC Seashore we were awakened by a loud party next door about 2 AM two nights.  

Thinking about it now, I think they were people from the casino, (doesn't it close about that time?), the people next door were on a Casino booking.  I don't think their guests were YC people, they were the dreaded interlopers, I believe.  Invited by our next door neighbors,

No interlopers in the Haven.

 

NCL has better (great) bartenders in the Haven.

 

 

Was your sailing last month 1/7? As we were having a party at 2am in our cabin and balcony at that time.   If so, the friends were not Interlopers but Haven inside occupants.

24 minutes ago, GPPhilly said:

Every time you post this I am still amazed that you have continued to sail MSC.  You complain a lot yet you still sail with MSC.  It you truly disliked MSC, you would never sail them again.  

I think they have a great product! I love the product which is why I "only" will sail with MSC when booked thru a travel agent.

I actually am on the Seascape in a week from now.

So thankful I had a TA. They took my room away 2 weeks ago and put me on deck 16. It's a smaller GS than my original room. I had the TA get it back or cancel me in full. I got it back.

 I also discovered I was missing some obc during web check in. Still don't have that back yet but I have the paperwork as I booked it while on the Splendida in the middle east last year .  Was told that the extra obc was an offer from European office not USA.  What? Who cares??? Obc is obc.

Last month on Seashore my OBC was again missing as I booked it onboard prior.  Called TA and it was finally applied on day 6.  Quick casino cash out!

On a side note, MSC isn't the only screw up. Mostly MSC but this time it's NCL.

 I just was able to do online check in for a sailing next month. Just discovered that the advertised room by the TA being in the Haven is a Haven room, just not in the Haven.

Don't know what to do about that yet?? TA screwed up, no in Haven rooms available except a very expensive one 

9 hours ago, IAcruising said:

 

Out of curiosity, did you inform your butler when you met him that you like ice and fresh juices? Or did you just expect it with 10 minutes notice.

 

Actually gave him a list of things we wanted/expected and some of the items we were told to call when we wanted them. 

 This is not isolated to the Prima. It was bad on the Encore as well especially because we had a spa Haven which is located in the Aft and not in the Haven Enclave.

After 1am, it all goes bad it seems. Then they seem to get an attitude when we don't leave the room till lunch time. We also get a few cocktails delivered around 11/1130 am which I found was easier for me to go get.

Never had a good one yet that meets our needs. I understand that we are night owls but if you are going to advertise 24 hours I expect you to deliver it.

4 hours ago, eppler said:

Thank everyone for responses.

Can I ask why do you recommend using a Travel Agent.  I have never used one before.

Msc is a cluster.

I have had so many issues. room changes, number of days changes, country changes and even Cabin changes..

How would you like to book YC and get downgraded to a regular cabin with no access to YC ?

2 hours ago, kismetique said:

Knowing that the aft is out of the question,  is there any upside to waiting till on my Cruse in May to book these 4 cruises?

 

What is the lowest inside and lowest OV I can book and still get to pick my balcony cabin?

 

Thanks!

Book IA or OA for best choice 

1 hour ago, complawyer said:

so, cruisey my friend. while i value your opinions as both a cc poster and travel agent, is your answer "yes" you would cruise prima again. i keep reading posts that it's not all it's cracked up to be, and i dont want to spend a boat load of money (pun intended)  but i'm planning to book the iceland cruise this september

Are you planning on Haven?

Iceland was amazing. We did into the volcano tour. Incredible!

2 hours ago, eppler said:

Have cruised many times but mostly on NCL and Carnival.  Last one was on NCL and we tried the Haven since we are now kid-free and can afford a little more.

Am looking at a cruise in March on MSC Meraviglia from NY as a last minute kind of thing.

 

Have never been on MSC so would be interested on any comparisons between NCL and MSC and also between the Haven and the Yacht club.  Just did some looking today and they seem pretty much the same.

 

Done many YC and Haven.

NCL has better quality dinner options like Prime rib, Lobster and Filet mignon every night. But menu never changed.

MSC menu does change.

YC is a great product at a great price but only use a TA if booking them.

MSC lounge has live entertainment nightly and a small dance floor. NCL has neither.

Both butlers are just so so. Rooms are comparable.

2 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

What’s the room to butler ratio on the Prima? I just got off the Escape, and the butler said there were 95 Haven rooms and 10 butlers. I didn’t think to ask if he was including the night butler in his count or not, but either way roughly 10 rooms per butler. We had excellent service from the butler. .

There were around 110 rooms  over 5 floors and it appeared that each floor has 2 butlers.

The night butler is almost non existent after 1am.

45 minutes for ice. Then another 45 minutes for some juices that should have been restocked during turndown. 

11 hours ago, DarSmile said:

I was also wondering if anyone knows if Meraviglia DB YC rooms have a sofa for third person? 

Yes, but few.  There are 10 or 12 cabins that do. They are connecting rooms.

11 hours ago, jbfg8r said:

Why would you get a an NCL credit card when you can get a card from Chase or AMEX and get 3-4 times the sign-up bonus.  Even if the cash out is a poor value compared to using it at travel partners its better than $250.  I mentioned this from experience getting an NCL and Celebrity card last year and then realizing what a bad idea it was.

Your use of the points may be the reason it appears poor.

Only upgrades are valuable with this card. Everything else is lousy.

Also cruises of a week or less are also not a great value.

 If you take a repo cruise (21 night), book an inside and double upgrade, your saving $1000+ per person for 60,000 points. 

10 hours ago, kismetique said:

I've been reading and trying to figure these cross meta and meta upgrades out.  I've never done this type of upgrade.  We usually just book the suite we want and be done with it.

 

I'm planning a B2B2B2B cruise and I understand each segment needs to be upgraded on it's own, that's not a problem.  I have 176,000 points.  I have a couple of scenarios to ask about.

 

If I book an O4, can I use 30,000 points to upgrade to a B4, then use another 10,000 to go up 2 categories to the Aft Balcony?  If that would work I'd have enough points to do that on all 4 segments.

 

If that is not permissible, I'm sailing in May this year.  We're in the Garden Villa - does that pull any weight when booking 4 cruises on the ship? 

 

My problem is - even through these 4 cruises are over a year out - one of them shows to only have 1 aft balcony left.  Can I book the actual cabins I want in order to secure the aft balcony then re-book when I'm on the ship to get the 1 category upgrade to help me secure the aft balcony? Or is there absolutely no way to get into an aft with points, other than by fluke when they do allow it? 😊

 

If I have this strategy all wrong - can someone help me?  I like to map things all out on paper before I make the calls to make the reservations. Thanks for any help, suggestions, or ideas!

Aft is out of the question.

Max upgrade is to a BA. Aft is in it's own category above Balcony.

Yes each segment requires a separate upgrade.

 Garden villa pulls no weight.

You Are no longer allowed to difference in cost upgrade either. (Point up to a BA and pay difference for aft) your cost basis is the O4 in you example.

59 minutes ago, pward928 said:

I am new to MSC and my family and I are sailing the Mediterranean cruise in June '24 on Splendida. We've booked most of the shore excursions through the cruise line, but don't know if we should book a private tour in Athens or if the MSC one is good. I can't find any reviews on their shore excursions and I don't know who to ask questions to. Does MSC do "Skip-the-line" tickets so we'd only have to wait in the queue to enter Acropolis? Their descriptions says "don't let the long lines scare you" or something like that. It worries me that of the 7.5 hour shore excursion, we will be spending half of it in lines.  Also, does the entrance to Acropolis have a guide that enters with you? It says you have to return the headphones at the end of your tour, but I have no idea what that even involves or where we'd even use them. 

 

The other option we have is to book a private tour with "skip-the-line" tickets where it would be just my party. I can't decide if that is better or if the MSC excursion would be better. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

 

thanks!

Cattle excursions are not our favorite.

 Several months ago with MSC we walked off to the taxi stand and just hired a driver for the day to take us to a list of stops we wrote down in advance.

 We saw everything.

 Lines were a 20 minute wait at the acropolis. Everything else was almost done.

4 hours ago, IAcruising said:

 

With respect, you're forgetting the original statement by zqvol that I quoted,

 

"Most people ... don’t want to sail there {Haven} even if they can afford it."

 

That just seems absurdly false to me.

 

I would not want to sail any other way than Haven. Just don't like the Prima class.

Never again.  Haven is no longer the little area. They added so many rooms to it.

 No special feel to it.

No dance floors for Ballroom.

Reservations for everything. Sid Normans capacity is a joke.

 Small buffet

Weird food court.

Haven lounge bar is so small. Other haven lounge areas are also odd being sectioned.

Butlers are useless as they have to many rooms. 

Outside deck areas we also useless.

We sailed Iceland and Norway in September.

18 hours ago, SoloAlaska said:

Supposedly the system doesn’t allow you past 99. So no limit really but more of a computer programming thing (think Y2K fears). 

Are you sure?. On a week cruise we each average over 100 drinks.

 We did a 40 night (one booking number) and we consumed 1210 drinks combined.

 Yes we are really thirsty.😁

27 minutes ago, SeasideMemories said:

Hmmmmm… We did not receive a paper that said the service charge does not cover the Butler in YC for our cruise that we took in December. I also can’t find anything on the website that says this! In fact the website says individual tipping is discouraged. Not that we really used our butler for anything but just curious if they are really not included in the daily service fee.

 

That being said, we did tip extra for our butler, assistant butler and a few in the YC lounge. 

I was on Seashore last month and I got it.

 I am on Seascape in a week and a half and I will snap a picture.

 It was on the paper for getting ready to disembark.

1 hour ago, Morgsmom said:

Regular YC balcony cabin. 

I just looked at our old Davina pictures and we also had a tub.

3 hours ago, Mark_T said:

I know with the level of service provided, pretty much everyone is going to want to tip extra, but keep in mind it is ‘extra’, officially no additional tipping is expected over the service charge, even for your butler. 
 

We always do tip extra regardless as the service really does excel, but it should be because you want to, not because you believe it is required. 

I should have been clearer. You are correct.

I always get the paper at the end of the cruise regarding the tipping and it always states your butler is not covered under the service charge