Moaningman

This may be of some use:

https://beyondcruise.com/guides/cruise-drinks-package-calculator

Hopefully not a silly question...

Can you hire out tennis rackets and balls on Virtuosa? I'd like to have a game of tennis with my son but don't want to have to take rackets with me. 

2 hours ago, blueone said:

When I click on the link with the upgrade offer, below is exactly what it says regarding the perks you'd get if upgraded to YC (you get them ALL):

 

In just a few clicks, you can submit an offer to upgrade your stateroom on your upcoming cruise.

1. Browse through the stateroom options below and select the amount you're willing to pay for an upgrade to each. Making offers on multiple rooms will increase your chances of getting upgraded, but you'll only ever pay for one upgrade.
2. We'll notify you via email if your request for an upgrade has been approved. If your offer is accepted, you'll be charged for the upgrade. If not, you pay nothing and keep the stateroom you have.
   Offers are priced per person based on two occupants per stateroom for the entire duration of the cruise - only the first and second guest will be charged.
3. In the case of a Winning Bid in “Aurea” or “Yacht Club” Experience. In these cases, the Guests will also be guaranteed all the benefits relative to the new experience. All services that have been purchased and / or prepaid before the Winning Bid event for an upgrade in "Aurea" or "Yacht Club" experience will not be refunded if the same service, of the same or higher quality, is included in the new experience resulting from the Winning Bid.

I think one of the previous replies called it - if you bid for the upgrade you definitely get everything. If you get a free upgrade then there's no guarantee, but chances are you will

4 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

That's a great option nonetheless, but the unique ships category on where I've seen similar offers has been the Meraviglia ones though!... Hope they expand that fleet wide. It makes far more sense to carry on an USB pen than a paper envelope, to say the least!...

Ah, that makes sense as we're on Virtuosa. It's our first MSC cruise so we're still learning

21 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Nice review of an unusual topic. Congrats. Hope you have had a nice time! Can you report a little bit more? Were you in YC?

 

It surprises me that they remain selling paper photos in 2022, really! How I understand your 2 very sensitive caveats on that. It would to be easy for them to have some digital kiosks for guests to see the photos and to print only the ones they want, or simply to deliver them on a personalised USB pen.

 

Have a nice day!

There's an option now to buy all of them digitally - we've preordered the package for £87. Considering the amount that normally get taken I think that sounds reasonable 

17 hours ago, nadge said:

Many thanks.

 

Now - any idea how to see that after the cruise has been booked ?

Do you have a copy of the booking confirmation? I booked direct with MSC in the UK and it shows on the passenger detail on the confirmation

2 hours ago, Nuttz4Sports said:

I leave on the Seashore in just a couple of days and I also have been unable to get a status match.  I have been informed by their customer service that their status match site is down and they have been working to fix the issues.  I emailed the Voyager and Customer service folks and provided all of the info required, but they told me they cannot process over email and I must complete the form on their site. However, until they fix the site, you cannot get to their form.  I have tried to submit on several of their international sites and I can see the form and fill it out, but cannot submit it. 

That does sound a nightmare! I think I had difficulty submitting the form too from memory, but not sure if I changed anything or if it just worked in the end. 🤞 you get something sorted

2 hours ago, kernow said:

No, only YC can get room service drinks. Just go to the nearest bar and bring the drinks back with you.

Thanks Kernow

7 hours ago, afamnheidi said:

cruising on the seashore July 9th. also having issues finding status match form for my mom. 😞 

Could you email them to ask for an offline copy, or a link that works? From the UK I've found that I do get a response over email, but sometime it just takes a week to ten days

Hi

We're sailing on Virtuosa in August and have a question with regards to room service. 

With the combination of the Aurea experience and Premium Extra drinks package, can we get drinks on room service without charge?

Thanks in advance

3 hours ago, amurray88 said:

👎 That's what I've heard now. I'm a numpty. Oh well, better hope for a negative then!

Well at least it's the right way round - better too cautious. Good luck and hope you have a lovely cruise

1 hour ago, amurray88 said:

I've arranged a video call for my Covid test before boarding MSC. Did I need the video call? I done that with Royal Caribbean but someone just told me I don't need the video call part?

 

Ta!

My understanding is that self tests without the video are okay, if accompanied with a certificate (from thr UK)

2 hours ago, Moaningman said:

Hi Rossco01

 

Thanks for the reply. I know we weren't guaranteed all of the experience - we've got a drinks package already so would have been happy with the access to the YC areas so we don't have to fight for a sun lounger. 

 

The point I'm making is they completely took the upgrade off us so we're no longer in the YC area at all, regardless of experience. 

 

The cabin they have agreed to upgrade us to looks amazing so I am happy with that. We already have a premium drinks package so I had asked of it was possible, to put the issue to bed on both our sides, that we could still just have access to the YC area, mainly the sundeck but restaurant too if possible, but was told we had to ask on ship. I don't believe that this couldn't be arranged before sailing, which is why I emailed Mr Paradiso, just to look into it. 

 

I haven't had a response yet, but didn't want to chase without giving him chance to review and reply - I imagine he's a very busy person.

All sorted now, very happy with the response and outcome

3 minutes ago, Moaningman said:

Hi Rossco01

 

Thanks for the reply. I know we weren't guaranteed all of the experience - we've got a drinks package already so would have been happy with the access to the YC areas so we don't have to fight for a sun lounger. 

 

The point I'm making is they completely took the upgrade off us so we're no longer in the YC area at all, regardless of experience. 

 

The cabin they have agreed to upgrade us to looks amazing so I am happy with that. We already have a premium drinks package so I had asked of it was possible, to put the issue to bed on both our sides, that we could still just have access to the YC area, mainly the sundeck but restaurant too if possible, but was told we had to ask on ship. I don't believe that this couldn't be arranged before sailing, which is why I emailed Mr Paradiso, just to look into it. 

 

I haven't had a response yet, but didn't want to chase without giving him chance to review and reply - I imagine he's a very busy person.

I'm living up to my name aren't I? 🤣

18 minutes ago, Rossco01 said:

You have to be careful as others have said between an Upgrade you've paid for and one where you've simply been moved to a YC cabin. We had a similar situation on our booking recently where my sister in laws family were booked into a two bed suite (Aurea) and then received a new booking confirmation that their cabin had been changed to YC cabin as MSC wanted to retain the two bed suite for potential COVID situations. The booking was very clear Cabin Grade YC and Experience was still Aurea. 

 

Whilst I suspect as others have said that they would probably get YC experience for most parts, I have no doubt their experience would probably be coded as Aurea on their cruise card (which might limit some things). In the end they chose to "upgrade" their cruise experience to YC to avoid any potential issues. Interestingly this took a long long time as clearly the MSC system couldn't deal with it (as the original change had been made by MSC) and it had to be escalated internally...in the end they received the YC experience for no extra charge (that said we have an additional two cabins on this booking that were already YC so that may have played a part). They now have a booking that confirm both cabin and experience are YC.

 

They key thing is to check your booking documentation and see what it says.

Hi Rossco01

Thanks for the reply. I know we weren't guaranteed all of the experience - we've got a drinks package already so would have been happy with the access to the YC areas so we don't have to fight for a sun lounger. 

The point I'm making is they completely took the upgrade off us so we're no longer in the YC area at all, regardless of experience. 

The cabin they have agreed to upgrade us to looks amazing so I am happy with that. We already have a premium drinks package so I had asked of it was possible, to put the issue to bed on both our sides, that we could still just have access to the YC area, mainly the sundeck but restaurant too if possible, but was told we had to ask on ship. I don't believe that this couldn't be arranged before sailing, which is why I emailed Mr Paradiso, just to look into it. 

I haven't had a response yet, but didn't want to chase without giving him chance to review and reply - I imagine he's a very busy person.

23 minutes ago, Moaningman said:

Hi All

 

Thanks for your replies before. Just an update - I definitely won't be getting YC benefits as they have now downgraded us. Spoke to several different people and got different answers, but in the end they are suggesting it was because I requested it (hmmmm).

 

After several calls they refuse to reinstate to YC. They have offered a compromise, which is a really nice cabin, but it still has left me feeling quite bitter about the whole experience. 

 

I got Antonio Paradiso's contact details off here and sent him an email asking to look into, but that was 2 weeks ago and not had even an acknowledgement yet - has anyone else had any experience of how long it should take to get a reply, even if the reply is a flat "not interested"?

By "requested it" I mean they are saying that I requested to move back to my original cabin

Hi All

Thanks for your replies before. Just an update - I definitely won't be getting YC benefits as they have now downgraded us. Spoke to several different people and got different answers, but in the end they are suggesting it was because I requested it (hmmmm).

After several calls they refuse to reinstate to YC. They have offered a compromise, which is a really nice cabin, but it still has left me feeling quite bitter about the whole experience. 

I got Antonio Paradiso's contact details off here and sent him an email asking to look into, but that was 2 weeks ago and not had even an acknowledgement yet - has anyone else had any experience of how long it should take to get a reply, even if the reply is a flat "not interested"?

On 4/29/2022 at 4:02 PM, Belgica2022 said:

Hi All. First post and first cruise with MSC coming up so fingers crossed here..

I found the status match after we'd booked the cruise and after signing up for the MSC Club. Submitted the match for at about 3:30am this morning and had a reply at 9:30am that they'd matched the status! 🥳 Checked my profile and indeed all good. FYI this unbelievably fast response was via the match form on the Belgian website. The match was applied to my existing MSC Club number, rather than creating a new one.

As expected from reading other posts, IHG Platinum was matched to MSC Silver. And in agreement with other posts, I also think that MSC Gold would be more suitably aligned, but suspect no point discussing that further with them.

New to all this so hoping people can help with a couple of questions..
- My wife has Accor Silver, which as far as I can tell they appear to match to MSC Silver as well. Does it make sense to also submit a status match for her MSC club, or does only one person per cabin need the status for the benefits to apply to everyone in the cabin? I assume status is on an individual basis.
- When we earn points for the cruise itself, are they applied to both memberships or just one? And excursions etc purchased online ahead of the cruise? I guess that on ship stuff would apply to the car shown at the time?
- I saw somewhere in all the replies (maybe on another site as haven't found again) that someone appeared to have managed to have MSC apply the 5% discount retroactively to their booking after their status had been matched. Is there any point contacting them about this? Wasn't planning to but if they would apply anything might be worth it.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Not sure if this is too late for you now, but I rang up after getting my status match and they applied to my booking and reissued booking confirmation with the 5% discount

4 minutes ago, kernow said:

Yes it's the premium extra package outside of YC, pretty much every drink we wanted was included all around the ship. The videos are correct, YC is amazing and the staff onboard Virtuosa at the moment are excellent.

That's great to hear - its our first MSC, only really done P&O and RC before (other than my very first one on Sundream I think it was called - great experience but the ship was condemned a few months later 😂)

2 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

My point then, as you probably understand, was that they can deny access to things, not that they normally does.

They've got the option haven't they, but if that did happen I'd argue it wasn't much of an upgrade. I get from that old thread and your comments it's possible, but unlikely. 

The latest terms and conditions for the bid upgrade does now say that if you upgrade to an Aurea or YC grade you get the full experience (point 21 I think). Ive just had the bid email but now they've upgraded me though the only options are a YC duplex or Royal Suite and still too pricey for me unfortunately. That said I don't think I'm going to mind!

3 hours ago, deliver42 said:

I did a bid on the YC from and Aurea balcony on the Seashore. We got everything in the YC experience at the YC. When we left the YC to the rest of the ship, our drink pkg reverted back to what we had booked on Aurea. As long as you're in the YC or the Aurea spa, you have nothing to worry about. Enjoy the experience.

Thanks

We had already purchased the premium extra drinks package as it was included as an option in the fare so think it'll be pretty much the same. 

Been looking at some of the video reviews if the YC experience and it looks amazing

Thanks both, appreciate the prompt answer!

(Sverigecruiser - I saw you were heavily involved in a similar conversation a few years ago too that I had been reading 😀)

Hi Everyone

Sorry if this has been discussed recently, but I'm trying to get a little bit of info on a free upgrade I've just received.  We're sailing on the Virtuosa in August and last night I received a new booking confirmation upgrading us from an aft facing Aurea experience suite, to a YC balcony in the YC area.  I thought I'd give them a call to see why and to make sure I hadn't misunderstood (never have any problems getting through on the phone either, which is a definite plus).  Also, the cabin they had moved us to was an accessible cabin.

However, the person I spoke to advised that while we have the YC cabin, the experience stays the same and we won't have access to any of the YC areas of the ship.  Looking at the posts from a few years ago there seemed to be a mixed response as to if this is what happens when you get on board so was wondering what other people's experiences had been?  If you don't get the experience and access then it almost feels like a downgrade?

Thanks