jmsnyc

25 minutes ago, tdfam2 said:

Costa Fortuna March 15, 2024 13 days

Guadeloupe to Barcelona .

Thank you.  I didnt notice it was in lower right of screenshot

33 minutes ago, tbdb2 said:

Thank you so much!! You have opened my eyes to something quite amazing. That's a $1600 price difference!

What cruise is this? What departure port, how many days, etc?

On 12/19/2022 at 11:42 AM, vandercapellen said:

We have a group booked for April and there is a TC credit. When will that show up on the booking? Can we use that for purchases like cheers packages etc prior to boarding like standard OBC? Will that show up once we board? Once we check in? After final payment? Any guidance is appreciated.

Hi, did you do this as a travel agent or just a regular guest organizing a group?  Is it a minimum of 8 cabins?  I am guessing I should contact the group department to find out.   I am wondering which line is the easiest to deal with NCL, RCCL or Carnival

I was searching the web for details on this, and it seems like they need 16 full fare deposits (8 cabins) within 30 days of group creation.   When I search for cruises, I typically search for discounts and deals that I am not sure would be considered full fare.

Has anyone (non-TA) done groups and is it worth the hassle?

Are there other North American cruise lines other than Royal, that make it easier?

I have some social groups where I could promote a particular sailing so I was considering this

On 1/10/2024 at 9:47 PM, dwc13 said:

 

Ponant offers cruises in North America

https://us.ponant.com/destinations/north-america

 

And in other locations throughout the world.

https://us.ponant.com/cruises

 

Far smaller ships than the large cruise lines. This is not a mass-market experience. 

Their prices look extremely high

1 hour ago, niknot said:

Hi All,

 

It appears that Ponant cruises does not charge solo supplements on at least 110 of their trips. They currently have some offers that include airfare or air credits as well. If you are in the US, use their US website to check them out.

 

At least one excursion is included in each port of call. Free WiFi, non premium drinks are included and so on.

Never heard of them. Do they sail from US?

29 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

I am sorry you were disappointed. It doesn’t sound like Palancar Beach Club that I went to several years ago and  I do understand things change. 
 

Here is the website 

https://playapalancar.com.mx/language/en/servicios-ingles/

 

I don’t see anything about packages. As I said above there was a secondary beach club, Maya Palancar VIP, for a while that didn’t get good reviews,  but I thought it had closed.

That could have been it. They even have a pic of one of the raccoons .It was also $36 taxi from Langosta cruise port for 1 to 4 people. It was not free to enter though the price did include chair and umbrella 

1 hour ago, c-leg5 said:

 

Interesting post format! 

 

I am sorry you find the information posted to be disappointing. I think most posters are only trying to help as @bguppies said.

 

The OP  asked about admission to Palancar. My above post was a quote directly from Palancar Beach Club’s current website (which is considerably updated from years gone by, incidentally) and answers their question specifically. It didn’t really need a recent visitor to answer. I presumed the poster was in port at the time and unaware of the website otherwise they would have seen the information for themselves. I consider the answer was relevant to the question asked and hopefully was useful either to the OP, or a subsequent visitor considering this location.

 

I agree it would have been nice if @jmsnyc  had reported back on their recent experience having asked the question. I am not sure if they were confused about where they were actually trying to go?

 

I also agree that there are a lot of the same questions that are asked repeatedly on these frequently visited ports the answer to which could easily be found by 5 minutes effort browsing the forum or using the search engine, hence the repetitive answers from the same regular posters.

 

If you are looking for recent reviews of specific locations I generally find reviews on TA are usually more up to date. However, as with all things on the internet you will need to determine if they are legitimate. In addition, the local Cozumel forum on TA is very “anti-cruisers”and often contains misleading and erroneous information, in my experience.

 

Unfortunately CC is not the popular resource that it once was. Many new and regular old cruisers share information elsewhere. Do you have a particular location that you are interested in?

Multiple cab drivers instead there was only one Palancar were they took us to a mediocre beach in a private club with $20 free. There was a $45 fee that included 2 drinks and a meal.  The food was mediocre.  There were raccoons all over going on the dirty tables wave begging the waiters for food.  I would not recommend it 

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

I do not doubt your perspective. I tend to agree with life outside the Yacht Club. Never really tried the butter chicken in the Market Place Buffet as we do not do any buffet except this one now on the Explora 1 (MSC), since no one is self serve. I have this belief that there is basically one kitchen on the ship and the butter chicken is prepared there and distributed to the Market place buffet and the Yacht Club restaurant. I find it one of the best dishes on the ship and have it every time it is on the menu. Recommend you try to find another cruise line that suits your palate.

Ironically the butter chicken was one of the few things I liked.   The Indian food was decent (apart from the uncooked naan type bread)  but again there were always lines as there were a lot of Indian people on board....

Just came off an MSC cruise for the first time and noticed they recently started adding a $5 surcharge if you order a 2nd entree.  I can how this cuts down on waste but it was a real turn off because a lot of times I did not like something, I was discouraged from trying something else.   This to me goes against the principle of cruising.

I was wondering if this is a specific MSC thing or if other cruise lines were doing the same 

9 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Ever try tipping in advance ? This university study says it actually was the most popular form of tipping.

 

 

Not sure why you doubt my word.  Tipping would solve about 10% of the crap I experienced on the ship.  Not sure why you love to stick up for MSC - the food in the main restaurants and buffet is crap (YC excluded)  .   If you can't realize that perhaps you are just use to it.

Tons of people I met on the ship also complained about the food being crap.  Its crap.

On 12/21/2023 at 5:39 AM, morpheusofthesea said:

The videos are from our Thanksgiving cruise on Seascape. We leave tomorrow on another MSC Explora Journeys cruise to compare with Seascape Yacht Club. Reading Explora is having problems running out of food items like lamb chops. Read 600 Prima Donnas (I include ourselves in this group) on for Christmas and 500+ for New Years. We might be in the same situation as you are in now with one tenth the number of passengers paying 10 times the price you paid for your cruise. 

P.S. One would think by paying 10 times the price one would not experience the same problems as steerage.

Last nights dinner was the only decent dinner and that was the Captain's Night.   But still service was extremely lacking in the regular dining room - Green Cafe.    Paid the extra $6 surcharge this one night to have the lobster tail and filet - medium rare - the busboy says you can have either medium or rare - still good at rare , but the lobster tail was definitely overcooked like most of their food during the week.    

Very cheap with butter, give 2 piece - takes awhile to get more

Could not get cappuchinos for dessert in any reasonabe time - would order during the meal and would usually have to take 2 or 3 reminders to get it and it usually came after dessert was over.   Drink service was incredibly slow.

I stand by that the buffet was chaotic at almost all times.   And staff was rude.  They run out of ketchup for the fries and the staff was like go look around for it in the other spot which was non-existent - not the first time

no smoked salmon all week for non-YC - "they ran out"

they always put out the proscuitto sparingly vs the other formed meats because I am guessing it costs more - at least I saw it sometimes , unlike the salmon

closed pizza station 1 hour early on last night "they ran out"

Ocean Cay was a beautiful island but chaotic lines too....  buffet and food trucks were both extremely long lines at all lunch times until they closed - and you wait on line and cant even get a drink 

I imagine this is the type of food you get if you go on a cruise company like Margaritaville but would not have imagined it could be this bad from both a service and quality standpoint

And I dont give a crap about YC , because I am comparing general cruising

Looking forward to going home so I can get some decent meals, it is supposed to be the opposite on a cruise

Just to add, I noticed this too.  I was able to book solo 2 weeks prior on a cruise that sold out however many of the cruises I looked at produced a sold out error when I changed number of passengers from 2 to 1

10 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, I dunno, but we've been on full sailings on Oasis class (6K passengers) and never dealt with this level of disorganization and crowds. 

The only times the buffet was a similar zoo was during disembarkation breakfast and embarkation lunch. But - guess what? Oasis class has several other complimentary eateries besides the WJ buffet, unlike Seascape.

Apparently, so do large Carnival ships, despite being 3.5K passenger vessels.

 

So, yes, MSC may charge a bit less, but you get a lot less than you do on other lines. And no - don't tell me that MSC has super low prices, because that's definitely not the case.

Yes, thank you for the dose of reality. We are in an MSC sub so it's not surprising there are a lot of cheerleaders here

5 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

This thread make me feel I am a genius. All my MSC cruises I saw big crowds but never when I was at this point. Maybe I should share my secret with you, when there is a long lone for example at the carving station, I don´t go  in that line but grab a salad, a slice of pizza, something from the ethnic corner...

 

It is not meant that everyone coming to the buffet joins a long long line that passes all stations. The word "station" says it all 😄

There are still no tables available.... You usually have to take dirty ones where you have to find a place to put someone's dirty dishes that the staff haven't had a chance to clean up yet and eat on a  dirty table

constant people bumping and running into each other

I've had other issues too.   Drain backed up in shower, bathroom smells like urine probably related to drain backup, issues with laundry service.... The list can go on.  No tissues, wash clothes in cabins. Yeah, I'm pointing out the negatives but that's how this thread started.  The OP asked if it's chaotic and crazy as the video.   Well , maybe not for people in YC in their exclusive areas but in general the answer from my experience, on day 6 of the cruise, is a resounding YES

Also yes I acknowledge their are factors that make it worse, like bad weather, and return from ports but I blame that on the ship for not being able to handle the capacity.   On return from Ocho Rios everyone went to buffet but most of the stations were closed

Would I do MSC again?  That depends.   Id have to compare YC prices to other cruise lines because I don't think I'd do Fantastica or lower again regardless of price.   From doing the cruise I've realized that apart from YC, MSC is the budget line of cruising.

27 minutes ago, peder said:

You're not the only one that's sailed on a completely full Seascape

Yeah... Will on my cruise the buffet is full during all lunch hours and breakfast hours after 8am....   Anyone that tells me otherwise it's flat out wrong because I've checked multiple times

People are posting videos of other sailings that likely were not sold out.

I agree with the YouTube poster references in the OP, it is chaotic

Not sure what you are trying to prove wrong facts I am witnessing first hand this week....

6 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

My videos prove otherwise.

Are you on a cruise at the moment?

17 hours ago, peder said:

And seat selection shouldn't be charged for basic economy on an airplane. Just the way it is.

 

But at least in my experience, for near identical staterooms and itineraries, Royal would cost my family 2-3x as much, and even with the nickel and diming we're still way ahead with MSC.

A plane and a cruise are two completely different things so I find it irrelevant -  this would be more like comparing Delta's economy vs AA's economy - for the most part they are similar, Royal's economy is vastly superior to MSC's economy   -  not disagreeing that Royal would cost 3x more though - if I ever did MSC again I would have to do a restaurant package and Yacht Club - at that point the prices might be more comparable - and I would definitely be willing to pay more for Royal if it was not much different at the time

11 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Here are 3 occasions that we walked through the Market Place Buffet 1 is breakfast every day at 7am and the other 2 were the lunch buffet.....the buffets are not busy IF one times them properly.

BUFET B.MOV BUFET L.MOV BUFET L1.MOV

 are on my current cruise at the moment ???   The buffet is always crowed at lunch...  only time is when it is  closed apart from pizza and burgers then "sometimes" it is less crowded....  Yeah 7am might be not crowded , but that is a super inconvenient time for many people and is useless with respect to lunch or dinner - so I would argue that the food sucks in the inclusive restaurants and the buffet is overcrowded....   I stand by my original post - my cruise is sold out though

worst food be far of any cruise ship - Carnival even blows this away

2 drivers both said they started charging recently, looks like 20 a person entrance

Is this true or is driver taking us to beach club, not free Beach?

2 hours ago, bundtkate said:

I found NCL to have the worst MDR, personally, but we've only sailed NCL once so it's hard to say if that's the norm. Luckily, my husband and I were in the Haven and didn't have to eat in the MDR, but we tried to join our friends and family a few times to socialize during dinner (they were in regular balconies) and it was, in my 1990s parlance, pretty gnarly. We eventually learned to grab dinner in the Haven (which had fantastic food) before or after and just have salad with our friends since the Caesar was pretty safe (even if I did miss the whole anchovies the Haven restaurant added). The Local was also a pleasant surprise. The Reuben (with extra dressing) was always lovely.

MSC Splendida wasn't far ahead, but was saved by pasta which was always good to great. We enjoyed the food on MSC Meraviglia, but that was September 2021 and I don't think you can count experiences at 25% capacity. RCCL has always been acceptable, but inconsistent (which is supposedly MSC motto) with MDR food ranging from okay to great across 7ish cruises.

In my experience, you can find something decent on any ship, it just takes some experimentation. NCL was easy mode with the Haven, but The Local would have been more than adequate were we in gen pop. On Splendida we learned that the MDR pasta was always available in the buffet so started skipping the long MDR slog with slow drink service and grabbing pasta at the buffet when we felt like it. Even if the MDR was a fail on RCCL, Sorrento's is alright and if you're on an Oasis class ship, the hot dog place is surprisingly good (smoked sausage on an everything bun -- yummy).

I'm not much of a pasta eater. Pasta is the cheapest thing a cruise can provide.    Not one thing I have tried in the mdr on the seascape had been good.  Nothing enjoyable.   Everyone seems super buget. The apps are cold, and uninspring, the meat is tough and low quality, the fish over cooked, desserts also uninspring. Drink service especially slow.   No shrimp or lobster bisques, instead you get gumbo crap

1 hour ago, peder said:

 

Agreed, but also just a matter of finding the right times and right food items. If you can time things so you're not there at rush, you can basically have the buffet to yourself, and the selection of meats, cheese, fruit, bread, and pizza all tend to be very good.

 

Also the prices at Hola and Venchi are very reasonable, same with the sushi conveyor belt. Can make the entire trip a lot more enjoyable if you drop in to these places.

My cruise is sold out.   The buffet is crowded all times so there is no timing it.   The conveyor belt didn't look so good and the sushi sits on those plates quite a long time

I just think tacos should not be surcharged.  It may not be the same now but I remember Johnny Rockets on Royal included

Yacht Club is likely much better experience but I would not know.  I'm use to the standard dining on cruise line and MSC is by far the crapiest.  But to be fair I haven't been on Carnival or RCL or NCl since before Covid

27 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Some times you have to search for them like rubber ducks.

Specials Bar Drinks are NOT everyday nor at every bar. Sometimes one has to search the bars.

 

(Also listed in that elusive Daily Planner. It makes good reading.)

Sunday  Traditional Long Island & Magic Island

  All bars

 

Monday Absolute Cosmo & Fruit Smoothie

 

Tuesday All cocktails 20% off 10pm-midnight

   Marina Pool Bar

 

Wednesday All Margaritas 20% off 8pm-10pm 

   Uptown Lounge

   Cocktail of the day Frozen Toberone & 

   Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri All Bars

Don't care about discounts on drinks as I have the package. Was referring to restaurants.   It's basically like you posted.   39 for sushi 45 min.... 99 for two, butcher and teppanaki, add 10 to get Taco place onto of the 99.  155 if you want Ocean whatever in addition.  Plus 20 percent gratuity

They also have a shellfish special 120 for 2 plus 20 percent but doesn't include app or dessert

Overall I think the food is crap unless you pay extra or perhaps if you are in YC

Haven't watched the video but YES.. It is chaotic.  The buffet is overcrowded and lines are unbearable.  Tough to find a table.   Have to sit at dirty tables and move food to window sill.   Never msc again!

And the food is crap compared to every other cruise I've been on

And I'm posting while on board the Seascape