CruisingFox27

Thank you, that's very useful and confirms the information I'd found online regarding cost. Where I couldn't be certain how up to date it was. It's certainly not the most convenient of airport to port routes, but I guess it could be worse.

Correct. The restaurant and your dining time are confirmed once you've boarded. The details will be on your card. And as outlined in above posts, if you wish to make changes visit the restaurant to request.

I had misread your sail date as June instead of July, hence my past tense and thinking you'd already sailed 🤦‍♀️ We're flying direct to Trieste, as the logistics of getting from Venice seemed expensive or difficult, as we'll have a considerable luggage collection for the repositioning itinerary. I look forward to hearing how your cruise went and the Trieste embarkation.

Is that a recent removal from the TV? I know I've looked our account up previously on Divina, Splendida and Orchestra. I didn't have cause to look when we were on Iirica.

All of the options we've looked at have no drinks or the PE. Unless you're looking at one of the longer repositioning itineraries. We're just booking the Trieste to Durban repo for October, that doesn't have a drinks option available.

The Solun. It looks quaint. Did you fly to Trieste?

Computer glitch? Looking at the port schedules, Splendida is showing as expected in Mykonos on 14th October. Nothing for Santorini on that date.

Anytime dining is only Aurea experience and Yacht Club.

We didn't disembark our April sailing until 12pm. We were in Malaga. But, assuming you're on a multi embarkation sailing, it'll be fine. If you're YC, advise your butler that you intend to stay until 12pm, they'll arrange storage of your cabin bag and escort you when you're ready to disembark.

My question regarding embarking in Trieste was for @michelle028 as she said they did. Booking.com has offered my a very good selection of hotels and I have found a lovely one near to the port. We've always found most of Italy to be old, it all adds to the charm.

We are embarking Splendida in Trieste in October, how did you find it? Trieste not Splendida, we've sailed on her 3 times so know she is lovely 🙂 Did you fly to Trieste or Venice?

On our April cruise in Europe, the pool deck smoking area was only ever half full at most and half of those people were vaping, so no smoke emissions. And the casino area was never smoky. It was our first trip to Europe since 2020, we stayed post cruise too, and it was noticeable that far fewer people were smoking. Obviously, until your on board you're not going to know the smoking habits of your fellow passengers. A lottery along with if they are a well mannered bunch or there are unruly children.

A few months ago the computer system seemed to change to show any bookings as "dining preference not set". Ours suddenly changed but we received our preferred dining time once onboard. The MSC ships are fantastic, their computers, not so much.

Not paying for an experience level and expecting the benefit of it is more than a little unfair imo. And using up space in the restaurant that restricts space for those passengers who have actually paid for the privilege.

You'll have a breakfast menu card in your cabin, you complete it and hang on the door handle the previous evening. You just select the items required, coffee, juice, pastries etc are free of charge, along with delivery. And it'll be delivered to your cabin at the time you've selected.

We've always received a statement on the last evening.

We asked about this option on a sailing once, the concierge offered to call the excursion desk and that was the sum total of it 😂

I've only seen Heineken zero as the alcohol free beer option. And I've never noticed an alcohol free wine either.

I can't say we've ever experienced anything like this on any of our Aurea experience sailings. We've never been given a set time to arrive. We do always advise on the first evening a time window we'll likely be arriving each evening out of courtesy. On a couple of occasions we've arrived to dinner and a table wasn't immediately available and have been asked to wait 10 our 15 minutes.... so we've just waited with another cocktail in the bar, oh the stress of cruising 🤣🥂

Aurea suite bookings have priority boarding. It's not related to boarding time specifically but that you have a separate queue to check in. And yes, one of the restaurants will have an area which is exclusively for Aurea Anytime dining.

Aurea experience passengers have Anytime dining, there's no fixed time.

We'd always sailed in a balcony cabin but tried a YIN. It was definitely worth it. There's so much space to enjoy in YC we didn't miss the balcony. If you're booking during a busy holiday period the tranquility of YC is wonderful. We've sailed a selection of YC and non YC cruises. Non YC is not terrible at all, we've always enjoyed our time onboard. Although, we do only sail outside of school holidays.

It really does depend on the ship and capacity. The larger, new ships may have 3 sittings of they're at capacity and the different restaurants may have slightly different seating times. On our April Med cruise we were on a smaller ship which only had 2 dining times. Early was at 6pm and late was at 9pm.

Our most recent cruise they used the wording Gala and Elegant on the daily planner and other onboard documents. Irrespective, they're all really the same words to describe the evening. And, as previously stated it's recommended but not compulsory to wear formal/elegant/gala outfits.

It's named Elegant Night, where the suggested dress code is formal. But it's obviously not Cunard et al so it's not compulsory to wear a tux or make an effort.