jame_g

On the ships that I've been on, there was soft serve available to everyone most (but not all) afternoons (~ 2:00 or 3:00-5:00pm) somewhere on the ship. However, it was not self-serve. You had to stand in line for someone to serve you. On Meraviglia, they had several soft serve flavors available in the pool area just before the entrance to the buffet. On Seashore and Seascape, only Vanilla and Chocolate were available (I think one day they had strawberry instead of chocolate) at the dessert station in the very back of the buffet.

Make sure that both you and your travelling companion have your VC number linked to the reservation. I always have to call a couple days after the reservation is made to have my spouse's VC number added. Once added, the OBC should display on the booking confirmation. (They should send a new one, plus you can access it from your online account.)

Here's a Drink Package Comparison Chart that will give you some idea of the brands that MSC carries. Not sure that MSC always keeps this updated, and it may vary some depending on ship and itinerary and availability. It doesn't tell you what the well brands are. (It will likely be one of the "lower" brands on the list, although not guaranteed.) But it should be fairly accurate for the Plus package you asked about.

I had to switch from Edge to Chrome. I get lots of errors on Edge, although I'm still typically able to get into my account. But if I want to search for a cruise to book, I have to go to Chrome because Edge gets an error if I try to open or book a specific cruise from the results. Been this way for a couple months now.

Yikes. The cruise I booked for Jan 2025 just a few days ago literally doubled in price! I guess that's one way to make up for the sale price because it still comes out higher.

I've done it previously when booking online, so it was set up to do so. The FAQ even indicates how to do it when booking online. The option just hasn't been appearing the last couple days (at least).

When I go to book a cruise more than 180 days out, the website FAQs still say I should be able to apply a full pay discount. However, when I try to do a booking, I'm not getting the option to do this on the summary page anymore. It will still let me just do a deposit or do a full payment, it just doesn't give the option to apply the full pay discount. Anyone else encountering this? Is it a problem or recent change?

The price I paid for a cruise booked a couple weeks ago is exactly the same price as what I see under the Black Friday deal. (For some cruise lines, the black Friday deal is only actually a deal for "last minute" cruises that still have significant openings or cruises farther out that don't seem to be selling well for some reason.) I've heard rumblings that with MSC, their end of year sale may actually be better than the black Friday sale. Just no guarantees.

Usually just a small amount of additional OBC ($25) and maybe a reduced deposit. There may also be a price guarantee that you can rebook one time if you find a lower price after booking onboard. Sometimes they may run an additional promotion to actually give more OBC, but even that may vary by what cruise (date, ship/itin) or category you book. I just booked YC onboard and got an additional $200 OBC for my cruise for booking onboard because they had an active promotion.

Here are some pictures of YCP suite (Deluxe Grand) on the SeaScape. Only one is the closet. There's also a standard closet across from the bathroom with a full length mirror next to it, in addition to the walk-in closet. Plus another closet with the robe and slippers plus some drawers and shelves between the balcony and minibar.

19018 does have a walk-in closet. Very nice. The on-board cruise consultant stated that when you book for two, the default Deluxe Grand Suite assigned will not have a walk-in closet. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's what she claimed when we booked a Deluxe Grand with her and asked for a suite with a walk-in closet. We got 19014 for that booking. (Which means you only get a walk-in closet if you book for 3 people, book for two and choose a different cabin to one you know has the walk-in closet, or if all the cabins without a walk-in closet are already booked when booking for two).

Did anyone else get this email? I suspect it was sent by accident since it obviously has missing info and references black friday which is still a month away. Unfortunately it's not letting me share the attachment.

History does not back up this statement. Groups of cruise tourists have been robbed at gun point on excursions in various Caribbean ports, including Jamaica, many times over the past 10-20 years. Entire tour groups or bus loads held up at once and it hasn't stopped cruise lines from visiting yet. All they usually do is cancel a specific tour. While this doesn't happen regularly, people need to be aware, alert, and should be cautious about bringing more than needed and obvious theft targets off the ship. Not trying to scare people, but empty assurances aren't helpful.

So far, depending on the ship, I've found soft-serve available to all passengers at no additional charge for a period of a couple hours in mid to late afternoon. Most days but not all. Either at a dessert station on one side in the back of the marketplace buffet, or at an outside station between the buffet and pool.

That's just a "discount" to purchase a specialty dining package pre-cruise. It doesn't mean being able to book them for free.

If it's more than a couple weeks, follow up with another email. Include the original information or copy of the original email. When I had an issue, I had to follow up with a second email after not getting a response in 3-4 weeks. Then I got a prompt response.

There are some "excursions" that may be limited to Yacht Club, but you'll also pay a premium price for them, they aren't really something included. Like the YC Cabanas, a YC ship tour, or a private limo excursion for a group. $$$$$ Also, we upgraded from an Aurea aft suite overlooking the adult pool area. But MSC and their upgrade vendor screwed up the upgrade even after billing us for it. (not much of a discount over booking YC directly either). So we were forced to take the original room. Halfway through the cruise corporate verified the error and told them to move us. While we enjoy the YC benefits and have sailed twice since in YC, the actual switch in rooms was a disappointment. That aft suite was sweet and the YC room suite really wasn't any improvement. We almost refused the upgrade after being in the aft suite, especially since the cruise was already half over. But MSC did eventually make it right and we got a satisfactory refund a few weeks after the cruise.

We did the Mera in March, and while there were a couple tents set up for shade, it didn't provide much shaded space for people unless you were one of the few lucky ones to find an open spot. There wasn't nearly enough shaded space for the guests, especially during any busy times. They needed more shaded space. I found the SeaShore to be better, and I hope the SeaScape is at least the same or even improved.

Our YC bathroom was okay when we boarded the Mera back in March, but was unbreathable before we left port. We had to say something to the cabin steward. They called maintenance to fix it and actually said there was something wrong that they had to correct. After that I think we had a mild odor a couple times during the cruise, but nothing near as bad as that first evening.

Okay, that's what I was hoping!

Why would we each want one on board? My spouse is very unlikely to want to create an account or even turn on his phone while on board. I usually handle any reservations, have charges linked to my account, etc. (And if he does, it will just be twice as much work for me, because I'll still end up doing it all, except having to use two accounts to get it done.)

VV currently has the promotion for booking by Aug 22 and getting $500 per cabin plus up to $600 bar tab for cruises from Miami through Apr 2024. I already have a cruise from Miami booked and fully paid for in January. If I contact them, are they likely to add the bar tab to my existing reservation?

Has anyone heard if they plan to do this, or something similar, on the World America too?

I think I bought cruiseline insurance for the first cruise I booked, after that I always got it through a 3rd party. There are several sites like insuremytrip and squaremouth that let you select the options important to you, and compare coverage and prices. GeoBlue may be another option if you have more than one cruise or out of country trip booked during the year. You can usually get better coverage at a better price. Most Americans should likely be getting medical coverage included in their policy. While some employer policies will cover travelling outside the US, most won't. And neither will Medicare. You should buy and pay for your policy very shortly after making your deposit. Otherwise you probably won't qualify for pre-existing condition coverage, which is probably one of the most important coverages for many people. Most people don't realize all the things that could fall under pre-existing condition coverage and think because they're young and healthy they don't need it. If you get the cruiseline coverage, you likely won't have this unless you pay for your cruise in full at the time of booking.

I always have to call to add my spouse's VC number after the reservation is made. (Mine is always there with the reservation to get the proper pricing.) Then the OBC comes automatically. Never had an issue with this impacting the reservation itself.