perakcruiser

MSC has shuttles to town centers at these three ports. For the Christmas markets these shuttles are probably much more useful than the excursions.

Costa Maya, the port where you either booked an excursion or prefer to stay in your inside cabin the whole day. And I am talking not about a YC inside 😄 It was so horrible already with two smaller ships (one was the Armonia), I cannot imagine that place with four big ships.

They also have never any offers for the internet packages or upgrading them in the planners. With MSC usually everything is much much more expensive on board than beforehand. The offers in the planners are mostly shop items that cannot be bought in advance. USD 195 for 10 days spa access on Seashore seems to be a correct price. "Good deals" are usually only available on old ships (where I would not pay for the spa, even it is half of that amount) and longer cruises.

I remember seeing many interlopers at this station. Of cause this entrance door cannot block them and staff did not seem to care 😄

They do never offer deals for spa access in the planners. Spa access is very expensive on board or not sold at all. Usually 2 times entrance is already more expensive than the cruise pass bought before.

I have also ordered a second entree from time to time, especially no appetizer/soup/salad, but a pasta and a fish/meat dish. Which is the traditional Italian dinner, so I think there will be quite a shitstorm in southern Europe for them. On the other hand many people order too much and this is not good. But that is also because the size of the dishes is unpredictable. Sometimes very small, sometimes so big that you would not need any other course. For me it is not a big thing, if I really leave one night the restaurant not full, the buffet is always available. Just hope that MSC keeps the food improvements from the last two years.

Not incidentally. The very cheap incentive price that is offered to TA comes with the condition that the operator can do whatever he wants. So your brother was actually lucky that he only got his cabin moved and not the whole trip cancelled as Celebrity could make a very good use of his cabin on a sold out ship.

Usually it is the other way, people book from MSC UK even they are not from UK. The fares include everything, the service charge, even water and coffee. Normally when you see cheaper prices on other MSC sites there are big disadvantages. And before Brexit thanks to EU laws the cruise lines were not allowed to restrict offers and bookings for certain countries. Now things are different and you probably don´t want to give up the consumer rights of your country. In case of a dispute you have to settle with MSC in the country you have booked. Which already means that no English will be included in any conversation if booked anywhere except US, UK, Ireland and Singapore 😄

Your need to provide much more details. How many pax for example.

The Baltics cruise can get boring much faster than the Med cruises. But for first visits they have great ports. Unfortunately MSC not goes to the Baltic states and St Petersburg is not on the menu for at least 2024. But if the price is good I would not hesitate to book. The port MSC calls Berlin is one where the train stops more or less at the gangway to the ship, I love this.

Extremely safe, they need to bring the ship to Hamburg for it´s winter route 😄 Advice for the ship for your mothers situation is probably too late as you have booked already. Perfect would be a cabin on a higher deck in the back of the ship, because then you are close to the buffet. That can be a long walk on the Euribia. Deck 14 is best. As it is a cruise with different ports for embarking and disembarking it will not be full, maybe they will allow you to chance (if you have Fantastica or higher).

As a local told me in Qatar many years before, one must understand that the guys at airport immigration always have bad mood, they are the only citizens who actually have to work, all other work is done by foreigners 😄

Yes, if you don´t have a "base" in Europe for your intercontinental luggage then it not makes much sense. For us a short Ryanair trip when on holiday in Europe is almost a tradition already, including the scratch cards and the luggage worries 😄

Totally annoying. But not unusual. The US lines in Europe also advertise the OBC in Euro and then convert it to USD with an exchange rate that has not much to do with reality. Hard to take for us Malaysians who are crazy about money exchange and usually fight for the third digit behind the point 😄

And public transport from/to the airport stopped also, that was the most fascinating thing. We are also in Haifa on a cruise this year, thankfully on a Thursday. When the cruise lines make their schedules they really should not bring their guests to Israel on Shabbat. On the other hand of cause that makes the demand for ship tours growing a lot 😄 Ramadan in Istanbul is of cause the super light version ...

Oh no, there is a big market meanwhile for "ryanair cabin bags" (check Amazon UK) as many other European airlines (or almost all) have adopted the same rules now. I am a proud owner meanwhile and will go with my next Ryanair flight the first time only with the free small hand luggage. The kids also, but my wife and mom both certainly need the full specs checked in and even carry on 😄 Yes, there are much more relaxed and friendly now, they annouced it as "friendlier and cuddlier so that people love Ryanair even more" some years before. Last January I had a trip with two friends and one of them broke the rules for his paid big and his free small hand luggage quite spectacularly. We were sure that they will never let him go thru, but they did. Both ways 😄 But I am not so brave, same like you, knowing the prices they ask at the gate for nonconformists I do not want to take the risk. Still witnessing many dramas at the gate, but not as much as before. True. Also took me some time to find out that this is cheaper.

Yes, but even before you could ask to get the card instead of the stamp. Things have changed dramatically. Israel tourists can go to UAE and Bahrain and during the WC also to Qatar. I was thinking some time over this and I really wonder what contact with gov officials one could have there except the moment they stamp your passport at immigration. By the way, as a tourist I found life much more difficult in Israel on a Shabbat that during Ramadan in muslim countries.

Yes, Trieste gets much more cabins allocated than Bari and the other ports. You have not been to Europe if you haven´t been on a Ryanair flight 😄 And the trains in Italy are very cheap if you book online well in advance.

I don´t think there is any region that is more safe. For any faith.

Oh, I did not know this, I did not book a package with them. It is a little bit annoying that I need to decide the day now without knowing the dinner menu of that day.

Traditionally the demand for specialty dining is extremely low on MSC (and other European lines). A couple of years before I thought if they had any guest the whole evening as they were always completely deserted. That has changed (sometimes), status match to diamond, butchers cut and more US pax are the reason. If one day "fully booked" becomes a topic at dining or spa, then MSC maybe will follow Celebrity's example.

Certainly MSC needs to fully pay for the airline tickets. Every cruise line. Recently had a Celebrity cruise with a date change, they offered to pay my air tickets or be happy and take OBC.

Celebrity scaled back and MSC has improved the food. That´s a fact, not opinion. On the other hand Celebrity has sometimes great prices in the Med that rival or even undercut MSC.

No, your rate is fixed.

I just hope they don't give up any old ship. And certainly I want to see them attack the Germans and RCCL in South East Asia 😄