perakcruiser

No matter if YC or "normal", I would be surprised if MSC loses any staff to US lines, presume it goes the other way.

Certainly this is the worst idea because you just take the money away from some cruise members and give it all to a few. With no reason. This is why individual tipping is not "recommended" by MSC and the other cruise lines, they have all the hassle to reduce the salary for the tip winner and increase for tip losers.

You definitely did, thanks! Great! So I worked thru the menus to find out which evenings I should book a speciality restaurant for nothing. Even made some notes 😄 Usually with cruises on other lines these restaurants are not frequented too much and it is never a problem to get a table. But with these Celebrity hundreds of $$$ OBC offers things will be different of cause.

After having lost me about 10 years before (mainly to MSC), Celebrity has caught me back with a quite good offer on the good olde Infinity. It included a vast amount of onboard credit that needs to be spent now. Probably mostly on wine and coffee, but also on some speciality restaurants. 1) Are these open only for dinner? I am talking about Petit Chef, the Tuscan Grill I booked already for dinner. 2) MDR is only open for lunch on sea days, right? The menu in the app for our cruise is only available for dinner, so I wonder if it will be open for lunch at all. 3) Our cruise is longer than 7 days, the menu in the app only shows these 7 days. Will it repeat after that? Overall I could complain that the menu is rather disappointing, no Tuna or other "high end" fish, no Filet Milgnon, no Seafood special, not even duck breast, which I remember as excellent even after more than 10 years. I do not complain as the price was right, but I understand now the many angry posts on the forum 😄

I am also searching for a hotel in Athens pre cruise now, have to say that to my surprise Athens is very cheap, with this prices Celebrity makes definitely more money than with the cruise price 😄

Well, it is the cruise lines that use or used a loop-hole for their advantage with the service charge. Actually in most European countries it was not a loop-hole, it was illegal. So they were sued by consumer protection organisations (and they sued each other, MSC sued Costa for their service charge), now it is included in the cruise price as it should.

The "topic" changes everyday. Cruises from/including Southampton have more Indian food, in the Med less.

That is so popular in Europe you even can buy it in cans in the supermarkets. It is my favorite drink for Aperitivi when in Italy.

It is very simple, the DSC is mandatory in almost all of MSC markets, you cannot remove it even if a staff member beats you or your kids😄 And it is listed in the final price already at the booking. There is one big exception, that is the US market. Here MSC follows the local practice of advertising a fake price that has nothing to do with reality, DSC is missing, taxes and fees are missing. That is plain stupid, but seems to be legal in the US. So the cruise lines have these "low" prices. There is only one reason why MSC is doing this, because probably US pax mostly are not deleting the DSC even if they could. For the staff it makes no difference, if the US pax would start to delete the DSC, MSC has to compensate and would anyway immediately make it mandatory also for this market.

This bus if you go from airport: https://kielius-onlinebuchung.de/ This bus if you go from town center: https://global.flixbus.com/

Clear call for me, if you like sea days take the Poesia, if you like seeing places take the Splendida. Her itinerary is amazing.

It is different, but some dishes are everywhere on the menu.

The Splendida is older than the app. So the menus are posted in the old way 🙂

This is a lie. But probably he don't even know how exactly his salary is sourced from, he just knows the amount MSC pays him.

Yes, but this is not a topic anymore as basically no guests except the US pax can delete or reduce the DSC. totally different than 3 years before when half of the ship deleted it reduced. At this time they certainly had to find a way that it not effects the crews salary which by the way is quite good at MSC.

I do not agree with you 😁 Regular price is 2796 CAD, so this sale with 1556 is a good price and I am pretty sure it never will get cheaper. Minimal maybe. Other sales will come for sure, but don´t expect you can get more than 50% off, I am following this for years already. I did it one time by booking two weeks before departure, but again, in Pentecost week there will be no last minute offers. Nowadays MSC can sell many cruises with the regular price and even raise the regular price when the ship is almost full. I have seen prices for INSIDE cabins in the last weeks so high I never thought this is possible. Yes, when you are flexible and go totally off season, we live in a totally different world in November, but there certainly also the regular prices are lower already.

Sure in October and November the chances for a better deal are much higher. But I am pretty sure that there is almost no chance to a get a balcony on Seaview during Pentecost for substancially cheaper than $1535 CAD. MSC has pretty full ships now, they are raising the prices in western and even more eastern med. See for example how often the Musica is sold out already in the next 6 months and what prices they ask for the last cabins. Ugly. By the way, US prices do not include taxes and fees, Canada prices do.

During the booking process you will read if it is Bella or Fantastica and if you have to pay a small surcharge for Fantastica or not. The only real thing you need to know, if you want to choose the cabin number by yourself and not let MSC do it then you have to take Fantastica. Often only Fantastica is available anyway.

For a balcony at this date this is a great price. I don´t think any future offer will be better except a last minute deal a few weeks before departure if the ship is not full.

Same with my wife and mom. Especially with my mom I thought if she goes on a premium line she will be unwilling to go back to MSC. Opposite was true, she insisted that this is not worth a higher price than MSC 😄 With the family, MSC is the clear choice for all generations. I am also cruising with good old friends, that is the time for Celebrity and others. I like diversity, but I also can understand "If I can have a holiday in Italy, why on earth should I go to Germany or USA" of the MSC only fans.

Difficult to say. Usually their sales are very good and worth it, but sometimes not. You should write which ship and which date, then it can be answers if the price is "unbeatable" or not. If you want to go during Pentecost holiday it is better not to wait too long.

Only WE.

They do have all the "speciality" coffees, but maybe not under the names you are familiar. A "mocha" for example can be many things depending on which country you are. Just follow the Italian standards for coffee drinks. All coffees on MSC are world class except the free one of cause 😄

I think it is per item, but this better should answer someone who used the service recently. Pizza definitely is "per item".

I am not fully understanding your question, but the service charge is 15%. So it does not matter if you order 3 things 5 $ each or 1 for 15 $. The service charge always will be these 15% which is in that case 2,25 $.