perakcruiser

I don´t know this. But I am flying to Berlin in April and will use exactly this train. Basically there should be lugguage storage in German trains but it depends which train.

As there is a direct train as mentioned from airport to port every two hours I doubt that MSC will offer a bus. Using German trains is very easy and the app of the railway company offers English language. So buying the tickets is also dead simple, all can be done in the app.

You can go by bus to Portovenere or on the other side to Lerici. In both cases the bus stop is "Comune" directly on the big square opposite the terminal. No idea about taxis.

I really want to sail Costa, the only mainstream line I have not tried yet. People say the food is better there.

I find the idea to tip for this very strange, would never have this idea. You are tipping the person who brings the breakfast and not the person who prepared it for you, how unfair 😄 And you either pay for it anyway (Bella) or you paid for it by booking Fantastica/Aurea. No matter what answers are given here, I am pretty sure 99.9 percent don´t tip for this. But if you want nobody will stop you and nobody will see it as it happens in your cabin.

There is Baby Care, where the parents are not allowed to join and there is Baby Time, where parents play with the kids in the kids club. You just have to follow the schedule.

Has not much to do with MSC, this is normal in (Southern) Europe. You need to accept this.

Yes, that is very nice, "cabin wine" is a must 🙂 We don´t have a drinks package, the prices look totally unattractive and the big OBC is perfect for buying the drinks. With the corkage fee these "Gifts & Gear" wines are pretty useless, then it would be much cheaper to buy a bottle in the restaurant. By the way, you don´t need to finish a bottle, the keep it for you for the next dinner, right?

Yes they do.

We always got telephones from them when we left our baby at Baby Care. And they called when the baby was crying too much. Actually it is a walkie-talkie, not a cellphone. I also disagree with some other answers 😄 There is babysitting for 0-2, that is Baby Care, while Baby Time is when you spend time there together. Also the little bit older kids had lunch and and dinner with the Kids club team and not with us. You can choose of cause.

First time Celebrity cruiser here, things seem to be a little bit different on Celebrity. They offer a big amount of OBC to spend, we probably will spend it only on speciality dining and drinks. Some questions: 1. If I prebook a dining package, let´s say for 3 nights, will they add any extra gratuities on board? 2. In "Plan my cruise" there are no things like "Classic Wine Package-Starting From: $109 (3, 5 or 7 bottle selections)" available. Has this been discontinued (it is still on the website here https://www.celebritycruises.com/int/things-to-do-onboard/cruise-activities/Art/wine-packages) 3. In "Gifts & Gear" there are some attractive wins available. If I book this, can I use it at dinner? Or do I have to consume in the stateroom? I guess (hope) no corkage fee with bottles bought from them. Thanks for any help!

I would take the one that has Jeju included, one of the best places in the world to visit for me.

Always such are pleasure to go on a cruise with @morpheusofthesea, especially when @no1talks spices it up with his refreshing comments. So good that it happens not just one time a year.

Interesting as most complain the beds at MSC are too soft. For me they are perfect.

As said many times before, it is not about the cruise lines, it is about the market. Certainly US lines also have to follow local law and cannot add fees and taxes and service charges to the price. So on a MSC cruise out of Miami there are the Brits, who just paid the price for the cruise without any additions, there are the Germans who paid for the cruise the cruise price and the (mandatory) service charge of 84 Euro per person. And the Americans who paid for the cruise plus a load of extra fees and taxes plus the service charge (if they want). The same thing happens on a RCCL cruise in Europe. I paid the fare, sailed with them and did not pay any additional taxes, fees, gratuities, service charges whatever. But if I sail with them in Malaysia Singapore and book locally they flood the zone with funny fees and their advertisement is just a ridiculous amount of **** fees. Because sadly local law does not protect the customer. In the end this is the story about the service charge and all the other stuff.

You are really asking this question? Thanks to the service charge MSC can advertise a cruise with € 399 while the real price is € 489. Again, apart from Americans the service charge cannot be removed, changed, whatever.

This question cannot be answered because it is the money of the company. Whatever MSC is doing with this money and how they distribute it, they will not tell. But MSC certainly has a incentive system for the crew to honor good performance. And let´s not be naive, if MSC realized many people don´t follow the "TIPS: MSC does not recommend tipping individual members of staff." then they just will cut the wages for the crew. When you read here you might think "Wow, these Americans tip so much, the staff on US lines must earn 20 times what the staff on European lines earns". So why anyone works for the Europeans? Because it is not true, in the end the salary is not really different.

You need to understand that MSC is a European cruise line where things go different. Read the MSC webpage. The staff gets a decent salary and does not rely on your tips. Secondly only American guests can remove the gratuities and they usually don´t do. Certainly you can add a personal tip, but do it discreet and if possible not in an insulting manner.

Cruises are cheap when the boat is half-empty. Cruises are expensive when the ship is almost sold out. Had two cruises with MSC last year, both were very cheap and the ships were still half-empty. And dramatically overstaffed. Checked what the prices would have been during christmas holidays, one was more than double price, the other more than triple. Both at the end at full capacity. Surely at this time they are understaffed. If you don´t have kids at school and the flexibility to go whenever you want, just enjoy it.

Dear Mr. Vago, we read so much about cuts in the cruise industry. Will MSC continue to provide the Italian experience for its customers. In a culinary way, for example pasta from Gragnano in the MDR, and in the entertainment area with the classical opera night?

I totally understand these concerns. Being escorted to somewhere is totally unacceptable. At least if I did not commit a crime. I don´t want this butler thing at all, I am not Lord Snowdon, I am as normal as Jurgen Klopp says he is. And the room steward should be as invisible as possible. But the other parts of the YC concept are really tempting. If they just could remove the butler.

Sure, but anyway when they buy their food stuff in the middle east there are anyway no haram options. Exept alcohol 😄 And even if they bring in pork when coming from an european sailing, they cannot use it anymore, because they would need an extra kitchen separated from the others to prepare. All impossible.

But kids do have. At least in many countries it is NOT ALLOWED to film or photograph them in public space. Unfortunately. But I can guarantee any blogger/youtuber/whatever, if you take photos or videos from my kids, prepare for a high jump and deep dive to get you cellphone/camera back. I only urge the cruise companies to protect us from this annoyance.

MSC has a so much more complex business than the other lines with the option to board at different or even any port of the trip. Imagine how complex the cabin allocation is, it is the same for the restaurant sittings. With this in mind they handle it quite well.

Would be interesting to know who still can remove as MSC stopped this for almost all markets I know except the USA. Because of the very long lines of removers you mentioned. Pretty sure MSC has the data, that US pax usually don´t remove, so they leave the remove options so that they can advertise the fake prices in the USA as the US lines do.