perakcruiser

Did you ever try to do this? It is TOTALLY useless, MSC and the other cruise lines will REFUSE to give you any information, don´t know if the Americans are different, but I am pretty sure they will not answer anything expect "Please contact the relevant embassy" or recommend a visa agency they are working together. In this case I think a denied boarding is a quite high risk as it is a MSC flight and MSC probably instructs the airline to check the visas already in Europe.

Yes. And the other ships are from Ponant Cruises.

What I can tell you is that you can change a passenger name without any costs. That is why we booked Fantastica on a Meraviglia cruise because it was not sure if my dad can join. I called MSC before to ask if "free change" means this and it was confirmed and later it was no problem to change to my brother.

You´re welcome. And as you are from Dubai nobody needs to tell you that you should download and set up the Careem app before the cruise 😉

This will never happen. No need to worry at all. Go on board and make your bookings, by no means any of the speciality restaurants will be full on this cruise. That also should be absolutely no problem to board in Abi Dhabi at 11 or 12.

That is normal. Sometimes you get the email, sometimes not. Sometimes the email links to a proper page for updating, sometimes just to the normal webpage. You can call them, update via phone and hope for the 100 points. Did not work out on our last cruise a couple of weeks before. Did you follow the T&C exactly? This worked out perfect, we got the 700 points one week before the cruise. Apart from the 100 for updating we also did not get the 100 for 150€ spending before the cruise. My motivation to complain is limited as this 200 points wont help me much.

Genua is the biggest port by far with the longest waits. It all depends on the ship or better said ship class. From my experience on the newer (and bigger) ships, Aurea has the exactly same menu as the main dining. Only somebody who was recently on for example Armonia can answer the question.

Been on both, I really do not remember ANY difference. But surely there are some if one searches long enough🙂 On the other hand the differences between West Med and East Med cruises are gigantic. So really no use to think if the two ships are slightly different or not.

In January you could see all the menus for the whole cruise from Day 1 already. Now on the Virtuosa you can only see lunch and dinner for the day.

Yes, on all MSC ships the Spa is the Spa and there are no special areas.

When we are back to fully booked cruises then the priority boarding benefit is really huge. I remember the times waiting hours at the terminal with boarding number 17 and next boarding group is number 3 😄

Absolutely. And the boring mask discussion in US or Europe has anyway limited to zero relevance for the crew that comes mostly from Philippines and Indonesia. Where it is totally common to wear the mask and actually nobody complains.

Yes and it is included in your drinks package. All speciality and iced coffees are only available in ONE coffee bar. As far as I remember it is the Infinity bar. You also can go to the chocolatier place and pay a hell of money for the same thing, but in my opinion this would be the most stupid way to spend money on board 🙂

Actually all people we spoke with said that it was almost perfect and the best value cruise they ever had. I totally agree. From my 10 MSC cruises this was clearly number 1 when considering what I paid and what I got.

8€. But this numbers will change very soon of cause, all is from times before the € crashed.

This is the Divina wine list, the wines and prices have nothing to do with MSC in Europe. I don't know if MSC used the ugly Dollar list or the happy Euro list on the TA, but I am sure a solution can be found on board 😉 But there is no us wine available with easy plus in Europe, the only us option, "woodbridge by Robert M." is 8.50 euro.

Are you mixing up a Caribbean and Mediterranean cruise? There will be lots of wines available for easy plus. From the Sommelier Suggestion as well as from the normal wine list. Expect 2 rose, 6 reds, 6 whites. Asti and prosecco also. And of cause also the easy wines (not recommended). MSC will not assist with moving the bags pier to pier, but this is no problem at all in Civita. Most have to pay the daily service charge in advance with the cruise price, some (mainly or only US bookings) still get it charged every day to their account.

Some people may like it, others not. But after seeing the 360 view i am absolutely sure that MSC will raise the prices for these two cabins after "test market" is finished. Size and layout plus the proper ocean view from the balcony totally convinces me.

Mainly they control by not selling anymore day passes. Sometimes no day passes at all are sold at all during the cruise. Also the cruise passes bought in advance are limited. I am not sure if you need to make a reservation for sea days right now, that is still a COVID related topic.

Aurea have their own restaurant on Arminia with (at least before COVID) a more exciting menu.

You can buy on board, subject to availability. But it is crazy expensive to buy a day pass on board. About 80 euro for single and 120 for couple. No official price for week pass, have to ask and negotiate. No half day pass or so available. The Virtuosa Spa is quite nice and they control the crowds good.

I was told that these face to face checks have been already mandatory before Brexit. Sometimes it works well with borderforce coming on board already the evening before (even if the port before Southampton is abroad). Sometimes it ends in chaos, because they come in Southampton, come late and with very limited personnel. While I can understand that the UK wants to protect its border, it would be nice to know how many illegal immigrants ever entered their country on a cruise ship with a UK/Schengen/Commonwealth passport. Probably in all the years less than borderforce officers checking the 2600 passengers.

All speaking Cantonese and not Mandarin and probably zero Chinese passports 😄 I am not willing to blame MSC for this. I was told that it was the same with other cruise lines and I hope all cruise lines could work together in not accepting this treatment by British immigration. If Southampton is not able to handle a cruise ship then the cruise ships should not stop at Southampton (yes, I know, the British market is way too important for such a decision). I am happy to agree, what a pleasant surprise this was! About the queue jumping you are right, but on the other hand I can understand people panic because they will miss their flights or trains and maybe have to work the next day and cannot stay in Southampton. We just relaxed because we were not in a hurry and ignored everything. Only after lunchtime (!) the situation got better.

The whole process is ridiculous and I don´t want to offend anyone, but what the British are doing here is absolutely not understandable. I don´t think there is a second cruise port in the world that causes such chaos and it probably would be easier for the cruise lines to stop at North Korea. I am not sure how many borderforce people come on board to do these face to face checks but I would not be surprised if the answer is 2. One for Schengen/UK, one for rest of the world. And the "funny" thing is that they mostly hurt their own people disembarking in Southampton. They are the ones, who miss their trains, busses or flights home.

Educated guess, these are the prices for the World Cup 😄