perakcruiser

No, the menus in the med are different from Caribbean and so on. And when we sailed from Dubai zero pork dishes.

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Spot the mistake…. Clue: 25/1 is Dammam day ! 

Refreshments can also be rose water 😄

5 hours ago, no1talks said:

For YC service, that's low. Only one or two lines are lower. The rest charge more or include the service fee in the fare, which just raises the cost of the cruise, anyway.

Yes, but from the cruise lines that we consider, MSC is the only one that charges a service fee. All other  Europeans plus Celebrity only publish the final price. But sure you are right, as Non-Americans cannot adjust MSCs service fee (or even cancel) it is nothing else but a part of the cruise price. 

So MSC should just stop this adventising:
Cruise price € 415 p.p. + Hotel service charge (€ 84) TOTAL PRICE: € 499 p.p.

Who reads this on their website and thinks "Wow, only € 415"? 😄

1 hour ago, paceyswife said:

I miss MSC’s old drink program.. the vouchers .

Oh yes!!! After they killed this we really mainly drink bottled water with lunch and dinner. I don't want this all inclusive at all, I want my vouchers for coffee, wine and water back.

12 minutes ago, tkwbear said:

Personally I NEVER sail during the holidays, but find early December inexpensive and quiet.

Same for January after Jan 6. 

5 minutes ago, EMc&DrS said:

What is the current daily gratuity fee for YC passengers?

The just raised AGAIN to 12 EUR/14 USD.

2 hours ago, PG_traveller said:

Of all of the things to cut back on, tissues? They are cheap. Leave a box in the holder in the bathroom and I imagine it would last for several cruises. And they can probably get them wholesale for about 50 cents.

Has been discussed here a lot of time. People throw the tissues in the toilet, MSC says, this makes problems. 

On 1/21/2023 at 3:10 PM, archer_310 said:

2) Friends were just on an MSC cruise and said it would have cost $18 to attend entertainment.  From what I read on the website, entertainment is included.  Which is true?

Both. Basically all shows in the theater are free. But if some very special guest artists from outside do a show then there can be a fee. It happens extremely rare, but I remember the Buena Vista Social Club coming on board in Havana. 

1 hour ago, little britain said:

We were told yesterday that Diamonds could dine in BC, Hola or the Sushi. 

Thanks, so as expected. 

I am pretty sure this Garden Kitchen will be dead empty when the ship sails in Europe. The only clientele that would pay that prices "lives" in the YC and also will not go there. 

14 hours ago, little britain said:

the garden restaurant 

Wow, these prices are pretty high. I guess the Dining Experience cannot be used with Diamond/Black. 

Great to finally know the Dammam procedure in black and white. So I guess it is best to prepare absolutely nothing and then book the 22 USD visa when getting the letter above. 

On 1/12/2023 at 6:44 PM, elmsliebev said:

In Marseille with Costa once we found that Costa wanted to charge 10e pp but the town council provided free shuttles once you'd walked through the duty free etc - is this the case on any of these ports?

I don´t know any other place apart from Marseille, for sure nothing on this trip. 

Hamburg on a Sunday the MSC shuttle probably is your best choice. 

Zeebrugge you can also take the public bus to Brugge, the stop is close to the port at the church. 

21 minutes ago, michelle028 said:

Would MSC send out an email saying that excursions are ready to book?

No. But MSC is a little bit different, usually the excursions are never fully booked before the cruise. There are very few exceptions, but 4 weeks before your cruise you still should get everything.

I really don´t understand anything that Carnival is doing. They destroyed Costa, a brand they desperately need to compete with MSC. Giving up the Chinese market is totally crazy as it obviously is the most important of the future. The only reason why AIDA is working well, Carnival let them do their business and does not involve too much. 

I have no doubt that MSC will make it to the top, their bosses are smarter. 

5 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

It makes you wonder…if it’s an American (North American) thing, to make changes, regard, etc.  Do the long time European customer base just book and be satisfied?  EM

They probably follow the rule "Book and never look at the prices again".

By the way, also the American lines do not allow their European customers free cancelation even if the cruise is two years away. But to be true, they found a solution not to confuse their booking systems. 

It is very simple, usually when you cancel a MSC cruise minimum 20 percent of the price is the cancellation fee. So MSC certainly will never give you the current price if you want to upgrade or change after a price drop.

For whatever reason, maybe legal stuff, MSC US customers can cancel for free if they do it long enough before the cruise. That confuses MSCs famous IT, so don´t blame the agent. There is no solution to this. 

On 1/6/2023 at 11:07 AM, robinsandiego said:

I am curious how you made out without German.

No problem with English, but don´t expect any other language apart from these two.

The MSC app only works properly when you are connected to the ships internet. Before and after it is pretty useless. But this is the norm at least on European cruise lines.

30 minutes ago, UnaPalomita said:

Also, any thoughts from parents of preteen kids about the water park? Is it cheesy? Fun? Looks like the height requirement is only 42". 

Depends on the ship! Certainly the water park on Armonia is a different thing than on Seaview.

But for very small kids the one on Armonia is better. 

38 minutes ago, quattrohead said:

Best cruise we have ever been on. 

The out of Havana cruise with the Armonia was really hard to beat. Just perfect.

29 minutes ago, Nunagoras said:

CCL is closing down Costa for a reason. And they're becoming such an US+UK sort of thing quickly.

I don´t really understand why CCL is destroying Costa (and maybe also Aida). These are great products that can compete with MSC. Which by the way 10 years before were bigger in Europe than MSC, hard to believe nowadays. 

11 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

I believe they will run over CCL however ONLY if they can provide a product that is lower cost and high quality.

You also can see it from the other side.

Are RCCL, Carnival and NCL really offering a good product for the Non-US-market? If they want to keep up with MSC they need to improve. I am not sure if they are able to compete at all. 

3 hours ago, drsel said:

This is the reply of my TA--

MSC confirmed that in order to get the new 40-60% LOWER PRICE for taxes and fees, they would need to reprice the entire booking to the new fare. They cannot price adjust ONLY the taxes and fees. 

That is because for almost all markets MSC does not collect the taxes and fees separately. It is part of the cruise price. Actually in many European countries it would be illegal to add these taxes and fees as the published price always have to be final. Even RCCL and Carnival have to follow the final price rule there for all of their cruises.

Also for me MSC never returned anything because of missed ports, but I also did not expect it. Anyway I highly prefer the European system and totally hate the fake prices for Asian and American markets. 

The refurbishment was in 2015! If you know any Lirica-class ship, then you basically know the Sinfonia. 

15 hours ago, markorop said:

I read the review and it confirms the confusion. A lot of people went to the Hamad port (the one indicated on the app) but the actual leaving port was the Doha port (which is new so MSC probably haven’t updated their information)

Not so new, a couple of years already. The ship docks indeed opposite Stadium 974, Googlemaps marks the position as Cruise Ship Hotel - MSC Poesia (at least now).

Yes, that was the way before and I don´t see any reason why it should have changed.