perakcruiser

TUI Cruises and AIDA will still sail from Dubai in November. The prices are very cheap, you should consider this alternative as you have the flights already. Calling MSC is useless as you know with an agent booking. And waiting also, no MSC ship will cruise there before Dec 21 when they get their ships back from Qatar.

You always can be late as long as you arrive two hours before departure. If you cannot make the 2 hours, call them! Pre Covid there were indeed stricter rules but for coming early. Especially in Genoa where sometimes you had to wait HOURS if you showed up at 10 and your time was in the afternoon. Civita usually is much more relaxed.

The little bird has sung this song here many days before already 😉 You still can take the Preziosa on the 5th from Southampton, but it is a very short cruise that ends in Hamburg two days later.

Indeed you can, the price is 0,86 Euro. Certainly not guaranteed that it has not changed, I never ordered it, we always buy the bottles.

True, but nobody their earns less then the minumum wage of € 12.00 per hour, no matter which nationality. I know in Portugal or Greece it is much lower. Seems correct to me. Bear in mind the salary at a Pizza Hut or Dominos in Malaysia is usually around RM 5 per hour.

Wow, never heard this, maybe this is the case in some places in Southern Europe. But in the North these jobs at the ports authorities are definitely good paid and attractive jobs. Same with airport lugguage, that is (one of) the reason why the passenger and airline fees at these airports are so high. Almost the same situation here, in Germany, Belgium, Holland, France ... these are very attractive jobs with high salaries. Not to speak about Norway and Scandinavia. Actually the least people I would tip are people who work for the (air)ports and tour guides, they probably earn more than me 😄 And they deserve it, no question about this.

Their policy for many, many years is to refuse any kind of price adjustment. Which is understandable as their prices and offers change all the time. Their business model only can work with no options to make changes and high cancellation fees. Which is typical for the European cruise companies. Certainly you can try it, at the beginning of their conquering the US market offensive there have been success stories. But apart from the limited chances there is the risk that the customer agent on the phone will ruin your booking completely, I would always think twice before I call them.

This "dream world" is reality in many countries and with many cruise companies. For example on MSC UK the first price you see is already "price is per adult and inclusive of port taxes and service charge/gratuities". Same in Germany and most other European countries. Sure it is higher than your US price but I highly prefer to see the real price and have all set and done instead of thinking about "government charges", "port taxes", "handling fees", "gratuities", "hotel service charges" and all that BS. In my eyes this is plain stupid and just a lack of consumer rights which sounds more like third world countries.

Well, I lived in many coutries on this planet and do really believe that the European system of fixed prices is by far the best, where nothing can be added later, no tax, no (service) charge, no fee, no gratuity, no tips, no BS. Prices must be final. And good wages for the hard working people.

Most of these links just lead to the "en-gl", the global MSC page in English.

Depends on where you booked, you will read it on the MSC website of your market. Nowadays almost only the US pax get the DSC added to the room account, most others have to pay in advance with the booking. But I am not sure if MSC has a special website/procedures for Canada.

Yes they will hold it for you and return on the evening before the cruise ends. But if it is just one bottle they maybe let it pass anyway. Depends a lot on the motivation of the security staff.

Famous quote from MOL: "If I would get only 1 € for everyone who says "I will never fly with Ryanair again" and then flies with us again, I would be the richest man in human history" 😄 Over the years I also many times said "Not acceptable, next time I cruise with another line". And when I search for the cruise then MSC comes around with this:

Wow, never seen MSC being so generous, Option 2 is a crazy good deal. Must have something to do with the money they got from Qatar for borrowing the Opera 😄

They are rolling it out in Europe, the US market maybe will be the only one not to follow as your laws allow them the trick with the fake prices that are not final. And US pax probably have no problem with this as they are used to it. As MSC has no Malaysian webpage we usually book with them in Europe, I think two years before the gratuities became mandatory and were included in the final price already, you just could choose if you want to pay at booking time (with a good discount) or on board. On my last MSC booking a couple of weeks before I could not choose and the gratuities were not seperated from the cruise price anymore. Only for the Voyagers 5%, these are deducted from the price without gratuities.

It starts EVERY DAY somewhere. You can book Rotterdam 2nd Nov, Zeebrugge 3rd, Southampton 4th and so on.

Ah, I see, that is the one with Cherbourg. Also was thinking about that one (because of Mont-Saint-Michel) and booking on MSC UK because of the free water and hot drinks. Still don´t really understand why you Brits get this and the other Europeans not😄 But in the end Hamburg was the easier starting point for us.

Depends on "compared to what". 5% are 5%. A free photo is nice as the photos are very expensive (on all lines). Not needing to line up for a tender ticket is in my opinion the biggest perk, priority embarkation and disembarkation also nice. And then the free speciality restaurant visit, at least for Black/Diamond this is not bad at all. Certainly there are two worlds, the world before the status match when almost nobody had Black and even Gold was something rare to see. Nowadays I guess on US cruises people without Black or Gold are already a minority 😄 Next thing, MSC is a European cruise line, yes, they want to rock the US market also, something nobody else is trying. But compared to their European rivals the Voyagers Club actually have the BEST perks. Their biggest rival TUI Cruises is offering NOTHING at all, they not even recognize if you made many cruises with them before. AIDA and Costa do have a program but reaching the higher levels is almost impossible for people who do not cruise with them all the times. Actually at AIDA it is not even possible to reach level 2 of 5. And level 1 gives you exactly nothing and level 2 onboard credit of 15 Euro.

Certainly the salaries on a cruise ship are much higher compared to my country. Maybe around fife times higher for waiters, cooks, room stewards. And even more when we talk about the Indos and Pinoys. That is why these jobs are so popular. On top, someone that works at a Dominos in Jakarta or Manila never in his life has seen a tip. That actually really happens. Almost nobody can remove the gratuity any more, MSC collects it already with the cruise price and the option to let it add day by day to the cruise bill is gone. As I prefer "final price" and no late additions I am happy about this.

I would say the world is divided into the societies that see tipping as antisocial behaviour. And others that see not-tipping as antisocial behaviour. For me tipping is antisocial and should not exist in a modern civilized society, but that is just my point of view, I have no interest that my opinon becomes an eternal law. Things get strange when people think they have the absolute truth on their side. And everybody should behave like Americans. For some stange reasons "normal workers" usually have a much better income in non-tipping societies. Certainly you can do whatever you want, it is not about MSC forbids tipping, they just "do not recommend". It is not about guests are not allowed to tip, it is about if workers are allowed to take the tips. Maybe MSC already has given up their non-tipping policy in the US cruise market. So do with your money whatever you want, but by no means tipping makes you a "giver" and others a "taker".

Because the Virtuosa starts there on Nov 8. We will go there on Nov 6 already.

I am on the same cruise and refuse to think about the test before 1 Nov. I was told that there are unlimited test options in Hamburg where you get a certificate after 15 minutes. It is either free, costs 3 Euro or maximum 15 Euro.

It is as simple as this. If someone books the cheapest option for flights, hotels and even parking long in advance without any options for changing, then he has to take the risks. And the Virtuosa is a wonderful ship I am delighted to touch a second time this year in a few weeks.

As you have probably read many times: "MSC does not recommend tipping individual members of staff". But as you are still asking, if you want to tip someone above the Service Charge, you can do so. Just do it as discreet as possible. Don´t cause troubles for someone by tipping him in front of other staff. Or in the worst case in front of his superiors. Another option is to raise the Service Charge at the Guest Relations Manager if you want to give more than the norm of 14 USD per person per night.

Check if YC can still be selected on your date. If not, then maybe it is the reason for no bidding possible. It was in this way the last time for me. But no need to be disappointed, if no YC cabins left then also the bidding would have failed.