perakcruiser

On 8/25/2022 at 8:36 PM, SeaSwirl66 said:

Had to go down to guest services on the penultimate day to ask about the thermal spa

I never got a invitation for the Gold hour @ Spa, always had to go there by myself and book. 

While I agree with you about the question if the 'loyalty' benefits were worth the loyalty, keep in mind that the other cruise lines in Europe often have zero loyalty benefits and don´t offer any program (but Costa has). 

Don´t forget, MSC started only a few years before to really push aggressive in the US market and offered the status match. Before somebody with "Black" was something most have heard of but never seen. No wonder with the 1 night / 1 point system even for a YC booking. 

Now things are different of cause, but certainly it is guaranteed that a "new" status will get the benefits of Black/Diamond and B/D will be downgraded to Gold and so on.

So without any doubt the best that can happen for us cruisers is that MSC is not touching the current system. 

On 8/23/2022 at 10:20 AM, Missymssy said:

So do you think it's safe to say opera will be similar to orchestra? I'm afraid I'll pay $70 for basically nothing. Lol

It is not similar but comparable.

Both are surely not comparable to Meraviglia, Seaside, Virtuosa...

But a Spa pass for these ships is around double the price of Lirica- and Fantasia-class. 

Unfortunately you can only book affordable accomodation in Doha with a ticket. In this case it would be a ticket for the final, which is a) not available and b) not cheap with prices up to 1500 USD. 

Apart from that the MSC World Europa and MSC Poesia are available as hotels until Dec 20. This cruise is the first cruise where cruise companies are allowed to embark passengers in Qatar again. During the World Cup all lines had to reschedule the Doha embarkation to Dubai or Abu Dhabi. 

As the ship is the Europa people cannot change to another port as the ship is all the time in Doha. The only solution probably is indeed to stay in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat or Bahrain and fly over on the 20th. The European guests will just fly to Doha on the 20th and not need accomodation. 

Well if I need to choose if I want to visit Venice or Disneyland, I would know what I choose. Even the number of rides and slides is shockingly small in Venice 😄

As @Georgia_Peaches I probably need to be shanghai´d to set a foot on a Disney ship, but that is not the point. 

The article is useless as probably all articles by people who know nothing are. So many things are just plain stupid wrong.

"Although it has been offering Caribbean cruises for about a decade now" - much, much longer, do your research if you pretend to be a journalist. 

"The truth is, I got what I paid for and encountered more logistical hassles and nickel-and-diming than I’ve experienced on most of the 50-plus cruises I’ve been on." - The truth is that it is quite simple to finish a MSC cruise with a bill of zero. Kids Club, Water park, all free, and so on.

"the buffet menu aboard MSC Seashore rarely changed and the venue in which the buffet was set out was both crowded and confusing to navigate." - What? The menu changes every day completely. Yes, pasta is available as yesterday, but you need to look a little bit closer, it is a different pasta all the time. Totally different. Meat carving is different, fish and so on.

"Some days there was a Mexican station, though it was hard to find in the enormous venue." - What you are talking is the "Ethnic corner", where - certainly - the food is not Mexican every day, as - as said before - it changes every day. It is not easy to find at all, same position all the time. 

One buffet counter somewhere had a rotating selection of hot lunch dishes, but when I finally found my way there, none of the dishes were labeled. In fact, nothing was labeled anywhere on the buffet - Never experienced this, always everything was labeled. Labeled in 5 or 6 languages. 

A highlight of every family cruise I’ve been on is the free soft-serve ice cream on the pool deck - This is a highlight for you, wow! Machine "ice cream", which is not allowed to be called ice-cream in many countries 😉 is considered as the lowest level by Europeans, something you only buy at McDonalds for a extremely low price in every currency. 

There are only two ways to get free ice cream on MSC Seashore... or you head to the one buffet counter that offers snacks for one hour from 4 to 5 p.m. every day, and you get in line with scores of other hot and hungry cruisers to ask for one of two flavors  - In all my MSC cruises the ice cream was available for dessert not only from 4 to 5 but also after lunch. And it were always 3 choices. As no normal thinking parent is allowing their kids to have ice cream more than one time a day, maximum two because holiday, this is absolutely adequat. 

It’s hard to say how much this was a fault of the kids club versus my daughter’s capricious personality - By reading your article I have a special idea who is to blame and it is not MSC 🙂

because MSC attracts a diverse, international crowd, many of the kids my daughter’s age at the Junior Club didn’t speak English. This made making friends difficult. - It is very good for kids to mix with other nationalities/languagues. For kids this usually is easy, at least my kids have no problem with this, certainly because they are used to it. 

Instead, you must stand in line to use a kiosk to fund your cruise account after you board. - Just dont do it with a kiosk with a long line. Go a few steps to another one or wait a few hours. 

 It would have been nice to be able to designate our specific choice during the initial booking process rather than spending even more time in a line. - Do your homeword and book Fantastica and select your time in advance.

To me, the ship seemed better suited to couples and groups of adult friends traveling together - MSC is the main choice for families ALL AROUND THE WORLD, they have this reputation for a good reason. What it is seems for you is the complete opposite for the rest of the world. By the way, recommending booking the YA for a family with kids is at least strange. 

Sure we all have a lot of things to criticize about MSC, but this article is unfortunately from a clueless person who is not qualified to criticize them. Here on this board probably every user is more qualified. 

I don't think any cruise line is heating the pools. And kids care much less about the water temperature than adults as I know very well from my kids 🙂

11 is safe. Just prepare yourself with knowing the shortest way to walk. Depends on the track your train will be situated. 

You better stick with the US cruiselines, MSC is not for you.

MSC in Western Med would probably perfect for you. Or MSC in Brazil. But no MSC ship is a "quiet, sit-in-the-sun, retire early kind" ship, that is totally not the concept of MSC. When sailing from the US, maybe some more "quiet, sit-in-the-sun, retire early kind" are on board, that I don't know.

22 hours ago, iloveglee said:

Is anyone able to supply me with a) the drink package prices

You make not like the answer but it is the only correct answer. The drinks package price is the price you are offered during the booking process. Depends on your country, the ship, the route, the ongoing promos, whatever. One good news is that it is unheard of that anyone ever got a cheaper price / offer later when not having booked the drinks package already with the cruise. 

14 hours ago, bandp407 said:

Thank you for clarifying! Unfortunately this is a huge negative for us. 

In practice it is not such a big thing it may sound. EXCEPT for wine drinkers. If you are planning to enjoy some nice glasses of wine you really need to PREPARE yourself with reseach and upgrading you drinks package to the right level BEFORE the cruise. Otherwise it will be a unhappy and/or very expensive story. You also can opt to ignore the drinks package and pay by glass / bottle. 

2. Meat and fish are better on Celebrity, pasta is better on MSC. Overall celebrity deserves a higher rating, but this is certainly reflecting the price difference between the lines.

3. Depends on the specific cruise. CdS has been substituted with another brand many years already, have not seen these shows, people seem to like it. Not predictable if your specific MSC cruise will provide high quality opera/classical music. 

10 hours ago, Homosassa said:

Among the information on the MSC website that has a large section dedicated to information on the services available to those sailing MSC with small children is the following statement:

 

Do you provide any equipment for parents with young children? 

 

We do everything we can to make life easier and as comfortable as possible for all our guests. Partnering with world-leader Chicco, we provide a limited quantity of beautifully-designed bottle warmers, strollers, bouncers and backpacks on board for your combined comfort and convenience. Among the shops on board, you’ll find a Chicco corner with a selection of great products for babies and toddlers, including nappies.
Also a limited number of cots and highchairs are available on board, although please be prepared for increased demand for these during the high season.

Yeah, sounds great, but from my experience MSC with small children, don't bet too much on this. Highchairs are available. We were on one the Mera with our nine month old, even the ship was already many months sailing they still waited for all these wonderful things to come and probably will do so in 2022 also 😄

Still the cruise with our baby was excellent. And with our meanwhile two kids we not considering any other line anymore. Just follow the old MSC rule to prepare yourself and not bother them and if something's going wrong blame yourself and not MSC. 

Completely waste of time to ask the MSC customer service about those topics. They have no idea and absolutely have no idea when it comes to a new ship. 

13 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

and can say: "Been there, Done that."

6 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

That said: Been there done that.

Great for you two that you did it already 😉 Unfortunately I did not and now have to wait. But I am not so pessimistic, as soon as the war has ended, I expect life will go back to normal very fast. Surely not in the Ukraine-Russia-relationship, but with wide parts of Europe and Russia. 

6 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

But the society leaves lots and lots to be desired, and the general experience made me to think I was somewhat on a fake, fabricated place for the enjoyment of the tourists, surrounded by what felt like such a huge global jail.

That sounds a lot like North Korea but not like Russia. Or what some Westerners say about China without ever have been there or knowing one Chinese person. A "global jail" everyone can leave whenever he wants is something new to me. 

OK, but lets better stop here, anyway, Americans, Western Europeans and Asians for sure have totally different opinions on this topics. We all wait and see when St. Petersburg is back on the cruise agenda. 

17 hours ago, prh1976 said:

It's been quite a while since I've cruised (15 years), and have always have always enjoyed Celebrity.  Clearly ships and lines have changed.  Currently I'm trying to decide between the MSC Yacht Club on Seascape or the Celebrity Retreat on Apex.  I'll also be traveling with two teens as well, but really like the idea of a ship within a ship.  I'm certainly welcome to any other suggestions that I might be missing.  Thanks in advance for your insights.

While I totally enjoyed the two pre marriage cruises with Celebrity "quite a while" before, now with kids our choice is certainly MSC. Your teens will have a lot of fun with others in their age from around the world, that is much more important than some slight differences between YC and Retreat. 

In the future, when we cruise alone again, I want to revisit Celebrity for sure but this will still take "quite a while" 😄

1 hour ago, PopcornDK said:

Butchers Cut has wine by the glass at $18 and $19.

Thanks, I should have made clear that I am only talking about the MDR. No idea what is going on in the "speciality" restaurants. 

I don't think there is any wine by the glass priced higher than 15 USD. All high end wines are only available by bottle. In that sense "entire" is probably correct.

MSC will not help you, only the US TA will be able to do so.

Note that by booking outside the EU you have given up all your EU travel and customer protection rights. 

2 hours ago, stai said:

Our cruise does not start in israel, so worst case scenario, we stay on the ship.

No, the worst case is that you will not be allowed to board the ship at all as some countries will not allow MSC to dock with passengers without visa. 

If you want to research the Israeli government websites you can do so by using the Opera browser with VPN. Otherwise all Israel websites are blocked in Malaysia.  

41 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

You may need a visa whether you get off the ship or not, best check with MSC

From my experience with MSC (had this question on a cruise with a stop in Turkey) they will refuse to tell anything about it. Especially in this case as MSC does not have a office or website for Malaysia or Singapore. 

7 hours ago, uCruiser said:

It's been that way for several month. I guess fixing it isn't their highest priority

If they not fix it by December and the TV stays black during the World Cup this will be the end of the Divina 😄  

Only Christians can go to Isreal for religious reasons. That is the official version. 

Many do indeed visit Israel, if you are Christian you best ask around at your church. 

MSC will most probably not give you an answer on this, maybe the Israeli embassy in Singapore will do. There is a small chance that the cruise stop is visa free, but there is also the chance that you will be denied boarding the whole cruise without a visa for Israel. 

St. Petersburg is still on the Poesia schedule in 2023, but the chance that it will happen is extremely small I guess. Which is sad, because the Baltic cruises are rater unattractive without it. Maybe 2024. 

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

I believe the first MSC ship to be positioned in the USA was the Divina...back in 2013!  So, MSC has had a presence here for 9 years.

No, 2009 or earlier. Probably earlier. The Poesia sailed from Europe to New York in Winter and did her Caribbean rounds from Fort Lauderdale. I don´t remember any details except that it had Key West as a destination sometimes. 

1 hour ago, Nunagoras said:

And as I use to say: To see if a package is of good use for you, consider that all of them include lots of those small non alcoholic items that at the end of the day will add to the count.

The problem is the wines by the glass. And that is the pure decider also for us. Forget about Easy, but also Easy plus is hard to say if the package is worth it without really seeing the wine offerings. It is a very close call depending a lot on the wine by glass offerings in the MDR. 

11 hours ago, LatinaInTexas said:

 Is there a specific bar/spot to get specialty coffees?

Yes, every ship has one (1) dedicated coffee bar. Usually it is close to the reception, but on the older ships maybe not always. How to find this coffee bar? Search for the iced coffee drinks these are only available here. 

11 hours ago, LatinaInTexas said:

It's cabin cleaning offered once or twice daily? Are all mini fridges stocked with mini bar items? Can you request they get removed or move then yourself?

Cabin cleaning was offered one time (morning) on our last cruise. Which - as it is MSC - does not mean that it could be two times on other ships/routes. 

The mini fridges are stocked. As it is MSC the room steward sometimes empties it for you if you request for it. Or tells you that you should empty it by yourself and put the stuff in the wardrobe or cupboard. But at least we had it emptied on all our MSC cruises and never got "error" charges for the mini fridge.