perakcruiser

Yes, no problem to arrive later than your check in time. Usually around 3pm there are no more check in numbers/groups because the number of new guests is already very small and you can walk straight on the ship. 

21 hours ago, kernow said:

 

 

Nice to see this MSC signature dish again, before it was only available in speciality restaurants and sometimes in the Aurea restaurant. Hope you enjoyed it. 

14 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Nothing as interesting as one might expect from the "Most interesting man in the world."

Find it quite interesting that the transport Acqua Panna all around the world for the YC 😄

Well, good for them to have a container line also.

14 hours ago, mnpurple said:

Is there anyone else you would be comfortable sharing your room with and can bring along in your daughters place?  We had my son and his GF reserved and the GF no longer could come, but our son will now be bringing a friend.  MSC will allow changing out a passenger in a room and we were not charged a fee (I thought it would be $75).

I think this depends if you have booked Bella or Fantastica. At least before the big changes this year Fantastica allowed to change a passenger (name) for free.

TO could go for this if booked Fantastica (or higher). Otherwise I cannot see another option than no show and after the cruise get some fees back for the missing pax. Depends on place of booking, if it is Europe than probably nothing will be refunded as no port charges have been paid. 

14 hours ago, 1kaper said:

One thing I noticed was on previous cruises we were always met by our cabin steward almost immediately.  On this cruise we were not.  I realized now that it was on his off time that we arrived.  I also didn't see him as often as I did with our last, but that didn't matter to me.

That is normal because Europeans and Asians prefer the room steward to be invisible and doing his job discreet when they are out of the ship or eating. And also some staff prefers it in this way and for this reason prefer to work on MSC ships. Others like the "American way". 

Very nice review, I am enjoying to read.

17 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

I contacted my TA by e-mail and asked her to ask MSC if this 'deal' applied to the Venchi  (kiosk) Chocolate Bar on deck 6. Got an email back that yes this was included, but only for YC guests... Of course they never heard of such a thing.

Well, as MSC is keen to tell us that Venchi has nothing to do with them, they are just some outsiders that rented an by coincidence empty store on the ship😁 so you cannot get a 2€ Cappuccino there with you superdeluxepremiumplus drinks package, this is of course for sure.

20 hours ago, mnpurple said:

I *think* we will be getting the OBC that we were owed after MSC cancelled.  They said it would take 24-48 hours to show on our account. Where will I see this on my account? I've printed all of our boarding materials.

You will get a new travel document PDF with the OBC voucher. This voucher is the only way to claim the OBC on board if it is missing. The chance that they honour an e-mail on board is rather limited. The term "show on our account" is a little bit strange, but maybe they mean that your TA can see it. 

16 hours ago, 8420PR said:

With the free upgrade to highest available category (excl. YC) for black card holders were you able to just book a cheap inside and get at least a balcony (or maybe a suite)?  How did it work in reality?  

No. At this time the pricing model was very different, there was no Bella, Fantastica,...

But the inside cabins (as the others) had many different categories, usually based on the deck. So your upgrade was only from inside/outside/balcony deck 5 to the highest inside/outside/balcony deck.

7 hours ago, AngryBirdah said:

I had another thought though:  If we paid the $5/each to get the Wristbands, then couldn't Wife and Grandma just permanently switch wristbands with each other? 

This is a great idea! Apart from the detail that the Divina does not have the Wristbands. 

7 hours ago, AngryBirdah said:

I've read mixed reviews about being able to officially switch people and keys through Guest Services (in this case, switching Wife and Grandma). 

Yes, quite possible that MSC is more aware of this now. A straight NO from Guest Service would not surprise me at all. 

Great story, I enjoyed to read because it is so different from the usual reviews. 

And the Preziosa is still my favourite MSC ship. 

15 hours ago, ddlb said:

 If I were to book an inside or balcony Bella no perks could I still get the option bid on a YC?  Would they start the bidding higher for a YC balcony then the package you had?

Yes and yes. By the way it is the same company that handles the Oman Air upgrade bids. The minimum bid there is even more ridiculous. 

8 hours ago, drsel said:

Yes, but I was more concerned about WHO approved vaccines not being accepted by MSC (only), unlike the other Cruise lines in Europe, which accept all WHO approved vaccines.

 

one cannot change the vaccine one has been administered.

The WHO approvel is not really important when it comes to national requirements. That is why I only accepted Biontech/Pfizer as it is by far the most accepted vaccine. 

UK includes not just gratuities, but also water and even coffee. And all taxes and port fees.

On 5/8/2022 at 1:10 AM, ChC said:

Make sure double check pricing from UK or US before finalise booking, there are occasions once country may be cheaper.

Unfortunately very difficult to compare as the UK price has so many things included. 

8 hours ago, babs135 said:

I'm looking at a cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and the price for a balcony is quoted at £763 pp which is reasonable.  I then looked at the price for the Yacht Club and it's £2,026 pp.  Is the Club really worth such a huge price differential?  I can't imagine that it is and I won't be booking at that price.

Obvioulsly not, but a Ryanair ticket sometimes costs £10 and sometimes costs £500. Sometimes Interior sells out fast, sometimes Balcony, sometimes YC. Prices change so often and are totally flexible, not much sense to compare one exact date/ship/cabin/category/promo. I have seen a Fantastica Balcony cheaper than a Bella Inside. 

If you like price for a special route and ship and cabin, a balcony for £763 for example 😉 , just grab it.

2 hours ago, RC Dancers said:

Our friend from the UK would like to cruise on the Divina. She cannot book from the US website so she has to book through the US website. She would like to share a cabin with her friend who is a US Citizen. Does anybody know if this combo is possible to book? 

Yes, of cause no problem. Your friend maybe want to add the UK address also for the US pax to keep things simple. Anyway MSC will not send any documents per post. 

Very nice review! 

After 20 years searching somebody found edible egg Benedict on board MSC, great. What a surprise, they are hidden in the YC.

In my opinion, egg Benedict is the worst thing on board MSC. 

As the

8 hours ago, kernow said:

Yes, there was one by each bedside table in our cabin, think they are in all cabins.

They are in a Bella inside (at the bed lamp on the wall), so they really should be everywhere. 

I am familiar with that problem, but the sports rights world is so complicated nowadays that it is close to impossible for hotels, cruise lines, sport bars to cover everything. Anyway there is the streaming package with which we can solve the problem for ourselves. 

12 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Thanks....I know about the price fluctuations.  My issue is that dealing with MSC is impossible.  With other cruise lines you see a price reduction...you call...you get the reduction.

 

MSC (as most other non-US cruise lines) is setting the punishment for cancelling a booking so high that in almost no case you get any advantage by cancelling and rebooking. Maybe because of legal reasons this is not so easy for the cruise lines in the US market, so only in the US market the things are different. As @Homosassa said: Part of the way  MSC maintains its fare structure (what some people label as cheap cruises), is by tightly controlling fare churning by the booked passengers.

Why should they help you to reduce your fare? At least they should annoy you a little bit and make things complicated 😄  

11 hours ago, sidari said:

Silver level upwards gets 5% off if you are a V.C member so there has been no change and no gain unless you are prepared to hand over money at least Six months prior to sailing.

Before the 5% were not available for all bookings. I never understood which category was not available from the wide arrange of MSC "Last Minute" and "Holiday Breaks" offers. Anyway I think it still will not be consitent.

9 hours ago, Greyhound Crazy said:

Where in the travel documents would you see the VC status? Thank you...

Checked my last travel document for our cruise end of January 2022. It is on page 2 (details page) of the booking confirmation.

Passengers: Name, DOB, MSC Club Member Gold, Card number.

And on the cruise ticket it is directly on page 1:
Passenger

Name - Gold Voyagers Club Member

But the membership number cannot be found on the cruise ticket. 

3 hours ago, ChC said:

I wouldn't say if there new offer is better or worse.

 

But 5% off guaranteed almost on every cruise is good.

Yes, I only one time got more than 5%, because we usually book very late. And the 5+15 was also not available on the specific cruise except that mentioned one time. 

Anyway, no matter how they call it, we just check the price, if we like it, we book, if we dont like it, we dont book. 

3 hours ago, ChC said:

You could have called MSC or emailed then in advance. 

Certainly. If you enter the ship without the OBC voucher from your travel document PDF the staff at the future cruise desk can do nothing for you. And the correct VC status needs to be stated in the travel documents also, otherwise it will be difficult to get the perks. 

7 hours ago, Oxo said:

This goes on every cruise line regardless of dress code, adult only areas, kids running up and down the halls all hours of the night. People drinking too much, etc.

No Italian company ever had the motto "customer is king". MSC tries hard for many years to prove this to you. With the concept that everything has to be finally confirmed by Naples (where NO without further explanation is their favourite word by far) they also have a good protection that local MSC offices go too customer friendly.

By the way, according to my experience this motto is popular in very few countries, enjoy, if you live in one of them. 

But bambini are king and way more important than everybody else including you and most welcome to run up and down the halls all night. MSC knows very well that the kids decide if a guest comes back or not and the adults don´t really care about how much MSC disappointed them as long as the kids love it. And kids sail (almost) free on some routes / ships until 18 years, so everyone knows what to expect during European school holidays. And with the YC they anyway have a second and non-family focused ship inside the ship.