perakcruiser

MSC is a world company, not US company that acts also in other markets.

So they follow the local law for their markets. And have to respect what the competitors do in some market and what the customer expects. Always keep in mind everything you say or experience is only valid for your market. 

For example in most European markets even after the downpayment there is zero chance for any refund or OBC when the price drops. You just can cancel the booking and lose all the downpayment and rebook. MSC gives a best price guarantee valid for 72 hours after downpayment, if the price drops in this 72 hours you are eligable for the lower price.

We are cruising with MSC for about 15 years and another Golden Rule apart from "Never call MSC after your booking is as you want it" is "If you liked the price and booked the cruise, never check the price again" 🙂 

7 hours ago, Seadweller001 said:

My prediction:  in 10 years MSC will be the largest cruiseline in the world, privately owned with ZERO accountability to shareholders.

This will not take 10 years. They are unstoppable. 

MSC and Celebrity are my favorite cruise companies. But for different reasons, comparing is not so easy, because MSC is way cheaper. If you have been spoiled by Celebrity for many years then you should go for MSC only with the newer ships and not with Lirica- or Musica-Class. 

The annoying Over-Friendliness of the Celebrity crew not appears on MSC, that is a good thing for many. Gyms are great, overall the (new) MSC ships are more spectacular, Celebrity food is better. But no drama, MSC has a lot of exciting signature dishes. 

Indeed both are great choices, but really keep this in mind:
 

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

And always remember the MSC Golden Rule:  Once your reservation looks the way you want it to, for God's sake, don't call MSC about anything!

Just to add: "And when onboard, for God's sake, only go to the ship reception if it is really, really, really necessary."

Probably I destroyed it with a not so complicated booking they had to change two times today (because they have the well-known problems with maths). After final payment it looked good, but only for a few moments then no more login 😄

Finished a booking today that started yesterday. Also a sensational comedy of errors, but hey, thats MSC, in the end one can be so proud that he managed this challenge. 

Just that I cannot log in on the MSC website anymore, but I think that is part of the game 😄

On 10/21/2021 at 4:53 PM, Beamafar said:

The most common gift has been a tote bag

Ah yes, that was it indeed. And we used it as a dirty clothes bag 🤭

I remember it came at the end of the cruise with one of the last room services. But it was so low value I already forget. You can go the MSC shop on board and see what is the cheapest MSC souvenier and than you will probably get 🙂

As I said, I don´t remember what it was, but I remember that it was 2 or 3 € in the gift shop.

No definite answer to this. Sometimes Italy will be better, sometimes UK and sometimes US. But you cannot look just on the price, the conditions are very different. 

For example the US offers usually look very cheap, but "Gov. fees, taxes & port charges" are not included. On the other hand they give "MINERAL WATER AND COFFEE IN DINING ROOM". 

I found it too much work to go thru all this and prefer booking on a MSC website where at least all fees are included and the price it the final price. 

If someone is going on a Middle East cruise before mid January we would love to know about going to the EXPO from Abu Dhabi. There are free shuttle busses from Abu Dhabi to the EXPO but not from the port. 

The Saudi eVisa seems to be crazy expensive? In this case we leave it to what MSC offers and stay on board if it is more than 30€. We actually only go there for the EXPO, so the cruise is not really important, but looking forward to see the Virtuosa. 

On 10/13/2021 at 3:03 AM, shipgeeks said:

My understanding is that Bella and Fantastica have set dining times, and Aurea has flex dining.

 

Basically yes, but before Covid 19 on some Lirica-Class ships and some routes, some Fantastica Cabins (Balcony) also qualified for flex dining.  No idea if it is still in this way.

9 hours ago, codeyell0 said:

Alfredo is a simple sauce maybe in Italy they make it different but the sauces were lacking IMO. The bolognaise was great.  

Alfredo sauce is not common in Italy. Mainly exists in the Rome area and is quite (or totally) different from the product in US.

MSC has some great signature pasta dishes (since many years), but for first time cruisers with them it is hit and miss.

Lower deck?

And after stretching all new magnifica cabins will probably be Fantastica, more of the older in front and back will be Bella

I hope one day all countries in the world will reach a level where these ridiculous "taxes and fees" are not allowed to add to the price. I love the Europeans for this.

4 hours ago, sidari said:

PC ... What you quote for Germany may well be right, in my earlier post setting out the charges the Costa text about charges is direct from the UK website! and the German ruling clearly does not apply.

Yes, but the question is "Is Costa following UK law with this procedure or not?". Do you not have the "final price" rule like the other Europeans? Then why don´t the cruise lines not charge you these port taxes? Or do they? 

I suspect a little bit that Costa is breaking UK law like they did in other countries before, but nobody sued them so far 😄

7 hours ago, pepper said:

I would really want to do tubing, rafting, or falls - most tours I've checked out online are morning or 12:30 departures, and Shoreexcursioneer site says we are not in port long enough for their excrusions of that type 😞  Any advice or assistance please?

Just go with the MSC excursion as you arrive 1pm. Certainly you can buy many excursions also at the chaotic port area when you go off the boat, but as everything else, it is not cheap in Jamaika. Room for negotiations maybe is limited when it is 2pm and they know you need to go immediately 😉

12 hours ago, sidari said:

Costa have not abolished the mandatory charge!

They did. Go to the German website and use Google Translate. Or to make it short "Servicegebühren inbegriffen" means "Service charges included". As it is required by German law. My brother sailed Costa last year with a booking from the German website, he also had a drinks package included and his final bill was zero. Prices in Germany and most other developed countries 😉 have to be published including taxes and all other parts, thats why they call it final price law. I am a little bit shocked that the UK is not following this as I thought it is a place with exemplary consumer protection. 

If the EU should bring anything to all countries in the world that it is this final price law. Everything else is just customer cheating. 

8 hours ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

. But your 'cute' $2 bills are actually a royal pain for them as they are much more difficult to exchange and they get a worse exchange rate.  They take them because something is better than nothing, but you aren't doing them any favors by doing this

How many times in your life you tried to exchange a $2 bill in Indonesia or the Philippines? Probably never, but you tell people here that you know exactly how it goes, great! Certainly you can exchange a bunch of small USD or EUR bills there also. Only these two currencies of cause. Somebody who has do it more often will also have the money changer of his trust (we all have here in SEA, also me in Malaysia), and will get a very good rate from them also. 

The Airport area is by far the worst choice. Hotels in Rome are quite cheap compared to other cities so we always stayed in Rome close to the railway station.  But why not spending the day in Rome and move in the evening to Civita, no bad plan either. You need to check the prices, on days with no cruise ships Civita is of cause much cheaper, I dont know what happens to the prices the day before a big MSC ship departs. 

2 hours ago, sidari said:

Costa add the mandatory charge to the final bill onboard seperate from the cruise price.

Very funny, it was MSC who sued Costa in Germany a couple of years before for exactly this. Certainly Costa lost and then changed to abolish the charge completely and include it in the cruise price. It did not know that they did not do this in UK also. 

26 minutes ago, sidari said:

PC ... The DSC on MSC is now included within the cruise cost for cruise customers from the UK since 23rd June 2019 and has not been removed, your information regarding the DSC and other lines is not 100% correct.

Costa have a Mandatory DSC which cannot be removed, P and O cruises say they have removed the DSC but it has likely been added into the cruise fare as MSC have done. 

Note that CMV and Fred Olsen charge Gratuities!

 

Well if it is included in the price as with Costa* and MSC UK, then I would not call it a "mandatory DSC" anymore, as it is not visible and as you say with P&O it is just a part of the cruise price. Same with this mysterious port taxes some nationalities have to pay. I never heard of the lines "CMV" or "Fred Olsen" (funny name), but certainly they also cannot break the law. There is just one "trick",  do not sell your cruises "officially" in these markets, just use global webpage so you only need to follow the law of the place where the company is based. Genting Cruises is doing this, they can force all passengers to pay service charges. 

*Costa defintely cannot add a "mandatory" service charge to the accounts, if they not collect it with the stated cruise price in the catalogue it is purely voluntary. Very surprised to read that UK law doesn´t protect customers from companies changing the "final price". 

On 2/19/2020 at 9:40 AM, richnorto said:

This will be our first cruise outside of American lines, so I DO want to know. 

MSC will never ever disclose, they never did and never will do. One thing that is sure, they changed the system all the time during the last years and especially after the all inclusive drinks packages went popular. And the true answer if you ask staff on board how much they get from the DSC is "I don´t know". I would not bet that ANYONE including the captain (who don´t care anyway) on board knows the system exactly, these decisions are made in Italy and Switzerland. But you can indeed expect that the DSC goes to the staff. 

On 2/19/2020 at 9:40 AM, richnorto said:

If only $200 of $300 paid in gratuities goes to Service Providers, I would rather take my $300 and the additional $100 we would add and tip personally. 

How you want to handle this? The DSC goes to hundreds of people, you want to give your waiter and room steward $200 each and all others nothing? Well, that is the reason why cruise lines don´t like individual tipping and ask not to do so. 

With all this discussions don´t forget one thing, the staff on cruise lines are not unhappy and low paid people, it is still a dream job with extraordinary high salary for so many.

17 hours ago, Reds4life said:

Part of this issue is the fact that MSC calls this a Daily Service Charge where other cruiselines call it Gratuities... Then, MSC charges a similar fee and calls it a DSC. Thus, some confusion occurs. 

It is very simple, MSC and all other European cruise lines cannot call it "Gratuities", this would be totally illegal as by law they cannot collect Gratuities from their guests. Same with the port fees or port taxes they cannot collect from the guests from these markets. The DSC is already on the verge of being illegal, they solved this in the way that  guests can delete this "suggestion" and the cruise lines are not allowed to ask any question about WHY. Some years before guests only could delete by giving a reason, certainly MSC was sued for this and lost. 

In Europe most cruise lines already have abolished the DSC and Gratuities completely (or never had it). MSC seems to have removed it in not so price sensitive markets like UK or Switzerland, but they are probably for a good reason afraid to do it in the main markets like Germany. Selling the cabin 140 Euro more expensive can make a difference. 

8 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

How long is the walk from the ship to that port area?  I hear it's quite a long walk.  Are there shuttles or golf carts or anything for those of us with old, aching joints?

It is only 50 meters. When you get off the ship you are almost inside already. The area itself is quite big, but honestly speaking, I found it totally horrible and would stay on board if I would dock there again.

Stopp, I forget, there is free Wi-Fi! Yes, Costa Maya was the only stopp with free Wi-Fi in the Carribean, OK, in this way it is a good place to leave the boat. 

8 hours ago, Cruising_Gals said:

Correct.  This from MSC website:  "Onboard bar purchases will incur a 15% bar service charge, automatically added to your final bill."  Now, if you buy a drinks package onboard, they add the service charge, if you pre-book, the "discount" is not getting charged 15% service charge.  So you get a discounted price, just as with the pre-booking of internet, excursions, internet, etc.  Not sure if this then means the bar staff don't get a tip, that's what it sounds like, otherwise they would just say discounted 15%, right?  Sigh...

I am not giving up, even it is so tough 😄

The Daily Service Charge goes (in some not published way) to the staff, the 15% on board service charge goes to the company. So for the staff it is totally umimportant if you pre book your drinks or buy on boards.

20 hours ago, Reds4life said:

Oops, I guess just the Diamond folk get something good lol! 

On trips with a lot of tender ports the tender priority is a great thing. On trips with no or only one tender Gold is almost useless indeed.