JamieLogical

Yeah, on MSC they would always bring the little bowl of chips and little bowl of peanuts while we were having our pre-dinner drinks and I didn't want to spoil my appetite, but I could not resist them. Worse yet was when we would hang out at a bar after dinner and the would bring us even more! I already lack willpower when it comes to food. Throw in salty snacks and alcohol and I don't stand a chance.

Just know your limits. I learned I could handle 3 before lunch, but 4 was one too many and I would spend the rest of the day in a coma!

Definitely avoid MSC if that is the case. They serve little bowls of chips and peanuts every evening in all the bars onboard.

Thank you for the well wishes. Ted was one of my favorite humans and I am so glad I got to have him in my life. If it weren't for Ted, I never would have given MSC a shot, so you can thank him for all of my Live Blogs too! Our solo cruise crew is really struggling with the news and I hope we can use our cruise on the Merviglia in October as a chance to memorialize him and honor him for bringing us all together.

I believe if your port was going to be changed, you would have already been notified. The changes to the port schedules in Jamaica have all been pretty well established now that everything has been rearranged due to the one pier closure.

I learned that @ESCARGO passed away on February 28. His funeral was held on Monday. I am struggling with the news, but I thought you would want to know.

On NCL, nearly everyone has their "Free at Sea" promotion, which includes the unlimited drink package. No one purchases it at the per day price, they get it bundled into their cruise fare along with specialty dining, shore excursion credits, and wifi. When booking the Free at Sea promotion, you "only" pay the gratuities for the drink package which is why the price per day for the drink package is so artificially inflated. They can say the package is "worth" $109/day, so they can charge everyone the $20/day gratuity on the package.

I don't see how price is relevant. The person I quoted was concerned that if Princess made their drink package unlimited, it would lead to "bad behaviour , drunkenness followed by bad language and fighting and impacting on other passengers." My point was that other cruise lines have unlimited beverage packages and it hasn't descended into chaos.

Other cruise lines seem to do just fine with unlimited drink packages. I have sailed on NCL, Celebrity, and MSC. All of the drink packages on those lines are unlimited. Princess is the only one I have sailed on that has a drink number limit.

I would have more sympathy for them if they hadn't taken to the media and tried to make it sound like they were wronged by NCL.

The Sun Princess finally has a new room configuration and glass shower doors! Only took them a quarter century to catch up to the rest of the mainstream lines.

I was going to comment on the buffet hours as well. Every MSC cruise I have been on so far, including several on the Meraviglia, the buffet was open until around 1:00am. Dinner shut down around 9:00, but then there were snacks available until 1:00am. The snacks included pizza, burgers, hot dogs, fries, premade sandwiches, and fruit.

Good overall review. I will say that you shouldn't miss the "library." Even before the conversion to extra casino space, it was a couple of shelves with about 10 total books and puzzles missing pieces. Honestly, a non-smoking extension of the casino was a HUGE improvement in terms of use of space! Surprised about not seeing your room steward until day 3 and no business card for him/he left in your cabin. On every MSC sailing I have been on, including 4-5 on the Meraviglia, I have met my steward on the first day and he has always left a business card on the desk in my room.

That is unfortunate, but what was HAL to do? Either 33 people could miss the canal tranist or 3000 people could.

Right... travel insurance should cover this... not the cruise line.

Oh great. Now we all get to pay for their stupidity! Edit: now seeing they are only being reimbursed for travel from Gambia to Senegal. That is more reasonable since NCL did miss the Gambia port stop. But still, none of this reimbursement would be necessary if the group hadn't missed the ship in the first place.

I just use my same packing list from cruise to cruise and adjust the totals for the number of days. It helps that I have an entire cruise wardrobe that is separate from the clothes I wear in my everyday life.

They have eliminated hash browns and cookies on NCL and it is a whole scandal. Meanwhile, on all of my recent cruises (MSC) there are plenty of hash browns to be had, but good luck finding ketchup for them! I like mine with ketchup and apparently getting ketchup at breakfast is like asking for ice cream at breakfast? Pertaining to the OP, I had similar problems with the MDR omelets on my Emerald Princess sailing in late 2022/early 2023.

What is NCL or any cruise line supposed to do? If a passenger has a medical emergency and has to be medically evacuated, it is on them to get themselves home. That is why travel insurance is a thing! I was on MSC with a friend back in October, he lost consciousness and fell getting out of the elevator, breaking his nose in the fall. There was blood everywhere and he was SUPER out of it. He was taken to the medical center and evaluated. He couldn't even answer simple questions like what year it was. Luckily, we were in port and they were able to call an ambulance and get him off the ship to a hospital. MSC's responsibility ended the moment he was taken away in the ambulance. It was up to him to find local accommodations once he was discharged and make his own way home once he was able to fly. None of us had ANY EXPECTATION WHATSOEVER that the cruise line owed him anything or had any responsibility for anything once he was no longer onboard.

I just saw this story reported on CNN. Since when is cruise passengers missing a ship while on a private tour national news?!?! Doesn't stuff like this happen every day? God knows I've seen enough videos of pier runners and heard enough names called over the PA before disembarking to know that this is not at all rare....

I've never booked YC, so you are probably right.

Extra OBC, lower deposit (non-refundable), and double points are the main ones. There is also a price guarantee so that if the price drops before final payment, you can get the price adjusted. This does actually work, as we did it when the price dropped on one of our sailings, but a lot of the general MSC reps will tell you there is no such thing and you might have to escalate it and provide proof, so save the info you receive with your booking.

The text before the announcement graphic specifically mentions "New round trip sailings from New York," but maybe people are missing that and only reading the text in the graphic?

Definitely sounds like Bermuda is not for you. Luckily, there are lots of other great cruise destinations as well.

I am not sure what the current dining/show schedule onboard is, but looking at some of the Dailies from one of my recent sailings, here were the times: First Seating: Waves - 17:30 Panorama - 18:00 L'Olivo/L'Olive - 18:30 Second Seating: Waves - 19:30 Panorama - 20:30 L'Olivo/L'Olive - 21:00 Show times were at 19:30 and 21:30. Dinner in the MDR usually takes about 1.5 hours. The shows are 45 minutes.