notley-cruise

Yes, my wife and I discussed the American purchasing power thing after our last cruise. I'm British, she's European, and we both have colleagues in USA. We both take something like eight weeks holiday per year, whilst US takes way less. For myself Europe now feels quite expensive, but the Americans don't seem to flinch at the prices. Is the USA equally expensive ? Do Europeans visiting the US find it expensive ? As regards experiences, after selecting the cruise and drinks package, your cabin selection determines your experience, it should be the same Bella, Fantastica, Aurea experience maybe just described differently. There are some interesting naunces with booking in UK, Europe, RoW vs. USA. i.e. UK bookers always have gratuities included and are offered Premium Plus drinks package at 60% discount, where France sees the gratuity listed separately, and US gets offered the Easy Plus drinks package by default.

As a passenger I'd expect to have zero interaction with the Cruise director, Hotel manager, Bridge staff or other management roles. Never understood why some people are interested in who the leadership team on a ship are. Does it really make or break a cruise for you ? Does it change how the hotel, restaurant and bar services are run ?

On the MSCCruises.Co.UK website there's a destination category 'Cruises from UK', believe those use GBP onboard, rather than EUR. On MSCCruisesUSA.Com and MSCCroisieres.Fr there's no such category, they are lumped in with 'Northern Europe' even when the destinations are the Canary Isles and North Africa !

As in, using your cruise card or wristband for priority call and destination on the lift lobby panels ? 😉 Sshh

UK based ships use Great British Pounds. The onship exchange rates are lousy, so avoid using cash. Casino play can be against your cabin account and won't show as a gambling transaction or cash advance on the associated card. There's no need to tip onboard. Hotel service charge is either prepaid or added to cabin bill at end. Drinks package includes bar gratuity.

The way MSC works is the waiter takes your cruise card, goes to the bar, orders the drink, the bartender makes the drink, then swipes their cashier card, enters the drinks order, then swipes your cruise card, then the waiter returns to you with your drink and cruise card. I guess if the bartender forgets to signout that transaction, then all their future orders continue to go onto the signed in cruise account ! On the flip side, as a family group we had two cabins and a suite, only two of us had a drinks package, none of the waiters had an issue with us ordering a round of drinks for the table.

We can attest to that ! On a recent MSC cruise somehow our cruise card was used to ring up fifty drinks on the first night in the casino. We informed guest services the first four were ours, and not the rest, but they weren't bothered at all. By the end of a seven day cruise we had 350 drinks on our all-inclusive account for no charge...

Yes, you can do a bank transfer to MSC Cruises, for onboard credit for a future cruise. You can specify whether it's credited to your cabin account or your casino account. Phone your region's MSC call center for the specifics. FYI, Don't trust the cabin safes with large sums of cash, then can be opened easily with a magnet.

Also since it's anytime dining, the plate arrival is more spaced out for them across the session.

There's a self-disembark time slot, but so many people try to use it, it somewhat defeats the purpose. We always stay on board as long as possible to let the crowds disperse, have a leisurely breakfast, grab a few drinks to go and make full use of the facilities and drinks package, dispite having priority disembarkation.

Free upgrades within category just happen, based on unavailable unsold cabins I guess ? The restaurant manager was also willing to upgrade our relatives to 'any time' dining so we could also dine together and share a family sized table. Again, that's at their discretion and based on sailing under capacity.

Charging for main dining room extra selections is dependent on the sailing. It only seems to be a US thing currently. By entree, do you mean main ? And by appetizer, starter ? European sailings don't charge extra for additional starters, mains or desserts. If you aren't happy with a dish, send it back and request a replacement !

WiFI is only included in Yacht Club experience, for lower tiers it's a chargeable extra, cheaper if purchased prior to boarding. But it's the English Channel, you're never going to be far from land for long. Do you have free EU roaming from your UK mobile airtime provider ?

That's never been our experience with MSC. Ordered espresso coffees with breakfast, tomato juices, cans of pepsi & bottled water 'to go' on departure day; no issues.

@SewKate5 Whilst there is reserved YC seating it's at the rear of the theatre, so if you want the best views of the dancers and performers, you should reserve, arrive early and nap some seats front and centre.

Soon as you have your cruise card you are good to use the drinks package. NB MSC doesn't seem to strictly enforce embarkation times. Bufffet is open twenty hours a day. For restaurants check the daily program, breakfast and lunch are typically two hour time slots, dinner a little longer. Disembarkation times are allocated by class and loyalty status. There's a self disembark option for those with no checked baggage. Enjoy the ship, explore the available bars and entertainment venues. Plan for a longer future cruise and bid on a Yacht Club upgrade...

@SewKate5 Find the YC tent outside Southampton cruise terminal, hand over your luggage, YC staff will guide you through security to check in and then you'll wait in the YC lounge with orange juice / mimosas until boarding commences. Once onboard you can be guided and assisted everywhere by your YC butler, MSC YC on Virtuosa UK sailings really is an excellent experience.

'Operational reasons', it's only 25 minutes from Cannes, RyanAir would call that Nice 😉 'Fuel optimisation' is a popular excuse with certain other cruise lines.

@abbeydoo Far as I'm aware all Gold level perks still apply on mini cruises, although there may not be a voyagers club invitational event, unless it's part of a longer cruise. Complimentary one-hour thermal area session once per cruise Complimentary gift Priority disembarkation in ports where a tender boat is required Complimentary MSC Voyagers Club Photo Complimentary birthday cake 30% off on onboard pictures 15% off on digital accessories 10% off on Wi-Fi packages (Browse Cruise / Browse & Stream Cruise) 10% off on laundry

.

Yeah, juice is breakfast only fleetwide, unless you have a drinks package which covers it.

Good Old British Pounds Sterling

Our last family cruise on MSC was a tri-lingual group. Breakfast was available in all three languages, Lunch and Dinner in only two. Our assigned waiter was wonderfully patient whilst options were translated back and forth !

MSC typically has menus available in six or so languages for dinner and lunch, exactly which ones depends on sailing. Breakfast menu is fixed so they have that in more languages.

Yes, they have paper menus for the oldies and technophobes.