SeaSwirl66

Out of curiosity, how much did you bid on the wheel to get your upgrade? We sail next week and have had a bid in 'Strong' for the last month or so. Trying to decide when to just cancel the upgrade bid and buy drinks package.

Recent trip on Virtuosa as gold + black, very disappointed with voyagers club. On embarkation and disembarkation there was zero priority, only priority for YC. On embarkation day, spumante and macaroons plus small chocolate bar were delivered (no fruit bowl). This was the only recognition of status for the entire week. Had to go down to guest services on the penultimate day to ask about the thermal spa and speciality dinner - on all our previous cruises letters inviting us to these perks were left in the cabin. This experience certainly left us considering if the 'loyalty' benefits were worth the loyalty.. (Hopefully this doesn't come off as snobby, we very much enjoyed the cruise, just disappointed not to receive benefits that we enjoyed on previous cruises. I'm assuming it's related to post-covid belt tightening on MSCs part)

Booked Bella balcony, was assigned Fantastica.. waiting to hear if YC upgrade request has been accepted...

https://www.msccruises.co.uk/health-and-safety-measures/northern-europe-and-cruises-from-uk They've updated this page (and the same one for med cruises) and removed the line about self tests not being accepted. We'll be ordering two Randox tests and feeling a lot more confident now. Thank you everyone for your replies, much appreciated.

Thank you all! Erring towards just getting a couple of the Randox tests and bringing them with us. Will try and get to the port early, if they don't accept Randox certs there should be enough time to make a mad dash to a pharmacy.... If only the website was clearer!!

Typical MSC! I may send them an email to get it in writing too then book a tele-health one like @mnpurple suggested. This is what's confusing me from: https://www.msccruises.co.uk/health-and-safety-measures/mediterranean

Due to depart from Barcelona on the Virtuosa in the next few weeks. Does anyone know where we can get our covid tests done? When we departed Naples last year basically every pharmacy offered testing for just €15. Going by the MSC website, self-tests are not accepted, does this include tele-health testing?

As a gold and diamond member, we've never received anything from MSC - probably because we're status match blow-ins from RC!

Great write up! Will you be posting a video on your YouTube of this trip? Were the tapas in the sky lounge included/free?