trainbuff

Indeed I was talking about onboard charges. To the posters who criticized my credit card choice I too have cards that do not charge a foreign transaction fee. I did not use one of those cards as I certainly did not expect on a cruise sailing roundtrip from NYC  for my card to be processed in France. I called MSC customer service today, held on for an hour and they never answered the phone.

After my recent awful Octover 8 cruise on the Meraviligia , I received my credit card bill for my onboard charges. The cruise was roundtrip from NYC and booked with MSCin Miami. MSCprocessed the charge in Paris, France which means my credit card company charged a foreign transaction fee. I am disputing the charge as MSC USA should not be processing credit card charges on US sailings in Europe.

I used to say the worst food I ever had on a cruise was on the long defunct Epirotiki Line. The food on MSC was far worse. Most food items were cold or lukewarm and most meat could neither be cut or chewed..Many items such as the awful chicken cordon blue according to my waiter come out of a box and are only heated onboard.

The tissue ppolicy is just plain stupid and increases the spread of illnesses on the ship. I have allergies and was able to get tissues after the cabin steward got permission from his supervisor. I did tell the cabin steward who was very good by the way, that if the supervisor denied the request, I would speak to him myself. After that I had more than enough tissues, but this is a ridiculous policy.

My post was in no way attacking the OP. It was merely stating the real reason we left Quebec early as told to me by the cruise director.

The stay in Quebec was not cut short because of whales. This is yet another lie fed to some passengers by the reception staff. Nobody could know if whales would be a problem a week before we were to leave Quebec since the whales go where they want, when they want. The real reason as explained to me in a conversation with the cruise director was they wanted to get to NY earlier due to the embarkation fiasco. We arrived back in NY before 2am.

I was on the Oct. 8 sailing and the food was awful. Meats were very tough, food was often cold and items were not as they should be. Two examples a crab cake that had no crab but was mainly potatoes with a little fake crab, and an inedibly fishy grey rather than white New England clam chowder. Ncl food is gourmet by comparison.

Regarding the lifeboat drill on the Oct 8 disaster of a sailing my muster station was in the promenade under the dome. My cruise card was scanned to verify my attendance. The drill in this location was a joke as you could not hear the safety talk clearly and a waiter eas going around during the drill trying to sell specialty dining. Unbelievable.

I have been on other cruises that did not have enough lounge seats but on none was the problem as bad as this ship. There is no question that leaving late was the reason for missing Sidney. According to the navigation channel on the tv we were passing Sidney at 3pm . We were due there at 1pm. Simple math to figure out that had we left on time instead of 2 hours 30 minutes late we would have been on time.

I was on this sailing but not in the Yacht Club. I have cruised over 50 times and this was by far the worst cruise I have ever been on. The food was absolutely awful and often cold. Service was hit and miss and I was lied to about issues several times. The lounges are way too small for the number of passengers and getting a seat to hear music or for trivia or other games was often impossible. The real reason we missed Sidney was because we left NY  at 730 instead of 5 due to the embarkation fiasco, had we left on time we would have arrived on time in Sidney.