Homosassa

My husband turned to me and said he saw more finesse in choreography at strip clubs during his military service.

My daughter was a child that would eat and enjoy almost everything we gave her (39 now and still won't at lobster). She cried the first time we were given a children's menu on a cruise because of the limited and boring selections on the menu. What we found worked well when she was the age of your son and was not eating adult size meals was to include her in the discussion of what my husband and I were eating and to see if anything else on the menu appealed to her. If she liked what we were eating, we had the waiter bring a empty plate for her with each of our courses and gave her part of each item from our plates. As we ordered multiple courses (appetizers, salad, main entree) there was plenty of food. She always could chose her own dessert.

LOL - you are being very very polite. There was no sophistication in the presentation of the show when we saw it. It was more on the sniggering level of middle school boys making comments about girls or for the overserved adult males in the audience.

If you arrive when the terminal is open for incoming new passengers, there is no problem. I am attaching a link to terminal six. It is the terminal often used by Celebrity ships. The roadway directly in front of the terminal is narrow and one way. If one arrives before the terminal is available for incoming passengers, the vehicles will be sent back out of the port area or may be sent to wait in the parking area before the terminal ramp. The County Sheriff's deputies directing the traffic flow are not impressed by any excuses for early arrival. https://www.porttb.com/cruise-terminal-6

First, let me point out that I am not a NCL cheerleader. It is a cruise line that is on my personal "Do Not Sail" list for many reasons. However, to be fair, a cruise line can not control the wind and tides that may make a safe entrance into a port a problem at any given time. While a rowboat admiral may be standing on the deck of a ship with the sun shining down, the marine conditions (tides, currents, winds) that are predicted for a port may be telling a different story to the ship's captain and navigation staff. I just looked at the NOAA website and a site specific for the Dominican Republic. There are marine warnings out for the waters of the southern Atlantic and northeast Caribbean. They are unchanged from yesterday when I looked them up. There may very well be wind, tide, and current problems for entrance into Dominican Republic ports.

If one books a guarantee rate cabin, the cabin assigned can be changed up to the time one checks in at the pier without any notification. Don't worry, the cabin steward of your final cabin assignment will track down your luggage if you checked them with the porters with incorrect luggage tags.

Why don't you all check out the marine forecast for the ports in question before casting aspersions on the cruise line for port decisions?

Many of us have the signature feature for posters turned off as it makes pages easier to load.

OP, you do not state your embarkation port. There are ports (Tampa comes to mind) where the size of the terminal and traffic pattern into and out of the drop off area means those that are arriving before the curbside area is available for incoming passengers will not be given access to drop luggage off or gain access to the terminal building.

There is a poster on this thread that reminds me of Henny Penney and the sky....

It is none of our business.

No. There is Explora Journeys.

OP, Check the ports of any itinerary you wish to take. While the birth certificate and government ID is all that is needed to leave and enter the US for US citizens, that are still countries that are included in closed loop cruises from the US that do require passports for cruise ship passengers,

The "poaching" was part of the market strategy when MSC was expanding into the US markets. On a MSC cruise before covid, we were in a conversation with a ship's officer who was walking around the buffet at lunch and asking passengers how the cruise was going and were there any questions. We commented we were repeat MSC cruisers and were enjoying the cruise. He asked what lines we cruised on other than MSC, and we told at that point, we cruised HAL, Princess, Celebrity, Viking, and Oceania. After experiencing Carnival (never again), the down marketing of Royal Caribbean, and the joke of NCL "Freestyle" cruising, we no longer cruised those lines . We than asked why the emphasis in the US marketing seemed to be to pull from the big three bottom tier lines. He told us that when MSC was developing the strategy for expanding into the US, the marketing people felt that people on the higher tier lines were happy with those lines and would not be as likely to try MSC. The thrust of gaining a passenger base in the US was to offer cruises at a low competitive price to Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL and attract their passengers who may have become dissatisfied with cruise experience on those lines and, I quote, "Be looking to move up" to the cruise experience of HAL, Princess, and Celebrity. Essentially, the MSC cruise fares in the US have been subsidize by the company to build a passenger base. Covid travel restrictions did mess up MSC cruising. I am happy to see that MSC is now back on track and taking steps to once again offer the pre covid onboard cruise experience. The deletion of the drink packages for shorter cruise itineraries (3-4 day) and the decision that the type of drink package for any MSC cruise and itinerary can vary for any cruise date and itinerary will help weed out the booze cruise crowd. I have also recently read a review of someone off a MSC cruise who discovered, as has been standard on MSC cruises, that alcohol availability can also be limited by the number of bars open at any time , the hours of operation, and the somewhat light pours. The reviewer did not mention if the restriction on carrying an alcoholic beverage into the MDR is still in place (can be ordered once at the table, however, by design , the bar service is slow and infrequent). Wine is easily available. At some point, the MSC US fares will rise when the fares are no longer subsidized by MSC and will end the cruising of those that think MSC is another party booze cruise.

MSC is already changing their operations due to problems with the cliental that their lower prices have been attracting. Drink packages are no longer available on short cruises (three-four days) and may or not be available on any cruise itinerary date based upon the projected passenger composition. The former no frills Bella category is now strictly a guarantee cabin rate. Status matches are no longer as generous in matching with a higher MSC status. As restrictions on traveling lift around the world, MSC will once again be able to fill their ships (including US sailings) with the international passenger mix that are are travel sophisticated and cosmopolitan. IMO, MSC will soon the raising cruise fares to act as a gatekeeper of passenger demographics and a return to attracting the marketing demographic which has been their strong niche over the years.

Some cruise lines and some travel agents have caught onto the book multiple cruises for the same period to fare shop at the time of final payment game. It is possible if the cruise dates of the two different booking are for the same time period, the second booking will not be accepted. I know my TA's agency now tracks client booking across the various cruise lines and travel agents to avoid the multiple bookings for cruise fare shopping.

Many of us have tried to educate you on this issue. To mix metaphors, the horse is dead and the water trough still full. As you leave NCL, please think about whether if cruising is for you. The handling of port fees (estimation of fees for itineraries, collection of fees with cruise payment, and refunding or not refunding if a port is missed) is standard across all cruise lines. If you continue to cruise, the refund or not of port fees will occur again.

There are separate boards for individual ships. However, they are not associated with Cruise Critic and, by CC rules, can not be specifically mentioned or linked to. This is a case where Goggle ca be your friend.

Yes, we have commented on that before. Baltimore would work for me , too.

That means you can receive a free copy pf a photo that you have sat for (studio), had taken at the table at dinner, and taken with the Captain on the night he is available to have a photo taken. LOL at the free Virtual World attraction. Line will be very long. They can be an hour (hours) wait time.

Make very sure that the cell phones are either completely turned off or are in air plane mode at all times. It will save any surprise for roaming on your cell phone bill.

For anyone cruising MSC, I would also read and understand the health and safety section of the Terms and Conditions on the website that outlines the cruise line's right and responsibility to change and implement any restrictions or procedures at any point including at embarkation, during the cruise and debarkation. While a passing reference is made to the law and Executive Orders of Florida state, please be aware that there have been many discussions (on this site and elsewhere) that note and explain the Mack track size loopholes that were written into the Executive Orders and laws that do allow for any necessary changes to procedures for documentation or practices to control disease spread.

Actually there are many Caribbean ports that some of the MSC cruises are too large for either the channels or piers. However, this is a problem that many of today's mega ships share. If the Armonia ever comes back into the US (Tampa home port, please), the ship was smaller enough to do different ports that the larger ships.

Depending on the ship and itineraries, it is very possible that cabin for his first two day sailing is not available because some one else is booked in the cabin through the start of the second cruise leg. MSC does designate cabins to be available for passengers embarking and debarking at the various ports or for passengers from different markets around the world. And be very careful with any idea of cancellation, especially a YC cabin. If one reads MSC's terms and conditions, it is vey likely any deposit (or the complete fare) will be lost.

You must always check this information for yourself (along with any required documents for the cruise). Claiming that (place entity here) told you (or didn't tell you) makes no difference when denied boarding at the pier. I booked a cruise back in July for January 2o23. At the time testing was required for all passengers. It has been changed and is currently testing is not required. However, with the current problems with the triple disease epidemic, I will check the requirements to see if any change has been made.