Illbcruzn4life

2 minutes ago, jame_g said:

When we were on the Seashore, the softserve was at the dessert station at the back of the buffet from about 2-5 pm. It could have changed by now, but it was the same on our recent Seascape cruise.

yes that's the place. Grandmas chocolate cake, YUM!

i believe it is located right next the area where the kids buffet items are.

On 5/17/2024 at 8:37 AM, wolft927 said:

Always call as I get the 5% for status as well as 5% for booking more then 9 months out too

I couldn't do that today as I booked this morning and will be leaving in 3 weeks. I did get the 5% discount when I entered my voyager # as Essie stated.

7 hours ago, Lbsahm said:

Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. 
 

it seem to me that that Yacht Clubbers, make up a good portion of the posters here? I wonder if Cruise Critic could add on an MSC Yacht Club sub category. 

I find it amusing that you can post a question about an inside cabin and along will come somebody who responds. "if you can book the Yacht club, do it."

Now if I am posting about an inside cabin I am pretty certain I can't afford the Yacht club. lol

1 hour ago, Mustanggirl said:

Question, for MTD can you really request a real table for 2 (not a foot away from the next table)?  Haven't done MTD in a few years and that was the reason we hated it, but I love the flexibility MTD gives you.

they are usually less than a foot apart. You might be able to get a table by yourself but there aren't a lot of them.

10 hours ago, bucfan2 said:

Made me laugh.  Enjoy your cruise.

quite the oxymoron

5 hours ago, scottie99 said:

On Anthem on Sunday.

 

I realise I’m asking some basic questions for a D+ but it’s been a while since our last cruise pre covid and so much seems to have changed.

 

We are MTD and when I finally realised we should book times ( def a contradiction in my view!), we could only get 19.45 . Now the planner has been published, this clashes with entertainment we would like to attend on a couple of occasions.

 

Can we just turn up early (or later)  and hopefully get a table, or, should we try and change prior to any clash.

 

Or, is there a walk up line for MTDers

 

Thanks

 

 

on our last cruise we also had MTD. Apparently MTD doesn't start until after the people from first seating are finishing up. From years gone by we used to get MTD and eat in between 5:30pm and 6pm. If we book any RCL cruises going forward we will pick first seating.

On 4/1/2024 at 9:58 AM, alserrod said:

 

You can

 

1- Just pay the price for any game/slot/...

 

2- Buy credit for them.

If you buy credit you will have extra money as promotion but it is not refundable. In that case it will go to YOUR card (not to your daugther's card). She will be able to use it providing you are who pays.

 

 

 

can they keep grack of your playing with the band and not having your card inserted?

1 hour ago, marktwothousand said:

I think you’re probably right that I’m overthinking it, but it wouldn’t be a stretch for MSC (or any cruise line) to consider an interior yacht club room a step up from an existing regular balcony 

i'd say it's a big upgrade to most people

5 minutes ago, Agrajag27 said:

Phew. Had a near-disaster. I was on with a rep and going over some things and I mentioned that none of my add-ons are showing in the web interface. She said, "What add-ons?" I explained we paid $140 for an upgrade to Premium drinks package and she said, "I don't see that anywhere." I KNOW it was there. So I find it on my first confirmation. I explain it. She digs deeper and we realize someone on their side just refunded it for no reason. At first she was like, "Well, what if the price is higher now?" Uh, that's not my problem. So she finally got the okay to just add it back in. Good thing I saw that, but it STILL isn't appearing in the add-ons section of the web interface. 

My buddy had his gender as female. Called to get it changed and the rep wiped out his whole reservation.

10 minutes ago, Agrajag27 said:

So they have a buffet for thousands of people at ONE location? Wow. I literally had this image of food being out at every bar area and such nearly 24/7. Wild expectations reset.

 

I also didn't realize our Aurea anytime meals are in one specific restaurant. Kinda cool. Going to assume even though they're anytime, they still likely need reservations.

no reservations needed. Just show up between the hours listed and you will be good.

56 minutes ago, Agrajag27 said:

Gotta say Debbie, that this is both great and also overwhelming. My wife will implode when she sees these sheets as she'll want to go over every line item and make sure we're not missing anything. Will we really only get these the morning of? 

Somebody else already mentioned it but it's worth repeating. Don't try to do everything. If you do you will be coming home exhausted.

1 hour ago, Agrajag27 said:

We're going on our first cruise ever after a lifetime of thinking I'd get to it at some point and now, decades later, finally getting there. We're starting light with a 7-night cruise on Seashore out of Port Canaveral and heading to Ocean Cay and two Mexico stops.

 

We decided to try out the Aurea experience in a Balcony Suite with drinks/wifi and upgraded to Premium drinks. We expect we won't do that going forward, but felt the stress of spending too much was less than the angst of wishing we had. 

 

So, at this point we're both overwhelmed. What do we do immediately upon getting aboard with a 12pm boarding slot and thus 5 hours to fill in before embarking? We have no idea if much of the ship is accessible at that point. Are the buffets up and going? Are the venues all open? Are pools accessible? I do know we want to check Wifi immediately and book certain things, but that raises other confusion.

 

The thermal suite, for example, confuses both of us. What the heck do you do in a snowsuite? We obviously won't be bringing winter gear and sitting in a freezing room for any time in shorts seems an odd thing to bring one pleasure -- and still we want to experience it, but can't imagine just walking in, going "that's cold" and walking out. I love the sound of some of the showers, but is that an experience or is that a shower after a sauna? And given all this, when do you want to book them for? Immediately? That night? Times? How long do these things in there last? What will it conflict with? There seems so much competing for your time that FOMO seems inevitable. How does everyone overcome it?

 

Other non-first day questions:

 

We apparently get two Gala dinners so seems a bad idea to book a Specialty restaurant for those nights, and are we expected to dress up? If so, to what degree? Business Casual? Sportscoat and slacks okay? Truly formal? 

 

How do most people go about planning out their detailed itinerary? It sounds like we won't really know what the schedule is until we're on the ship and given the WiFi restrictions, I planned to use my phone for the device, but doing itineraries on it seems like torture. Is there a third-party app that helps with organizing this? Their own app is barely working for us 87 days out. Constant errors and it doesn't seem to know about our upgrades though Support swears they're still in there, but in another area. Given all this, I'd be surprised if it's a good tool for handling itineraries. I just HATE not having a detailed plan. Just running into things around the ship isn't my cup of tea.

 

Thanks for ANY insight in helping to make this a better experience. Already signed up for Voyagers Club (though the app doesn't seem to realize it).

We were on the Seashore for 2 weeks last month and we only had 1 formal night each week. Also the appworks so much better once you are onboard the ship.

55 minutes ago, Tierun said:

Isn’t Amber Cove owned by Carnival? Or is it just that only their cruise lines (i.e. Princess, HAL) dock there.

I believe you are correct. Went there on the Carnival Celebration last year. Was at Taino Bay last month

Taino Bay and imho Taino Bay is a lot nicer than Amber Cove. 

On 4/6/2024 at 12:44 PM, rikitikitavii said:

We have been on 7 MSC cruises and never had that experience. In fact, my wife and I are not messy people and tell the room steward to skip our room for the day, if he looks busy. We don’t need fresh towels daily, we hang them up to dry. We also make up the bed, just like at home. Maybe your expectations were geared more to one of the luxury cruise lines!!

Our first msc cruise last june on Meraviglia our cabin steward was not very good either. Never saw him the whole week until the last night. Room was also never vacuumed all week and towels forgotten. Not as bad as OP but geez justdo the basics and I’m happy.

11 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

You are right. Actually there is absolutely no need to tell anyone you are not coming the next day. But one can make the life of the waiter a little bit more easy if telling him that you will not be here next evening. 

Most times we don't know the day before. How can we handle that with notifying the waiter? If we are exhausted from a day at the beach or something we may just opt for the buffet.

37 minutes ago, ajoneen said:

Does the 1 free change include a price reduction?  if so will that work for YC also? 

My quandary: 

I want to book now, as exactly what I want is available, but will also be on board Memorial day do might get better deal with Mday sale and/or onboard booking credit- but desired cabin might be gone.  

(I don't have a TA yet- am hoping to talk with other folks on this cruise to get input on that) 

do you details of the Memorial day sale?

9 hours ago, simplelife said:

If you switch to get the drink package for the two of you instead of all of you, won"t you lose the casino offer for the 2nd room?

So nobody that has the casino offer has to be booked in the cabin? That doesn’t right.

1 hour ago, epanchenko said:

 

Purchases I made appeared relatively quickly in the app.

Same here but not usually instantaneous. Usually within 15 to a few hours on Seashore

1 hour ago, alserrod said:

 

Hi, 

 

No....with Easy pack beer is MAINLY BUT NOT ONLY Heineken.

 

as draft beer, definitely you will only have Heineken

But as bottle beer, in Sports bar they have a longer beer menu and some out of them are also included in Easy Pack.

 

Depending on where you are travelling (port of departure) you will have one or other offer. This is.... not only heineken in some bars (only heineken in pool bar, buffet or so)

 

 

 

 

that does not apply to cruises in the U.S.

On 3/28/2024 at 12:03 PM, jdvmd said:

Today, the Magnifica is anchored and no tendering because of the winds. The World Cruise Poesia is sitting there. My friend onboard is not happy.

I didn't know they tendered there.

1 hour ago, tnaegele said:

Hey!

Can you really only get Heineken with the easy package?  It says in fine print sometimes it's another beer...has anyone ever been on a cruise and given something other than Heineken?

are you sure you only have the easy package? As stated already Heineken draft is all that's available on the easy package? 

On 4/21/2024 at 12:02 PM, dbrown84 said:

does MSC, especially the Seashore, have made to order stations in the buffet for lunch/dinner?  I'm thinking pasta station, stir fry, or noodle bar.  I'm assuming they have omelet/egg stations at breakfast

On Seashore they had an omelet station. Only 3 choices. Ham,cheese, and something that looked like pico. 
 

they had a fried rice station at the buffet.