Elkins45

When I started cruising MSC after the restart in 2021 almost every four day cruise out of Port Canaveral was an overnight stay at Ocean Cay and a day in Nassau. Now it seems a majority of the four day offerings only stop at OC for the day and then insert a sea day. In case anyone from MSC happens to be reading this, let it be known that I do not approve. Overnight at OC was the highlight of the short cruises. Please schedule more.

My wife received a free cruise offer with several options. Some were listed as “Concierge Class Stateroom” and the others as Veranda Stateroom. Veranda is pretty clear: it’s a balcony room, right? But what is Concierge Class? Googling hasn’t really helped me understand what that means. Can an interior stateroom be Concierge Class or is it automatically a nicer version of a veranda room?

You can also try to go through one of the third party bookers.

I don’t know if it’s the same one but I took one of the MSC tours of Nassau when I was on Meraviglia in 2021. It drove thru Atlantis, went to the Queen’s Staircase, and stopped at a rum factory, and drove around to a few other sights. I think it was only like $50. It was OK, not spectacular. I didn’t find the rum factory particularly interesting.

I’m waking up this older thread because there are some cruises listed now that have <100% single supplement rates. If you’re interested in a solo MSC cruise then now might be the time to book one.

Some of the online cruise resellers may still have some solo availability even after MSC stops selling. I discovered solo cruising with MSC at exactly the wrong time (immediately after the 21 restart) because the low rates spoiled me. I did a four day solo balcony on Meraviglia in December 2021 for <$200. I doubt that will ever happen again.

Sadly it looks like I won’t be able to take advantage of any of these offers. I hope they send me another one in the future.

I don’t think we have a PCC from Holland American. That’s interesting because our Carnival PVP contacts us all the time and Norwegian assigned me one before I even booked my first cruise with them. I suppose we don’t have one because our only HA cruise was arranged Boyd Rewards and not with HA or a TA directly.

A little background: my wife likes to play the slot machines and one of the comps she gets is an occasional free cruise offer. I'm not a gambler and I get nothing. Over Christmas we took our first free HA cruise.She spent considerable time in the casino. I might have played $100 worth of blackjack but honestly I can't remember if I did or not. Fast forward to a couple of days ago when I (not she) received an email offering me a free inside cabin on a fairly decent selection of HA cruises. Of course I know it's not really free because gratuities and port fees aren't included, but it's still tempting offer. Do any of you know if they will honor this offer for a single cruiser? The fine print on the offer says "rates based on double occupancy" but doubling a free fare is still $0 by my math. My wife is unavailable for all of the ones that are attractive to me but I might consider going by myself if HA will let me without paying for the empty second bunk. Yes, I know I can just call and ask, but why wait on hold and use up my minutes when somebody here might already know? I'm still wondering why they sent me the offer and not her. They won't have any chance of winning it back from me in the casino.

Carnival has many more itineraries from US ports than MSC, and I like their food and shows slightly better than MSC. I also find their customer service to be more responsive. I like that MSC sometimes has better solo rates, I love their overnights at Ocean Cay, and their pizza is awesome. I also like the older and calmer clientele with fewer kids. The Carnival 24 hour party atmosphere can be a bit much. I think I slightly prefer MSC, all things considered, mostly because of the lower number of kids.

My first MSC cruise was after the Covid restart. I picked them because they had a great rate for a solo cruiser, but mostly for curiosity. I had very low expectations for the price, so I was quite pleasantly surprised by my Divina experience. Unfortunately as cruising has crept back toward normalcy the fantastic single rates seem to be fading. Now my favorite thing is Ocean Cay.

I liked the ship and I liked how Carnival handled the situation. I didn’t like how crowded it was. Unfortunately when you’re on a ship with 6000+ people there are always going to be long lines for everything. Our fault for picking their newest ship in June, but in the future I’m going to try to limit our Carnival sailings to off-peak times and (especially) smaller ships. I think I’m just generically programmed to be uncomfortable jammed together with that many people.

I’m reminded of a joke. How can you deduce if you’re with someone who is a former Marine, someone who doesn’t own a TV, or someone who doesn’t fly? You don’t have to deduce it: they will tell you.

On our first cruise in 2015 we did the muster drill standing out on the exposed deck by the lifeboats. That was where our muster station was located. On Celebration last week our muster station was the casino and they just scanned our cards. I know how to put on a life vest and I appreciate not having to stand out in the heat, but I must admit I did like at least knowing where my lifeboat was the old way. There was no lifeboat hiding between the slot machines.

Our total additional costs are a Lyft to the hotel, a day’s food and an extra day of pet boarding. Probably $150 at most, not even enough to bother submitting on our travel insurance. We just arrived home and I’m happy to be sleeping in my own bed tonight.