no1talks

Very true, G.P. Passengers are irked, from Carnival up to Regent. The way I see it, passengers have limited options. 1) Stay off the ships until things settle. 2) Ride it out with the usual cruises, paying the same (or more) for a reduced experience. 3) Pay more and go with a higher-tier brand and improve the cruise experience, even if the brand isn't what it used to be for its veterans. 4) Take the cruising down a tier, getting a lesser experience, but at least saving some money in the process. We will be in YC, on Seascape, in March. What happens on that cruise will significantly impact what we plan for our '24 cruise.

"Veni, vidi, Venchi." - Morpheusofthesea, on day five of this cruise.

I have several, but one cannot go wrong with William Powell. Some of the other gifs might be off-putting, like these:

Yes, I'm blessed to be in a position to tip in a magnanimous fashion. MSC's daily rate is one of the lowest in the cruise business. Even Carnival has better tips. To wit: "Starting April 1, the company will automatically charge guests $16 per person, per day for standard staterooms, and $18 per person, per day for suites, a Carnival spokesperson confirmed to Travel + Leisure. That is an increase of $1.50 per person, per day for each category." So, three cheers for, "Over-dressed, over-paid, and over here!" (Well, I'm still over-dressed anyway, even if most of my fellow Yanks are not. 😉)

You too?! Here's mine.

Far, far less acceptable than just the absent butler. If I ever encounter that, it will be straight to the hotel director.

For YC service, that's low. Only one or two lines are lower. The rest charge more or include the service fee in the fare, which just raises the cost of the cruise, anyway.

If I don't meet/hear from the butler by embarkation dinner, I won't meet that butler at all. I'll be meeting the replacement butler.

It seems the bartender was disinterested in making a frozen drink, rather than actually lacking the components. If you wanted the daiquiri on the rocks, the scenario is even more bizarre. I'm assuming you wanted a traditional lime daiquiri, as opposed to a banana daiquiri, or other variant. A basic daiquiri requires: White rum. Lime juice. Simple syrup. All three ingredients are used in a multitude of drinks and any bar would have all of them. However, in fairness, if O directs their bartenders to use fancy-schmancy Demerara sugar to make the simple syrup for the "tropical" drinks or rim the glasses, the bartender could have been stymied for a moment, due to unavailability. Said bartender should have then offered to make the drink with standard simple syrup and rim the glass with white sugar. Really, I think this was just a matter of subpar bartending, which is troubling by itself.

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Maybe some Moët Mimosas are in my near future. 😋 (Can't go wrong with M&Ms at breakfast!)

As mentioned elsewhere, the only way to mostly get away from cruise drunks is to book a pricier cruise line. No hordes of hooligans on Silverseas. (I used the word "mostly" because even a Seabourn or Regent cruise can have a millionaire who is a sloppy drunk. 😵) Affordable cruise lines make money on the inclusion and sale of drink packages. Successful businesses (and businesses with pandemic or ship-building debt) usually don't leave revenue sitting on the table. Regarding the emptiness of Ocean Cay, it is that way by design. The island is host to a marine reserve program and Disney-ing the place up wouldn't be conducive to that cause.

I don't know why you are actually-ing me. I posted a link to a news story from the period during which these packages originated, being familiar with the timeline of the topic. When I wrote, "Here is a story on the topic, from 'long ago' cruising," the quotes around "long ago" were not literalist quotation marks. They were sarcastic quotation marks. If I carried around that much hyperbole, I wouldn't have to go to the gym. 😉 While I cannot speak to the percentage of EU residents who pay attention to the reputations of cruise lines, I can say the majority of Americans are not emotionally invested in the scuttlebutt of cruising. In 2019, there were about 14.2 million cruise passengers embarking from the US. The population of the US that year was nearly 330 million. Clearly, the typical American didn't just disembark from one cruise and isn't picking which pair of deck shoes to wear on the next. Drink packages are on the affordable lines to help keep those lines affordable. The packages make money, not lose it. The over-consumers are highly visible, but over-consumption isn't the only reason the packages are purchased. Convenience is a huge draw. Variety of beverage choice is another. Eliminating the inclusion of a drink package is all well and fine, but it is in no way the same thing as doing away with drink packages entirely. So long as MSC's add-on Easy & Easy-Plus packages are attractively priced for Carnival passengers, those passengers will buy a cheap MSC fare and slap that drink package on with nary a thought, regardless of wanting the package for convenience, beverage variety, or continual drunkenness. I think the actual risk history (in serving copious amounts of alcohol) indicates no such change is coming. If one were to do an Internet search of alcohol-related litigation, from the time of drink packages entering the cruise industry, one would find lawsuits running the gamut from minor boo-boos while tipsy, to multiple wrongful death suits. I'm talking about deaths ranging from the multiple and expected drunk-man-overboard, to grisly bleed out due to an arterial cut on broken glass while under the influence. If years of intermittent incidents/litigation involving injury and death, connected to over-serving cruisers, hasn't already killed drink packages, a stampede of Carnies over to MSC won't. MSC, however, will do three things: 1) Count the money the Carnival transplants spend on board. 2) Respectfully suggest the appalled Bella, Fantastica, and Aurea cruisers take refuge in Yacht Club. 3) Respectfully suggest the appalled Yacht Club cruisers to take refuge on Explora. 🤣 That's my prediction.

Lot's differences since then. Fewer (if any) ice sculptures on mainstream cruises, for example. You don't see monstrous midnight buffets anymore, either. It's about money. For the relatively few hard-chargers who wring every drop from a package, there are loads of cruisers who cannot drink enough to break even and the house wins. Cruise lines didn't invent packages to lose money Here is a story on the topic, from "long ago" cruising. https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/norwegian-cruise-line-adds-drink-option-carnival-celebrity/story?id=17726352

Our one non-YC MSC Caribbean cruise (in Bella) was rife with European line-jumpers. My wife, who is European, overheard two instances in particular of such people, in their own language, owning up to their shitty behavior to people in their group. "Don't care. On holiday. Pretend I don't know English." Plenty of people behave better in their homeland than they do on an overseas vacation. As far as Carnival is concerned, they have issues with (alcohol assisted?) brawling and have had to increase security presence and raise the price of in-room bottle service. A plain ol' bottle of Bacardi White is $135. You can bet there will be plenty of "Carnies" who will show an interest in the cheaper consumption costs of MSC. Will MSC's changes in drink package sales make a difference? Maybe, but not until all those pending drinks-included reservations are cleared from the ledger.

As cruisers know, there are cruise lines without drink packages. The drinks are included and the fares reflect it. The high cost of climbing aboard keeps the yahoos out. Now, if what you really want to see is an affordable cruise line without drink packages, well, I think there is almost zero chance of that ever happening. As someone with an extensive work history in the hospitality business, I know for a fact there is no such thing as an objectively great cocktail. A particular cocktail, made by a particular bartender, using particular components, may taste great to a particular individual. Plenty of other consumers will just look at that one drink quizzically. Loads of people will much more enjoy three assorted drinks of debatable quality because people love choices: Drink one thing now, a different thing later, and yet a different thing after that. MSC knows this. Additionally, a crystal-laden staircase doesn't pay for itself. So, something has to give and bar service is a great place to squeeze money out of the overall revenue.

Thanks in no small part to the auxiliary thrusters. 🤣

Aaaand this is why kids cruise free on MSC.

That is quite the collection. We have a good many board games, but far fewer than your multitude. I'd probably be more of a board game collector, were it not for my affinity towards TTRPGs.

Wait, Oceania ships have game rooms? I know about the libraries and card rooms, but I had not heard about game rooms. (Of course, if card rooms ARE the game rooms, I apologize for my misunderstanding.) All ships, or just some? Many different games? Board games in good shape? Thank you, in advance, for any information you can share about Oceania game rooms.

Wait, has there historically been controversy regarding this observation? Since I started following this MSC board, I've thought the only explanation for the call center performance is lowest-cost outsourcing. Clearly, MSC trims expenses where they can, so as to be extravagant in other areas. Why would a call center be an exception? We are of the same mind on this one, FM.

There is a silver lining. For those with the Prestige Package, the morning delays allow for another Mimosa before leaving the ship. 🥂

You are being cattivo, dexd³.

First change? All bookings for deck cabanas are being switched out for the little-know, but very private, Cabana Alta®