no1talks

With 40+ cruises, getting the private island names mixed-up is probably a given. 😄

I, too, look forward to this miniseries. I enjoyed the 1980 miniseries when I was a lad.

This is a bit disconcerting, as we are planning to be on Divina in '25. My wife and I have very different tastes regarding wine. This prevents us from having a bottle of wine at dinner. Because of this, we always let the YC somm surprise us with their choice of wines by the glass for the appetizer and main courses. It is also the sommelier's choice for our drinks while we peruse the menu and to accompany dessert, all within YC inclusion. (I don't need a surprise serving of "Louis Tres.") We have yet to encounter a somm who didn't light up when offered this carte blanche.

I'm busted.

They will be more abstemious once they are older.

This is why I'm looking forward to cruising non-US MSC itineraries after my retirement.

In all seriousness, if we ever found ourselves staying on board for some reason and not going to OC, we would eat at the main buffet just for the capriciousness of it.

Don't say that! They will raise the prices.

Quelle horreur!

Not "ghost cruise," but rather, "ghosted" cruise, using the slang term for disappearing without any communication. I guess it will be known if the cruise is still happening once the final payment date passes.

Well, if this is a ghosted cruise, MSC needs to let several TA websites, as well as their own IT department know about it.

We cannot go until I have retired and no longer have to worry about catching up at work after a long vacation. When that time comes, I hope MSC will still have cruises like this October one.

At this time, Splendida is handling short cruises along South Africa and Mozambique. It is slated to return to the Mediterranean in April, via the Red Sea. Also in April, Musica is scheduled to return to the Mediterranean from South America. In early November, she leaves Europe for South Africa, via the Red Sea. Then, it's the usual short African cruises, except for a single, 12-day, closed loop cruise, late this December. It includes three days and two nights in Mauritius. As near as I can tell, this itinerary is a once-a-year thing. The question is whether MSC will leave Splendida in Africa to cover Musica's latter assignment, conduct the needed repositioning cruises along Africa's west coast, or just ditch South Africa and vicinity until ships can be repositioned from the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal without added worry.

But, on the portion of their website on which "Experiences" are explained, the items are still missing from Aurea. For new bookings, cruisers will have to rely on their cruise documents. As usual, MSC's website is not quite firing on all cylinders.

Given the you-never-know factor regarding soot, we won't book a cabin that isn't forward of the funnel.

😅 😂 🤣

That post was made in response to someone asking where the amenities of their already-booked Aurea room could be found. Another poster on that topic made an Aurea test booking for a cruise on which they already have an Aurea reservation. The test booking had reduced amenities and cost more as well. My point is those making new Aurea reservations should be prepared for the possibility of not getting some of the perks when their future cruise takes place. MSC is consistently inconsistent and not shy about yanking amenities, even from Yacht Club.

New Aurea bookings have lost some amenities, robes being one of them. There may be variations in amenity loss, depending on the nation-of-origin for the booking.

I investigated the EJ website. EJ's current sales promotion, the Total Luxury Offer, shows only one Miami-based, closed-loop itinerary of 7-day duration and it will be on Explora I. I'm guessing your example uses the cheaper of the two listed dates, Jan. 7th, 2025. If you have based your example on a cruise date not listed on the website, please advise. However, when I created a trial reservation of a Grand Terrace suite, the category you mentioned, the price was $3185 per person, dbl occ. Furthermore, there are multiple limitations on the $400 "Journey Experience Credit." The JEC is applied against charges appearing on the guests’ folio during the booked journey and it has no redeemable cash value if unused. The JEC is not applicable towards purchases made in the luxury mono-brand shops (Rolex, Cartier, Piaget, Panerai), as casino credits or advances, cash withdrawals, gratuities, donations to the MSC Foundation, and donations to the Host lifestyle fund. The JEC full amount must be used by 18:00 on the final night of the journey and any portion remaining will be forfeited. Additional terms and conditions may apply. MSC lets me get cash for my OBC via the casino and I can put that money in tip envelopes. Turning our attention to MSC World America, the MSC website has no cruises of the same month or itinerary as the aforementioned Explora Miami-to-Miami. That alone makes the comparison an unfair one, since itinerary and time-of-year figure heavily in cruise pricing. Nonetheless, if one selects the lowest price 7-day World America itinerary, sailing on Oct. 11th, 2025, the YC price is listed as $3249 per person after fees and such are added. A great many cruisers who are not already in Florida would probably prefer an October cruise, rather than risk a January blizzard messing up their trip to Miami before the Explora cruise even begins. Finally, it should be noted the above World America price doesn't take into account the Voyagers Club discount. As you know, this is available to anyone who has been on an MSC cruise in the last few years and bothered to register with the program, or someone who gets a status transfer from another loyalty program accepted by MSC. In that case, the cruise would be $2945.87 per person for two in the cabin. Better still, savvy cruisers can book MSC YC through a "preferred" TA and recoup 10% or so, as a rebate or OBC. Just sayin' 😉.

Sooo... Test booking a one-week room for two has a YC deluxe suite going for $3,256.44 (Voyagers Club discount). That's a bargain, even taking into account the ho-hum itinerary. Driving to Galveston is much shorter than Miami. It's even slightly shorter than Port Canaveral. However, I don't think MSC Galveston is for us until the itineraries expand.

How zeroes would be "processed", if Morpheus had his way 🏴‍☠️...

In fairness, most any land-based food/beverage/hospitality worker would be very much challenged to maintain the on-duty pace of cruise ship staff. If this is the case, I'll be surprised if word of the shake-up doesn't leak into the cruise blogs. While none of the mentioned lines are luxury brands, they represent a significant span in both hard and soft cruise product. (I hope you will permit me the appropriation of airline jargon.) MSC cannot possibly steal the lunch money from that much of the cruise spectrum unless they further subdivide the MSC cruise brand. They might find their reach exceeds their grasp. (Apologies to Robert Browning.) All well-and-fine for Explora(ers), but I shall be very put out to find our 2024 cruise depleted of skilled service staff for EJ's sake.

Enjoy Seascape while it still sails from Florida. According to the Galveston post on this MSC board, that ship is going to Texas.