mowogo

Sadly because the competing products are so bad right (bandwidth, business development, coverage) now, everyone is moving to Starlink.

Wifi bandwidth is limited under these old contracts and you discourage demand by raising prices. With that said, Best wifi at sea is returning with the upcoming conversion to Starlink.

I mean when they make it where you get Platinum after only 3 solo cruises it is to be expected that the count can be high on some sailings

I've sailed MSC a couple of times, with priority tender being a lifesaver on ensuring I was in the first group booking external cave tubing in Belize without having to wake up at 5am to stalk tender tickets. And the reality is that the real benefits of elite cruising are the priority boarding, tender, and dismebarkation. The value of everything else will be argued on these boards until the end of cruising. MSC may not offer fancy benefits, but it is nice being able to start with the priority suite instead of earning my way up. Only other cruise line that matches is Virgin and we don't know their new program that is launching to see the real value of matching there and what the optimal matches will be rather than the interim program they are offering now.

For the major ports, it is not just a matter of the number on your ship, but the ships in port. Being the first in Juneau let me enjoy nugget falls before the 3 other ships in port started unloading passengers to the point where even an hour later it would be hard to get a shot without people in the background. The Seabourn crew arrived after a few other bus groups.

The perk for Premier is not that they are the best seats in the house, but selling the idea that you have seats guaranteed to the shows in the theatre so you don't have to worry about the theatre being full 15 minutes before the show. On a cruise like one of the 80s cruises with special cover bands I could definitely see this being a legitimate perk because everyone wants to get in.

Not a variation, but designed to be high enough to push non alcoholic purchasers to the Plus bundle.

I'm able to access beverage packages on my booking for April on the Discovery, but it is just showing extremely high prices for the Plus ($76.69ppd) and Premier ($100.29 ppd) beverage packages which makes me think new Coffee options will be high as well.

With the negligible price upgrade between Plus and Premier, it is very easy to see people getting Premier with 2 specialty dining experiences included. On a recent MSC cruise the night bookings for the steakhouse were full by the second day.

They are leveraging the new TV show which is based on the old show to promote their brand in a party. And the big brand party can be fun as MSC has shown with their White Night Party which has people disappointed when they miss it.

Yeah, that pretty much kills all of the cheap and easy options us Americans have been spoiled by (Frontier with no fees is an amazing experience)

If you book the transfer through Princess, you will be one of the first off the ship behind the walk offs.

It is a price increase and an attempt to move the standard price point for cruisers to the Plus fare. And the reality is product change like this is studied and modeled. They know they may lose x number of customers over this, but the bet is that most customers will just grumble about the change and it might push them into the Plus offering which then makes the upsell reasonable on Premier to increase sales of that. And there is some truth to this because a Carnival customer has MSC, RC, and NCL before having to move up a class of line. It is harder for a Princess customer to wander at the same price point, especially with Celebrity making cuts and price increases of its own (Yes there are other lines, but all much smaller and so harder to stick within one brand for regular cruisers.)

Until full, or another bus is there and they send the first bus on with a decent but not full number of passengers.

Why I pretty much insta booked it, even with it being on Carnival. Alaska is definitely doing good business based on what I’ve been seeing with fares across the market.

Last year had some crazy Alaska fares in general. Ended up getting $412 for a balcony after taxes and fees on Carnival last year for the cruise right after the Summer solstice. Rates are up significantly year over year, and some cruise lines I’m seeing close to doubling in fare between September last year and May this year

Free Alaska makes Carnival much more bearable. Did the Spirit last year in a balcony for $400 and that made it worth it, since Carnival in Alaska is still better than No Alaska.

I’ll judge them for them forcing you to navigate a gauntlet of their photographers on the pier even when not cruising with them 😜

MSC late dining does run quite late where you can realistically expect to be getting your main course at 9:30-10pm which can drive a lot of others that want to dine during the early evening time and find the European late too late (Late seating time was 8:30 and 9pm this week on the Meraviglia.)

Got stuck with late seating despite being a Fantastica request for early. I did MDR for first night and gala night, but the rest of the food is not good enough for me to be eating at 9pm.

If you took advantage of the status match it is free. Otherwise you have to pay

Was fortunate to be assigned to sit with a bunch of solos for my current cruise. Made it a lot more bearable when getting my birthday cake tonight having a bunch of other solos to share with.

Normally it shouldn’t be a problem, however on the current sailing of the Meraviglia we had an hour and a half delay in disembarkation at Nassau.

Onboard now, and they actually have a desk next to reception to schedule that is open in addition to the Ocean Cay scheduling.

Unfortunately you are right there about the itineraries. The New York sailings kind of prove that out. I kind of want to do the inaugural but only one port I have any interest in (Ocean Cay).