CruizinSusan70

The discounted cards are available on the site for the general public at this time for Princess as well as Holland America with the 10% off. You need a membership in order to get the same cards at a 10% off rate for Celebrity as well as Carnival. Also, if you have a membership and decide to sail on HAL, just for being a member you'll get anywhere from 50-200 in OBC on every future booking.

Really???? You just got off of the Sky Princess and depending how far back you made your reservation, you would have been able to purchase the Plus package for 40. 50 or 60 pp per day. Even at 60 a day, that's substantially cheaper than Carnival. That 60 includes drinks package, drinks package tips, wifi and general gratuities. On Carnival that is over 100 pppd.

We will, currently have 29 days on Celebration, 10 days on Venezia, 18 days on Beyond, 28 on Enchanted Princess, 28 on Sun Princess, 14 on Wonder OTS, 7 on Odyssey OTS. Quick edit....the Venezia, built in 2019 is the oldest ship we have a future booking on.

Unless you're a high end wine drinker, or have to have top shelf liquor, upgrading to the Premium booze package on MSC is a total wast of time. The Easy Plus package tops out at 10 per drink and will include Tito's vodka, Myers rum, Crown Royal and Bailey's. If you have to have Grey Goose or Belvedere or higher end scotches, then the up grade is worth it, but most people are just fine with the selections on the Easy Plus package.

They were all at the buffet. MSC doesn't have anything similar to Guy's Burgers, Shaq's Big Chicken, Pizza Pirate, The Deli, or Java Blue Cafe take out and if you want Mexican, you need to pay for it either as all you can eat for 17.99 or a la carte. A burrito was 10.79. At Blue Iguana Cantina, they are included and free. You'll be able to compare first hand when you sail on the Jubilee in 9/24 after your 4/24 Seashore and 4/25 World America sailings. If you're staying in YC, the cruise will be bearable, but expensive compared to Carnival. If you're in the general pop of MSC, best of luck. I speak from experience in and out of the YC twice on MSC and 25 times on Carnival.

Not really. The price differential between a YC interior and a regular interior is over 1000 more than the difference between a regular inside vs a Havana on Carnival. On the 2/1/25 sailings out of Miami, the Horizon with a 4A inside is about 755, while a comparable Havana is 1025, or 270 pp more. On the MSC Seascape, a IR1 inside is 559 pp, while a YIN YC inside is 1819 pp or 1260 more pp. With a Havana cabin, you get your exclusive pool and hot tub area on the 3 vista class ships. With YC, you get your own restaurant, the drinks package, a butler etc. If you add in the Cheers package though, things get much closer. 1025 x 2 + 991 = 3041 1819 x 2 = 3638. So it's about 600 extra for YC inside versus Havana inside with Cheers on this particular sailing. It was in fact the cheapest YIN pricing I could quickly find on their website, most of the sailings were much higher, so that 600 price difference would be higher as well. You always need to try to compare an apple to an apple.

Galveston is the next embarkation port on the horizon for them. The YC is the only way to go on MSC. We did it 5 years ago when it was reasonably priced. Not so much nowadays. We have them another shot last week and they're in our rear view mirror.

Have sailed on MSC twice. Once five years ago on the Seaside in an inside cabins in the Yacht Club. Just did them again last week on the Meraviglia out of Brooklyn staying in a Fantastica cabin. MSC is similar to a caste system, they have four classes on board. First class is Yacht Club. Second class is Aurea, Third class is Fantastical and Fourth class is Bella. Yacht Club is a ship within a ship concept that Carnival has nothing to compare to. It's like the Haven on NCL, the Retreat on Celebrity and the Star Class on RCI. If you wish to enjoy anytime dining, which is available to everyone on Carnival, you need to be in one of the two upper classes on MSC. Fantastica gets early or late sitting and so does Bella, but Fantastical cruisers get priority. The difference between Fantastica and Bella is usually $50.00 pp. This allows you to pick your own cabin and get the MDR priority over Bella. If you choose Bella, MSC chooses your cabin for you. The MDR seatings are plentiful. On our recent sailing, two dining rooms were 600 and 830 while the other two were 530, 730 & 930. Have never been on another line with 3 seatings before. Lunch options are a joke. It's the buffet for every day or the MDR on sea days. There are zero grab and go options like Blue Iguana Cantina, the Deli, Pizza station, Guy's, Big Chicken, Guy's BBQ. Omelettes made to order were non existent on the Meraviglia. Nothing in the buffet and in the MDR it was either mushroom/cheese or egg beater/veggies. Comedy is everyday on Carnival. MSC it's once a week in big showroom and once a week for adult in smaller venue. Piano Bar is non existent as well.

That number is beaten on day one by many, lol.

Couldn't agree more. The price on our 2018 Seaside cruise in the YC was substantially cheaper than what they are charging now. We were able to take advantage of lower pricing when they were trying to get a foothold on this side of the pond. The overall experience for us is better suited on other lines.

The only options on our menus were the two I listed when we disembarked on Sunday. Doesn't really matter to us since we'll never be sailing on MSC again, but I just want to forewarn any future possible cruisers.

We only ate breakfast in the MDR on disembarkation day. The only omelette options were mushroom/cheese or egg beaters/veggies. The other bad thing was the 🥓. No strips at all in either the buffet or the lone day we tried it in the MDR. It was all curled up, very greasy and very bad. The pumpernickel bread in the MDR that I used with my dippy eggs was really good.

As background, we've sailed on NCL 8 times. 3 on Escape, 3 on Prima and once on Bliss and Encore. Sailed on MSC twice, once in the Yacht Club on the Seaside in 2018 and last week on the Meraviglia in Fantastica Class. In general, MSC is now in our rearview mirror and we won't be going back. If you want anytime dining, you need to book either Aurea or YC. Everyone on NCL gets it. Would you like to get an omelette made to order? If you're in YC, it can be arranged, otherwise it's non existent. There are no omelette stations where you can get one made or eggs to order made like the buffets on NCL, Carnival, RCI, Celebrity and Princess. You can't even get one made to order in the MDR. The MDR omelette offerings were mushroom and cheese or egg beaters with veggies. Once again, they do things differently across the pond. The buffet offerings at breakfast were the same every day. The lunch offerings at the buffet had slight adjustments each day. The best thing they offered was their pizza, the second best at sea behind Alfredo's on Princess. The only lunch options were either the buffet, the MDR on sea days or the extra pay Hola Mexican. There were zero take away lunch options like various locations on Carnival and RCI and nothing like Indulge Food Hall. The MDR for dinner was solid. There were many seafood and pasta options, but the every day steak was a strip steak that we had one night and it was good. Entertainment consisted of their international singer and dance troupe doing five different shows. The remaining nights were a fly in (the Conjurors) and a single comedian. The comedian also did two adult shows one night in the smaller Carousel lounge. This lounge is also home to two pay shows that are $18 on board and $12 ahead of time. We saw one of the shows and got a refund for technical difficulties. Regarding specialty dining, it's very expensive and a la carte if you wish to select from the entire menu. If you pick a 3 night package for 79 pp, you are relegated to a portion of the menu to choose from with one app, one entree, one side and one dessert. You also are relegated to only one night at the steak house and an extra surcharge if you go to Teppanyaki. Once again, totally different than all of the US based cruise lines when it comes to their specialty offerings. As a final note I would give them a try if you have to just so that the comparison is not lingering in the back of your mind. If you need anytime dining, you will need to pay the upgraded Aurea experience. Happy sailing.

I can only go by our first hand experience on our two different sailings. We have future bookings on the Enchanted and the Sun, so I would assume since they are the #1&3 ships in the fleet in terms of newness, that both of them would have the Zero options.

By doing away with it, that venue is no longer an option for us on our 4 future bookings on the Celebration in September and January.

Enjoyed both Coke Zero and Sprite Zero on the Discovery for 14 days in April of 2022 and recently on the Majestic for 14 days in Alaska.

You didn't go into the different days involved 8v7, 7v6 and the price as well. You also said it was your GF's first on Carnival, but if she has cruised before, what ship was it? It's usually better to go with the longer cruise versus a shorter one, but if your GF previously cruised on one of the newer, larger ships from NCL or RCI, then the Celebration will be a possible upgrade, while the Magic not so much.

The filet for free on the Mardi Gras is outdated and there is no El Capitano on the MG. On the Mardi Gras as well as the Celebration, lobster tails are an option when they are on the menu in the MDR on one of the cruise elegant nights. They are also available in Chibang and Cucina del Capitano.the same night.

Sure wish my DH would say that more often.

Carnival is already complaining about the number of Platinum cruisers at 75 days. On Princess, you earn that at 5 cruises. If it was that easy to obtain it on Carnival, the number of Platinum cruisers would be substantially higher.

We don't worry about the possibility of picking up something so no gloves are needed by us. Using a pepper grinder that countless other people have touched is not going to bother us in the least.

I fully agree with you. The fact that the world is QR code crazy leads to differences at times like you mentioned as well as the bottom line cost that causes cruise lines to do this in order to save money to add to the bottom line.

Must be something new since we're Platinum and never have gotten an email reminder of what perks we're entitled to. Doesn't really matter to us since the overwhelming majority of them are useless to us.

Make sure you wear your plastic gloves anytime in the future to add salt, pepper, ketchup and any other condiments to your food. Gotta avoid diseases. What did we ever do as kids drinking from a hose?

Also Azamara, Costa, MSC, Norwegian and Seabourn. Holland America though is an exception similar to Princess. Unless you consider the 'dam at the end of each ship as being the same, lol.