CruizinSusan70

It's the exact same set up on other cruise lines that have a specific number of seats set aside and marked by seat tops or a roped off area, usually for those people in top suite accommodations such as the Haven on NCL. On Princess at least someone staying in a basic inside cabin can have their seat in the reserved section by only paying the premium package upgrade. A specific seat can't be reserved. It's not like the seats in the theater are marked like section B, row 1 seats 1-2.

OK, I was just providing a list of lines that provides solo cabins as a response to a previous post by RD64. If you want to pay 200% go ahead. Put a fictional name as your cabin mate and then just say he is a no show. MSC has no way of knowing you're lying to them, they get their 200% for the cabin and everything should be good to go.

We always book through a TA that gives us refundable fares and luckily we have never had to change. But at the same time, it's a discounted group fare that is better than any rate that a PVP could give us. We usually book at least 18 months out. We lose control, but we save money in the end and that's more important.

There are currently 7 main stream cruise lines that offer solo cabins. Royal Caribbean 12 ships Celebrity 5 ships Virgin 3 ships Holland America 3 ships Costa 6 ships P&O 7 ships Oceania 4 ships So there are options if the cruiser is flexible, MSC even has them on 5 of their ships in the fleet.

While inquiring about a future cruise when you sailed on the Meraviglia what kind of extra perk did they offer as an incentive to book then and there?

Nine drinks, five shots....you should be very proud. My DH could handle that, but I would be beyond fuzzy.

Yes, it's called Cheers.

There are cutbacks everywhere. Post COVID we have sailed on Carnival, NCL, RCI, Celebrity and Princess. Have seen it firsthand and every one of those lines have cruisers complaining on these boards about how things are different compared to 2019 whether it be quality decreasing or pricing increasing.

If you have Cheers, adding Baileys to the cheesecake takes it up a notch.

Nothing a few gallons of paint, a few dozen rolls of duct tape and some Bondo couldn't fix. 😄

Fixing a whale tail is down on the list of things to spend money on after bleeding billions because of the shutdown.

Concrete evidence of fuzziness. Lemon drop shots mentioned twice as well as French 77. Unless it's an actual chronological order of consumption. 😉

So I will infer that you're not cruising on Carnival at all since none of the ships in the fleet that I'm aware of have a Blue Iguana or Guy's burgers open after 600 pm.

Chibang for sea day lunch though is like the old Mongolian Wok on steroids with the broth bowl options.

I read the other thread about it. Since the Mardi Gras is in our rear view mirror after four weeks on her, it won't apply to us. Even if the Celebration started the same policy, once per cruise for dinner is sufficient. Do like two lunches there to enjoy the broth bowls.

You're correct about the 500 maximum with cruise cash. The one and only time I purchased it when they had their 20% off sale, 500 was the max per cabin per sailing, so I saved another 100 bucks on top of the 10% I saved with the gift cards. The extra 10% comes in handy while cruising Princess as well.

Wouldn't it be easier to go on Tinder, that way it could be someone local to you. 😁

Check out the 3 Excel Class ships on Carnival, the Mardi Gras out of Port Canaveral, the Celebration out of Miami and the Jubilee out of Galveston. Totally different from the rest of the fleet and a major upgrade.

If you have ATD, you can book Chibang or Cucina as soon as bookings open up at 520 or so for that evening which starts at 530. They are free. Pig n Anchor is walk in only at 530. Can't book before you embark. The 745 only comes into play if you have set dining.

To perceive value you need to compare at least two different items so you can judge whether A or B has the better value to you. It could be MSC versus a land vacation, or, it could be MSC versus their competitors on this side of the pond, RCI, NCL and Carnival. Comparing bare bones cruise only fares, Carnival and MSC are the price leaders in general. There will be occasional cheaper fares on the other two, but Carnival and MSC are lower the majority of the time. It was even clearer that MSC was the value leader 5-6 years ago when they first made a big attempt to expand their foothold and presence on this side of the pond. If you don't care about the competition and you no longer see MSC as a value to you, then enjoy your land based vacations.

Keeping the fingers crossed that we enjoy it since it's drivable. If so, then there would be a future return.

The point I was making is that there are 22 solo cabins available on each of the world class ships for each sailing in case some people did not know. Similar to solo cabins being available on all of the new builds of NCL and some of the new builds on Celebrity and Royal. These are the options to avoid the 200% supplement. Regarding the snafu with the MSC promotion, one, since I cruise with my DH I don't have a horse in this race, and two, it's MSC, the home of bad customer service and a messed up website. So what do you expect?

Frustrating that MSC makes both upgrade. My DH would pay the 140 to upgrade, but since Tito 's or Ketel One is OK for me, there's no reason for me to upgrade.

True, we have no plans to return to every ship in the fleet besides the Celebration and the Venezia.

You could still use those 8% discounted cards to just be deposited on your account. Buying cruise cash with them is just an unnecessary additional step. You of course can use those discounted cards for everything including paying for your entire cruise. I however use the 10% discounted cards for everything associated with our cruise that I obtain through Allstate.