aeraen

My spouse and I, both 60+ and definitely not party animals, were on the Scarlet Lady last month. I can assure you you will not be overwhelmed with a party atmosphere. Unless you want to be, of course.

There isn't. At least as of last month when we were there. About 3 or 4 stores and nothing particularly interesting.

I just wanted to let all the church-ladies here know that I never did ask to have my children boarded early with my spouse and I... because the MSC people checking us in beat me to it! They looked at our record and asked where the rest of our party was. We waved the "kids" over and we were all checked in together. Evidently it made it easier for the staff to check us in as a group, rather than individual cabins. It was a courtesy particularly appreciated by my spouse, who spend part of the night before performing CPR on a patient (a father of three young adults just like us). He managed to bring the man back to life just as the doctor was about to call it. Spouse was still tired and sore (CPR is physically exhausting for the person performing it) and appreciated not having to stand in line, but would have done so if our kids had to.

It worked well for our party of 5. We could text each other where we were on the ship to meet up. I have an older phone, so some of the features did not work for me.

I just signed up for one. I figured if I don't like it, it's just two nights out of my life.

Thank you for sharing that. My spouse and I cruise enough that we sometimes prefer the casual buffet over the formality and length of time needed for the MDR. However, this time out we are traveling with our adult children (all 20-somethings) and they are all looking forward to the MDR (whoda thunk?)

All of those who are offended at the question can unclutch your pearls now. I only asked because I was part of a family group that was unexpectedly offered this courtesy on another cruise line when we had five cabins and wondered if MSC's service was as good. I had no intention of marching up to the desk in full Karen mode and demanding the courtesy. As I said in my original post, I was torn between utilizing the option and leaving my kids to stand in line, or asking if they can be included. I am going to ask upon boarding, but if the answer is "no" (worst case scenario), I would rather just wait with my kids. This is the only opportunity to see them this winter, as we are all in different cities, so my spouse and I are using our annual vacation funds to treat them (hence, the simple Bella class that some appear to sniff at.)

This will be our first MSC cruise, and we're taking our adult children along with us, so three cabins. Because he has comperable status with a hotel brand, my husband was granted Diamond status with MSC. Yeah! We will certainly take advantage of the express boarding. However, I am wondering if our children in separate, but linked, cabins can ride our coattails to the early boarding. It appears a bit churlish to say "Ta ta!" while they wait in the long "steerage" line and we skip ahead! Have any Diamond members traveled with others on linked reservations and been able to parlay that status to include others traveling with them, but in separate cabins?

Yes, and I was surprised and confused. Same thing, "Pay up or you will be cancelled!" I typically like to wait until a few days before the stated due date (ours was Nov 1), in the event something makes us need to cancel. Actually, it appears to me that their due date was what was off, because it did state that final was due 90 days before sail date, while Nov 1 is abut 75 days out. As we were paying for our adult children and three cabins, we decided to just make the final payment when it was demanded and limit any complications.

Thank you for the advice. It did seem a bit odd to me that they couldn't link reservations booked by the same person. I'll give them another call.

Husband and I are treating our adult children to a cruise on MSC. Of course, with 5 of us traveling we are looking to minimize the cost, so are booking 3 cabins in Bella class. When I called to see if our reservations can be linked, I was told there is no way to do so. The reservation agent even advised that if she booked it, it still would be three individual reservations and there would still be no way to link them. As our kids are adults, I'm not too worried about getting cabins near each other. But, I understand that the dining time is assigned per cabin. Needless to say, we would like to eat our dinner together. Does anyone know how to navigate this issue?

Spouse and I are not big drinkers. But after dinner on our cruise two weeks ago, we carried our cups of coffee to the Crows Nest and enjoyed the view and atmosphere. No one ever bothered us.

just got off the Zaandam Saturday and there were 4 masks in our cabin.

Happy anniversary! We flew into BOS this morning and are looking over the harbor from our hotel room at the NCL Pearl right now. Tomorrow we get to watch the Zaandam sail in before breakfast, then we'll walk down to board. Looking forward to a nice, relaxing week at sea.

Thank you, both, for sharing your experiences. Sounds like a couple of cardigans should do the trick. And, maybe a small umbrella, just in case!