nikoo.s

Just now, perakcruiser said:

MSCs signature pizza is available on all ships and all routes since they started business and will be available until they stop business (which will probably not happen in the next decades). 

Woohoo! 🍕 thank you! 

1 hour ago, notley-cruise said:

 

We were on MSC Sinfonia this month, Spa didn't have wood sauna, only stone sauna and steam rooms, I'm assuming other Lirica / Musica ships are the same.  Yes, we got a good price on suite compared to balcony and the position of the Aurea suites forward, above gym/spa and below top deck is great.

 

Pool deck has pizza ovens, on our sailing they were only do marghitera and four cheeses, on larger MSC ships they've offered pepperoni and other options. 

We made good use of the ability to order multiple starters, mains and desserts at no extra charge. MSC dining room fare is light on carbs, sugar and salt. 

 

On MSC Sinfonia there were decks games, table tennis, mini golf, and enterainment team organised competitions.  But being a very multi-lingual crowd they didn't do trivia.  (Announcements were in six languages on our East Med sailing)

All sounds perfectly fine to me! Thanks for the info 🙂

12 hours ago, notley-cruise said:

 

@nikoo.s

The Lirica and Musica class ships only have a couple of pool deck hot tubs and very basic spa.  So I wouldn't pay for Aurea experience just based on the thermal areas on these older ships. 

 

The theatre shows are smaller scale, simpler, shorter and lower tier than the larger ships.  The buffet and main dining menus will have somewhat less choice also. 

 

Upside is there's no speciality dining, coffee and chocolate shops, so the Premium Extra package does cover all drinks by the glass, fancy coffees and hot chocolates.

 

There are also no big attractions to amuse you, so if you aren't into dance classes and bingo, bring a few big books. 

 

Thanks for the reply 🙂When I looked, the price difference for aurea wasn't too bad, and we do like having anytime dining. Even if the spa isn't as well equipped as the newer ships I'm sure we would still use the sauna and steam room.

That's good about the drinks package. The less we have to think about what we're ordering the better! Food choices as long as we won't go hungry (and I'm sure we wont) then no issues there. Do they still have the amazing MSC pizza? 

Not sure I'll be getting involved in Dance classes haha, but is there trivia, deck games? Etc? Not essential but all adds to the fun! 

14 hours ago, alserrod said:

November is not time for pool, nor in Canaries. My brother lives there and he says .... yeah, it is nice it is always sunny, but a sweater is needed in winter.

 

As someone who used the outdoor pools on the cold northern Europe cruises in November (yes...I'm that crazy person 🤣) I'm sure I'll be fine! Plus it will be far nicer weather that time of year than what I'll be getting in the UK if I didn't go!! 

14 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

You will love it. Don´t know if you did a Canaries cruise before, but this is the best to do between November and March. So happy that MSC is bringing them back finally. The Poesia is a ship I would go on with no doubt, true for all ships of the Musica class. The spa is not up to standard of the newer classes, but a nice place to relax. That is the main difference to the MSC ships you know. And it is a cruise with much less kids and families and the ship will not be full, which is a good thing. I think the prices are great at the moment. people were not prepared for this surprise move from MSC 😄 

Thank you so much! The temptation to book this is quickly growing!! 

Exactly as the title suggests really- just after some opinions!

We love MSC and have had fab experiences on Virtuosa, World Europa, Euribia and Seashore so far. I know these are all newer and bigger ships with more bells and whistles, but we are considering squeezing in a canaries cruise on Opera this coming November. We are both in our 30s and usually get the Aurea package with premium drinks. My question is, will we still enjoy an older smaller ship, or will we hate it and be bored ? I don't need waterparks etc but I do like to use pools , tubs, spa etc and play quizzes , sunbathe, and eat nice food! A quieter cruise with less people and less "noise" is totally fine by me as well, happy to try out and enjoy both unless you really think we shouldn't! Thanks 🙂

6 hours ago, sealynx said:

I'm not very impressed by this swing thing. Although I'm very much into theme park like attractions, but this one just seems booooring. I believe cruise ships just aren't the place for really good attractions. Not impressed by Robotron or Bolt (on Carnival) either. I'd rather see MSC (or any other cruise line) offer rock climbing walls, rope courses and/or even more waterslides. Those things might not be innovative or unique, but they are proven providers of ever repeating fun.

I think this comes down to personal opinion though. It's very subjective. Like I think a rock climbing wall is boring but I like the look of robotron. And MSC have a lot of ships already with ropes courses, I like that they're trying new things. 

2 hours ago, Scottdalfonso said:

Ropes course, maybe? 

Could be! They have a lot of ships with those already though so I reckon they would change it up. It could be like a combination of ropes course & zipline

Looks fun! And what is going on behind it?! Looks like a roller coaster track (which it probably isn't). 

We just used it on Seashore for the past 2 weeks. Never crowded, always able to get a cabana! And the side with the sunbeds was very quiet. Only time it felt remotely busy was at the very start of the 4 day part of the back to back we did, but even then it was fine and a fun atmosphere, and only the side with the bar was busier. And very few kids, especially on the 7 day part of our back to back. From what we were told, yacht club was full of kids! 

Hi all!

Will be going on the MSC Seashore in just over a month for an 11 day cruise, coming from the UK and first time to any of these ports, very excited! 

We are looking for things to do in Cozumel and love the idea of snorkeling and seeing sea turtles in particular and other sea life. We're looking at viator and there are so many similar options, just wondered if anyone could tell me which of the below would likely be the best option? Thank you 🙂

Option 1 - Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia and El Cielo Reefs

Option 2 - The Cozumel Turtle Sanctuary Snorkel Tour

Option 3 - Starfish, Stingrays, and Turtle Bay Experience

Option 4 - Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia and Cielo Reefs

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place, I just don't know Cozumel at all and all the options look so similar especially 1 and 4!

Thank you to anyone who can advise 🙂

No problem, I'll see if I can find the port of call board - didn't know that was a thing. Thank you 🙂

Hi all!

Will be going on the Seashore in just over a month for an 11 day cruise, coming from the UK and first time to any of these ports, very excited! 

We are looking for things to do in Cozumel and love the idea of snorkeling and seeing sea turtles in particular and other sea life. We're looking at viator and there are so many similar options, just wondered if anyone could tell me which of the below would likely be the best option? Thank you 🙂

Option 1 - Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia and El Cielo Reefs

Option 2 - The Cozumel Turtle Sanctuary Snorkel Tour

Option 3 - Starfish, Stingrays, and Turtle Bay Experience

Option 4 - Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia and Cielo Reefs

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place, I just don't know Cozumel at all and all the options look so similar especially 1 and 4!

Thank you to anyone who can advise 🙂

On 1/9/2024 at 9:50 PM, freeon said:

So you have to reserve time slots to access the thermal area? Hate being on schedule and would prefer to be able to just go when I feel like it. Hard to plan ahead when I'm going to feel like going to spa. 

Depends on how busy it is, only reason for this is to control the numbers so the spa doesn't get too crowded. It's a good thing. If it's a quiet day or a quiet ship you can usually just show up when you want to.

This always happens when you upgrade. Aurea should show up in your documents under purchased extras, show that at check in to skip the queue, and then when on board go to guest services to get your card changed to avoid any potential issues during the cruise 🙂 enjoy the upgrade! 

It's a bit confusing, someone shared this conversation on one of the Facebook forums, so it seems like everyone is getting mixed messages. I hope they don't remove it as there's not much point in calling it the AUREA package without the AUREA spa included!! 

I would personally choose the Virtuosa itinerary. First of all its a newer ship with much more to do on it, and secondly the ports in my opinion are better. Funchal is beautiful! Plus gran Canaria, lanzarote etc all lovely. I'd pick these over Genoa and Marseille. 

It wasnt on our recent sailing. We only went there for dinner. 

Free upgrade is just the room, but if you bid for and won an upgrade , you get the full aurea experience as we just had on world europa. Your paperwork will still say the original experience you booked, so to skip the check in queue have a print out of your purchased extras ready , which will say aurea benefits. When you get on board go to reception and they will print you a new card which will save you a lot of hassle when using the spa / solarium. 

Hi all!

Anyone know how much a 1 day wifi pass (no streaming needed, just browsing) costs on Euribia? Literally only need it for one morning we are at sea (Nov 18th) to submit a form online that has to be done that day, don't need it for the rest of the cruise. Can only see passes for the entire cruise on the app.

Thanks!

Hello!

Anyone know if MSC run a shuttle from Zebrugge port to Bruges, without having to book an excursion, and how much it is? Or is there an easier / cheaper way to get there, eg uber, train, taxi etc? Just trying to plan ahead if we need to book anything. Last Northern Europe cruise we did skipped this port! 

Thank you 🙂

3 minutes ago, ConnieTact said:

Hi nikoo 

I just booked the MSC tour to Gouda this AM. It looks good value and again, we haven’t been there but have ‘done’ Amsterdam many times.

I also like shorted excursions as I hate missing out on the ships offerings! 
if you book, I hope you enjoy it! 
We’re not going until December.

Hey! 

We've gone ahead and booked it too. Exactly the same thinking as you, shorter excursions means more fun to be had on the ship, and somewhere new to see as well! 🙂

Hope you have a fab time when you go! 

Hi all!

We're doing our 2nd northern europe November Cruise with MSC soon, this time on Euribia. Very excited!

Last year when we went with Virtuosa we decided to visit Amsterdam after docking at Rotterdam. I've been to Amsterdam a couple of times now and thinking of switching it up this time and visiting Gouda, somewhere we've never been. Questions are is Gouda worth visiting? And what can we do or see there, any recommendations? Should we go with the MSC excursion and does anyone have any experience of what that's like? 

Thank you! 

Having just come off world europa, you're going to love it! Seriously impressive ship

You can mirror your phone screen, so have films or shows downloaded before you go 🙂