Anastas617

Day 2: I woke up way too early at 5:25am and made my way to the buffet at 6am. The hot food doesn’t open until 6:30, but I was happy just to get a few cops of coffee and a chocolate croissant in the meantime. I don’t know why I wake up so early on vacation, but there are a number of pluses to this and the buffet being nearly empty is one of them. The buffet itself for breakfast is, for the most part, what you would expect in any breakfast buffet in America. It didn’t have some of the niceties you might want, like eggs benedict or a custom omelette station (they had ham/cheese and veggie omelettes), but it had all the standards and more. My two observations of note on Day 1 was that the corned beef hash was more “liquidy” than I had ever seen (though the taste was good) and the pancakes were better than any other buffet pancakes I’ve had, since I usually find buffet pancakes to be completely dry and lacking taste. Perhaps it is because they were so fresh at 6:30 and hadn’t been sitting around awhile? Benefit #2 of waking up early is getting to pick any spot on the deck to lay out. My typical routine is to spend a few hours on a lounger with a book in the morning and then I’m done with the direct sun for the rest of the day. So, I went to the Horizon pool area because ‘adults only” is one of my favorite phrases and camped out. I eventually went back to my room and freshened up to go to the welcome reception for solo cruisers in the Sky Lounge at 10am. Only like three people showed up and it was a big dud. The staff said it was really hit or miss and some cruises the turnout is good. I also learned that there were 1600 under-18s on this fully booked cruise. I headed over to Hola! to make reservations for lunch and for my paid Carousel Theatre shows. It would never be a consideration for me to pay extra for specialty dining in most cases, but because this place was fairly cheap, I didn’t pay a lot for the cruise, and because @JamieLogical raved about it in her trip report I decided to book two lunches there. The whole process was maddeningly slow. I was the third person in line waiting and it took 35 minutes. I can’t blame people in front of me just being difficult/complicated because I sat down and said “I want lunch for 1 person at Hola! on Wed/Fri and Rock Circus for Friday, Houdini for Saturday both at 10pm.”. Plainly laid out and it still took way too long for what seems like a straightforward request. (Friday only had 1:30 available for lunch, so I switched to Saturday at 12:30) Had a quick losing session in the casino and decided to head to trivia. This situation I will definitely compare to Caribbean Princess. In my opinion, the Meraviglia Lounge is a terrible location to host trivia; there isn’t a lot of seating, you have people there for the bar/lounge having conversations and the lounge is wide open to the promenade so you have all that noise filtering in. The Explorer’s Lounge on CP was a much better, if not perfect, location for this type of thing. I had lunch at Waves: Lentil soup, Fish & Chips and Boston Crème Pie. I really enjoyed the soup. The fish had two pieces that tasted completely different, one mild and one fishy. The cake was good. Not a home run, but an overall satisfactory meal. At this point, adjusting my schedule was taking a toll on me and I had to take a nap (I work nights). Problem is I am terrible at napping, so my two-hour nap turned into 4hrs of sleep. At least I won’t be nodding off during the evening’s show. Neither of my pants I had packed were completely dry yet, but it was gala night and I had to go to work with the hair dryer to dry a pair out. I hit Brass Anchor for a couple of pre-dinner beers and listened to the band (I think it was the Soul Band?) playing down below in the lounge. Gala Dinner: I had beef tartare, Caesar salad, surf and turf and baked Alaska. I was a bit nervous to try beef tartare as the idea of eating raw meat doesn’t sit well, but one of the things I was looking forward to with cruising was trying foods I never would have otherwise. I enjoyed the tartare, though the texture took a bit getting used to. I certainly found it better than sushi. The salad was perfectly fine, not really anything else to say. The S&T was very good; lobster was cooked well and the filet, while not as good as a fine steakhouse, was very good for included dining. I had never tried Baked Alaska before, and this was sooo good. I have nothing to compare it to but enjoyed it thoroughly. Last night was lackluster, but tonight was a solid thumbs up. Another stop at Brass Anchor (can you tell I like this place?) and on to tonight’s show “One Day More”. Les Miserables is my favorite theatre production, so I’m looking forward to this and whatever else may be part of the show. I didn’t particularly enjoy the West Side Story stuff they started with, but the show got increasingly better as it progressed and ended with snippets from Les Mis. Enjoyed this show much more than Cool. So, here are a couple of things that stood out to me during this show and throughout the week. There were three male and three female singers (though some shows were missing certain singers). One of the male singers lacked any sort of stage presence which resulted in anything he performed to be rather boring. One of the female singers was a very gifted vocalist, but she also seemed to be an opera-trained singer. She was fine when solo, but whenever she had to mesh with the others it just didn’t sound right. I hate critiquing people that are much more talented to me, but that’s what I came away with. Tonight was silent disco night and it looked like so much fun. It had started during the theater show however and I didn’t take part. This was the downside to my shows being at 10pm. It often interfered with other things I’d be interested in or that started right when the show ended. Headed to you-know-where for another beer and enjoyed the guitarist/singer. I think his name was Chris(?) and he was from South Africa. The bartenders know me by this point which is always nice. Headed off to a spur of the moment casino session which turned out well and erased my previous losses. In fact, I was a tiny bit up now. Ended the night up at the pizza buffet, which was quite crowded. Grabbed a cheese* slice and a slice of onion/white pizza. They were both very good. I was a bit tipsy at this point, so I’ll hold off on any sort of rating. *they refer to this as margherita pizza. Where I live and grew up, this was just cheese pizza. Margherita pizza is pizza with sauce, tomatoes, dollops of fresh mozzarella and basil. Some places would also have a more traditional, albeit lesser amount, of pizza cheese on top of the sauce along with the other ingredients. Anyways, it makes me think of the episode of the Office where Andy Bernard buys margherita pizza and opens the box to find a plain cheese pizza. I make way to bed at 1:15am, ending a very good day at sea.

Only once did I find it smoky, but that was sitting near a smoker. In general, it seemed fine and I didn't really see many smokers.

That looks great and much more how I remembered them as a kid! Day 1 dinner pics attached.

Day 1/Part 2: Very noticeable difference in passenger makeup from my Princess cruise. More diverse, more international, more kids, more “groups” of people and more loudness. EDIT: by "groups" I mean 8-12 (or more) people traveling together It’s a good time to mention my cabin which was a studio interior cabin (10254). I was interested in how I would feel about an interior since my first cruise was in a balcony, but I generally do not spend much time in my room and the balcony received minimal usage. I’ll say the virtual window helped to give a bit of a glow into the room, although disappointing that it doesn’t have a “real” video display of the outside like the ones I have seen in videos for NCL studio rooms. I was 100% fine with the room itself and I thought it was perfect for my needs (I would not hesitate to stay in a studio room again unless there were especially good deals on better rooms). Not a lot of space in the room, but again, I don’t spend much time there. The bathroom was more than sufficient, imo. It was bigger than the one in my hotel in London last month and I “think” it was slightly bigger than the bathroom I had on Caribbean Princess. The big elephant in the room is the “couch bed”. I very much prefer a firmer mattress and I had no idea what I was going to get here. I found the bed to be satisfactory for my needs and was a bit bigger than expected (maybe a twin and a quarter wide?) Back to where I left off... So, after a few more drinks at Brass Anchor I went to check out the casino that was now open. The casino had a good collection of slot machines and they were mostly newer. I didn’t check out the table games much as I only like to play blackjack and the only table open was $25/hand and that’s too rich for my blood. I lost my daily casino allotment and headed off to dinner. Comparing this casino to CP, I found it much better: better slot selection, more room to walk around, better bar set-up. Dread may be too harsh a word, but I was a bit uneasy heading to the MDR . Not so much the food, but I thought I was going to be forced to sit at a big table with a bunch of strangers which is out of my comfort zone. To my delight I was alone at a two-top table and, even better, the table next to me was unoccupied the entire cruise. This was a big win 😊. I’m not anti-social, I just find that setting to be awkward. For dinner I had French Onion Soup, Chicken Croquettes, Prime Rib and warm apple crumble. The soup was okay. I didn’t hate it, but it seemed abnormally sweet to me. The croquettes were good (and tiny). It made me wonder whatever happened to chicken croquettes as a thing in the US? When I was a kid in the late 70s/early 80s they were one of the staple items in the frozen food section of the supermarket, but they seem to have all but disappeared except on cruises 🤷‍♂️. Back to the food; The prime rib had an okay flavor, but I will be blunt, quality-wise it seemed like what you get at an off-Strip budget Vegas buffet. Lastly the warm apple crumble with vanilla ice cream was the best thing I ate on Day 1 which isn’t saying much. I feel like I (silently) judged a lot of people reviewing MSC as having their expectations too high or just going along with the mob. I thought “it can’t be as bad as what these people say’. I didn’t hate the food on Day 1, but I did feel it was average to subpar overall and maybe everyone was right. Thankfully, I can say that this was the worst day for dining and not reflective of my opinion when the week was over. Broadway Theater Show: Cool (Disco Theme) this show was fair, but I would probably skip if I went on Meraviglia again. I’m not much of a disco fan and the costumes were ridiculous. I liked the other shows better, for the most part. In fairness, I was completely exhausted and had to fight falling asleep during the show. I went back to my cabin and was asleep in no time. I apologize with how long this was. Hopefully the following days are more concise. Unless I get shamed into not posting the rest of my week 🤣.

Quick background: I am a primarily solo traveler very new to cruising. This was only my 2nd cruise ever (first was on Caribbean Princess in April of this year). So my thoughts are from someone with very fresh eyes to cruising and also from someone that tends to be pretty easy to please. So, I won’t lament that in years past everything was better. I also think the Princess Plus package and the MSC bundled Easy Plus/WFI package were great values. I’ll try not to do too many direct comparisons to CP because an older, smaller ship being compared to a newer, larger ship is not really apples to apples. Day 1/Part 1: My original intention was to drive and park at the port, but then I read about the parking fees going up (from $30/day to $45/day) and it was no longer a financial no-brainer. Instead, I booked the dreaded “morning of” flight because I hadn’t taken Saturday off from work and how risky is it really from BOS-NYC? Well, Mother Nature reminded me she can make things difficult even in the summer and my lesson has certainly been learned. I got a notification that there was potential for weather to affect flights in the northeast. I decided to cancel and drive, but my cancellation was not working in the app or the website and I had to contact JetBlue directly. Phone wait time was 6 hours and Live Chat wait time was over 2 hours and that ultimately made the decision for me to risk the flight because I wasn’t going to eat the ticket because I couldn't get a live agent. (I am honestly unsure if they would credit to my travel bank or I would forfeit the cost if I didn’t show up). Sure enough, 10 minutes before boarding we are informed the flight is delayed for an unknown length of time. Good thing I have travel insurance for the cruise. Delay ends up being just shy of two hours and I land at LaGuardia at 10:45am instead of 9:15am. After grabbing luggage, I requested Uber about 11:10am and I am dropped off at the port around 11:45am (Uber was immediate pick up, seems like they have a bunch of cars in the garage just waiting for requests to come in). The drop-off was a bit of a mess, but I hand my suitcase to someone in a bright green shirt and hope it’s an official port employee. I get into the line and this is where things grind to a halt. Tired, hot and with a pain in my leg from standing so long, I finally get through security and check-in to the area where you wait to board at 1:15pm; then am told they ran out of numbers for boarding groups and have "general boarding" and to just wait. They never gave any other instruction and after Group 50 it became a free for all and since I was directed to a section as far from the line as possible I didn’t get on the ship until around 2pm. My cabin card had “unassigned” on it for dining, so I had to go to the maitre’d and get that fixed. The only dining options he offered were 5:30pm and 7:30pm, so I took the latter and figured I’d have to go to 10pm shows in the theatre. My MDR was Panorama. I booked my shows (except the Carousel Theatre) for the week, which was pretty simple. I took a peek in the buffet and knew I was too tired and aggravated to deal with it right now, so I was going to my room only to find there were burgers, fries, hot dogs and pizza on the Lido Deck. I grabbed a burger and a hot dog and inhaled them (pizza had a bit of a wait). Neither were anything more than barely average, but I had something in my stomach and now I could go watch my safety video and check out my room until I got called to my muster station which was at the casino. While watching the video my suitcase arrived and everything in it was damp due to the terrible weather. I hung everything up, called the muster phone number and went to the muster station. The muster check-in was very quick and now I could start my cruise. Now I wanted a drink badly, but some folks are apparently very nonchalant about finishing their muster stuff as the announcements were sounding increasingly urgent. There was a whole lot of us in Brass Anchor patiently waiting until they were allowed to serve. Eventually I had my beer and headed up to watch sailaway party with the cruise staff in outfits they stole from Donald Duck’s closet. It started raining again and I only stayed long enough to go past the Statue of Liberty. Went back to Brass Anchor for another beer (this becomes a recurring theme) and see if, by chance, anyone actually showed up for the solo meet-up. I don’t think anyone did or they are even quieter and faded into the background than I am. Making a Part 2 as this is getting long.

I sailed as a solo on Caribbean Princess in April (my first ever cruise). I know there were a couple of meet-ups on the schedule for solos, but I didn't go to any of them. There was one in the Wheelhouse Bar that seemed to have 12-15 people gathered when I grabbed a few drinks at the bar. As for the dining in the MDR, I was always asked if I wanted to sit alone or share. I sat alone because sitting at a table with strangers is a bit out of my comfort zone. (although I am about to get on an MSC cruise and I think I'm going to need to get over that discomfort 🙂) I wasn't actively looking for solo "events", so I apologize if there was more stuff I just didn't know about.

I'll be cruising this month for first time on MSC and I was strongly considering booking a future cruise on board, but do any of you veterans know when the 2025 itineraries are typically released? I am considering a World America (I think that's the name, right?) in fall of 2025, but am not strongly committed to that and would prefer to look at some European options.

There are several main dining rooms (MDR) on each ship. Your cabin card will have the assigned MDR and time when you arrive. If you do not like what was assigned, you can go to the Maitre'd and ask if they can change it for you. AFAIK the only differences with the MDRs is the location. Specialty restaurants and reservations are separate and can be made on-board.

Thanks for the review. I'm taking this cruise 7/16 and this helps a lot. Did you happen to notice if Hola! was extremely busy on embarkation day for lunch? It seems the craziness of the buffet is a recurring theme for Day 1 and I hope to be on board and able to get a seat there instead. Are there plenty of kiosks to book your shows or are there long queues for those? Am I to understand that you have to book the free shows as well as the two paid shows? Thanks so much.

Thanks, folks. New booking made. Appreciate the feedback 👍🏻

Thanks for the feedback. Good info to have.

Hey folks. Just asking the experts. I currently have a studio room booked on NCL Bliss for May 2024 (4th or 5th, I think...7 days r/t Seattle). I can book on Discovery Princess for a bit later (June 1) comped, just paying for Princess Plus. End result would be paying less than half. I have never cruised NCL and that's the only hesitation I have is wanting to try them. Based on the ships and similar 7 night r/t from Seattle itinerary would you make the change? Is there any reason to avoid Discovery or is the Bliss superior, in general? From browsing, it seems Princess might be the best for Alaska?

Thanks. I'll call and see if they have anything for LGA. If not, I'll just Uber/Taxi.

Ok. Thanks for letting me know.

Just curious on the port transfer. I've searched high and low and can't find anything regarding an MSC transfer from the airport. Can you point in me in the right direction? I was planning to drive, but am now flying into LGA. Edit: Actually was flying into JFK, but my flight was cancelled and this was the best replacement option.

I made my first booking before I signed up for Voyager's Club. I then matched to my online TA status because I had nothing else to use for matching purposes. (The chart that is posted in these forums stated I would get Gold based on my Gold level, but I only got Silver. Oh well, no biggee). Anyways, I then booked a second cruise, entered my Voayger number and got my 5% discount. Seeing that my original booking did not have my Voyager's number attached to it, I asked them to add it. They applied my 5% discount (which I did not expect) and dropped my balance due.

I will be cruising on Caribbean Princess and booked three excursions. All three were charged to my on-board credit. I can't recall what it looked like when I was booking, I just know that it was obvious I was using OBC. Not sure if it matters, but I had already paid in full before I started booking excursions.

Looking forward to the report. I'm doing the r/t Brooklyn to Bahamas cruise as a solo in July.

Everything I have read online states Laguardia is closer. Also taxi/uber estimates are significantly less from LGA when I query.

That should work. I've never cruised before, so I sent screenshot of my online TA status as that was my only valid option. I got my match the next day.

I originally had $250 OBC. $200 was removed and only $50 was showing. When they fixed my reservation they also applied the shareholder $100, so I now have $350 total OBC. As far as how the price difference was resolved, I don't know. I have no clue why the total price changed and I have no clue what they did behind the scenes to fix it. I just know my TA said it was fixed, I pulled up my booking and everything was showing as it originally did (with the added $100 OBC). At that point, I took it as settled and did not feel the need to press the issue any further as much as I'd like to know how it happened in the first place.

I know, right 🤣. My inquisitive nature wanted a better explanation, but my pragmatic side decided to just be glad it's fixed and move on.

Thanks again to the folks that listened and gave advice. I "should" have this resolved now. I'll try to be concise: I spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with my TA who was going back and forth with Princess. I booked a guaranteed balcony (BF), but Princess claimed I upgraded to (BE) in January. This never happened. I asked why "amount due" appeared Friday if I did this in January. Princess also won't talk to me about reservation and my TA had no record of this. After a couple more back and forths I sent my TA my confirmation at her request showing my total price, obc and that I had been assigned cabin C108 (BE category) at original price. After an eternity, the TA switched back to me and said that apparently the discrepancy occurred because I am a shareholder. I did send in my OBC request a few weeks ago, but never saw it added or received a response. I have no idea how or why that would have messed with my whole reservation, but they fixed it. I just viewed my reservation and it is back to being paid in full and my extra $100 OBC is applied. Now I need to figure out how to spend it! My TA was great even though she was from one of those huge online sites. I will be sure to send a review and hoping someone at the company reads it or cares. Thanks, again. I appreciate all the feedback from this community.

Thanks. I'll look into it a bit more. I really have no clue how to develop a relationship or find a good TA. The only one local to me didn't appear to want my business. Maybe I'll start combing the net and someone will jump out at me because I really have nobody to refer me or otherwise steer me to a good one. They all look good to me until they aren't! 🤣 I appreciate your feedback. I know us new cruisers probably annoy a lot of the veterans.

Thanks @Steelers36. I appreciate the response. I booked MSC and NCL both direct and the experience has been night and day. I don't think I'll be using a TA again unless I find something drastically beneficial. I looked into this a bit more since I won't hear back from TA until tomorrow, but the excursions I booked using OBC are showing as confirmed and paid. It just seems like something really wonky happened in the system for this booking.