jambalian

Ouch! I just checked with my bank, and there's no fee for using my credit card abroad, so that's one less thing to worry about. Thanks for all the replies, it's much appreciated.

That's correct.

Many thanks!

Hi. I'll be travelling on MSC Euribia in a few weeks, and I just got an email to say all purchases on board will be charged in Europe (I'm from the UK). Has anyone else been in my situation? Did you get charged credit card fees for every transaction, or just once when the bill was settled?

Hi all. I'll be travelling on MSC Euribia in a few weeks, going to Northern Europe. Does anyone know if passengers are allowed to buy food in the ports they visit? I'm talking about bags of sweets, chocolate, biscuits, etc, from Hamburg, Rotterdam and Bruges. I tried contacting MSC head office but can't get a straight reply. The best they could come up with was to ask guest services once I got on board.

Thanks for all your replies. It looks like we'll be self-disembarking.

That's what we do on P&O ships, but in the scene I saw on the video, everyone seemed to have their luggage with them. How does disembarkation actually work on MSC ships? On P&O, you can leave your luggage outside your room the night before and you are given a disembarkation time for the next morning. You then collect your luggage from the terminal. Alternatively, you just show up with your luggage at the gangway as soon as the ship docks and get off. Is that the same for Euribia?

Hi, I have booked a cruise on MSC Euribia (first time with this company) for April next year, but since then I have come across a disturbing vlog showing mayhem at disembarkation. Some people had to queue for three hours to get off the ship! Granted the ship in question was Virtuosa, not Euribia, but is this normal for MSC vessels, or a one-off?

Many thanks, Ardennais! Now I just need to sort out a bus from Zeebrugge to Bruges...

Hi. I will be visiting Hamburg next month. Are there any shuttle buses from the port into town? If there are, do they require exact change? I don't really want to pay upwards of £160 for 4 of us to go on a guided tour, we just want to do some shopping in the city centre.

I'm hoping for a price of around £2000 for the 35-day round trip from Southampton to the Caribbean in January 2026. The 2024 price was £2899 (Ventura) last time I checked, but the 2025 version (Iona) is £1999. If I can get something close to the 2025 price, I'll take it.

I could understand that if I hadn't made any payment, but the money I spent on board came out of my bank a couple of days ago. These charges have appeared since.

I just got back from Iona and have over £150 of pending charges on my bank account. I have no idea what they relate to. I emailed P&O but I suspect it'll be days before I get a reply.

I came off a cruise last Saturday (6 days ago) and this morning I checked my bank account and saw that, apart from the on board spending I was aware of, there are 4 transactions for over £150 pending on my debit card. We purchased speciality dining on our second day out of seven (already accounted for), and apart from that it was just drinks and ice cream. There's no way us two adults could spend £68 and £69 in single transactions unless we purchased ten cocktails in one order (and no, we didn't.). I've emailed P&O and I'll be checking daily to see if the pending transactions fall away, or if I actually get charged for something I didn't buy. This doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence for my upcoming cruise with them.