SapphirePrincess993

Just finished reading your live thread on the Emerald Princess. Thank you for the link. I can understand why you dont reccommend them after that read. Sorry you had that experience. I have read many reviews on the Emerald Princess and some are great and some not so great. Opinions vary. None have been as bad as yours so im hoping the entertainment, food and staffing has improved over time. I'll be celebrating 40 years with the love of my life on board. As long as we are together we can endure anything that comes our way. 🙂

I'm so glad to hear that Spudd. I always find it fasinating how one person can say they had a horrible time and another says it was wonderful. I've read some people think the emerald princess is a grand old lady holding up well yet others say she is falling apart and needs refurbishment. Some say food was bad to excellent. Such varying opinions. But thank you spudd for writing about your trip. Makes me feel better.

I'm so sorry to hear you didnt have a good cruise experience on the Emerald Princess. Like you say, we have nothing to compare it to so hopefully we will love it. Holy cow I just clicked on all your cruises you have booked and all you have done. WOW. You guys sure do love cruising. You already have 3 upcoming cruises and Im having a heck of a time booking one. LOL Glad to see MSC is working out for some people. I still want to experience yachtclub one day. Just too steamed to book with them yet. Other thsn the bathroom on the Emerald Princess, what else really stands out in your mind that made your cruise the worst cruise you hsve ever been on. Gotta be honest, you got me worried!!!

I guess there are ups and downs to travel. We've been fortunate in all our travels to not have anything cancelled on us. A few delays and a change of days for flying out on one of our vacations, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky and as PTC DAWG says just roll with it. We did book a 12 nt panama canal cruise for February on the Emerald Princess in a reserve class mini suite. Its not the yacht club but it sounds pretty good. Im gonna be keeping my fingers crossed for the next 8 months.

Sorry to hear about all.your cancellation issues DMH15. I would be livid. Im still very leery on booking a cruise. We got an extention on our hold on a princess cruise out of Fort Lauderdale in February. Just might bite the bullet and try again. I dont want to rule out MSC especially the yacht club but right now Im still steamed and not willing to give MSC a penny of my hard earned money. Maybe in time. LOL Just so horrified cruise lines do this. I get the logistics of the move and how lucrative the move is for the cruiselines nut just so sad for all the passengers that got cancellation emails.

We were looking at the Meraviglia as well. But we were thinking of taking her when it was a wee bit warmer like in May. LOL When February rolls around I want hot weather. But New York is very intriguing as well. Would definitely spend some pre and post time there. The ship looks gorgeous. You guys will have a great time I'm sure of it. Stockjock, I'm surprised Celebrity pulls stunts like that. The compensation wasn't that great but at least you got something. MSC did nothing for us. I wont be sailing anytime soon on MSC no matter how much I want to experience the yacht club.

So sorry to hear about your cancellation Dunchues. That is devastating. I dont understand why cruiselines feel this is a lucrative move considering how many.customets they upset and potential loose to a move like this. We are seriously looking at the Emerald Princess Panama Canal cruise 12 days next February in reserve mini suite. There are 5 left so the agent has one on hold for us for 48 hours so we can think about it and than I hear your story. LOL

Thank you for all your comments and wisdom. I have so much to learn about cruising. MSC did offer me the choice of 4 cruises on the Divina. One in November, one in December one in early January and one in March. No yacht club cabins available on.3 out of 4. The one in march had the family cabin on deck 12 with no balcony. Not for us as we were booked in a grand deluxe suite on deck 15. They suggested another ship but we would encur the extra cost if any. No itinerary in Feb. appealed to us. Or revceive a full refund of our deposit. We took the refund. Agent said MSC wouldnt budge on anything extra. We

We are just flabbergasted that this is actually an event that can happen on any cruise line and it has. Wow. It does stink. We were thinking of rebooking another cruise but we just got cold feet. Just not sure what to do now. We like the Princess 12nt Panama Canal cruise on tbe Emerald Princess. We have looked into that one. Just kinda still in shock snd not sure what to do. 😞

1st time cruisers. We booked the MSC Divina Yacht Club for the Feb. 14th 2025 10 day cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. My husband and I both received emails a week ago from MSC informing us that due to operational reasons affecting the deployment of the MSC Divina, we regret to inform you that your cruise has been cancelled. Our travel agent didnt even get notified. Canadian MSC office had no clue of any cancellations, the cruise on their system was still reading confirmed and sold out. My.travel agent called the American MSC office and they told her yes its been cancelled. Both the 10 day and the 14 day cruise departing out of Miami on Feb. 14 2025. Apparently tbe ship has been chartered. To hell with the current passengers booked on those two cruises. Tuesday May 21st my travel agent got an alert about our cruise and to call MSC. I find this completely unacceptable. I will never book an MSC cruise again. Now I have to wait to get my deposit back from them not to mention getting my money back from American Airlines. Thank goodness I took out insurance. I find MSC very unprofessional and if this is how they treat their customers before we even step on board, well I am starting to believe the horror stories I have read about MSC. We may have just dodged a bullit. I want everyone to read this and know what MSC has done to us. If they did it to one cruise they can and will do it to another. I wont take thst chance again. I will never step foot on an MSC cruise ship and I will make sure everyone I know and through social media just what type of company MSC is!

Good to know everyone. Thanks for the help.

Thanks Mark. Puts my mind at ease. What happens for example if our neighbours dont abide by the rules and smoke on their balcony?

Thanks for the quick replies. Much appreciated.

With being in the yacht club is gelato included when outside of the yacht club or is it an extra cost? Can you get gelato in thd yacht club?

Thats good to know about the seaside class of ships. Yes we can avoid the other areas as well on Divina. One year we spent Christmas and New Years in Jamaica at the Excellence Oyster Bay and the smoke and other substance was pretty bad. If people smoked in designated areas it would have been fine but people smoked anywhere and everywhere and staff did nothing. We noticed that in all inclusives rules are never enforced. Needless to say my husband's asthma could not be controlled and he ended up on prednisone to get it back to a controlled level. Now I worry no matter where we go. Thank you for putting my mind at ease about smoke and cruising.

Thanks for the additional smoking info. Cherylnj. Just wondering, it seems like Divina has a fair amount of smoking areas. Is this the norm on all cruise lines. Or does the Divina have more areas then others or vis versa. Just concerned. We have always been non smokers so one smoker is too many. Thanking everyone in adbance.

Really enjoyed this live thread. Actually sad to see it's over. LOL I am new to cruise critic as we havent cruised before but anxiously awaiting our first cruise on Divina. I learnt alot. I hope you do a live thread from the Seascape. I know it's a lot of work but it means so much to people like us that dont know much about cruising. Thank you again.

Thank you for all that info. Its very much appreciated.

Just wondering what the cigarette smoke is like on the Divina? My husband has asthma and cant handle much cigarette smoke. Can you enlighten us on the areas of the ship that are designated smoking areas. Any areas in yacht club designated as smoking areas? Any info. on this subject would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I just LOVE your live thread. My husband and I are booked on the Divina for a 10 night cruise departing Feb. 14th 2025. We booked Yacht Club and just reading all your entries and looking at your pictures gives us amazing info. We have never been on a cruise before but we thought we would wet our feet for our 40th wedding anniversary on Feb. 16th 2025. Thank you again for taking the time to writing such detail. It truly helps people like us ready to go but never have cruised.