AmoMondo

The thermal area is usually steam room(s), sauna and jacuzzi(s). It is usually very expensive to buy a la carte - last year on her sister ship it was 16 euros per hour per person. Fortunately I had a package that included unlimited access for the cruise, so that worked out fine for me. they were also doing a promo of unlimited use for 99 euros (but that was for a 18 night cruise.

We cruised on Splendida in April 2010 and still haven't received our cards! Have tried emailing them but to date no answer!

That was pretty much my experience when I tried to join too. Filled the form in on 2 cruises, then tried via the website. None of that worked. Finally when I was in the process of booking a third cruise with them, I got my TA to sort it out with them . From then on in, I've had no problems. they renew my card every year, upgrading the category as appropriate. The hardest bit seems to be getting a membership number. No idea why they make it so difficult to join. You'd think they would welcome repeat business!

This is the link from the UK site that has all the info about the discounts/perks at different levels

http://www.msccruises.co.uk/uk_en/MSC-Club/Overview.aspx

I've already done a West African cruise last year from Livorno to Durban. Really enjoyed it with Walvis bay (Namimbia) and capetown being the highlights for me

I'm so pleased to find this thread. Months ago I read about his plans on the MSC Roll call and have often wondered how he was getting on. I've really enjoyed reading all his posts and lokk forward to reading more (now that I know where to look)

Kim, thanks so much for your wonderfully written review. I had such a great time on my recent trip to Brazil (just adored Rio) that I'm now considering seeing a bit more of South America and have been comparing the Infinity with the Star proincess one as a possible for next winter. So sorry you didn't get to all the ports but what you did manage to see looked amazingly beautiful.

Normally I take a trip in the European Winter or Autumn to escape the cold and go to warmer climes but the itinerary looks so fascinating. Just how cold is it during the day at that time of year?

You used to be able to adjust the auto gratuity when it was that but since they have renamed it a service charge I don't think it can be adjusted.

I can only answer Q3 & $ from personal experience

3. No never had any bother but you can only get wine, beer, soft drinks, and water in the restaurant - cocktails etc have to be bought at bars or the cafe. (Italians only have wine or beer at meals). be aware that at the pool are, waiters wander about but they don't stop and ask everyone if they want a drink - you need to make eye contact or wave to them. It is not that they are avoiding you, the are not disturbing you. Likewaise they may not pounce on you in bars or return quickly , just politely attract their attention and there will be no issues. best way to be served quickly, is to plonk yourself on a bar stool in front of a bar man. Added bonus, they get to know you, anticipate what you want and you also get a bit of conversation from someone from a completely different culture

4. I have never seen any of the unlimited or all inclusive packages available onboard. My understanding is that you have to have purchased at least one week before sailing but preferable several weeks befdore so that it is included in your tickets and you don't have any last minute horsing around trying to get an email confirmation of proof of purchase. You can buy other drinks packages onboard like assorted wine one, ber only, cocktails etc

According to the fine print on the UK site, here is what's included and excluded. I'd say from that , that cappucino and espresso will be included. So should the rather delightful Amaretto cappucino - do try!

WHAT YOU GET

All Inclusive From The Restaurant: Wine by the bottle – white DOC Trebiano or Verduzzo / red DOC Montepulciano or Cabernet (wine brands might be subject to change) mineral water, soft drinks, beer. All Inclusive From The Buffet: Wine by the glass – white DOC Trebiano or Verduzzo / red DOC Montepulciano or Cabernet (wine brands might be subject to change) mineral water, soft drinks, beer. All Inclusive From Your Mini Bar: All items except Champagne All Inclusive From The Bars: All cocktails from the bar list except premium mixes, alcohol by shot (Smirnoff vodka, Beefeater gin, Bacardi and Myers rum, Cuervo tequila, Vecchia Romagna brandy Nonino grappa) all brands of blended whiskey up to 5 years old, liqueurs, aperitifs, bitters, all beer brands from the bar list, wine and sparkling wine from the bar list by the glass, coolers, energizers, soft drinks, juices, cafeteria, take-away ice cream in cone or cup, hot chocolates from the chocolate bar menu.

All Inclusive Upgrade – Premium Package

Get even more for your money with our All Inclusive Premium Package. For another £4.50 per day you get everything that the standard package offers plus all brands of alcohol by shot – the only exception here being XO Cognac and 21 year old whiskey – plus premium cocktails.

All Inclusive – Excluded Items

Premium spirits not mentioned above (included in premium package), premium cocktails (included in premium package), cigars, wines from the wine list, drinks served in souvenir glasses, food and beverages from speciality restaurants i.e. pizza a la carte, food from Chinese restaurant, Tex Mex, L’Etoile, LOvivo, Obelisco, Il Gardiano, 4 Stagioni, food from the Sports Bar menu, food and wine from the Wine Bar menu, food from the Room Service menu, chocolate fondue from the chocolate bar menu, ice cream cups from Gelateria, pastry from Piazzeta aboard Fantasia and Splendida. Note: the all inclusive package is not charged for children up to the age of 3.

Hope this helps. I've never bought the package myself as I would rather have small quantities of really good wines and simply don't drink enough on board to justify the ost. I just buy a water, a cocktail and a vitamin package onboard and order by wine from the wine list.

I was thinking back to my first cruise and was about to come up with my list too but then I had another thought, the most important one is

I wished I'd known how great an experience cruising was years ago, so I'd have started sooner!

I've just come accross this thread and thought I'd add my tuppence worth. I used to travel a lot with my friend who is extremely large, including 2 cruises. sadly she no longer travels anywhere as her health has deteriorated too much. However when we did travel, I'd say generally she experienced less issues and intolerance/prejudice on the cruises than she did on other holidays with me. planes were definitely a much worse issue.

The ones she did encounter on the 2 cruises

- shower size, was a bit of a struggle for her on the first cruise. Second one had a bath and that was too narrow for her but it was easier to use for a shower

- first cruise we had an outside with blacony but there was not much "clearnace" room around the bed and she tended to have to move the bed in order to get around the bed to open the balcony door, second cruise we had a suite, so less issue with space in the cabin

she found the bench seats in the dining room easier than the others especially those wioth arms but did fit it to the other chairs

- only major problem was when we did a shore excursion in Grenada. The bus was smallish and the gangway narrow, She could nt get along the gangway regardless of which way she turned. The couple in the 2 front seats moved back and gave her their seat, I had to sit a few rows back as I could ot fit on the seat beside her. had the couple not moved, she would not have been able to take part in the shore excursion at all. As it was, it was pretty embarrassing for her

Other than those things, no other issues at all.

me gain...forgot to mention that something I nearly got caught out with, was that i didn't know that you had to put your suitcase outside your cabin by 1am on your last night and that you needed to have a bag with you for your overnight stuff and remaining toiletries fot the final morning. Fortunately, i managed to stuff everything in to a very small carry on bag and my purse but it was a tight squeeze and I did have to jettison a few half used toiletries.

Mine would be

1. don't waste valuable space in your case packing beach towels - they provide them for use on deack and ashore

2. Don't book excursions for every day on your first day - it is tiring getting up early every day and being hoarded around in a group. Be selective about which you book and also consider some time onboard during the day to make use of all the facilities when it is quieter

3. Investigate drink and spa packages before you go - you can save a lot of money that way

4. That ships were a cashless place where you use your cruise card to pay for things. Also not to bring a purse with a magnetic clip as it wipes your cruise card and you end up having to trail down to reception to get it fixed before you can get back in your cabin!

5. Research the prots of call on here and other boards before you sail, that way you will know what is available and what you fancy doing before you arrive in port and not waste valuable port time dithering. You can also avoid the need for expensive ship's excusrions and have more fun and freedom exploring yourself (just make sure you allow enough time to get back to the ship by the all aboard time - they won't wait for you if you are late back)

Above all I wish I'd known about CC before I'd gone - could have found out so much more before I'd sailed the first time.

You're not going to scare me away! I live in Minnesota- the mosquito is our state bird!! and we have midges too we call them no see ums.:D

I will get some Avon before I come!!

Now I certainly would never want to scare anyone away from my beautiful country. Hope you have a fantastic time and that the weather is kind to you. It certainly is a beautiful area that you will be heading to.

If you are interested in jacobean history, one of the hotels on the Island has Flora macDonald's cottage in it. My brother took his in laws there last year, when they were over for a visit

watch out for the midgies - they are a bit of a pest in the highlands - usually worse in late afternoon. You may want to bring insect repellant with you 9either that or smoke a pipe as that used to work really well when we lived in nearby kyle of Lochalsh!).

My experience of MSC tis that there are 2 formal nights on a 7 night Med cruise with the majority dressing formally but few (10-15%) of people in tuxes or long gowns. I'd also say that there is only a minority completely ignoring dress code and wearing something very casual.

I'm getting excited about my upcoming cruise on Magnifica (Med - March)...

 

Notwithstanding the decline and fall of western civilization and the cruise industry as it relates to formal wear... and the multi-line debates here on CC...

 

I take it MSC is pretty 'typical' of large lines on formal night. The greater majority of men 'appropriately' dressed in suits or tuxes (being 1/4 or 1/3) with casually dressed renegades also 1/4 or 1/3?

 

Is the dress on MSC in Europe more or less formal than the Caribbean mass market?

It varies a bit in the med depending on the time of year/passenger mix, but generally speaking from personal observation

dress tends to be more formal in europe than in the caribbean

The women tend to make more of an effort than the men

tuxs and long gowns I'd say 20% or less

suits, cocktail dresses or similar 30 or 40%

sports jackets (worn with or without a tie) and smart dress shirt worn with or without a tie and no jacket can be quite common too,

Complete renegades that turn up casually small percentage varies from 10-20%.

If the cruise is at Christmas or New year then the percantages all move upwards in the favour of the more formal

Hi Stephane

You will need to take your MSC Club card with you and register at reception on the first day of your cruise. There is a special cocktail party for Club members and an invitation will be delivered to your cabin.

If you want to take advantage of the free laundry items, you fill in the laundry form as normal but put zero in the price column and record your MSC Club number on the form. You will need to let your cabin steward see your card ( I just left mine beside the form and laundry bag. You also don't need to have all 10 items done at the same time, you can split it over several days if you want.

For excursions, you take your card to the Tour Desk when you are handing in your booking form.

I'm not sure how you claim your free casino chip or have the free meal in the speciality restaurant, as I've not claimed either before.

This may only be applicable to UK passengers, however I'm posting this information as I'm absoultely amazed at the price I got for the cruise I booked this morning.

MSC have waived single supplements on some cruises and heavily discounted the fares too. I booked the 16 night Orchestra repositioning voyage from Santos in brazil to Dover in the UK. I got the highest category of balcony cabin (cat 11). the fare was £1,450 including a BA flight from heathrow to Sao paolo! The full brochure price with the normal 100% single supplement is £8,198. even the promotional Prima (early booking) price would have been £4,098. If I were buying the one way fare direct from BA it would cost be £947. I know MSC get a deal from British Airways so won't be paying this much but even so - unbelievable price.

Please note that MSC is an European (Italian) cruise line and does not suit everyone. If you don't mind a cruise that is not mainstream American and find different ways of doing things interesting. like classical music, different cultures and aren't looking to party 24/7, you may well find an equally good bargain.

Cor, I am about to go to the US with F.Olsen and paid 10 times that median £600 price range of these trips - yes, I know it's for 40 days but the prices v length of tour still do not compute, do they? I shall look at the 1 Dec trip, I think! Looks interesting - thank you very much for the info.:)

Guess in this climate it sometimes pays to wait. I thought I'd got a good deal on my Livorno to Durban sailing paying about £1650 for a suite with single occupany (Brochure prrice was about £8000, early booking price around £4000) they waved the single supplement and gave a further discount so I was very happy,,,,now I'm slightly refretting not having waited as the Brazil sailings are an absolute bargain.

Still I've nevr been to Africa, so sure I'll manage to enjoy myself!

Just heard today that MSC are offering various Transatlantic sailings from Italy to FLL or S America starting at £473 for an inside. See below for more details, The SS on a inside or oceanview is usually 90% and for balcony and suites 100%. So really good prices for a long voyage

Please note these are all cruise only fares so you'd have the cost of airfares on top, but still a good deal especially for those travelling solo

MSC Lirica - Genoa to Santos

5th October 2009 - 18 nights

Inside Cabins £472 Outside Cabin £559 Balcony Cabin £646

No Single Supplements!

MSC Poesia - Venice to Miami

24th October 2009 - 17 nights

Inside Cabins £510 Outside Cabin £629 Balcony Cabin £799

No Single Supplements!

MSC Opera - Venice to Rio de Janeiro

26th October 2009 - 17 nights

Inside Cabin £473 Outside Cabin £559 Balcony Cabin £559

No Single Supplements!

MSC Musica - Venice to Santos

1st November 2009 - 18 nights

Inside Cabin £516 Outside Cabin £620 Balcony Cabin £801

No Single Supplements!

MSC Orchestra - Genoa to Santos

1st December 2009 - 17 nights

Inside Cabin £510 Outside Cabin £629 Balcony Cabin £799

No Single Supplements!

AmoMondo how did you find doing this type of thing the first time, like catching trains and things with only speaking English? Was it easy to find the right train and knowing where to get off etc?

I've used trains several times in Italy and have always found it fairly easy but then I don't just speak English., but many European languages ranging from a little to a lot. My Italian falls in to the little category. To be honest although I speak to the ticket offices etc in Italian out of politeness, they often answer me in English anyway. I think if you do your research online first and know the Italian name for the station you are going to, the italian name for the town that is the last stop on the line and roughly what time you are due to arrive, you will have to problems. They have arrival and departure boards in the station, just like anywhere else showing the departure times and platform numbers. A lot of the trains have both announcements and visual displays showing the ststion the train will be stopping at, so you know when it is going to be time to get off.

If you definitely know that you are going to need a train and what time, then book in advance through trenitalia. That will not only save time on the day but may save maney and will guarantee you a seat on the busier journeys on some types of train

Crikeys, your last post has come out a bit weird, so I'm not sure if you found out about the left luggage facility or not? If you didn't, then yes there is one on the first floor in the departure gallery.

As we are going on Musica Venice to Venice then MSC are meant to be transferring us "Free" to Genoa for a 7 day cruise on Fantasia do you think we are going to run into the same troubles as above? ie should we have a backup plan? Do you know how far it is and what transportation there would be available?

No I don't. I've never had any issues with transafers. They know in advance how many people they need to transport and they don't have to put on different arrangements for each group of passengers speaking a different language, like they do with some of the excursions.

Crikeys, forgot to say that you are correct in saying that the disembarking tour/airport transfers can get cancelled at short notice. this happened when I was on the Fantasia. there were a few Australian and New Zealand passengers left high and dry. basically not enough passengers had booked to meet the mininum required to run the excursion. This is a particular risk for English speaking assengers on Med cruises as they tend to be in the minority. This does not affect airport transfers thaough that are provided as part of Fly?cruise deals with MSC as it doesn't matter what language you speak for that. Anyone who is intending using the excursion/transfer option, should have a contingency plan researched and prepared.

The train is definitely cheaper than 60 euros each for a half day tour and airport transfer.

I've done this a few times, once with an MSC coach transfer takes 2and a half hours Genoa port to Malpensa and twice by train.

There are 3 main airports in Milan, malpensa, Linate and Orly/Bergamot. There isn't a direct train to the airport and you have to change stations.

If you are flying out of Malpensa - train to Mialano Stazione centrale (about 2 hours). Then you can either - get the airport bus from round the back of the station or get taxi or metro to Cadorna station and get the Malpensa train. It is an airport express but still takes about an hour. It only stops at Terminal one so if you are flying out of 2 then the bus will be a better option.

bergamot is probabl;y easiest by the bus transfer from central station (again it takes about an hour).

Not sure about Linate but do know it is very much closer (only about 8km versus appx 50km for the other 2)

Check out the trenitalia website for proces and timetables.

Other options would be a private transfer or hiring a car.You'd probably get a wider range of opinion and info on this in the Italy Ports section on Europe Ports of call on these boards.

Personally, having stayed in both Milan and genoa, I'd head straight to Milan and spend my free time there. far mor to do and see. particularli recommend the area around about the Duomo (Cathedral) as a great area to explore on foot. You are also far closer to the airport and will be better able to judge when you need to leave than you will be able to from Genoa.