Capricruiser

You can avoid the crowds by taking the Deck 13 corridor. On Deck 7 there's always a bottle-neck in the photo gallery plus the lifts that take you up to 15 are usually blocked by people waiting to enter the MDR. Deck 13 is easier and much faster but of course, it's a rather boring walk.

No, they give you little packages of bar soap as well, plus a shower cap, sewing kit, etc. Even wash cloths too.

I've cruised on Opera twice, once before the stretch and once after. It's a wonderful little (?) ship and I'd judge it much nicer than the Armonia even though they're both the same size. With a thousand crew members aboard there's bound to be some bad apples just like there will also be many fantastically wonderful ones. Buon viaggio!

You should ask this question on the MSC Fantasia roll call for that cruise.

On our last cruise (March/April 2017) all the OBS points went to me because we registered only my credit card and DW received only the cruise points. We embark again next month so we'll see what happens then.

We have a port call at La Romana on 30 November on the MSC Fantasia. Time in port is only from 07.00 to 15.00. The ship excursions haven't been published yet and from what I've researched private tours to nice places like Saona Island require much more time, at least until 17.00 in the afternoon. Any ideas?

Scampi is totally another animal and is much smaller than lobster. It's usually served as a pasta sauce but also alone more for an antipasto.

Bea I have about 43,000 points and DW only about 13,000. The way I feel is that regardless if the new tier starts at 25,000 or 30,000 or 40,000, at least one of us will get the benefits which will probably be shared with everyone in the cabin. Of course the new one could require 50,000 or 100,000 points - who knows...I would keep the OBS on your card.

Amomondo isn't any longer happy with MSC since they stopped catering to single cruisers. I think she's still on the Costa forum.

You'll get lobster in the Yacht Club restaurant but in the MDR it's an extra cost item.

Even if you're not Black or in Aurea or Yacht Club, be nice to your cabin steward and you'll be surprised all the little things he'll be able to do for you.

We've sailed in YC on the Divina, the Preziosa, and the Fantasia all in YC1 suites. I would agree that cabin size is little more than the standard balcony cabins on the lower decks but they do have walk-in wardrobes and full baths. For the rest, YC is absolutely wonderful it creates dependency. I mean it's hard to think about booking a cruise on one of the smaller ships that don't have YC. For us the food in the YC restaurants was always good to excellent and the butlers and staff throughout the YC enclave were always marvelous. We have three more YC cruises booked. That says something!

We did the same Baltic Sea itinerary last year on the Opera. Very port intensive but an excellent way to see so many capital/major cities. The Orchestra is one of the mid Musica class ships which are very comfortable. No YC but an Aurea suite gives you many of the same priviliges.

We had the 15002 on the Fantasia for 24 nights in March/April this year. I confirm everything positive that others have posted - it's a fantastic cabin with a beautiful huge frontal and lateral facing balcony, The only difference between the 15002 on the Fantasia and that on the Splendida is the color of the decor. The divan and chair on the first are yellow in color while they're blue on the Splendida. I've been trying to book either 15001 or 15002 for our next Fantasia cruise in November but so far without success.

I like to book our cruises at least a year in advance to get the cabin we want at a good price. I look first for an interesting or unusual itinerary rather than a specific ship, however if it's one of the big ones with YC, then we always go for YC - if not, the Aurea suites are nice on the smaller MSC ships. You youngsters don't qualify but we get the 15% senior discount plus the VC discount so 20% off is like it used to be as a Black member.

Unfortunately the Meraviglia is mostly cruising the standard one week routes in the West Med for 2017 and 2018 but I booked one in October 2018 because it's scheduled to stop at Cagliari and Valencia where we haven't been. At least we'll get to sample this famous Meraviglia - in YC of course.

Hey Bea, Looks like you're enjoying Meraviglia and her YC. New ship kinks are common for the first several sailings so I would never book an inaugural cruise but as you're experiencing they still have a way to go before everything functions as it should. I just booked our first Meraviglia cruise for long-off October 2018 because we've got two others already on the calendar. In any case we're looking forward to seeing this first MSC mega-ship, obviously in Yacht Club! Thanks for your on-going review.

I don't know how many blacks there are now but when the percentage grows to that level what will MSC do?

Hopefully a higher club category.

When 80 or 90 percent of MSC cruisers are black, can you immagine the "priority boarding" line for check-in? If that happens the non-blacks might find themselves aboard way ahead of us!

You can usually plan for it to be cold and frequently nasty in the north Mediterranean but warm along the North Africa coast and Middle East.

We "loyal" MSC cruisers with many thousands of points beyond Black are still waiting for the announcement of a platinum (or whatever) Voyagers Club level that will give us back the perks (and more) we lost last year. An automatic upgrade into Yacht Club would be nice!

The Black Card priority disembarkation merely gets your bags down to the terminal ahead of the others but it doesn't help you get through the line of disembarking passengers who all think they should be first off. The only real priorty disembark is for Yacht Club members who are escorted to their bags by their butler, bypassing all the others in line.

It would be nice to know which port you're embarking at. Some ports have a white YC tent with butlers at the ship's check-in point. Others have a YC check-in area in the cruise terminal. Basically you need to check in no later than one hour prior to the ship's scheduled departure time.

I always tip at the end of the cruise: Butler, cabin steward, most Top Sail lounge staff, certain One Pool bar waiters, restaurant waiter and his assistant, spa therapist; then I hope I didn't miss someone I should have remembered. In the Yacht Club pre-tipping is not necessary at all because they all work hard. I've never come across a lackadaisical YC staff member. I don't believe they'd last very long.

If your tickets show a YC cabin number you'll get all the YC service (starting with the check-in).

The Petra Tour was one of the highlights of our cruise. Well worth the money. We did the ship's tour with a "sit down" lunch at a local hotel. I say lunch but we ate at 3.30pm.

Ross I'm sorry we didn't get to know each other on the cruise as we were both in Yacht Club. I did look for a Jack Nicholson look-alike but didn't see one.