NCMtnBoys

Haven't been to Hawaii before, sailing in November on Carnival. Wondering if by chance there may be vendors at either pier offering Luau's (they take you to it, bring you back). Can't decide whether to try to do one in Maui or Honolulu. Carnival's price is obviously very high - and then there's the aspect of being on buses with loads of other people - so thinking there must be a better alternative. But not sure if that alternative may present itself to us at the pier, or if it'd need to be booked ahead of time. Thanks!

Have flown them twice. Once on a casino junket a few years ago.

The second time was recent - New Years Eve 2014 from Phoenix to Las Vegas. That flight turned out not to even be on an Allegiant aircraft. It was on something called Falcon Air which I'd never heard of. Turns out Falcon Air is a charter company with a handful or fewer aircraft. The day before the flight, I had an email and automated voice mail telling me the flight the next night was going to be delayed 90 minutes. Delay turned out to be 3 hours. I guess Allegiant knew a day ahead that they were not going to be able to fulfill that flight and passed it off to Falcon Air.

It is called Private Pack and Play. At least on my wife's account.

Andy

Ahhh...yes, I do have that one in my offers. I hadn't clicked on it to study it so from the description on the main page I thought it was just a cash offer in the casino. Thanks for the clarification.

Nothing for me or any of the family members. Keep hoping. For those who are getting, what's the latest you can sail out with this round?

My PVP told me by the end of August.

My PVP called me earlier today as well to let me know about a free cruise offer - $100 for the inside cabin (I actually got into a Porthole Cabin) plus $88 taxes. Then I'll get $100 OBC on top of it (to offset the cruise price and make it "free"). No solo supplement. I booked the 4-night Inspiration for August since I'll be relocated to Phoenix by that time and the Port of Long Beach will be drivable. I asked if I added a 2nd person to the cabin how much it would cost and she told me just the $88 in taxes. So I may do that.

After a bunch of you asked if it was in your VIFP offers I checked mine and, of the 3 offers listed (two are casino, one is not), I don't see any offers that match what she sold me. So, I'm not sure what kind of offer this is, as she didn't mention anything about casino. And I hadn't gotten any email about the offer, so I wouldn't have known about it had she not called.

Thanks for the review, glad you enjoyed your Divina sailing! We were on the Apr 19-26 sailing and enjoyed it also. Then I went on Carnival Ecstasy May 12-16 sailing and we happened to be in port with the Divina in Cozumel. We didn't arrive into Cozumel until 1:30pm, primarily because Martina McBride was doing a concert on our ship that night at 9pm so we weren't leaving until 1:00am.

You all were parked at the Downtown pier, we had to park at the pier further away. I wished we would have gotten to park where you were at, it would have been a much more convenient location to Downtown. From where we were at, it was an $8 cab ride each way. I agree, it was a warm day in Cozumel. I took a cab to Downtown, had lunch at a restaurant there and took a cab back...taking several pictures of the Divina as we passed it. :)

I was also on that sailing and very much enjoyed the Martina McBride concert onboard. She puts on a great show. I had pre-reserved my ticket prior to sailing but they still had plenty to sell onboard. They were also giving them away on both the Lido Deck and at the Atrium one day if you answered trivia questions correctly. Their upcoming concert lineup looks good too, but not really anyone else I would want to see except Lady Antebellum. A recent Cruise Critic article also stated that they are working on the 2015 lineup with even bigger names...we'll see.

I did choose this cruise because of the waiver of the solo supplement, the Pack n Go rate and because of this particular concert. She did not disappoint!

This is the point in the embarkation intersection where a collision occurred between a lack of sleep and no food since 5:30am. Usually we head to the dining room for our first meal onboard. A leisurely meal, either alone or shared with other excited passengers, seems to say, “The cruise has started!” The Daily indicated that the Black Crab dining room was open from noon to 2:00pm for either full or express lunch. Well. . .Mr. Grumpy was having none of that. I knew that no fun nor photos would be had until he got some food. So off we went to the rear of deck 14 through the Manitou buffet to at least partake of those beautiful views I had read about on CC. All I can say is WOW! This bank of windows became a favorite viewing spot of ours throughout the voyage. MSC keeps all their windows cleaner than any other ship we’ve ever sailed. Let me show you. These photos were taken right up to and through the rear windows. Point for MSC.

 

Anyone recognize this ship?

 

Downtown Miami

 

Miami to the Northeast

Thanks for the review, great to re-live our week on Divina. We got off the day you got on. Enjoyed the week very much.

The ship behind the Divina was the Celebrity Reflection. We had sailed on its sister, the Silhouette, in November and it is a fantastic ship as well.

Nice review Jenn, it was nice to meet you at the Meet and Greet.

And most importantly, I have the right attitude packed.

Awesome!!

I will be interested to hear how you like the cruise after reading both positive and negative reviews. Please let us know!

We were on the SAME sailing and some of what you complain about can easily be planned for. Want to eat lunch on the private island that was served only from 11:30a-2:30p? Then get in line at 11:30a. We did, and had no problems at all. Want to have a chair in the shade? Then get off the ship early to get chairs in the shade. We did - group B (2nd group) on the tenders and had our choice of chairs in the shade. Yes some or many of them had bird poop on them. Did the towel that you took to shore with you not cover it up? Ours did. Granted there was little shade, but it was there in some part. Drink of water before entering the tender? So what if they didn't have water in that exact spot. There was water elsewhere or you could have taken a bottle with you to shore.

One of us bought the Allegressimo Escape drink coupons (15 coupons for $72 for coctails, beer, wine, soda, specialty coffees) but the other wasn't forced to although ultimately I also did purchase that package. We were explicitly told that the coupons could be shared. I wouldn't recommend using those particular coupons for soda, you could buy soda for less than what those coupons each equated to. Perhaps with a different package the coupons could not be shared. So either buy another set, or spend $2 for a fountain soda.

Most else that you complain about I chalk up to your expectations being too high or being ill-prepared. You were not the only passenger on the ship. You were sharing with 4300 others who also have to be served in some capacity. This being our first MSC cruise and having read the reviews and boards beforehand, I was prepared for some misery. But we didn't encounter it. The cruise quality was right up there with many of our other cruises. It wasn't our best but wasn't the worst. In 17 cruises, I truly can't remember one that was bad and this was no exception. Not everything was perfect, but the good things far outweighed the bad.

We welcomed the opportunity to try Divina and were not disappointed. We got such a steal ($299pp balcony guarantee) that it would have been nearly impossible to fault anything. We would definitely sail Divina again despite this or any other bad review. The way we look at things is we're grateful to be cruising at all when so many others don't have that luxury. And it IS a luxury to be able to take trips like that.

As these cruises in April were selling at $349. for a balcony, did you get your money's worth?

A hotel room with a view of the ocean alone would cost more then that on land, and that's not even including free shows, and free lousy food as you put it!

We found and paid an unheard of $299pp for our balcony - and still got $25obc each as a bonus from the booking agency. So yes, I definitely think it was a wonderful value and we more than got our money's worth.

I did think there were a lot of kids. I expected that, though, being the week following Easter. We didn't really come across any behaving badly. And with that many onboard, we generally seek out areas away from the main pool area. Usually didn't have any problem finding somewhere on a deck to sit. We'd sit for awhile and when we were ready to do something else, we'd take all our stuff with us and find a different location later. :D I realized the other day in looking at my cruise signature that we've never cruised in May, June, July, August or December. We're definitely value (seeking) and kid (not seeking) conscious.

Hamburgers and hot dogs wrapped or unwrapped - why sweat the small stuff? Didn't bother me in the least...I had at least one hot dog for lunch every day and they were fine. One day the stuff wasn't wrapped and in individualized trays - so it varied.

Even if we'd have paid more, I would recommend this ship to others. Any bad that we encountered was far outweighed by the good.

We were on the same sailing and thoroughly enjoyed it, having also paid a dirt cheap price. The dirt cheap price was the incentive to try it, and we were not disappointed.

Service we encountered from everyone was very good. We saw our room steward 2-3 times each day. Dining room service was slow, but acceptable. We thought we had one discrepancy on our bill so we went to guest services to try and have it removed. Turns out it was our bad, as we just couldn't remember the particular charge. When the representative was able to tell us exactly what it was for (specifically a can of coke zero - not just telling us what bar it was at), that triggered our memory and all was ok. We had two other interactions with guest services (requesting our room cards to have a hole punched in them so we could use our lanyards, and also turning in our self-assist request), and all interactions were friendly and professional.

As for the lifeboat drill, the lounge we were in (Black and White) seemed really crowded. I wondered how everyone would know exactly what boat they were supposed to be in, as in many other drills you're lined up underneath your particular boat. I had remembered reading in the planner that you were required to bring your life jacket to the drill, but "please do not don your life jacket" is what it said. So we didn't put ours on at all...it said not to.

Agree that the entertainment was the best!! I was amazed at how substantive it was - sometimes it seemed there was a show within a show in the theater performances. Loved it!

Ship was beautiful and kept very clean.

As for the bar service, we bought the Allegressimo Escape package (15 coupons for $72) and it worked well. Never once had a problem getting a drink and what's more surprising, never once had a problem getting a seat at the pool bar. People didn't seem to be hoarded around the pool bars like on other cruises we'd been on. Rarely did we see a bar waiter, and never once were we asked if we wanted a drink by one - which is ok with us, we can get our own when we want them (we only drink 2 per day, and one of those is at dinnertime).

Would definitely cruise MSC again if the price was right. We had gone on with little expectation because of the reviews, but were pleasantly surprised. We're not foodies, we don't care if we see our room steward or not, we don't have to be constantly entertained, we are easy to please and pack a lot of patience. As long as the ship is beautiful and clean, we have as much or as little food as we want, decent entertainment, and get to our ports of call, we're happy.

Great photos, thank you for sharing! Makes us even more excited for our 4/19 sailing.

The sale you're talking about was a great sale, balconies for less then other cruise lines inside cabins!

Just remember to wave to the people on the other ships when you port, as they paid 'a lot' more then you did on that other ship!:D

Yea, we were first going to book the $199pp inside guarantee but for just $100 more per person it was worth getting the balcony.

For those that have asked for the site - we're not allowed to mention them on the boards. The best advice I can give is just do A LOT of looking around at different websites for pricing. Apparently MSC must be one of the few lines that don't prohibit agencies from discounting the fares beyond what the cruise line sells them for.

$299? damn that is a good price.

Yea, my invoice states per person: cruise fare $149; port charges $150; taxes $118.75. We booked at category B1 guarantee and were upgraded to a B2. Miami-St Maarten-Tortola-Great Stirrup Cay on Divina. Hard to say no!

To each his or her own......I am just happy in these economic times I can cruise as often as I can.

A clean bed, a hot shower a good barman and something to eat......and a spot out on deck.......I don't need much more:D

We're the same way. We aren't foodies, we don't have to be catered to at every turn, we don't care if we see our room steward, we don't have expectations. We just want a nice ship, comfortable cabin, three meals a day and to get to our ports of call. We're not hard to please.

That said, I booked our first MSC cruise this past Tuesday for April 19 for $299pp balcony guarantee. Too good to pass up.

Hi tropicgal2,

 

Smoking is not permitted in the Casino or on balconies. For more information regarding the smoking policy onboard, please visit: http://www.msccruisesusa.com/us_en/about-msc-cruises/news/msc-cruises-enhances-clean-air-program.aspx

 

Regards,

GREAT policy!

It pays to shop around on different sites, too. We're also on the April 19 sailing and I don't know how or why but one particular site I went to on Monday night had a balcony guarantee for $299pp including port charges (+ $118.75 for taxes). Not even the MSC website had that price, and NO WHERE ELSE I checked had that price. I was a little skeptical after booking it when I received a "pre-confirmation" in my email. I fully expected to receive a notification that the price I booked was sold out, so I was getting my back-up plan together to book a different sailing for the week. Lo and behold later the next day I received the actual confirmation and invoice marked "paid in full". Yesterday we received our cabin assignment (Category B2, upgraded from the B1 we booked) and I've done the web check-in as well. Everything looks good and we're looking forward to our unplanned getaway.

We have been members of Club Royale for years.

You do not have to do "$5." per spin...

It is based on points just as any land casino is.

We are basically quarter slot players. Obviously you need to play longer in the casiino when you do quarters than someone doing dollars. I do howerver always play max coin in

Every point counts so I always put my card(room key) in the machine even when just passing through for a few minutes.

You should average about 300 points per day on a cruise to qualify. If I do not play one day...I make it up the next.

If you make that many points....before the cruise is over...if no one approched you...find the Club Royale host & sign up. Once the casino has closed for your trip, it is to late.

You only need to qualify once to be a member....

The perks are VERY generous. Money off your next cruise....applied like cash so it does not conflict with other discounts.

Free drinks in the casino. We always have a comp bottle of wine delivered to the dining room before the end of the cruise. They usually also get us a comp specialty restaurant before the end.

You do not have to wait in line on Oasis or Allure for the shows if you do not have reservations.

AND ONE OF THE BEST PARTS... it is interchangable with Celebrity's Blue Chip Club.

So, if I have earned $500. off a next cruise while on the Oasis....I can apply it to either a Royal or Celebrity future cruise.

My husband & I each have our own accounts so we each get notified about 3 weeks after our cruise what our discounts for our next cruise will be.

If you play slots regularly at all......always use your card !

I am a Club Royale member since 2009 when I was approached by casino staff to sign me up. I had my first reciprocal experience as a Blue Chip Club player on a Celebrity Silhouette 13-night cruise in November. I set my daily out-of-pocket limit on that cruise at $100...and some nights I didn't have to use my money, I had winnings from the previous night to use. I only play slots, and was in the casino every evening playing different denominations, mostly pennies and quarters. On my cruise, Silhouette had a 10x points promotion every day from 11pm - midnight, so I made a point of playing only during those hours. Acquiring extra points during the promotional hour also allowed me to more quickly earn instant cash back, which can be activated right at the slot machine. I also appreciate the waiver of the 5% fee for getting cash against my sea pass account. About a month ago I contacted Blue Chip Club to find out if I had earned any rebate on a future cruise and was told I had earned $225. I'm having it applied as a credit in the casino for a Royal Caribbean cruise in November, where I'll use my Club Royale card to accumulate points and dollars for the next cruise.

The program is great and I by no means consider myself a high roller (I rarely play anything above a $1.50 - $2.00 bet per spin, and most are less than that) so I was surprised I was asked to join, and surprised I continue to earn rebates.

QUESTION: In Cabin 7274 is the bed next to the bathroom or the balcony?

In 7274 the bed was next to the balcony.

We stayed in 7274 on Silhouette in November (category 2A), a hump cabin. What I really liked about this location was having the hideaway nearby. It wasn't so much the hideaway itself that made me love the location of the cabin, but having the hideaway there meant that folks would leave the main hallway and enter into the hideaway to get to the elevators (from one end), and from the other end they'd leave the main hallway to get to the elevators directly. This meant that the section between these entrances was largely traffic-free except for the folks that had cabins along that stretch.

Loved the location so much, I've booked it again for a Reflection cruise for January, 2015.

I thought the masque theme party was really fun too!

We recently completed a cruise that had a stop in Venice. We were a small ship under 600 passangers. We were docked in Marghera pier area (meste comerical port-second biggest in Italy) We were told that many of the cruise ships from now on will be docking in this area. Note it is a thirty minute ride into the Venice Maritima Station (old pier) You will be dropped on here. To get on the bus for the return trip, you have to go thru the termianl and security with passport-same as last year) but then you have to wait for the bus or buses to return you to your ships pier.

This November the wait in the afternoon was over two and half hours.

Hopefully, this summer season, they will figure out the time and need for buses. Since it is a comerical port there is not other way in or out of the port area. We did an overnighter, and very few people went back into Venice the second day. We were the only pax on the bus both way. Yes, everyone should see Venice at least once.

We were on the Celebrity Silhouette in November and stopped at Venice for an overnight Nov 25 & 26. Originally we were supposed to port at the regular cruise ship terminal in Venice. Sometime after boarding I kept hearing that we were instead porting at another port quite a distance away...I can only guess that it is the same one you actually ported at. But a day or two before our call in Venice, things changed again and we were back to porting at the regular Venice port.

What a hassle it sounds like it is to get to and from the Maritima station. I don't look forward to it for any future visits to Venice but I suppose the good thing is that at least there is still an option to call at Venice, even if it's less than convenient.

Thanks for reporting your experience...pretty sure mine would have been frustratingly similar had we ported at the Maritima station.

We stayed at the Hotel Abruzzi in Rome last month. Located directly across from the Pantheon, with most rooms looking out directly onto the Pantheon. Fantastic location, reasonable price with breakfast included. Booked on their website, so also got Wi-Fi included. I would definitely stay here again.