Stockjock

I get sick on almost every cruise and I expect to be at least somewhat sick. In January, I got Covid after a Celebrity cruise, although I suspect we caught it on the flight home. Fortunately it was mild. Just got off 10 nights on Grandiosa a bit over a week ago and we caught a cold, which wasn't terrible. Did 3 covid tests to make sure and they all came back negative. If he is so ill as to not be able to go, you may (may) have "Cruise with Confidence" which allows you to cancel up to 48 hours before sailing for a FCC and I think if you get covid you can get a cash refund. Unfortunately, MSC has done away with that, so it just depends on when you booked. On my December sailing, I do have CWC. I thought about cancelling and rebooking, but I didn't want to give up CWC, just in case. If he isn't too very ill (hopefully), of course he can just tough it out and sanitize often. Hopefully it will clear up in a matter of days.

On my recent cruise on Grandiosa, they did kind of a mini movie and I filmed about 30 seconds of it. Follow the link to view. MSC Mini Movie

Just got off of an MSC 10-night sailing out of Copenhagen. I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt that MSC has interest in any of the other cruise lines. First off, they're not selling. But more importantly, MSC has a formula that is working. They're building a ton of new ships that are very stylish and relatively eco-friendly. Their cruise business is insulated by their successful shipping business, although high fuel prices and inflation do impact both sides of their shipping business. But I'd be shocked if MSC has interest in anything except (maybe) an ultra-premium cruise line, although they are giving that segment a go with Explora. Since I work for one of the big Wall Street firms, I can't comment on the stock issues other than to say that investors should never have more money in any one company than they can afford to lose. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

As mentioned, shorts were allowed most nights but not on Gala night.

Thank you for your suggestions. Is taking a bus a decent option?

That's my preference as well, but this was a bit of a different preparation and we did enjoy trying something different.

We're doing a winter cruise out of Le Havre with 3 nights in Paris in the Luxembourg Gardens area pre-cruise. At the end of the cruise, we'd need transportation back to Paris, only this time we'd be staying 2 nights post-cruise near the ORLY Airport. We tend to travel somewhat heavy, although we could try to lighten things up a touch. Any suggestions as to the best transportation options? I was thinking maybe a train, but am open to suggestions. Thank you in advance.

Here is the lobster we got in the French restaurant on Grandiosa. It was absolutely delicious. But as you might guess it was not free. We had the trio dining package and I think it was an upsell of $17.50 per person, which is half off the menu price. But we felt like we got our moneys worth.

So I start a thread about a guy getting kicked from the MDR for not wearing shorts. Some fellow, rather than appropriately responding to my thread, starts an entirely new thread, which makes no sense, but for some reason gains traction. Then I respond to my own thread to provide clarification as to what occurred and they move my comment, which was intended for my own thread, to this guy's thread. I don't get that.

Just to clarify, the guy in the shorts wasn't really being rude, but was just trying to (unsuccessfully) make his case as to why he should be allowed into a Gala Night dinner in shorts. I have no idea how he got into the MDR or who reported him.

Booked a holiday sailing out of Europe on Preziosa. It was classified as an oceanview, but one of those interesting aft balconies where it has that pricing because the balcony portion is about 50% of the normal size. There were no perks associated with this booking, so we spent about $532 to do the Easy drink package. They subsequently switched ships with Virtuosa and changed my assigned Fantastica cabin to a Fantastica OV1 GUAR. Due to the uncertainty and also due to a perks package now being offered, I switched the booking to an obstructed balcony with the superior Easy Plus drink package and wi-fi. The promotion change only cost me $40 over the prior price (including the purchased Easy package), which I thought was a no brainer to have a better drink package, wi-fi, and a balcony cabin. Now, when I look at the booking, it still shows as GUAR. However, when I click on "stateroom", it shows the cabin that I chose under the new promotion. Any idea if they may still consider my booking as a GUAR even though I've chosen a new cabin under the new promotion?

Thanks for the photo. That's interesting. It also doesn't seem like they made a very effective use of that space. If you look at this video, you'll see that the balcony is probably 3-4 times larger than normal (it's also deeper and about 3 wide), yet they only apparently put 1 standard-sized table and 2 standard sized chairs on it. Seems like it would be perfect for a couple of loungers given all of that room. Underutilized Balcony Space.

My GF was not thrilled about the lifeboat obstruction. I told her, "just think of it as your new big orange friend!" She wasn't convinced.

It should have been an add-on remark to the thread I had done the previous evening about the fellow who got kicked from the MDR for wearing shorts. Not sure why it seems to be gaining traction. Imagine if we took every remark to a current thread and started a new thread with it.

This is such a small amount, I'm almost embarrassed to bring it up. But I had only ordered drinks that were included in the Easy Plus drink package. I wanted to try something different and asked if it was included in my package. He said, "Let me check", came back and said it was. On my final billing, I saw that I had a $20 for 1 or 2 of that drink that apparently wasn't included in the package. I took my concern to customer service prior to leaving the ship (long line) and they removed the charge. But yes, it's much easier to dispute a charge before one departs the ship.

Thanks for the video, it was helpful. I did go ahead and book one of those huge balcony cabins. This is a winter sailing and it will be damned near freezing, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be on the balcony, but it’s always nice to have the extra real estate.

I presume that this message is in response to my thread yesterday about the guy who got kicked out of the restaurant for wearing shorts. If so, it probably would have made more sense to add a comment to that existing thread, rather than creating an entirely new thread. But whatever. That said, as I clearly mentioned, the fellow who was kicked out was wearing shorts on Gala Night. This is a different situation versus wearing shorts on a "normal" night. I personally wouldn't wear shorts to dinner on any night, but that's just me and it's not prohibited other than on Gala Night.

I posted a nice photo of Fortuna docking in Lisbon. Here's a video of the ship inching towards port, for anyone interested. Costa Fortuna in Lisbon

This should show what I’m referring to. If anyone knows of any photos of these cabins, I’d love to see them.

On its sister ship, Grandiosa, those balconies look to be a closer to standard size. Does anyone know if they are a lot larger or not? I do understand that most of those 8th obstructed balconies are deeper to begin with, but on MSC's deck plan, the cabins mentioned look to have balconies about twice as wide, where on Grandiosa that does not appear to be the case.

...or wait until I have a cabin assignment and use my 1-time Fantastica change option to switch to the new promotion. The risk in that is that the promo may no longer be available or pricing may have changed.

They have a new promo that's slightly cheaper. I asked if it wouldn't make sense to just do a cancel and rebook (I have until Sep 30) under the new promo, since changing to the new promo from the current booking would use up my "one free change" Fantastica option. She said that I currently have "Cruise with Confidence", which allows a change up to 48 hours of sailing for any reason where if I did a new booking, Cruise with Confidence is no longer in effect.

The thing is that, as mentioned, I had a unique cabin not available on Virtuosa. Plus, what if I grabbed an ocean view, but it was their intention to give me something better? Seems to me that Fantastica bookings should be assigned relatively promptly when ships are changed. Bella bookings are a different story, imo.

Booked a Fantastica ocean view cabin on Preziosa. It was one of those aft balcony cabins where the balcony part is about 50% of the normal size, so they priced it as an ocean view cabin. I loved the location and pricing on that cabin, as we could still utilize the balcony somewhat, only at an ocean view price. They changed ships to Virtuosa and have been showing my cabin as a Fantastica GUAR for about 2 months now. Seems to me that if it was a Fantastica booking with an assigned cabin, they should treat it like a Fantastica booking, not like a Bella GUAR. Hey, if I end up with a major upgrade, I won't complain, but when RCCL did a similar ship change recently, they assigned my cabin within 2 weeks. Frankly, I didn't like the assignment and ended up cancelling the cruise and switching to Celebrity, but at least I knew what I was dealing with so I could address things, if need be. I think I'm now within the final payment penalty phase, which limits our options, and still without a cabin assignment. Certainly there are bigger issues in life than this, but am I right for being a bit annoyed?