mcmomny

We also enjoyed our POA cruise several years ago. We went into it thinking it was our floating hotel and not much else, we had read bad reviews about old tired ship, rude employees, no entertainment and poor food. Well, we had excellent service! We found the employees really enjoyed conversing with us. Yes everyone of them said that when their contract was up they would not be staying, that one tour was enough for them! The food was excellent but we ate every lunch off ship and several dinners too. On ship we stuck to the MDR's and the buffet. Not really much entertainment on this ship as the entertainment is the Islands! Yes the ship was older and looked tired in some areas but it was clean and comfortable. We still say we want to do this cruise again someday!

Enjoying this thread! We too have been long time cruisers but on NCL, we recently finished Greece on the Jade and loved every minute of it! So we came home and decided on the Red Sea and Egypt. When researching The Red Sea and Egypt MSC had the perfect option compared to NCL and other cruise lines so we booked it! I read many of Jamielogicals "live" reports and booked all of our excursions and have been super excited about this amazing itinerary. But unfortunately the world is not the same anymore so we have now changed our MSC Musica Red Sea to MSC Seashore and Ocean Cay with our son, wife and two grandkids! Next October so am anxious to hear how it goes for you and Janelle! We won't be YC but we have two adjoining balcony cabins and the Seashore looks to be super family friendly!

We fortunately have the room to not unpack lots of things since the kids grew up and left! In one of the kids old bedrooms I have turned the closet and room into my vacation prep area! I have a tote for things I will need for cruise trips only, another tote for my winter beach vacations and another tote of the toiletries we need for travel anywhere. I basically never unpack our toiletry bags, as I have duplicates of everything we use daily to make my life easier. I refill the shampoos and lotions when we get home so it's ready for the next trip. When traveling in the winter I can hang my beach outfits in the vacation closet as it is too cold at hear to wear them so they aren't missed! It's the summer trips that are harder to prepare for as we are wearing those clothes! The luggage also has to be hidden from the dog, she's too old to come upstairs anymore so I just keep them upstairs in my "vacation prep room!" This year we traveled tons, some for pleasure, some for work and some for checking up on elderly mothers out of state and my vacation closet/room was a huge help!

I also agree with RT from Barcelona, go in a day or two early as Barcelona is a wonderful do it yourself place to see! Also understand that Pisa and Rome are a good 90 minute bus ride from the port depending on traffic, and you only get a small glimpse of these wonderful places but still worth it! We lovingly refer to our Rome port of Call as "Clark Griswold excursion" Look, see leave for next thing to see! But we hit all the highlights of Rome in the 10 hours we had in port, ideal no but we can say we have been there! We also did this cruise in Sept thinking less kids, crowds and cooler but it wasn't the case! I was so surprised by how many kids were on the cruise, how super crowded all sights were and it was soooo hot! But as said is was a great trip!

In August we took the same excursion as @hernando52 did, but we had no line what so ever when returning to the ship via cable car. We walked right on. We were the only ship in port that day but the crowds were still crazy everywhere except the cable car! Everything I read before we sailed was that the crowds on the cable car would be hit or miss and we lucked out

Hi! The POS is still our favorite cruise of all time! Like you we rented a car in every port and had a great time, if your DH is worried about not having relaxation time with a car you can stop at any beach anytime which is what we did! I used an cute insulated bag as my carryon the plane which in turn was our cooler while driving, we would get waters and snacks and hit the road and stop at local places off the beaten path for lunch! Only tours we booked were The Road to Hana and a helicopter flight over Waimea Canyon which unfortunately was cancelled due to weather but we had a rental car so drove there instead! Have agreat time and can't wait to hear how it went!

Thank you so much! We will be sailing The Dawn Jan 2025 for Africa so I am happy to hear your great review!

Tons of stuff to see and do, hop a cab to Central Park or Rockefeller Center or Radio City Music Hall or go to The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum at the pier or if weather is good it's a 20 minute walk to Columbus Circle and the start of Central Park, 10 minute walk to The Intrepid or a 30 minute walk to Rockefeller Center Because of traffic concerns I would check and see if the cruise ship offers a day tour of NYC, 5 hours is not a lot of time.

Thank you!

Thank you for this! I do have a question for you, If we book the Easy Plus deal what happens if we order a drink that cost more than $9 allowance, do we pay the difference in price? I know that on NCL we were able to do that as we had the basic beverage package. Thank you and following along with your review!

We got excited on our Greece cruise on the Jade in August and booked Egypt for 16 days for 2024 but once we got home we realized we can't do a 16 day cruise and that cruise was going places we really didn't have a desire to go to. Plus the cost! $10,000 for a balcony! So we started looking at other cruise lines and found MSC has what we want port of call wise so we jumped ship on NCL and applied for loyalty match with MSC and a substantial savings so Egypt here we come! But we did book Africa with NCL for Jan 2025 as they have the ports of call we are interested in, we really enjoy NCL but yes the prices are getting out of control so we will continue to look at other options

Samething happened to us on our July cruise!

I might be one of the few but I have never had a problem pre, during or post cruise with NCL. Anytime I have called the service center it has been polite, helpful and very apologetic if they don't know the answer to such questions like "what time will the show be?" or which cabin has a better view. Always helpful with quick refunds for cancelled ports of call or once our excursion was not as described and we were given a quick discounted price refunded to our OBC. And when I have had to cancel cruises my CNC is refunded to my account in a day or two even thou they have told me it would take up to two weeks it never has. Right now I am working with MSC and their call center, have also heard terrible things about them but so far all is fine. My grandmother used to say " you attract more bees with honey than vinegar !" I have found that if you are polite and not demanding with any call center employee the more willing they will be to help you!

In March clam shells were sold out online but once in GSC we were able to walk up and get one no problem. Four years ago we booked swimming with the stingrays on board, cool experience!

Yes, very sad.

Can't wait to hear how your trip went, ours is not until Jan of 2025 but we have our spread sheet going too!

Thank you cruisingfox27 this is a huge help and I can't wait to hear how your cruise went! Thank you to everyone for your responses, it has been very helpful! One of our favorite things about travel is the pre-planning! Our kids laugh at us about our folders of information and our constant youtube video watching!

Thank you so much for your response Kingbobofthenorth! There are some excursions available already and we booked "The Wonders of Petra" already but the excursions in Safaga "The Valley of the Kings" has no description but "The amazing Karnak Temple" does. I was hoping there would be an excursion including both of these but I guess not due to the distance between the two locations. In the meantime we booked The Karnak Temple excursion which looks amazing I was wondering what your opinion of MSC is overall, we are easy going and know that this was a very affordable booking compared to the NCL. We just finished an NCL Greek Islands and Turkey cruise which we needed to book excursions early as they filled up quickly so we have been looking at MSC excursions and booked three so far. Again thank you for your information and stay safe wiht this hurricane!

Good morning! We have booked our first MSC cruise (long time NCL cruisers) for November of 2024 on The Musica to Egypt, Red Sea and Saudi Arabia and have been looking at the excursions. Some have descriptions and others do not. We called MSC and spoke to a nice young lady but she was unable to help us so I was wondering if anyone has been on these excursions or these ports of call and can review them for me or let me know where to read reviews about them! Our ports of call are Aqaba (Petra), Sharm el-Sheikh, Jeddah, Safaga and Sokhna Port. We are looking at "The Wonders of Petra" "The Amazing Karnak Temple Complex" or " Luxor's amazing Valley of The Kings" Not sure what to do in Sharm el-Sheikh or Jeddah. We will spend a few days in Cairo before the sailing and will do The Pyramid's then but plan on using the ships excursion of "The Egyptian Museum and airport transfer" on the way home. We typically book our own excursions but in this case we feel better using the ships excursions due to distance from port to the sights we want to see. Thank you in advance for your help!

RedRover, We just got off The Jade a few weeks ago after having been on larger ships the past 4 sailings and were worried about a smaller ship and being bored but we had a great time on The Jade! Love The Great Outdoors, also loved walking The Promenade each evening with a drink in our hands and watching the sun set. We found the bars to be smaller and more intimate and really got to know and enjoy the bartenders and waiters. The Jade was the cleanest ship I have been on! Never found messy bathrooms even by the pool area! Someone was always cleaning and checking the public bathrooms and clearing tables and drinks from empty tables. The buffet crew were constantly cleaning and clearing! Our cabin was in great shape and comfortable. We were on The Escape in March and the pool area was packed like a can of sardines! But not on The Jade, I even felt like the pool area was bigger on The Jade than on The Escape! WE always found a place to layout with out a problem! One note, the adult pool says it is 5 feet on the shallow end and I am 5'6 and I couldn't touch bottom! But it was ok as it was 100 degrees while we were in Greece!

The Great Outdoors is also my favorite place to be for sailaway!

Having been in a CBS in March and just finished up in a regular balcony today, my DH and I both agree we will always book a CBS from now on! That few extra sq ft were missed!

Yes they will as I have always asked for extras! And yes tip them

I thought that I had read somewhere that the gym has a bottle filling stations, but I don't know for sure as I have a huge problem with going to the gym on vacation and in general! 😁 I do ask the bartender to fill my water bottles with ice and water and I tip him for this service. In March they were allowing us back on ship with open water bottles from our excursions and did not make us dump them out, but it was also very hot in The Caribbean so maybe that is why? Next week for Greece our excursions tell us to bring refillable water bottles to keep hydrated, so we will see! Maybe I will check out the gym and see if there really is a bottle refill station in there and keep you posted!

They have installed hand washing stations at the entrance to the buffet and also have employees standing there with spray sanitizer bottles. In March we were able to serve ourselves in the buffet Honestly the only difference I noticed from before Covid to now was the handwashing stations and once a day cabin cleaning, neither of which bothered us! Our cabin steward Juan was wonderful and always available for us whenever we needed him! On a side note, make sure to let Guest Services know just how much you appreciated your room steward or anyone who helps to make your cruise that much more enjoyable! They deserve a pat on the back, plus we always tip extra to those who go out of their way to help us.