publicpersona

You are exactly right! Thanks so much!

We just now booked a cruise out of Civitavecchia leaving August 17th and was about to book a pre-cruise hotel near Roma Termini. But in checking the availability of direct train on that morning, the earliest Trenitalia is showing me in late in the day. Am I correct in assuming that means the train option isn't going to work out for me?

Three reasons we prefer S class over E: "Main dining room" service on E is a hot mess. The logistics of feeding so many people who want variable dining times is already complicated enough without throwing in the complication of having "different" restaurants. But other than decor, they aren't different at all. It's the same galley and the same menu (yes, I know they pretend they are different, but it doesn't matter which one you order from). On Apex a few weeks ago, we showed up as early as 5:30 PM only to be told there was a 30-45 minute wait. Sky Lounge The "infinite balcony" is neither infinite nor a balcony.

Now that you can pay just the difference for drinks above the Easy Plus package level, I'd do that rather than a premium package. This is especially true for Ocean Cay time where no premium drinks are available on the island.

If you mean, can you use onboard credit to pay for specialty restaurants, yes you can. Generally, anything that would be charged to your onboard account can use onboard credit. If you want to continue this topic, I'd suggest starting another thread.

This is something that perplexes me. For many cruises across multiple lines, I've uploaded my (recent) passport photo. A passport photo is the gold standard for security photos and is used for facial recognition. Nevertheless, the port agent has always insisted on taking a new one, sometimes saying "You can't take a picture of a picture". No, I didn't do that at all. The photo snapped at the terminal always was a little blurry with a background of a crowd of people, yet that was OK. When I posted about this on CC, someone that said they were a port agent said she could "tell I was trying to get away with a passport photo". Get away with what? It's my image and is perfection for the purpose of visually identifying someone. So my most recent cruise a couple weeks ago I (unintentionally) took a selfie in a bad light with a harsh shadow. I wasn't looking straight at the camera but rather down and to the right. My chin was slightly out of frame. I uploaded it and it was accepted with no reshoot necessary. There's probably a reasonable explanation here. Possibly the metadata of the image must be the same day as the upload or something like that.

If you feel the need, cash. Other than that, the crew are taught to be polite and appear appreciative of whatever you do, so you can't go by that. I say that because inevitably in one of these threads someone who believes the crew actually wants and has room to keep some worthless tchotchke will argue "I brought a rock with 'Ohio' painted on it and our stateroom attendant loved it!".

I’ve been on 70+ cruises and having a make-up muster for those that missed the first day drill is pretty much standard procedure. For cruises that sail away late in the evening (for example, out of San Juan at 10 PM), the muster is the next day for everyone (no, it does not need to be completed before sail away). Let me turn the tables on you. On what cruise lines have you found inferior muster drill procedures in the last year? Right. Three times you’ve claimed best in the industry. I’ve switched to counting how many times you’ve dropped that you had a butler.

.. said the person who has twice now declared MSC has the easiest process. No, they don’t. They are getting there and as it is it isn’t bad, but give up the “best in the cruise industry” stuff. Now if you don’t mind, I’ll go back to enjoying my MSC cruise

On a positive note, it is now possible to buy a drink at a higher price than your package and pay only the difference. That’s new for MSC and I like it.

Celebrity and Royal Caribbean to start. Look, I don’t mean to start a thing here. I am pleased with MSC and the way they are phasing in the same thing. I just wouldn’t say it is currently superior to any other line.

I don’t know how you can keep saying that when other cruise lines let you watch the video on your phone at your leisure starting with when you are in the terminal building, and that’s that .. no need to call a number.

For what it is worth, I just spoke to the Guest Relations manager (no, I didn’t seek her out; this was at the repeater party) and she said they are phasing out the everybody all at once muster. The new way starts on Magnifica next sailing.

I made the mistake of upgrading to Premium for a cruise that had two days at Ocean Cay. There are no premium drinks available on Ocean Cay. In fact, about half the time onboard I have had to settle for Easy Plus drinks.

Clearly this varies ship to ship. On Magnifica today and so far they have made it an hour-long ordeal with announcements every five minutes. I’ve got to say watching the video in an app and stopping by the muster station during the first few hours onboard to be scanned is a lot smoother for everyone. MSC should consider this simplification. P.S. We have now had the every five minute announcement for an hour and a half.

On Magnifica today and it’s the everybody at once stampede. While not as easy as, say, Celebrity, I am grateful I don’t have to stand in the sun with a life jacket on any more.

When I saw another thread here asking about the "Sofa package", I thought Celebrity was taking my idea and running with it. The basic Sofa Package would have a loveseat. The Sofa Package Plus an actual sofa. With the Premium Sofa Package, they give you the cushions too.

On Royal, a married couple in a household are the same level as the one with the higher number of points.

So MSC no longer requires that everyone do it at the same time? I could have sworn someone was posting about that in the last few days. That certainly makes it easi*er*, but I would differ about easi*est* until they allow you to watch the video in the app (even while you are in the terminal) and then not have to confirm with anyone.

I just skimmed this but looks to be fairly accurate. You won't have any trouble figuring it out. For one thing, the instructions will be playing your cabin's TV when you get there. At a designated time (see your daily schedule), you watch a video on your TV and then proceed (without life jackets) to your muster station. They may ask you to dial a number on the phone to confirm that you watched the video. Your muster station will be on your room key card as well as the back of the stateroom door. When you get to the muster station, they will scan your card and mark you complete. This process is evolving over time, especially as a result of COVID. Other lines are even simpler as they don't require everyone do it at the same time, but MSC does. Back in the olden days, the muster drill involved putting on your life jacket and going to stand outside in the sun for half an hour. Thank your lucky stars we don't have to do that any more.

Exactly. If it's a bottle, there's little doubt you brought it with you. But it wouldn't be good business to challenge every glass of wine someone walks into MDR with. Actually, on Celebrity, I've not gone into MDR for dinner without a glass of wine in my hand because Elite happy hour doesn't work in the MDR, but it does work at the bar right outside the MDR door. It isn't an exact science.

Again, it's not about opening the bottle. The policy is about consuming from a bottle in a bar or restaurant that you didn't buy onboard. The fee is to reimburse for the lost profit. Yes, I'm aware that bringing your own glass of wine should trigger it as well if that's the reason, but their policy specifically says "bottle." Also aware that there are plenty of data points to say that corkage fees are not always enforced.

I think I was pretty clear on that, and also that OP mentioned other cruise lines, and that the topic the OP chose was "corkage fees". You see, we're having a conversation here. I mentioned the embarkation corkage fee as further illustration of why there may be one. The comment I was replying to seemed to imply that the reason for the corkage fee was a charge to open the bottle, and citing how another line handled it was to add evidence to the correct explanation.

The corkage fee, despite the name, is less about opening the bottle than the fact that you are taking the bottle to your table in the MDR. If it was just about the uncorking, everyone could just bring in screw-top closure bottles, or a corkscrew for DIY to avoid the fee. I understand that some cruise lines charge the corkage fee at embarkation which makes it clear they just want to make up for the lost profit for not selling a bottle onboard and it has nothing to do with removing the cork. To add to the inconsistencies, I've never had any trouble bringing an already poured glass of wine into the MDR. In fact, sometimes they will carry it to the table and sometimes offer a better glass for it.

<invents google> Feb 2, 2025