EllieinNJ

We were going to rent golf carts in Catalina Island but after we rented golf carts in Costa Maya two weeks ago, my husband's back was hurting him greatly.  Is there anything else to do or see there?  The Carnival Radiance excursions do not look interesting.

45 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

If you have an 8pm assigned time they reserve the right not to seat you if you show up at 8:30

Twice we got there around 8:25 and we had no trouble being seated. We just told our servers we were going to the early show the day before and they said it was no problem.

Hi Henry.  Looking forward to your report.  We wanted to take the Dec. 1st Prima cruise but my part time job keeps getting in the way.  Hopefully I am retiring in January.  So now I am looking at the Prima for next December.  

I am the one who usually gets the Amex offers on my Blue card.  This time my husband got the NCL one and I got a Holland America one.  Never sailed HA .  Their prices are more than the $300 off $1000 than other cruise lines so will probably skip it even though I downloaded it 

We got to the port around 11:30.  Took us about 45 minutes to board the ship   I did see a handicap line though.

Does the discount get bigger depending on the days of the cruise? My 5 day Liberty in Sept. Says $19 99pd and my 7 day Odyssey in Feb 2025 has nothing listed yet.

13 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Have you sailed on other cruise lines that had a vanity with a seat in the bathroom?

I think you misunderstood me.  I like to sit at the desk when I get ready to go out instead of standing in the bathroom.  On MSC there was only one center drawer so I brought a shoe bag to hang up with my incidentals and a lighted makeup mirror to do my hair and makeup.  I would have really hated reaching up or down for those shelves in the bathroom.  It was okay for my husband though.

7 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I don't have the storage problem that others seem to have on the Meraviglia. Maybe it's because so many of my first cruises were on Breakaway Plus class ships on NCL and those rooms have no drawers at all. I learned after my very first cruise to pack collapsible cubbies that you can buy for literally $1 from the Dollar Store. Since they collapse flat, they take up no room in my bags. I usually bring four (two for me and two for my husband), but don't always use them all, depending on the ship.

 

I found there was PLENTY of storage in the bathrooms with the three upper shelves, counter space, and shelf & cabinet below the sink. Makes me wonder how many toiletries people are bringing if that's not enough space! Could maybe use more shelf space inside the shower I guess. I also love that MSC showers have the little bar for me to put my foot on when shaving my legs. I used to have to pack a suction cup footrest, but learned I can leave that off my packing list on MSC.

 

 

 

It's just that I use a vanity at home with everything in my reach.  I don't like standing in the bathroom doing my hair and makeup.  It was fine for my husband.

38 minutes ago, joeyancho said:

That sucker is burned.  Also not the proper bread...

And there was no pork, pickles or mustard on mine.

26 minutes ago, js said:

Thank you. I'm sorry you cannot purchase but it makes me feel a little better it's not just me LOL I can also just see the Hilton for $25. If the OBC was going to leave after Black Friday, I would have just purchased it to have but I really think we will stay on the ship that day. I'm a Disney freak and have APs (live in NY) but Im not doing that trek back and forth for one day I rather use the ship.

 

Happy planning!

I also read your other topic here on bed placement.  I too struggled to find a cabin with the bed by the balcony..  I find it feels more roomy that way.  I looked at cruisedeckplans.com and couldn't find the EXACT cabin I wanted so booked one that did show the bed by the balcony.  It was only about 6 or 7 doors down from the one I wanted.  When I was on the Oasis in October, 2021 I booked the Anthem on board for Jan. 2022.  The agent assured me that the bed was by the balcony.  When we got on the Anthem we found out it was NOT.  Thankfully the cabin next to us was empty and had the bed by the balcony and we were able to move into it.

3 minutes ago, js said:

Thank you for chiming in. Do you see that you can purchase the alcohol and dining for your February 2025 Odyssey cruise? I cannot purchase anything for my April 2025 Odyssey and really wanted to purchase the UDP and Alcohol package.
 

Thank you.

Nope.  The only thing available was the same day pass at the Hilton for $25pp.  Didn't even come with chairs, only transportation.I wanted to purchase the internet but it was not on sale for my Liberty cruise.

The same thing happened to me.  I booked two cruises through my TA's group rates in October.  One on the Liberty for 5 days in September, 2024 and one for 7 days on the Odyssey for Feb., 2025. Now when I looked at them in my planner to see if anything was on sale for Black Friday I noticed the $50 OBC for the Liberty and $100 OBC for the Odyssey.  I will call my TA to see if this amount is different from the OBC from the agency.

...but will not stop me from cruising MSC again.

Just came off the MSC Miraviglia on an 11 day cruise to the western caribbean.  Unfortunately we had to skip Ocean Cay and Nassau because of the weather but it is probably not MSC's fault that they made that call.  I heard some of the other ships that were suppose to be in Nassau the same day as us did actually dock there.  We wound up docking in Miami, which was okay.

We had a Fantastica balcony on deck 10 center which was a great location.  We picked starboard side because we heard we could see the lighthouse show on Ocean Cay from there but we never did get to Ocean Cay.  We did know in advance that there were no public elevators or stairs in the back of the ship.

When we boarded the ship we found out we had a 6pm dining time which was too early for us.  So we went to the Panorama dining room to change the time.  The line was very long and took us almost an hour to finally get it changed.  The only times that were left by then was 8pm or later.  We took the 8pm time (wanted 7:30) and after several days found out they did open at 7:45 so didn't have to rush to see the 9:30 shows.

There was hardly any storage in our stateroom.  Two drawers and three shelves (one taken up by the safe).  One large drawer with the hair dryer at the desk.  That's all.  Better ask for plenty of hangers to hang clothes up.  They used the two bedside tables to store the bed toppings in the evenings.

The bathroom is TINY.  Although we liked the enclosed shower, there was very little room for movement in the bathroom.  Better bring a shoe bag to hang up for all your toiletries.

The TV only had one channel that played free movies and most of them were in black and white from the 30's to the 50's.  Only news channel was CNN.

Better bring the grey towels with you to the pool areas.  There are no towel exchanges there and you have to schlep the wet towels back to your cabin.

Most of the hot tubs are really small.  Only those in the adult area and two at the bamboo pool were a decent size.

The soft serve ice cream at the pool area closes at 5pm.  Why???? 

The buffet had very little variety.  Some of the coffee machines were luke warm.  The ice machines were always out of order.  Sometimes they did have bowels of ice there but not always.  The hamburgers at the grill were like hockey pucks.  They were much better in the MDR at lunch. 

I know that food is subjective but we went in with open minds.  Only ate dinner in the main dining room.  Out of 11 dinners, maybe 4 were tasty.  Except for the soups, everything came out luke warm.  The shrimp cocktail did not have the usual horseradish sauce but a sweet pink sauce and was disappointing.  In fact every dish that had any type of shellfish had small pieces, maybe the size of your fingernail.  Except for the lobster tail.  It was decent.  I really liked the butter chicken and the chicken parm.  There was never enough filling in any sandwich.  A cuban should have pork, not ham and cheese.  All the pizza was delish.  Every time you ask for cream or ketchup they just want to add some to your plate or cup.  You have to insist they leave some at the table.  At breakfast in the MDR you have to ask several times for butter.  The toast comes out like a rock.  Try an english muffin instead.

We truly loved the production shows.  They were some of the best shows we have ever seen at sea.  The guest shows not so much, except for the comedian who was a New Yorker and did shtick like in the old days at the borsch belt in the Catskill Mountains.  The steps down to the front in the Broadway Theater were somewhat dangerous.  I saw others and myself trip many times because of the lights around the stairs that give a false impression of their height.  There is no outlet to deck 5 so if you are sitting in the front you have to walk all the way back up to deck 6 and through the promenade, which is congested with people.

These complaints may sound petty to some but they are very irritating during your cruise.  There were many good things also on this cruise which might outweigh the complaints so if a great cruise with a great itinerary and price came up I would certainly consider going with MSC again.

5 hours ago, csm5986142 said:

Panorama is one of my favorite ships and we sail from Long Beach often (it's one of our closest ports).  Missing a port wouldn't really bother me (we've been to them several times) but in July, we got back to Long Beach late causing us to miss our flight (so that was kind of an expensive ordeal).  In the future I will definitely book an afternoon flight when getting off Panorama.

I will be booking a 2:25pm flight back home out of LAX.  Is that reasonable?  The next flight is 430pm which gets us back to Newark after midnight.

There were at least 6 people who were in the YC who tested positive when they got home, according to FB.

Following.

We just got off the Miraviglia.  We had fantastica experience and was assigned a dining time of 6pm.  A little too early for us so on embarkation we went to the dining room to get the time changed.  It was a very long line and we waited almost an hour.  When it was finally our turn the only later times were 8pm or later.  We took the 8pm but the dining room actually opened at 7:45pm or you can get there by 8:30pm so you can see either the early show or late show in the theater.  Also ask for a two top at the end of the row so you are not between two tables. 

We just got off the Miraviglia and saw the paid Rock Circus in the Carousel Lounge.  Our ship also had rough waters but they managed to do the aerial moves and dancing.  It was a great show but with the ship rocking, a few sips of that rum drink they gave out and the blasting music and neon lighting, I was hoping nothing from dinner would come back up.

We got off yesterday.  Was traveling with another couple from southern NJ.  The Verazzano Bridge was closed so we took the BQE to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, (now called the Hugh Carey  Tunnel),  then the Holland Tunnel to the NJ tpke. Traffic leaving the port was fine and the only backup was entering the Holland Tunnel.

Glad that Ted is feeling better.  We spoke to him briefly at the meet and greet and seemed like a very nice guy 

We went to see the show Encore last night in the theater and it was literally one if the ɓest shows I have ever seen in 14 cruises.  Don't miss it.

We leave tomorrow on the MSC Miraviglia for 11 days.  I just paid the final payment for the Venezia yesterday.

Several years ago I had a similar incident.  I bit into a bagel on board and my fairly new implant broke.  I was trying to be careful but stuff happens.  It was next to the front teeth so very visible and had to go several more days on the ship.  Very embarrassing.

When I finally got to my dentist he only charged me $500 for a bone graft and put a new implant in.  I did have to wait another 6 months for the completion 

We also will be on the Panorama in April/May.  We can pick two flights back to NYC.  One at 2:15pm and another at 4:15pm. How bad can traffic be on a Saturday?  The 4:15 pm won't get us into NYC until after midnight which is pretty inconvenient.

Did Patti see smoked salmon(lox) anywhere on the buffet?