Mark_T

We had the 'Basic' Starlink WiFi on Eclipse in January and it was every bit as limited as the old 'Basic' WiFi unfortunately. No question that it is an improvement for Premium, that seems to be well received by all, but Celebrity have kept the 'Basic' service locked down to such a low bandwidth that we couldn't even load this site...

It is either lunch or dinner though surely? 9 reservations in total not potentially 18?

I usually find the number of days shown reflects the current cruise, but the app is so messed up that anything is possible 🙂 On our Eclipse cruise earlier this year it didn't even show the MDR menus for the first week we were onboard... Then it started showing the desserts only for a while...

Hmm... not on the mock booking I just did on the UK website, it still references 'Basic WiFi' for AI.... This is consistent with #10 on the published FAQ....

The app reflects the current cruise itinerary, not your cruise... So the length will often be wrong, mixture of port and sea days will be different, the number of Chic nights etc. So if the current cruise is port intensive it will look as though the MDR is not open at all...

That is not 'Unlimited' it is 9 nights and no lunches...

I tend to agree, shifting the lunch to a sea day when the MDR is open anyway is a completely pointless exercise. There is little enough provided with that class of cabin now that it feels like it is just an up-sell for the points. Good recovery by the ship for the OP, but I wonder how many other guests were similarly upset but didn't bother to complain and hence got nothing... We are booked in Concierge for Japan in 2025, reading threads like this just make it even more likely we will cancel as Celebrity whittle away at the little things that individually may not seem important, but collectively damage the experience...

I preferred it when you took the high-ground with... The crew apparently get a guaranteed minimum tip component in their check, but they will get more if the DSC is not removed. Using the ability to remove it for no valid service related reason, is not a vote for change, it is exploiting a loop-hole for your own advantage, and to the disadvantage of the crew and the cruise line, can't punish one without punishing both. There is more honor in picking a different line if you disagree with the pricing policy....

No argument there, pick a different cruise line if their policies offend and if enough people do it then things may change. Is there a mass market line selling in the US that doesn't price in this way though? I remember the bad old days when every cruise line advertised 'second guest sails free' and just doubled the fare for the first guest... 🙂 Many of the cruise promotions still feel like they haven't moved too far from that tactic... Not you I know, but anyone sticking with the cruise line despite the policy should not then use it as an excuse to stiff the crew...

Can't really comment on an NCL issue in an MSC thread, but you have to recognise that this practice is pretty much only happening in the US market, and it isn't only one cruise line, it is most if not all of them... I certainly would be happy to see it change, as it is not even legal in many other territories, but unless and until it becomes legally necessary to stop doing it in the US, it is likely to continue...

This is a market problem, not a specific cruise line problem... If we book a cruise with MSC in the UK then the price shown is inclusive of everything, no extra sales tax or port charges or gratuities etc. The US market seems to demand the unbundled pricing to allow the cruise lines to compete on the lowest headline price... Like it or not, the US has this problem everywhere, from retail where the prices do not include sales tax, to restaurants where 18-20% tip is assumed and built into staff wages and taxation. Cruises are no different...

You might need to revisit those prices, even with discount you will not get it for anywhere close to $12 these days.

Yes, it is still the metal 'bottle', but we have never noticed a taste problem as long as it is still cold. We had the premium package on Eclipse in January but still preferred to take the metal containers when going off the ship.

MSC is delivering better value and suite class experience for us these days. About 50% of the Retreat price and, in our opinion, a better level of service. We still have a Japan cruise booked with Celebrity in 2025 in a Concierge class cabin, but it is certainly possible that we will replace it with MSC before we get there as it is on Millennium, and the non-suite experience on the revolutionized M class ships really isn't that great these days. (no Murano, no World Class bar, loss of the forward upper deck to the Retreat Sun Deck)

I would always plan for that on a cruise that includes the Canaries due to cigarette smuggling, much less likely on one with just ports inside the EU Customs territory.

This may be another one with variations between ships, but last week on Divina we were told that the Tomahawk & T-Bone were excluded from the 50% substitution rule. No surprise on the Tomahawk obviously...

On Divina last week it was 6pm, other ships and cruises may vary of course... They do sometimes open for brunch on sea days as well.

It was the first thing we noticed on Divina last week, how hot all the food was compared to our experience on S and M class Celebrity ships... ... even the pizza delivery to our suite felt like it had just come out of the oven... Having had the galley tour on Millennium it isn't surprising when you see how far the food has to travel including the escalators.

Sadly though, like many of you on here, as a 'road warrior' with a few million miles of air travel over the years this is exactly what you see happening when the customer asking for something they are not entitled to, gets a 'no' and then characterizes the response and the employee as rude and unreasonable... I've given out more than a few business cards over the years to the unfortunate employees to use if they need a witness following the threats to have their employment ended by the self-important complainer... ... of course few few have needed help as it is mostly hot-air and bluster.

I am all for respecting the local culture, but the lines do get a bit blurred when the product is being sold locally in different countries and then delivered in a different international location. When MSC sell in the UK (... and the rest of Europe I believe) they always include the gratuities in the cruise fare and there is no option to remove those gratuities, which is as it should be. They perceive that for competitive pricing, the US market requires the gratuities to be separate, and the customer is given the option to remove them as well, perhaps those who are in favor of taking the option to remove the gratuities would prefer the UK approach and the higher cruise fare that results from that? I'm certainly not seeing MSC using the gratuities to subsidise the salary bill, they simply use the guaranteed gratuity element of the crew contract to give the crew a budget figure they can rely upon, which seems a lot more practical than telling them to wait and see what they will get each segment of the cruise... It seems perverse to have anyone in the USA complaining about this practice when it is virtually a national expectation that front line service industry staff will derive a significant portion of their income from tipping and they will get taxed on that assumption and can be paid below normal minimum wage based on the concept of a tipped minimum wage...

If the crew contract includes a basic salary and a forecast guaranteed share of the tip pool, as appears to be the case based on serval reports, then I fail to see the problem. It allows the staff to plan and budget for their families and any bonus above the guaranteed share is obviously welcome, as are direct cash tips. I have nothing good to say about anyone who would choose to go on a cruise in the full knowledge of the tipping policy and then seek to remove those tips, as the pool covers far more people than are interacted with directly, and those who you do interact with could not provide the service we appreciate without the work of those unseen colleagues... Accidents happen, and tipping directly without realizing there would be tips on the cabin account is not in the same category, cruising in the full knowledge of the system and still removing the tips is like going to pretty much any restaurant in the USA and walking out without tipping your server...

We just got off Divina, and I'd have to agree with that assessment. We were in Yacht Club but wanted to try everything the ship had to offer and the Sushi has to be the worst example of its kind I've ever had. Clearly prepared by someone without a shred of sushi training, and using raw materials that did not look to be of suitable quality for sushi, which is obviously a concern when serving raw fish... Butcher's Cut was adequate but when you can order filet in Yacht Club restaurant any time you want there is no reason to ever go there... If not in Yacht Club then to be fair, it is not an expensive choice for the limited menu, but it does fail on minor points like the provision of the multiple 'sauce' options which are all tiny and really should not be presented as sauces. The chimichurri was sadly completely inedible due to a wild excess of vinegar vs olive oil, the resulting mix was far too acid. When compared to speciality prices on other lines, these were not expensive, but equally not something we would do again regardless of being in Yacht Club or not... On the ships that have the Mexican option, reports are far more promising. Although we didn't eat in the Pizza restaurant on Divina we did have one delivered to our suite and it was excellent.

Not exactly 'no limits' but you'd have to seriously over-pack to go outside the allowance... 🙂 Each guest is limited to checking in: two suitcases per person* (not exceeding 90x75x43 cm in size and 23 kg in weight per bag) two pieces of hand luggage per person* (not exceeding 56x45x25 cm in size and 23 kg in weight per bag). The maximum amount of luggage in each cabin must not exceed 100 kg and/or 8 pieces total for all passengers in the same cabin. Any piece of luggage exceeding the allowance will not be accepted at Check-In. Guests exceeding these limits are invited to contact MSC Cruises directly or via their travel agents at the time of booking for information on how to ship luggage in excess separately via freight or cargo, at an additional charge.

This was obvious when we spent over half the nights on our last cruise in the specialities instead of the MDR, our absence was noted and questioned…

Personally, I’ve just regarded the 18% as a price increase, I think it was a mistake to label it as gratuity as it pushes the wrong buttons… The only problem now though is deciding if it is worth the price anymore…