NYcruzzer

Embarkation was horrible. We arrived at 10:30. Were on line outside the terminal until 1:30. We finally boarded at 2:15. I heard there was a system failure that caused your delay. Had a nice evening. Heading out to breakfast now

Thanks for posting the Dailies. We are packed and ready to sail tomorrow ! Doubt I'll get much sleep tonight...way too excited.

I don't recall Miracle sailing Winter time from NYC. I did sail on Splendor out of NYC in the Winter. Regarding possible slow advanced booking on Venezia. Florida cruises have many passengers flying to the port and book trips and flights further in advance. NY/NJ cruises have a lot more folks driving to the pier. Meaning they can book alot closer to when they want to sail. I only sail out of NY and rarely ever book more than 5 months in advance.

Welcome home. I'm on this Sunday's sailing. Looking forwrad to the rest of your report.

Very helpful. Thanks for the quick copy and paste

Back in the day the MCT maxed you out at 10 days parking fee even if the cruise was longer. I wonder if that is still the case for MCT and BCT since are both runned by the same company ?

Parking $315.00 for 7 day cruise. Many folks from LONG ISLAND, BROOKLYN, AND QUEENS will find it cheaper and easier to simply take a car service or UBER to the pier.

What do you suggest ? MSC have a bunch of personel roam the ship looking for " offenders " ? Say one stationed by the water/ice machine and another looking for bare foot passengers in the buffet ? My point is policy and policy enforcement are two different things. Look at all the chair hog threads as an example of policy vs. actual policy enforcement.

I tried pricing out the 5/28 cruise and kept getting an error message. Was thinking of making my 5/21 a B2B..Website issues ?

Welcome home. I felt the same way about the Haven on NCL. Was in Haven on Gem and Breakaway. Felt like we had to spend more time in Haven areas to get our "moneys worth" On my first MSC cruise on Mera this May I purposely chose a room in "gen-pop" . This way I can spend more time covering all the areas of the ship When you compare YC vs Premium lines you aren't putiing NCL in the premium cruiseline catagory are you ? To me they are no better then Royal or dare I say Carnival

Carnival Venezia is a new concept. Basically Costa cruise meets Carnival. Supposed to have special dining and entertainment option not found on regular Carnival ships. I've sailed Carnival out of NYC to Canada/NE past Septembers. Kiddos back in school. Crowds a bit more mature. I usually sail out NCL out of NYC 2 to 3 times a year. Trying MSC this May and Carnival this Sept and October. Deals to good to pass up. If I do sail NCL again it will be last minute if fares drop enough to justify those tasty added service fees for FREE AT SEA drink and dining packages

These are base fares. We got a promo Casino offer $100.00 PP for an inside with $100.00 PP OBC and Drinks on us. MSC also has some yummy promos. NCL will be forced to drop fares.. You may just have to wait until after final payments due before you see significan rate drops..

Enjoying your review so far. We are sailing on the Meraviglia out of NY in May. Wasn't sure about the dining package. After reading your review of Butchers cut I'm leaning towrads getting it. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Interior YC was sold out for my sailing. The YC areas on MSC Meraviglia look amazing. I'm definitely looking forward to sailing YC in the future. Like I said I haven't written NCL off. I only cruise out of NY/NJ. I like having more choices. Time will tell if MSC prices will go up or NCL out of NY will come down.

What makes me fee better is the fact thet my 7 night MSC cruise on 5/21 is about half the cost of an NCL cruise that same week.

Incorrect. MSC isn't charging a service charge. They are simply giving you a choice to either select a barebones fare that doesn't allow you to pick a cabin (in most cases) or a second option. Which is a fare that includes the drink package, internet package, and OBC. The point I was making is that NCL's Free at Sea also adds a highly grossed up service charge on top of the differance in pricing for Sailaway vs. Free at Sea. I've been sailing NCL out of NYC since the NCL Sea sailed here many moons ago. Their fares and service charges are getting a little out of hand. I am ready to try something differant. I'm sure I'll be back on NCL if price and itinerary warrant.

The MSC screenshot you displayed shows the equivilant of NCL's Sailaway vs. Free at Sea. I was actually comparing apples to apples. The $220.00 differance includes drink package (no service charge) unlimited internet for two and OBC. For now MSC is blowing NCL away in pricing as they try to establish market share in NYC. What I was trying to say was that MSC doesn't add $305.00 in service fees (7 night cruise) for two people for their drink package.

Because MSC and Carnival will soon both be sailing their versions of the FLA/Bahamas "milk run". MSC starting April 22nd and Carnival Venezia starting in June. Both will be homeporting year round. MSC's pricing is so low (no service charge for "free" drink package) that I have to give them a try. 7 night cruise Under $1600.00 including drink package and unlimited internet for two of us. That price includes all port fees and taxes for an o/v cabin in May. Plus loyalty matched me to MSC Gold for first cruise.

Hi Jamie. We sailed on same cruise with you on NCL. Pretty sure it was the Breakaway to Bermuda after cruising "lockdown" ended. We have a few MSC cruises booked out of NY. Now that MSC and Carnival Venezia are sailing year round from NYC we are taking a much needed break from NCL. Will be following your VLOGs as we are going on the 5/21 cruise and are hungry for information.

We have sailed NCL late fall and all Winter out of NYC many times. By second day you will be off the Coast of NC . The weather is usually warm enough that jackets start coming off and you see people in the hot tubs.

Can anyone tell me why the powers to be eliminated the C.C. app ? I have to use my laptop to acess. Maybe this is a reason why CC rolls calls are going getting less and less active ?

Welcome back to CC. It appears other social media sites (which we cannot name here) have become more dominant in roll calls for upcoming cruises.

Why not place a 2nd ship out of Jacksonville ?