Irishman45

3pm or 3am? eating a 12 hour old burger you got at 3pm doesn't sound fun to me. iirc burgers were available during lunch and the afternoon. at midnight and later the buffet had pizza [the best buffet pizza i've had by far] cold sandwiches and low maintenance stuff life salads. someone correct if i'm wrong. maybe they had some hot pasta dish or something but i don't remember them firing up the grill and having the hot dogs, burgers and fries late at night.

Only hot food I remember seeing on our last cruise is the pizza. What ever happened to the fancy midnight buffet they used to do. Loved getting pictures with the chef an all that food an of course the ice/food sculptures.

Only thing I can see anyone taking off/ demanding taken off the bill is the unicef donation. Don't know if they do this on non US based cruises but ask me to donate don't just add it to my bill even if it is a small amount. If it's on my bill in Feb I'm getting it taken off.

Your plan has a major flaw. Tylenol or Ibuprofen or the like would mask the fever so anyone who thought that they may have a fever would just take one of these medications a couple of hours prior to boarding. ;)

That's probably why the people at the hotel were taking such medications - to hide their symptoms so they could board the ship sick.

I'm sure there would be at least one or two cases the meds hadn't fully kicked in yet an they would get caught. Remember it only takes one sick person walking around coughing an sneezing to infect the ship.

On MSC Orchestra a few years ago my mother was playing a penny machine don't remember which an lost $40. I was sitting next to her playing my own penny machine an won $350. We switched seats and on the first pull on the machine I had originally been playing Mom won $800 an instantly cashed out, a few pulls after (maybe 4) I won $800 on her original machine an cashed out. The entire cruise I don't think anyone won more than $900 on any slot machine, table games were a different story.

Not huge jackpots but paid the on board accounts an some left over.

Assume this will be a sight seeing visit?

If you'll be taking the subway or taxi around town and going directly inside somewhere a medium jacket might do ok with sweater layer underneath.

If walking around everywhere you probably will want a heavier ski type jacket.

Gloves and hat for sure either way.

Somewhat hard to say what exactly to wear this far in advance. Could be like last year an be extremely cold 10's-20's with lots of snow or like now mostly 30's-upper 40's sometimes close to 50 an little to no snow at all.

On multiple occasions I've seen people taking Dayquil an other cold/flu medications during breakfast at hotels the morning of a cruise. You know they are going on a cruise cause their luggage has the tags on them. Who really takes that stuff as a precaution as some have told people who asked if they were sick- Nobody I know that's for sure. Sea sickness an allergy pills ok but downing Dayquil or other cold/flu meds - You are sick an you know it.

Personally want to take one of those laser temperature guns found at hardware stores to a port an zap people to see if they have a fever. Zap from the comfort of 10ft away. Wonder if it would be considered a banned item.

Mostly for ports that have two or more dock locations such as St Thomas to know which one we might be at. Does help to know roughly how many tourists will be in any given port, so we know how long the taxi lines might be. Also about how long it might take to get back to the ship if multiple are leaving from the same dock somewhat at the same time.

CruiseTT com helps a lot but I find it's always good to check with the actual Cruise company websites as well to verify the ships shown on the site will actually be there.

Personally think you can make 10:30 flights off any ship (that docks between 7-8am) if your sailing/flying to/from Ft Lauderdale or sailing/flying to/from Miami neither is a long drive (BTW we've made early flights at both when sailing flying to from the same city). It's just most choose to err on the side of caution something might happen at some point to someone so it isn't suggested. Can you- YES is it always going to work well for everyone- NO. Heck something might be going on in the city and the airport might have long lines even before the cruise crowd shows up. Seems to happen more often in Miami than Ft Lauderdale.

We've has some close calls an some easy breezy debarkations. We had one issue they let us off the ship at 8:10 we were the 5th in our line at customs and it took 25min because three of the four people ahead of us had paperwork issues an something in one of their bags had to be inspected. Once we got to the customs agent showed them our paperwork an we were out the door in 2minutes an within 5 minutes we were in the cab pulling away from the terminal. (Really helps to know what the heck you are doing and have information you need out BEFORE you get to the customs agent)

Anything COULD happen that is why it isn't suggested to book early flights but heck yes it is possible IF everything goes smoothly.

Yes mini bar fridge in every cabin

No restrictions in any disco or nightclub/bar I've ever seen. As long as he's not screaming,bumping into others or running around sliding on the dance floor like so many kids do he should be fine.

In my opinion MSC doesn't enforce many rules.

Haven't seen any, wouldn't expect free unless its a baby or maybe up to 2-3yrs old at most.

Much prefer bringing our own travel size containers. Never feel clean with any ships body wash or shampoo.

Wondering what others think?

Why bother with the ice buckets in every cabin? To us it's a waste of space on the desk. Sure if you want to chill wine which as we've seen they bring a bucket with the bottle when pre ordered (official rule you can't bring your own wine/alcohol onboard). OK so you get a bucket of beers to take back to the cabin, just stop off at the buffet or one of the bars an they refill the original bucket. We've done the bring back beer buckets and single alcohol drinks concept an it's taken 4-5 requests (in a single night) to the cabin stewards to actually get the ice, usually ended up finishing warm drinks when the ice never showed up.

Can't smoke in the cabins yet an ashtray is provided? WHY!!!!!

 

Mairi ... Probably because they did not do any research beforehand? the company name is somewhat of a give away though, Mediterranean Shipping Company LOL.

Have to do a little research just to learn that.

Not new to MSC just having issues finding up to date answers on the website so figured I'll ask here. Sailing from Miami.

Last time we sailed MSC we did our Onboard accounts in cash an the minimum deposit was $300 US is it still that or have they gone up?

Just remember there is a big difference in who wrote the policy and who has to enforce it.

I've always found it 99% easier to get " policy banned" items onboard after leaving the home port. Also many times the person scanning bags at the gangway during port stops isn't always making sure you stop at the table to turn in your bottles an you can walk right past it. (during busy times of course)

Just don't bring excessive amounts an you shouldn't have a problem.

We usually get flights 11-11:30am after cruises an rarely had to "rush" to the gate at FLL. The key like others have said be off in one of the first groups an you shouldn't have a problem. Be sure to check into the flight/print boarding passes the night before on the ships computer (We do this right after dinner seen so many wait until after the shows an the line is nuts).

It's been a few years since our last trip out of Miami, usually go out of Ft Lauderdale. Can anyone tell me how much a taxi currently would be from Miami airport to the Miami port. If memory serves it was like 15-20min away am I correct?

Just wondering if there are solid "paved or cement" walkways to get around the island or is it mostly just sand paths?

Considering a cruise with a stop on the island and I use a manual wheelchair. I know they have beach chairs for the sand but I'm rather big so I prefer to push myself which is impossible using beach wheelchairs seen at other beaches. Just want to get off the ship for an hour or two as after leaving this island we're at sea for 2 days an 3 days straight on the ship may drive me nuts.

I must be lucky my pop up blocker stops it every time I go on their site saw it once clicked "No interest" and haven't seen it again.

Forget the speedo wear a mankini and yes they come in other colors

Irishman .... Poesia makes a stop at Barcelona and Casablanca before it stops at Madeira on its Transatlantic crossing, the first stop is Barbados on the other side followed by Guadaloupe, St Thomas and Freeport before Port Everglades .... :)

my point is its Portugal stop is the last one before 5 days at sea to come over.

I was referring to first time at FLL its home port for the winter season not first stop after coming across the pond.

Poesia was last in drydock in 2010. Did you mean repositioning by any chance? It is moving to Florida soon to handle the Caribbean. We will be on it in December 2012.

Poesia doesn't make its way across the pond until it leaves Portugal on Nov 16th makes its first stop to Fort lauderdale on Nov 27th

Still has 5 scheduled trips in the mediterranean to do before it comes over. Maybe the Sept 28th 11 night sailing has been cancelled for some reason.

Heck did they ever make permanent repairs from the grounding and hitting of the dock in the caribbean last season?

Any idea what they might change if anything during drydock?

Wow sorry this happened to you and others. I'm amazed the site contacted you thats some customer service they have.

Although I will say it sounds like a scam I once heard afew months ago. They try your CC# and if it doesn't work they search for you online convince you everything is ok then weeks later your out alot of $$$.

My card # was used 3 weeks after our cruise had ended last year buying clothes but the credit card company traced it back to the persons IP address on Grand cayman they had an Rfid scanner all we had to do was walk by close enough and they got our information.