Envelope21

Thank you for this review. We will be on this ship in about 4 weeks.

The elevator situation sounds like what we experienced on a Carnival ship a few years ago. We had the same reaction that you mentioned, about it often being full by the time it got to you. On that ship, you also had to enter how many passengers were in your party. That would SEEM to mitigate the full elevator problem, but I think often people didn't realize they had to do that.

Are you saying that if you want an extra entree at dinner they charge you for it? Wow. That's a new one. Do the servers tell you how much it is?

We've been on MSC only one time before. The price is pretty hard to pass up. What I remember about it was that the buffet was always terribly crowded. So much so, that you could hardly get from one end to the other. We shall see how things go.

Thank you for your review.

We are on the Millie right now and have no complaints whatsoever. The crew is exceptionally pleasant and cheerful and bend over backwards for any requests. Food has been great snd I especially have enjoyed the variety of options in the buffet.
 

I believe X is still a step up from RCCI. We have cruised on most the mass market lines and still feel X is superior (RCCI, Princess, NCL, MSC, Carnival). Only Viking ocean beats it. We are not loyal to any line, but have sailed enough on various lines that we have achieved enough status on some of them to generate some significant perks. For our budget, we are very happy with X. 
 

Cruiseing isn’t like what it was 20 years ago. All the lines have cut back. For folks who can afford it, the premium lines are probably a better choice. For us, we are happy being out on the ocean and being pampered every day. 

We will be on  Celebrity on an Alaska cruise later this month. I mistakenly booked the ship excursion called, "mountaintop Forest Excursion and Skyglider". I mistakenly thought that was the excursion that has the zipline. I have been able to cancel it and book the one that includes the zipline instead.

DH does not want to do the zipline but would like to take the gondola ride with me. Is the gondola ride up basically the same on both excursions?

Thank you, ObstructedView!

By the way, love your screen name! 😀

On 6/24/2023 at 8:44 AM, mz-s said:

Many of these offers sell out before you're even able to book them, they may only have a handful of rooms available so they go extremely quickly.

Yeah, and often times that rate is for a bunk bed room. 😀 But I will say, we've been able to snag one from time to time. We live near a cruise port so doing a last minute thing is not too difficult.

We have some upcoming cruises booked on Luminosa. We were somewhat disappointed to find out it does not have a self-service laundry. As we will be on 3 cruises, back-to-back-to-back on her, we will be in need of getting some laundry done.

Does anyone know the price structure of having them do a load of laundry? Do they price each item separately? Do they have a day when there is a 'laundry special"? We are only at Gold level.

Its not the first time NCL has changed a public space into revenue-producing cabins. As a business decision, I do understand it. But I like how the letter says the changes are "part of our commitment to continuously offer extraordinary vacation experiences." Obviously the 'extraordinary vacation experiences' are those that people are willing to pay extra for.

We very much enjoyed the Observation Lounge on our Panama Canal cruise in 2019. We always talked about going back on the Joy and it was primarily for that reason. Now the area will be much smaller, combined with the more people on board.

I'm attaching a pic of the deck plan before and after.

On 5/9/2023 at 7:56 PM, sjinnj said:

Right now, I see a lot of upcoming Alaskan. cruises very cheap for upcoming cruises.

Yes! There are some really good prices right now. But check the port fees. They are pretty high.

We've been on over 70 cruises. We almost always book private tours. We've never even come close to missing the ship departure time. As others have said, do your research. Sometimes cruises offer pre-cruise discounts on their excursions. I found on our upcoming Alaska cruise, the ship's offerings was actually less than the private company's excursion. 

I used to work in the printing/graphics industry. The cost of printing those glossy, multi-page brochures is enormous. I cringe every time i see them in my mailbox. They have no impact on my cruise purchase behavior. The absolute worse is NCL, with their HURRY, HURRY, HURRY, everything is FREE FREE FREE promotions.

10 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home"

 

Wow! Now there's a description I've never heard before!🤪

6 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Because you booked through a travel agent like I said in my original post.  Your travel agent can very easily take care of it for you.

Thanks. I do see that. When I posted above it was right about the same time you posted.

Also, unless things have changed, we have always been able to apply the gratuities toward our OBC. But its been several years since we've sailed on Celebrity.

I have since contacted my TA and it is straightened out. Seems like Celebrity could have mentioned that in their email.

4 minutes ago, prmssk said:

1 minute ago, omeinv said:

Log in on the website, then go to Manage My Reservation, then open the drp down for Reservation Details, you'll see the gratuities option there. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

Nope, its not there. 

Same here. The link they provide does not have any option to prepay. I too tried to call and a record a recording said my wait time would be 2 hours. I contacted my TA and hope she can figure it out.

We were on the Joy in 2020 right before the pandemic. We loved going to the Casino bar and sitting on the comfy leather couches and have a pre-dinner drink. There were floor-to-ceiling video screens showing various singers and jazz musicians. It was almost like having live music. Can anyone tell me if those video screens are still there?

This is so weird. Earlier this year  we had booked the Joy on its transatlantic TO Southampton and the transatlantic returning FROM Southampton. There was a scheduled dry dock in-between. We  really liked the idea of being able to cruise over and back and not have to fly. We then got a notice in May that both cruise were cancelled. 

Now I see that both cruises have been reinstated. We are tempted to rebook, but burned once is a little disconcerting. 

Having said that, we have done one cruise immediately after a dry dock. It was mostly OK, except there were some areas on the ship that weren't quite up to speed.

I've only been on one MSC cruise, but do have another booked in 4 weeks. Their prices are usually cheaper. The ship we were on was beautiful.

I agree with some of what the OP stated. MSC definitely has a different style than other cruises lines I've been on (RCCI, NCL, Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, Viking). I found the service in the MDR to be particularly troublesome, but that might have been that particular ship or that particular server. One really odd thing he did was he took the order from one couple, then left, then came back to take another couple and then came back again to take ours. One person ordered a glass of wine and it didn't come until she had her desert. 

The thing about no drinks in the theater is certainly not a deal breaker, but just surprising when you are used to other cruise lines where they actually have a bar inside the theater and sell drinks there. i saw many unhappy people who didn't know about the policy and showed up at the theater with a recently purchased drink, and they couldn't bring it in.

I thought the shows were a little sub par. The singers and dancers were OK, but we noticed that the choreography in all three shows was almost identical. It became comical when they did the exact same things in all three shows. It was like they changed costumes and set design, but did the same dance steps.

I have not had a TA refuse to book an MSC cruise, but I have had them try to discourage me from doing so.

Finally, another weird thing that happened was that I had paid for Fantastica for the sole purpose of being able to pick my cabin. DH has mobility issues and I wanted a cabin near an elevator. Two days before the cruise, I noticed they had moved us to a different cabin. It was actually an upgraded cabin, but it was at the far end of the ship. It took 4 phone calls to get it straighten out.

I frequently find the music too loud. I try to remember to carry ear plugs with me wherever I go. What gets me every time is happening to walk by a venue that is playing a trivia game. The staff person leading the trivia is always SHOUTING into the microphone. I can hear them half way across the ship. When you have a microphone, it is not necessary to shout. A simple raised voice would suffice.

Now, I have officially crossed over into cranky-old-senior-citizen territory.

9 hours ago, wreckem2013 said:

Royal has a ship sponsored tour on Major Marine for B2B cruisers that departs at 8:30am and is 9hrs in duration ship to ship which means it’s likely the 8hr fjords cruise. So it’s more than possible to do either the 6.5hr or 8hrs depending on what time the the tour operators start.

I am the OP. Thank you to everyone who responded. Especially quote above. It didn't occur to me to look and see if there was a B2B excursion offered on our Celebrity Millennium cruises ... and lo and behold, there IS one! For the exact excursions I was looking for. I'm so excited! Thank you everyone!

We have a B2B booked on Celebrity this coming August. We are scheduled to arrive at 5am in Seward on the first cruise, then the following cruise departs at 7:00 pm. that evening. When we first booked these two cruises, it seemed like there would be plenty of time while in port to get in a nice tour. But upon thinking about it, the window of opportunity may be much smaller ... mainly because this is not just a regular port stop, but a disembark and embark port.

It seems to me that cruise ships usually cut off boarding passengers about an hour and a half before departure, because of certain maritime rules having to do with the manifest.

We have done a B2B before and as I recall, they walk you off the boat and then re-check you in and that's about it. 

I would appreciate any insights.

Thanks so much.

I am the OP. I am very very grateful to all who responded. We will take all your suggestions into consideration as we figure out what to do. We already have two hotel nights booked in Melbourne prior to the cruise, so we aren't under the gun to arrive in Melbourne at a particular time.

Again, thanks so much for all your input!

Hoping to find some suggestions about our upcoming trip. We are booked on a cruise next March out of Melbourne, Australia. It appears that almost all flights from the US must stop in Sydney ... some with a very long layover. We have miles with Hawaiian Airlines and their flight has a 10 hour overnight layover in Sydney. We are considering booking a room at the airport hotel. The flight out the next morning is at 6 am.

Would we be able to leave the terminal and then come back the next morning? Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks everyone!

We are interested in back to back cruises; Vancouver-to-Anchorage, then Anchorage-to-Vancouver. I know the PVSA comes into play when starting and ending in two US ports. It seems like since these start and end with two Canadian ports (with US ports inbetween) that we would be ok.

Any advice?

It is not just the transatlantics. We were on the Enchanted Princess on a 6-day from Barcelona and the internet was probably the worst I've ever experienced on a cruise.