Welshdoc

6 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

There’s a chance that your flight may be too early to allow for the tour.  Be sure to check with the excursion desk.  Also, bear in mind that the tour can be cancelled if there isn’t enough interest/bookings (and you may not be notified til late on the last evening - we’ve experienced this before).  We will be checking out alternatives just in case. 

Our flight time is ok other than the combined everglades and city tour (the 7.5h one), which would have been ideal. I would be so miffed if we found out a booked tour was cancelled just the night before!

1 minute ago, Beamafar said:

When are you sailing?   We have the Everglades tour booked for the end of May (our international flight is at 18.45).  Here are the tours offered (I found them on my booking on the website;  they weren’t showing on the app)

 

Thanks, identical to our selection, we're on 6th April sailing so booking for 13th.

Hi, has anyone done any of the MSC tours ending at the airpot?

We're considering the Everglades or City Tour (flight is 5pm international).

Did you consider the tour good value for money, any issues etc?

I assume they get you to the airport 2h before for domestic or 3h for international, hence getting off the ship around 8am?

Thanks.

5 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Can someone who is technical turn this the right way up please 😀

1 hour ago, ScratchTheRat said:

I may be the odd one out here and many will disagree but hear me out and at least respectfully agree to disagree...

 

I actually dislike that they adjust things to UK passengers. Here's why.

 

If I wanted to eat British food and have a cup of PG Tips in my room, I would travel P&O or stay on land. 

 

You don't go to Spain and ask for Pie and Mash, you eat Paella, tapas and drink Sangria!

 

Part of the fun for me of travelling different ships and lines is the different foods/shows/services each offer. If they're all homogenised, it becomes no different to how dull the british high streets are. "Oh I fancy Italian, there's Ask, Zizzi or Bella Italia...just like EVERY city in the UK"

 

I want Princess to be Princess, Carnival to be Carnival and P&O to be P&O, but I respect that some are different ❤️

Totally with you on this.

There was a recent article on Travel Weekly titled "Princess Cruises adds British drinks to Southampton ships" with London Pride specifically mentioned. I really hope this isn't in lieu of some the American beers I've seen on menus like Lagunitas IPA!

Can anyone onboard now confirm what beer selection there is please?

We're now in the same boat (excuse the pun!), we've been upgraded to Aurea and lost any mention of Premium in the process. We have also lost any mention at all of the non alcoholic package for the kids, with only the easy package listed for both adults.

Tried twice to get through on the phone this week, had to give up after waiting 20min and also no reply to an email I sent on Sunday. I'm disappointed not having any contact with them!

I'm wondering if everyone is on the same package (let's hope this materialises to be correct on the day) in order to minimise COVID risk by not having to scan cruise cards (or bracelets)?

There's been some info today from Royal... https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/news/cruise/domestic-cruise-restart-will-be-short-term-measure-says-royal-boss

Not sure I agree with the limited appeal comment!

I'm really fed up of seeing huge modern ships here in Southampton (most of which never come here anyway) that I can't get on, looking forward to a few nights at sea away from home, be it to nowhere, the Fjords or other UK ports.

Same website also confirms that kids are allowed on the Israel sailings, given they currently can't be vaccinated they will be tested on departure.

Will be interesting to see the prices for whatever is offered, will they be priced low to drive demand and regain interest or high to recoup prices and cover possible lower numbers.

So many questions, variables, possibilities, but at least some hope!

For some reason, MSC updated their UK FCC page to 30th Sept around a week ago, but after a few days (?24-48h) reverted back to 30th June. 

I guess if we move our Aug 2020 cruise to 2021 before final payment is due then we don't have to worry about paying the final balance this year with all this uncertainty. 

Here's the beer taps on Seaview, I understand Seaside is the same. Sports Bar. There's another rack on the other side with some variance.

A56E902A-4333-481C-A9E5-34F569E156F8.heic

If it's anything like Seaview, the yes, those beers are everywhere, if you want a decent pint, there's loads more on offer, including the likes of Lagunitas IPA at the Sports Bar.

I was told today (in a Southampton travel agent / cruise shop), there's a third RC ship going to be based in Southampton in 2020 but she wasn't allowed to tell me which. Anyone heard anything regarding this? Apparently public knowledge from Monday!

Could anyone please confirm or deny, my travel agent tells me the drinks package is not available for short cruises.

We were thinking of going on Indy next May from Southampton, there's both a three and a four night option.

Our TA states they are trying to discourage stag or hen parties and so on and now have a minimum number of nights for drinks packages.

Is this true? Can't see anything on RC T&Cs etc. Thanks.

Can anyone advise regarding collecting luggage on leaving the ship please.

Our flight is 1650.

We have transfers arranged for 1030.

This would give us over five hours at the airport.

We are a party of 9 with kids, hence not keen on any trips or excursions etc.

My thought was to rearrange our collection to 1230 or even later, I understand we can just wander off the ship late morning as long as we’ve left our cabins at the normal time.

Concern has been raised that if we don’t collect our luggage by a certain time then there could be problems!

Any thoughts please?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I know the MSC website is for many of us full of frustrations, pain and anger!!!

Anyway, today, it's asking for our passwords to be reset. I say ours as I'm logging in as myself and two other cabins travelling together and the same is happening to all three accounts.

The new login in window seems to be managed by Microsoft, as the URL starts with https://login.microsoftonline.com.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Let's hope it's the beginning of the website behaving properly!

Depending on how many of you there are, you might find a pre booked taxi from port to airport a far simpler option and not too expensive compared with multiple public transport tickets.

I live just outside Southampton and when going to the airports use English Rose Collection.

Train to Heathrow - just don't - doesn't work.

Train to Gatwick - direct but takes ages.

I've tried uploading but ran in to problems.

Initially photos weren't approved by their biometrics, instantly.

Then when I used a lower res picture (laptop webcam), the pictures were all saved but disappeared a day or two later. Given up.

Any feedback for these family tours yet?

We're thinking of booking the Pompeii tour in October (4 adults and 5 kids) - seems cheaper than some of the private options we've found.

I assume they are in English and not multi lingual?

If you're going up and down the same day, I would certainly get the train. It takes just over an hour to get to Waterloo. If there are traffic problems the same journey by road can take anything from 90 minutes to three hours (each way).

The train station is a 10 min walk from gate 101/2 (you're 102 on 15th Oct), don't bother with a cab unless raining / luggage etc. Also, depending on what your plans are in London, quite a lot of the West End is walkable from Waterloo if you're feeling fit!

I was on Preziosa going around the med three years ago. Can't remember exactly but I recall something like 10-20% of passengers were from the UK or US. Most were Italian with some French and Spanish.

Was never really an issue, I don't remember there being many queues for people to try and queue jump other than getting in to the main theatre. Maybe the new reservation system will help here?

My son, who was around 4 or 5 then, hated the kids club as he felt he couldn't play with the other kids there as they spoke different languages.

The ship was most definitely Italian, from the variety of Pizzas, Italian night, Italian spoken first in all announcements and just about all of the senior crew being Italian. MSC might be registered in Switzerland but its Italian heritage was strong!

Thanks for clarifying, and as noted above, no need to apologise, thanks for posting all the images!

2 Elegant Nights are mentioned in the Daily Planner, on Tuesday & Thursday. Where did you found the 3rd Elegant Night ? I am planning details of my cruise in September and a 3rd Elegant Night would be interesting for me to know. Thanks.

Fri - Barcelona - Elegant

Mon - Naples - white

Tue - Messina - Elegant / Gala

Wed - Valletta - tropical

Thu - sea - Elegant

Is it normal to have three elegant nights on an MSC 7 night cruise?

Together with a white and tropical evening, that only leaves 2 casual evenings.

Not sure I want to wear black tie three times, and given baggage weight, don't want to take both a black tie tux and a suit, so will probably leave the tux at home. Am I right in saying that a tux is a rare sight anyway on MSC?

Hi Polly,

Why don't you drop off your luggage at the cruise terminal and then head off for the day?

If you were thinking of visiting London or Winchester (much closer) though, the train station at the airport is really easy to walk to and there's a left luggage company at Waterloo (the London terminus).

Southampton itself is ok for shops but not much else within walking distance.

I'm sailing later this year as a party of 9, and have booked through a company I understand to be one the UK's leading cruise specialists. I was told on booking not to pay the service charge but to pay cash to individuals our party thought deserved it.

Personally, I hate tipping, the price paid should be the total. People working in any similar industry should be expected to perform well as a basic requirement of their duties and if they don't then they get moved on. There should be an ethos of work hard and and be rewarded as part of your contract and not how you interact with an individual which is often in a way that quite frankly feels uncomfortable as it's obvious they are just after a tip.

I'm sure my wife will not be impressed with me asking this, but does O'Sheehans show live sport? In understand NCL show Sport24, so will hopefully show the Monaco F1 when we board on the 29th. Can get on with the holiday then!