nyk24

4 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

Fantastic, that was a nice windfall I bet you enjoyed spending it, well done.

Did you try the Casino method to convert the pot, I linked in post #12? 

Before we realised our OBC was refundable, I stuck my card in a casino machine but could not work out what to do next.... except pull the handle 😂

 

...... unless I somehow inadvertently converted it to refundable by putting my card in the machine 🤷‍♀️

Yes we certainly enjoyed spending it hehe, the staff in the shop were very pleased too lol. I asked for a discount on our large purchases but they said they could not do that but offeted us some freebies instead. We gpt two beach bat and ball sets, 3 big sample perfume boxes including lady 1 million. Then we got our guarantee stamp on our receipt in another shop. The shop we bought from rung ahead to make sure we got more freebies which included 2 hats and 2 glass pouch cases.

We tried the casino method with the slot machines but either it wasn't working or we just could not get it to work. On a side note I asked two staff members how to register cruise cards with the casino and they did not know either 

But Im sure there must be a way to cash out through the casino by buying chips as the obc could be used at the casino slot mqxhines, but the cash out element does not seem to work at the slots. 

Hopefully we will get another chamce to try again one day lol.

We just need to find another bargain cruise with msc now to replace the magnifica one we had from southampton to genoa at the end of october.

Are there any similar itenaries around? If there are will they get cancelled due to covid? Thats the big questiion isn't it?

On 7/12/2021 at 2:34 PM, ziggyuk said:

Anyone with OBC from cancelled cruises, it's worth checking it very carefully, we unexpectedly did very well.

 

We had two UK Magnifica cruises cancelled, one short on offered £125 OBC and the other longer one offered £250 OBC. We naturally took the £250 for our Virtuosa sailing.

 

This is the wording on the Magnifica cancellation letter: "We are giving you an additional benefit of a non-refundable on-board credit of £250.00 per cabin"

 

Once onboard I noticed I had a £250 deposit but no non-refundable credit, I though at first the £250 was the credit card deposit as it was marked "deposit".

 

I went to customer services and it transpired the £250 was not a non-refundable credit but a refundable one, not only that but £250 had been applied to both our accounts. She asked if I would like both account combining so the full £500 was on my account, I was shocked but parted with her saying "Enjoy it!"

 

Sure enough on the last day I went to a machine to settle my account and it started pumping £50 notes out at me 🤪

 

I may have been lucky (very lucky) but do check your OBC for: both the type of OBC and also if a second one is hidden away on your partners onboard account.

 

 

Just to update this thread, we were  recently on the Virtuosa and instead of the £250 per cabin obc we too got £250 each (including both kids)!

Unfortunately, we were not so lucky when it came to.cashing out. Reception said it was non refundable and also the msc app confirmed so too.

So here is what we did........

We did a bit of window shopping a couple of days before the end of the cruise. At the same time we kept checking the cruise activation temrinals right up to the last night tp see if we could cash out.

When it became clear we could not do this we bought some some gifts from one of the shops.

My advice is either get yourself something nice you never would normally buy or get something popular to sell online like electronic goods or jewellery.

It is worth also noting that even if you are lucky enough to ever be able to cash out obc of any kind that you may be tempted instead to use the obc to buy goods or services as you get points for purchases made on board. In our case those purchases have lifted us from classic to silver voyager club members. Not amazing extra benefits I grant you but a  gold to diamond uplift might tempt some to have a big shopping spree.

As a side note if you are tempted tp sell your purchases when ypu get home check online prices before you buy anything on board as some bits the shops sold on board were cheaper than at home but many were more money - even different products from the same brand differed from being cheaper to more money.

Or you could just blow the lot on black at the casino! 

Has anyone heard about the press reader app, which msc has a partnership with?

I vaguely remember trying to use it a couple years back on the Seaside but without a wifi package it didn't really work.

There is more info here: https://www.msccruisesusa.com/on-board/internet-apps/press-reader-app

It looks like you do not need a wifi package but you do need to pay a one off charge, but it does not say how much that is?

EDIT - Just remembered there is a trick to get it free from your local library and then just download and read your favourite magazines or newspapers to read offline before you sail or when you get a 4G signal.

Here's the link with more details: https://www.hotukdeals.com/discussions/pressreader-app-3312362

18 minutes ago, Fighterone said:

Excellent retort and one I could not have put into words better.

Haha, am happy to let others on here do the retorting. I just find rightly or wrongly whatever your opinion on a subject is that if it comes across in a way that winds others up, the huge temptation is to get into a pointless argument over it. It's best I find to ignore what upsets you and just make.your own points that you want to make as some.folks just thrive on conflict sadly, not saying this is the case here btw 😁

@stuart2468 Thank you, if she is half as good as the Seaside am sure we will have a great time! 😃

1 hour ago, stuart2468 said:

Dear lord. What a first world issue when you can only board 1 hour 20 after your friends.

 

Why do people think they are above the rules? They're there for a reason. To allow the safe continuation of cruising during a global pandemic. 

 

The rules are allocated times. Deal with it or don't cruise. 

 

BTW, loving our current cruise on Virtuoso. Allocated 12.20 boarding and missed out on nothing over the 7 nights. Weather is glorious. Ship is amazing. Feeling very thankful we have the opportunity to sail. 

Glad you are enjpying the Virtuosa, we sail on her this Saturday, btw has everyone on this thread got a 12.20 boarding time?🤣 

On a serious note to the 99% of people myself included these boarding times are first world problems, but please guys spare a thought for those like my daughter who have special needs and being able to board at quiet times and/or quickly can make a huge difference to their mental wellbeing.

So that is another reason to stick to your times as you may well.be helping out those less fortunate than yourself.

@ziggyuk Thank you for staring this thread and all the tips ypu have given us all, it is much appreciated!

I don't expect a nice obc surprise although I will check all the accounts now just in case.

If we are lucky, what I will do is try and use the casino to cash out the secondary accounts (if that is possible still) and keep the obc that is on the main cruise card to buy a few bits before cashing  out anything left over at the end of the sailing. That might avoid the daily charge breakdown being removed from the other cruise card accounts?

As a side note we have extra obc (only a small amount) from.when msc dropped their prices and that obc is unevenly distrubuted between the two adult passengers, so we will definitely have to see what happens with that.

Virtuosa has a soft serve machine at one of the bars by the pool. It even includes free toppings, but it is only free for kids on the kids drink package.

18 minutes ago, sidari said:

So Deaf people still cannot Lip read them then !

Yes that is the only big draw back which I totally get as my better half is partially deaf and prefers to lip read. She hates using her hearing aids but I think she may well have to use them more than usual. I know that is not the answer for everyone so I wonder what is without breaking covid protocol? There must be a work around?

EDIT: I don't know if this helps but on land staff who are required to wear a mask by law can remove them at a safe distance in order to help a deaf person lip read etc.

Heres the link: https://rnid.org.uk/coronavirus-response/face-coverings-how-the-regulations-apply-to-you/

Just to confirm for those worried about not being able to spend all their OBC you can 100% cash out like the OP whatever OBC you have left at the end of the cruise.

I found confirmation here on their site: 

https://www.msccruises.co.uk/itinerary-updates

I took a screenshot aswell just in case they change this policy.while I am onboard.

It's so easy sometimes to just cricticise a cruise line but I thought I would praise one important aspect of MSC and that is how well they protect their staff.

If you watch a few YouTube videos of the Virtuosa sailings you will notice all the frontline staff who interact with passengers a lot seem to be wearing white masks.

These masks I am pretty sure (although not 100%) are PPF3 masks, which are the best around. The NHS only give these masks to their staff if they are working in one the high risk covid wards.

So, if my assumption is correct despite all of msc's short comings this has to be a very positive thing to know.

I for one will be wearing one of these masks while on board my sailing as msc only give passengers the blue surgical masks.

As with anything medical this is just my opinion, do you own research and make your own decisions when it comes to medical matters.

37 minutes ago, step78 said:

MSC shows €200 per Person not Cabin in current booking 🙂

@step78 where aee you seeing that information?

When you log into your msc account via the main site or if you login via the msc for me app?

The reason I ask is our accoint states the repo obc then below the name of all 4 passengers but on the app it looks completely different. The obc amount is in bold then repeated im normal font......all very confusing.

I guess we will find out when we get onboard.

I finally found where msc.say in their t's & c's that they can change your cabin number.

Its clause 14.2

Now, if it is classed as significant change then you are entitled to compensation.

How much I don't know but you can bet your bottom dollar that our move from a midship cabin to an aft cabin will not be seen as a significant change, even though it is when you have a young child with special needs that needs a.cabin near a lift.

Anyway, lets hope.msc sort this mess out eventually.

thats for the heads up, its not often msc screws up in a passengers favour lol. 

Speaking of fantastica guys, am pretty sure I am right in saying this, but an inside located right at the back (literally) is a bella cabin and not a fantastica? So, looks like we have been downgraded experience wise (in part) too as we got moved from midship fantastica inside to a bella aft??

I have heard folks say that in the t&c's that msc can change your cabin number but for the life of me I cannot find this stipulation when i try and read through the t&c's myself on their site. Am I going blind??

14 hours ago, Notts1964 said:

Well we’ve just been moved again...... arrrgh!

We’re now as far aft as we could possibly be, still in an inside. It also says our preference is for early dining AGAIN. We’ve now told them 3 times that our preference is for late dining.

Like you, I’m just going to leave it until Wednesday to see where we are, and consider whether to complain or not then.  

That is so annoying, but I have heard of passengers having 4 cabin number changes before sailing! Definitely wait to tuesday or wednesday before you contact msc or.your TA. Tuesday is usually also the day msc's IT department fixes glitches, so it makes sense to wait to at least tuesday.

@Notts1964 thanks for the advice.

Someone on my roll call had their rooms changed too and when they complained msc said there was nothing they could do.

That does not mean I am not going to try but I will wait to say tuesday or wednesday before complaining just in case there is another round of musical chairs!

We have had an upgrade before on carnival but we did not know until we paid a visit to the maitre D on boarding the ship lol, so this could pan out any number of ways.

1 hour ago, Notts1964 said:

The same for us too.
We are on the 17 July sailing. I originally spent time choosing and booking an inside cabin I liked the position of, and chose late dining.

Last week our cabin changed to inside guarantee and dining changed to early dining. So frustrating.

We have now been allocated another inside cabin, that I’m OK with (won’t bother complaining), but I asked my travel agent to ask MSC to change our dining preference back to late, which they have done.

We are on the 17th July sailing too. Just check the msc app and our inside has been changed from midship to right at the back (aft).

I was hoping for an upgrade from the upgrade fairy not a downgrade! We chose the midship inside cabin right by the lifts not just for less chance of severe sea motion but because we have an autistic daughter who likes to run off a lot and having a cabin by the lift would have made things less stressful all round.

Should I contact msc now or leave it for a few days in the hope we get moved again?

Coincidently our early dining stayed early dining which is a small comfort to us.

Thank you @Beamafar and @Shippy for those great tips. We have a good amount of OBC so might use some of that now to see how lucky or unlucky we get😁

@Shippy Thank you for all that information it really helps a lot of us inexperienced/infrequent gamblers decide whether we want to bet that much or that frequently to get the discount etc.

I hadn't considered the smoke factor so I might try my luck at quieter times when it's less smokey in the casino😉

I just tried using the microsoft edge browser on my laptop after clearing cookies etc and it still did not work. So, I tried incognito mode and it worked.

I wonder how many bookings msc lose out on to this?

6 minutes ago, wirral36 said:

Thank you so much for your message. I really appreciate the  information. 

You are welcome, I am sure as long as you are careful the week before you go and do a couple of lateral flow tests a day or so before then you would be very unlucky indeed to test postive.

On the virtuosa this summer from the uk it is £91 per person (no charge for kids as they stay on their drinks package).

In theory you can upgrade via the msc for me app although it is very glitchy their IT system so your best bet might be to get the TA to do it or contact msc direct.

@Shippy thanks for letting us all know how it really works. Do you mind letting us know how much you have to bet on the slots after 3 days to get the 30% discount certicate?

2 hours ago, wirral36 said:

Hi, is anyone going on the august sailings ?

 

I felt fine about 1000 people, then 70% capacity that my TA told me would happen but now I’m thinking the ship will be full to capacity now the rules will be lifted from 19 July and I’m a little nervous.  Anyone else have any thoughts or feel the same ?

A few people have said the ships great but they wouldnt want to be on there at full capacity as it would be too many people for the space. 
 

A few years back we were on independence of seas and it was full. It was awful as there were too many people for the facilities and we missed out on a lot. 
 

On a separate note, I’m nervous about getting to the port and being told 1 of us has Covid. Anyone else feeling the same ?

 

 

 

Anyone nervous like me about getting covid on a crowded ship should take heart that all crew are jabbed and around 2/3 of uk adults are double jabbed right now and considering the average age of cruisers being over 40/50 this rate is more likely going to be 70 or 80%.

In crowded areas like the main pool or theatre you can choose to avoid them or wear a PPF3 face mask.

These masks provide virtually 100% protection against airbourne viruses including covid. You wear one of those in crowded areas you are very unlikely to catch a cold little own covid.

The NHS/Cambridge did a huge study on these masks, they are very good! As a comparison those blue surgical masks that msc put in your cabin offer only 63% protection.

Also consider using taffix nasal spray. Theres a study about it here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33759682/

I am considering using it before meals while i have my mask off.

For clarity I am not a medical expert and the above is just my own opinion.