notme2012

9 hours ago, drsel said:

Kindly provide the link of the YouTube videos which show this

Emma Cruises: 

Videos start at point she mentions prices.

9 hours ago, drsel said:

Kindly provide the link of the YouTube videos which show this

Emma Cruises       Video for Costa at: 

8 hours ago, drsel said:

What about prices on country websites like Italy, UK, etc?

Which MSc country website has the lowest price?

From what I have seen from UK Youtube vloggers, UK pricing is about 20% less than US pricing.

On 6/3/2021 at 6:29 PM, juraspark said:

 

I thought Canadian bookings automatically went to a FCC which would only be refunded after Dec 31st, 2021.  See FAQ at bottom.

 

https://www.mscbook.com/shop/en-CA/mscb2bstoreca/promo/CRUISE-ITINERARY-UPDATES

Not all of us Canadians booked through mcs-Canada.

The link is total BS!  MSC has no intentions of doing business in an honest, responsible manner. I believed the info that we received in March 2020. That info was exactly the same as your provided link.

On 4/10/2021 at 4:25 AM, Couple-Somerset said:

Did any of you try the email addresses I gave a few posts ago? - I have no idea if they get through but unless people try we wont know (the "denied access to send email" reported by one person was more to do with their end I think and they didnt say if they then tried the other email)

 

 

I did try both emails. This is the reply: 

"richard.sasso@msccruisesusa.com (richard.sasso@msccruisesusa.com)
Your message couldn't be delivered to the recipient because you don't have permission to send to it.

Ask the recipient's email admin to add you to the accept list for the recipient.

For more information, see DSN 5.7.129 Errors in Exchange Online and Office 365."

This is the type of reply is when someone is emailing an internal email. My travel agent made us a new reservation for the Opera in March 2022. I still do not have a confirmations from MSC.  MSC is stalling with applying FCCs. I am so over MSC. They absolutely suck!

3 hours ago, dexddd said:

How much are they asking for?  I agree it should be zero.

 

We are now at 13 month mark waiting for fcc.

$199 USD per person. $398 a cabin.

Back in Jan., I finally received the FCC for our March 12, 2020 Grandiosa cruise. The one where we were boarded and then MSC forced all the Barcelona pax off the ship. We want to use the FCC on a cruise from Dubai in 2022. Travel agent has it reserved, but MSC refuses to enter the FCC. MSC is requiring customers using a FCC, first must make a deposit (cash or credit card) for the cruise, and any surplus after applying the FCC will be an on-board credit. MSC is probably the slimiest company that I have ever encountered. Just so everyone knows the grief continues!

On 4/13/2021 at 3:13 AM, GlobalMethod said:

 

To elevate a still slow response, I have an attorney who will let me write a draft of a 'demand' letter to the party I am in conflict with ... he will, of course, review it and usually make some small change, but I am pretty good at this and he knows it. I am usually only charged for 1/4 of an hour of his time.

 

There is something magical when an attorney's letterhead arrives by certified mail ... you are suddenly taken seriously and an apology letter for all the delay arrives with the refund.

 

 

Here's the thing, the cruise contract specifically states that the only venue to sue MSC is in Naples, Italy. A lawyer's letter to MSC will do nothing. They just don't care!

15 hours ago, versuco said:

Never again will they get a penny of our money!

 

Sadly for us, we received the FCC. It did include our taxes, drink packages, and show tickets. I challenged the charge for a shore ex. and it was refunded. So we will have to sail with them to get our money's worth. But that will be it! Never again after that one cruise. I was a travel agent for almost 30 years. I have never, ever dealt with such an uncaring travel supplier. Horrible is what this is doing to MSC's image. They are totally clueless and could care less....

21 hours ago, drsel said:

you could consider yourself very lucky if the travel agency refunded your money paid to them, by cash or cheque.

Me?  I don't pay for travel with cash or checks. I receive bonus points on my credit card for all travel. A bigger risk is one of these cruise lines going bankrupt. I don't think MSC will, as they are a privately owned company. But I can't imagine may travel agencies are doing well.

16 hours ago, drsel said:

My credit card payment always goes directly to MSC or the cruise line.

Only once for P&O, the agency took the deposit, because it was a group discount.

Exactly! When you pay by credit card, even using an agency, the cruise line processes the credit card payment. When refunds with credit cards occur, they go right back to the clients' credit card. The agency gets nothing, in a cancelled cruise situation. Now, if the client does sail, 2 weeks after the cruise ends, the cruise line sends the agency their commission, by check. Paying by CC is the safest way to purchase travel. Never use cash or check!  But, if you pay by cash or check, at an agency for your cruise, you get your refund from the agency.

On 3/12/2021 at 11:21 AM, drsel said:

Exactly, then how did that TA get hold of the  refunded amount?

If you paid cash/check to the agency, the refund goes back to the agency. Then the agency refunds cash/check back to the client.

On 3/12/2021 at 1:51 PM, heatherb1958 said:

 

Here in the UK different systems in operation . You rarely will have a singular person operating as an agent , mainly online agencies or shops on the high street . We have ABTA protection and ATOL for holidays involving flights .

We have already had our money paid back  , in full ,  via consumer protection for a holiday booked  at a high street travel agent for a company that went into receivership in 2020.  It was a scenario when we had paid in full when it wasn’t necessary, could have just paid the deposit , it took a few months to get the money back but we did .

It is frustrating that we have not had our money paid back in a timely manner but IT WILL BE PAID.  I am not getting my knickers in a twist over it, just wringing my hands of the companies who will not get any future business .

 

I did not state "agent". Agencies can be any size or ownership. When one pays cash, those monies are remitted to the travel suppliers. For example: airline tickets, agencies deposit the money into a special bank account that is held with the airlines' settlement company. After the clients complete their travel, funds are released back to the agency, etc.  Now the cruise lines themselves, act as their own clearing house. The agency pays the cruise line. When the cruise line refunds a sailing, the cash is sent back to that agency. Paying cash or check to any agency or travel supplier is a big NO-NO! You have very little recourse if that agency absconds with you money. Much better to have the credit card company, Visa and your bank, (Chase, for example) working towards your recovery of hard earned funds.

22 hours ago, drsel said:

this is ridiculous!  the travel agent has no right to hold your money.

The risk of a travel agent defaulting is much much higher than that of a multi-billion dollar company.

 

All money should be paid directly to the cruise line and not to the travel agent, so that the cruise line can refund money directly to the customer.

 

The travel agent gets paid commission directly by the cruise line, not from any customer.

When a client pays by cash or check, the agency transmits that to the cruise line. In some instances the agency withholds their commission. Now, if the client pays with a credit card, the agency gives that CC# to the cruise line. So the cruise line processes the charge. Then 2 weeks after the client completes their cruise, the cruise line sends the agency their commission.

This is the process that has been in existence for 30+ years.

On 3/3/2021 at 6:12 AM, drsel said:

Norwegian will find it difficult to sell all the cabins at these high prices.

 

There should be plenty of last minute price drops, because they need to fill all the cabins, so that the tipping staff get their full salary from gratuities.

 

I remember seeing Norwegian Jade drop to below $35 per person per night for a Singapore to Dubai Cruise in Feb 2020

Cruise Lines have to do limited capacity. They also need to have a significant amount of cabins to use for isolation if necessary. And, there is pent up demand and reduced capacity. Look at how many ships have been sent to the scrapyard. The cruise lines will sell every cabin they have available. 

On 2/24/2021 at 10:26 AM, Tiggertastic said:

 

 

so whilst MSC take forever, I can’t say they’ve been the worst 

 

 

Here's the thing with every single cabin reservation, different cruise lines, etc., different things have happened. It is almost a year since all these cancelations started. One would think that the cruise lines would have automated this process. That there would be, at the very least, a consistent process. But no....

RCI/Celebrity has been the most proactive in issuing refunds, etc.  MSC the least.

On 2/22/2021 at 2:11 PM, sfaaa said:

May be but MSC has the best pricing and beautiful ships to compensate for the 'worst' experience. I am sure some here would say the same thing about Carnival and Walmart, two of the most successful companies around historically speaking.

This is the issue, when things go wrong as they have this past year, MSC fails miserably. There are thousands of passengers who have not received a refund or a FCC. MSC continues to tell people to wait, for cruises that were supposed to sail 9-10 months ago. Keep in mind, that I did board the ship. The Grandiosa was very nice. But MSC has consistently failed to help people that had cancelled sailings. We were literally left at the pier. NO ONE from MSC assisted us with getting a hotel or flights home. My travel agent was strung along for 9 months as well.  

When we checked in for our cruise, the agents acted very nonchalant. Like they knew we were not going anywhere. Then when went to our cabin, there was a naked woman in bed, in our cabin. The purser's desk changed and upgraded our cabin. Imagine how we and this woman felt? I had to search and get all of bags to the new cabin. Again, no help from MSC.  We unpacked and went out to have drinks and dinner. While at the champagne bar, there was PA that stated all Barcelona passengers had to leave the ship by 9PM. So, we repacked. Rolled all of our bags off the ship, ourselves. There was not one agent on the pier! MSC lived up their reputation, clueless and heartless. 

Two days before our cruise on March 12th, MSC announced that people could cancel without penalty. We had arrived in Barcelona on March 8th. When I called MSC, they insisted that our cruise would sail. MSC has just lied and lied about everything! Meanwhile other cruise lines were being far more proactive.

Having nice ships and good pricing is not the end-all. Service and service recovery is owed to passengers who did not do anything wrong. AND, WE DID NOTHING WRONG! Now I am stuck with a FCC for company that I would not want to give my business.

I have sailed all the major lines. Things can go wrong on any specific cruise, and it all falls on the company to make things right. After almost 50 cruises, I have seen plenty of things go wrong. The other cruise lines really work to make things right. Not MSC!  I have never seen any other cruise line be so detached and generally unhelpful to passengers. It really makes me wonder how MSC and its employees would act in an emergency.

On 2/12/2021 at 10:14 PM, drsel said:

As you can see, in 2021 MSC has already overtaken Norwegian, Oceania and Regent combined, to become the third largest in the world.

MSC increased its market share from 6.4 % to 10.2%, a more than 50% jump. 

Using numbers from 2020 and 2021 are meaningless. Who knows how the cruise industry will shake out. But reputations mean a lot in the cruise industry, and MSC is regarded as one of the worst.

3 hours ago, drsel said:

MSC did not sell a single ship, unlike Carnival  and Royal Caribbean

In fact it has ordered new ships and launched Virtuosa soon after Grandiosa.

I think MSC is here for the long-term and will keep increasing its market share as was mentioned by a previous poster.

MSc has over 250 ships and The Cruise business is only a small part of its overall business in shipping.

MSC has always had a bad rep in the travel agent community, let alone CC. When I worked at American Express, we were to discourage booking them, because of bad experiences. Having lots of ships and private owners does not undo, how badly run the company is. The only reason that I booked MSC, is because MSC and Costa are the only cruise lines sailing in the Mediterranean, in March.  Family did not want to cruise with Costa, so we gave MSC a chance. BIG MISTAKE! We have the FCC, which I did not request, because we wanted our money back. It is just endless grief with MSC.

6 hours ago, GlobalMethod said:

These comments were very beneficial to someone who was has never done an MSC cruise but was looking at some new MSC cruises they were promoting to Greece. We'll now pass on MSC.

 

There is a somewhat similar thread going on at an Azamara thread but relative to tour operators that use Azamara and were not always flush enough with cash to refund.

 

I think we'll just wait for things to settle down more in cruising and hold on for Azamara.

Now that Azamara has been sold by Royal Caribbean, I would not hold my breath on Azamara. Celebrity is excellent in the Med, with Princess and Holland America, in 2nd. But I would wait to book any cruise right now, because I cannot see cruising's return until Jan. 2022.

On 2/6/2021 at 9:51 AM, shipgeeks said:

Lest anyone, reading this thread, think that no one has had a good experience with MSC, let me state that our CC refund came in the summer, as well as our TA's notification of our FCC.  No phone calls, no disputes.

I suspect that those of us who are satisfied with the process are just not bothering to contribute to the topic.

I would suggest that you are the minority in being happy with MSC's refund process. There are thousands who have not received refunds and/or FCC for cruises that were to sail 6+ months ago.

10 hours ago, drsel said:

Dont get so worried, MSC Grandiosa has restarted sailing!

You need to watch some of Emma's other videos. For the US, I don't think there will any cruising until the 4th quarter. Vaccinations are going very slow. Mutations are occurring all over the world. Don't get your hopes up!

As far as MSC, I was travel agent for 29 years. Now retired. MSC has a horrible reputation the travel agent community. I finally booked them for March 2020. It has been endless grief. Never again! I'll spend a $500 more and go on one of the other lines

16 hours ago, emmas gran said:

We are supposed to make final payt at the end of July for Seashore transatlantic end of October, after periodically reading all these problems I have no intention of making payment on a ship that may not be ready to sail.  Have back up cruises with Celebrity in the Caribbean and final payment not due till September

Liz

Can you cancel? I think the chances of this cruise going is less than 10%. First, the CDC will not allow any cruises from the US, longer than 7 nights. 2nd- if this was a little later, your chances would be a higher of the ship doing this cruise. I think MSC will leave this ship in the Caribbean, if it gets over here in April.

On 1/10/2021 at 3:22 PM, mamaneedsavacay said:

We had tried to use the FCC from our March 2020 cruise for a Dec 2020 cruise, but it was "complicated." The Dec 2020 cruise was canceled before they had all the issues figured out, but they were going to make it work. Nothing from MSC since the Dec 2020 cruise was canceled, but my TA is trying to get a refund because the FCC was such a mess. Sadly, just want to be done with MSC at this point.

The way it was explained to me....roll eyes please.....your FCC is nested in your original reservation. Take this as meaning another 9 months for anything to happen. Like out of sight, out of mind. Not on a list to be refunded. "Nested" means on track for you to book another MSC cruise.                                                                                                                                                                                                Getting MSC to refund something from March 2020 or doing a CC chargeback, well, it is not going to happen. You cannot file small claim lawsuit because the cruise contract specifies that MSC can only be sued in Naples, Italy.  We are going to use the FCC in March or April 2022. This way it is so far ahead, that the likelihood that the cruise will be canceled is less. I should not talk and jinx it. LOL But I understand your feelings about MSC. It was to be my first cruise with MSC. I sold cruises for 29 years. MSC has a very bad rep in the travel community. But March in the Med, there are only to 2 choices, MSC and Costa. My family was hesitant on Costa. The Grandiosa was a brand new ship. Pricing was good. But now I know why, MSC discounts heavily to overcome their reputation. For all us that got burned, MSC will never get us back.

On 1/7/2021 at 6:41 PM, JohnIreland said:

 

 

Did the link work for you ?

 

I got my email for a May 20 cruise , but clicking only gives "This Future Cruise Credit is still being processed. You will receive an email when it is ready. Thank you for your patience."

There was no link. The certificate was a PDF attachment.