MaisonRose

It just occurred to me to use an Air Tag.

Again, visually impaired passenger needs a prompt.

We must mark our door..or my visually impaired husband might very well try your door!

Could be. I am scheduled for thé Prima TA in two weeks and have jaded expectations. My choices were the GEM from Rome or Prima from BCN and the latter is much simpler for my location. But I am writing to say that on my only NCL TA from NYC a few years ago the Epic cancelled Three of Four ports on the coastline approaching Amsterdam. They gave us a big reduction on a rebooking to use by the end of the year! I don’t do cruises that frequently so the comp was meaningless. I know this is just bitterness but I think NCL is a bit loosely goosey at cancelling ports. Has anyone’s else been victim to such a situation? Thanks for your posts, together we can get a real picture of how cruise companies operate. Susan

I discovered a magic finger at the end of my arm! It was an attempt to move a sentence in my paragraph and it slipped into your comments. I was wondering how to fix it, so apologies are given.

Sailing on the Queen Mary, for example, won’t work for a “flip flop & bermudas all voyage” kind of person and yet if a passenger brings along a flexible attitude just about every cruise line can cater to their needs. Thank goodness that CC gives us a chance to ferret out the Vibe on a cruise.

Perhaps there should be a table for teens. There’s a fun book by Michael Ondatje named THE CATS TABLE about a voyage in the 30s from Sri Lanka to the UK. im of grandmother age so I wonder how we should ease our young ins in to dressing appropriately or for the occasion.

It’s a nightmare by train. Last December we did Avignon to Rome/Civitivecchia by train. It meant connecting to one of two trains running PARIS to Rome very early. One is the Frecciarossa (IT) and the other is a TGV. THE Italian train goes into Rome Termini …and an aside: it stops in Florence where you can transfer to a southbound train stopping in Cortona (they are pretty frequent). Here’s what we did so as not to leave Avignon at 6am. We took the TGV to Lyon Part-Dieu the evening before & stayed overnight at a local hotel. The next morning we picked up the Frecciarossa around 9:30am. This route takes you through the Alps which is pretty cool. We changed in Milano to another train which stopped in Florence. YouTube has plenty of vlogs about these trains & trips. Our journey in Business Class was in the range of $400 for two “senior” tickets. It was stylish and very comfortable. We got excellent help with transfers because I pre booked handicap help. Pre booking that free service was a nightmare but gosh did it work. Grazie to Francesco in the Termini handicap office. An alternative would be to fly to Florence (or Rome FCO in a pinch, and take the rails from there. Connections & times are not favorable (no non stops) and pp fare $160 up..plus bags! And YES there are Eurobuses and you might get some hits by downloading Rometorio. I hope this helps. *We just booked a TA out of Barcelona because getting to Italy from this part of France is so awkward. You can’t just go east to Nice, Monaco, Ventimiglia, Genoa so easily because there’s no high speed rail yet. Cheers, Susan Maybe your relatives will drive up to Ventimiglia (drive about 4 hours) to collect you.

I was on the MSC SEASIDE during the World Cup last Nov/Dec and they showed every match…it made the trip so exciting (a TA ROME TO NYC). I realize of course that MSC and NCL shouldn’t be compared.

TRYING to book on line last night. This really got to me. After going through the category & cabin choice sections…balcony & oceanview, the price came up on the upper right hand corner (2 persons, package inclusions, cabin number, taxes). Then clicked More Details which lead me to a “Price has Increased” notice that instead of $2006 the new fare would be $500 more. Please explain that to me. Note: Prima out of Barcelona on Nov 20. This pricing trick occurred two days in a row. The same thing happened on the Gem TA out of Civitivecchia Dec 4. Thanks for observations and yes, despite being 83, I used my iPad mini 5 🤓 Susan

Our MSc cruise just cancelled our trip with stops in Aqaba, Sharm el Sheikh and Luxor. Departs Nov. 9. No Israel ports on the manifest. This has impacted our Egypt trip. We insured to Nov 30 to cover our Nile Cruise and various independent hotels. We paid close to $1000 for the insurance based on our age. I called Generali last night and was told that they consider the cruise cancellation as under the War definition. Therefore probably not covered but I could submit a claim if I wanted. (My claim is a deposit on a Nile Cruise, one non refundable hotel and a flight from Aswan to Cairo.) My thinking is that my travel to Egypt is a transportation issue, that I can’t get to the tour arrangements in Egypt. Like a flight being cancelled. Any opinions on this particular argument? Thank you, Susan

It’s not just you. But I found that my TA confirmation included a link to my booking on the MSC app & that worked every time.

Sorry: I misstated the food service. There were no food choices on the front of the ship. That probably is where Yacht Club was located…but wasn’t accessible to regular guests.

We were on her maiden voyage and because of low expectations we were surprised. The ship was classy, their entertainment (especially the movie history) was good. Now two things caused concern. First (because I love soup for lunch) I was disappointed that there was only one day wherea gluten free soup was served. The second was that it was a LONG walk to all the dining options which all were on the rear of the ship (our cabin was slightly forward but mid ship. They should have some food at the rear of the Seaside IMHO. one more note: our stop in Bermuda was a disaster because there was no way that the little island could handle the overwhelming number of passengers: they ran one 40 passenger bus from the port every thirty minutes.

You know what? I think that you got reeled in on a good fare & MSC is looking for a booking at the higher price. During a sale I got a $695 BL2 balcony adjoining our friend’s cabin (we booked together). Then about a month ago we were changed to non adjacent cabins one deck higher & under the swimming pool. So they sold our premium location to someone else at a higher price. you can imagine how😡 I am. sailing Nov 9 10 days Marseille to Luxor.

Almost nothing, not even water! When you disembark after your cruise you will definitely feel that you’ve been “nickeled & dimed “ to death. Not very classy in that sense. Susan

My only experience with this was Seascape last Dec, which made as many stops as a Greyhound bus. Muster Drill was virtual but they did check that you did the visit to your Station. 😇 Susan

Yes, thank you for correcting my mistake. It is indeed listed under internet: scroll down to Others. Sorry. Susan

On Seaview last Dec plus onward NOV 9. Website has a package of washing…stuff 20 or 40 items in a bag with list: it comes back clean & folded. My experience was very good with that. The package is listed under Spa Experiences, strangely. Susan

NCL has been pulling that trick, too.

A really comprehensive look would be the YouTube VLOGS, just by searching MSC. BON VOYAGE.

Amazing, isn’t it ! Each case is weird. I can fly from Marseille to Edinburgh for half the price of a car from my village to Marseille port, 60min drive. That car avoids a lift to RR, train to downtown & taxi to port. It appears that once a cruise port is established all other services skyrocket. I like the OP mentioning TAMPA which is more appealing than Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

My husband nixed Rome-NYC on NCL GEM on Dec 4 since we sail Nov 9 to Egypt and finish that trip NOV 29. I hate the 12 hr flight back to DC, but he does have a point.

I did do that train trip (I love trains) and heard the click and clack for days) but I wouldn’t let that stop me except the fare.

I see that Carnival Legend is doing a TA from Baltimore to Barcelona in April but dare I take that ship? Here is the clearance on the Bay Bridge: Each span features: Two main spans over the bay's two shipping channels: A 3,200-foot (975 m) long suspension section over the western channel with a maximum clearance of 186 feet (56.7 m) at the 1,600-foot (490 m) main span—high enough to accommodate ocean-going vessels and tall ships. I confess that I don’t know any ship’s requirements.