tkwbear

I had the same problem with the initial login from my iPhone. However I am able to see all current bookings.

I sailed the Grand last July on a back to back Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver. Since I had an inside room, I spent a lot of time outside and enjoyed the lower promenade. My room was decent, but I did not enjoy the public areas. There was a foul smell from the laundry room, 2 doors down. The buffet restaurant was poorly designed with large sliding doors on each end. Wear your coat to the restaurant when cruising in a cool area. I didn’t go to any shows but was told the smell was bad in the show room. The ship looks nice from afar but there was quite a bit of rotting wood on the lower promenade deck. Food was fair to good. Service was fair though my cabin steward was very good. The front desk consisted of newbies. I found out the hard way to buy my transfers before boarding as they will not sell you one to Seattle once on board. No one seemed to know why; they were not sold out.

I became friends with a crew member and want to send her a gift. A Starbucks card seemed like a good idea but they aren't usually accepted out of North America and her ship is in the South Pacific. Amazon is an option but she already has too much luggage. Suggestions?

I bought the standard package for an upcoming transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona. It was under $100 but now I'm hearing the internet on the Divina is poor. If you have recent personal experience with the Divina internet I would be interested to hear about your experience.

That is how the US parties go, but it is a much bigger deal in Europe. At least on the Poesia last fall, it was a group of hundreds with many Europeans showing up in pin stripe tuxedos. The wine was amazing, unlike at the US parties. They had a good live band playing too.

The prices are way too high now that's for sure, but it doesn't stop there. I bought a 3 specialty restaurant package yesterday for the Virtuoso for $120. It had been $71 in the past. However Virtuoso has some interesting options so I decided to go ahead and get it.

This is true!

I believe that was the date. 6 days, right? However I didn't include any packages so mine was less. I just got off the phone with an MSC rep. I didn't get any help for my issues with their website/IT. When I purchased the beach tour, it gave me no notification, so I bought it again. I got a notification for that, but my credit card was charged twice. So yesterday I had them refund one of them. The refund on the email was $0.0 when it should have been $52.00. No change on the bank statement. There are no specialty restaurant packages for sale on the website. Plenty of other stuff I don't want though. Also embarkation is 4pm! That's way too late. No times are given for ANY shore excursion. It's just a mess. I expect chaos when arriving in NYC because I was on the Meraviglia when it first came to Orlando and it was a comedy of errors. I was told there are NO transfers to the airport, though they have some sight seeing tours that end at the airports, but there is no "for guests with flights after 3pm" help. I would like to buy my ticket soon, not the day of disembarkation. Also I keep seeing ads about MSC selling flights and hotels. I save a lot of money on some flights on Princess, so I am hoping I can do that on MSC but all I can find on the website is that "we do it". Regarding the Veendam, it was my least favorite ship (though Island Princess is MUCH worse). Venndam was once a normal Statendam class vessel. I loved the other 3. However they threw a bunch of balcony cabins on the stern (that looked like they could fall off easily), took out the rear pool, and made the ship overcrowded. I sailed it to Hawaii and it listed to the starboard side the entire cruise, so my ocean view room got a REAL GOOD look at the Ocean. That was my second and final time to sail Veendam. I've only visited Bermuda once. There was a ship docked down there, it was an Azamara. I talked to people from that ship and they seemed to like it, but the new President (who hates old and small ships) will fix that. I believe all Azamara ships are refits from other lines.

That's interesting. I had 200 days on the Rotterdam, which I loved. It's now sailing for Fred. Olsen cruises, along with the Amsterdam, which I had over 100 days on. It looked like the Rotterdam but it my opinion, Rotterdam was far superior. I also loved the Maasdam (95 days). I did the Voyage of the Vikings (35 days) on her in 2009. She was slated to return to service as the Renaissance next month, but while being worked on in Brest, France she broke away from the dock and hit a bridge. Now the cruises are delayed until May. It's a startup French cruise line that bought her as their only ship. I cruised the Konigsdam last May in Alaska. It was a noticeably worse experience. The ship was shabby and the crew didn't know their jobs. It was over an hour in Ketchikan for them to get the gangway set up. Heat went out one cold night and they told me a blanket was on the way. It arrived the next day after the heat was back on. Also for my convenience, the single supplement is now ALWAYS 100%. I looked at sailing a cruise on the new Rotterdam to Curacao, but an inside room was more than an MSC balcony. So they won't be seeing me aboard anytime soon. Also for the newer class of ships, you had better be on the 5th floor or higher or you will be pounded by music all evening. I priced that Bermuda sailing in September. It's higher than my 11 day cruise in April and it's only 6 days. If you want sticker shock take a look at the European cruises in June and July.

The September sailing might be under the current flash sale, many NY sailings are. HAL's Zaandam still goes all the way to Montreal, which I also love. I'm a 5 star Mariner on HAL but the idiot President they hired years ago (who had never been on a cruise ship) screwed up HAL. He was canned early during the pandemic, and is now ruining Azmara.

Bermuda is nice with pleasant weather. The Meraviglia will be doing those cruises later in the year from NYC. Their Caribbean itineraries don't look that good. The Canadian itineraries are also a bit lame, with no visits to Quebec. It looks like overnights at Ocean Cay are pretty much going away. 😞

No, I didn't include the beverage package or the internet. I did not get a Diamond member discount, so I called today and asked about it. The clerk couldn't give it to me either, evidently because it's a flash sale. So she gave me $100 SBC, which I am happy with. My final price was actually $1063 for the midship balcony on 12. I tried to get my favorite cabin stewards on starboard but those rooms were booked so I got port which is actually a better fit for this cruise. I can get by without the internet because my T-Mobile plan works everywhere (so far). I do drink but not that much. Lots of website issues with them, more than normal. No specialty restaurants can be booked, she saw the same thing. My first attempt to book the beach excursion hung up so I booked it again, and was charged twice. So she refunded one, but the email says the refund is $0. Unable to register credit card due to "service unavailable" so she told me to wait until 2 weeks before sailing.

They are having a flash sale that ends today though they often extend it. Depending on how you book it you can get different prices. Using the flash sale and assuming your grandson is 2-3 I got $ 2,138.81 midship balcony on 11 or 12. (I'm on 12). My cruise was under $1200. I think this should be a good cruise. The short cruise partiers and the fun bunch from Miami will not be aboard. I know much of the crew I liked will still be around for this cruise so that was what got me over the hump.

I wouldn't normally do that, but DI had pestered me many times in Alaska and in the Caribbean. I knew they wouldn't like it, which made it a little fun. I've booked the beach tour. So since you liked the food I will probably try that. The beach only tour is 5 hours. It's $37 cheaper than the one that includes the falls. The only thing I don't like about this itinerary is there is no stop at Ocean Cay. However MSC rarely visits Curacao except when repositioning. I was on the last visit of the Meraviglia, in November 2021. That's when the ship repositioned from Miami to Orlando. Curacao is one of my favorite ports. Thanks again!

I really appreciate the feedback! I will go ahead and book the beach only. They had a couple of beaches to choose from, but I will go with the one you liked. I suppose I can pay for the buffet if it's not too high. On my 2 previous visits, where I stayed on the ship, we were also a long way from anything. In November of 2021 we got a letter from the Captain strongly advising against doing anything on your own. So this will be the first time I set foot in Jamaica. Diamonds International is an irritating bunch. I don't go on cruises to shop for diamonds, though evidently some do. Once in Alaska they offered a FREE charm bracelet with the large initials DI as one of the charms. So I took the coupon in and got the bracelet but they of course wanted me to buy some of the charms, which I declined. They were quite unhappy with me, but at the time I had a girlfriend with the initials DI. She was pleased with it.

It looks like if you don't book the falls you don't get lunch included. What did you not like about the falls? At the beach, were umbrellas available? Was the beach/water good?

I just booked an 11 day on the Meraviglia, repositioning with Aruba, Curacao, Nassau, Jamaica, and another port or two. It starts at Port Canaveral on 4/9 and ends in NYC on 4/20. It's really cheap.

What I am concerned about is getting a blocked balcony at the bow. I'm a Diamond member. Do you think that would help in getting a decent room?

All my cruises on MSC have been Fantastica balconies. However, prices are skyrocketing in Europe for the summer, and I may have to cut some corners. IF you have booked a Bella Balcony, I would very much like to hear your experience(s), good or bad.

I was on Divina in November, and got what is likely my last chocolate ship. It was a bit stale, but still good. In December on the Meraviglia I got some excellent chocolates that I actually preferred to the ships, which are difficult to break up. However I noticed the passengers after us were getting the 1.5oz dark chocolate bar like I got last year on the Poesia. It was fun while it lasted, just like when being a 5 star member on HAL was worth something!

You are absolutely right. Normally I don't like to sail for less than 14 days, so I have booked cruises of that length that are made up of 3,4, and a7 days. You can really tell the difference on the 7 day cruises. On the others, many head to the bar as soon as they get on board. I sailed the Poesia for 13 days from Copenhagen last fall. It's an older, but wonderful ship. The crew was also amazing. On the second day, half the passengers got off in Germany, then we went back past Copenhagen on the way to Barcelona. I got off there, but many continued on. Some of the European passengers were very difficult, but in general it was a much better experience than sailing out of Miami!

Evidently the cruise before you did not visit Columbia. On my November cruise, and others since, Customs took over the ship and I was unable to board until after 3pm. I believe part of that is because MSC crew members have smuggled drugs, both on the cargo and cruise versions. Here's an example from Wikipedia. "On 17 November 2018, seven crew members were arrested at PortMiami after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 7 kilograms of cocaine and a total of $100,000 in their cabins and in their possession. According to officers, the crew members were recruited by a fellow crew member to smuggle cocaine from Jamaica to the United States."

The MSC cruises out of Miami have not been that great except in 2021 when very few were aboard. The fellow passengers have been a problem. I was on Divina in November and it was similar to what you describe. However the buffet was good, though very crowded in the mornings. I skipped the dining room except for lunch on the last day. Service and food were quite good. I did 14 days (10 +4) on Meraviglia out of Port Canaveral on December 1st. I only went to the dining room once but also had the blackened raw fish along with 2 other people at my table. They took our plates and after 20 minutes the waiter had not returned so i left and went to the buffet, which i found good. I loved the crew but the last 4 days became more crowded . Still it was good until we had a woman overboard on the last morning. MSC handled the search well but getting in at 11 caused near riot conditions, which were made worse by the idiotic cruise director continuing to call disembarkation numbers even though there was no room. It was after 1 before I got off and I was in the first group after the do it yourself group. Personally I NEVER sail during the holidays, but find early December inexpensive and quiet.

Thanks for all the great posts. I never have any luck with cruisecritic with my iphone when aboard. I hope tomorrow goes well for you.