AstoriaPreppy

On 4/29/2024 at 7:39 PM, DaKahuna said:

We went down to the hotel’s Ocean Terrace buffet for breakfast.  A very wide selection of food was available, including typical Japanese breakfast items as well as American and European fare (thankfully no beans though that I saw). It was good but I am not sure it was worth the price. 

 

 

This morning was cold, 65 F, and raining but it is starting to warm up a couple of degrees and it is cloudy and over cast.  

 

 This is where Millennium will be docking Thursday morning. 

 

 

 

 Yokohama Bay bridge.  We crossed over it last evening on the way from the airport.  Millennium will be sailing under her when we pull out Thursday. 

 

 

Our plan for this morning is to walk to Minatomirai station and take the train to Yokohama station.  It’s a six minute ride and cost 200 Yen per person.   Have Suica app, will travel!

 

When we did this sailing on Millennium in October 2019, we departed and arrived at the Daikoku terminal on the opposite side of the bridge. Getting there was a major PITA from both Tokyo and Yokohama (no public transportation), and the terminal was more like a random tent on what we ended up calling "parking lot island." You'll have a much better sailaway from Osanbashi. 

8 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

When is the last time you did that?

About three weeks ago, on the Venezia.

18 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

Carnival limits you to 15 drinks... Cheers package or not.

This is absolutely not true. Passengers are able to continue to order drinks and pay out of pocket once they've exceeded the 15 drinks included with Cheers. Personally speaking, I've received a 16th night cap as my comp VIFP beverage the last night of a cruise multiple times. 

On 4/11/2024 at 9:08 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

The other dynamic with it not being profitable was it seemed that over half the guests were in a free room thanks to the casino.  Only way for Celebrity to become profitable from a comped casino room is for the guest to lose more in gambling than their cruise fare

On 4/12/2024 at 5:41 PM, phoenix_dream said:

Exactly.  And why did Celebrity pick that cruise for the Blue Chip free ones?  Because they weren't selling well otherwise.  Very, very disappointing as those have been some of my favorite cruises over the years.

I can attest to this... last year I received *two* casino comp cruises out of LA on Celebrity

The first one was offered when we sailed NJ-Iceland in 2022. Coming back to our cabin one afternoon, we found a letter saying we both had a casino comp for later 2022/early 2023. The letter specifically noted this was a book on board only offer. We both assumed it was a mistake, as we are very (very) low-level gamblers, but the future cruise desk confirmed the offer and we jumped at the option. 

Coming back from that cruise in January, we received an immediate bounce-back offer for ANOTHER cruise in the next few weeks. I ended up jumping on this offer again, as they offered me an aqua class cabin that I took as a solo cruiser (working remotely from the ship that week). The staff was very confused that I was back only two weeks later, and many remembered me by name. 

TBH, we also received casino comps on Carnival in 2022 which we certainly weren't qualified for (~$100 loss over the course of a 7 day cruise). As best as I can tell, this was a combination of unfilled capacity along with an algorithm trying to identify potentially new high-rollers/high-spend gamblers to receive more comps in the future. 

15 hours ago, First Aider said:

        Just to make things clearer, I understand why they removed him, but they never got back to me so I could show them they had the wrong person. I emailed them like I was supposed to, but they never replied to my email until 3 days after the cruise left.

         They were wrong and I want my money for the bus. I sent an email to the CEO of Carnival, but even he is not getting back to me.

         Carnival doesn't care about the passengers, only the money they spend. I will never spend a penny on Carnival again.

         My husband's birthday was right on the forms, so they only had to look at my sons and know they had the wrong guy. Carnival did not do what they should have. 

         

I'm not going to speculate publicly on what this similar-name relatives did, but it's clearly bad enough to be a major red flag for the US government (not Carnival). Carnival didn't target your husband, the Department of Homeland Security did when it got the passenger manifest, your husband's name popped up, was immediately flagged, and then flagged again because of an incorrect DOB. You might as well have entered his name as "Jerry Nothingsuspicioustoseehere" on the manifest.

It behoves you to make sure this doesn't happen again, not a cruise line or airline. If the government flagged your husband once, there's a good chance it could happen again on another line/flight. You're very bent out of shape over shared bus fare (on a bus that everyone else in your party used to board the cruise). If I knew I shared the same name with someone on a federal watch list, $280 in bus fare would be the furthest thing from my mind... I would be tripping over myself to make sure getting flagged by the feds didn't happen the next time I wanted to take a vacation!

TBH, in the time you've spent griping on this forum, you could have instead applied for a redress number for your husband. It's likely that this might happen again on another line or flight in the future, it's completely free, and will guarantee your DOB mistakes or paperwork snafus won't ruin any vacations in the future.

https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip

1 hour ago, noshoobie said:

We disembarked the Venezia in September and the taxis were NOT abundant. There were only 3 there and they were all giving us different prices to go to Penn Station. They definitely went "off the clock". The taxi ride to the Pier from Penn Station was $14. We ended up paying a taxi driver $20 and he had another passenger in the front seat who also gave him a $20. We just wanted to get to Penn asap as the train we wanted to take was leaving in 15 minutes. We did make it in time so it was worth it for us, but the experience getting the cab was very disappointing. 

A few notes for non-New Yorkers: 1) It's illegal for a yellow cab to not use the meter. The only flat fare route in the city is JFK to Manhattan (not vice-versa). 2) It's also not legal for a yellow cab to turn down a ride if they're accepting fares. That is, the cab driver can't turn you down because they don't like the destination. Legally they have to take you, and use the meter. 

More details on cabs in NY here: https://www.nyc.gov/site/tlc/passengers/taxi-fare.page

On 3/5/2024 at 8:04 AM, First Aider said:

They got my husband confused with my son. They have different birthdays, but never checked it till after the cruise left. We payed in full in November. Why wasn’t it checked then. Then 3 days before the trip they remove him. No explanation at all. We contact them the same day but they don’t return the email until 2 days after the ship left. And with only an apology, they made a mistake with the birthdays. They had my husbands birthday in November. Why didn't they check it?

 Someone screwed up royally and it wasn’t us. They didn’t even offer us free drinks on another trip. I just want my money for the bus!!!!

There is 100% an easy solution to make sure this never happens again: get a redress number from the US Government.

From what I've read, it sounds like your son and/or nephew may have 1) both the same name as your husband, and 2) some past legal issues that would get them flagged by Homeland Security or the TSA while traveling. Redress numbers exist for people in these situations: you apply, then DHS does a background check and verification to make sure person X is not person Y (who is getting flagged). They then issue person X a number to use when flying/sailing in the future to make sure they're not mistakenly flagged as person Y.

In this case, you could have just given Carnival that number when checking your husband in, and all of this would have been averted. 

On 3/18/2024 at 3:19 PM, kitkat343 said:

An overnight in Falmouth would make it easier to reach these attractions, but I don't know why they would want to route the ships in Falmouth versus  Ocho Rios (if anyone knows of better excursions closer in Falmouth please tell me since I'd love to know!)

 

When Oasis-class was developed, they were way too large for typical cruise ports... ie, Ocho Rios. Not in a beam/draft/length size way, but in a getting people on/off efficiently way.

That's why ports like Falmouth were developed. Royal could build a massive facility to their specs, and move a lot of the typical stuff that happens when re-boarding a ship (queues, x-ray, security, etc) off the ship and onto the landside space. It's become common practice now, but when those ships were launched at the end of the 00's, it was revolutionary.

6 hours ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

Can you post a description of your excursion?  I can't get to it without having a cruise booked.

 

It was years ago, but when I was on an excursion that did this, it didn't matter which train station we were taken to because once at a Berlin train station, we were put on a bus and then taken into the city center.  We were dropped off at the Berlin Hilton (near the Stadtmitte U-Bahn station).  Pickup was at the same location.  This info was included in the excursion's description, so I could plan accordingly.  

Hmmmm... maybe that's the case for us as well? I don't remember seeing details about a coach before, but it's absolutely in there now. 

Here's the description: 
 

---

Heading on a Celebrity cruise this summer, stopping in Warnemunde for the day. We’ve booked Celebrity’s Berlin on your own by train excursion, with pickup in Warnemunde on the chartered excursion train. 

One question: I’ve seen *multiple* reviews, comments, complaints and gripes across multiple lines, mentioning the drop off and pick up stations in Berlin being different for this excursion. However, none of these comments mention which station the train stops at on arrival and where it leaves on departure. Most of the times it’s an exasperated passenger saying “no one told us” or “we were so confused and had to take a taxi,” etc. 

Does anyone know specifics? It would certainly help us plot out our day in Berlin knowing what station we’ll start the day at and what station we’ll conclude. 

On 2/22/2024 at 12:17 PM, Yesimapirate said:

And personally,  I find it a bit distasteful to knock a particular employee repeatedly when we have no clue if this was something she was instructed to do or not.  Wrong to Trae her apart without the fill story.

Had the employee in question ever stopped to chat with passengers, I would have asked her 😉

10 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

For those who choose Breakway and Breakaway+ and Prima class ships, this is normal.

 

For those of us who love Jewel class and below ships, this is a change!  Cruise director, Emma, may have changed my future cruise plans and cruise line loyalty.

 

I have spent the whole evening looking for alternative cruise lines for our Prima cruise which has final payment due in 2 days and also for future cruises as we need to book a December 2024 and February 2025 cruise.

 

I can live without hash browns and cookies and breakfast in OV, but no rational location for live entertainment is pushing me to choose another cruise line such as Celebrity. We will be Diamond after our next Gem cruise in March.

We experienced this on the Gem in the Adriatic in August. Multiple nights the main theater was dark, or showed a five year old movie as the evening entertainment... meanwhile Emma was slogging though another round of Deal or No Deal in the atrium. TBH, we wondered if cruise directors have a revenue goal to hit now, so she moved the programing to the atrium to try and sell more cards? 

While we overall had a great trip, I will say that we found Emma to be one of the weakest cruise directors on 30+ sailings we've taken; completely disengaged from the passengers outside of her public address announcements and intros at shows. I've never seen officers sprint out of an elite guest reception faster than that sailing. It was like the 100 m at the Olympics. 

On 2/1/2024 at 7:16 AM, Frangipanni said:

When the ship says it arrives at Osaka at 8am, can you disembark then? Hoping to get to JR Kyoto station by 10.30am?🙏

If the ship arrives at 8 am, you should have no issue getting to Kyoto by 10:30... the trip to Kyoto from Osakako station takes around an hour, with two transfers. Even if you're slightly delayed arriving or disembarking, there's a lot of buffer time. 

On 2/13/2024 at 7:40 PM, daddyaddy said:

A golden circle tour is probably not in the cards since we don't arrive until 2:00 PM and leave the next day at 1:00.  We intend to stay on the ship overnight so in my mind that limits us to staying in Reykjavik.

Thanks for the advice on food.  I'm a seafood addict so I'm hoping to find something good.

One note on tours. In early May, you'll probably have daylight until around 10 pm, which gives you a lot of opportunity to see a lot, even with a 2 pm arrival.

Also, if you're a seafood fan I'd recommend the Arctic Char, which is sort an Icelandic cross between salmon and trout.

18 hours ago, daddyaddy said:

We will be sailing on the Pearl for a transatlantic on Apr 25th from NY to Southampton, arriving in Reykjavik on May 2nd at 2:00 pm and leaving at 1:00 pm the next day.  We would like to book a shore excursion (perhaps a food tour?) but I need to know whether we are free to come and go from the ship for the entire duration of time in port?  In other words, if we arrive back to the ship late in the evening on the 2nd, will there be any problems getting back onboard?  I assume the ship will be berthed at a terminal and shuttle boats are not needed to return.

Ships dock in Reykjavik (no tenders), and you can come/go as you please. Re: tours, you have plenty of options. As mentioned below, the "Golden Circle" is the standard tour out of Reykjavik: Gulfoss, Geysir and Thingvellir, where the North American and European plates meet. Very manageable in a day.

Re: a food tour... Iceland is an amazing country, but isn't really known for their food. It's expensive, limited, and largely underwhelming (despite what YT creators trolling for likes say). There's a reason Icelanders eat the most candy/chocolate/licorice per capita of any nation in the world.

7 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

The Golden Circle is a great excursion but the volcanic activity has affected that area so not sure what’s open. The southern coast is lovely too.

Current volcanic activity in Iceland is near Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon, not anywhere near the Golden Circle area. 

On 2/2/2024 at 5:52 AM, DiscoCV said:

They have switched to Ravenna on our cruise in late October... not impressed 😞

 

Ravenna at least has some spectacular things to see... some of the best preserved byzantine mosaics in the world. Rijeka, not so much.

We ended up getting diverted to Rijeka after all Venice stops were canceled by the line on our Gem cruise last year, and TBH it is absolutely a "stay on the ship" sort of port. Croatia is amazing (Split, Dubrovnik, etc) but Rijeka is just a dud. 

38 minutes ago, Mike981 said:

Ship: We have cruised S class ships before, so it was nice to have a good idea of how to get around and we found that we really like the Silhouette and will have no problem booking her again. There are definitely some areas that need attention, but other than that she is great.

We're going to be on the Silhouette this summer... could you expand on the areas that need attention?

1 hour ago, Toddcan said:

Few more follow up questions.  

 

I have not yet pulled the trigger on this upgrade  -  it might not even be available still, but just in case it is... Looking for opinions for those who have experience. 

 

1. I booked the 3 night specialty dining with the Fantastica experience. The thought was that it will be a little nicer than the MDR. But, it appears to me that the YC dining area will give me that same "less crowded" experience.  So, I could book YC, and cancel my dining package.   Does anyone have any cautions for me on this?

 

2. Internet.  for sure, there is a savings here. I would be buying the 2 device per person package, so YC saves me $212 pp there.   Only thing is - YC comes with the surf package only.  It says "no video", but I suspect that it's just a speed limitation?  Anyone have experience on the Meraviglia with just the basic internet?  I suppose a good litmus test is - can you watch a youtube video?

 

3. Ocean Cay YC area. I have booked a cabana under our Fantastica booking - we like cabanas and the price was great ( $252). I think the standard YC area is going to be a "less" of an experience to our booked cabana.  Looking for opinions here too. 

 

4. Drinks - we don't drink alcohol.  So the main benefit of the drink package included with YC is lost on us.  At best I could equate this to the non-alcohol package which includes the virgin drinks, etc.  But I see something about the drink package included soft serve ice cream - is there not a free soft serve ice cream for everyone?  What about the gelato station? Is that an extra fee for YC?  Looking for clarification here too. 

 

Thanks in advance for the help & opinions.   

Just off the Meraviglia a few days ago: 

1) We found the YC dining room to be fantastic... never crowded, great service, and elevated food. The one specialty dining we thought was well worth visiting was Hola Tacos, where you can order a-la-carte, or all you can eat for $18. Butchers Cut was good, but we had particularly poor chaotic/poor service. Kaito Sushi was very good for cruise ship sushi, and Ocean Cay was excellent, but especially on a 7 day cruise I don't know it would be worth eating outside of the YC, especially at dinner. Maybe a lunch or two? 

2) We didn't try streaming anything other than music on this trip, but found the internet generally stable otherwise. FaceTime calls were fine, but absolutely compressed and not high-res like a home wifi or 5G network. I will say that trying to receive/send photos in messages on an iPhone was laborious, and would take several tries to get working. 

3) You definitely do not want to be in a cabana outside of the YC area on Ocean Cay... you'll loose easy access to the Ocean House restaurant, butlers with towels, waters, drinks, snacks, etc. We're big cabana people on private islands, having done them on Half Moon Cay, Princess Cays, Labadee, etc. We didn't find it necessary to do a cabana on Ocean Cay. The private beach has tons of umbrellas, padded loungers, etc, and if you need a break/extra shade you can just hop up to the lounge space outside of the Ocean House. There's the added benefit of having a shuttle drive you directly from the ship to the YC space, instead of waiting in the crowd or walking to your own cabana. 

4) Gelato is an extra charge from the Jean Philipe shop in the galleria/promenade. There is soft serve on the main pool deck, but we avoided going out there as much as possible. That said, butlers will often do an ice cream/gelato service on the YC pool deck in the early afternoon on warm days.
 

Ultimately, it comes down to how you want to spend your vacation. We spent most of our time eating at the YC buffet for breakfast and lunch, and then lounging on the sofas on the YC pool deck for hours reading. We'd head out for activities or lunch sometimes during the day, but ended up spending much more time in the YC than we expected, especially because the rest of the Meraviglia was so chaotic... we only made it to the real buffet for about 20 seconds one afternoon, and then late at night if we just wanted a slice of pizza. 

Same. After using the app to check in for our Meraviglia cruise earlier this month, my account has been locked out from the app, website, etc. The only way I was able to access anything for the cruise or use the app was by using my booking number (not my username/password). There's no way I can check my voyager's club points earned for the trip, etc. 

From what I've gathered, MSC's IT backend is notoriously poor, and there's not really a good way to resolve the issue. I've heard that calling MSC directly can help resolve, but I haven't tried that yet. 

55 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

Fast fwd to 2022 and Cirque wasn't there, though if they used the space for daytime activities- we don't recall. At night different bands played the venue. Had one rock band that did great covers and the place was packed. 

 

We agree- the space is too pretty to underutilized. 

 

This provides great context! The space is still configured with dining tables and seating but they're completely unused. Only the chairs and cocktail tables surrounding the stage are used for seating. At the two shows we went to, there were maybe 50-60 people max in each audience. The lounge is only used for the shows, which only happen at night and only with the blinds drawn. It's inaccessible during the daytime, which makes me wonder what you'd do if your muster station was there? 
 

Currently, the two shows on the Meraviglia seem to be produced in-house by MSC under the "Carousel Productions at Sea" banner.  "House of Houdini" is the more avant-garde, Cirque-style show, while "Rock Circus" is a bit more direct, but still features cirque style performances. From what we could tell, the performers in the Carousel lounge shows perform exclusively in those productions, and never appear in any other entertainment offerings onboard. The singers and dancers were notably better than the performers in the Broadway Theater shows, which I guess justifies the fee.

The space, technologically and design-wise is amazing... tracks in the ceiling for performers on wires, rotating lighting rigs, elevators up and down for the performers to enter in, LEDs, fog, snow machines, turntables etc. It's a shame they aren't really using it much now, other than the two nightly performances. 

@PistolPete13 We were also on this journey, and echo many of your thoughts as first time MSC cruisers. Based on talking to people on other lines, we booked the Yacht Club to give us a bit of a buffer from some of the issues. 

The weather theme for the trip seemed to be wind, constant and strong. It's not normally like that out of NY, having done the sailings out many times. Oddly, we didn't seem to get much of the up/down rolling, hitting waves motion, but more of a pitch/yaw sort of shimmy that seemed nearly constant some days. We're not normally remotely seasick, but one of the days I had to bust out the emergency Bonine with our location high and forward in YC. The Meraviglia didn't seem to handle the winds well... I'm still shocked we were able to dock in Ocean Cay. 

We found the ship itself very impressive, but there were some quirks. Our inside YC stateroom was completely lacking in storage, other than two closets. If not for our packing cubes, I'm not sure where we would have kept 11 days of underwear/socks, much less shorts, pants, shirts, etc. We also found it odd that there was no nightclub/disco on a European ship, only to discover that the aft Horizon pool doubles as a nightclub, even in cold weather.  We also noticed some major maintenance issues with the LED screens on the ships, including panel failures and glitching that was especially noticeable in the theater.

We found the Carousel Lounge to be... oddly underused? It's a massive space, with huge windows, a giant bar setup, and views off the stern... that is only open in the evening for two paid shows with all the windows covered? Overall though, the ship seemed well maintained and staffed... including an inordinate number of activities staffers who seemed to be a constant presence, and were constantly hosting trivia, dance parties, karaoke, etc.

We thoroughly enjoyed the YC, and found the rest of the ship to be chaotic, but at the most random times and places. We've been on 20+ cruises, and never experienced *anything* like what we saw on the Meraviglia. TBH, we've sort of chalked this up to the passenger mix and some cultural differences.

We were present for the screaming fights at the $10 knockoff sale, and also heard reports of the fruit hoarding and mussel-fist fight in the buffet. The theater seemed to be a hotbed of bad behavior. Lots of coming in 10 minutes before the end of the show, shoving over everyone in a row to get to two open seats, then deciding you hated the show and leaving after 5 minutes sort of stuff.

Overall though, we enjoyed ourselves, and will be back to MSC in the future. The YC was a welcome respite from the rest of the ship, but we enjoyed having the chance to get out and socialize whenever we wanted... we met lots of fantastic people, and it's been years since we had such a good people-watching cruise.

We were also surprised by the "there is no flavor" comments we've seen on CC, as we found the food in/out of the YC to be consistently well-prepared. The specialty dining we went to was across the board better than NCL, especially Hola Tacos which we wish we'd visited earlier on in the trip (to make some repeat stops), and the Carousel lounge shows are actual do-not-miss entertainment. We also didn't seem to have any of the issues with bar service I've seen reported, although we were never able to get into the Edge cocktail bar as it was constantly mobbed (especially with half of the Champagne bar having been converted to casino space.

We'll absolutely be back to MSC in the future!

12 minutes ago, Esv104 said:

Funny I literally posted same thing as you were writing that!!  

The weird thing is that when I log in using my booking number, it only shows excursions… nothing else for the trip. And notably, at least one of the ports has all the excursions listed, but an error code pops up each time you attempt to book any of them, saying there’s no availability. 

Just to make sure, I did a password reset, and it still doesn’t work on the website or app. Same “wrong country” error code. But I am able to log into the app using my booking number. This happens across platforms (desktop, iPad, iPhone) and browsers (safari, chrome). 

I have been getting the same message for weeks, and there doesn’t seem to be any resolution. The MSC website is spectacularly awful.

We’re sailing on the Meraviglia on Monday. Had zero issues with the MSC website until I tried to do check in using my phone, which has somehow paralyzed my account at msccruisesusa … but I was still emailed my check-in docs? The whole thing makes no sense. 

TBH, each time I see some Zenith-plus cruiser who only stays in suites on Celebrity complaining about abysmal X’s website is, I just laugh knowing how uniformed they actually are… 

On 10/18/2023 at 12:31 PM, FolsomMike said:

To anyone who has done this cruise…is the food quality/variety any different from a European cruise?

One of the things we *don't* enjoy on Celebrity sailings is that they don't add local food/beverage options on the ship when sailing in a region. Compare this to Princess/HAL, where they make a point to bring local beers/MDR food when sailing the world. 

On 10/21/2023 at 3:37 PM, villauk said:

Looking forward to your review. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, did you use any private guides for tours or did you take ship tours? How was immigration after you’d visited South Korea in your first Japanese port? Did you stay in Yokohama pre-cruise, if so where? I’m sure I’ll have lots more once I’ve read your review 🤭. TIA.

Japan especially is VERY accessible without a tour guide from most of the ports via public transportation. For example, in Osaka it's a 5 minute walk to the elevated subway, and you can just head out from there. 

Immigration when returning to Japan after Busan was... a mess to be honest, excruciatingly slow. I think part of this may have been that Typhoon Hagibis was heading towards Tokyo/Yokohama, and the line gave passengers the option of departing early in Aomori (instead of staying onboard to our final overnight and cruise end in Yokohama). 

On 10/23/2023 at 1:50 PM, jbinpa said:

If going on a Japan cruise, do you recommend staying in Yokohama beforehand or in Tokyo itself? I know the latter is more expensive but how easy is it to get from Yokohama to downtown Tokyo for sightseeing?

Mass transit is very easy and reliable to use in Japan. Yokohama to Tokyo is $3 or $4, and takes about a half hour. That said, I'd highly recommend staying in Tokyo, as it's one of the world's great cities. 

On 10/23/2023 at 3:33 PM, Dr65 said:

We did the Sept 30 Millenium Japan cruise and in hindsight(20/20) we wished we had done a land vacation instead of the cruise. A lot of the ports were large industrial ports and points of interest were some times an hour or 2 metro stops away. I think not going to Hiroshima or Nagasaki was a deal killer(my fault-I knew this before hand). The shore excursions offered by Celebrity were  awful and not nearly worth the exorbitant cost. I highly recommend if you do this cruise to get private guides as much as possible. My recommendation for doing Japan by land: 5 days in Tokyo(beyond fascinating!!), 3 days in Kyoto, fast train to Hiroshima or Nagasaki fly back to Tokyo.( my 2 cents)…all of the above is just my opinion and others will disagree.

I could not disagree more with this. Almost every single port we visited in October 2019 on the Millennium was walkable to mass transit and tourist sites. This was very much unlike a cruise in Europe where you're in a major industrial port requiring a shuttle just to get out of the port. 

On 10/23/2023 at 3:53 PM, ECCruise said:

Both Yokohama (Osanbashi) and Tokyo (the new Tokyo International) have great terminals.  We embarked in one and disembarked in the other this year and both were well equipped and the experience seamless. 

Is Celebrity using Osanbashi now? We'd hoped they would on our sailing, but we were at the temp terminal on the other side of the bridge, on what we derisively called "parking island." It actually made us glad we didn't stay in Yokohama, as the port was completely inaccessible by foot/mass transit from the city... only shuttles/taxis. 

21 hours ago, chisox021 said:

I've cruised out of Manhattan a few times on NCL and RC and because of the dumb NYC rules, the drink plan doesn't kick in until the next day....  Can anyone tell me if MSC cruises out of Brooklyn follow this same rule or can you enjoy your drink plan immediately after boarding... Ty all!!

 

Scott

As far as I know, the only common cruise ports/lines where beverage packages are not immediately available for use after boarding are Carnival departures from Manhattan, and all sailings from Galveston, TX. Our NCL sailings from NY and Royal/Celebrity sailings from NJ always have the full beverage package usable immediately on boarding.

The Texas departures are particularly weird, as they have to use state-approved liquor bottles with Texas ABC stickers on them and a very very limited menu of specific mixed drinks, beers and wines. As soon as the ship reaches international waters, they lock the Texas liquor bottles in a special cabinet behind each bar, and then the pull out the full spread of alcohol for the rest of the cruise.