heatherb1958

Agree that is a good tip about checking availability before onboard purchase. I will also add if they have the wine of choice on day one get all your wine at once and store in your cabin until required before they have chance to run out ! We did come across attitude from staff in Glass house on Ventura ..they seemed to dislike having to get the wine making a big deal about having to fetch it from the MDR and how long it would take to get it. I just smiled and said I was prepared to wait...

We have had wine bottle packages on all our P&O cruises since Oct 21 , they cannot be booked online , I have had to phone to have them added to the reservation paying there and then. In the cabin on arrival there was a letter to take to the MDR /bar to swap for the voucher booklet . In April on Ventura we had a lot of OBC so purchased the 6 bottle Captains club through our waiter on the first night . We like Silk and Spice which is £28 a bottle so quite a saving by buying the package.

Plus , if you walk to the back of the ship on the deck above , go down the stairs in the corner you can enter from there therefore bypassing all the folks who entered from the other end . There is a bathroom here too and hand washing sinks plus outside tables . I can never understand folks who get their food first then wander around in a daze looking for a table , always always grab cutlery/silverware plus a drink maybe then find table . Leave a jacket or something on it so other people know the table is occupied .

Tell your wife it never goes dark in summer in the Fjiords so you better pack a lot of pegs to close the gaps in those curtains !! 😄 😆 🤣. Also have you not explained if you book an inside cabin you can either cruise more or use the savings on other items onboard like a spa treatment... worked on me 😆. P.S. showing her an inside cabin on Virtuosa , unless it is in YC, will not win her over , there isn't any seating except the bed. RCI have sofas, Princess and P&O have a lovely layout but MSC's are big with no additional seating.

Well you'll not be surprised when I say we have been there 😄. It is a lovely place to explore . I hiked on the peninsula right next to where the ship docks with great views from the Vestri Batteri. Good to see you had use of the YC outdoor grill, our favourite place in Jan on Grandiosa for breakfast and lunch , we were the only ones there ! Hardy Brits 😆. Did you know that the room service YC breakfast comes from there ? We would watch the butlers come and get the orders for their guests ... Enjoy white night .. x

Trying to work out if you are port or starboard ! Lorraine is port so if you are too she will be happy to have some sun on the balcony , she won't mind me saying this if she see this but she certainly pays her dues to the sun god and worships from morn til sunset if allowed 😁 😎 🌞. With regards Baltic and Fjiord cruises we have done both, Baltics for me was once and done but maybe because we had terrible weather June 2009, 2 nice days out of 12 . I had a fantastic trip to St.Catherines palace , obviously ships not going to St.Petersburg currently, and Peterhof gardens was toured in the rain sadly. It was still a fantastic cruise with friends . Having said that there are currently some great deals to the Baltics sans St.Petersburg and we are going back this year TWICE 😆, first trip on 5th June on Silhouette after we have been on Virtuosa on 29th May 😎

I climbed to that waterfall last year , not for the faint hearted as lots of steep steps , the walk to the church is lovely following the river. Our friends have done the train today , very cold at the top but I am happy to see your photos with the blue skies.. x Wow Julie , you could not make that up about meeting your second cousin , amazing.

I love Olden , have done both tours to the glaciers there 😎. Lots of walking to the Briksdalen (sp) one. If not on a tour I walk to the red church and through the back lanes back to the village. The scenery is just beautiful. Lovely photos.

😆, notice I did not mention the Portuguese , we holiday on the Algarve in the winter , have been since 1985 ... 😄. We love ❤️ Portugal . Lucky you living in Lisbon, we take the train to Cascais amd have dinner there if on an overnight port stop.

I would agree with that comment, fingers crossed for us all who have made a bid we find out earlier . I hate not knowing where my cabin is at the last minute especially with other lines where we get goodies delivered to the cabin on embarkation . I cancelled our one and only previous bid as we hadn't heard 24 hours before, we are always happy with the cabin we have anyway so no big deal .

L'Atelier bar is my favourite bar on the ship followed by Sky lounge 😎. Our friends from IOM are having a nightmare start to their first MSC cruise . They have a disabled daughter with them who has had to sleep on the floor , long story short , special needs requests not met. I think they will be cancelling their Seaside cruise out of Barbados ..... Have fun on Elegant night and I hope the sun shines tomorrow for you. P.S. you look lovely Julie and Mark looks a bit of alright too 😆.

We only made it to YC breakfast once 😂. Keep photos coming when you can 😎.

For our 5th June sailing on Silhouette there are lots of cabins still available in most grades including the top suites Got the first move up e.mail a few weeks ago and dismissed it but got the promo e.mail today so decided to give it a go.

Thanks for all the replies. I have gone ahead and put in a bid. There are LOTS of cabins available in all the lower balcony grade , practically the whole of deck 9 aft is available, 5th June to Scandinavia. I expect a fire sale to fill the ship. The upgrade bid amounts are starting at very low prices and advertised as a promo .

We have a balcony, If I put in a bid for Aqua class balcony do we get access to Blu and the seathermal suite or not? It says we get to keep our current promotions but not anything to do with upgraded cabin. Not sure what the incentive is supposed to be if that is the case, confused 😐

Got another message, apparently Border Force stopped and started disembarking 3 times , full on checking for contraband with the sniffer dogs.

Damn those Duty free Canary Islands 😆. Enjoy your lunch, hope your cruise is quieter than last week's, apparently YC was full and busy. Friends got off this morning and messaged me . Xx

I made a post on our May roll call about the traffic queue for Horizon terminal on 30th April when we were headed to Regal Princess , it was long queues then . This was at 10.25am ish . Thankfully there are 2 lanes as we got to the roundabout and our taxi could get past it . We will be arriving by taxi on 29th as the hotel is too far away to walk with the luggage , think we will arrive in the afternoon . This is where we love interporting as the whole ship is not trying to get off and on at the same time . I know M&L will be cursing in their car ... 😔. At least you are on now , can relax and enjoy YC. Xx

😆 This thread reminds me of our very first cruise on Mercury in October 1999 . We were seated at a dinner table for 8 , salad had been served , the waiter came round with different dressings explaining what each one was and the guy to my right asked which one did he recommend for his salad ?? As a newbie cruiser I nearly choked on my sorbet ! 😆

Have a wonderful time J and M. We have friends joining you tomorrow, not sure if you know them but Manxmiss on here . It is their first MSC cruise, they aren't with you in YC 😁 , I hope they enjoy it as much as we do but going to be strange as they have only ever sailed RCI and top tier with them 🍍. I love the Fjiords and for the first time in years we haven't got an itinerary booked to them this year 😪

Sorry to see you are having a mixed experience on your first European MSC cruise. We have always had a cruise excursion guide in our cabin on boarding day with instructions how to book, obviously the smart ships you can do it on the app. Glasgow and Edinburgh are very easy to do on your own if just wanting to visit the cities, train from Greenock to Glasgow . We have visited Greenock many times and were there just a few days ago on Regal though the weather was cool so I just went shopping in town, there is a small mall there with all the usual high street stores including Primark. If walking is your thing there is a lovely walk along the coast to Largs or upto the French WW11 monument with stunning views if the weather is clear . There are taxi firms who are willing to take you. If tendering at Queensferry for Edinburgh there is a local bus that takes you to the city from the top of the ramp . Viator and TripAdvisor are great tools for research for Independent tours and both cities will have HOHOs or walking tours to download . We have over 90 cuise nights with MSC out of the UK and Barcelona but wouldn't spend one single night at sea out of an American port with them even though we have cruised many many times with RCI from the west and east coasts. MSC are dumbing down their experience to attract and from what I have been reading on CC it isn't working . We just got off Regal Princess out of the UK with 1,900 Americans onboard , one time we were waiting for the lift, one arrived and the doors were closing almost immediately , I just managed to catch it . Hiding in the corner was an American guy, it was obvious he had pressed the door close before anyone had a chance to get to the lift . I said to him naughty naughty to let him know I knew what he had done . His reply was we should have walked faster !!!! This was said face to face to my husband who walks with a stick and has obvious mobility issues , such arrogance from the American . In Europe the only nation that knows how to queue or form a line are the British, you have to embrace the way France, Germany, Spain and the Italians operate and sharpen your elbows 😆 .

If you are in a YC suite then yes you can use this facility , priority lift call. MSC have suites that are not in YC whether their key card has the same facility I am not sure but YC 100% . On Grandiosa where they have the smart lifts we sometimes waited ages for the priority lift , it was always F , It would have been quicker just to take a regular one as the smart lift system is excellent . Oh , and the priority call only worked at YC end not the aft on Grandiosa which makes sense .

So now I am confused..friend currently on Seashore on a 5 night trip out of Genoa says no to Diamond perk meal 😔. That sucks but maybe MSC trying harder to win you guys over 😂.

Thanks for posting throughout your trip. We are on the 24 nighter round trip to Canada and New England in September . We have Princess plus , a mini suite and on demand movies so think the lack of production shows won't be a problem 😆 🤣 .

Thanks for the replies , so it looks like we CAN have our free visit then 😎. I should have made it clear in my post , our friends are Diamond due to the match from their RCI top tier level . Shame they missed out though they loved their first MSC experience so I am sure they will book another MSC cruise .