heatherb1958

We are considering the transatlantic on Arvia flying from Manchester to Barbados sailing back to Southampton. Does P&O include a coach transfer back to departure airport at no extra cost 🤔. We have only sailed round trip out of SOU and also done the Azura round trip with flights to Tenerife. Cheers

RCI have been doing the invites to bid for upgrades for a few years now and MSC too in recent years. We have never done it except once with MSc and I cancelled it at the last minute . It is a good idea to check on a website that shows available cabins in the next grade to see where you are likely to end up. You can still get the upgrade bid e.mail even when there aren't any available cabins in the grade you are bidding for !!! We have a friend who put in for an upgrade , had the " congratulations " e.mail only to find out it never happened and the money was still taken from her account , this was with MSC. She fought hard and fast to get what was promised in the e.mail once onboard the ship with no luck plus had to get the money back. There is a company called Plusgrade.com who the cruiselines employ to deal with these upgrade bids, loyalty level has zero influence on the bid . Good luck to those who give it a try.

I searched for an answer to a question re chef's table and this was the only thread that came up. We have done Chef's table on another cruiseline , it is held everynight according to demand , there is an upcharge for it so I am quite surprised that availability on Princess is a bit random . My question was , if anyone knows on this thread , if you have Princess Premier is the Chef's table included as one of the included speciality dining options ? . I have checked on the Princess website and read the terms and conditions and no where does it say it is excluded... . Edit: - think I found the answer to my question via a cruise blogger. Apparently Chef's table is classed as fine dining so does not come under the umbrella of Speciality restaurants.

Have a wonderful time . We love MSC and rarely cruise with RCI now which I think we may have met each other on . We have been on Virtuosa twice already out of the UK and doing the 5 nighter before a Celebrity cruise at the end of May. I hope you did the Status match to get some perks , we did back in 2017 and no longer feel guilty about doing our first MSC cruise as a Diamond/Black member as we have done so many cruises with them now we more than qualify 😎. As everyone says , go with an open mind and enjoy, MSC ships are beautiful , well maintained , the food is different , we enjoy it and the crew are lovely.

Same here, we were B2B on Grandiosa so got 2 bottles of Bombay and brought them home . We will take them on P&O in April as they allow upto 1 litre of spirits per person to be taken onboard for incabin consumption 😆.

Another great trip report @ConnieTact. 👌

I always tell my UK cruise friends who are considering MSC for the first time that cruising out of Europe is a completely different vibe and proper MSC experience than round trip out of UK . So thankful we did start our MSC history out of Barcelona , UK sailings can be booze cruises with queues at all the bars because folks want to get their 'money's worth' and it is a British thing to queue 😆. We have never seen queues on the ships anywhere when sailing out of Barcelona and the service has always been excellent .

FYI - the Theatre shows in the main theatre cannot be booked until you board, either through the app or get your Concierge to do it . The Carousel lounge shows which have a fee , currently £9 if you book before boarding through your cruise planner , time is allocated once onboard. We had pre booked both shows on Grandiosa for the cheap price and I got the Concierge to reserve the dates and times I wanted . Our butler would have escorted us to the reserved seats If I wanted but by that time in the cruise I was fed up of having a chaperone 😆 🤣 😂.

Your mini fridge in your YC cabin is stocked daily with included soft drinks/ beers and of you run out while watching a movie a phone call to the butler will have them replenished immediately or you can nip out to the YC bar , place your order and a lounge butler will deliver them to your cabin with snacks too if needed . We had this recently on Grandiosa . By the way MSC charge for in room movies . We found people dressed less smartly in YC than the rest of the ship on Grandiosa out of Barcelona , we were 2 out of approx 10 Brits in YC. We met a couple from Scotland who only went to the YC restaurant on formal/gala night for the 'special' menu, all their other meals were taken in the buffet as they preferred the food there .

Did you go to it on Grandiosa ? lots of folks singing songs loudly, different songs in foreign languages so I couldn't even join in 🤣🤣🤣.

Love the toilet comment 😆 🤣. Looking forward to you finding out about the new policy on the drinks 😎 Have a great day in Ghent .

We have done many B2B cruises and side to sides with other cruiselines , sometimes on the B2B the itinerary was the same , much prefer having the same cabin on a B2B but it isn't a problem changing rooms. You will have to remember the menus are repeated and so is the entertainment. We did the Azura out of Tenerife for New year for 14 nights , I didn't realise when we booked that it was possible to do 7 or 14 nights and there were 2 overnighters in Tenerife ! Will never do that itinerary again .

@cruiseboymark- thank you for your detailed review of your experience . We will be travelling down by coach so on reflection think we will probably miss out on the lunch with wine, shame 😔. We have stayed in a deluxe balcony on Ventura so had the fizz, chocolates, robes and slippers etc. which were nice touches . Our cruise is January so will be lovely to have the conservatory for when the sun does shine through the doors . Look forward to lounging in there with a G&T. 😎. In my YouTube research I picked a cabin over the Olive Grove where there is a flat roof immediately in front of the balcony , no people sitting immediately beneath us chatting, fingers crossed.

Happy to see you got your table for 2 😎. L'Atelier bar is our favourite for people watching especially on dress up nights , like watching a fashion show runway 😁👌. If you are not aware Meraviglia and Bellissima do not have that venue so makes the Galleria seem more busy with the only seating being at the other end . Got to have a seat to people watch 😆.

Done countless cruises on Independence out of the UK and USA from Europe to Transatlantics and the Caribbean . We have done one Meraviglia cruise 7 nights out of Barcelona . What you will miss is cafe promenade and Sorrentos , what you won't miss is the pizza, MSC do pizza much much better and make there own Mozzarella onboard . The only place to get late night food on MSC is the buffet or room service but the buffet is open long hours . MSC do a production show everynight . Speciality restaurants are cheaper than RCI though beware if you buy a dining package with MSC it is not a la carte but choices from a tasting menu . The activities staff are more engaging on MSC, I love how they get guests up to dance . The ships are stunning and beautifully kept , never seen ripped furnishings on an MSC ship but felt like I needed to get my sewing kit out on Anthem recently 😔. Both ships have a central walk through but Meraviglia has a mezzanine floor with restaurants and a British pub, very popular with hubby . Between the 2 ships it would be down to number of nights and price to help me personally decide.

At least you enquired , I always say if you don't ask you don't get . Have an amazing time regardless. For future reference when booking cruises if you haven't paid the final balance already sometimes it is worth cancelling a cruise and lose the deposit and rebook if the price drop is so significant but you have to be aware you will more than likely lose any promotions on the original booking . We booked a cruise recently , not MSC , the day after we booked the cruiseline's new promotion was free upgraded drinks packages on the one we paid for , a crystal ball would have been handy then 😆.

In all our MSC cruises we have never had a problem changing our table even when on Bella experience but we like to eat early so maybe that helps . I immediately go and check on boarding day to see if we like the location , politely speak with the Maitre D and ask for a change if available if we don't. As an aside I think it is funny that in MSC's current media promotions they are actually showing the table we sat at for a week last September on Virtuosa , a table for 2 by a round window with fabulous views 😆.

Did you have an invite to an embarkation day lunch for mini suite guests ? The video on YouTube showed an invitation which I guess was in the cabin on arrival.

We have been on Iona already in a regular balcony and knew all about avoiding deck 8 as we had seen those already for ourselves as a promenade viewer 😆. We said we wouldn't go on Iona again but fell for a deal 😄 . I have been watching all the YouTube videos I can find and came across one that mentioned an embarkation day get together for top tier peninsular members , we are not , suites and mini conservatory suites, never seen anything about this before . The video was posted April 22. What have folks experiences been of this for those who have travelled in a mini conservatory suite ? I know things can change before we sail but am curious .

As other posters have said Ventura and Azura are exactly the same in layout . Also exactly the same on older Princess ships too as they are the same design/layout . Gets very confusing , I forget which cruiseline I am on 😆

I saw that deal and we were tempted but have just splurged on other cruises for later in the year in suites , not MSC, so decided to keep the pennies 😄. There have been some amazing deals with cruiselines just lately 😎. We have cruised in Bella insides , you'll be fine , we have also had one of those Bella steel fronted balconies, 12019, on Virtuosa and it was lovely and private . Well done on the upgraded result though 👏, look forward to your review, throughly enjoyed your last one .

I have seen most of the Carousel lounge shows on Meraviglia class ships. Here in the UK they had been selling them for half price on the cruise planner so it was worth it . No to the bowling and simulators, we have not used them .

@ready2cruzagain - good sound advice which I agree wholeheartedly with. More than 15 years ago when we were on an RCI ship docked next to an MSC ship we liked the look of I was put off trying MSC because a friend told me you had to pay for water at dinner ! , I was gobsmacked. Fast forward to when Status match was introduced and RCI's pricing getting ridiculous we tried MSC out of Barcelona and have never looked back . Yes at the time in Feb 2017 you did have to pay for water at dinner but MSC in their wisdom trying to break the UK market introduced free tea,coffee and water at lunch and dinner in the MDR . Love everything about MSC from the ships, entertainment , and even the food 😍.

In January on Grandiosa , our first time in YC , our Butler found us in the TSL to escort us to Butcher's Cut. I still had a large amount of wine left in my glass and rather than leave it was about to take it with me . Our Butler said it wasn't allowed to take it to Butcher's Cut so I asked him to put it in our cabin . While we were being seated in BC the butler spoke with the manager , came back to me and reconfirmed you cannot take drinks from elsewhere into the restaurant. People can have different experiences on the same ship , that is always a given.

This information is incorrect, if you try to deposit cash at Guest services they will more than likely redirect you to a kiosk machine . Been there , done that. @surfjock27 - depositing cash at a kiosk machine and retrieving any credit balance is the most simplest thing . We have done several cruises with MSC on multiple ships and have a cash account every time . There is no need to do it as soon as you board , just wait for a quiet moment . You can top up the account as you go along if needed at the machine too. Any credit balance can be retrieved on the last evening or last morning from the machine . We usually do it as we go to bed on the last evening. Our last trip was B2B on Grandiosa in YC out of Barcelona in Jan/Feb so the YC Concierge did the actual cash for us but like I say so simple to do at the kiosk machine . One word of warning , deposit the currency the ship is using onboard . MSC onboard prices are Euros, Dollars or Sterling depending on where they are sailing from . If you use a different one to what is onboard you will get a rubbish exchange rate , fell foul for that one last Autumn only because we thought they were still using Sterling and had reverted back to Euros for our sailing .