No Solos Allowed?

[AmoMondo]

Actually MSC particularly the UK office is normally extremely solo friendly. I've done 15 solo cruises with them and have another booked. For the last 4 years they have been charging for no supplement at all on their repo cruises. Yes 0%. On other cruises the standard is between 50-80% but depending how a particular cruise booking is going! especially out of season! they will often reduce it down to 30%.

 

I've occasionally had them tell me when I was trying to make a booking that there were no more available to be booked for single occupancy but they contacted head Offic and got permission to alter the quota. The only exception was at the end of December when I enquirer about a Middle East sailing in January they said there were no cabins available for solo occupancy.

 

Once they've accepted my booking and issue the confirmation, they have never tried to rescind on that. I know a good number of solo cruisers in the UK who use them because of their policy/pricing and I've never heard of this happening to them either. This is not the norm for them or certainly not in Europe.

[AmoMondo]

Yours truly has been a champion of this line ever since I restarted cruising 3 years ago after a 10 year sabbatical and have been on MSC Splendida and MSC Divina and written good reviews about them. Back then the MSC website had some very tempting offers for solo passengers with 0% single supplements on most of it's off-season cruise fares and it even had a separate section within its 'Cruise Deals' for solo passengers to find the offers quickly.

 

So what has happened to change my mind?

 

Since MSC UK has come under new management recently their website has removed any reference to solo passengers and has withdrawn all direct special offers to us.

 

When approached to quote for a solo price on any of the five repositioning cruises from South America to Europe this March/April my courageous agent was told that ALL five ships were FULL apart from MSC Poesia which they were willing to free off one inside cabin for a solo traveller. The sting in the tail was, you guessed it, the price of £2289 (incl. flights) on a cruise previously advertised at £713 p.p. (cruise only).

 

By my reckoning MSC UK were trying to impose a 100% single supplement on the true fare and those of you who have travelled on repositioning cruises before will know they are usually half empty because of the duration of the voyage and the number of sea days involved.

 

Can MSC miraculously fill five ships with a total passenger carrying capability of 16,397 for their repositioning voyages where others can't or do you think MSC could be trying to tell solo passengers where to go in two words ??

 

Trevor did you attend the recent UK webinar? If not here is the link

http://www.msccruises.co.uk/uk_en/MSC/Webinar.aspx

 

They had loads of questions about were they changing policy for solos and they said the norm was 50-80% but always to phone as they may be prepared to reduce it further. They reiterated that they still want solos. I guess time will tell. I'm waiting to see what the pricing for the Autumn repos are going to be and also the first segment of the Dubai to Freemantle in March 2015.

Edited January 14, 2014 by AmoMondo

[LandlockedCruiser01]

They reiterated that they still want solos. I guess time will tell

I'll believe it when I read a formal statement from an MSC corporate officer and/or a glowing review from a solo cruiser. This strikes me as panicked backpedaling, rather than a sincere opinion. (Perhaps someone at MSC read Cruise Critic and had an "oh no, we screwed up!" moment?) So in the meantime, I will continue to stay away from MSC, even after I get married or find friends who like cruising.

[trevor432990]

Well AmoMondo I'm glad you had a different experience to mine because there seemed to be little flexibility in their stance towards solo cruisers when my TA contacted them. The mere fact they have removed all reference to solo passengers on their website seems sufficient evidence to me.

 

I did not attend their webinar but have subsequently listened to it and I may say was not impressed by their responses. They dodged the questions being posed by solo clients.

 

For some reason MSC have decided that solo passengers are, to all intents and purposes, 'unclean' in their eyes, and we should ring a bell before approaching them which is such a complete departure from their previous position I can only think new management are trying to influence peoples opinions.

 

I hate to say this because they used to be very good to us but they have completely reversed their attitude and in the circumstances I think we should do the same !! Don't you??

[AmoMondo]

Well AmoMondo I'm glad you had a different experience to mine because there seemed to be little flexibility in their stance towards solo cruisers when my TA contacted them. The mere fact they have removed all reference to solo passengers on their website seems sufficient evidence to me.

 

I did not attend their webinar but have subsequently listened to it and I may say was not impressed by their responses. They dodged the questions being posed by solo clients.

 

For some reason MSC have decided that solo passengers are, to all intents and purposes, 'unclean' in their eyes, and we should ring a bell before approaching them which is such a complete departure from their previous position I can only think new management are trying to influence peoples opinions.

 

I hate to say this because they used to be very good to us but they have completely reversed their attitude and in the circumstances I think we should do the same !! Don't you??

 

I do share your concerns Trevor. Airlines cope with being able to change prices online to reflect how capacity is going, there is nor reason why MSC can't do the same (but not with their awful website) I don't like now having to always phone to get a price to see if they'll flex the supplement. I strongly suspect the influence of the new man in charge in the UK.

 

I got the impression from the webinar that they were surprised at just how many folk were asking the same question about a change towards us. You'd think they'd already have a clue what their passenger base was and that they had a lot of repeat solo passengers? But admin and accurate infoo (providing or possessing it) has never been their forte.

 

Summer deals for us still look reasonable, it's the Sutumn repo season prices due out next month that will tell whether it was all hot air at the webinar of they are rethinking their apparent change to solos.

 

have a look at Costa Trevor if you haven't already. Similar onboard experience and whilst I've never had a zero supplement, they do them as low as 30% and have some good late deals from their UK office.