MSC Orchestra Grand Voyage to Dubai

[sidari]

Currently on day 4 and still missing our luggage thanks to Brussels airlines! First flight delayed Manchester to Brussels delayed by 30 minutes then same plane delayed a further 50 minutes from Brussels to Venice. There are 5 cabins without luggage and some of the crew.

 

Ship is as expected nice and clean, boarding was a breeze but they did start at 10am on cruise day. Food apart from first day has been hot every time including the buffet, a few faces on board crew wise from the Divina transatlantic last year plus Brian and Judy passengers from New Zealand.

[Skipper Tim]

Unless you travelled in 'black tie' I assume you were underdressed for the first formal?

 

I have had luggage go astray many times - but always thus far with BA. The last time was when our flight from Manchester to Heathrow was delayed with weather and we then had a very tight connection on to Athens. I was travelling with around 10 pieces of luggage and some did not make our flight. A chest of drawers took two weeks to arrive. Then they send everythig by bus in Greece and I don't have an address.

 

Sorry to hear of your woes. Can't you invoke your travel insurance "I need a new wardrobe" clause?

 

It is a great itinerary so I hope you still make the most of it.

 

I have my own black tie event to attend shortly (see signature).....

Edited November 28, 2014 by Skipper Tim

[AmoMondo]

Oh dear what an absolute pain with your luggage being missing. Hope it catches up with you soon.

 

Enjoy the trip Dave!

[Beamafar]

So sorry to hear of your ordeal, Sidari. I can't imagine how you're coping. Having never experienced it (touch wood :rolleyes:) I don't know how I'd deal with it. As Skipper Tim said, is it possible to buy clothes and claim it back on your insurance?

 

I'd love to hear how you're managing and what you're doing in terms of getting by? It could become an instructive guide in "How to handle a missing luggage crisis"! From the sounds of it, you're putting a very brave face on it - stiff upper lip prevailing, maybe?

 

I hope it'll be resolved quickly and you can get on with enjoying the rest of your trip. Best of luck :)

[sidari]

Cases arrived after 5 days having missed the ship twice, food still very good so far, no one allowed out now on boat deck for 4 days, spoke to a guy today from N.Ireland traveling solo on solo rates booked in June.

[Holly_Well]

Glad to hear you received your cases, Sidari. Just wondering why you are not allowed out on the boat deck for 4 days? Is this due to recent events in the area?

Edited December 4, 2014 by Holly_Well

[davidcraig2003]

Many ships in this area will have additional security (anti-piracy) on the lower, outer decks, usually by a third party company. I guess this is set up on the boat deck?

[sidari]

As far as we could see there was nothing set up on the boat deck and access was still restricted until we reached Dubai, we did see a banner telling people to stay 50 metres away.

[sidari]

Tim ... Hopefully Brussels airlines will refund the 20 euros we had to pay to get our cases back! along with the costs for clothing that had to be bought until they arrived.

 

They will also be asked to fork out for a few other things as well.

[sidari]

For those of you who are not keen on the ship photographers attending the Lifeboat drills maybe you should think again ?

 

We attended ours on deck 7 in the Shaker lounge, had our seapass cards scanned and our mug shots were duly taken wearing the Lifejackets by one of the photographers, we saw at least Six people who thought they were above wearing theirs but non of the crew told them to put them on!

 

Later in the evening we received a naughty letter as we call them telling us we had missed the drill .. :eek: So next morning we went down to the photo shop and found our photos with the Lifejackets on, showed the letter to the main guy there and the pictures, he then rang customer services to tell them we had been at the drill the day before and had pictures to prove it ... :D

 

So when the man or woman with a camera comes calling during the drill let them take your photo and then you have proof you were there ... :)

[AmoMondo]

Apart from the missing luggage and cut backs on the drinks package, what duid you think of the Orchestra and the cruise itself?

[sidari]

Hi Marie ... Orchestra has had a bit of a revamp in so far as the Casino has been totally rebuilt during the recent dry dock, new carpets in some hallways, part replaced in others, our cabin had new carpets and some others but no idea how many.

 

Prefer the Zebra lounge on Poesia to the Savannah Lounge on Orchestra which is a little too dark even during the day due to the colours used.

 

As said previously we prefer this class to the others, we liked the ship as you would expect although they need to remove those damned awkward tilted glass covers in the Buffet that you have to almost crawl under in some places to get at the food lol.

 

The cruise was enjoyable once we got our clothes and apart from Khor Al Fakkan the itinerary was great, there is very little to see or do in this port and we did hear it was being dropped from the 7 night sailings from Dubai.

 

One other thing is that the upper front deck/Solarium is now only for people booked in Aurea cabins which appears to have caused overcrowding elsewhere with regard to sunbeds, unless you were up at the crack of dawn each day there was no chance of getting a sunbed.

 

People did complain to customer services about it, we were lucky enough though to find a space.

 

The rear of the Disco on Deck 14 is a smoking area despite it being for sunbeds something else that is different from Poesia.

 

The food apart from two days was much better than what we had on Divina and was always hot.

[Skier52]

For those of you who are not keen on the ship photographers attending the Lifeboat drills maybe you should think again ?

 

We attended ours on deck 7 in the Shaker lounge, had our seapass cards scanned and our mug shots were duly taken wearing the Lifejackets by one of the photographers, we saw at least Six people who thought they were above wearing theirs but non of the crew told them to put them on!

 

Later in the evening we received a naughty letter as we call them telling us we had missed the drill .. :eek: So next morning we went down to the photo shop and found our photos with the Lifejackets on, showed the letter to the main guy there and the pictures, he then rang customer services to tell them we had been at the drill the day before and had pictures to prove it ... :D

 

So when the man or woman with a camera comes calling during the drill let them take your photo and then you have proof you were there ... :)

Didn't you have a RED "Emergency Drill" card to hand in.

 

We've had them on our last 4 MSC cruises going back to Aug 2013

 

 

THE RED CARD !! (this was prior to getting my Black card)

 

Pete

Edited December 15, 2014 by Skier52

[Skier52]

Glad to hear you received your cases, Sidari. Just wondering why you are not allowed out on the boat deck for 4 days? Is this due to recent events in the area?

When on our recent cruise on OPERA from UK to S. AFRICA, the boat deck (No. 7) was out of bounds from Cape Verde islands to Namibia for anti-piracy reasons. the fire hoses were permanently rigged to the railings.

The officers were quite open as to why the hoses were out when asked.

 

 

 

The fire hoses rigged for anti -pirate precautions

 

[sidari]

Hi Pete ... No Red cards on Orchestra but we have had them in the past on the other ships! when you went to the designated area they just scanned the seapass cards,there were no hoselines out on deck 7 that we ever saw and me being nosey opened the doors on a number of occasions on both sides to look up and down.

 

I get the impression that there is no corporate policy with MSC and that each ship does its own thing, having asked a couple of staff about why access was denied they just said for safety reasons! All the blinds on deck 7,6 and 5 were closed in the evenings, on one night the only lights on on the upper deck was on the pool deck until later in the evening.

 

Access to the rear Deck 7 external staircase was always open for use despite the fact that there is a window opening in the side of the ship.

 

Access to Deck 7 was still closed from Muscat to Khor Al Fakkan and from there to Dubai! when we returned to the ship in the evening in Dubai it was still closed off which made no sense.

[sidari]

Another thing worth a mention is that in the whole 18 days we did not see people pushing or shoving or cutting into lines in the Buffet which made a nice change.

 

There were not so lift hogs this time around as well although we did come across one elderly woman who tried to squeeze between two of us getting out of one of the wider lifts, there are two types on Orchestra and one guy complained when 4 of us got into a car that holds 14 people as there was already 6 people in it!