MSC cruise to Panama Canal

[carolgeno]

A few weeks ago I returned from a very disappointing cruise on MSC Divina to the Panama Canal.  There was a group of 2,000 people on board and because of this the daily schedule was not the usual schedule.  I was assigned to late dining 8:30 instead of our usual early dining time of 6 pm.  This was a burden due to our ages (77 and 76) and both of us being diabetic.  Fortunately, we were able to get changed to early dining.  The show times were 7 pm and 10:30 pm.  10:30 was way too late for us so in order to get to the 7 pm show with 6 pm dining we had to eat very fast.  It seems this group of 2,000 had lots of lectures in the theater hence the 10:30 pm show.  This group also had a special chef and had one side of the buffet with their special foods.  Now I have nothing against this group but I feel that it was unfair to the rest of us to have a different schedule.  The food in the buffet was terrible.  I do not know if this had anything to do our having one half of the buffet.  This was my 4th cruise on MSC and never had a problem before.  I wrote a letter (not an email) to Richard Sasso, President and CEO and received a letter from Customer Service that did not address all of my complaints.  This also was disappointing.  I guess MSC does not care about customer satisfaction.

[Beamafar]

I was wondering if and when there would be an account from this cruise.

 

We were booked to sail this itinerary when it was reported on here that it would be chartered by the Holistic Holidays at Sea program.  I had read very negative reports from those on the chartered sailing of Feb 2018 and, for that reason, I cancelled our booking.  In fact, MSC was prepared to cruise move us (usually we lose our deposit here if we cancel).  We forfeited the deposit anyway as there wasn't anything of interest for us within the restricted terms that were offered.

[lorac6]

I wish I would have seen that post before I booked.  Worst cruise I was ever on. I thought I should have been told about the group being on but customer service said no.  I thought it was my right to know.   They already booked for February 2020.  Why does MSC give this group or any group rights over the other passengers.

[sfaaa]

21 minutes ago, lorac6 said:

  Why does MSC give this group or any group rights over the other passengers.

Simple. 2,000 bookings vs. your single reservation. You can do the math.

[PTC DAWG]

Ok, I’ll ask...who was the “group”? 

[Beamafar]

Vegans.

[Magnelasagne]

53 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Vegans.

I can’t imagine the horrors of being stuck on a cruise full of holistic vegans😂 

my deepest sympathy to those who had to experience that! 

[lorac6]

2 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Simple. 2,000 bookings vs. your single reservation. You can do the math.

 Yes, but there were more than 2,000 other passengers who were not happy and will never book again.  Also, some of the vegans were not happy the situation either.

[lorac6]

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

Ok, I’ll ask...who was the “group”? 

Holistic at Sea.  Extreme vegans who claim the diet can cure cancer.  They are booked again for February 2020.

[XLVIII]

8 minutes ago, lorac6 said:

Holistic at Sea.  Extreme vegans who claim the diet can cure cancer.  They are booked again for February 2020.

 

Thanks for the warning!

[PTC DAWG]

2 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Vegans.

Probably  the one group I couldn’t handle...

[alanyaboy]

I have just read this post, and had a panic attack as we are booked on this cruise for 2020.  So I Googled this group and have found that their cruise for 2020 is February 21-28.  Panic over we are on board 7-18 Feb'20. If you want to read about this group, here is the link: http://holisticholidayatsea.com/2020-vegan-cruise/.  BUT BE AWARE GOOGLE REPORT THIS WEBSITE AS "NOT SECURE". But I was able to surf through it without problems.