Cuba.....uh, oh.

[thecruisers6]

6 minutes ago, Jellyfish21 said:

MSC didn’t officially notify me of cancelling Cuba until last thurs night , three days before the sale date?

MSC didn’t cancel Cuba - The US authorities snatched it away from everyone. Even non-US citizens. 

 

[EngIceDave]

It's why you get trip insurance for such unpredictable and long-term planned trips

 

If a storm was moving into Havana while on your cruise, your filet would have been ground up, yes?

 

Why did you choose MSC over CCL or RCCL?

Oh, let me guess, price

 

Can't be because it was an appealing barge

Edited June 9, 2019 by EngIceDave
typo

[BermudaBound2014]

6 hours ago, sidari said:

BB ... With regard to your last paragraph yes i do agree when it is the fault of MSC, Cuba was taken out of their hands by your administration, it is they with whom people should be seeking compensation!

 

My discussion is centered on how MSC reacted to the event. Not the event action (or who is at fault), rather how Cruise lines reacted to said event.

 

The facts point to MSC customers getting the shortest end of the stick in terms of compensation with Cuba closing.  It seems that when problems exist, MSC is often at the end of the line with their effort to 'make things right'. Those considering sailing MSC in the future would be wise to make a note. 

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Does anyone have the updated itinerary in their MSC website booking yet? Just curious as to if they will be able to add any shore excursions to the stops they used as replacements or will we need to check once onboard.

[emerald6273]

18 minutes ago, AerynSun_JohnCrighton said:

Does anyone have the updated itinerary in their MSC website booking yet? Just curious as to if they will be able to add any shore excursions to the stops they used as replacements or will we need to check once onboard.

Sailing next year and still no updated itinerary.

[sidari]

They are hardly going to be worried about next year just yet especially as they are dealing with there here and now. It might be that they remove Armonia early next year!

[sidari]

48 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

My discussion is centered on how MSC reacted to the event. Not the event action (or who is at fault), rather how Cruise lines reacted to said event.

 

The facts point to MSC customers getting the shortest end of the stick in terms of compensation with Cuba closing.  It seems that when problems exist, MSC is often at the end of the line with their effort to 'make things right'. Those considering sailing MSC in the future would be wise to make a note. 

So you want to pay bottom dollar for an MSC cruise but expect them to either match or pay more than the other lines because the US administration cause this holy mess! MSC will continue to fill their ships and no amount of you telling people not to book is going to change that.

[abbeytravelstheworld]

2 hours ago, EngIceDave said:

It's why you get trip insurance for such unpredictable and long-term planned trips

 

If a storm was moving into Havana while on your cruise, your filet would have been ground up, yes?

 

Why did you choose MSC over CCL or RCCL?

Oh, let me guess, price

 

Can't be because it was an appealing barge

You would be hard pressed to find travel insurance that covers you for acts of government such as this. We have a comprehensive travel insurance policy and I rang to be sure we could not claim and its a no so insurance won't help. 

 

I get the T&C, I work as a TA so I get it but it doesn't take the sting of disappointment away. We board Armonia next week and I don't feel a single bit excited for my vacation now. 

 

I must say I finally struck a helpful person on the phone with Msc last night. While I know I can't get a refund he actually said to me "I'm really sorry this happened and impacted your holiday plans, that must be really disappointing for you". I could have hugged the guy... I think all of us could use a bit of compassion on this and it was nice to have this acknowledged finally instead of having T&C shoved at us again and again. 

[BermudaBound2014]

6 hours ago, Mattnvick said:

Re my reference......MSC (I believe it was Divina)   took stock of the situation did a very quick trip into I believe Cozumel  got supplies, offered pax alternatives whether they wanted to stay or go and got the hell out of Dodge. 

 

You said please tell you how MSC did better than anyone else. Its not always about money or compensation as some people seem to think or need.

 

Sometimes its about actions good or bad. Sometimes MSC do better than others sometimes they don't. 

 

No one puts a gun to anyone's head to foce them to sail their cruise line. Its your choice. If you don't like what one does then you try another.

 

Of the small % that do sail them you will get those who enjoy the  refreshing change and their way of doing business  and you will get those that don't.

.

 

I don't believe Divina was anywhere near Galveston when the debacle happened with Harvey. I do remember very vividly how poorly RCL handled that incident and if I'm not mistaken, they are still involved in a class action litigation.  I don't remember MSC involved in any way and did a quick search but could find no reference to MSC offering aid from Cozumel.

 

I believe the time you are referencing is when MSC Divina offered aid after Hurricane Maria. Based on my memory, MSC did nothing particularly outstanding when compared to her competition (see link below). My tenet in this discussion is how MSC compares to the competition. It is not that MSC never offers compensation or good will. Cruise lines offer relief to islands

 

Again, I'm not suggesting that MSC always does wrong to it's customers. I am making the case that MSC , more often than not, is at the end of the line when cruise lines are handing out good will gestures. If you have references to substantiate otherwise, please provide (and I mean that very respectfully, because I appreciate being informed). 

 

 

[emerald6273]

8 minutes ago, sidari said:

They are hardly going to be worried about next year just yet especially as they are dealing with there here and now. It might be that they remove Armonia early next year!

I'll be travelling from Ireland and need to book flights soon. If they're going to remove the sailing I'd rather know sooner rather than later. I did receive MSC correspondence via my travel agent with the $400 OBC to stay with Armonia or change to different ship options. Given until 13th June to confirm preferred option. If MSC were considering removing Armonia I don't think they would have communicated those options to people on the 2020 sailings?

Edited June 9, 2019 by harv2015

[BermudaBound2014]

3 minutes ago, sidari said:

So you want to pay bottom dollar for an MSC cruise but expect them to either match or pay more than the other lines because the US administration cause this holy mess! MSC will continue to fill their ships and no amount of you telling people not to book is going to change that.

 

Not sure how you jumped to that conclusion. I believe MSC is a great budget cruise line. I encourage cruise critic members to understand that when you book a budget cruise line (regardless what you paid), you should expect less in terms of customer service. It's only fair. My rational is proven in this thread over and over. 

[sidari]

Harv ... I get where you are coming from and it can be galling having to wait for information especially when there is a need to book flights especially with the distances involved, we needed to book in January for Xmas this year but were unable to due to my other half being off work I'll and not being able to put in for the time off. Luckily in the last few weeks flights at the right price came up with Aer Lingus via Dublin.

[BermudaBound2014]

5 minutes ago, harv2015 said:

If MSC were considering removing Armonia I don't think they would have communicated those options to people on the 2020 sailings?

 

I would be very careful with this assumption. MSC changes things frequently.

[8420PR]

8 minutes ago, abbeytravelstheworld said:

 We board Armonia next week and I don't feel a single bit excited for my vacation now. 

I can understand this, but not sure what you expect MSC to do?   They have offered that you can cancel your cruise and use the credit towards a different cruise.  If you don't want to cancel, they are giving you $400 per cabin.   

 

I think the offer is reasonable, especially for something 100% outside the cruise lines control.  

[Sue sue sue]

On 6/8/2019 at 8:48 AM, mickey89 said:

It definitely appears that many of the American cruise lines value their customer base far more highly than MSC.

I was of the opinion that MSC were trying to break into the American Market - well their recent offer as a result of the cancellation of their Havana cruises gives a bad impression which I believe will come back and bite them hard.

 

I big, big MISTAKE.

I agree... we went on one of the first MSC Caribbean cruises, on the Poesia when they were first trying out the US market.

it turned into the best cruise we’d ever had.

MSC turned into our favorite cruise line after that, our first choice for many cruises.

We were booked for Cuba for 9/9/19, so we were still 4 days within cancellation time.

We immediately decided to cancel, as the only reason we booked was Cuba.... done the other ports too many times already.

We called MSC several times, and were told all Cuba reservations had been ‘locked’ and they weren’t taking cancellations right now!! 

As our non penalty time was running out, and by then we’d seen MSCs non refund policy  we were concerned we wouldn’t get our cancellation in time,  through no fault of our own.

The cruise was still showing as confirmed on our account.

After many more emails and calls, we finally spoke to somebody who was able to cancel it.

i guess my point is.... I know they’re not obliged normally to refund, but other cruise lines are offering a full refund, why is MSC only offering OBC and alternative same old boring ports ? They could do the same.

Because of this, MSC is a cruise line I won’t use anymore. 

And we’re flying to Cuba instead, for a week.

 

[emerald6273]

1 hour ago, sidari said:

Harv ... I get where you are coming from and it can be galling having to wait for information especially when there is a need to book flights especially with the distances involved, we needed to book in January for Xmas this year but were unable to due to my other half being off work I'll and not being able to put in for the time off. Luckily in the last few weeks flights at the right price came up with Aer Lingus via Dublin.

Yes Sidari as you know being based in Ireland there's a bit more planning around transatlantic flights. I think folk forget that who are based closer to Florida. Glad you got sorted for Aer Lingus Xmas flights. 

[abbeytravelstheworld]

That's great you will still get to go to Cuba. You had super lucky timing there! 

 

We leave next week so if we cancelled we would have lost the lot. 

 

I know lots of you are saying its a good thing we can transfer to another cruise if we wish but I'm already at $5000 of non refundable Air fares from New Zealand to Miami and there is nothing else available with Msc in our date range. 

 

I guess everyone's vacation has a different $$ value to each of us and for me nothing short of a refund would have made this right. They make it out like we have a choice here but for those of us with imminent departures and large airfares we really do not. 

[Sue sue sue]

57 minutes ago, abbeytravelstheworld said:

That's great you will still get to go to Cuba. You had super lucky timing there! 

 

We leave next week so if we cancelled we would have lost the lot. 

 

I know lots of you are saying its a good thing we can transfer to another cruise if we wish but I'm already at $5000 of non refundable Air fares from New Zealand to Miami and there is nothing else available with Msc in our date range. 

 

I guess everyone's vacation has a different $$ value to each of us and for me nothing short of a refund would have made this right. They make it out like we have a choice here but for those of us with imminent departures and large airfares we really do not. 

That’s why their policy sucks.....

youve paid all that money in flights, and still end up going on a cruise you don’t want to do.

At least with a refund, you might have found an alternative cruise.

This ‘take a lesser cruise or nothing’ ... is going to cost MSC a lot of future business, I think!

Yes, we were fortunate... made it by a few days.  If we hadn’t, I doubt we would have taken a 12 hours drive to Miami to go on a cruise to places we’ve been to too many times already. Would have cut our losses on that one, very grudgingly.

Cruising to Cuba would have been an easy option ( we did it last year on the RC Empress)

Flying In to Havana takes more organization, but we’re all

prepared now.... going next month... and we get to stay for a week.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by Sue sue sue
Typo

[Fredric22]

While I don't think MSC is being overly generous, I do think they are being reasonable considering the ship is only scheduled to be in Cuba for 1 day.  If the ONLY reason you went on this cruise was to see Cuba, and you didn't care about the other "boring" Caribbean ports then this may not have been the best cruise/itinerary choice available.  There were cruises scheduled on other lines that visited multiple Cuban ports.  Some 7 day cruises spent almost the entire time in Cuban ports.  Now, if I was on one of those cruises and then this happened, I would expect a refund because the cruise was truly a Cuban cruise.  In this case, it was a cruise to the Caribbean that included a stop in Cuba. 

 

Also, I do not agree that MSC is a "budget cruise line."  While they may have low fares in some categories, MSC is a mass market cruise line just like RCL, NCL, Carnival, Costa, etc.  

 

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by Fredric22

[EngIceDave]

Our Armonia cruise was two (2) days in Havana

 

Arrived about noon saturday, all on board at 3:30 sunday, sail at 4:00 (16:00)

[Sue sue sue]

We were going to be in Havana from 10am Saturday to 4pm Sunday....

hardly ‘1 day’.....more like 2. The other ports were incidental.

Still... now we’ll be in Havana for a whole week, and don’t have to do a 12 hour drive to the port.

Instead,, we drive to the airport and get on a flight to Havana. No problem.

[travelwide]

Where are you staying in Havana? We have visited there several times by ship but never thought we would have to look for a place to stay on land. We live in South Florida and are interested in doing a flight and staying several days.

[Sue sue sue]

 

28 minutes ago, travelwide said:

Where are you staying in Havana? We have visited there several times by ship but never thought we would have to look for a place to stay on land. We live in South Florida and are interested in doing a flight and staying several days.

We booked a casa particular on Airbnb....there are loads of good ones.

We have booked the same independent tour guide we used last time.

We just have to be careful to fulfil the requirements for Support the Cuban People.

We just have to something meaningful every day....laying on a beach is still a no-no, we’ve got lots of places we want to go, we plan to eat at Cuban restaurants, and plan to interact with the Cuban People a lot.

instead of buying a visa at the cruise port, we can buy it at the airport... cheaper, too!!

Edited June 10, 2019 by Sue sue sue

[travelwide]

Can you email us the name of the place you are staying at as well as the tour person you are going to be using. We would be most interested in doing this. Our email address is gagnon.james at yahoo dot com

 

We would really appreciate this! We are not Beach people as we live here in South Florida and have the beach all the time. When we go on vacation we enjoy interacting with the locals and seeing their environment. Not to forget eating their food and drinking their beer and mojitos!

[Até]

I have a US relative who spent a month in a Cuban prison when caught in Cuban waters before the relaxation of travel restrictions.  I'd ask him to elaborate but he won't talk about it much.