MSC Excursions

[rojoand8]

If you book an MSC excursion on line, do you have to pay for it right away, or can it go on your account so you can use your OBC?

[Captain-John]

You pay straight away. However, if you book onboard, the price is 20% higher.

 

We had some OBC on our most recent cruise and decided to book onboard to use up the OBC. As it happened, there were several issues in booking the tour and so they offered a 20% discount on the onboard price so I paid the same as if I had pre-booked.

Edited October 14, 2019 by Captain-John

[Beamafar]

If you're in Ireland it goes on your onboard account;  all others prepay.  😜

[Captain-John]

I knew MSC was inconsistent but I didn't think it stretched to this kind of thing!! How odd. I'll need to remember that. Thanks Bea.🙂

[omarchs]

They also don’t provide you with departure times for shorter tours which I have never seen on other mass-market lines. Makes it more difficult to plan your day in advance so that 20% pre-cruise discount isn’t necessarily free.

[Beamafar]

23 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

I knew MSC was inconsistent but I didn't think it stretched to this kind of thing!! How odd. I'll need to remember that. Thanks Bea.🙂

 

We can't book cruises online and there is no facility for accepting credit cards on the Ireland website so we can book drinks packages and excursions without paying in advance.  Makes it easier to collect points from onboard spend rather than the amounts being split between what's purchased before sailing and what's payable onboard.

[rojoand8]

Thank you everyone. I guess I’ll wait until I’m on board. Maybe by then I’ll be able to see the departure time. 

[Captain-John]

They definitely have the start and finish times to hand when onboard. But agree it's very difficult to plan in advance. One 'afternoon' tour wasn't leaving until 15:00 which for me is far too late. But, I suppose that's for people who want to couple one tour in the morning with another tour of somewhere else in the afternoon.

[irish cailin]

7 hours ago, Beamafar said:

If you're in Ireland it goes on your onboard account;  all others prepay.  😜

Beamafar,

 

Do you book with TA or direct with MSC?

[Beamafar]

I sometimes book with a TA (as I did for our Armonia cruise last January.  The TA had put a package together to include the cruise, flights and hotels pre and post cruise).  I also used a German online TA for our Seaview cruise Aug/Sept because I needed Civatvecchia to be the embarkation port and MSC wasn't offering it for Ireland at the time I wanted to book.

 

However, I much prefer to book direct and deal with MSC myself (and have done for this Friday's cruise, as well as a couple for next year).  If I have an issue, it's usually resolved much more quickly than waiting for the TA to sort it with MSC, then get back to me.