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Grandiosa March Italy Cruises and Coronavirus


HofstraJet
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I am booked on the March 9 sailing from Palermo with stops in Valletta, Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, and Rome. The ship seems to be doing the same circuit throughout March.

 

I'm concerned about the recent Coronavirus outbreak in Italy and how that might affect the entire cruise, the itinerary, and/or my return to the US after visiting a country where Coronavirus has been present.

 

Any ideas on how proactive MSC may be on this and what their threshold for cancellation might be?  Would they let me cancel with no penalty given the situation, whether for full credit or an outright refund?

 

Thanks!

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We're booked on the March 27  8 night Grandiosa out of Marseille. Like you, while I obviously don't want to contract the virus, my main concern is a lengthy quarantine or delay in returning to the US. There's just so much uncertainty. Balances for my private shore excursions start coming due this weekend. I need to decide whether to forge ahead or cut my losses now. Ugh. 😬

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So they will now be checking you every time you leave and join the ship

 

Rigorous pre-embarkation screening: 
 

 

  • MSC Cruises has conducted and continues to conduct pre-boarding screening by thermal cameras to exclude persons who may be at risk, and passengers with signs or symptoms of illness such as fever (≥38 C°/100.4 F°) or feverishness, chills, cough or difficulty breathing will be denied embarkation. The same rules apply to their travel companions and will also result in a denial of boarding;

    Keeping the ship free from infectious diseases:
  • Throughout the cruise, at ports of call, guests and crew embarking and disembarking will be frequently checked by thermal cameras for fever symptoms;
     
  • In addition, there has been and will continue to be an elevated deep-sanitation on every ship in our entire fleet. There is increased continuous disinfection of public areas especially frequently touched areas such as handrails, elevator buttons, door handles and reception desks, and people are reminded constantly to thoroughly hand-wash and use alcohol-based hand-sanitizers.

 

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1 hour ago, CelebrationFamily said:

I've successfully canceled all excursions for our March Grandiosa. Tour companies were great about issuing refunds.  Now time to make the call to MSC. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers. 😜

We are booked on the Grandiosa on March 26 from Barcelona.  Let me know what MSC tells you.   Thanks! 

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On 2/29/2020 at 6:54 PM, floridian1 said:

i booked with a big online cruise travel agency - i have to go thru them. i asked them to call and get my options. they will get back to me in 24-48 hours.horrible.

Especially since options may be changing on a day to day basis.  😞

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1 hour ago, aprilF said:

Especially since options may be changing on a day to day basis.  😞

They got back to me in an email. I can rebook a cruise within 12mos of this one at no penalty..just need to pay any differences. Sucks though is the cabin category i got cost more in future cruises.

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8 hours ago, floridian1 said:

They got back to me in an email. I can rebook a cruise within 12mos of this one at no penalty..just need to pay any differences. Sucks though is the cabin category i got cost more in future cruises.

Thanks for the info.  I'd be pretty happy with that deal right now.  Try to remember that right now the same category room costs more but we dont actually know what it will be in the future.  This whole event will probably depress pricing for awhile.  Is it Expedia and did you call the regular cruise help line or a special number? 

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On 2/26/2020 at 11:25 AM, HofstraJet said:

I am booked on the March 9 sailing from Palermo with stops in Valletta, Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, and Rome. The ship seems to be doing the same circuit throughout March.

 

I'm concerned about the recent Coronavirus outbreak in Italy and how that might affect the entire cruise, the itinerary, and/or my return to the US after visiting a country where Coronavirus has been present.

 

Any ideas on how proactive MSC may be on this and what their threshold for cancellation might be?  Would they let me cancel with no penalty given the situation, whether for full credit or an outright refund?

 

Thanks!

Keep us posted if you can as your cruise is one of the first scheduled  for departure  during  these uncertain times

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5 minutes ago, gailellen12 said:

Keep us posted if you can as your cruise is one of the first scheduled  for departure  during  these uncertain times

 

My TA said that MSC will give me a credit to use on any MSC cruise within the next 12 months. I should have 100% confirmation within the next few days they said.

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we are booked on the March 21st out of Genoa, I did a lot of looking when I booked this cruise as I wanted all the ports that are on the itinerary. looking to rebook at a later date, I find I can not get the same itinerary, nor the same ship, and a rebook will not allow me the same price I got for exactly what I wanted in the first place. I worry about reentry into the US, we are at a level 4 right now and that went up quickly, as of 4 days. So I will be calling to see about the options I have so I can make an informed decision. 

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2 minutes ago, HofstraJet said:

 

My TA said that MSC will give me a credit to use on any MSC cruise within the next 12 months. I should have 100% confirmation within the next few days they said.

Has your cruise been cancelled or have you made the choice not to go?

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So I never got through to MSC yesterday. I'm currently on hold with them...at minute 61. Here's an idea MSC...why not email all passengers with cruises scheduled in the next month or two and highlight our options. Wouldn't that be an easier process for customers, as well as MSC employees? Anyway, if I ever get an update, I'll come back to post. Continue to keep me in your thoughts! 😋

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And just like that, I got through...as others have reported, if I want to simply cancel, I lose 75% of my fare. If I want to reschedule, 100% of my fare will be applied to the new sail date. This can only be done by phone and the key is to ask for the "crisis queue" when you call. You must call by the night before your sailing and the new sail date must be within 1 year of the current sail date. Good luck to all! 🍀

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22 minutes ago, CelebrationFamily said:

And just like that, I got through...as others have reported, if I want to simply cancel, I lose 75% of my fare. If I want to reschedule, 100% of my fare will be applied to the new sail date. This can only be done by phone and the key is to ask for the "crisis queue" when you call. You must call by the night before your sailing and the new sail date must be within 1 year of the current sail date. Good luck to all! 🍀

Thank you so much for posting this.  Since the only deadline is the night before, I may wait until the week before to see how this pans out.  Our flights are into BCN.  I wonder if AA is waiving their change/cancel fees to Europe yet?

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1 hour ago, CelebrationFamily said:

So I never got through to MSC yesterday. I'm currently on hold with them...at minute 61. Here's an idea MSC...why not email all passengers with cruises scheduled in the next month or two and highlight our options. Wouldn't that be an easier process for customers, as well as MSC employees? Anyway, if I ever get an update, I'll come back to post. Continue to keep me in your thoughts! 😋


Agreed, but at the end of the day, MSC is a corporation and they want to make money. Why would they volunteer information to their passengers inviting them to cancel the cruise? For those concerned, they have provided a solution. But they are not going to publicize it and make it easy. Same reason you can sign up for everything online but usually have to call and cancel subscription services. 

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