MSC Seashore - 14 night cabin availability

[rdt123]

hi all

 

I'm hoping to take a 14nt cruise from Miami in Aug 22. The short version is that when i choose the 14 night itinerary on Aug 6 the cabin we want isn't available (1 bedroom grand suite SE3). However if i choose both 7 night cruises on the 6th and 13th it shows on both. This is true on the msc website and viva voyage

 

Firstly does anyone know why this happens? It was showing me this very same issue for a cruise i nearly booked for this year. Secondly is the only solution to book two 7 night cruises and if so will they make me get off??

 

thanks

Rob

[paulh84]

We ran into the same issue on Seashore for Feb 2022. Feb 5 and Feb 12 sailings are open in the cabin we want, but the 14 night booking is unavailable. Cabin availability is also strange. It goes from three YC1's to ten+ depending on the day. I have no prior MSC experience so I'm not sure how they handle this. Unrelated, but the same issue occurs on Princess when they combine 7 and 14 night cruises. 

 

For us two separate bookings may be best for flexibility purposes since there are so many unknown variables with this ship and sail date. 

[Até]

This is an often discussed quirk of MSC and it's near impossible to get them to make certain cabins available for the 14 day sailings.  Luckily you can often book the two seven day sailings for the same as, and often less than, the 14 day sailing.  One plus is that way you get double the Voyagers Club benefits, and if you book a promo rate that includes OBC you can double that too. 

 

On US based sailings you will have to temporarily leave the ship and go through an immigration check on day seven in Miami no matter which way you book.  You only need to take your passport and your luggage can stay on the ship.

Edited March 7, 2021 by Até

[rdt123]

Thanks both that's very helpful info. We are going to book the same cabin (11002) for both sailings. 

 

Rob

[rdt123]

i can book two 7 nights from miami on the seashore for around £9k in a one bed grand suite or two 7nts on the carnival vista from galveston in a family harbor suite for £6k. Prefer the ports on the msc cruise and flights from the uk a little easier to miami (though quite cheap to houston if i fly via amsterdam) kids are 9 and 4 - any thoughts from a family holiday perspective? 3k difference is tempting

 

Rob

[dexddd]

We've run into that several times for YC.  We had one booked as two seven days yet when fully booked MSC made it one reservation number anyway.  That was for all three rooms.

[Até]

3 hours ago, rdt123 said:

... kids are 9 and 4 - any thoughts from a family holiday perspective? 3k difference is tempting.

I think Carnival Family Harbor might have an edge over MSC Aurea regarding their benefits that typical kids might be interested in.  How important is the basic MSC Easy drinks package and having your own dining table?  £3k difference is a lot, I'm not sure the new Seashore will be worth 50% more.

[rdt123]

Thanks for all the advice. Well I booked the two MSc cruises. Strangely on my MSc page it shows the first as ‘booked’ but the second as ‘on option’. Does anyone know what that means ?

 

rob

[Até]

2 hours ago, rdt123 said:

Strangely on my MSc page it shows the first as ‘booked’ but the second as ‘on option’. Does anyone know what that means ?

"On option" means they haven't received a deposit yet and is like a courtesy hold.  You should receive an email  Booking Confirmation with a PDF document for each when the deposit is made.  As long as you receive those I wouldn't worry too much about how things are displayed on the website, it's well known for these types of glitches.

 

ETA: Sometimes it takes a day or two for new bookings to settle out in their system.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Até

[tallnthensome]

Wow, this issue was just experienced by myself as well. I haven't sailed MSC since 2018 and I booked a 14 day cruise a couple days ago for next August. Strangely enough there were only 3 inside cabins available this far out. If you booked each 7 day leg of the cruise independently there are lots of inside cabins available. We simply wanted to move to another inside cabins in the same class  that is available for both 7 day legs of the cruise but not the 14. Called customer service to help switch .....Nope. After a few year hiatus from MSC I'm now reminded how quirky and frustrating dealing with MSC is and was for the Seaside back then .... Just a head scratcher. 

[phissy]

We ended up booking 2- 7nt. B2B to get the cabin we wanted. Turns out we were able to get OBC amount for each week and will be able to get our speciality restaurant dinner each week. So, we just went with what worked for us.

[tallnthensome]

35 minutes ago, phissy said:

We ended up booking 2- 7nt. B2B to get the cabin we wanted. Turns out we were able to get OBC amount for each week and will be able to get our speciality restaurant dinner each week. So, we just went with what worked for us.

I looked at that option as well but it comes out around $500 for week to week bookings versus the 14 for the inside cabin. 

[dexddd]

10 hours ago, phissy said:

We ended up booking 2- 7nt. B2B to get the cabin we wanted. Turns out we were able to get OBC amount for each week and will be able to get our speciality restaurant dinner each week. So, we just went with what worked for us.

That is what we wanted to do too and it was cheaper and they didn't have room we wanted if we went the one, 14 day route.  However they combined the two seven days at the lower pricing into one reservation.  At the end of the day it now doesn't matter since we just had to cancel.