What is MSC policy on price drops?

[tkwbear]

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

Hi, I wanted to let you know we’ve decided to use the cruise flex and postpone our cruise until the Fall. ☹️
 

It was a difficult decision and we struggled with it all weekend. We’re not worried that we’ll become ill, as we’ve both had the booster but the increasing case numbers are a little alarming. 

The main reason we decided to postpone is our daughter depends on me to help with getting our little grandson to and from school  (she’s in nursing school) and I’m worried that if Covid #’s on our sailing go above the cdc threshold to the next level (red) that we may not be able to disembark or get home in time. 
(Her clinical’s begin on Jan 18th so we need to be home for sure by then.)

 

I’m calling MSC this morning…hopefully I’ll get a competent rep and it will be a seamless transaction. 
 

Part of me is saying we’re being over cautious but I know I’d be stressing about it the entire cruise. Ugh! Hate Covid!

I am sorry to hear you are canceling, but it sounds like the right thing. Good luck with finding a competent rep.

 

After looking further into what I got from my call, I did get the $50 bonuses for each leg of the cruise. The other amounts were credited to my balance, which was $0, so now both show negative balances. The credit card doesn't show any credit, and I tried to book something online using that negative balance but it still wanted the credit card. So, I will call them in the next couple of days.

 

I'm concerned about precruise testing, as you can't find the Binax proctored tests now, so I have an appointment with one of those drive-through places. Not exactly a warm feeling, as they can shut down at any time.

 

I hope to see you on another cruise. Happy New Year!

[tkwbear]

I called MSC and got my negative balance converted to SBC for the first cruise. For the second, they had already submitted the balance to be refunded. Why they did it that way, I'll never know but I left it alone. Supposedly I will get that credit in 30-60 days, but I have heard MSC is pretty slow with refunds.

[styles27]

On 12/27/2021 at 9:53 AM, tkwbear said:

I am sorry to hear you are canceling, but it sounds like the right thing. Good luck with finding a competent rep.

 

After looking further into what I got from my call, I did get the $50 bonuses for each leg of the cruise. The other amounts were credited to my balance, which was $0, so now both show negative balances. The credit card doesn't show any credit, and I tried to book something online using that negative balance but it still wanted the credit card. So, I will call them in the next couple of days.

 

I'm concerned about precruise testing, as you can't find the Binax proctored tests now, so I have an appointment with one of those drive-through places. Not exactly a warm feeling, as they can shut down at any time.

 

I hope to see you on another cruise. Happy New Year!

Thank you. We feel good about our decision but disappointed that we’re all still dealing with this darn virus. 
Hopefully we will cross paths on another sailing I was looking forward to that!

 

The reps are certainly hit or miss coupled with MSC’s horrible IT problems makes for a recipe for disaster sometimes. 

 

 

I was fortunate to have a competent phone rep who was able to provide an almost seamless transaction. 
 

We decided to move our cruise to the 11/12/2022 Seashore sailing.

 

One very interesting thing that happened on the call was the staterooms I was seeing as available were totally different from what the agent was seeing on her screen. 
 

We both “refreshed” our screens multiple times with no luck.
Finally the agent, who had the patience of a saint, said “I have never worked for a company with such a screwed up computer system as this one”.   I’m thinking “NO really?” 😬

 

That wasn’t the only discrepancy, the prices on her end were much higher than the prices I was seeing at the exact same time.  🤦🏻‍♀️
 

So as it stands after an hour on the phone with her, I received the price I wanted but not the room I wanted.

I will call back and try to get it moved. (I didn’t have enough wine in the house today to deal with that I will try again tomorrow.) 😵‍💫

 

So to answer a couple of questions asked the other day on here…

1) When you use the cruise flex option you cannot use those funds towards an existing booking you may have a deposit on.
 You will have to choose another cruise  and your booking number will be the same as the postponed cruise. 
 

2) The OBC I received from the extra VC 15% off on my Jan booking did not follow me to the cruise in November.
I didn’t expect it to as that promotion was  only for some Summer 2021/winter 2022 sailings. 
 

I’ll watch their site  for VC voyages 15% + 5% off for Fall 2022 to be announced and have that adjusted on the November cruise if applicable. 
 

Also, I had pre purchased 4 bottles of wine for our stateroom and the agent said she couldn’t see that on her end 🙃.
I told her I had the vouchers and email confirmation from when I made the purchase on 12/11/21. 
While she was checking with her supervisor about what would happen with that I looked at my email and noticed I had an email from MSC stating that $96 would be returned to my card for the wine. 
 

The agent came back and I told her “thanks you fixed it, it’s being refunded” and she said “I’d love to take credit for that but I’m coming back on to tell you my supervisor doesn’t even know what will happen with pre purchased items”🤯

 

Alrighty then…🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

[tkwbear]

51 minutes ago, styles27 said:

Thank you. We feel good about our decision but disappointed that we’re all still dealing with this darn virus. 
Hopefully we will cross paths on another sailing I was looking forward to that!

 

The reps are certainly hit or miss coupled with MSC’s horrible IT problems makes for a recipe for disaster sometimes. 

 

 

I was fortunate to have a competent phone rep who was able to provide an almost seamless transaction. 
 

We decided to move our cruise to the 11/12/2022 Seashore sailing.

 

One very interesting thing that happened on the call was the staterooms I was seeing as available were totally different from what the agent was seeing on her screen. 
 

We both “refreshed” our screens multiple times with no luck.
Finally the agent, who had the patience of a saint, said “I have never worked for a company with such a screwed up computer system as this one”.   I’m thinking “NO really?” 😬

 

That wasn’t the only discrepancy, the prices on her end were much higher than the prices I was seeing at the exact same time.  🤦🏻‍♀️
 

So as it stands after an hour on the phone with her, I received the price I wanted but not the room I wanted.

I will call back and try to get it moved. (I didn’t have enough wine in the house today to deal with that I will try again tomorrow.) 😵‍💫

 

So to answer a couple of questions asked the other day on here…

1) When you use the cruise flex option you cannot use those funds towards an existing booking you may have a deposit on.
 You will have to choose another cruise  and your booking number will be the same as the postponed cruise. 
 

2) The OBC I received from the extra VC 15% off on my Jan booking did not follow me to the cruise in November.
I didn’t expect it to as that promotion was  only for some Summer 2021/winter 2022 sailings. 
 

I’ll watch their site  for VC voyages 15% + 5% off for Fall 2022 to be announced and have that adjusted on the November cruise if applicable. 
 

Also, I had pre purchased 4 bottles of wine for our stateroom and the agent said she couldn’t see that on her end 🙃.
I told her I had the vouchers and email confirmation from when I made the purchase on 12/11/21. 
While she was checking with her supervisor about what would happen with that I looked at my email and noticed I had an email from MSC stating that $96 would be returned to my card for the wine. 
 

The agent came back and I told her “thanks you fixed it, it’s being refunded” and she said “I’d love to take credit for that but I’m coming back on to tell you my supervisor doesn’t even know what will happen with pre purchased items”🤯

 

Alrighty then…🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

The calls with MSC are frustrating, but I can tell a big improvement over September and October. On my 2 recent calls I had an agent with a good attitude within 2 minutes of calling. The loud music I had to endure in the Fall didn't come into play, thankfully!

 

It sounds like you did very well getting moved, and hopefully you will get the room you want later. I am also jealous of the immediate refund of the wine package! Meanwhile I will wonder for months if my refund will be coming.

 

I am sad that Grand Cayman disappeared with a sea day as its replacement. I would be happy with an additional day at Ocean Cay but I doubt they would be interested in my suggestion. San Juan or any Virgin Island port would be okay too.

 

I will keep the offer of the drinks open. After this cruise I am interested in a transatlantic, something that MSC is not doing from the US, and I am sure not flying to South America to pick one up there.

 

I had no luck at all with cruise critic on my iphone using the ship's internet last time, so assuming I get on board okay, I will likely not be making any updates here, but if you have a FB account you are interested in sharing let me know.

 

 

[kruz]

Hi you guys! I just checked my Jan 23 sailing and a 300.00 price difference. I have been doing all of my MSC bookings direct with the cruise line...many TA's don't even want to deal with teh customer srviec or the many pricing levels which has turned out to be fine with me. I'm pretty sure direct bookings get a different customer service number. In all my calls for changes, etc I have only had to call back once to get an answer I was looking for. 

I will get on the phone tomorrow regaurding the future OBC and also will look into the double points!

At a diamond level do you think there is any reason to keep track of points? 

Thanks so much in advance!  

[tkwbear]

9 minutes ago, kruz said:

Hi you guys! I just checked my Jan 23 sailing and a 300.00 price difference. I have been doing all of my MSC bookings direct with the cruise line...many TA's don't even want to deal with teh customer srviec or the many pricing levels which has turned out to be fine with me. I'm pretty sure direct bookings get a different customer service number. In all my calls for changes, etc I have only had to call back once to get an answer I was looking for. 

I will get on the phone tomorrow regaurding the future OBC and also will look into the double points!

At a diamond level do you think there is any reason to keep track of points? 

Thanks so much in advance!  

I have also wondered about the points being worth anything once you are a diamond. If they are worth something, it's being kept secret.

 

I've noticed that the TA I used previously does not work with MSC.

[RetiredAuD]

Hi, everyone!  New to Cruise Critic myself, but my husband has been on it for several years. 

 

I found this thread very interesting.  We will (God willing) be on the MSC Seashore on the January 22, 2022 sailing.  It's our 4th with MSC but we have the Diamond status via their transfer of loyalty points program.  (The lion's share of our cruises have been on Princess.)  I am just hoping that our flight from LAX to MIA isn't canceled!  I want to see this beautiful new ship.  So far, the stops at St. Thomas USVI and Cayman Islands have dropped off the itinerary, but at least we have been to those ports in the past.  The fare hasn't changed since our booking day, but we'll get refunded port fees for the switch from Cayman Islands to a sea day.

 

When our March 2020 cruise didn't happen, the refund process was slow, but we ultimately got the full refund. I believe it took a couple of months, what with all the refunds they had to process at the time.  We didn't have the nerve to try the FCC process then.

[styles27]

12 hours ago, tkwbear said:

The calls with MSC are frustrating, but I can tell a big improvement over September and October. On my 2 recent calls I had an agent with a good attitude within 2 minutes of calling. The loud music I had to endure in the Fall didn't come into play, thankfully!

 

It sounds like you did very well getting moved, and hopefully you will get the room you want later. I am also jealous of the immediate refund of the wine package! Meanwhile I will wonder for months if my refund will be coming.

 

I am sad that Grand Cayman disappeared with a sea day as its replacement. I would be happy with an additional day at Ocean Cay but I doubt they would be interested in my suggestion. San Juan or any Virgin Island port would be okay too.

 

I will keep the offer of the drinks open. After this cruise I am interested in a transatlantic, something that MSC is not doing from the US, and I am sure not flying to South America to pick one up there.

 

I had no luck at all with cruise critic on my iphone using the ship's internet last time, so assuming I get on board okay, I will likely not be making any updates here, but if you have a FB account you are interested in sharing let me know.

 

 

Thank you! 
I just want to be sure you saw this letter posted on another thread. The passengers on board Seashore had this in their rooms this cruise. 
No Ocean Cay is a huge loss that was the best part of our Divina cruise last month. 

[tkwbear]

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

Thank you! 
I just want to be sure you saw this letter posted on another thread. The passengers on board Seashore had this in their rooms this cruise. 
No Ocean Cay is a huge loss that was the best part of our Divina cruise last month. 

That is terrible news, but thanks so much for sharing! I agree, Ocean Cay was by far the best part of my November cruise, especially the overnight stay. If the Bahamas is stopping the Seashore, they will likely stop them from visiting Nassau as well, so that's another port loss, though not a big one.

 

I'm going to have to give serious consideration to canceling my January 8th and 15th cruises. 😞

[styles27]

3 hours ago, tkwbear said:

That is terrible news, but thanks so much for sharing! I agree, Ocean Cay was by far the best part of my November cruise, especially the overnight stay. If the Bahamas is stopping the Seashore, they will likely stop them from visiting Nassau as well, so that's another port loss, though not a big one.

 

I'm going to have to give serious consideration to canceling my January 8th and 15th cruises. 😞

I’m thinking I should have waited to postpone. MSC will most likely offer a refund if this continues. Oh well I’ll have November to look forward to. 
 

We ended up changing our flights so now we’ll fly to Tampa and stay on Anna Maria island in a private house near the beach from the 4-15th Jan.
So even though it’s not a cruise at least we’ll be in warm weather for 10 days and if things get bad with the airlines we’ll drive home. 

If you can, maybe wait to use cruise flex to see if MSC makes you an offer for a refund. 

[styles27]

I thought you’d get a laugh out of this email I received today for my postponed Jan 8th cruise, they apparently still think we’re going  🙄

Edited December 29, 2021 by styles27

[tkwbear]

16 minutes ago, styles27 said:

I’m thinking I should have waited to postpone. MSC will most likely offer a refund if this continues. Oh well I’ll have November to look forward to. 
 

We ended up changing our flights so now we’ll fly to Tampa and stay on Anna Maria island in a private house near the beach from the 4-15th Jan.
So even though it’s not a cruise at least we’ll be in warm weather for 10 days and if things get bad with the airlines we’ll drive home. 

If you can, maybe wait to use cruise flex to see if MSC makes you an offer for a refund. 

I am going to decide next week. A friend on the Meriviglia says all is well there.

[tkwbear]

13 minutes ago, styles27 said:

I thought you’d get a laugh out of this email I received today for my postponed Jan 8th cruise, they apparently still think we’re going  🙄

I got this too. The specialty dinner options on Meraviglia were much nicer. I got 3 for $77 there. I booked early to get 2 for $80 on Seashore, but that has gone up to $99.

[styles27]

4 hours ago, tkwbear said:

I am going to decide next week. A friend on the Meriviglia says all is well there.

I noticed that about Meriviglia. It’s one of only 3 ships on the cdc chart that is still green. There are some others that are green but those are “crew only”. 
 

 

[tkwbear]

27 minutes ago, styles27 said:

I noticed that about Meriviglia. It’s one of only 3 ships on the cdc chart that is still green. There are some others that are green but those are “crew only”. 
 

 

She says it's pretty busy. I just looked at switching my reservation to 1/2 on the Meriviglia. It shows it's pretty full but is a good deal. 

 

The Holland America Zuiderdam did its first cruise of the year, and it's already on the yellow list. I personally dislike that class of ship. Sadly HAL got rid of my favorite ships and kept the ugly ones. They have also raised the prices over what they were pre-COVID. Very odd.

 

I hope you enjoy your time in the Tampa area!