OBSERVATIONS FROM THE POOP DECK SEASCAPE DEC- JAN 8 2023

[morpheusofthesea]

“Winter Storm Elliott intensified into a bomb cyclone near the Great Lakes, bringing high winds, snow and blizzard conditions from the Northern Plains to western and upstate New York. E lliott is also bringing significant Great Lakes lakeshore flooding, coastal flooding to parts of the Northeast seaboard, and dangerous travel impacts from a flash freeze to parts of the South and East.” (courtesy of The Weather Channel)

  With all this occurring at the present time, there are those on cruises finding time to post some aspect not to their liking. For those of us lucky enough ‘to get out of Dodge’ this holiday season and go on a cruise to the Caribbean, this is more than enough by itself. Of all the complaints that we have been reading, why don’t the complainers seek other alternatives provided on board. There are so many venues for dining, entertainment, and lounging.

  Many of these complaints are from ‘seasoned’ cruisers used to an environment that still has not come back to pre-covid times. Higher prices for untrained staff, perceived lower quality supply chain food, watered down beverages, exorbitant excursions, second rate performers. All valid complaints. Sometimes one just has to look oneself in the mirror and be grateful for being able to still climb on board a ship with a positive mental attitude and make oneself be happy.

[morpheusofthesea]

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

 But the ship is so delightful,

And since we have places to go,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The sun is slowly setting,

And my dear we’re not forgetting,

But as long as you love me so,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

When we finally kiss goodnight,

We’ll be miles away from the storm.

Promise you’ll hold me tight,

All the days of our cruise I’ll be warm.

The sun is slowly setting,

And my dear we’re not forgetting,

But as long as you love me so,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

 

P.S. Merry Christmas everyone !

Edited December 23, 2022 by morpheusofthesea
P.S.

[Fla Mike]

Beautiful reminder that we are very lucky to be able to cruise...

 

Thanks, and  Merry Christmas to you and your family!

 

[styles27]

@morpheusofthesea👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Couldn't have said it better! Sailing one week from tonight on Divina and we can’t wait to “get out of Dodge.”
I live in Rhode Island and right now we’re listening to strong howling wind gusts and praying our power stays on and our decorations don’t blow away (or worse a tree come down on our house)!
We were fortunate that it was almost 60 deg here today so we got all rain but temps are dropping to the single digits overnight and everything will ice over. 
 

I’ll take a cruise over this stuff any day of the week! 
 

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Hanukkah too!

[Georgia_Peaches]

Well said @morpheusofthesea!  Looking forward to your poop deck observations!  Merry Christmas!

 

[Match Game 72]

Looking forward to another entertaining review from you. Merry Christmas!

[morpheusofthesea]

Another thing to just keep in the back of all our minds. We, of the cruising community, are not 'out of the woods yet'. On Wednesday, Carnival reported "total debt stood at $34.55 billion, up from less than $12 billion at start of 2020. For context, Carnival Corporation made about $2.9 billion in profits in its last good year (2019)." "The company's portfolio of global cruise line brands includes Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard." Our favorite, MSC may soon be the world leader in cruise vacations. In the mean time it behooves all travel enthusiasts to consider travel insurance that covers this new situation.

  "Some of our travel protection plans may cover the financial default of a travel supplier under the trip cancellation or trip interruption benefits. This coverage may apply when a travel supplier – such as a tour operator, airline, or cruise line – included on our Covered Supplier List ceases all operations due to its financial condition, with or without filing for bankruptcy." Allianz

 At the present time both MSC and Carnival are on Allianz's covered supplier list, but noticeably absent is Virgin Voyages. When booking a cruise or air travel check the insurer's Covered Supplier List. One tends to buy insurance and later discovers that the part of the insurance needed is not covered.

[Newleno]

19 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

“Winter Storm Elliott intensified into a bomb cyclone near the Great Lakes, bringing high winds, snow and blizzard conditions from the Northern Plains to western and upstate New York. E lliott is also bringing significant Great Lakes lakeshore flooding, coastal flooding to parts of the Northeast seaboard, and dangerous travel impacts from a flash freeze to parts of the South and East.” (courtesy of The Weather Channel)

  With all this occurring at the present time, there are those on cruises finding time to post some aspect not to their liking. For those of us lucky enough ‘to get out of Dodge’ this holiday season and go on a cruise to the Caribbean, this is more than enough by itself. Of all the complaints that we have been reading, why don’t the complainers seek other alternatives provided on board. There are so many venues for dining, entertainment, and lounging.

  Many of these complaints are from ‘seasoned’ cruisers used to an environment that still has not come back to pre-covid times. Higher prices for untrained staff, perceived lower quality supply chain food, watered down beverages, exorbitant excursions, second rate performers. All valid complaints. Sometimes one just has to look oneself in the mirror and be grateful for being able to still climb on board a ship with a positive mental attitude and make oneself be happy.

Hmm  since you asked, as a seasoned cruiser my experience on MSC was like no other (three weeks before I was on a Princess cruise and they had their act together, no excuses due to "that" virus).

 

I expect to get what I pay for where with MSC their attitude was "good enough", Good enough that their information was consistently wrong which caused additional expenses and unneeded anxiety.  I would have never booked a cruise from Rome if I knew I had to pass   "that" virus test before embarkation. Ludicrous if I failed I would have been stuck in Rome.

 

I am still trying to figure out why they insisted I had to pay for an Egypt Visa even though the ship did not and was not ever scheduled to port in Egypt? 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Newleno

[morpheusofthesea]

5 hours ago, Newleno said:

 

I am still trying to figure out why they insisted I had to pay for an Egypt Visa even though the ship did not and was not ever scheduled to port in Egypt?

Totally bewildering. It took me all of two minutes to 'google' "Eqyptian Visa" and discovered that one does not have to pay the $25 fee until the actual arrival in the country at any bank kiosk in the arrival terminals before one gets to immigration. Totally bewildering. Were you 'singled out' for this special treatment? A baksheesh in the form of a coerced "Egyptian" visa ? Everything else seems like standard operating procedure with the testing. We cancelled a cruise with Viking Ocean Cruises when we read one had to spit into a container every morning to be tested for "that" virus. Felt that was excessive, than just one test within 72 hours of boarding.

 P.S. We even had to test again on Celebrity before the second cruise  during a B2B, our fingers crossed, otherwise we would have had to get off the ship and miss our  second week had either of us tested positive.

Edited December 24, 2022 by morpheusofthesea
P.S.

[Newleno]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Totally bewildering. It took me all of two minutes to 'google' "Eqyptian Visa" and discovered that one does not have to pay the $25 fee until the actual arrival in the country at any bank kiosk in the arrival terminals before one gets to immigration. Totally bewildering. Were you 'singled out' for this special treatment? A baksheesh in the form of a coerced "Egyptian" visa ? Everything else seems like standard operating procedure with the testing. 

Nope it was right in the ticket contract, you had to have the visa, then it was checked during embarkation and then 2 other times during the 8 day cruise that never was scheduled to port in Egypt.  This applied to all passengers.  Nope the testing was not standard operating procedure the MSC web page said no testing for Mediterranean or Red Sea cruises.  Then at embarkation surprise, 55 euro for test (I even checked web page before I walked to the ship)   All us passengers were protesting/complaining to management on board, the test was a complete surprise.  I would have never booked a cruise/flight and flown to Rome knowing I could be turned away.  Seasoned cruiser here: Disney, Celebrity, Holland, Carnival, NCL, Royal, Windstar, Princess.  MSC is a whole different animal.  What I mentioned was just the tip of the iceberg, guess I should probably do a mini review of my experience.

[morpheusofthesea]

28 minutes ago, Newleno said:

Nope it was right in the ticket contract, you had to have the visa, then it was checked during embarkation and then 2 other times during the 8 day cruise that never was scheduled to port in Egypt.

Bizarre.

[morpheusofthesea]

30 minutes ago, Newleno said:

I should probably do a mini review of my experience

Yes. Most interesting. Forewarned is forearmed.

[morpheusofthesea]

It appears that since the "Restart" we've been reading more and more gripes about cruising. Most of these gripes are coming from the cruisers with a lot of 'experience'. Not finding many from the 1st time novices. Suppose the 'old timers' are expecting that things  should  be back to how they once were. What we find most astonishing are the things we enjoy most about cruising have not changed very much at all. Otherwise we would be looking at other cruise lines. Our problem is getting on board and focusing on the daily program and trying to fit everything in. We want it all. And we find MSC provides more of it than others.

[parallax]

I agree with your sentiment.  Looking forward to getting on the Seascape tomorrow and enjoying the wonderful hospitality in the YC. The fact that there may be a hiccup or two is expected on a new ship.

[morpheusofthesea]

Got to Terminal C Port of Miami at our usual early time 9 am and there were no lines as the wind chill dissuaded everyone. YC porter had time to converse. He showed us the Seascape’s manifest a thick tome of names for this cruise. 5358 passengers, if they make it to the port. Terminal opened at 9:20 to allow the about 50 of us to shelter from the cold.

[Hlitner]

At least for Americans, if a travel provider goes bankrupt you should be able to easily get your money refunded by simply filing a dispute with your major credit card company (i.e. MC, Visa, AMEX).  We have actually had to do this several times going back to when Regency Cruise Lines went bankrupt, then with Renaissance Cruise Lines, and most recently (2 years ago) when Flybe (an English airline) went bankrupt.  In the industry this type of dispute is called a "chargeback" and is governed by Federal Law/Regulations and the credit card companies own rules.  The rules can be complex (the Master Card Chargeback Guide is over 400 pages long) but will generally protect the consumer. 

 

We have done these chargebacks with both AMEX and Visa with no major problems.  In one case, AMEX came back to us several months later (after refunding our money) and asked us to sign an authorization for AMEX to represent our interests in Regency's bankruptcy.  Never heard another word about that and always wondered if they recovered any money through the bankruptcy court proceedings.

 

Hank

[morpheusofthesea]

It appears many familiar names in the Yacht Club (can’t say faces as this is the first time we see faces). 329 in the YC. Chef Lisa is in the YC restaurant with mattress d’ Louis (pronounced with a Portuguese shush.)

 

 

[morpheusofthesea]

Decided to try out Le Cabaret Rouge tonight as the Chora (Madison)Theatre is at  later times.(will post daily planners). Sail away was at 6:30. Did not clear until nearly 1 pm. Butler blamed it on immigration at port. Lunch in YC was packed as no buffet at One Pool Deck was too cold and rain. Had to close all the bars on ship so guests would return to staterooms to watch muster video, dial 881, then report to muster stations to have key card scanned. YC stateroom key card over ride is hit or miss.

[no1talks]

Seems rather populous. 

Maximum passengers, per ships's specs, sits at 5877 and that means 91% of maximum on this cruise. YC suites total 131, so a 329 head count is rather brisk. YC's dining room, according to the specs, seats 180.

I hope YC is adequately staffed, in both quantity and quality.

[morpheusofthesea]

3 hours ago, no1talks said:

Seems rather populous. 

Maximum passengers, per ships's specs, sits at 5877 and that means 91% of maximum on this cruise. YC suites total 131, so a 329 head count is rather brisk. YC's dining room, according to the specs, seats 180.

I hope YC is adequately staffed, in both quantity and quality.

Yes. It appears fully booked. Attendance at the 10 pm show was standing room only in the Chora (Madison ) Theatre. Thought the show was alright. Just singing and dancing, no acrobatics. I judge one song in particular that the young lady excelled in by the applause she received from the audience for her rendition of "Over the Rainbow".

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by morpheusofthesea
can not upload photos or videos

[morpheusofthesea]

There is now a new format in Le Cabaret Rouge. Beginning at 8 pm is a continuous entertainment with a master of ceremonies who comes on stage sings a song and introduces another performer. This continues for 45 minutes with a 15 minute break, til the next set, until 12 pm when tonight the DJ hosts the Glow party in LCR.

  Also the Port Of Miami paid to have a DJ and a Jazz ensemble play in Terminal C while we all waited to board this morning. 

   Our weather forecast for tomorrow is 75 degrees with showers at Ocean Cay. We were told by our butler that a couple of days ago at Ocean Cay the weather was so cold no one got off the ship that day.

   I checked out the pergolas/ cabanas on the One Pool Deck and they all now have canvas tops/roofs that do not need to be toweled. And the port side doors on deck 20 onto the pool deck are push button and easy for wheelchair access in Yacht Club.

[no1talks]

22 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"...a continuous entertainment with a master of ceremonies who comes on stage sings a song and introduces another performer."

Wait... Cabaret? Master of ceremonies?

I do believe I've seen this before.

[morpheusofthesea]

4 hours ago, no1talks said:

Wait... Cabaret? Master of ceremonies?

I do believe I've seen this before.

Yes, now that you bring this to our attention. This gentleman's standard admonishment to us all was that this was not some funeral and "Cha Cha and take a drink".

[morpheusofthesea]

Just upgraded to streaming for 2 devices. Screen shot indicates that the total for 2 devices is $48 for each of us.

[morpheusofthesea]

Daily Planner.