Booking an MSC Cruise on an MSC website other than your home Site

[stuart2468]

In my endeavor to find the best price, i was wondering if there would be any issue with me booking a cruise, Direct with MSC, via one of their websites that is not my home domain. I'm in the UK, and so msccruises.co.uk is my logical go to. But if there's a better price on the Italian, or US or other country's site, would i be prevented from boarding?

[JamieLogical]

I know that at one point recently, I was doing a mock booking through the US site (or so I thought) and came up against an error saying something about how I needed to book through my correct region's website. So maybe some sort of geoblocking based on IP address? But I would think that even if you got far enough to put in your passenger info, you would run up against limitations when entering your home address or even just your Voyager's Club number.

[JamieLogical]

Just tried a mock booking through the UK site and when I got to the point where I would enter my passenger info, the dropdown for country of residence was locked to United Kingdom. It was greyed out and I could not select or change it.

[stuart2468]

Voyagers club number seems to be accepted no problem. But I also seem to come up against a locked country of residency. I'm just unsure how important that might be later down the line. 

 

Would love to hear if anyone has done this and successfully embarked. 

[mackfam]

I live in Canada but have booked through the US site using an online TA. 

[B_A_H]

I've done it but it's not without challenges and not for the feint of heart.  

 

You're bound by the terms of the country whose site you book on.  I'd suggest you read them carefully because the cancel policies are different and even with just a deposit applied you may find yourself responsible for more than that.

 

In addition, all support for your booking has to be done by calling that country's call center.  A booking made in one country can't even be viewed by agents in a different country.

 

If all goes well from booking to cruising it doesn't matter that you booked in another country.  If you have any issues getting them resolved will be costly, frustrating and a huge consumer of your time.

 

BTW, to book on another country's site you can only use an address in that country - it's hard coded.  So unless you coincidentally have a real address to use in that country the information you'd be entering would be intentionally false. 

Edited August 1, 2023 by B_A_H

[Mark_T]

18 hours ago, stuart2468 said:

I'm in the UK, and so msccruises.co.uk is my logical go to. But if there's a better price on the Italian, or US or other country's site, would i be prevented from boarding?

FWIW, when we were making our next reservation onboard Divina, the Cruise Consultant mentioned that the pricing and inclusions for UK and USA were usually cheaper than they offered to their home market in Italy...

 

I've not fact-checked that though...

[igorjrr]

I experienced it myself, I have addresses in two countries, and one was cheaper so I used that one to book. No issues as long as you are a resident of that country too. Specially for international cruises, it might have effect on your Visa requirements that they check (because it will show you are a resident of country X traveling to country Y). I doubt they care anything about price, it's more for documentation check.

[insidecabin]

UK booking US should be fine 

 

Our first MSC was US booking (status match was done in UK.

 

Sometimes the US is cheaper but they use different drinks package, include WiFi but don't include service.

 

You have to decide which fits best.

[stuart2468]

Thanks for the assistance everyone. Seems like the saving of a few pounds may not be worth the effort should things go wrong.

[perakcruiser]

On 8/2/2023 at 2:53 AM, stuart2468 said:

Would love to hear if anyone has done this and successfully embarked. 

Usually it is the other way, people book from MSC UK even they are not from UK. The fares include everything, the service charge, even water and coffee. Normally when you see cheaper prices on other MSC sites there are big disadvantages. And before Brexit thanks to EU laws the cruise lines were not allowed to restrict offers and bookings for certain countries. 

 

Now things are different and you probably don´t want to give up the consumer rights of your country. In case of a dispute you have to settle with MSC in the country you have booked. Which already means that no English will be included in any conversation if booked anywhere except US, UK, Ireland and Singapore 😄

[B_A_H]

Let me give you a current example.  I booked a YC cabin on the Seaside out of Civitavecchia for October on the MSC Italy site.  First up, a 60 euro insurance policy is mandatory.  The deposit was 25% on the Italy site and all but 100 euro is refundable even in YC if you cancel 90 days out.

 

I decided to take my MIL on a cruise in October on the Seaside out of Port Canaveral instead.  I called MSC Italy to cancel the Seaview and it was no problem at all.  Four weeks later I got a strange e-mail asking for my banking information to receive the refund.  They don't refund to credit cards.  Problem is they use IBAN in the EU vs. SWIFT in the U.S. and being in the U.S. I can't provide them IBAN information to receive a refund.  I'll end up having to book another cruise on the Italy site and have the refund I'm due applied to that.

 

When things go routinely booking via other countries is no problem.  Changes, revisions, and cancels are a problem and you're bound by the contract and terms of the country you're booking in. Caveat emptor.