Is this the lowest priced MSC cruise ever? $20 a night (inc. gratuities)

[8420PR]

On the German website, MSC are selling the 6 night repositioning cruise from Port Canaveral to Fort-de-France on MSC Seaside for €40 plus gratuities (so €113 in total - approx. USD$119).

  

 

On the UK website it is GBP129, including gratuities (approx. USD$156):

 

 

 

The prices have been online for over 1 week, and widely publicized, so I don't think it is a mistake.   

 

In 2017 I booked two 7 day Southern Caribbean cruises on MSC Fantasia for €199 per week (plus gratuities), but have never seen anything this low cost.   The challenge for MSC in this area is that the flights sell out before the cruises, so you often see great last minute deals.   Flights are very expensive, but if you want to fly cheaply, use miles - Delta will sell an economy flight on Air France from Fort-de-France to most European cities for 35000 miles.   I also would consider Air Canada or American Airlines back to North America, but availability is a lot lower.

[Selion]

US site is at $229pp + grats + port taxes & fees.  MSC probably figures very few Europeans are going to fly to US for a repositioning cruising to the Antilles.  $$$$ for air fare.

 

[Essiesmom]

Costs more on the US site.  For Fantastica, Aurea and YC I see 105 cabins,  majority balcony.  Since Bella is only gty I can’t count cabins.  

Edited October 30, 2023 by Essiesmom

[Selion]

I stand corrected on the airfare.  And this is not in basic econ.  1 checked bag included.  Book the cruise!

 

 

For reference, our flights to Milan on similar dates (11/17 dep, 11/27 return) costs $1100 USD per person.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Selion

[8420PR]

Flights from US to Europe are typically much more expensive than flights from Europe to US - especially in shoulder season.   A return flight to Orlando from Frankfurt for the same dates costs a lot less than the flight to Orlando and back from FDF.  Hence the reason for the cheap cruise, compared to the typical 7 days from Miami or Orlando.

 

 

 

Don't feel bad about paying more for your flights or cruise - the US simply is a lot richer than Europe and a large part of the price (of flights, cruises etc) is based on how much people will pay.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

I did the Fort de France 7-nt cruise back in 2019 and it was a great cruise to see the southern Caribbean islands such as Trinidad, St. Vincent and Grenada that other cruises are unable to reach. But airfare was a problem. There just isn't much "lift" from the USA to the French Caribbean islands. We were lucky that Norwegian had a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Fort de France on the date of the sailing for the relatively cheap fare of $175ow. But the return flight one week later departed FDF too early in the morning to get to it off the cruise so we had to fly American to Miami for $373ow, a huge difference. So MSC has to offer really low cruise fares to temp people to spend big $$$/€€€ to get to it.

[insidecabin]

When MSC relocate ships because they embark multiple ports they have filler short cruises to cover the gaps which are often very cheap.

 

Eg. Euribia moved to northern cities for the winter the main embarkation are Southampton and Hamburg so there is a 2n Southampton to Hamburg and other combinations to reload the ship capacity on the first circuit.

 

Prices for these trips can vary between EU,UK,US.

Worth checking all three as the package offered are different. 

UK they promote premium beverage US it's WiFi with easy.

 

The other super cheap base(Inc grats and taxes) fare cruises are the relocation trips on Costa.

 

 

 

[goestes]

Has anyone tried to book on the German or UK website that lives in the U.S.?  It looks like it may not be possible when inputting address info.  The German site lists only two Residence areas to choose from.  Thanks!

[8420PR]

As noted, MSC restrict the entries when booking to either UK or Germany/Austria.  You could use a travel agent based in the UK or Germany to book these rates.  You would of course be constrained by the UK/German terms and conditions, and might end up sharing a table with people from these countries.

[Stockjock]

I probably win this one, but I couldn't take advantage of it...

Booked a 4 night cruise out of Barcelona (to Genoa, I think).  The price for a balcony cabin was somewhere around $320.

Without warning or notification, MSC changed the itinerary to a 20 night from Brazil to Germany.  Changed the date too.  Again, no notification whatsoever.  I happened to notice when I logged in (huh?).

Bottom line: We could have sailed on a 20 night cruise in a veranda room from Brazil to Europe for just over $300.  We were not kicked out of the room, nor was our reservation cancelled.  That said, neither me nor my GF could take that much time off from work, so we were forced to cancel the reservation.

[Morgsmom]

On 11/1/2023 at 6:34 PM, goestes said:

Has anyone tried to book on the German or UK website that lives in the U.S.?  It looks like it may not be possible when inputting address info.  The German site lists only two Residence areas to choose from.  Thanks!

No.  I've tried booking on the Italian website but get locked out as you can't change country of origin. I didn't want to risk showing up at the port and being denied.