MSC vs NCL in Asia

[ceeceeDee]

Re meeting room stewards. On RCL Symphony I think it was either several hours after getting settled in our cabin or may have been the next morning. Conversely on all our P&O cruises, the stewards were actually in the corridor near our cabin and would greet us as we got to our cabin door on embarkation day.

On the last cruise on Encounter, we went looking for our friends, whose cabin was on another deck, once we had dropped our carry on in our own cabin. The stewards in our friends' corridor made a bee line for us to ask if they could assist us with finding our cabin. When we explained our mission, they showed us to our friends' door.

Edited November 20, 2023 by ceeceeDee

[mum and son]

I did a B2B on Majestic back before the spicy cough and I moved from a forward facing cabin for the first cruise, to an aft facing cabin on the second. The first room steward was amazing, always present and cabin always cleaned when we returned from breakfast - but on the second cruise I didn't even meet the room steward and some days wondered if he ever existed. The cabin was often unmade when I returned after hours away and I never saw a linen trolley in the hall.

 

It was so unusual that it has always stuck in my mind.

[Aus Traveller]

41 minutes ago, mum and son said:

I did a B2B on Majestic back before the spicy cough and I moved from a forward facing cabin for the first cruise, to an aft facing cabin on the second. The first room steward was amazing, always present and cabin always cleaned when we returned from breakfast - but on the second cruise I didn't even meet the room steward and some days wondered if he ever existed. The cabin was often unmade when I returned after hours away and I never saw a linen trolley in the hall.

 

It was so unusual that it has always stuck in my mind.

I noticed on one cruise that the steward who looked after the aft cabins had some cabins in each side of the ship. (Maybe I am being kind here) but maybe he was working on the other side of the ship when you didn't see his trolley in the passageway. But of course, that couldn't be all the time ......

[MMDown Under]

6 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I noticed on one cruise that the steward who looked after the aft cabins had some cabins in each side of the ship. (Maybe I am being kind here) but maybe he was working on the other side of the ship when you didn't see his trolley in the passageway. But of course, that couldn't be all the time ......

The best service we ever got was when we had a single inside cabin surrounded by expensive outside cabins. 

I never saw my steward on my last cruise, but it was always clean and tidy early.  He obviously knew I was an early riser, so he did my cabin early.

[mum and son]

13 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I noticed on one cruise that the steward who looked after the aft cabins had some cabins in each side of the ship. (Maybe I am being kind here) but maybe he was working on the other side of the ship when you didn't see his trolley in the passageway. But of course, that couldn't be all the time ......

I think you're being kind 😁, because our cabin was never made up either. I think maybe they were short-staffed? I don't know. It was strange though, because we were next door to the aft corner suite so usually you get a great steward in those locations.

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, mum and son said:

I think you're being kind 😁, because our cabin was never made up either. I think maybe they were short-staffed? I don't know. It was strange though, because we were next door to the aft corner suite so usually you get a great steward in those locations.

We had a great steward when we had an interior cabin next to the aft suites. The steward was so kind she used to give me extra of my favourite dark chocolates.

[Jean C]

We take the view that personality-wise not everyone is naturally friendly and outgoing, so don't worry too much if we don't see steward on the first day. That's no excuse though for cabins not being made up. We're also early risers and tidy people (we even make the bed, although steward re-makes it to a higher standard) and on all but last year's cruise our cabin has been done while we're at breakfast. We figured last year that the steward prioritised the mini suites. Our cabin was by a dogleg in the corridor so we didn't see his trolley and he probably didn't see us coming and going. We were the only occupied cabin in our section too, so he didn't hang around our section of corridor 🙂

Edited November 20, 2023 by Jean C

[arxcards]

For us, the perfect steward is one that we don't see, but can see where they have been. By that, they are not trying to clean our cabin at the same time we want to use it. We have had some awesome stewards. In the main, stewards know when you came and go. The good ones are like the shoemakers elves. That said, we have always had an intro with our steward between boarding & sailaway.

 

If we drew a line through every cruise line we had a charge discrepancy with, we would be just about landlocked. We have been erroneously charged for mini-bar a couple of times on P&O, but thankfully not on the last night. Turns out for both that the wrong cabin number had been charged. 

[MMDown Under]

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

For us, the perfect steward is one that we don't see, but can see where they have been. By that, they are not trying to clean our cabin at the same time we want to use it. We have had some awesome stewards. In the main, stewards know when you came and go. The good ones are like the shoemakers elves. That said, we have always had an intro with our steward between boarding & sailaway.

 

If we drew a line through every cruise line we had a charge discrepancy with, we would be just about landlocked. We have been erroneously charged for mini-bar a couple of times on P&O, but thankfully not on the last night. Turns out for both that the wrong cabin number had been charged. 

Both our extra charges were charged to our credit card after we had left.  

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Both our extra charges were charged to our credit card after we had left.  

Yes, we have had those erroneous charges too. One was apparently for a robe we had taken, which wasn't the case. We have also had the same with bodgy hotel charges for late mini bar or phone calls that were never made. I just had them charged back by our bank.

 

We have had dozens of others resolved via a chat at the pursers desk. All I can say is that medallion and plus makes for very few accounting errors compared to the old signed paper slips.

[Jean C]

11 hours ago, arxcards said:

All I can say is that medallion and plus makes for very few accounting errors compared to the old signed paper slips.

With respect, errors still occur so do watch out for them, last year even with medallions we had a drink charged to our account in error. No problem having it removed. Later we made a rare purchase of coffees and on picking up a statement from Guest Services later, the girl fiddled with the computer for ages - she'd presumed the coffees were there in error and had removed them before giving us the statement! At the time you couldn't view folio accounts from the cabin screen, that may have changed now.

 

Also on last year's cruise Princess no longer supplied account statements on the last night. They said accounts were still open for use right up until check out on disembarkation.  Still, I have no problem raising discrepancies with Princess, they've always corrected everything without fuss.

 

I've only written off NCL, so still have plenty of options 🙂

Edited November 20, 2023 by Jean C

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Jean C said:

With respect, errors still occur so do watch out for them, last year even with medallions we had a drink charged to our account in error. No problem having it removed. Later we made a rare purchase of coffees and on picking up a statement from Guest Services later, the girl fiddled with the computer for ages - she'd presumed the coffees were there in error and had removed them before giving us the statement! At the time you couldn't view folio accounts from the cabin screen, that may have changed now.

 

Also on last year's cruise Princess no longer supplied account statements on the last night. They said accounts were still open for use right up until check out on disembarkation.  Still, I have no problem raising discrepancies with Princess, they've always corrected everything without fuss.

 

I've only written off NCL, so still have plenty of options 🙂

I did mention medallion with the plus package. Most errors seem to come from bars, and if accidentally charged, they end up being zeroed by the package.

[ceeceeDee]

We tend to check our on board spending daily:

1) to check our OBC balance

2) to check for errors/discrepancies

 

We have been very fortunate in that there has never been an error so far. Checking daily means that we can easily recall what we have bought so any errors are easy to spot.

[NSWP]

One thing for sure, plenty spaget and garlic on MSC.

[lyndarra]

2 hours ago, NSWP said:

One thing for sure, plenty spaget and garlic on MSC.

I was disappointed with the MDR Italian pasta dishes on MSC. They tasted  somewhat bland except for one dished up a few times  in the Lido in a huge wok-like dish which was excellent.

[sayaguru]

On 11/21/2023 at 3:37 PM, lyndarra said:

I was disappointed with the MDR Italian pasta dishes on MSC. They tasted  somewhat bland except for one dished up a few times  in the Lido in a huge wok-like dish which was excellent.

We ordered the fish one night (second sitting). It came out almost raw and lukewarm. We called the waiter over. He said "yes, everyone is complaining about that!" Never again!!!