Longshot question about upgrade bids.

[no1talks]

Perhaps one or more of you have experience in this situation.

 

I'm looking at the Lesser Antilles itinerary of Virtuosa.

 

One can get half of the total itinerary as a 7-day cruise embarking from Guadeloupe or Martinique. You can also book two consecutive cruises to cover all the offered islands.

 

Or, you can book a 14-day cruise covering both portions. That version embarks from Barbados.

 

Here's the thing. Aurea suites and YC can only be reserved on the 7-day portions. On the 14-day Barbados version, those rooms are blacked-out as sold.

 

Of course, I could book the two 7-day portions b2b. However, air travel in and out of Barbados has more options and that makes the 14-day booking very appealing.

 

Have any of you cruised the full Barbados version and did you attempt an upgrade to Aurea or YC? Or, perhaps you were on a cruise elsewhere and the same black-out plan was used by MSC. My concern is the 7-day bookings out of Martinique and Guadeloupe will gobble up all of Virtuosa's premium cabins, leaving none for a Barbados-based upgrade bid. Thank you in advance for your responses.

[Até]

You can book the 14 day versions from both Martinique and Port a Prince.

 

The sailings from Barbados are very limited regarding YC and even some limits on Aurea availability.   The possibility of upgrading to YC on a Barbados sailing will be next to nil since those cabins will be offered to people sailing from the other two ports.

[no1talks]

6 hours ago, Até said:

You can book the 14 day versions from both Martinique and Port a Prince.

Perhaps from the MSC websites for other countries, but the US site is as I described. All Lesser Antilles cruises from Martinique (Fort-de-France) and Guadeloupe (Pointe-à-Pitre) are listed as 7-nights until the end of March 2025 when Virtuosa will be repositioned to Le Havre, France.

It is now a non-issue because we have decided to book a similar cruise on Queen Mary 2 in order to avoid the logistical hurdles MSC entails. We'll still be seeing six of the ten islands. If MSC still has their 14-day route on the books in a few years, when we have retired to Florida, we can cruise it then.

Plus, with Cunard, we'll have three enjoyable sea days leaving from and returning to New York.
 

[Até]

Sorry, mistyped on Pointe-a-Pitre in above post.

 

Yes, I see those 14 day itineraries are missing from the US website.  They're still available on European MSC sites.  I've no idea if they are just temporarily gone or if MSC no longer plans on offering those 14 day itineraries to North America.

 

I agree about the flight logistics from the US.  Barbados is usually most practical but MSC has always severely limited inventory from that embarkation port.

[no1talks]

2 hours ago, Até said:

"They're still available on European MSC sites."

 

Are Yacht Club and Aurea suites blacked-out as "sold" on those 14-day cruises, like the Barbados ones I mentioned earlier?

[DeeeDeee]

I've encountered the same issue on the 14 day Bermuda/Canada cruise I booked for April 28th. When you look at the two cruises individually, Yacht Club is bookable but is sold out on the 14 day. I have also put a bid in with the hopes that it will be accepted. There are still Yacht Club rooms available for both cruises. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Até]

On 4/3/2024 at 12:47 PM, no1talks said:

Are Yacht Club and Aurea suites blacked-out as "sold" on those 14-day cruises, like the Barbados ones I mentioned earlier?

There's YC cabins available for the 14 day cruises from Martinique, very limited numbers.   Now I can't find any 14 day round trip from Pointe-a-Pitre, just the 7 days. 

 

I don't see any ( 7 nor 14 day) itineraries with embarkation in Barbados on the Italian, German or French websites.