Booking with a Travel Agency vs MSC

[mscdivina2016]

15 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

@mscdivina2016Did they offer you a refund/cancellation?  If so, why didn't you accept it?

 No I was not offered a refund or the option to cancel.  I had to get an attorney who just a couple days before sailing arranged for a full refund.

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, Homosassa said:

The ship was chartered as a salsa cruise after he booked.

 

Notification was sent out and options for rebooking and refunds given. He refused all options and insisted on a cabin. He was given one as shown above (still wasn't happy).

 

All the information was slowly offered  in posts over several threads, including information offered by others on the same sailing.

 

By the way, how often does a cruise line get pushed to the point that a passenger is threatened with detention from law enforcement if they attempt to board the ship?

 

I am sure the moderator will remove my posts and his.

 

 

 

 

 You are correct about the notifications, but all those that got notifications were given options before I was booked on this sailing.

 The sailing originally was a 3 night and a 4 night sailing.  Those that booked either were given the option to stay on for the week at no additional charge or to cancel, so it became a 7 night cruise.

 I was booked on another sailing and when I called to upgrade my cabin from YCIS to YCDS and the rep told me about a great deal on this sailing and I took it, 3 weeks prior to sailing i think. The rep booked me a YCGS for the same cost I already paid.  Less than two weeks before sailing I printed my docs and discovered I was downgraded.

 No access to YC!   

 I wanted to go back onto the original sailing I booked now and was told since its less than 14 days I could not cancel or change ships,I would loose it all. Thats when I lost it.

 

  The cruise contract has a "change for operational reason" which they used one sided. It also calls for a full charter to let me cancel, pick another sailing with a cabin upgrade.  THey claimed it was not a full charter as I was allowed to sail on it.  There was a bunch of other legal stuff.

 

 

[1kaper]

On 4/22/2024 at 5:29 PM, rodndonna said:

We are looking at booking our first MSC cruise and am kinda surprised with the thread response being so resoundingly in support of TA booking over MSC, and in particular in case something goes wrong. I guess intuitively with other line bookings we always book direct as I feel like I have more control over the booking (no in-between) .

 

I guess my biggest concern is that maybe MSC is known to have more issues with bookings than other cruise lines. Is that the case? What kind of problems arise? I see one poster referring to being downgraded from YC, but wondering how common that is and what other kind of issues arise from the MSC side.

 

We're looking at a run-of-the mill Seascape 7 day Caribbean next March in a Premium Aqua cabin or YC inside cabin if that matters ....

It's not always on MSC's end. In my case I had a completely unexpected medical issue where I had to move a cruise.  Dealing with MSC was TORTURE.  From the hour wait (calling from Canada) every time I had to call.  And I had to call numerous times because there was an issue with the phone line and I got frequently disconnected.  Even though they asked for my number to phone back if we got disconnected, not one person called.  To the conflicting information I got on almost every call.  I eventually did get it changed.  

But on two other cruises, my friend I was cruising with had to deal with them for our reservation.  I can't remember the issue the first time. The second time she didn't get the discount price.  And when she got that fixed, it changed the room she had picked. It took a number of calls to sort it out and we never did get the original room.