MSC World Europa 21-28 January 2025 from Messina, Sicily

[Hilarion]

Am starting this new roll call. It’ll be my first MSC cruise. Am 70, from Miami and traveling solo. I decided to sign up for my first MSC experience as I have 16 days to fill between the arrival of my TA from Miami (NCL BLISS) in London on January 17th & my departure on the same ship back home to Miami on February 2nd. I’ll fill in the rest gap with 4 days each in Sicily before & after this great cruise.

 

Anyone with MSC experience? What should I expect? Any ideas for excursions at our ports? The ship excursions are great to get ideas from but I rarely buy ship excursions because their costs are abusively high. 
 

I look forward to meeting others on this ship. Any other solo cruisers?

 

Any suggestions on how to fill those days in Sicily? I do speak fluent Italian so no language barrier.
 

Hope we get a lot of roll call members to share recommendations & other useful information. The NCL Roll Calls are always very active.

[ASVPreis]

Hi Hilarion,

 

I'll be on a part of your itinerary - I'm onboard from 17th Jan until 24th Jan.

I've been on a few MSC cruises before, and I had some taste of NCL. There's definitely a difference between them, and if you're curious about anything in particular, I'll try my best to answer.

 

I don't have anything in particular planned for my trip. I'm taking it to relax after an intense college course, and am looking forward to just relaxing with a book somewhere on the ship.

In terms of excursions, there's a few interesting options and I'm sure you'll find something that interests you. 

Unfortunately, I know little about what to do in Sicily, but when I was looking at what to do in Messina, the hop on-hop off bus routes are looking interesting - there is one that goes around the city, and there is one that goes north towards a nice beach. Maybe that's something you'd be interested in.

 

[Hilarion]

On 6/29/2024 at 4:42 AM, ASVPreis said:

Hi Hilarion,

 

I'll be on a part of your itinerary - I'm onboard from 17th Jan until 24th Jan.

I've been on a few MSC cruises before, and I had some taste of NCL. There's definitely a difference between them, and if you're curious about anything in particular, I'll try my best to answer.

 

I don't have anything in particular planned for my trip. I'm taking it to relax after an intense college course, and am looking forward to just relaxing with a book somewhere on the ship.

In terms of excursions, there's a few interesting options and I'm sure you'll find something that interests you. 

Unfortunately, I know little about what to do in Sicily, but when I was looking at what to do in Messina, the hop on-hop off bus routes are looking interesting - there is one that goes around the city, and there is one that goes north towards a nice beach. Maybe that's something you'd be interested in.

 

Thank you for the recommendations. I’ll arrive in Messina that morning (from Catania) so the hop On hop off sounds like a good option for my half day in Messina. I’ll research to see if there is left luggage at Messina central station. 
 

the ship excursion prices are more reasonably priced than NCL’s. I explored booking with local tour companies but the comparable MSC excursion is better priced; I was surprised.

This’ll be my first MSC cruise; I mostly sail NCL because of their well-known attention to solo cruisers; often eliminating the single supplement, especially for TA’s. As this is my first MSC cruise, booked the Yacht Club. Once again, (the premium option on) MSC is better priced than the exorbitantly priced Haven class on NCL.