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Qvc Chartered Msc Opera 1/7/07 To 1/14/07

Pennacruiser

By Pennacruiser,
in MSC Cruises

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Pennacruiser

Pennacruiser

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hi, Jerry and Jean from Tn. we're driving and almost there,can't wait. can we come to meet all by the pool ? we're on Traviata deck by one of the elevators. looking forward to meeting everyone.

 

Yes, by all means! Guess this'll be my last post. Leaving tomorrow.

 

My friend and her husband that was to be staying in Cabin 10152 is not going now. She cancelled out yesterday. Her husband hurt his back yesterday and is laying flat on his back and can't move even with meds. Also her mom who is 88 is in a nursing home became ill and Joyce can't leave her. She is extremely upset! I can't imagine planning for this all these months and 2 days before you are supposed to leave has to cancel. I feel so bad for her.

 

Hope everyone has a safe trip and see you guys on Sunday!

 

Barb

 

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madhouseinc

madhouseinc

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I'm thinking that yes, we WILL come home with "goodies." I went to QVC in June for 20th b'day Open House (I'll tell ya'll about it on the ship!)... and I had to actually ship a box full of stuff home. We got like 2 big bags full of stuff. there was no way I was getting it home otherwise.

I'm also thinking that more vendors may go on the cruise. I see Joan Rivers has a show today I believe so that would be easy for her to arrange for the cruise on Sunday. I met Joan R. in June along with Tova, who is a very elegant lady. I could see Tova and Ernest going. I was disappointed that only 2 hosts are on the cruise (that we know about!) but someone has to stay and work I guess. this is all speculation on my part... but with the QVC "surprises" I think we will all be happy campers when the week is over. :D

 

I have just taken some stuff out of my large suitcase to "make room" I thought my clothes were shifting a bit so I took a garment bag and filled it somewhat with the "pop corn" from one of my numerous QVC boxes:o , now it is nice and snug but not bulging.... The day is going much too slow for me!

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Surfgirl

Surfgirl

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I just wanted to wish everyone a bon voyage! I almost signed up for the trip, but didn't.... so I'll be anxious to hear all about what I missed when you return. I'm sure you'll have a GREAT time! QVC puts on first class events.

 

I'll be thinking about y'all!

 

Have a great time!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
HappyBNoutatC

HappyBNoutatC

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Is anyone going to write a mini-review of this cruise.?

 

I for one, would like to know how the Opera is. The ship, the crew, the food, the service, QVC and did you all get lots of goodies? and most of all, I would like to know if you all met Henry? He was such a nice man to talk to o the phone. Unfortunately I waited too long to make a reservation with him and when I finally decided to go, it was too late. No more cabins!

 

Please can someone answer.

 

Many Thanks.

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HappyBNoutatC

HappyBNoutatC

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Is anyone going to write a mini-review of this cruise.?

 

I for one, would like to know how the Opera is. The ship, the crew, the food, the service, QVC and did you all get lots of goodies? and most of all, I would like to know if you all met Henry? He was such a nice man to talk to o the phone. Unfortunately I waited too long to make a reservation with him and when I finally decided to go, it was too late. No more cabins!

 

Please can someone answer.

 

Many Thanks.

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HappyBNoutatC

HappyBNoutatC

Posted
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Is anyone going to write a mini-review of this cruise.?

 

I for one, would like to know how the Opera is. The ship, the crew, the food, the service, QVC and did you all get lots of goodies? and most of all, I would like to know if you all met Henry? He was such a nice man to talk to o the phone. Unfortunately I waited too long to make a reservation with him and when I finally decided to go, it was too late. No more cabins!

 

Please can someone answer.

 

Many Thanks.

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Quiltingbluecat

Quiltingbluecat

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Madhouseinc wrote a good review here (scroll down and you will find it). My mini review is: my daughter and I had a great time! Met some fun and fascinating people and enjoyed everything. The ship was lovely and spotless. The food was mixed -- some delish and some not -- but with so much to choose from at every meal I sure got plenty to eat. The activities were loads of fun as were the parties. QVC was very generous and had tons of raffles and give aways and each night we found a little present on our beds. Pat and Bob were warm and charming. The ports of call were delightful to explore. The weather was as God grants us -- mostly warm and lovely days and one day of drama on the seas with rough water. I was in awe of the vastness of the ocean and spent hours just looking at the sea. Disembarkation was a pain because of delays caused by Customs -- but I would rather have the extra security than not. Having read and researched through this forum really helped me prepare and know what to expect. I will definitely sail on MSC Opera again if I get the chance.

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Pennacruiser

Pennacruiser

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I had two different posts from two different sites, one was this site, but a different thread, but I will combine them both to make one review. The first day of the cruise and last day though were complete nightmares to say the least. We came in the day before and stayed at the Sterling Suites, but is now called the Springhill Suites and only paid $89 a night before taxes. I highly recommend this hotel, just renovated and very beautiful. The rooms were by far excellent and we were sorry we only stayed the one night. They drove us to Port Everglades and we were the first drop off before they went on to drop everyone else off at the next ship, but I forget which cruise line that was. They gave us all our luggage but one very important bag. My fault though, I should of counted the luggage but everything was so hectic. The small bag had EVERYTHING in it. Our cruise tickets, passports, all my jewelry, airline info, all our medications for the week and the list goes on and on. I didn't notice it was missing until about a half hour AFTER they left. Needless to say I was frantic. When I get very upset I end up having a nose bleed, and there I was having a nose bleed all over the place. My husband went looking for it, but you can only imagine looking for that small bag among THOUSANDS of bags. About an hour later he came back with our bag in hand. He went out on the dock where they loaded the luggage on the other ship. It happened to be on the very top of one of the bins. The police were called and they almost took him away, but finally believed him and let him go. I was so happy to see him with that bag I cried with joy, which I had never done before in my life.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation was a nightmare, pure and simple, and there was no excuse for that. The hotel dropped us off at 11 am. Luckily we found a large room with chairs where we sat for hours waiting to board. At one point they closed that room and wouldn't let anyone else enter. There were hundreds of people waiting outside in the heat, no place to sit, and there were many, many elderly people. A lot of people looked as if they were getting physically sick out there waiting. The last hour they finally brought out water and juice for people to drink. We finally boarded about 3pm. For some people, that was just a sample for what was ahead for them.

 

 

I came with Iced Tea and Soda because I already knew what was in store about the drink situation on board the Opera. I also knew about their Italian food that they served. We ate in the dining room every evening and I LOVED the food. I am Italian, so I was very familiar with much of their food, and I love to try new things, which I most definitely did. They offered many courses. With each course you had a choice of three. First came an appetizer (a choice of three), then their was soup. The first two choices was usually an American type of soup, which was lacking in substance. Mostly a bouillon with a few strands of noodles or a few vegetables, laughable really. The third choice was always a cold soup, that consisted of something sweet, like a melon, or some fruit. I always chose the cold soup, which I always found delicious. Then there was some type of pasta dish served, again a choice. After that a salad was served, then the main course which you had a choice of either a seafood dish, beef or a poultry dish. Then a desert was offered. If you didn't want anything on the main menu, you always had the option to choose three other dishes that were always available every night. I really didn't pay attention to what that was, but I do remember spaghetti was on that menu. Our waiter had a definite attitude problem. He obviously did not like us. We requested iced tea with ice and lemon at dinner. By the fourth evening, we found it at our table from then on, but he seemed very displeased with us about this for some reason. We had a table for four, which just consisted of us, but I would of loved to of been at a larger table to meet other people.

 

The grill on deck 11 was horrible, but on the other side they served pizza and that was very good. They also had a pasta station there near the pizza that was delicious. Unfortunately, I kept missing it because I got there too late, so I was stuck with the pizza. The buffet was just OK, nothing to rave about. Breakfast was the same at the buffet, only OK, but they did make pancakes and omelets at the grill that was pretty good. I never did eat in the restaurants for breakfast and lunches.

 

 

As far as the ship goes, it was always immaculate. The crew was always cleaning and I was very impressed with how spotless everything was, including our cabin. We always had fresh towels and they always seemed to know when we left our cabin, because whenever we returned the bed was always made and the bathroom was always cleaned and the first sheet on the toilet paper was always folded into a triangle. I read what others said about the beds, but our bed was very comfortable, not hard at all. We always slept great on board and my husband usually gets up a few times a night, but didn't here. The girl that took care of our room was ALWAYS very friendly. We loved having a balcony and my favorite thing on TV was the ships channel. It always told us where we were on our cruise, how far we had to go and how far we had already traveled. We always ordered coffee from room service and was always fresh and delicious. In the morning, they always sent up fresh rolls and butter with the coffee and we never even requested it. There was always plenty of deck chairs by the pool and they always put towels on the chairs. The cruise staff that worked in the pool area were always very friendly and they were always playing some type of game or having some type of dance lessons, which everyone seemed to enjoy. They even went out of their way to pull my son up to participate, which he loved. He ended up having a crush on one of the girls, Danielle. She was very sweet to him.

 

There was no store on the ship that sold sundries and such. If someone were to forget something for the cruise like toothpaste or suntan lotion, or anything of that nature, there was no place to purchase such things on this ship. The stores were very exclusive and quite expensive. The clerks in the stores were very rude especially the store across from the excursion desk. This women did nothing to help you. She was quite obnoxious to say the least. There was also a lounge that we went into to order coffee with cream. The waitress came out with coffee with whipped cream! I told her cream and she looked at me as if I had three heads. She argued with me saying that was cream. We told her we didn't want that coffee, she took the coffee back and came back with the SAME COFFEE, only she stirred the whipped cream into it and handed it back to us. WE JUST LEFT! It wasn't worth arguing with her about it. There was obviously a language problem on board, but again, I already knew that before time after reading the posts about this ship.

 

One night at dinner my girlfriend and I sat at the Captains table. Now, I always thought that it was a big deal to be seated at the captains table. Well, I guess for this ship, it's not that way at all. Truthfully, I would of preferred to be seated with my husband and son. There was no big deal made, no pictures, nothing. I thought at least the photographer would take our picture. Never happened.

 

As far as excursions go, we didn't have any problems that some of the others had. We did an excursion that included snorkeling which we loved, but we only wished we had more time for the snorkeling part. We also did an excursion which included driving 4 x 4 jeeps through the Dominican Republic. What a blast that was!

 

As far as what QVC gave out to everyone, I was very disappointed. Every evening after dinner you would find something on your bed, either a very small candle, or something gaudy from Joan Rivers collection (I personally don't like her items, soooooo ugly), or some other LITTLE trinket. Not what I expected at all as far as their "giveaways".

The last day was another day that I will always remember. Customs had us wait about 2 hours before they finally let us leave the ship. We were the first group to leave because we had early flights. Because of customs, there were a lot of people who missed their flights. My son was with us on this cruise and he is mentally disabled. When we originally made the reservations for this cruise, we were planning on leaving Timmy home, but I decided later he would love to go so we decided to take him with us. I had already made our plane reservations when this was decided, but friends of mine also decided at the same time to go on the cruise, so he was going to be flying home with them. We did manage to be all together on the flight to Ft. Lauderdale. Two days before the cruise, my friends husband hurt his back and could not move and was told to have complete bed rest for 5 days. So they missed the cruise. That left Timmy on the plane ALONE! I contacted the airlines and they said that I could escort him to the gate and my sister had permission to meet him at the gate when the plane landed. Now since customs delayed everyone from leaving the ship, by the time we arrived at the airport, Timmy's flight was scheduled to take off in 10 minutes. The lines for check in for his airlines was at least a 1 hour wait. I managed to grab someone and they checked him in right away. Luckily, Timmy's flight was delayed and we made it to his gate with 5 minutes to spare! Another disaster avoided!

It was nice to meet a few of the cc people on the ship. Got to meet Kristen and her mom Lynn. Everywhere we went it seems we were running into them. We had a lot of fun. We met James and his wife Marie who were very nice people. Also met Sue and her husband Ron along with her in-laws and we always ran into Jeri and Peg. I really wanted to meet Linda and the rest of the gang we have been corresponding with all these months but it never happened.

 

QVC has a community forum that has been getting a lot of activity from fellow passengers this past week. There were a lot of unhappy cruisers, so unhappy that they even organized a meeting on the ship the Saturday before we left. One of the big issues was that this cruise was supposed to of been sold out, but in the end people ended up booking this cruise thru their ta anywhere from $99 to $200 for the whole week. This didn't go over too well. We spent a lot of money to go on this cruise so when I heard about people paying only $200 for this cruise I could of died. I couldn't understand that, especially since it advertised as being sold out. All in all, we did have a good time but it was definitely not worth what we paid. I think next time I will probably do an all inclusive to one of the islands. At least with an all inclusive, there would be all the time in the world to snorkel, which we loved, and more time to do other things on the islands, which you don't have the opportunity to do on a cruise.

 

Barb

 

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HappyBNoutatC

HappyBNoutatC

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Barb- Thanks for taking the time for this review and all I can say is "WOW" :confused:

 

I had been told in the past that the Italians do things quite differently on a ship. Reading your review, confirmed it.

 

I am so used to Carnival and RCCL, I doubt it if I can handle the lack of choices in the food department and definitely could not tolerate rudeness from an employee, at that.

 

I am glad for you that your husband found "the missing bag" and can only imagine what he had to go through. Poor baby.

 

The em- & de- barkation sounds awful. I know everone in whatever ship they take, does have to wait a bit but this sounds like a nightmare.

 

I also can't believe the good price this cruise was sold for at the end. $99 to $200?.....did anyone talk to Henry about this? I certainly would have have liked it either. As I mentioned in my last E mail, I wanted to go and waited too long and then when I did decide to go, I was told it was sold out. Maybe they did me a favor......lol...just teasing.

 

Well....now you are home and can forget all about it, except the wonderful snorkling that you and your family discovered. The Bahamas is not that far away and neither is Key West, there is wonderful snorkling at these places.

 

Again...thanks for this review.

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Pennacruiser

Pennacruiser

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Barb- Thanks for taking the time for this review and all I can say is "WOW" :confused:

 

I had been told in the past that the Italians do things quite differently on a ship. Reading your review, confirmed it.

 

I am so used to Carnival and RCCL, I doubt it if I can handle the lack of choices in the food department and definitely could not tolerate rudeness from an employee, at that.

 

I am glad for you that your husband found "the missing bag" and can only imagine what he had to go through. Poor baby.

 

The em- & de- barkation sounds awful. I know everone in whatever ship they take, does have to wait a bit but this sounds like a nightmare.

 

I also can't believe the good price this cruise was sold for at the end. $99 to $200?.....did anyone talk to Henry about this? I certainly would have have liked it either. As I mentioned in my last E mail, I wanted to go and waited too long and then when I did decide to go, I was told it was sold out. Maybe they did me a favor......lol...just teasing.

 

Well....now you are home and can forget all about it, except the wonderful snorkling that you and your family discovered. The Bahamas is not that far away and neither is Key West, there is wonderful snorkling at these places.

 

Again...thanks for this review.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip. My sister also says the Caymen Islands is also great for snorkeling. I'm broke now, but my next vacation will definately be one of these places. I WILL do some snorkling AND it will be an all inclusive.

 

You can find the QVC forum by going to the QVC homepage, at www.QVC.com then go to the bottom and you will find:

 

hp_email_icon_0712_v2.gifE-mail Sign-upCareers| Community Forum| Corporate| Customer Service| Meet the Hosts| Press Room| Site Map

 

 

The Community Forum is the second option. After you go there you can search Cruise and you will see all the cruise threads, or go to "The QVC We Love" and you'll see the threads there. Happy reading. It really tends to get carried away, but really funny reading.

 

Barb

 

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Pennacruiser

Pennacruiser

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I have found the QVC forum cruise threads to range from funny to really mean-spirited. And the amount of misinformation just astonishes me! The Cruise Critics forum is a much better place to learn about the MSC Opera. The QVC forum is better if your TV is broken and you miss the soaps.

 

Linda, you are so right! I feel like I am reading a script from a soap opera. Some people have been very ugly about the cruise, but I find myself there reading about what they have to say anyway. It's been very entertaining to say the least.

 

Barb

 

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dsuem

dsuem

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hi all, I read the QVC forum threads and I am like "what the H" Oh well, I had a great time on the cruise, granted there where a few rough spots to mention, BUT I have never been on a vacation that was perfect anyway!!!! I meet so many nice people and will cherish those meetings forever, Seems like some people where comparing it to other cruise lines and just needed something to gripe about to me, OH WELL, all in all, I had a great time. Putting the ship, the crew and the service aside, The friendships I made out weigh's all of that by far!!!! Penna, tell Pat I miss her already!!!!! Sue

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Pennacruiser

Pennacruiser

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hi all, I read the QVC forum threads and I am like "what the H" Oh well, I had a great time on the cruise, granted there where a few rough spots to mention, BUT I have never been on a vacation that was perfect anyway!!!! I meet so many nice people and will cherish those meetings forever, Seems like some people where comparing it to other cruise lines and just needed something to gripe about to me, OH WELL, all in all, I had a great time. Putting the ship, the crew and the service aside, The friendships I made out weigh's all of that by far!!!! Penna, tell Pat I miss her already!!!!! Sue

 

I'll let her know Sue. She's a character isn't she? I have to email you a picture of you at the Mardi Grau (sp?). Funny picture!

 

Barb

 

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HappyBNoutatC

HappyBNoutatC

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Welcome back to all of you cruisers. From reading all the forums, sounds like some had fun and some had not. :rolleyes:

 

I have a question that is not associated with the MSC cruise you just took.

 

I am getting ready to go on a Carnival (:) ) cruise on Feb. 3rd and have a question regarding the packiging of small liquid products that we are allowed to bring. I believe they are not to exceed 2 fluid Ozs. Correct? how many of these plastic bags can we pack?...reason I ask and being a woman, I cannot just bring one. I am packing today and have already filled one bag, with: small shampoo and conditioner, small night cream, toothpaste and floss, small lotion, small mouthwash, small hair spray, 2 vials of spray perfume, small mascara and lipstick.

 

I have not even packed my deodorant or sun lotion yet.

 

You see, I am not checking my bag in with the airlines and so it will be with me the whole time. Not packing a lot either. Yes, this is possible!

 

Any advice?.......can I bring two plastic bags filled with 2 oz fluid of wnatever?

 

Thanks in advance for your answer.

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