Mark_T

It would be courteous to speak to the Maître 'd in advance and let him know what time you all wish to dine each day, as a single table of that size just arriving without warning can impact on either your service or the service of others. Similarly you may not want to all dine at the same time on some nights so keeping the staff in the loop, if plans change, would help a lot.

Start from the default position, which is there is no need to tip everyone as you are already doing that through the daily service charge. Beyond that, MSC policy is not to tip individually, but of course we know that isn't going to stop people, especially on a cruise out of a US port, so we focus on those that go above and beyond, which narrows the field somewhat. As explained above, the envelopes are readily available, and although not expected you will not find anyone actively refusing a tip 🙂

Only seen it reported from one ship so far, so a 'trial' I'd say, rather than a fleet change...

It is true for everyone now though, the Covid extensions will be no help to anyone matching now. Also important to realize the cut-off is the date the cruise completes, not the date it starts, so a subsequent cruise must end within 3 years of the end of the previous cruise to maintain status.

Go read one or two of the excellent 'Live' threads from @JamieLogical then set your expectations accordingly. You don't have to pay for Yacht Club to get a good cruise on MSC.

The web updates are up to the usual standard, they added the 'MSC for Me' badge to the image of the Divina, but didn't add her to the text description further down the page.

It works fine, it didn't in June last year but it has been added since then, and was working fine in February when we were onboard...

Certainly lemon when we got them on Divina in Feb.

So Pepe has moved on elsewhere?

If it helps, I took this photo on Divina in February this year...

It isn't usually particularly noticeable, especially when the ports are all inside the Schengen zone, as there are practically no formalities around boarding or leaving the ship. When we disembarked in Sicily our Butler took our bags all the way to the taxi.

Yes, Elite on Princess or Zenith on Celebrity would both match to Diamond.

Same for us, I matched to Gold and my wife started at zero to preserve her match opportunity just in case we needed it in the future. Our recent Caribbean cruise added 4,900 for her taking her to Gold, and 6,800 points for me taking me well past the 10,000 for Diamond. I know that YC helps with the points as did booking the cruise onboard, but I still can't explain the points attributed to 'On-board shopping' for us both... Not a complaint, obviously 🙂

All of those will match to Gold on MSC. Explora has it's own 'Exclusive Welcome Match' program so although they do not directly use the MSC program they do offer incentives based on MSC status, and the other lines you mentioned. Do be aware that MSC only offer the match as a 'one-time' deal, and status only lasts for 3 years if you do not cruise so use it wisely...

No, that will match to Gold. Pinnacle would get you a match to Diamond on MSC