nielgirl

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Hi Everyone, I have a question about ordering food using the Princess App.

Can you order from the Salty Dog Grill by the pool using the Princess App and then go and pick it up when it is ready?

I'm looking to see if they offer the comparable service to Holland America where you can order from their App from the Dive-In Burger and then pick it up when it's ready.

2 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

HAL is my favorite line (well, next to Disney but nothing can really compare to a Disney cruise I think).   We have cruised most of the other lines that sail out of the US and HAL has great service, food, and all around dedication to the passenger.   As was said above, MSC is not that way.  Nor is Carnival, Royal Caribbean, etc.  but they are not supposed to be that way.  Their price reflects it.  Do you get the same service in a McDonalds that you get at a Ruth Chris steakhouse?  Of course not and no reasonable person would expect that so it is important to compare apples to apples.  You are trying to do that and it is admirable so I encourage you to keep the McDonalds vs. fancy restaurant comparison in mind and adjust expectations.  

 

After a number of cruises, I know what I like and want and understand how the process works.  For first time cruising, HAL is terrific because of all of their attention to customer service.  Now I do not need it so much so Carnival, MSC, etc. are fine choices because I prefer to save money.  If this is only your second cruise, you can still have a great time on a "fast food" cruise line by keeping expectations in line.  As others have said, you can still get the HAL experience if you go with Yacht Club but, honestly, I have never felt the extra cost was worth it to me.  

 

Your experience will also depend on what YOU want to get out of it.  Do you like the nightlife, parties and dancing?  That is probably better and wilder on the "fast food" lines.  Do you like fancy dinners and dressing up?  that is probably better in the HAL, Yacht Club and such lines.  Personally, my wife and I like relaxing, laying in the sun, sleeping late and do not care about gambling, drinking, partying, deck events and such so whether we are on a fancy line or a fast food line it makes little difference for our particular preferences.  Only you know what makes you happy so I encourage you to not to let someone tell you how great or bad any cruise was until you know if their expectations from a cruise are similar to yours.  

 

I hope it goes great for you!

 

My husband and I are pretty easily pleased. We aren't looking for the big party scene and entertainment nor the big dress up dinner fare. We get up early to make the most of the daylight hours and just like spending time by the pool and beach. 

We really loved our HAL cruise and Half Moon Cay but not a fan of the tendering part. We heard that the Carnival Corp intends to build a dock at Half Moon Cay so that will make HAL the perfect cruise line for us.

The draw for us to MSC was Ocean Cay and the docking instead of tendering and the itineraries where the ship stays two days there. That would allow my husband to get his beach fix and me get the cruise experience.

3 hours ago, Brighton Line said:

Please remember most content creators on  YouTube are looking for monetary compensation so they will lead with "shocking" pictures and comments. Yes, there are issues but when you watch a 12-minute clip about the worst cruise in my life what do you expect to see?

There is always some clickbait in the production of those videos. 

It's just like our media with the "if it bleeds it leads" way of thinking.

4 hours ago, jimmyvh said:

Almost all horror stories ARE from the summer trips, and it does look awful for this exact reason: queues for everything, undisciplined kids bouncing around all over the place, the whole "claim seat with towel" thing.
I booked a winter trip, because most winter trip reviews are actually pretty positive. If I were to plan a summer cruise, I'd definitely avoid the budget ships and pay extra for a more exclusive or adult only line.

Thank you again everyone for all of the informative feedback. We're like jimmyvh in that we would be cruising outside of the summer rush. Being from Canada our summers from about June to September are usually very hot so there is no reason to escape.

Our most likely time to be looking at Caribbean cruises is mid January through March to break up our snowy Canadian winters. That's with the caveat that we'd avoid school March breaks, University spring breaks and any other holidays (ie Easter) when the ships would be more at capacity,

I have to thank you all for such informative opinions on MSC. I think we'll look into booking one of their smaller ships for a Caribbean cruise and try to look at a more off season timeframe where it will still be warm enough.

That's good to know 1kaper.....thank you. We never go on the short trips and the days of the booze cruise style ventures is long behind us.

Is January/February part of the high season for the Caribbean cruises?

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate it.

I was just looking at reviews for MSC on Cruise Critic and seeing a a lot of people confirming the over crowding and chaos that was in the YouTube video. Many of these reviews were from Caribbean itineraries.

Can anyone advise what months the off season is for the Caribbean cruises for MSC and what sort of capacity the ships are running at during those time periods?

Hello fellow Cruise Critic members,

My husband and I are novices having been on one 2 week cruise with Holland America pre-pandemic. We enjoyed it thoroughly but my husband prefers all-inclusive because of the easy access to the beach and large pools with plenty of breathing space.

I thought I found a great compromise that would please both of us in the MSC cruise line in their cruise itinerary involving a 2 day stay at their private Bahamas Island. I showed my husband and he loved the idea of having the easy access to the beautiful beaches from a docked ship rather than a tender. We could come and go as we pleased during the two days there.

We both came to full stop after watching this Youtube review on MSC by Ritzy Travel Guide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3bHOEuScWU&t=2s

This video paints a picture of a completely disorganized, chaotic and far too crowded ship. Is that the norm you’ve experienced travelling on MSC (not Yacht Club)? We would love to try out MSC but that video has left both of us very concerned. We turn 60 next year are by no means shrinking violets but crowds & lineups like that are just not appealing to us.

We often travel in the off seasons but that video said that no matter when you travel with MSC it always looks like what is portrayed in the video.

We’re looking for personal experiences from MSC cruisers on this.

Thanks

Thank you so much for that review. My hubby and I are going on our first cruise near the end of this month on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

Thank you for that great review. My hubby and I are cruise newbies and are about to embark on our first cruise with HAL near the end of the month.

I can't wait.

I vote for 11 as well. In addition to chair scraping, the smoking area at the Sunset Bar (if allowed) could be an issue. May not be a concern for you - would be for me. But I do love aft cabins. The extended balconies are nice!

Great thanks.....ya my husband & I are not smokers so the travelling smoke would be a downer.

I agree with your TA. The deck above may have chairs scraping which may cause noise in the cabins below. I booked 11th deck for my aft S1 in case they have the same issue often complained about on the Solstice ships. 😊

Thanks, that's what I was thinking. Decks appear to be notorious for chair noise.

I wasn't sure what was at the very back of the ship.

The only one I have seen:

 

Not sure if the cabins are longer, wider or both, giving 26 more sf than regular cabins - the SV verandas look longer on the deck plans, but it remains to be seen if the SV cabins, hence the verandas, are a bit wider. I hope to see one on my Nov 21 cabin crawl (where our Cruise Critic Roll Call shows their cabins to others on the Roll Call). We have a couple of Infinite Verandas included in the cabin crawl. I will bring my tape measure. ;)

Great thanks for the info.

Sunset Verandas 12265 & 12264 are both still available. I thought these would be good but our travel agent thinks they will be noisy recommended we go with one on the 11th deck one below.

Any thoughts on the noise factor.....?

A good way to see some of the sights in FLL is the Water Taxi. You can do a complete loop in a bit over 3 hours, with a running commentary from the crew. Many spots you can get on.

Oh that sounds like a great option. One of the cruise vloggers mentioned the Riverwalk tour on their Youtube channel. They suggested walking either side of the river's edge along Riverwalk, but a boat ride would be even better.

We used the HAL airport transfer to the Port last November 2017. We arrived at approximately 11:00 AM and a HAL rep with a sign was there to meet us and others. We waited in a group for a short time (10 min or so) and then were all walked out to a spot where a bus came and picked us all up. They loaded our luggage into the bottom of the bus for us and off loaded it and gave it to the porters at the Port.

Arriving so early you may ( I'm not sure here) have some time on your hands, but you'll have to keep your luggage with you.

Hope that helps.

 

dh

Thanks. I guess my other option is using one of the luggage direct services so my husband aren't wandering around Fort Lauderdale lugging our bags looking like lost children.

You're arriving at 6:00AM? I didn't know any flights got in that early. It would seem to be pretty difficult to squeeze in any sightseeing in that short time, unless maybe you use Uber instead of the transfers. If you want wine, Total Wine is on the way to the port if you use a cab or Uber, but I don't think the transfer bus will stop there. We picked up 12 bottles last cruise, 10 days, and the selection and service was wonderful.

 

Probably too late to change, but we NEVER fly in the day of a cruise; too many things can go wrong, and we like to tour around a bit and go to a nice dinner in FLL.

 

 

Have a great cruise.

Ya our touring around on embarkation day will be limited to obtaining refreshments. Half way through our trip we port back in Fort Lauderdale so we'll do the sight seeing on that day in port.

Thanks for the info.

Deck 9 well below the overhang. The overhang is above deck 12.

Thanks for the quick response.

Thank you both for your quick replies.

Regarding the aft Sunset Vernanda Rooms; does anyone have any photos, renderings or videos of them?

Here's an exterior view of the veranda with the window lowered.

 

 

I really like this design and the flexibility if affords. My only concern is mechanical. Conventional verandas rely on a simple sliding door. The Edge's require a mechanical (I'm guessing electric) device to raise and lower the window. If the mechanism fails to would render the entire cabin unsuitable unless the french doors are robust enough to withstand bad weather while the window is lowered. I only hope they've created a very reliable and fail-proof mechanism for these windows otherwise maintaining these huge opening windows is going to be a nightmare for the crew.

Can anyone advise what deck that the big overhang is on (pictured at top of photo)? Is that deck #9 because I've got a 24hr courtesy hold on a Infinite Veranda room #9302 on deck 9.

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to cruising and have a 24hr courtesy hold on Edge Infinite Veranda room #9302 near the rear of the Celebrity Edge on the Magic Carpet side. This is for an 11 day Mediterranean cruise in August 2019.

I was also considering Edge Infinite Veranda room #9137 on the opposite side closer to the front of the ship.

Before I commit today to #9302 does anyone have any comments/feedback on this choice of room or the option of #9137. I think #9302 is far enough away from the Magic Carpet not to impact our trip with excess noise and I'm told that the back of the ship has less foot traffic.

I was also pondering the Sunset Veranda rooms on the aft with the traditional balcony & doors, but thought the novelty of the Infinite Veranda couldn't be passed on this time around.

If anyone has any other advice on room choices (I know this ship is brand new with limited information available), please add your comments.

Also, I notice across the board that rooms on higher decks (on most ships) generally command a higher price. Is it the general notion that the higher rooms are more attractive to customers for some reason and if so could I ask why?

Thank you from a cruise newb.

Hi Everyone,

My husband & I have booked HAL transfers for our transportation between the airport & cruise port in Fort Lauderdale and then for our return home.

We are arriving at 6:00am and were wondering if the HAL transfer includes taking our bags to the ship or at least holding the bags until our boarding time? We'd like to take advantage of the few hours between 6am & the 11am boarding time to check out the sights in Fort Lauderdale & maybe grab some pop/wine to bring on board with us.

We will request an Uber when departing Silhouette at Terminal 26 in Port Everglades. Where do we stand to wait for Uber to pick us up? Only used Uber a few times and not in such a crowded situation.

I'm curious too.

Which port in St. Thomas would the Nieuw Amsterdam be using currently?

I understand they used to always go to Crown Bay but may have recently switched to Havensight.

they refund it back to your on board account.

 

If you have a balance owing, it reduces the balance. (Which is charged to your credit card) If you don't owe, and it gives you a credit, it is credited back to your credit card.

Great thanks.