showingdiva

4 minutes ago, debsjc said:

 

Thank you, I appreciate that, It wasn't clear from the website. I thought maybe they gave us tickets for a day they decided  on!

Do we book on the app the day we get on? 

Yes, you should be able to, or when you board, as soon as you step on the ship there will be people at a temporary desk to help you book it and any specialty restaurants (a little tip there, Hola! cantina is very good and excellent value, and also fills quickly).

The carousel show, though, pick your show and book in advance for a bit of discount, then you need do nothing else at the moment other than look forward to it.

11 minutes ago, debsjc said:

 

if we pay in advance,will we just get assigned a date and time in advance, or can we still choose one when we board? 

You won't be assigned anything other than confirmation of your chosen show.  Then when you board, you can pick your day / time.    Yes, you will still be able to leave the booking until you are on board but as has been said, they do fill up quickly.

3 hours ago, debsjc said:

I have the same problem as the OP
If we pay for the shows in advance, can we change the date and time to a performance that suits us on board? Or can we get a refund if that isn't possible? 

 

 

 

 

I'm confused.   You book the show you want - either Ajedrez or Arkymea online and get a bit of discount for purchasing in advance.

You cannot book the day or time of your chosen show until you are on board.

If you haven't been before, Den Gamle By in Aarhus (an open air museum) is really good.   For those who haven't, think York / Jorvik.

The Flamsbana railway without a shadow of a doubt.

The ship on the Naeroyfjord cruise has been out of service with technical difficulties for a couple of months now.   There's apparently no current date of a return to service.

Yes, cabin needs to be vacated by 8am.   I'm pretty sure the pools are closed, and covered over.   You will be given your disembarkation time a couple of days beforehand.   Everyone needs to be off by 10 / 10.30 ish.   Your drink package should work on disembarkation day but only certain bars will be open that time of the morning, more than likely for things like coffees etc.

If you are self-disembarking really early, you will need to keep your luggage with you, and either take it to breakfast with you then leave, or eat early and return to the cabin to collect it before 8am.    However, if you are leaving at your allocated disembarkation time, your luggage needs put outside your cabin the night before - but again, that will be communicated to you a couple of days before.

42 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Day 10 Sea Day

 

Miserable weather today so everyone has been indoors for much of the day. 

 

The number of moaning, whinging people on here never ceases to amaze me. Is everything onboard perfect, absolutely not but much of it is fine. As I said earlier in the week a lot of the moans are about things which could be a avoided with a bit of research in advance, objective issues like dining times, noisy or obstructed cabins etc.

 

More subjective issues are more difficult. Some people have not enjoyed the more European style food, for example one couple said on they could find nothing to eat and were having fish and chips at the pub regularly - well take the chance whilst onboard to expand your palate beyond chips! There is more than adequate choice but not if you idea of food is restricted to burger and chips / fish and chips/ pie and chips etc for every meal.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings about the weather ..... wait 'til you get back to Scotland!    It's been dropping to around 5 celsius at night in the central belt the last few nights.

I absolutely concur about this.   Surely even minimal research pre-cruise, albeit with a few British-isms that have appeared the last few years on Virtuosa, reveal that this is a company of Italian heritage, HQ'd in Switzerland, registered in Malta, which of course is going to have a Mediterranean style.  The ending of the pandemic restrictions in the UK was the reason this beautiful ship ended up at our shores.

Eglesbrech .... safe journey home.

5 hours ago, ElizaPink26 said:

What time approximately are the cabins ready on the MSC Virtuosa. Our boarding time is 10am.

Thanks

 

1 - 1.30

5 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

Last time I was on MSC I got the drinks package for $99.... Not this time. I'm just a cheapskate, there's no way I'd be giving them £3.50 (~£4.20 after gratuities) for a can of coke.

A non-alcoholic drink package on a UK 7 night cruise is £147, so essentially £21 a day.    Which equates to roughly a mocktail, a hot chocolate and 4 cans of fizzy to break even (and of course, as much soft serve ice cream from Atmosphere as you can eat).   Personally, I wouldn't want to be checking my account, or calculating how much I've spent, as I know I would if I was buying it per drink.

31 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

Wow that is pricey!

Most of the commonly consumed wines and spirits on that menu are about the same price as they are where I am, and definitely the non-alcoholic ones.   I would expect to go to a bar / restaurant and pay around £4 for a half pint of Coke / Sprite etc.  Probably why the majority of people will have a drink package.

2 hours ago, david63 said:

... of red wine!

Quite.   I once had a big enough nightmare with a bottle of shampoo - these bottles now go in a plastic box just in case!

I've never understood the relentless moans across social platforms about Virtuosa.  The product isn't perfect, but considering the size of the ship, the number of passengers and crew etc, she does well, especially some of the favourable prices of mass market cruising on a relatively new ship.    She's not Regent, Seabourn or Viking (aside from anything else, MSC now have Explora to challenge them).

2 hours ago, alallallan said:

As anyone recently been on the Arvia, i am curious how many bottles of red i can take in my case & also when at a port are you allowed to bring some red wine back on board 

You will also need to be careful that if you are planning taking your one allowed bottle of wine in your case, that the case may end up at the bottom of a cage with dozens of others on top of it sitting to be loaded on to the ship.   If you wish to chance your entire case being covered in an accidentally broken bottle.

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Menu for today attached. The food so far has been good with sufficient choice, for me anyway.

Good to see the always available spaghetti olio e aglio - my favourite MSC dish

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

We went for a pre show drink and found seats easily. There are times when the ship is actually very quiet and others when if feels mobbed. The trick is finding your way around the peak times where possible.

 

Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself so far, especially outside of YC for the first time.  

Your paragraph above absolutely nails how to deal with (any) large ship cruising.

And how to deal with the buffet on Virtuosa - avoid 8-9am and 12-1pm.  Everyone congregates around the food (in case it goes somewhere).   The aft inside / outside seating and forward towards the doors out to the pool deck are generally quieter.   And usually attentive service for drinks using the bell.

2 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

Our next door neighbour went on a MSC trip last year after having a few P&O cruises.  They said the food was dreadful on MSC and have returned to P&O.

Whereas I have done the exact opposite, being the fussy pescatarian that I am.    But for numerous reasons, not just the food. 

Funny old world ....

On 3/16/2024 at 6:00 PM, Rudi-Cruiser said:

I was thinking the same thing, why I didn't learn more French in school. I like the idea of 100 solo cabins. I would love to know more about how a bad French speaking passenger would get along.

I am a local port guide in the UK and have worked on this ship multiple times.   Words fail me how much I love this ship.   Eccentric and slightly crazy.   Yes, she's an older ship, but CFC did a good job of her upgrade prior to her entering service for them.

Now, the language.    I speak French on board to the passengers.   The crew speak English and French.   All the announcements are in French.    Essentially, the bullet points here are that this is a French speaking ship with an almost exclusive French passenger base.   

Would you get on okay with only a token amount of the language? Yes, you would probably be fine.   Conversation at dinner on a mixed table, if you are a solo passenger, might be interesting through.

On 5/29/2024 at 7:15 PM, Megabear2 said:

 

I did not have coffee or tea as I was keen to leave.  Why you may ask, well very unusually for a Cunard ship I do in some places feel a little uncomfortable as a lone traveler.  Sir Samuel's was one of those.  I cannot put my finger on what made me feel so uncomfortable but I did.

 

That caught my attention.   It definitely sounds like a good time is being had - and I am delighted Scotland didn't disappoint - although I must apologise for the weather in South Queensferry!

I've never felt uncomfortable as a solo traveler on Queen Mary 2, or my other current love, MSC Virtuosa.   I nearly booked Queen Anne for next year, but would be interested to hear an overall view on this once you have returned home.

I've done all I can by asking and by confirming that during my friend's recent 7 nighter, everything was available on their premium extra package.   

I have an alcohol-free package, so tend to be a bit oblivious as long as there's daiquiri zero, full fat Coke, ACE juice in the breakfast machine and a bit of soft serve ice cream in Atmosphere.

I apologise that I could not help allay any more fears of MSC short cruising compared to 7+ night regular cruises.   

I've spoken to MSC UK hierarchy.   Here is the very prompt reply:

"We have taken guest feedback seriously and only for the mini cruises will the premium drinks be available but only at certain bars to ease the pressure on the promenade and pool deck, that the only change.

8 hours ago, notley-cruise said:

Surely they've had a month or more based in Southampton to restock ? 

Is this another Brexit dividend ? MSC can't get decent booze supplies in UK !

My point was that she arrived in Southampton with a very skeleton crew, re-stocked and immediately went back south on a 12 night Canaries.   Followed by a series of short cruises, including the bank holiday one.   I work with cruise ships.   Re-stocking / replenishing / taking on stores isn't as simple as it sounds.

13 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

It was the missing mocktails that were annoying me. I do drink alchol but tend to enjoy mocktails through the day, feels more like you are on holiday that musta juice of fizzy drink.

I've just done a Faceache search of the "shortened" mocktail list.   The only two that seem to be missing are the Dirty Banana and the grapefruit / rose syrup one I cannot remember the name of, which is actually the mocktail for the carousel shows, so that one may now be restricted there.   Everything else is present (I've drank my way down that list a lot!).

7 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

That might explain a lot of the issues being reported.

 

Hopefully it is all sorted out before I get onboard 😀.

Me too!

As long as there's daiquiri zero, ACE juice and panna cotta, I consider everything else a third world problem.

10 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Not just some, they apparently removed all of the higher price cocktails so most of the ones which would require the premium package between £9 and £14 vanished. People have actually posted photos of the menus which were on offer and they are very, very basic.

 

Yes they were saying that some branded drinks were not available either, particularly liquors were in short supply as was speciality hot chocolate.

 

We’re your friends on a longer cruise? If so it may indicate that this was a just “short cruise” issue.

 

Yes the packages are still on the cruise personaliser and the website unchanged. That’s why people are so unhappy as they didn’t get what they paid for, allegedly.

Okay, my brain's in gear now.    My friends were on the first of two 7 night fjord cruises which returned nearly three weeks ago.   It followed on from a series of short cruises, including one over the May bank holiday weekend, which was apparently a bit of a nightmare for all concerned, including the crew.

During the cruise, their dinner waiter did mention some red wines were running short towards the end of the week, but the cocktails were all available, and everything non-alcoholic was in supply.   Their included cocktail with Arkymea was apparently "nice and strong!"

Virtuosa had to restock from absolute scratch following her empty repositioning voyage around Africa, which then recommenced with a 12 night followed by those short cruises.

I'm confused now.

Is the issue that some of the previously included drinks are now not available on some packages?   Or is that that some branded drinks are now not available at all?    

As I said, my friends disembarked two weeks ago, had a premium extra package included and drank champagne, decent wine, most of the cocktail list etc without any difficulty.   Sorry, I'm making it sound like they have a drink problem .. they don't !!!!!

I'm on board Virtuosa soon, although have bought a non-alcoholic package as teetotal.   I've had a quick look on the MSC UK page.   The Easy, Easy Plus and Premium Extra package are still available and appear unchanged.   As do the Alcohol-free and Minors packages.  All state currently up to 2025.

There have been a lot of problems with drinks and service on most of the short cruises since Virtuosa arrived back in the UK this summer.