HikingPete

19 hours ago, BertieRulesOK said:

Me too.  Fingers crossed!  Apparently it's Welsh half term, but we *shouldn't* be seeing kids as they wouldn't have been able to miss school on the Friday. Thats if they have parents who value education...

If you're on the same trip as me, leaving on the 4th, then we should be ok on that front. The Welsh half term finishes on 4th November.

I'm off on Virtuosa this coming Friday... lets see if its different outside of the school holidays! 😄 

4 hours ago, 3StepDam44 said:

I now have Covid.🤧 Feel awful.  First time being infected.

Oof. Hope you're OK. 

Unfortunately I think its going to be a routine part of travelling by ship for a while now. Not pleasant.

1 minute ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Many months ago I had the TA submit my air change charges in for a date change they made.

 We have heard nothing yet.  I am still waiting on reimbursement for 2020 issues.  Always told it's being worked on 

"It is being worked on... please forget about this, please forget about this, please..."

3 hours ago, ispiral said:

Arrived today in Valletta and opposite us in drydock is the Seaside

Do you have a photo by any chance? I don't mean to upset the people supposed to be on this cruise, but it would be interesting to see.

The big question would be "what test kit?" What test has he got? Who supplied it and when?

The rules change constantly as the virus develops, and so requirements may well relax (as they are right now) or get more stringent. An LFT might well be sufficient, but the requirements might change.

There should also still be time to get vaccinated if he's capable of it/wants to be.

On 9/24/2022 at 11:25 AM, cruising.mark.uk said:

Hello all,

We've just booked 21 nights on Virtuosa from Southampton in January 2023.  Does anyone know what the onboard currency for the bars, spa, casino etc is for these UK departures this Winter?  Is it £ or Euros?

 

Thanks in advance,

Mark

As of 4th November, its going to be Euros.

No idea if they will change it again, but Euros kind of makes the most sense.

On 10/21/2022 at 5:53 PM, perakcruiser said:

I would not recommend someone who never drove on the British side of the road (which unfortunately is also the Malaysia side) to rent a car in Southampton. Also still a lot of manual gearing rental cars around in Europe. 

Most rental companies will have automatic options. Its fairly straightforward to drive on the alternate side too. But if driving manual or on the left is a concern, there are regular trains to most of the places I've listed directly from Southampton.

17 hours ago, Ehg said:

if you’d like a suggestion, I would recommend either hiring a car or getting a taxi and going to Lymington (or if you hire a car you could just explore the South coast, which is beautiful).

I am local to Southampton and I agree with this. Get a car, and you can visit nice little towns like Lymington, Romsey, the New Forest, or go to Winchester and see the Cathedral there as well as some nice museums, a castle, old roman walls etc. There are loads of "National Trust" or "English Heritage" sites nearby which usually have great grounds to walk through, but also historically significant.

Plan appropriately and you will see much, much more by yourself than you would on a tour in the UK.

From recollection its WiFi, not network coverage. Some carriers allow the sending of texts via WiFi but not all, and it varies on the phone you are using and what it supports.

If I were you and you're not certain what your phone/carrier allows, work on the assumption that it will be WiFi only, and therefore need to use email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger etc.

16 hours ago, NewbieCruiser2015 said:

Just booked my first cruise today.  And I have to say- this thread is scaring the crap outta me.   I  Specifically chose the cruise we did as it coincided with our son’s college break.  I have no room for error.   Yikes   Now I’m terrified 

You'll most likely be fine, but... this kind of why insurance and travel agents exist.

Let the travel agents run around trying to resolve issues for you, and let the insurance pick up the pieces when it all goes completely to pot.

15 hours ago, Stockjock said:

2. While improving, pre-cruise communication can be spotty.

I'm on my first MSC cruise in November, and I've definitely found that I agree with this, to the extent that even my own TA was obviously frustrated.

Makes me a little concerned about my upcoming trip on Virtuosa to be honest.

Are they already booked on the same cruise but in a different cabin, or is this a completely new addition?

I know that MSC's published policy is that taking alcohol on board isn't allowed.

I'm sailing from Southampton on MC Virtuosa in November, and am wondering how much that is policed? I not thinking of taking a lot on, just a small bottle of whiskey for an evening nightcap. If its likely to be confiscated I won't bother and will just go to the bar like everyone else (its not the end of the world) but if it saves me a few pounds I might.

21 hours ago, lovetravel1114 said:

I tried to book AB parking at Southampton, it says it's full.. 

Other parking option recommendation please!! (we have 2 children)

Try Airlynx

https://www.airlynxparking.co.uk/book-cruise-parking/

In the UK if you aren't vaccinated you need to provide a PCR or Antigen test taken in the two days before embarkation.

You might still have time to get vaccinated if you're able to/want to - they're doing them fairly quickly now. I booked my second booster yesterday, and am getting it tomorrow.

Hi all,

Just as a heads up for anyone who happens to be on this cruise... a little bird tells me there are some changes to the trip. It will now be on the Virtuosa, will have a slightly different itinerary and - most important - now leaves on 4th November, not the 5th.

I do not work with MSC and have no knowledge of their infrastructure, but if I were a betting man I would say that both services work at the same speed, and they've simply blocked certain bandwidth-hungry services beyond basic browsing and emails on their surf package.

Thank you for this, I found it really interesting.

I'm new to MSC cruises - I have my first in November on Preziosa and greatly looking forward to it, but I'm kind of uncertain about what to expect. I haven't booked YC, and I'm starting to wonder if I should have. I don't want to be all FOMO but at the same time I have been wondering about what I would have been missing out on.

More things to wonder about, and bank balance to check...

I'm on Iona, and whilst I haven't gone out of my way to look for them, this is probably the first cruise I've been on where, in retrospect, I also haven't fairly quickly made a mental note of where they are and where I will avoid.

And that's kinda nice actually. Sorry smokers.

On 12/10/2021 at 12:31 AM, davecttr said:

My experience of Iona's buffet is they were only offering a reduced selection of dishes because of the lower passenger numbers and consequentially less crew numbers. this was back on a staycation cruise

I am on Iona right now. Just about to arrive at Zeebrugge.

This morning the buffet was the standard breakfast stuff I think, just less of it. The room service options are definitely reduced and now have a delivery charge. No hot for available, just cereals, muffins, fruit. No compote.

Sindhu was excellent as always. I'll see about the MDR this evening. I'll try to remember to take a photo of the current Horizon later.

On 12/10/2021 at 6:15 AM, Camberley said:

Impossible to glean anything really from the video - But an interesting carpet and some intriguing knobbly knees.
 

But I have never found any of the buffets on board P and O ships to much more than functional, mass produced fayre. Serves its purpose - and that’s fine for what it is - but it is never an excitement or a meal to look forward to.

This is true.

I think their speciality restaurants are normally very nice, Sindhu especially, but I don't recall going to a buffet anywhere ever and being completely wowed by it, even at my own wedding when there were substantially few guests compared to the average ship. Buffets are always churning out large amounts of food at pace.

In contrast I don't think I've ever had a bad meal at the MDR. Maybe I have low standards.

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

You're right. If someone has to wait 10 minutes for a table,  they let all and sundry know about it, whilst the 99% of pax who have no wait at all, say nothing.  

To be honest, if I find myself waiting for a table (or even just trying to find one at the buffet) it never occurs to me to complain to anyone. Its a cruise... I'm not going to go hungry any time soon.

I'm not really much of a complainer in general, but I think some people are the opposite and feel better for having a good moan about everything.

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

As the carer of a wheelchair user I can fully understand the need to limit the number of wheelchair users on cruise ships, if only for the extremely unlikely need to use the lifeboats in an emergency.

I think you're probably right. I also think it is good that designs are changing for the benefit of making ships as accommodating for everyone as they can be. Planning and deciding that sort of thing must be all but impossible to get "right" - everyone's abilities and needs are different. Would there be enough accessible toilets on board? Enough seating in the theatres? Do all cabins need extra space to navigate around, or only a set number - and at which grades? Are there enough accessible tenders to get to shore for everyone?

A good and necessary job for making those decisions, but I imagine a very hard one.