Matkustaja

2 minutes ago, LiquidWu said:

No mobile Data in YIN 14009 on MSC Virtuosa, but relative fast WiFi. 

Good point. I forgot that MSC tends to include wifi for YC, so it doesn’t matter that much. 

Hi, a question occurred on my mind. Do you get mobile data (3G, 4G, or 5G) coverage in an inside cabine when close to shore? Is it worse than on a balcony cabine, or the public areas on the side of the vessel facing the shore? Any differences between inside on lower decks vs. higher (YC inside for example, is it better for mobile data coverage?)

23 minutes ago, Shippy said:

Pictures were $2.95.

We missed that epoch :). Now they refuse to sell only one or two pictures, and certainly for way more than a couple of euros [this might not refer to MSC]

- variety of food both in dining room and in buffet was far greater before
- when people smoked in balconies they actually used to take action

- they used to provide entertainment near sail-away time (pier runners) 🙂- used to consistently offer little salty snacks with when ordering cocktails before dinner

Mixing up with other people during excursion was not an issue (for MSC) during our cruise. - I’m not sure I wrote this down in my notes. It was possible, and done, walking in the town. Same at a cultural site. Same at a cafe. After cafe, the group was given 30 mins of free time to visit a so called “only allowed shop” pointed quite far away. Which most tour guests didn’t understand which shop is allowed or not. In effect no control of where you could go or not during that time. And people went.

I’m not sure with MSC’s safety performance for the moment based on our experience:

Honestly though, I don’t know if they’re actually doing worse than before, or if it’s just a feeling due to us not having had a cruise in such a long time.

On 9/9/2021 at 9:47 PM, MarkusToe said:

Meeting took place.

She made a lot of notes and promised to move this issue forward to headquarters and DE market leader.

She said, if I'll smell smoke again, I've to call her directly and she will come imidiately, at any time.

Would you like to share any update on this, please? I know the ship started to smoke, but did MSC convince your neighbours to stop? 😅

15 minutes ago, sidari said:

Looks like the lifts are a problem that MSC need to address or sooner than later there will be Covid cases onboard.

Maybe reprogram them somehow. Now they stop in many floors even when up to capacity. And the screen displaying which lift to take could perhaps ask how many would like go to that particular floor. And perhaps they could use the scale on each lift to guide passengers to different lifts if one of them over certain weight limit

@MarkusToe: 

57 minutes ago, MarkusToe said:

issue with smoking

If you’d like, send direct message to me for peer support 🙂

Let me talk with MSC first and I’ll get back to that. These are notes to self first.

Yacht club and Aurea outside bars seem to close quite early. I think I was strolling in that area one evening between 8pm-9pm, and they were both closed.

 

Elevators had posted limits of four or two inside. This was thoroughly ignored.

Welcome back party didn’t take place. Or we were not invited. Would not be the first time that MSC forgot.

Covid self test came out as negative two days after disembarking. I guess MSC's anticovid system works

Shows at the theatre were good. Please bring hearing protection for the little guy also next time. Remember to book a slot right after waking up each day (well, every other day, as they repeat the shows multiple times due to social distancing.) There were practically no bad jokes or overdrawn monologues by the hosts. Focus was on safety. I appreciated that!

@Itchy&Scratchy, thinking back, this cruise does not seem like an outlier. MSC, like other cruise lines I’ve experienced, are good at doing the regular thing. When something is unusual in any way, they don’t manage so well. Hence the recording of this experience, so next time we can consider better where to put our holiday budget to. And if on MSC, to calibrate our expectations better.

The crew security drill went something like this. I really should have taken notes earlier, seems like an interesting scenario:

”This is a drill. This is a drill. Alpha Charlie alpha Charlie alpha charlie. Repeat, this is a drill.” (I don’t remember the exact order give.)

“All evacuation teams to their stations”

General distress alarm sounded: seven long, one short beeps (or something like that)

“Evacuation teams guide your passengers to their evacuation stations”

“To all passengers: Everything is fine. The crew has located the problem and are addressing it. Please stay calm and stay still in your evacuation station. We will take the ship to port. Repeat, the problem is found and is being taken care of. Stay still and calm, no need for emergency evacuation.”

”Engineering department: minimum staffing. This department: minimum staffing. That department: minimum staffing.”

“Evacuation teams: move all passengers to port side of the ship.”

“Drill over.”

QR_NN_POOL-BAR-AND-GELATERIA_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1629191888.pdf QR_K_BAR-LIST-MED_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1629120381.pdf

Ask to lock the minibar next time. Was charged an item even though never consumed any. Perhaps it the little guy moved something and that was enough to prompt a charge.

Pay closer attention to drinks available in package. Was charged a drink for which the list price was less than 6 euros. The waiter didn’t notify that it would be chargeable. Another charge for under 3 euros from another bar. I don’t recognise that one, perhaps my wife ordered that. Would have expected that to be part of the drink package.

Upselling for drink packages was very discreet. They did not push them, but made little advertisements on the bar and perhaps elevator. Same for paying restaurants, they walked around with little advertisements on hand, but did not stop or disturb you to try to sell.

Guest relations and other staff were unable to resolve a problem during the cruise. For reasons that I never understood, I was called to the front desk, but they had nothing to say really. After inquiring they handed me email address to MSC customer service. That email address does not work — the email just bounces back.

@marielco, I don’t have the meal menus, sorry. I have the drinks list on my phone, I’ll upload them here for future reference.

Some thoughts I’d like to revisit when thinking of booking another MSC cruise.

Seaside August 2021, notes to self

Boarding took more than three hours. Had to present documents in four places. Keep them readily available at all times (unlike many people, who slowed down the process for everyone).

During boarding process social distancing was so-so. Some people did it, others didn’t care so much. Neither the cruise personnel nor the terminal personnel were especially vigilant to remind people. Have more drinks, snacks, distractions, and a solution for a nap for the little one next time — they have no special treatment for families with young children.

Immediately once on board - safety training soon. Practically no food, and absolutely no drinks yet. Pizza was available, but all the other boarding passengers were also hungry, so the lines were long. Bars all closed. 

Safety training had more parts than before. First video on cabine. Then phone call to confirm I saw it. Then going to assembly station to show cruise card. Then to bar for a drink — no go. New announcement in maybe 15 minutes declaring that we have to go to the theatre for safety briefing. They scanned the card - seemed surprised that they have to do it, as they went to scan cards of people already seated again. So more waiting at the theatre — maybe 20 mins before they actually started. It was over quite fast after that, maybe 10 minutes — some stupid jokes that waisted time, but kept it to cool minimum.

Food and restaurant service on the first night was super. Probably helped that we had early dinner, which most people seem to avoid at all cost. 

Day 2 at sea, they had a safety training for the crew. (The passengers could participate, if wished. I have to ask how to do that next time — could be fun.) Unfortunately the safety training ran long, so they could not open the restaurant on time. Once finally opened — after maybe 20 min delay — the rampage was brutal. Women and children first is not a reality. Remember this in case of an actual life threatening situation. If having a little delay for lunch prompts such unsafe behaviour towards more vulnerable ones…

Day 3 — the excursion. Badly organised start from MSC. We went to the designated meeting point. After quite a bit of waiting (20 mins?) they declared that you need a COVID pass and your ID. Right — ran to the cabin to collect those. Would have been nice if they had communicated that before. Their communications materials (daily programs etc.) are clearly not keeping up with the changing requirements. Only one person to guide a theather full of people. Checking of documents multiple times — with the same people in one case. It was a walking tour. When walking to points of interests, the guide walked too fast for our young one to keep pace. When stationary, we were stationary for too long to keep his interest up. Result: very early we had a tired and annoyed young guy. Social distancing seemed like a fake requirement. Masks were worn at times. Non-bubble people were mingled with. Non-approved shops were visited. 

I asked to cancel rest of the excursions as it seems more punishment than fun. No refund. They did send a bubbling wine to the room. Unfortunate we were unable to drink it (and I’m not that picky).

Some miscommunication here between guest services and excursions. Guest services did say that it was ok to change one excursion to a ship tour. However, later that day — when they reopened — excursion desk said that that is impossible, and it’s full anyway, and they don’t have children there in any case, etc. So no ship tour for us. Nor refund.

Food and service during dinners continued to be very nice every evening. Luckily there were quite few people there so our family didn’t probably cause too much of a disruption. Children’s menu was the same every night though, and didn’t have many even kind of healthy choices. Also do remember, please, that if adults order fries etc., don’t expect the little ones to accept their better meals.

Breakfast was less good than pre-COVID times. Choices were limited and repetitive. In the restaurant they often missed items or brought wrong ones. Drink services in both restaurant and buffet seemed to be a bother and took a long time to arrive. Sometimes it was too long to wait for the little one, so we abandoned and collected our own drinks where it was allowed. (At the buffet for example they asked us to sit back down at our table to be served — which took way too long to be feasible with this guy.)

Entertainment was ok at the bars. Nice enough background music. We didn’t participate in the parties as went to bed early.

Pool deck parties make considerable noise even down to deck 12. Be prepared with hearing protection to sleep better up to 1.30am.

Seaside is a beautiful and well maintained ship. Outside space plentiful. Inside felt crowded at some evenings (and this was with limited capacity, though I never learned how many were on board.)

Many don’t like to wear masks correctly (mostly guests, some of the crew as well.)

Cabine was very confortable. It was unfortunate that the housekeeping did never make the third bed as requested. Also half of the wardrobe space is hard to reach due to design. No tissues provided, even though there is clearly a place designed for them in the bathroom.

Room steward made nice towel animals in some occasions. During breakfast, one servant made a nice bird out of a napkin.

Medical bay. Don’t hesitate to go there, they’re nice people.

Baby station. You can go there only at the designated hours — typically 2-3 h at a time for 3 times a day. One parent has to stay there. I don’t understand why it was not open all the times. Like one day it opened the first time at 3pm - why not earlier?  there’s no staff there anyway. Why is the baby club (0-3 years old) open during 8pm to 10 pm??

Pretty much all the crew interacted with the little guy, and seemed happy to do so. He certainly was happy with the attention.

At lunch time, it seemed that the waiters at the restaurant were not so happy to see us there. The service was ok, but very far from the evening meal service. They brought the correct orders and all that, but seemed to be bit gloomy to do so. 

Disembarking the ship was fast and easy. If it was well organised, it was not visible, as the first ship crew members we encountered were at the exit point of the vessel.  I think that is a good thing. Seamlessly well organised. 

Parking in Marseille was great. Reasonably priced, well available, right next to the ship. Birds pooped on the car thought, but what can you do. Driving half a day was fine with the kid. Going there more difficult, but coming back easier. 

Smoking in the balcony. ***Write something later. Discussion continues with MSC…***

We had a nice round number for our check-in time. Until our cabine was assigned. Now it’s delayed to a time like 12:07. Seems quite specific 🤨

We’re also due to have the 50 eur pp onboard credit show up by midnight😎. Excellent tip all in all; I had assumed the MSC would apply these things automatically 🤨

Thanks so much for this tip! That saved us over 300 eur.

On 7/27/2021 at 2:37 AM, logan25 said:

If a booking is paid in full and past final payment, how would the “overpayment” be processed?  Refund to credit card?  Refundable OBC?

I sent an email to a MSC representative and a few hours later a negative amount due showed up for the reservation. Final payment had taken place already. I was offered refund, onboard credit, or to use it for excursions.