perakcruiser

If MSC is advertising "kids sail free" then it usually is not a holiday week. Basically you only need to remember Carnival week (not all markets) and Easter as @Nunagoras mentioned.

Because Seashore always stays outside Europe and Asia.

A call center agent is not authorized to accept any price change. The only thing that he can do and say to you is "I have taken down your request and will forward it to HQ". Naples then always refuses, but you will not been told that they refused. But sometimes it happens that the whole booking is deleted. After your escalation they probably just agreed and fired the call center agent 😄

Zero difference to Costa. The reason why Aida is not targeting non-German-speaking markets except Netherlands and Denmark, Carnival don't want their daughters fighting. Costa and Aida should instead fight MSC from different corners 😄 About the visa, all cruise lines I ever dealt with refused to give my any information about my visa obligations.

ramazzotti spritz

It is just a cost for the cruise line. Obviously they have to put this in their calculation, but that is their business. Like you buy milk at the supermarket and they charge you 10 cent "fee" extra because they have to pay electricity for their fridge.

Sure, no problem, you also can miss the muster drill and do it the next day. Just follow the "all on board" time. There will be no queue.

"Port fees" is a fake fee, but I think it is gone since MSC adopted the "final price" policy also for US bookings. Which means also the refunds are gone.

Depends on the ship and if the ship is pretty full or pretty empty (2 or 3 sessions). A dining time of 5:15 is possible as well as 10:00.

Sorry, I forget the future cruise desk bookings with price guarantee that @JamieLogical mentioned.

You will find people you tell you, they were successful, but the rule is that MSC never honors a price drop. No European cruise lines honor price drops and US cruise lines also don´t (in Europe). Recently had unhappy experience with Celebrity about this, they not even let me do cabin upgrade by paying the difference. Basic rule that is almost always valid, you need to cancel the full booking, pay the penalty and rebook.

Absolutely true. But going from Celebrity to MSC with complaining the selection of beef as @Colgate64 did is a very bad idea. As beef is the weak point on MSC for decades, they improved a little bit in the last years, but still. Of cause talking about MDR and buffet, Butchers Cut and Yacht Club are a different world. As is the Tuscan Grill on Celebrity.

Get the Careem app ready if you want to explore individually. We loved the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile on my next Celebrity cruise the price for a balcony is lower than for inside a few months before. As I said before, there are many routes Celebrity can never fill the ship if they not lower the prices dramatically. But for cruises with good booking situation the prices an go up even more.

The wait is over and there is still nothing. OK, so I will go on my February cruise with nothing per-booked. No WiFi, no excursions, no drinks package, no pre booked wine and so on. Bet when Celebrity reads this, they regret already that they missed Black Friday this year 😄

Unforgiving hot and airfares and hotels crazy expensive because of the European summer holidays. But if you need to travel with kids and have to use their holidays, this is the game. Otherwise travelling to Southern Europe in July and August is a very bad idea. But anyway with the flights, cruises and hotel being so expensive there is a natural barrier to book this time.

Depends on the weekday, only Sunday you are doomed. Otherwise there is public transportation, even with ferry! Would be all so much better if MSC would not go to Hamburg on Sundays. We did enjoy this walk a lot!

For my next cruise there are no offers at all. Last year at Black Friday I bought Wi-Fi, excursions, wines for the cabin and other stuff.

Well, meanwhile it looks like Celebrity will not celebrate Black Friday this year. Zero offers 😮

When the Armonia was built drinks in the theater were allowed, that is long, long ago, but the small tables are still there. Remembering the mess the drinks in the theater (or better said a small number of not responsible guests) have produced, I do fully understand that MSC stopped it around 2013 or 2014.

self serve yes. doors will close 15 minutes after 7:45. you cannot choose and there is zero difference. Food comes from the same kitchen. The different restaurant names are only for marking different decks / sections.

Much, much more. But I would not say European, I would say Italian. It is not like 90 % Italian, 10 % rest of the world as before, but still there is a clear dominance.

There are some success stories thanks to incompetent MSC hotline staff. Usually there will be no compensation in any form. Which is logic as basically all MSC cruises that are not sold out have a huge price drop in the last weeks before sailing (or Black Friday sale). Nice for people living close to a port, for all others the much higher last minute flight prices destroy any savings.

Actually I think this depends heavily on destination and ship. If you see the same cruise in January 2025 and 2026 and the 2026 has double price then it is not a risky guess to say that the price will go down 50 percent. As it did from 2024 to 2025. Celebrity knows very well what they are doing, they are reducing the price 340 $ and the cancellation fee at the same time is 350 $. Not a coincidence for sure. See this also from MSC for ages.

Ok, I am only cruising in Europe with Celebrity. For Asia and Caribbean I have other favorites. And the Japanese (and Singaporean) market is completely crazy, I totally believe you that there always the cruise lines win.