Best Cat Mom

12 hours ago, MmmmJason said:

I sailed on MSC Seashore July 23 - 30, 2022, and despite asking, no the staff would not deliver any restaurant meals to the room, even in Yacht Club.  I was told "only if the guests is ill" which I hesitated to lie about lest I be quarantined or interrogated.  This was disappointing because despite having "anytime" dining, the real dining time is only a 2 hour window for breakfast and again for lunch, and only in the dining room, meaning no private dining in your room.  Don't ask for it to go in the restaurant either; that's a no-go.  I had friends in the non-YC areas of the ship, and this policy meant separating ourselves on every meal.

Did you think of bringing food from the YC pool deck back to your room? We had great made-to-order burgers there several times and one time brought them to the room to enjoy on our balcony.

I think it is going to vary based on how you sleep. I sleep pretty soundly and I've never had an issue. (I was on a flight once where someone in the row behind me was in medical distress. He was pulled out of his seat and laid out in the aisle next to me. I was told that they asked over the address system if there was a doctor on board. I slept through the whole thing.) But these boards have many people saying that it wakes them up. You'll need to keep that in mind as you read people's comments.

18 minutes ago, eagletwo said:

I am in the private air charter business here in the US. One of my long time clients asked for a price to pick up a relative in Aruba that is very ill, not cruise related, just on holiday. He is in hospital in Aruba with just US insurance that does not cover outside the US and can’t fly home on a commercial flight. A medical flight to bring him back to Columbia, SC is $45,000.  The family has started a gomefund to help get him home and pay for his daily hospital bills in Aruba.

 

I always buy trip insurance with medical and evacuation. 

This was very enlightening. Thank you eagletwo.

I checked Amex Platinum's benefits for travel and was pleased to see that medical evacuation coverage is covered up to $100K: 

I (finally) booked our first cruise post-pandemic and I'm in sync with you on most of your thinking. I used my frequent flyer miles for our flights so those are fully refundable. I'm using my Marriott lifetime status and Bonvoy points for the hotel stays so that makes those fully refundable. I booked the cruise on my Amex Platinum which includes travel insurance. I'm thinking that we are completely covered with all of these.

I'm looking forward to hearing other opinions of what risks may have been overlooked with this strategy.

We are scheduled for the March 21st cruise out of Miami on Riviera and still planning to go. We have no underlying health issues currently and are not over 60 so I don't feel that we are 'disobeying' any specific warnings.

(But I am watching the news and these boards very closely!)

Sometimes they will offer price discounts when you are on board -- we've saved considerable amounts that way in booking massages. You are taking a chance if you wait but it could be to your advantage. Wanted to let you know that it is possible -- but you cannot count on it so be aware that you are taking a chance. 🙂 

duplicate, sorry

7 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

The only "deal"  is 1/2price  deposit......   your going to get charged  for any of those 3 choices.   The wine/beer deal is a joke   you get a choice of about  20 average to good, none excellent wines....  at lunch and dinner you will be lucky to get 2 glasses per meal !!!  It is not "bar service or room service"   Beer starts at $7 and liquors $9 USD ( 14 aud with tip included)   If  you take the liquor option and pay $20 pp per day more then you get unlimited liquor  from any venue all day and as long as they are serving in bars at night.  It does not include premimum wines

Sorry to maybe go off topic here...

You're lucky to get 2 glasses per meal? When we dine, we expect to have cocktails while we peruse the menu and then a new glass with each course. Is that going to be difficult? Is that because the servers are not very attentive? Sometimes we want different wines with each course and ordering a bottle does not make as much sense as separate glasses (especially if we order items at each course where we each want different grapes).

12 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I can’t tell if you are being serious. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the cruise lines are “Cheating” or “stealing” dsc, it seems obvious that the companies are doing something other than returning 100% immediately to crew.  Like I stated above, at one time ncl published that they spend some of the collected fees for things like crew parties, crew flights, and staff bonuses. Shell game so-to-speak. If it was as simple as putting xxxx toward cabin stewards and xxxx toward dining staff (Continued until the full $15 pppd is accounted for), the cruise lines would publish exactly how the money is distributed. Without full disclosure, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume cruise lines are using (at least a portion)  of the dsc to apply toward general staff expenses.

Totally being serious here. I'm not talking about the DSC -- I'm talking about us saying "Give a $100 bonus to John Smith, our butler, for the wonderful service this week on our cruise and please charge it to our cabin" at guest services. If I did this at a hotel, I would not expect that they would redirect the funds anywhere else so why would that not apply here as well?

I really thought all the threads on the boards regarding 'where does the money go' were about the DSC, not any extra monies that we choose to distribute.

23 hours ago, HeavySeaman said:

Because you can't be sure they get it unless you hand it to them. The thought is that the company cheats them and keeps part of it.

Wow... that is really hard to believe!

1 hour ago, Nashna said:

Depends on the cruise line.  We were on a line where we tipped our waiter extra and he asked us if we had kept the service charge on our account.  When I asked if it made a difference, he told us that there was a list on file of those who had removed the charge, if we had removed the charge, he would have to give the amount we tipped back into the pool.  We went on three different cruise lines that year and I can't remember which one it was.  

I was referring an extra tip given with not even touching the Daily Service Charge. Why give a crew member cash instead of a charge to our on board account targeted to each crew member? I really don't like carrying cash. I never have more than $20 on my person at home since plastic is so much more secure. I don't like carrying a few hundred dollars onto a cruise ship just to tip. And, if I charge it to my on board account, I get points from my credit card company. Double win for me -- no chance of theft and helps to finance the airfare for my next cruise. 🙂 

I have slightly different question: why give out cash to each crew member? Why does it seem that nobody wants to simply charge that extra gratuity to their on board account and add the name(s) of the targeted crew members? We did this once because we did not have enough cash and did not have ATM machines available when we realized that our cash was so low. Would these funds still go to the targeted individuals in full? Or would the funds go into a pool like the Daily Service Charges?

9 hours ago, LHT28 said:

just ask the wine waiter to leave the bottle on the table

It is not a problem

From what I've read in this thread, that may or may not work. But yes -- definitely worth trying. And if this is the one thing I complain about after our cruise, then I'll know I had a great time! 🙂 

11 hours ago, clo said:

Why can't you refill your own glass? A handicap perhaps?

🙂 No, he just likes being chivalrous. Though as I type this, maybe that would be even better if we were drinking Chivas. 😉 

3 hours ago, pinotlover said:

They have never left the bottle or the decanter of wine on our table. 

My husband prefers to be the one to refill my glass.  If he speaks to our Butler in advance, might the various venues all get the message and leave the bottle at his disposal? Does anyone have any experience with this type of request? If not, I guess we'll find out... but whenever we're out for dinner, allowing him to decide when to refill my glass and with how much liquid is one of his biggest complaints. (In our experience, servers tend to overfill.)

I guess if they don't tap dance into the Terrace, we'll be fine! 🙂 Thanks!

On Seaside, we ordered Room Service pizza. I am extremely gluten-sensitive but not "emergency room visit" sensitive. I plucked the toppings off my husband's pizza and had no issues. The toppings came off clean and I had zero issues. Yummy!

I had not even considered that Deck 11 is right under Waves until I read this thread. We're in 11060 which is apparently under some "dead"space. Does anyone know for what this area is used:

21 hours ago, clo said:

Actually there are pre-made egg whites. I don't know about cruise ships but if Costco has them.... 🙂

We buy them in the paper containers and cook them fresh at home. Does Costco sell them pre-cooked? Are they already cooked and you just reheat them?

10 hours ago, Twiga said:

Best Cat Mom:  Have a wonderful cruise!  Please post afterwards and let us know how you enjoyed the cruise and, especially, dressing up!  Bon voyage!

Thank you!

I intend to post our thoughts, here and on the MSC boards as well. We had recently discovered MSC's Yacht Club and love the exceptional service and intimate feeling of their European-style ship-within-a-ship. We're looking forward to trying a cruise line where the whole ship is a 'ship-within-a-ship.' Whenever we would leave the YC on MSC, we couldn't wait to get back to the  sanctuary of it as soon as possible. We're looking forward to being on a smaller ship so we feel the movement more as well. Sometimes a ship large enough to hold 4.5K+ guests doesn't even seem to moving and I need to find a view to the outside to make sure that I'm not just in a big hotel. 🙂 

Thank you to pna, CintiPam, clo, Twiga and Mura !!! I am so relieved. I did not want us to look pretentious. Thank you SO much. I will have on white jeans most days (we'll be in the Caribbean) but will feel good when I get to dress up with my guy later. Vacations are our fun time. 🙂

I knew when we booked our first Oceania cruise that there would not be any formal nights and that business casual was more the norm. However, I was hoping that we wouldn't stand out too much when we will 'dress up' for dinner. I travel all the time for work and am looking forward to having my hubby with me for all those nights in a row for a change. We like to get dressed up and go out to dinner the few times we have a chance and I was not going to alter our behavior for this cruise. Will we really look 'off' if I'm in hose and heels every night and he is in a blazer and dress pants most nights, with a few nights of suit and tie?

I know not to expect formal dress from others. We never felt out of place on NCL when we dressed formally -- even when others in specialty restaurants were in cargo shorts and flip flops. We just like to make our time together feel "special." Am I crazy to think that this will work out okay??

We upgraded back in August for a September 2019 sailing and found the information on this thread helpful when talking with MSC via phone:

Posts #62 and #64 have info on language and codes to use with the CSRs on the phone.

Hope this helps. We very much enjoyed the Premium Plus package and felt it was well worth the extra charge.

On 2/2/2020 at 10:20 PM, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

After the 4th day our Butler noticed we drank wine and beer.  He removed most of the soda from the refrigerator and kept it stocked with beer.  When he brought canapes or dinner room service he would always bring a few glasses of wine and more beers.       

We have the Prestige package and a PH with a Butler also but I did not think that minibar alcohol was included. Was your Butler just being proactive and anticipating you asking for drinks or were minibar drinks part of your suite amenities?

We have our first cruise on Oceania coming up in March and having drinks refilled daily by the Butler would fit our normal routine quite nicely!

When I order scrambled -- anywhere -- I order scrambled egg whites. I have found that no one has pre-made or powdered egg whites so this is my way to know that they are fresh. And I can still ask for cheese or other additives so they don't come out nearly as tasteless as they might sound.

Our first cruise on Oceania is in 41 days (not that I'm counting LOL) and I intend to try this strategy to avoid any not-made-to-order scrambled eggs.