mrisj

12 hours ago, GStuart said:

Experiencing a similar issue regarding a 14 night sailing booked on the Splendida for 10/2022. It seems as though the med MSC sailings for fall 2022 are in quite a state of flux. In our case a 14-night sailing has been changed to a 7-night sailing with a completely different itinerary (only 2 ports of the original sailing have been maintained).

We were supposed to go:

Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Marseille, Genoa, Civitavecchia, Palermo, Cagliari, Palma de Mallorca.

And now it's:

Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Cannes, Genoa, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Palma de Mallorca.

So same as you, all different ports but two. And one port less, so a sea day that wasn't there originally. Also it's a completely uninteresting itinerary for us this way. We were looking forward to Valencia, Marseille and Cagliari. 

Just noticed the same thing in my MSC account for our Seaview 6/2022 cruise. Wanted to book the flights tomorrow when they become available and decided to double check the departure dates. To my surprise I found: different departure date, ship and itinerary. It looks like they shuffled all the Med cruises... Haven't been notified of these changes. They will hear from me tomorrow.

I have experience with gluten free bread, not sure if it is non-dairy. They have pre-packaged bread slices, several types of buns/rolls and croissants. It's been the same on all five ships I've been on with MSC, so this will probably be the case on the Bellissima as well. 

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

As an alternative in Malta, check out Rolling Geeks located in the Three Cities of Vittoriosa, Senglea, and Cospicua, right across the water from the cruise port. These are GPS equipped, self guided golf carts with audio commentary which gives you turn by turn instructions. It tells you where to go, what you’re seeing, and when to park your cart and explore. They are a lot of fun and it’s an easy way to traverse the narrow cobbled streets. We took the water ferry across (terminal located a few minutes walk from the cruise port). It was a wonderful day for the whole family.

 

About excursions that say “not suitable for pregnant women”, I’ll share with you our cautionary tale. A few years ago, my wife and I went on a Caribbean cruise. We had just found out that my wife was pregnant a few weeks prior to our departure, but we wanted to try a shallow water scuba excursion for beginners. Even though it said that it wasn’t suitable for pregnant women, we felt that it would be safe since we wouldn’t be going any deeper than when snorkeling, and my wife wasn’t feeling the pregnancy yet, so we did it.
 

A few weeks after our return from that cruise, my wife had a miscarriage. And even though the doctor reassured us that our excursion had nothing to do with the miscarriage and that, at that early point in pregnancies, these things do happen without any assistance, we carried a horrible guilt thinking that maybe we had done something to cause it.
 

So even if you think that it should be safe enough, don’t do something that is labeled as “not suitable for pregnant women”. God forbid, but if for some reason you have a similar experience to ours, believe me, you don’t want to deal with the mental anguish that comes from thinking that something that you weren’t supposed to do affected your pregnancy, even if it didn’t. 
 

Have a wonderful cruise! Enjoy Malta, one of my favorite ports in the world! 

Thanks for your reply and your personal story. I've looked at Rolling Geeks! Think we'll do that, sounds like a lot of fun 🙂

8 hours ago, allmotormark said:

I have been on that tour and yes there was sections that were bumpy. I wouldn’t recommend it for you. Also seating wouldn’t be comfortable. 

4 hours ago, Host Carolyn said:

Roads in Malta are bumpy. Valletta is a stunning old city to explore on your own or perhaps a visit to Mdina, the silent city? Please don't risk a pregnancy complication on a tour not suitable for pregnant women!

Thank you both, that's helpful 😊 Just sucks because it's really the only excursion we want to do. I can't walk very far (nothing to do with my pregnancy) and every tour has a lot of walking, so this would've been perfect. Will try to find something else. 

13 hours ago, G.M.T. said:

The jeeps are equipemnt to deliver babys.

 

What part of "not suitable for pregnant women" do you not understand?

 

The excursion provider has far more experience than yourself so just follow his rules.

 

Pregnancy is a joyous time, why risk your baby's life, you have your whole life before you to do a jeep tour.

 

Why not do a 100 meter bungy jump.

Wow that's rude. Like I explained in my post, some companies are overly cautious and only care about liability. Of course I'm not risking by baby's life, that's why I'm asking this question and not just booking the tour. Jeez. 

Hi everyone.

My husband and I will be going on the Grandiosa next week from Genoa to Barcelona, with stops in Civitavecchia, Palermo and Valletta. 

For Valletta, I've been looking at the Jeep Tour excursion. This excursion best suits our wishes, however, I'll be 20 weeks pregnant and it says "not suitable for pregnant women". It's probably because of (possible) bumpiness, but I'm not sure if they put this because they are overly cautious and don't want to be held liable, or if there's a genuine risk. So I was wondering if anyone on this board has experience with this particular excursion in Valletta and can tell me how rough and bumpy it really was. If it's just a jeep tour across roads, I don't see any problems 🤷‍♀️

Thanks! 

My parents just checked in to the Meraviglia and also got a Yacht Club upgrade. And they expected to only get the cabin, but they got all the perks! They're so excited.

If you would like to know how this works on board if you've filled out the form in advance, I'm celiac (gluten intolerant) and have been on two MSC cruises. Not sure if they follow the same procedure for lactose intolerant, but I'll share anyway. 

• They have a separate kitchen for special diets.
• You get a different waiter at dinner than the rest of your table. They give you a special menu and take your order.
• Breakfast and lunch are best to be had at the restaurant, so the staff can accommodate your diet. There's no dietary information at the buffet, so it's at your own risk. You can ask the staff of course, but I've often find they got no clue. So I prefer the restaurant. No cross contamination risks either. The waiter for your table will get the "special requests breakfast/lunch waiter" (as I call them) and they will hand you the menu and take your order.
• The menu for breakfast is always the same (as it is for everyone else). The lunch and dinner menus are different every day. Sometimes the menu is similar to the menu of the other guests at your table, but often that's not the case.
• The one down side is: your food will be served at its own pace, so not in sync with the rest of the table. I've been in situations where I got dessert and the rest of the table hadn't even gotten their starter, or the other way around. Kinda takes the fun out of eating together, but that's just something you have to deal with, as you have no other choice 🙂

Hope this helps 🙂

*edit: I didn't answer your question, lol. There's a good chance they have lactose free milk on board. You could call and check to make sure. If they don't have it, I think it's no problem that you bring it and store it in your mini bar. If they ask you about it, you've got a good explanation. I've brought gluten free foods on board as wel, never had any questions.