mnpurple

Thanks for sharing your trip! We will be on Euribia in mid-March, which might not be great weather. It sounds like there will be plenty to explore inside the ship though.

Is this a law or something across Spain? Just asking because when we were in Madrid and tried to use Uber we had a terrible time as well. We ended up grabbing taxi's, which was much easier. But if I had known about a 15 minute wait, I might have had less frustration. I'll have to do some more research!

We stayed at this place after our cruise last January. I booked on their website for the best price and then found a Thanksgiving special that was a bigger room for a lower price. It was a 15-20 min Uber from the port. They have an on-site restaurant, but at the time, the service was SUPER slow. They also have a free happy hour. https://rivierahotelsouthbeach.com/

If you ask your Butler, they will tape down the cords for your CPAP. That solved any concerns regarding tripping. That is a nice size TV. Larger than what we had on Seaview, although we never used it. Also larger than what we had on Divina, which had even been upgraded not long before our cruise. We had HGTV and Food Network, which was good enough for me. I like that shower much better than the Divina, which was a tub/shower and the unfortunate wall of mirrors.

I just saw this on a Facebook group I'm in. Looks to be a few options. I

My husband booked his tour while on the ship. Be aware, he was not able to see the Bridge or the Engine room at the time of his tour. I've heard others have been able to though. I think it depends on timing.

Thanks for sharing @jsydanma. We will be sailing in March, so it might be a bit warmer. We're from Minnesota, so know what cold is too, so maybe I'd give the pool a shot. Definitely would get in a hot tub. I'm hoping they have the pool bar and buffet set up if weather allows.

You are my kind of woman! I also hate hops and love porter and stouts. We were on a land trip up the coast last year and ended up at Oxbow and I was pleasantly surprised to find the Duck Fat frite shack there because I had heard wonderful reviews and found them very good. Now I'm thinking we'll need another trick just to find the other Poutine you had. That must have been quite a hike up there, if I recall not very close to the port area.

I can't answer many of your questions, but I am booked on a Euribia sailing in March and the pricing shown for the spa is $110/pp for the week. If it's anything like the Seaview, my family enjoyed it. I would imagine there isn't going to be much for outdoor swimming. Most ships have a jungle pool that is more enclosed, but I'm not sure about Northern Europe sailings. Most of the destinations show daytime highs somewhere in the mid-high 40's, so sitting on a balcony would be chilly unless you're wrapped up.

I saw a post on Facebook from someone on the cruise that they were having engine troubles.

I love pistachio, so hopefully that makes up for it!! And not a nut, but very Italian, love lemons, even have a lemon tattoo. Sorry OP if I'm way off-topic.

@Itchy&Scratchy You are right! I don't want that then. I meant Amaretto. I'm one of the few that thinks hazelnut is over-rated!

We missed Ocean Cay as well. I was bummed and we didn't get any credit for missing it. They might have been better to offer a credit. This being a longer cruise, it ended up being the third sea day and those not in YC were getting unruly from what I heard. We were glad to have the space of the YC.

You can use OBC to pay daily service charges too.

Some OBC is refundable. When we were on Seaview the YC concierge actually informed us we had additional credit for each of our three rooms booked for our family. We were refunded in cash by the concierge for the portion we didn't use. We have also gone through the casino to get OBC cashed out when on the Divina.

What time do they generally start music in the Top sail? I never noticed anything on our first cruise except the same piano player during dinner and getting very repetitive. We were never in there though very late. That was the Med. On our 10-day Divina they had a female singer, but we didn't know about her until several days in because we heard from another couple how great she was. I guess we're night owls, so maybe miss out on the later fun.

@Best Cat Mom And I thought i was clever ordering a shot of Bailey's with my coffee. I might mix it up with a little Frangelico and the coconut rum for a little coconut almond delightfulness.

I am getting some really good ideas here, too bad my next cruise is still several months away. We will be at an all-inclusive sooner and I might test some of these ideas there!

As I read this, I think we've "down-graded" progressively on each of our cruises. We started our first MSC cruise in a YC Deluxe Suite on the Seaview that was very spacious. Last Jan, we were in YC Deluxe on Divina, which was quite a bit smaller room and bathroom. Our next cruise we begin a six week European adventure in a YC Interior on Euribia out of Southampton. We're planning on each having one back pack, so I would hope space won't be an issue. We've been married for over 30 years, so we can manage in a smaller space for a short time (with lots of YC area to stretch). It will also make the remaining five weeks of travel feel like we have so much more space! Looking forward to hearing more of your cruise reporting @JamieLogical. You are booked on the same cruise itinerary we took last January. We really enjoyed it, but it was a very rough sailing almost the entire time. We weren't able to dock at OC. 😪 Hopefully yours will be smoother. Divina is a lovely ship and staff were great, however we preferred the Seaview more. Personal preference I guess.

We've also had this experience.

We did an MSC excursion in Jamaica (different ship) to a rum tasting and lunch, w/brief tour of the area. It was pretty bad and very disorganized. I wouldn't recommend that one for anyone. It seemed most of the tours leaving there were unorganized and behind. If I were to do it again, I would find a private tour there or just go to the beach somewhere.

My kids enjoy having a "shower beer". You are much more classy with the shower-tini! I'll have to remember that for my next cruise. On our last sailing I had the Tiramisu and mentioned to our waiter I like when they are made using rum, so he got me a huge shot of rum to pour over it! It wasn't quite the same, but gave us a laugh, especially when he brought some rum with my husbands order a few nights later.

I love your style and positive attitude! Looking forward to hearing more about your adventure and the unicorn dust!

I'd be interested to see what you find out for LeHavre. We cruise next March and are looking for the same thing. I don't know if you've looked at the port of call board, but I've found some information there and recommendation for a tour company. The tours in France seem very expensive, so we were going to consider renting a car as well. It would be nice if there were a ship tour though because I'm not sure how risky I am feeling, but we do have some time to figure it out. I don't think we would drive hours, just hopefully find some of the D-day sites.

Not sure if it makes a difference, but we had a Covid re-booking and my son's GF was no longer able to go, so we had our travel agent change to one of his friends. I thought there was supposed to be a re-booking fee, but we were never charged. We had also purchased travel insurance and were told by the TA that couldn't be changed, but when we called the company directly, they had no problem changing the name for that as well. When in December and how good of a deal? I may have some free time to squeeze in a cruise LOL!