RedgeToo

I'm a bit older than you, well more than a bit. In fact, I'm the generation you're trying to avoid Last September, I cruised the Med with Princess out of Barcelona. Princess was pretty good with meet-ups for both straight and LBGQT+MGBGT people. At the meet-ups, I met some lovely people aged from 22 to 70m with the 70-year-old lady able to dance the night away long after the youngsters had gone to bed. I'm naturally gregarious so I don't have a problem laughing and joking with strangers of any age. and kept in touch with a 22-year-old man from America for a short while and a 28-year-old woman from Ireland who I still talk to. Enjoy your cruise.

Should have been Celestyal Cruises - bloody autocorrect, it's my worst enema!

Cheers!

20th October 2023, MSC round trip Southampton Just this moment booked Crystal Cruises round trip from Athens on 9th March 2024, including 5 excursions to the Pyramids, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Limassol and Curium, Lindos and the Citadel of Knights, and Ephesus. :)

Great This is easy :) A taxi is €39 each way - cash or card. It's a fixed price and doesn't take long. There are a lot of taxis at the airport and it's even possible to share if you can find someone going to the cruise port. There are other cheaper ways, but this is the easiest way if you are anxious. My top tips: Go to the solo meet-up if there is one Always tell the MDR staff, you're happy to share People are more than happy for you to sit with them and talk Most of all - enjoy! Let me know if I can help you with anything else.

First of all, congratulations on taking the plunge. Could you tell us which airport you arrive in and which port you sail from, and I'll do a little digging DM me if you prefer

MSC are notorious for poor customer service, so much so that I've decided never to sail with them again despite their solo-friendly prices. I had a similar issue with them around the same time as you and finally received my money at the end of February. My advice is as follows: Don't give up. MSC should not be allowed to keep your money Email customer services and/or your travel agent every week. Keep any responses in case you need to use them. Direct message the CEO via email if you can find the address or, as I did via Farcebook. The caveat here is that you must find the CEO details for your particular country. In my case, I'd booked via Germany so I DM'd Christian Hein the CEO of MSC Germany. I did this every week just to annoy him. Don't give up. I got my money back but it took 3 months of constant badgering MSC, the CEO of MSC Germany, and my TA. You can do it too. Best of luck, and please let us know how you get on.

WOW! Only 3 months later and I've finally got my money back!

I won't be cruising with MSC after my October cruise. If I could cancel that one without losing my deposit, I would

Quick update. Despite promises, MSC has still not refunded my money. I've messaged Christian Hein 3 times with no response. Dreadful customer services.

I did my first Princess cruise last September in the Med. There was an unhosted solo meet-up every evening which was advertised in the daily planner. Ages varied from 22 to 70, and numbers from 6 to 12

That's very kind of you to say. I've cruised for over 30 years, but never with HAL. I must try them sometime, but not this year, I already have my March, October, and Christmas cruises booked. I'm the same. Whenever I book a cruise, I have to start planning the trip to the airport, hotel, parking, where I'll go ashore... you get the picture. Everything goes into a spreadsheet showing where I'm flying from and to, where I'm staying, which ports and on what dates, and, of course, the cost. It's all colour coded too! 🤣🤣🤣 Planning is part of the pleasure :)

Good point

My TA isn't at fault, MSC are at fault for not refunding the money as agreed between my TA and MSC Interestingly, I chased MSC yesterday and contacted the CEO and the response I got was: The refund is currently in process. Due to the immense effort involved in reimbursement all affected bookings we ask for your patience and understanding that refunds currently taking more time. Makes me think there is more than just me that's been overcharged

I'm not sure there is anything normal about MSC customer services

I agree. My TA told me they normally received a response from MSC between 10-16 weeks

It's ok, I found a way of contacting the CEO Thanks for the idea

Thank you, I've already emailed the German customer services. If anyone has Hein's email address I'd be very grateful DM please

Good point, although technically MSC invoiced me too much. The mistake I made was not checking the invoice The issue has nothing to do with booking through a German website. I have nothing but praise for my online TA. If MSC take 10-16 weeks to respond to the TA, what can they do? BTW, I appreciate all advice/ help from all commenters

It seems I am not allowed to state who my TA is due to CC rules - fair enough They are a well-known, online, purveyor of cruises that I have used several times with no issues. The TA is based in Germany and I've never had an issue with the TA, quite the opposite

It'll cost you more in phones calls! It's a shame really because I like the MSC offering, if only they advertised solo meet ups in their daily calendar it would be great As things stand, I'll not be an MSC regular

I use *****.com as they have really good prices for solos. As such ***** is my TA. MSC, however, insist that ***** users pay MSC direct - don't ask me why I don't know. I paid my deposit and my final invoice directly to MSC as required by MSC. I then spotted I'd been overcharged (yes, I should have checked before paying the invoice but I wasn't expecting to be overcharged by a big company). I wrote to my TA to say I'd been overcharged and my TA wrote to MSC. MSC wrote back within a couple of days and confirmed they had overcharged me and gave me the choice of OBC or a refund of the overcharge to my credit card. I chose my credit card and MSC confirmed via my TA that the refund would take place on 24th December 2022. The refund didn't happen I wrote to my TA and to MSC saying I didn't receive my refund My TA wrote back saying they had also written to MSC and MSC usually responds between 10-16 weeks! Is that clearer?

Thanks, The TA isn't an issue, I'd book with them again, it's MSC who are expected to respond in 10-16 weeks

MSC offered the refund to my credit card or OBC I chose my credit card as I already had my packages booked and paid for

MSC had promised the refund would be made to my credit card prior to the day I embarked in Barcelona on 24th December 2022. An electronic refund should be practically instantaneous, subject to banks holding onto the cash for a few days so they can extract their pound of flesh. I left it for 17 days before posting this.