HipHipOnAShip

The 5% discount is after your first sailing. They CAN eat with you in the MDR but then they lose the anytime dining (and you'd have to arrange for it once onboard with the maitre d') You would not be able to join them in the anytime dining section I would seriously have them reconsider what they are paying for with the Aurea experience (unless they have a whirlpool balcony cabin). The benefits are much diminished from what they used to be.

Sorry but this makes no sense whatsoever. You cannot adjust staffing on a cruise ship on a whim. Oh, look, the Divina is going to be full next week, let's fly over 200 servers from the Meraviglia to help out... Cruise ship workers are on contracts ranging from 4 months (senior officers) to 12 months. Any movement between ships is carefully thought out and generally at the beginning of a contract (unless the ship repositions). It's not the same as a land based hotel or restaurant where you can call in reinforcements as needed.

(I was on that cruise with the vgloggers; didn't realize they got the upgrade for free 😡). You are NOT missing anything. The YC wines are generally very poor IMO on the US based sailings. They will try to push the cheapest wines possible on you and hope that you accept them. You really have to work hard to get a glass of what is included (wines at $15 a glass or less) with the Premium package when they really want you to drink what's on the Easy Plus package ($9 or less). The current Somm on the Meraviglia is notorious for this, unfortunately, and he tries to present very borning, flabby, mainstream wines with "a flair". (Think, "oh, look at this lovely La Terre White Zinfandel...") Unfortunately we will have to deal with him again later this year as he is still onboard.

It was on the Mera last month. I ordered the Washington Post (verbally to the butler) but was delivered the NY Post. I didn't want to make an issue so I went ahead and kept it - note with the sports section it is about 60 pages! But it had great puzzles, crosswords, etc! 🙂

Sorry about your disappointment, however, as you indicated: you thought you could get a copy of your folio after you left. As you can see, this is highly unlikely. In fact in all of our sailings with MSC we have rarely, if ever, gotten a final statement. As long as your credit card is attached and it clears the cruiseline is happy. Yes, it's odd as on other lines there's a way to check your balance on the tv or at self-serve kiosks. It is NOT easy on MSC during or after a sailing. As far as lost luggage, it's not MSC's responsibility that you left it. That is with the Port. I just tried using that Chargerback app and that looks fairly unhelpful, unfortunately. I would likely consider it gone for good. 😞

I've always found the bartenders to be very helpful in keeping the drinks within one's package allowance.

Wow, we had the EXACT opposite experience with him on the Mera. He kept offering grocery store bottles of $9 wines to us (basically the wines on the Easy Plus list even though we were in YC), to which we kept declining, until finally we gave up. We thought he was incredibly stingy.

The umbrellas at lighthouse beach are free, but first come, first served. Otherwise you can pay $15 or so to rent one, which you can arrange for onboard.

yes, you can order as many as you'd like

Making notes...😛

Cruises out of the US do not already include the daily hotel service charges.

Same thing (pretty much). Watch video around 4pm; make phone call from your stateroom indicating that you watch the video, hike to your designated spot (WITHOUT life jacket), scan your key card, hike back to your stateroom.

I know this is minor, but does anyone know what the 3 drinks are that one can choose from when purchasing the "Carousel Shows" on the Meraviglia? I keep reading that folks don't like them, but I'm curious as to what they are. Thanks in advance!

Have a wonderful cruise!!!!

You will have to have your TA call to find out. If you booked directly, well, we wish you godspeed and good luck with your MSC Customer Service dealings.

Sometimes they do not offer drink packages on the 3 day cruises; the cruise lines make money off of the drink packages on longer cruises. Reason being is that on day 1 - drink your face off, day 2 - continue to drink your face off, day 3 - wow, this is fun, day 4 - liver says "hold on a minute".. and by then the consumption stabilizes so that on average the consumption is profitable for the cruiseline. So it's not cost beneficial for them to offer drink packages on a 3 night bachelor party "blow out" cruise.

One would think that the cruiseline, should they choose to bump someone, would first upgrade the one's who purchased the YC interior and make them happy, then take the $ to upgrade the bidder to YC YIN and also make them happy. It doesn't make sense to "skip jump" over the folks who paid in full for the YC YIN.

this!!!! 🙂 🙂 SOOOOOOOOOOO VERY TRUE....(As I sit here at WORK daydreaming about being in the YC and reading the boards...) bwhahahahah

It's a glitch in their system (go figure....) You can purchase onboard.

for #1- have your travel agent do it, or call MSC directly. You only pay the difference. It's very easy to do. There are 3 levels of the drink package- Easy, Easy Plus, and Premium. for #2-you would pay $12 PLUS 15% gratuity, not the difference

Please note that if you are found taking beer off-board you may be denied the use of the package you paid for for the balance of the cruise...( as it is not intended for such use.) (On ship consumption). Also, the bartenders are technically supposed to open the can/bottle at the bar to prevent such occurrences.

Never seen it on any MSC ship

Correct, you can always be LATER than your assigned time. Last week at Port Canaveral they were checking the times when people arrived. Not stopping them, per se, but checking them.

Show up whenever you want for YC. Enjoy!