Hello. DH and I are taking the dip into the MSC pool. We have 30+ cruises under our belts and decided to try a MSC cruise this summer (~3 weeks away). After reading and watching various reviews, I am getting a little nervous. Looking for you all to calm my nerves and give me guidance.
1. We will be embarking on a ship that does multiple port embarkation. Does this cause any delays getting off for shore excursions? Are there separate gang areas for shore excursion versus debarkation?
2. I read somewhere about getting a ticket the night before a port. Is this for tendering or is there some other ticketing process going on?
3. Multiple reviews have talked about either MSC being late to port or disembarking for the port excursions LATE. One review talked about 2 hours late, others talked about 30 to 45 minutes. Is this fairly common or rare occurrence? How do you handle non-ship excursions with such delays? We have some tours booked with www.SpainDayTours.com that we really hope to make but they are listed to start 30 minutes after stated ship docking times.
4. I have read about the Carousel shows and understand these are usually really good shows. I have read there is a fee charge for these. Can someone advise normal price 25 euros or 100 euros? What can I expect?
Thank you in advance and any suggestions you can give to make our trip special would be great. We have never been to any of these ports and the planning of this trip has been challenging. Malaga, Lisbon, Alicante, Cadiz, Mahon, Olbia, Genoa, Marseille.
Lori