New2Cruise76

You'll be able to book both show times and specialty dining once on board. Have a great cruise!

Great pictures! Please tell me you "took care" of the Spotted Laternfly in the 13th image, very destructive and invasive species.

It appears to have cleared up. Both app and web are working correctly, and no iframe errors in the console.

Same issue for me. The only way I could even post a reply is by inspecting the page and deleting the modal container. For the moderators: It looks like there's a couple of console warnings about the iframes running outside of the sandbox environment.

Well, I've sent an email to them to get a better understanding of what's included. For all I know, they may be including DSC in that rate. If that's the case, it changes the whole dynamic. On a completely unrelated note, my youngest mad a new island in Animal Crossing and named it Ocean Cay. I think she's excited for the cruise. Ill keep you all updated on what I hear.

So, thIs is an interesting one. I did serve in the Naval Reserves, but only for 2-3 years. For complicated reasons, I seperated early. We're going through the file cabinet to try and find my discharge paperwork, but to hedge my bets, I've also requested a new copy of my DD214. I know that the discharge status was "General Discharge Under Honorable Circumstances", so it was nothing bad surrounding my discharge. I honestly haven't touched my paperwork in close to 20 years, because I didn't need to use any possibly available benefits and I also didn't feel right using benefits that rightfully should go to those who put their lives on the line, and not some dude who sat in an overglorified classroom once a month for a few years. I guess I'm ok with saving 10% on a cruise though, guess we know where my line in the sand is, lol.

Good point, @Best Cat Mom, I haven't spoke to them yet, payday is tomorrow, so that's when I was planning on booking. I'll reach out to them to verify I'm not missing something. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We celebrated yesterday, since my eldest is staying at their friends cabin over the weekend, and I completely forgot.

@bundtkate good thought, i decided to take it to the final screen where you input credit card information, and the price listed (for the three person, 10378). So, yeah, I still as stumped as before. Like I said, I may be cheap, but I'm more then willing to spend a little more to reduce headaches down the road. I mean, technically the TA is giving ~10% in OBC, they're just also charging me ~10% more, lol.

@Mark_T I'm not sure if the VC discount is being applied by the TA, but I did supply when requesting the quote. I honestly don't get much from VC, since I've never cruised before, and I matched my blue level from from Carnival for Classic at MSC, still gives me the 5+5, which is what I was hoing for. I think it might make things easier if I include what I'm being quoted from the TA as well as MSC Quote from TA: MSC price for 10378: and for 10382 also. I just realized that MSC also includes $50 OBC per cabin which I guess makes the TA deal less attractive. Like I said, I'm completely clueless when it comes to TAs. We almost never fly, and have never flown for a vacation, never taken a cruise or went to an AI, so I'm really moving out of my comfort zone. I really don't know how to find a good TA, and know this isn't the place to ask for recommendations, lol. It's made even more difficult, since it seems that most TAs don't have a lot of desire to work with MSC. There was a second quote provided from another TA, which doesn't include which cabins, just the class, which makes me nervous, also the one that's in the screenshot was much more well reviewed on multiple sites.

I think you all have convinced me. Running the numbers, it's only $15 more then booking direct, after deducting the OBC. It's also a plus that this is basically a backdoor way of prepaying the DSC, which will make this an even more all inclusive vacation, which is really appealing to me. I'm a pretty cheap guy, so I'm always trying to save money where I can, so I can spend it somewhere tangible. In this case, it does seem like it would be penny wise, pound foolish to not go the TA route. Hopefully this will start a business relationship with a TA that can pay off in the long term. Thanks again for helping this newbie cruiser!

Hey all, me again! I'm closing in on booking our cruise on the Meraviglia in June, and I once again have questions. I want to preface this by saying I'm not asking for recommendations. What I'm trying to figure out what exactly is the point of going through a travel agent? I know it provides a layer of insulation from the infamous MSC shoreside customer service, but looking at a highly recommended site that compares TAs, every result I'm seeing is at least slightly higher after deducting the OBC provided by the TA compared to booking through MSC direct. I'll be the first to admit that I'm new to using a TA and don't have a clue. I know I can use the OBC to cover the DSC and have a little left over for on board spending, but is that the only reason to go through a TA? I've planned out this trip pretty thoroughly, and I don't foresee any reason to alter the booking after I make it, so it's doubtful that I'm going to end up in the repricing nightmare many go through. I just want to know if there is some other intangible benefit that I'm not seeing?

Funny, we actually talked about that, but PTO is hard to come by where I work. There would also be challenges with child care. But those could be worked around. So we decided to just do a family vacation. Honestly, I'm an overplanner and worry far more than I should. In the grand scheme of things, we're going to have fun and make a ton of new memories, and it won't matter one bit which cruise line we go with. It'll still be fun.

Yeah, this is my big concern as well. My middle child doesn't have much of an issue with crowds and my wife is the same way, whereas my youngest, oldest, and myself all get overwhelmed by crowds. It's definitely another good reason to go with the balcony rooms, I'd honestly prefer to do YC for that low passenger volume enclave to hide out in, but at this point, it's outside the budget.

@Two Wheels Only Thanks for the reassurances. I've been pouring over reviews and YT vids and I figured there'd be enough to keep them entertained, but it's always a concern being in a confined area and finding out there's not enough for the kids. It's really a balancing act with them, they want to go, go, go, but then at the drop of a hat, their social battery goes to E and the behavior struggles start. That's why I'm looking at two balconies there should be enough room for them (Or me, lol) to head back to the cabin and decompress when things get overwhelming. I'm surprised to hear there might be issues with opening the dividers between balconies. For reference we're looking at the premium aft balconies on deck 13, I think they're "Family balconies" or something similar, where there are two balconies with an inside studio between the two balcony rooms and the 2 balconies are connected with the studio. I'm thinking that all three are designed to be book together to make a suite, which would lead me to believe that connecting the balconies would be something they can do. Then again, it seems like with most mainstream cruise lines, the only consistency is inconsistency, lol. @JamieLogical I was hoping you'd show up! I've been loving your live reviews, especially as a defector from NCL, it's been nice to see the comparisons between the two lines. We're definitely doing the fun passes for the kids. It seems like a good value and I try to give them as many new opportunities and experiences as possible, especially on vacations. @gizfish I'm glad to hear that the food is good. Half of my family is a bit on the picky side, my youngest will pretty much not eat meat, except when she does, lol. I've poured over the menus, and there's definitely stuff all of them will eat, and pizza is always a hit. I've definitely been seeing widely mixed reviews on swapping rooms with MSC. It seems like it just depends on the day, and policies are evolving with their US sailings, so for all I know things will be easy peasy when we get to embarkation day. @blueslily It seems like the wristbands are hit an miss depending on ship, I thought I read somewhere here that they had stopped offering the wristbands on Meraviglia except for YC, but like I said above, who knows where things will lie next summer. I'll be honest, one of the reasons I've been leaning towards MSC is because they are so polarizing. If for some reason the family doesn't like the cruise (Although, judging from everyone's excitement, that seems unlikely), I can just use the fact that they are different from the more mainstream lines as a reason to try RC, Carnival, or NCL. If they end up loving it, we can cruise on them in the future as well as check out other lines. It's a win-win, lol. I'm super excited about this, I've always had a soft spot for being on the ocean, and the ability to see other countries is a big draw for me, even if it's only a sample of a country, it an east way to get an idea if it's somewhere I'd like to explore more thoroughly.

I know this is probably a question that's posed all the time, but I'd love to hear pros and cons from similar people. A bit of background on me and my family. My wife and I (early to mid 40s) have three kids age 10, 11, and 14. Our entire family is neurodivergent to one extent or another (quick joke, how do tou tell if someone is on the spectrum? Don't worry, they'll tell you! 😉), primarily Autism, with a sprinkling of ADHD for excitement. The point of this is that most of my family have sensory issues, which I'd guess could be exacerbated by being on a ship. We typically do one big week+ long vacation a year, with the occasional shorter trips wher vacation time allows. Since we own a pop-up camper, a lot of our trips are to state parks, but if our big trip is a camping trip, we'll go to a Yogi Bear, or other camping resort to use as a base to explore the area we're staying at. Other trips we've done were renting a Class C motorhome and "camping" at Cedar Point for a week, as well as renting a houseboat for a week. About two months ago, I saw a reddit post about the Meraviglia, and just for giggles, I started pricing things out. I've always been fascinated by Cruises, but thought the price would be exorbitant, or that it would be targeted more to "geezers" and not families. Anyway, that post got my curiosity up, and i priced out sample itineraries, and was shocked that a basic cruise on MSC would actually be over a thousand less than the housboat rental on the Erie canal that we were planning on doing next year. So I brought up the possibility of doing a cruise for the vacation, and the kids nearly lost it in excitement. At first, i was leaning towards MSC, but i researched and saw all the bad reviews about food, rowdy behavior amoung the steerage class, and YC interlopers. So i looked at Carnival, RC and NCL, and was strongly leaning towards an Oasis class ship, but the pricing for two balconies was 8k without drink packages or wifi The kids were insistent that they get the ship with the roller coaster, go karts, or be one of the biggest ships. Obviously, Meraviglia doesn't fall under any of those categories. I'm back in the MSC camp because, the prices are still the best with drinks and wifi, and I'm personally really intrigued by the more European feel described in the lives I've read as well as reviews. I also think my kids would be overwhelmed by the size of the larger ships. So here are some of my concerns (focused on Meraviglia): 1) Is there enough activities to kids to keep them occupied? Kids clubs, and other activities. They like to do active stuff, but also like gaming and tech. 2) is steerage, gen pop, the plebs, whatever really that raucous? I obviously don't want the kuds to have a ton of stress, but these are also kuds that live to go to big theme parks, so how does the ship compare to that. 3) Any recent experiences with room swapping, we're looking at two balconies side by side, and there's no way to have the kids in one and the parents in the other. Is the wristbrand talked about an option to allow my wife to stay in the same room. If not, with a shared balcony, there's definitely work arounds. We're looking at the 6/2 or 6/14 Bahamas cruise out of New York. I don't see any available connecting cabins, but I'm assuming that if we get side by side balconies, we can join the balconies and have a super sized balcony. I'll probably put down a deposit on Black Friday and maybe score a deal. Thanks for reading, and i welcome any tips or recommendations from all you experienced cruisers!