CruiseTee

Yes, the offer was Come Back and Play. It was on my bed the last night of the cruise. I had to book it within 30 days to receive the offer, so I did. This is the only offer I received from them, but it came with $500, so I'm taking it!

Thanks all! I did book the cruise through the casino offer, it was a great deal. Glad they will load the amount on my card and I can use it for the cruise. I will bring the original certificate I received to prove that I should receive the $500. I hope to have a little more self control on this cruise! It's very easy to rack up a big balance now that you can charge casino money to your shipboard account!

Hi All! Casino Question...On my last HAL cruise, I received a certificate for a free cruise plus $500 in casino free play (yes, I was quite shocked, too!). I must have lost count as to how much I was spending in there...LOL. I am bringing the certificate with me on my next cruise (next month) and was wondering if they will give me a voucher for the free play? My mother won one once (a long time ago) and they literally just handed her the cash to play with! I am sure this has changed. Anyone know? Thanks!

Hi All! We just returned from our family (and extended family!) trip on the Meraviglia. It was a great cruise! As expected, the Butler (our 8 cabins all had the same one), was outstanding. Meri couldn't do enough for us, and was extra special to our elderly passengers. We gave her a huge tip at the end of the cruise, as well as our servers in the YC Dining Room, who were amazing as well. I just wish the shore side MSC personnel could be as amazing and efficient as their on-board crew. I hope they can achieve this moving forward because the staff on board the ships really shine! Thanks again for all your great advice and wishing you all a great rest of the summer!

I don't even know how to do that, but, I have to say, the aggravation it caused me this ENTIRE week was enough to not sail with them again. There are a lot of other cruise choices out there. MSC needs to step up their game and not cause drama for their clients.

The reason why we chose to have cabins next to each other was to assist my elderly relatives. If we had adjacent balcony cabins, we could have opened up the balconies and had free, unrestricted access to them and they would just have to call out for us if we were needed for anything. So, it's a shame MSC changed our cabins without our knowledge. They did receive my email and are supposedly "checking into the issue", but that was two days ago and I have not heard back since. We all have different check-in times also. We are all traveling to the port together in a pre-arranged vehicle and will arrive at the same time. I am hoping/guessing this will not be a problem since we are all in YC? We also all have to get our photos taken because I cannot upload any of the photos through our web check-in! I called MSC Tech Support and they were of no help. Ugh!! Why isn't this cruise going smoothly for me before I even step on the ship?? I kind of just have to laugh about it at this point! Again, thank you all for your advice and suggestions!!

I am a 4 Star Mariner on Holland, they are my favorite line! I wouldn't care if they moved me and TOLD me about it, but it's the shock of going into your reservation and seeing that you've been moved involuntarily. And I wouldn't even care if it were just me, but traveling with 14 other people of all ages who want to be near each other...it's just an unnecessary annoyance.

Right, if this was one of my travel clients, I would be mortified having to explain why this happened. Why do they move cabins?? I mean, you purchase a cabin number, it's SOLD. Nobody else can buy it! Why is that so difficult? I am now at the very front of the ship, which I HATE, because I get seasick and the motion there is the strongest, especially on a NY to FL cruise.

OK, that's hilarious. LOL!!

Thank you so much! Well said.

Thank you so much for your message. It's making me feel a lot better!

I appreciate all of you and your answers. Thank you for letting me vent! I am hoping to hear back from MSC at some point. Not that I believe they will rectify the situation, because, how can they at this point? I doubt they are going to move the passengers that are now in my selected cabins. Ugh. But at least they can apologize. I don't want or need an upgrade or anything, not looking for it and wouldn't even take it if offered, I just want them to know I'm dissatisfied with their service and won't be sailing with them again.

This is my 4th time in YC. They give you luggage tags, we always put them on our luggage. Can they do it at the check in tent? I'm sure. But luggage tags are always needed.

I totally hear you. No, I don't expect the call center people to have cruised with MSC, BUT I do expect them to be trained to answer questions they may receive from cruisers! Some of them don't sound like they even know what a ship is. Truth.

You are right. The people onboard their ships are wonderful, it's the pre-cruise BS that is frustrating. Making a reservation, trying to get someone who actually knows what they are doing on the phone, etc. Then all the hiccups until you actually get to the YC check-in tent. Once you're on board, the YC is nice, but I have to be honest, their food, even in YC, not so great. I've had better food in all the main dining rooms that I've mentioned above than in the YC.

They have mobility issues and both are cancer survivors. We are bringing wheelchairs for them, so yes, while "elderly" may not correlate to "incapacitated", they are infirm and will require family assistance. No, if you're in YC and pick specific cabins, moving up or down decks doesn't matter in the least.

I'm curious how the customer service is for non Yacht Club guests! This vacation cost in upwards of $40,000, again, eight cabins! To have it start off like this is not OK.

4 Cabins were Inside YC Cabins. 4 were YC Deluxe Balcony. They ended up leaving the Insides as is. The 4 balcony cabins were all changed, one to a different deck. My aunt & uncle are in their late 80s and traveling with us and are now on a different deck, all alone. I am hoping to switch my son to their cabin and move the elders back down to our deck. But the incompetent people at MSC couldn't even do that for me. They were like, "just do it on the ship." Yeah, OK.

Then why bother booking a specific cabin number when you can just book a guarantee for cheaper? I'm more annoyed that they changed my cabin number WITHOUT telling me. I am a Travel Agent. If this had been any other party than my own family, I would be hugely embarrassed to tell my client that MSC changed their eight cabins.

I am a TA. MSC hires such poor customer service staff, even in their TA Department that nobody knows what to do. I end up knowing more about the ship(s) than the people who answer their phones. It's mind blowing.

That's probably why I won't ever sail Princess either. I've been on 25 cruises with the following cruise lines and it's never been done to me: Carnival, Oceania, Holland America, Cunard, Celebrity, NCL, RCCL and Regent. Not once have they ever changed my cabin when I booked a specific cabin.

No, two cabins were booked at the Casino Rate and the other 6 were at the full fare price, so they don't consider it a group.

I have eight cabins booked in the Yacht Club on an upcoming sailing of the Meraviglia. Upon checking my reservations, it seems that almost all of the cabins I pre-selected have been moved! What the hell? What's the point of pre-selecting your cabins only to have MSC change them? This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time I didn't care as it was only myself and my sister sailing, now, I have elderly relatives that have been moved to a different deck, alone, and apart from the rest of the family. Forget about trying to call MSC for rectification/explanation, as nobody that seems to answer their phones knows anything. I am so done with MSC, there are so many other better cruise lines out there. Has this happened to anyone? Having their pre-selected cabin number changed without their knowledge? I am LIVID, and I haven't even gotten on the ship yet! I wrote a strongly worded letter to CEO of the USA branch, Richard Sasso and also emailed a bunch of other departments. This is my last sailing with MSC.

Update: I emailed P&O and received the following very nice email explanation about the travel insurance, and then went ahead and purchased a travel policy through an American carrier. Good info to know for those traveling on P&O from the US! Good Evening Mrs Thank you for your email. I am pleased to hear you are joining us on board Britannia for your holiday.You do not need to book travel insurance directly through Holiday Extras, this is just a recommendation as I recognise that you are a U.S citizen. All guests however must have comprehensive travel insurance that includes cover for cruising, medical disembarkation and emergency evacuation. It is the guests reponsibility to ensure you have appropriate cover in place for the duration of your holiday. Unfortunately you will be denied boarding, at your own expense, if you’re unable to confirm you have arranged insurance. You may be asked for proof of your travel insurance so please be sure to bring either a printed or digital copy of your insurance documentation that confirms cover for the named travellers over the dates of travel. I hope this information has helped to answer your enquiry and we look forward to welcoming you on board soon. Kind regards,MatthewGuest Support Representative

Most high-end credit cards (like the American Express Platinum) will pay for those types of things...lost luggage, travel delays, etc. If I was older than I am now (55), I would be concerned with the cost of the helicopter air lift. Right now, that's probably an extreme scenario if one is in relatively good health. I've been on 25+ cruises and have never purchased travel insurance. If I had a health condition, I would definitely purchase it. I'm just wondering if P&O will let me and my party on the ship if I don't have travel insurance. This is also a 4 night cruise, if I were on a longer cruise (2+ weeks), I could see the need for travel insurance. I don't even have a problem purchasing it for this cruise, as I looked into it with P&Os provider, but since I am not a citizen of the UK, I cannot purchase it. It was only like 25 pounds per person, so I definitely wanted to get it, just for peace of mind that I won't have a problem boarding, but they won't sell it to me. I can grab a policy through a US company, but this now seems like a huge pain.