sidari

Trying to find recent info on this for a friend, read on a number of other platforms varying answers regarding whether people get the full Aurea experience if they win an upgrade bid. Some are saying yes while others are saying the Spa is not included, so has anyone won an Aurea bid to upgrade and sailed, if so did you get everything included in Aurea ? With MSC doing different thing on different ships no one seems clear as to what is or is not included.

Did you not ask which was the priority check in line? If Divina had returned from Columbia then no surprise at the delay, been there done that.

Good job ours is at the end of April.

Got our tickets today and our time is 9 am, though we expect that to change before our sailing at the end of April.

MSC have much to answer for on this issue, the handing out of Diamond and other levels of membership like confetti with status match has started this free for all. The YC sounds like it needs to have some security staff based in there in order to stop the nonsense of interlopers, I recall a few people trying it on with the Top 19 on the Inaugural Seaside sailing from Miami but were sent packing by the crew based there.

On Seascape they get smaller chocolate ships, the benefits have become a joke. The Diamond benefits should be the same on every ship in the fleet.

Ours still says speciality restaurants for premium extra on our April Virtuosa sailing but it was booked some months back, the price now is over £700 pp for 12 nights.

That contradicts itself, it says gratuity included as it does on the UK site, so there is no 15% saving by booking prior to a cruise because it has now been included. Shorter cruises attract a higher per day cost. While we have Premium extra included for our next cruise, when I look at the Easy package it works out at £34 per day for 12 nights, someone on a 3 night cruise is paying £111 pp, so £37 per day.

Previously if you bought the package prior to cruising you did not pay the 15% gratuity on the drinks, now it appears it is included if you buy before or added if bought onboard so no savings to be had by purchasing prior to sailing.

MSC Cruises Makes Major Beverage Changes Passengers Won't Like (cruisehive.com)

Strangely, having been given a number of example's MSC have failed to respond.

The sun deck/ solarium only has a hot tub and sunbeds.

When we sailed Aurea on Meraviglia there was a separate area section in the Aft Dining room overlooking the stern of the ship.

EM ... If we cancel we lose our deposit as we have recently on a Europa sailing and booking another forward cruise would have cost even more. We had a booking with US travel agent on Seascape that we had to cancel during the COVID crap, got our deposit back crazy but true. UK and Ireland bookings have port fees included as well as the daily service charge unlike the US.

Cannot understand why they would either, had a supervisor found out that staff had done that I am sure they would have been off the ship at the next port.

The Aurea sundeck is for those guests, having Gold level in the Voyagers club does not give you access to it nor does any other level. Yacht club guests are allowed there.

Your sailing has to be prior to the date given, so if it was say 16th Feb 24 your end of sail date would have to be before the 16th.

G ... How wrong you are just like the response from MSC UK.

We have been Diamond for some time now, the MSC response was in reply to a question about status match. Seems someone is making it up as they go along at the UK office.

Did you receive the benefits from the get go? ie on your first cruise as a Diamond member? the response below is from the UK office claiming that it does not happen from the start! Does anyone who status matched have a different answer to this response from MSC ? When you did your first cruise did you receive all the benefits of Diamond ? Hi Dave, thank you for your message. We can see that there is a misunderstanding in the information above. We can guarantee that the process of Status Match does not grant new clients straight access to the Diamond Membership. Thank you.

Not really helpful, I am trying to find out if those matched to Diamond are getting the benefits from their first cruise which according to MSC UK they are not!

Yep.

Heard from a friend that it is not him but someone aged 79. I know Gene was not that old.

Does anyone who status matched have a different answer to this response from MSC ? When you did your first cruise did you receive all the benefits of Diamond ? Hi Dave, thank you for your message. We can see that there is a misunderstanding in the information above. We can guarantee that the process of Status Match does not grant new clients straight access to the Diamond Membership. Thank you.

On the status match issue, this is the reply I received today 16/2/23 from your UK office. It appears to contradict many posters on cruise critic. Hi Dave, thank you for your message. We can see that there is a misunderstanding in the information above. We can guarantee that the process of Status Match does not grant new clients straight access to the Diamond Membership. Thank you