Ottawa_Cruiser

3 minutes ago, Jeal said:

Perhaps they aren’t interlopers at all. Maybe they are traveling with other people who aren’t in Yacht Club and they have chosen to eat with them. Personally I wouldn’t like to spend my vacation spying and eavesdropping on other people. Why would anyone care? Believe, there are many people sailing in cabins less expensive than Yacht Club who have far more money and much better manners than some of the people sailing in Yacht Club. 

Because this was overheard IN the YC. Those who pay a premium for the amenities and services shouldn't have to deal with the people entering who don't pay and take away from the service. FWIW, I don't cruise in YC. But I would also never enter YC with friends as I didn't pay for it. I understand why it's frustrating for the people who do pay.

I've done two sailing on the Mera, but I have never seen a made to order omelet station.

I'm sailing on her May 18th and can let you know how busy it is. 

2 hours ago, reedprincess said:

How about overseas, ie Martinique.

My documents currently show a 20:00 check-in time. That's ridiculous - 8pm?  Sailaway is 23:00.

 

So, we can't even check-in, far less board, til after the entire first day is done?

 

That can't be right.... 

That definitely can't be right.

16 hours ago, lumofny said:

We are sailing out of Brooklyn with MSC for the first time in three days. During online check-in we were given a choice as to what time we wanted to check in. 930am was the first available time slot so we took it.

 

Has anyone else gotten a 930 embarkation time? What time did you arrive at the terminal and what time did you step onboard?

Yes - we had 9:30am for our first sailing and we arrived at about 10am due to terrible traffic and torrential downpours. It was the second sailing out of Brooklyn on April 29, 2023. We were onboard by 11:30am. It is very unlikely anybody will be onboard much before 11am, apart from Yacht Club. 

We ended up just going for it and booking. We booked 36 days out. I do believe we got a good price, so I didn't want fares to jump.

In August, I highly doubt prices will go down. 

They didn't appear to check on my last two sailings out of Brooklyn, however, I did notice on my documents for my May 18th sailing out of Southampton that it indicated if we showed up more than 30 min ahead of our assigned time, we would need to wait outside. I am not sure if this is something standard out of Southampton, or if they're rolling it out everywhere.

What I will say is that they assign times to make embarkation as easy and seamless as possible. If everyone overlooks their assigned time, you lose the right to complain about the chaos that it might cause.

As you can see from my signature, we are about to go on our third MSC cruise in 13 months. I had LOW expectations for our first sailing April 29, 2023 (Meraviglia's second sailing after repositioning to NYC). I figured for the cost, I had nothing to lose. I had heard all of the horrible things, such as terrible food and long long waits for drinks. I experienced none of that. Is it the best cruise ship food? No. But I'm not cooking and it was still very tasty. I didn't experience any rude crew members. On our second sailing, our dining room attendants weren't the best. Again, not the end of the world. 

The Meraviglia is by far the most beautiful ship we've sailed on. Go. Have fun. Enjoy.

Hi! iMessage worked without issue without the wifi plan on both my April 2023 and December 2023 sailings.

Where are you looking to sail from? I have sailed out on NYC twice and we have just booked on the MSC Virtuosa for May 18, sailing out of Southampton. We were pretty loyal to NCL previous to this. Go in with an open mind. If sailing out of NYC, it can be challenging with a certain type of passenger group who don't understand North American etiquette. I have heard sailings are better from Florida.

In my opinion, you can't beat the cost of MSC in terms of what you get. Is it as good as NCL? No, not to me...but for $500-$700 less per passenger per cruise, I'm not going to complain! 😜

2 hours ago, Tierun said:

I've seen both, but you really can't predict one way or the other. If the price is good then book it. 

Yeah - I wish I had a crystal ball. LOL. 

22 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

Pentecost holiday in many European countries, almost no chance for a last minute grab. For those great last minute rates you really need to go offseason. I am cruising with MSC the same week in Europe (other ship), have booked already and I am 100 percent sure that it will not get cheaper. 

Thank you.

Hello! We are looking at the May 18th sailing out of Southampton on Virtuosa. We have not yet booked it. I'm curious for those that have waited until the last minute, has price increased or decreased? Let me know your experience or thoughts please. Thanks!

18 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I learned that @ESCARGO passed away on February 28. His funeral was held on Monday. I am struggling with the news, but I thought you would want to know.

I'm so sorry to hear this news, Jamie. I know when he had the health issues onboard you were all very worried and it was clear he was special to you all. I'm hoping the memories you have can carry you through.

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Doing a one-week cruise in May and October means we will have some free time off to maybe do a mini-trip somewhere over the summer, like Montreal or Toronto or something like that. It could just be 3-5 days instead of a full week. So now we will have another trip to plan, but it will be to somewhere we WANT to go, not somewhere I feel obligated to go based on some promise I made to myself 20 years ago.

As a Canadian, I will say I prefer Montreal. I live in Ottawa and go to Montreal at least twice a year for 2-3 nights. It's an awesome place. 

That's so cool! Thanks for the video.

The towels on sun loungers isn't an MSC issue. It's a rude/entitled passenger issue. I have sailed with MSC twice now (Meraviglia). For the price, I'm not sure what people expect. For the price, I'll continue to sail MSC, but perhaps not out on NYC anymore. 

The only cruise line that I'm aware of that allows kids in swim diapers is Disney.

So it seems to be hit or miss whether cabin stewards leave the envelope.

First review here:

No it doesn't. 

I was on your sailing and just completed my review too. Please don't rule out a NYC sailing again. I have sailed many time from NY and this is definitely the worst I have experienced. In the Sprinf and Summer it's amazing. Even the early Fall is great.

I've had several days to recover from my vacation. 🙂

This was our second sailing on the Meraviglia, our first being April 29. I do have a review of the April 29th sailing, but I'm having issues finding it. Once I do, I'll link it here. This review will be short and sweet.

Embarkation

As was our experience the first time, this process was flawless and very well organized. From the time of arrival at the terminal to the time on board was 40 minutes.

Overall Experience

This sailing we didn't have the luck of the weather. We actually had terrible weather for the most part and we had to miss Ocean Cay, going to Miami instead.

One of the vast differences between this cruise and our first one was the service in the MDR. Breakfast always arrived cold and coffee was hard to get, let alone get a refill. Dinner in the MDR was also not nearly as good. There were 4 of us sailing, my hubby, myself and our two kids. Every single dinner two of us would receive an appetizer, while the other two waited...and waited. The first two were finished by the time the other two got appetizers. The same for the main course. It was an awful experience to be truthful and most dinners took 1.5-1.75 hours. On our pervious sailing, they were all around 45min to an hour.

The buffet was often short of coffee mugs. Tea ran out (thanks to a certain passenger group) on day #2. The ice, water and juice machines mostly didn't work also. Plates, cutlery, bowls were also missing at various times.

Want a mimosa on the first 4 days? Good luck. Orange juice was nowhere on the ship.

As usual, the staff are mostly incredible. I have never had an issue getting a drink within a couple of minutes. I do tip each time I order something. We didn't particularly enjoy our MDR waiter, Frezer. He didn't have much personality and the service was subpar. Our cabin steward was on his second sailing, so still very very new. Unfortunately he likely needed more training. On day #1 when we arrived in the cabin, I went to the washroom...only to realize we had NO toilet paper. I'm not sure how one manages to completely forget toilet paper. We also had no bath mat. I called about both of these items and they were promptly delivered. Unfortunately the consistency in which we received toilet paper and the bath mat through the cruise was an issue. At times, we were also short towels. Despite having to make numerous requests for items that should be basic knowledge for a cabin steward, he still had no issue leaving his card and an envelope for an additional gratuity at the end of the cruise.

Give the weather (almost gale force winds, rough seas, storms, etc) - many activities outside were closed. This made for a rather boring experience for the 13 year old.

Disembarkation

We always walk our luggage off the ship. Again, this process was flawless and we were off the ship 10 min after vacating out cabin.

Final Thoughts

MSC is a bargain cruise line and I can't expect it to be like NCL. However, despite this, they definitely need to improve on several factors for us to consider sailing with them again. This trip was far worse than our first sailing.

Yes, Boston, Portland and St John. Trust me, having just disembarked, the weather we had was awful! 

I was so sad to miss OC, but I do understand the decision. It’s unfortunate as I had my son with me on this trip and weather played a major part of a less than enjoyable cruise for him. He was so bored.