Nashna

This is showing on the app for our January 23 Edge Cruise.

Yes...it is a great perk. You should be able to get the 5% discount as well as the $50.00 shipboard credit. Make sure they apply it.

We have been pleasantly surprised on recent cruises to find that the mainstream cruise lines are now offering non-alcoholic beverages, in particular, wine. Does MSC offer this on their sailings. We have the premium package. Also, on our last MSC cruise in January 2020, GF pizza was not offered. At the time, the Hotel Director mentioned that it was being considered fleet-wide. Does MSC offer this now?

So nice to hear about Paul and the Halifax Titanic Tour. I just booked him today for our port day on October 8, 2023. My husband was thrilled to hear that Evans Seafood had GF Fish & Chips!

I totally agree, their itineraries are not exciting. We booked on two other cruise lines that offered much more interesting itineraries. Yet, we would jump at the chance to do them on MSC in YC if they were offered from Florida. I am not interested in sailing from the Caribbean as the flights options do not favor the American market.

We were willing to pay the extra costs for Explora's lower priced staterooms. However, the itineraries just didn't appeal to us. We have been trying to sail on MSC for the past year. However, this was the first itinerary that matched our needs. I'm very pleased to be sailing in YC again. I wish MSC would offer more 11-14 day Caribbean itineraries from Florida that don't backtrack.

Great review...Thank you. We will be sailing her in October in YC, so I got several good tips from you. I also found it interesting to hear how the point system works with casino discounts.

Hi JAGR! I recognized your post from a few years ago back when I kept booking MSC in the YC and had three different sailing cancelled due to Covid. We have been looking at Explora and the itineraries just haven't worked for us. We were excited to see the Canada/New England YC at such a reasonable price. I wonder if Explora is taking passengers away from the MSC's YC.

Are you sailing on the October 4th Canada/New England voyage? We just booked this cruise yesterday and are looking forward to sailing in YC again. When we booked, I did notice that the inside YC staterooms were sold out.

Thank you for the great review. We are on her for 11-days in October, NYC, New England & Canada itinerary. On our first Divina cruise, we sailed in a suite for four days and then changed to the YC for 7-days. We totally enjoyed both experiences. So glad you got to OC. On our first itinerary, we spent the day at Sunset Beach, the second sailing, we stayed in the YC area.

My husband likes red wines, so those are the ones that we are familiar with. Total Wines has this one: Be Free Deaalcoholized Cabernet Sauvignon & St. Regis Cabernet. They both run about $10.00-$11.00 per bottle.

Definitely offered under the Classic Package. I wish they would also offer non-alcoholic spirits and some better-quality non-alcoholic wines. Fre is not the best.

Years ago, we were on a Carnival cruise with another family. I booked a private tour with a highly regarded guide in Grenada who was also a member of the tourist board. 7 of our group decided to do snorkeling with the tour guide after our land tour. They were instructed to snorkel around the bend and then meet up with the guide. They misunderstood the direction, missed the bend and ended up snorkeling way longer than they intended. When they realized their mistake, they started swimming as fast as they could. Onboard, the rest of us started to panic when 4:00pm came and the group had not returned on the tender. Our departure was scheduled for 4:30pm. The guide picked them up by the shore at 4:00pm and still had a 20-minute drive to the pier. Mondo, the tour guide, drove at top speed, he kept reassuring our family members that the boat wasn't going to leave without them. Upon arrival at the pier, Mondo insisted that they try a local beer before boarding the tender. When they protested, he smiled and said, my friend, the tender captain has been waiting for you and pointed out a man sitting at the bar. They had a quick beer with Mondo and the tender captain. The tender arrived back at 5:30pm and the ship promptly left with a group of very relieved family members. I had t-shirts made for the lucky seven that said, "Mondo's Speed Snorkelers"...We didn't miss the boat! Obviously, had Carnival been in control of the tenders, they would have been out of luck.

There is no reason for anyone to verbally abuse port personnel. It was so simple last January as port personnel checked everyone's boarding time and sent people who were in the wrong time slot line to their correct waiting area. Perhaps now that sailings are at near capacity that system won't work.

Thank you Santa was very generous this year and actually arrived with several gifts a few days prior to the 25th. I must have been on the very nice list. We are attempting to arrive later than 10:45am if that doesn't work out, we have decided that dragging our luggage into a Starbucks and then getting a taxi to the pier will just be too much trouble to avoid standing at the pier. We will arrive, get into whatever queue Celebrity has set up, (last January they had signs with the different arrival times listed for folks to line up) and proceed according to instructions. We don't expect to access the building until 11:30am. Since we will have an early flight out of Fort Lauderdale, we do expect to take advantage of our Elite status for our departure.

Also, when you board, go to the maître de to see if they are able to get you confirmed for an earlier sitting. They leave a good number of seats available to reserve onboard.

Do not send anything that you wouldn't want washed in hot water and dried at the highest temperature settings. We sent a bag that included a couple of nice tee-shirts and they shrunk. We do get two free bags and only use them for sturdy stuff as most of our regular laundry at home is done on cooler settings.

We are booked for Avila Beach on our January 2023 cruise. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. According to my GPS the walk is 30 minutes from the pier. The resort responded immediately, Frankly, the $10.00 charge for the day looks to be an amazing deal.

Good to know. I hope we have a beach day for our visit in January. Last time, we had a reservation at the Marriot, but it was cloudy and definitely not a beach day. We ended up walking around the town and stopping for drinks along the waterfront.

We are confirmed for the Avila Beach Resort in January. It is only $10.00 per person, per day. We intend to have lunch there and sit on the beach for the afternoon.

Did the fiancé make the ship? Hope the OP comes back to let us know what happened.

We received the 10:30 slot on our January 2022 Apex cruise.

That's why we decided to give up on the Hop On option. We are booked on the boat ride/bus option but are rethinking the self-guided walking tour part. I'm looking forward to your report back.

Please do come back and let us know what you experienced. We are currently booked on the boat trip/walking tour/shopping tour.

Thanks to those who gave constructive answers to my simple question. Yes, we are being dropped off earlier than our designated time. We did not ask to cut a queue. Standing around for an hour and a half on some old creaky knees is not pleasant. If it is not possible to board earlier, we are considering being dropped off at a Starbucks to wait for our 11:30am time. On our January 2022 Apex cruise, we had the 10:30 am slot. Lots of people showed up earlier than their allotted time and were placed in a separate line. They were allowed access after the passengers who had the proper time. The process was orderly and no one "cut in line". Now that occupancy levels have increased, my question was how Celebrity was handling early arrivals. I have been a member of Cruise Critic for many years. While I find that most users are helpful and polite, some could use a session or two with Miss Manners.