MarkusDY

Hi! I was looking to see who else might be sailing on this one... looks like just you and us as "friends of"?

We're so excited to be able to sail out of Florida now. We're based in the UK and we've been waiting for the borders to reopen for long.

Hopefully chat to you at some point?

Hi Jerry & Bob, nice to meet you!

Yes we're looking forward to getting on the ship too. Do you have much planned out yet for each island? I haven't started thinking about this yet!

We only sailed P&O once on the Azura. Our cabin steward seemed quite shocked when I asked him to push the beds together as per my booking request. He was Jamaican. It can have a slightly "colonial" feel I noticed at times and I have to say, it wasn't my favourite experience.

We have a always had a much warmer welcome on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity.

Hi All

We are Markus & Andrew from the UK, now booked on this cruise out of Miami. Looking forward to some sunshine.

Say Hi if you're on board too?

:)

Hi Donny, Alan

Great to hear you are also on this cruise. We're looking forward to some sunshine too.

Hopefully we can arrange a cocktail or two at Mixology and say Hi? Would be great to hear about your plans... we're struggling with St Maarten a bit. Most of still seems closed?

Markus (& Andrew)

Hi Bob

Myself and my partner Andrew have just booked this cruise on 23rd March. We're looking forward to some warm weather as it's freezing in England right now!

Markus

Great news Markus and thanks for updating us. Now, before grabbing that suitcase, relax with a glass of your favourite lemonade and get truly into holiday mood. Did I say lemonade? Seeing where you live I would be making for my nearest Ruddles dispensary!

 

Have a great cruise and a very Happy Christmas.

Haha! A Burleigh's Gin might be called for actually! Thank you and have a great Christmas yourself too!

Well... we're a little further forward. I still can't see the booking on the MSC website but they have spoken to me and although they advised we should be speaking to the travel agent and not them, they have confirmed their ticketing department have not yet issued the tickets! They have promised to deal with this tomorrow and send them to Viva Voyage to pass on to me.

Looks like the suitcase can come out after all.

Thanks. I think the browser issue was there, but I did manage to complete online check in some time go and purchase dining plans etc. So I'm not sure if they have a web upgrade or something?

Yes, the UK website is different and they only open limited hours at the UK call centre. I got referred back to my travel agent, which is common practice, not sure if they work the same way in the USA.

Anyway, we booked through Viva Voyage who I believe are an American agent although they sell in the UK through a UK website and phone number. We've never had any problem with Viva Voyage so I have to leave them to contact MSC and chase this now.

It's very frustrating as I can't even get on the airline website and allocate seats etc.

Anyway, thanks for the positive comments, appreciated! Hopefully it will all resolve itself tomorrow!

Ok, for the avoidance of doubt, yes I am interested to know if anyone else is having issues with the MSC website and not being able to retrieve their booking, or maybe not had tickets because Christmas is approaching. I'm purely trying to understand if this is just me affected or anyone else is having similar issues.

I certainly would not expect anyone on CC to issue my tickets! I thought this was a friendly chat forum to exchange experiences but now I'm doubting myself again.

Having been on circa 20 other cruises, of course I know I need to call the cruise line/TA. That was of course my first call. My post here was to establish if this is just affecting my booking or anyone else had a similar issue recently.

So thanks for all the obvious messages of "call the cruise", I think I need to be more direct in my next post clearly.

Merry Christmas all... and I hope you have your tickets to your next cruise ;-)

MSC's website is not always reliable. Loads of complaints about it and it doesn't seem to improve. It must be nerve wracking, but do call.

Thank you, it seems everyone is noticing how bad the website is. I'm trying to establish if anyone else is having similar problems or maybe something I've done wrong.

I have called several times, and of course to my travel agent first. They are still "chasing" MSC for tickets. It's cutting it a bit fine now and because the booking has disappeared, I'm even more concerned.

That WAS trying to be helpful....there is nothing anyone on this board or anywhere else that can do anything for you. You need to call the cruise line to verify if or any problems have come up with your booking..

This reminds me of the reason I don't use this forum much anymore, sarcastic responses are not helpful at all.

Instead of posting here, shouldn't you be on the phone with MSC?

Really helpful, thank you.

We're due to sail this Sunday (Christmas Eve) and flying with BA to join the Meraviglia. So far, I have no tickets of any description and now my booking has completely disappeared from the profile section on the website, even though I completed online check in ages ago and boughts drinks packages, dining upgrades etc!

I'm really starting to wonder if I should bother packing now? Is this normal for MSC?:rolleyes:

I'm sailing Christmas Eve and still no tickets! I'm not convinced it's worth packing now! Let me know if you get yours?

Anyone else on this cruise with us?!

:cool:

Myself and my partner will be on the Oasis of the Seas for the first time this August.

Anyone else on this cruise? Would be great to meet up for social drinks with other "friends"

:D

With Air France's reputation for strikes, and the fact it's 2 days before Christmas, I don't want to end up stranded at Charles de Gaulle airport for Christmas. I will try KLM though, thanks.

Just wondered if anyone had any useful suggestions for getting to Genoa, Italy? We're sailing from there on 24th December and so far, the only direct flight from the UK is from Gatwick but we live in the Midlands.

Would you trust a connecting flight with Air France?

Or are there any other good nearby Airports with transfers?:confused:

I booked my MSC cruise online with a certain well known Travel Agent just 2 days ago. I applied for the Status Match the same day. I got the email back from MSC with the member numbers the next morning and sent this straight on to the TA to request the 5% discount.

I've just got a very unhelpful email back from the TA (who is based in America but sell to the UK market) to say MSC are quoting a 24hr window to request this 5% discount after booking!!! Has anyone else heard of this?

I'm not sure how much quicker I could have done it?

Hi Guys, we're really looking forward to the cruise too. Just completed online check-in so it's getting close now!

We should maybe arrange a drink in Martini Bar to say Hi?

Good to meet you both. We are Markus and Andrew from the UK. We're also looking forward to this itinerary, our first cruise in Asia.

Still looking through the ports and getting ideas at the moment so feel free to share if you have any suggestions?

:)

Yes we noticed the Santa Barbara in Curacao is showing full via resortforaday.com but we got a confirmed reservation for the same via http://www.ShoreExcursioneer.com

Give them a try if you're interested in going?

Yes we did the "do it yourself" cab/beach option once or twice and it wasn't very glamorous, especially when everyone else from the ship turned up too!

The Resort for a Day stuff we've never had a bad experience with. They treat you like any other hotel guest, you get checked in, towels given, most are all-inclusive too so you get all your drinks and food.

It suits us anyway.

So we've never heard of Orient Beach in St Maarten? Is it far from the port?

Hi

Anyone else booked on this one yet?