Bestbubba

MSC UK is different to MSC USA.

 

I have spoken to MSC and if you have booked through a TA it has to be booked through your TA. It will not reappear on the MSC site.

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How can anyone predict the weather !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For us the seas were very calm. We would count this as one of our favourite cruises, truly magical, full of "pinch me, am I really here" moments. [emoji846]

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We just came back from the cruise on the MSC Meraviglia and it was beyond my expectation. The embarkening process was just like my the previous embarkening. We stand in line with the other cruisers and checked in. The MSC desk couldn't find my cruisecards. A supervisor was called and he immediatelly call for a butler for a personal escort to the Yacht Club. I couldn't believe my eye. This was supposed to be a cabin update without the perks. Once in the YC reception they told us it was a full upgrade with all the YC perks. That includes a free access to the YC lounge and free drinks just like a premium drink package. Also we got a seat in the YC restaurant. We have dined there every day ! The Top Pool and the open-air buffet was available too with free drinks.

In my cabin I found my cruisecard. The YC bathrobe and the sparkling wine was there too. Nothing was taken away like in the other thread. The only restriction was no free drinks in the rest of the ship but you can order anything you like in YC area. We spent almost the whole time there.

The Spa area was also free. It has the most features I even seen on the MSC ship.

I can't believe we got so much perks with the free upgrade of the Fantastica inner cabin. Me and my wife and other two family members had the best time on the ship.

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Does anyone know if there is any way to earn cashback or Avios when booking an MSC Cruise? Last time I went via TopCashback but this seems to have gone. I also used to get 10 Avios per £1 through the Avios Travel Agency but this has gone too (this was Princess not MSC). Am I missing anything?

Sue

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I did web check in for our cruise in March. It said "completed, contact your TA for your edocs".... Mmm, we booked direct with MSC! Undeterred we called them, to be told no docs till 21 days before we sail. We'll wait and see.

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Vacationdreamer:

Things I'm interested in:

 

Food allergies. I'm reading of language barriers with waiters and maître d' s. I'm also reading that information contributed to profiles via the (glitchtastic) website are not carrying over to the ship.

 

I would suggest Food Allergy cards in various common languages found here (free although I think they do email you occasionally) or here for fee. Kid's Menu found here.

Soda: My kids (and we adults) love soda and we fully associate vacationing with soda drinking. The 12-vouchers per person isn't enough and the cost of adding the soda package is a little high compared to other lines (just off Princess on Friday). I'm thinking we might buy the soda package for one of our staterooms and then having that stateroom give their vouchers to the members of the other stateroom. This way one room will have unlimited and the other will have 24 drinks each (very generous for my littlest kids). Any thoughts on this?

 

Sounds good. Not sure it is officially approved but have read reviews of others doing exactly this.

 

Add ons: Now I'm reading costs for zip lines and I expect costs for digital waterslide, though pinpointing prices online is proving difficult for me. Again - different reviews/reports are sharing different numbers. And I've not read much at all about how the 5D films, etc, have been.

 

Zipline is $10 for one ride or $50 for the entire cabin. I was told by someone on the ship last week they were now charging for the interactive slide as well but was not shown anything detailing this. Possibly the $50 per cabin includes this as well or perhaps that's just my wishful thinking.

 

Maybe it is the time of year that the ship launched, but there has been little said about the children's programming.

 

Schedules here and here and here. Reportedly they've also got their Happy Dining program running or you can let kids eat with the kid's club in the buffet. More information found in this thread about Seaside.

 

 

Our PIF date is 3/11. I have about 7 weeks to decide what to do. The food allergy issue is make or break. The other issues are more about enhancing the trip. We only have three port days (with one being Nassau) so that will leave a lot of ship time.

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Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy! I have spoken with MSC and they don't want to know joint excursion in Rio. Have booked Corcovado but will see whats available on board. 11 weeks and we fly out to BA to join the ship...can't wait....although after Mexico8's review of Poesia catering, think I will take my own sandwiches!!

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I think that Mr B was saying that I should just ignore posts instead of replying. However, if Mr B had ignored my posts instead of replying (IOW, followed his own advice) I would not have responded to him, you wouldn't have decided to chime in, and I would not be typing this reply. None of that would have happened. So knowing that not saying anything stops the discussion, you have to ask yourself why people choose to keep replying? :confused:

 

FWIW, if one person had just typed one sentence into Google and pressed SEARCH, they would have increased their knowledge and NONE of this discussion would have taken place. Yet people, for some unknown reason, seem to think it is easier to try to make clever forum posts instead of just getting the information. It is probably me though, I'm starting to think that I haven't properly communicated that I'm not going to perform other people's research for them.

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I would ask you the same, however when a person directly addresses me (via the quote feature), I have a right to reply...even if it is a reply the they, you, or someone else doesn't like. I'm sorry you think that insisting that people performing minimal research on their own...simply to make them more knowledgeable, is somehow obnoxious. In any case, there is no amount of snark (clever or not) that is going to make me do someone else's research for them.

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Hi we are on a 24 day cruise in April can you say what rate they gave?

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We are cruising MSC for the first time in March. We are from the UK, have been cruising since the early 80s and have never removed the service charge /gratuities in over 40 cruises. Today we rang MSC to enquire about prepaying the service charge to avoid having a large dollar account at the end of the cruise. I can only advise anyone from the UK who is happy to pay the service charge to prepay. The exchange rate given was exceptional.

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A couple of points that may help....those who had been on non grand voyage cruises on sister ships said this food was not the norm and that it had been better on their previous MSC cruises. I know food is very subjective but everyone I asked agreed the food was dreadful on this cruise.

 

Regards many questions we raised on shortages We kept getting the comment from staff...'well it is because we are getting ready for Brazilian season'...well I am sorry you must NOT forget the passengers you already have on board.

Thanks for the update JL. We've been on quite a few TAs and TPs so we're familiar with the running out of stuff scenario (on a TP out of Sydney, they ran out of beer, it wasn't pretty! ;)) You're quite right though, regardless of the destination, the passengers on board should be the prime consideration.

Sue

Oh dear. Thank you for your review but it has rather dampened our enthusiasm for our first MSC cruise. We are on the Musica in March, Rio to Venice. Luckily we are seasoned cruisers and try to "Always look on the bright side of life, tee dum tee dum tee dum tee dum" but this does sound a bit bleak!

Sue

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My bubbe will climb out right through the dirt if she catches a glimpse of that...

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Hi, Sue. Yeah .......... I've signed up for the M&M so will probably see you there! ;)

 

TBH, I don't know if you can use any left-over vouchers on another ship. There are a lot of conflicting reports on here, with some saying you can (and claiming to have experience of doing so) and others saying that it's not possible.

 

I have 2 (fairly recent) experiences of using vouchers. The first was on a South Africa 4 nighter. The voucher numbers were noted against my cabin number so that nobody else could use them, should they be lost or stolen. I believe that's a particular policy for South Africa cruises, though, as MSC are hyper-security-conscious when sailing in that region.

 

The second was a few weeks ago when I purchased a wine & water package on Magnifica. I already had an all-inclusive drinks package so I didn't need the water vouchers. I had planned to give them to someone onboard but never did meet anyone to pass them on to. I plan to bring them with me on my upcoming cruise on Orchestra and test to see if I can use them then. I'll report back on how I get on.

Thanks for the prompt reply Bea, I'll look forward to hearing how you get on with your water vouchers on Orchestra.

Sue :D

Perhaps people should bombard MSC with emails complaining about the cancellation of this package and insinuating that its re-instatement will be an influencing factor in booking with them.

Would you happen to know, if I have any drink vouchers left over from our Musica cruise (pigs flying come to mind!) , can I use them on our Divina cruise? Rather like Princess and their coffee card?

Sue

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These threads are monitored so we need to make as much disapproving noise as possible about the loss of the vouchers, they shouldn't be a victim of they're own success. Only having to buy the drinks you want is a winning formula, and being forced back onto an unlimited plan will effect the brand loyalty of a novice cruiser like me. When 2 out of 3 cruises have been with MSC, who gets cruise number 4 will depend more on price point than a crystal staircase!

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Well, to avoid disappointment please don´t compare. MSC is the favourite cruise company in Europe not for it´s customer service, we all regular MSC cruisers know here it will be ranked last on the seven seas and we don´t care :cool:

 

This is a common rule not only for US pax, also for British, German, Chinese, whatever: If you are boarding MSC you are leaving your home country and enter Italy. And Italy lifestyle and Italy cuisine has a great reputation for a reason, I really love it. NCL or Disney sell the US-american lifestyle, this is not a question about being "on par", it is a different world.

Many years ago we did a TA on the Costa Romantica. We loved it, it was Italy afloat. We enjoyed it so much we booked a Caribbean cruise a few months later on the Costa Atlantica. So disappointed. It was not the same at all. It was obvious they were trying to emulate US cruise lines and cater to US passengers. They only succeeded in providing a second rate Princess /Celebrity /RCI experience. Bella Italia it wasn't! So when I read your comments I was delighted. We're going with high hopes and open minds [emoji3]

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there a TA on FB running a competition to win a cruise on MSC. Some of the comments are quite worrying with the number of people saying they wouldn’t cruise with them if they paid them or never again. Do you think it’s because it’s not aimed at the English market. I’ve booked my first cruise with MSC. I’ve made a mistake by not researching and have been booked in a Bella package, but I will know better next time. I’m going on with an open mind and my least favourite cruise is P & O, so if their nothing like them I will be fine. I bet most of the comments come from P & O cruisers

We've booked our first MSC cruise and we're really excited. I'm sure itwill be different to Celebrity /Princess etc but we're going with an open mind and I'm ignoring all miserable reviews [emoji4]

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Also be prepared for wet and cold weather in London and Paris. We did a Med cruise in November many years ago, we enjoyed the uncrowded ports, compared to visiting during high season, but we certainly needed our umbrellas! Have a wonderful time [emoji846]

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Just sailed on Musica in June, and WELL.. don't expect much, very poorly run, food not so good. Staff, well not so good. A big step down from Divina. I booked this ship because of the Itinerary . MSC has to step it up. I am a very Loyal, but it is going away very quickly... :-(

Oh dear, that doesn't bode well for our first MSC cruise next March 😕 We are seasoned cruisers, sailed on most of the main cruise lines and thought we'd give MSC a try as we really liked the itinerary, Rio to Venice. To add salt to the wound, we've convinced friends to join us in 2019 on the Divina. Oh well, we've cruised 30+ times , some good, some great, never had a bad one yet,so I'll go with my Pollyanna hat on and make sure to pack my rose tinted glasses 😀

When we travelled with our 20 month twin grandsons, we took a small blow up paddling pool, added a few inches of water, put it in the shade, they were happy for hours..... So were we! ;) This was on NCL. Pool staff thought it was a great idea.

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We've booked with US travel agents when sailing other lines, but we've been told that MSC will not allow them to take UK bookings :(

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Ah that's a shame it's not available to do on ship. That's great you were able to find a company that rents/delivers. Sadly this would not be possible for us as we are travelling from uk next month also.

The husband of a friend of mine (also UK based) bought a very adequate looking dinner suit /tux at Matalan, think it cost £50. Certainly not Saville Row, but for wearing for a few hours on formal nights when cruising, seemed like a bargain :)

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Thank you for officially informing us on the 27th that this change would be effective on the 22nd .

Any idea when this information will be passed on to your customer agents ? Any time soon ?

And when will it be changed on the website? Made a dummy booking on the UK site and pre paid grats were still the only option with select dining.