DisneyTech

@karatemom2, thank you so much for the first hand experience. You’d experiences sound similar to what I had in mind, time wise. 
 

We know that there is some risk involved, but thankfully there are later flights, however they are all connecting through JFK instead of direct. So hopefully, if the worse were to happen, we could still get home the same day, just 10+ hours later than expected. 

Thanks for all of the replies. 
 

This would be on a Saturday. Unfortunately, we are using points for JetBlue, so our options are limited for other airports. 
 

Princess let’s you book flights from LAX starting at 11:45. I was hoping that they had an hour or so of buffer in there to account for using their transfers. 

Hi Everyone!

We are booked on the Discovery Princess for a California Coastal cruise out of LA in March. We have never cruised out of LA, and it has been a couple of decades since my last Princess cruise and I have a question about flight times.

We are flying home to Florida on disembark day, and currently, the best option in terms of pricing and time of day is a JetBlue flight that leaves LAX at 10:35AM...

Is this a terrible idea? 

We have TSA Pre-Check and we would take a taxi / uber, so we didn't have to spend any time waiting on a shuttle... My thought process is: 7:30am self disembark (we would carry all of our luggage with us), in a taxi by 8am hopefully, and at the airport by 8:30-8:45am, just at or slightly less than 2 hours ahead of time.

Thoughts?

Thanks Everyone!!!

4 minutes ago, 39august said:

There has been a children's menu in Luminae for years. Are you sure there was not one on Solstice?

I was asking. I've never dinned in Luminae before.

Hi Everyone,

We just had our MoveUp offer accepted on our 7/22 Alaska cruise on the Solstice. We will be in retreat cabin (Celebrity Suite) for the first time and I’m hoping that everyone can share their tips with us. 
 

One specific question that I had was regarding dining in Luminae. I am traveling with my wife and daughter (6 y.o.). My wife is a fairly picky eater, so I’m worried there will be nights that the food is too fancy for her. 
 

Do those dining in Luminae have the option of ordering off of the MDR menu if nothing on the Luminae menu sounds good to them?

Also, I’m assuming that Luminae still offers a kids menu of some sort?

 Aside from that, what other tops / secrets should I know? Benefits I should be sure to take advantage of? 
 

Thanks!!

15 hours ago, Mustard_drill said:

For those of you on the ship, would you say the lines in the buffet are caused by them having to serve you instead of normal "grab and go"?

I’m sure that is part of it, but it seems that most of it is caused by not having more buffet lines open. Most of the time around 1/4 of the windows are open. 
 

On top of that, there is often only one person serving at each station and a real lack of organization for how the line forms. 

3 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

 

I am sorry that @DisneyTechdid not enjoy, HOWEVER, if he/she had spent a little time researching and understanding what was included and the passenger loads they might have been more knowledgeable.

• No drink packages are allowed in Venchi or Tapas - that's very clearly spelled out.
• They have suspended priority boarding for Diamond, also well known.
• Passenger loads tripled in the past week - it's not like you can just magically fly in extra trained crew or grab them off the other ships all of which have spiked in numbers
  • This will impact how many employees are available for everything - from buffet staffing, bar staffing, etc
• IMO, MSC is not taking full fare - these current fares are a bargain vs "normal" times.  You don't indicate if you were status matched b/c of a hotel or another cruise line.  If a cruise line then you know that for a cabin and beverage package on X you'd pay 3x more, and on Disney it'd be 4 or 5 times more.  
• MSC is going to sell every single room they can; as would a hotel.  It's a fixed occupancy situation.  Once the boat sets sail that's the # of guests you have for the week...
• Kid's clubs on MSC are not like the other cruiselines. Indeed shorter hours.  
• Your seating time for dinner is indicated on your cruise card; it should have been pointed out when you checked in.  
• The employees walking around the buffet to upsell you are employees of the venues (Butcher's Cut, etc); they are not buffet staff.  (Though I agree they are annoying).
• If a bartender was using a well liquor I'd certainly call them out on it, HOWEVER, high guest count volumes and big drinking guests have caused onboard outages in liquors.  Unfortunately they only stock up in Miami and will never dig into the duty free offerings.  (Thus there was a Tito's shortage two weeks ago on the MERA but the shop was full).

Cruising right now has a lot of hiccups, to be fair.  Does MSC exacerbate them?  Yup. They sure do.  But for the low fares you have to pack a hefty dose of patience.  MY opinion only.

 

 

@Morgsmom, I’m sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. 
 

The notes about where the drink package isn’t allowed are inconsistent. The MSC app doesn’t mention anything about restrictions. 
 

Also, I disagree that suspension of priority boarding is well known. I never saw anything about this on MSCs website. 
 

and yes, you can magically fly in Crew and have them trained for when your passenger loads increase. If you don’t want to increase Crew to support more passengers, then don’t sell as many cabins. It’s pretty simple. 
 

and no, these rates are not bargains. It is roughly the exact price as the cancelled cruise I had booked on the seaside. That was booked before the pandemic. 
 

I have no problem with MSC selling every single room they can, as long as they supply the staff to manage the guests. I’m sorry, but there is zero excuse for having a ship that is over half full and only having 1/4 of the buffet open. 
 

Also, do you think I’m stupid? Of course the number of people you leave with is the number of people on the ship. I’ve been on over 40 cruises; I understand we don’t pick up people in the middle of the ocean. 
 

my restaurant is on my card. There is no mention of anytime dining, nor was it mentioned during booking (should only be aurea, which is what the signage at the restaurant says), nor was it mentioned at check in, nor could most staff tell us. It wasn’t until we checked at the restaurant that someone could tell us the setup. 
 

I understand the employees work for the other venues. But it isn’t unusual for employees to work multiple places. If they are short staffed, these people should be trained to serve at the buffets so that they can open more lines. 
 

and I’ve been staring right at the premium liquors that they should be pouring while they grab well liquor. 
 

While you’re  entitled to your opinion, excusing MSC for providing poor service at a non-discounted rate doesn’t make any sense. 

Just now, fish_guru said:

I get what you're saying but I have to imagine they know well in advance what their passenger count will be or, at the very least, a very good estimate.  After all, they decide how many cabins to make available for booking. 

 

I would also guess that MSC is more inclined to increase passenger counts because of the financial flogging that they've endured as a result of the pandemic. That said, they're really shooting themselves in the foot in the name of short term financial gain. 

 

All these people on this cruise, especially first time MSC customers are leaving with a horrible impression. They're not likely to ever sail with MSC again. In addition, they're going to go home and lambaste MSC to anyone and everyone who will listen. 

I 100% agree. This is purely poor operational planning. MSC corporate is fully to blame for not having a better staffing strategy in place. 
 

I understand that it may be difficult to find crew, but if you can’t provide the needed staff, then you shouldn’t sell the rooms. 
 

In my mind, MSC is intentionally taking full fare from customers with zero intention of delivering a full experience. 
 

Every guest on this cruise deserves a partial refund. 
 

57 minutes ago, clemsonlori98 said:

I am so sorry you are having all of these issues. ☹️  My family sets sail on April 9.   If they opened up more of the buffet would these long lines disappear?    Is it your feeling that they just don't have the amount of staff needed or MSC decided to just keep everything partially opened?  Do you think this is a choice by MSC or just they were caught off guard by the staff/passenger ratio?      

I am curious about other services around the ship.    Are dirty towels piling up around the pool/trash cans being emptied/cleanliness of public restrooms/etc?     

 

Hope your cruise gets better!!   

In general, the layout of the buffet is very odd and makes it very hard to see what’s open and what offerings there are. That being said, I do think more of the buffet being open would decrease lines. 
 

I think the majority of the problems are related to not having enough staff. Some crew have said that there are more staff on the way, but in my opinion, MSC had no right to sell the cruise to this many people if they couldn’t have enough crew on board to support them. 
 

There are lots of dirty glasses and trash piling up in various places. There are no overflowing trash cans, mostly because there are almost no trash cans to be found. 

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Sounds about right.

Be thankful you have not had to deal with customer service on the phone 

Did you get your room you booked?

How many onboard?

We’ve had the displeasure of calling them in the past. 
 

we did get the room we booked. 
 

I’ve been told around 3,000 on board. 
 

1 hour ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

My recollection from Seaview last summer is that you can barely talk to Reception or Shorex if there is a band or DJ playing (which is often) because they're in the same room and it's TOO LOUD to hear. Terrible design issue there.

Correct. One of many design issues with the ship. 
 

Just now, DisneyDatknee said:

I did not have the best experience on MSC last year, but booked the Seaside again because price. Did you feel the premium upgrade was worth it? I know how much our drinks were in August, but I have a feeling they changed it to make the Easy Plus different. 

We booked a package that included the cheaper package, so we felt the upgrade is worth it so we can get mostly whatever we want. It does annoy us that they randomly pick places to not let you use the package, like the chocolate bar and the Mexican restaurant. 

I know there is another thread about this topic already, but I wanted to share our experience on the March 12th sailing on the Seashore without bombarding the other thread. 
 

First off, I want to say that we are myself, my wife, and our 6 year old daughter. We are Diamond Voyagers Club members through status match, and this is our first MEC cruise. 
 

While our list of complaints is long, the staff is doing their best, but they have been put in an impossible situation by the corporate office booking more people than they can handle. 
 

Also, not everything is awful.. unfortunately the good is just overpowered by the bad. Butchers Cut was delicious, the people are great, and the drinks are overall good. 
 

I plan on writing a longer review with more details once we get home, but if anyone has any questions on anything in the meantime, go ahead and ask. 
 

Check-In

• MSC Voyager Club Diamond Status (through status match) - arrived expecting priority check-in, like it says in benefits section. No Diamond check in. Only Aurea and Yacht Club. 
• Check in room 2 hours total. It was absolute chaos.
• They are using a terminal that is under construction, so indoor space is tiny. 
• Outdoor luggage drop was a mess, with bags piled everywhere and very little signage. We almost got hit my other cars multiple times. 
• Closest parking garage is two terminals down. 

Elevators

• This elevator system can’t handle the number of passengers. You will often wait 5+ min for an elevator to arrive, only for it to be completely full and you have to start over again.

Ship Policies

• COVID policies are very loosely, but unpredictability enforced. 
  • Masks not enforced around the ship. Most people aren’t even pretending to wear them. 
  • Make you put mask on when you enter buffet, but no enforcement once you come through the doors. 
  • Forcing people to find and wear masks to sign waivers at the water park, even though it’s outdoors where masks aren’t required. 
• For children under 12 to disembark at ports, they need a wristband from guest services. 
  • We tried to get off the ship and we’re told she couldn’t get off without a wristband and we needed to go to guest services. 
  • When we got there, we were told that they needed to see her vaccine card (despite showing it at checking, and then taking photos of it)
  • This meant we had to go back up to deck 14 and get her card, then go back to deck 5 and get her wristband, then down to 4 to disembark.
  • None of this was ever mentioned in advance. Guest services said they tried to call the room twice, but no one answered. They never left a message or placed a letter in our room. 

Drink Package

• We upgraded to Premium Drinks before we boarded. Found out onboard that there are venues where you can’t use your package, even if the prices are below the limit. 
  • Not allowed to use drink package in Venchi for any drinks on the menu, but you can get ‘normal’ drinks with package. 
  • No drink packages accepted at all, no matter what drink, in ‘Hola!’, even though all drinks are $15 and under. 

Spa Thermal Area 

(Couples pass - $360+ 15% service fee)

• Items not working for multiple days
  • Half of indoor jacuzzi tub
  • Hot mists / aromatherapy was cold
• Ceramic chairs were almost always being held with personal belongings or towels, but rarely used. 
  • Should have been removing items and had signs not to reserve.

Staterooms

• Tiny
• No storage
• Can’t access half of closet
• No access to couch if 3rd person in room.
  • No where to sit in room besides beds. 
  • They leave the couch made up as a bed all the time, unlike other lines that only pull out the bed at turndown time. 
• Bathroom Tiny
  • Not enough room to sit straight on toilet.
  • Can barely wash yourself in shower.

Dining

• People are constantly harassing you to buy specialty dining reservations. 
  • Will often get asked 3 or 4 times at every bar and every time we sit down at the buffet. 
  • It would be great if these employees could be used to open more buffet lines. 

Main Dining Room

• Given no information on first night about seating time, weren’t told until we asked that we had anytime dining.
• Main dining room takes forever
• Main dining room food is terrible
• Night 1 - ordered main course and dessert. Got main course 1 hour in. Gave up at 1hr 45min and left without dessert. 
• Night 2 - dinner totaled just over two hours for appetizer, entree, and dessert. We waited approx. 30 min between finishing our entrees and receiving dessert. 
• Night 4 (night 3 was specialty restaurant) - much much faster. Approx 1 hour total for 3 courses. 
• On nights 1 and 2 waiters seemed absolutely swamped. They simply don’t have enough staff to support a full dining room. 

Buffet

• Only 1/4 of the buffet is open most of the time, even though ship is over half full. 
• Often takes 15-20 min to get to one station. 
  • If you want food from another station, you have to wait in another 15-20 min line. 
• The “bar” in the buffet is almost pointless. You can only get soda, small water, and beer. No energy drinks, no mixed drinks, etc…

Bars

• Bars are way understaffed, leading to long waits for drinks. 
• Bartenders often make ‘premium drinks’ with well liquors, instead of the ones listed on the menu. 
• Overall, bar menus are good, with lots of options. 
• Drink quality is inconsistent. 

Kids Club

• Hours are multiple small chunks of time, with closed times throughout the day. 
  • Leads to massive lines at opening and closing times. 
  • Also makes it hard to plan around. 
  • Other things like splash park are also closed when kids club is closed. 
• Tiny lobby where all 3 clubs drop off and pick up. 
  • Also leads to long lines and overcrowding. 
• Our child enjoys it, but says it’s very chaotic and disorganized. 
• We were given wrong info about kids being allowed to eat lunch at the club on port days (we were told they could only if parents were gone on an excursion; in reality, all kids can eat lunch on port days only)

Pools

• Very spread out around the ship, requiring you to dry off and walk through buffet or other indoor areas to get from one to the other. 
• Pool towels are only available from your room. None out on deck. 
  • If you use your towel and it’s wet, it seems like you have to wait for your room steward to exchange it for a new one. 
  • There is one ‘towel exchange’ window near the Long Island Pool, but we’ve never seen it open. 

Splash Pad / Water Park

• Splash pad hours are terrible. 
• Splash pad is overcrowded and unsafe
  • Witnessed older kids having full on fist fights and holding other kids under water. There were no employees around to stop it. When I went to one of the slides to tell an employee he said: “there is a sign that says no lifeguard on duty”. He couldn’t care less. 
• There is literally zero seating and no cubbies or anywhere else to place personal belongings, towels, etc. 
• To ride the slides, you have to sign a waiver and get a wristband.
  • Even though the table with the waivers is out on the pool deck, they are requiring you to wear masks to fill out paperwork. (Many people don’t have them with them at the pool, and masks aren’t enforced most places on the ship, so most people aren’t wearing them at all)
  • Height requirement is 40” for slides, but you must be 7 years old. Which means our 6 year old, who is 48” tall, can’t ride anything but the tiny baby slides. 
    • Many parents are just lying about their kids age, because they don’t check anything in a computer when you fill out the form. Nothing to keep you from making up a fake room number, name, age, etc…

These are the ones that I have. I’m on seashore now and will try to get the others. 

Butchers Cut Menu.pdf Hola Menu.pdf Tepenyaki Menu.pdf

We we’re just told at one of the bars that the entire ship is out of straws…

This is extra disappointing because the bars do not stir drinks when they make them. At. All. 
 

The bartender handed the couple next to us a spoon to stir their own drink. 

4 hours ago, RICHARD@SEA said:

 

Get a balcony FANTASTICA cabin...breakfast delivered every morning.....

 

 

 

We are in a Fantastica balcony and our breakfast room service menu says there is a fee for any hot items…

Same for normal room service menu, looks like a delivery fee + a fee per item. 
 

it’s very hard to tell what is included and what isn’t.

6 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

No stopping ,no  picking up others on the way up. What a change being reported here !!!???

i think it’s just a result of more people using the elevators. 
 

We’ve had some trips like you described, but usually there is a 5+ min wait for the elevator to arrive, and then, if it isn’t already too full to get on, there are more stops along the way to pick up more people or drop off others. 
 

These are by far the worst elevators we’ve ever experienced, and unfortunately, with a ship this tall, using the stairs when going from bottom to top would be quite the physical undertaking. 

Just now, Hobby3333 said:

Who is the CD now that Gene retired?

Her name is Monica. 
 

We are on this cruise as well. 
 

It’s an unmitigated nightmare. 
 

This is our first, and probably lady, MSC Cruise.

I understand spring break crowds, but MSC has no right to book this many people when they don’t have the staff to support it.
 

Overall the staff have been pleasant, and doing their best, but they have no hope of keeping up with 3,000 people on board.
 

I'm compiling a list of everything we’ve had problems with and will post when I’m done.  
 

Furious doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about this trip. 

16 hours ago, blueslily said:

 

Yes

@blueslily, that’s great. Do you happen to remember approximately what the cost was? (Or if anyone remembers)

Thanks!

Hi @Ready2CruiseAgain,

By chance have you seen if they are selling a weekly pass to the Thermal area in the spa? My wife and I are boarding on the 12th, and we absolutely can’t wait!

Thanks!

James

Hi Everyone!

We will be taking our first MSC cruise on March 12th aboard the Seashore. We have a random assortment of questions that the call center wasn't able to answer, and thought this would be the place to ask. Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated!

• We are booked with the included "browse" speed of internet. Can that be upgraded to the higher speed on board? We upgraded the drink package online, but didn't see a similar option for internet.
• Does the spa offer a weekly pass to the thermal area, and if so, how much is it? (and is it worth it?) (we are booked in a Fantastica balcony, no YC or Aurea packages)
• Are they seating people with other travel parties at dinner? I called to request a table with only the 3 of us, and they said that they couldn't request that, but that "they wouldn't seat different groups at the same table." 
• Has anyone found any good posts or websites that have all of the dinner menus, bar menus, daily programs, etc? 
• Has anyone heard any passenger estimates for next week (March 12th departure)? Call center said that ships are only at 50% capacity due to distancing, but again, this seems suspect.
• Any other tips or tricks that we should know? With this being our first time on MSC, I'm sure there will be a lot to learn.

Thanks!

James

On 10/2/2021 at 11:14 AM, luv2vacation12 said:

It say they will allow walk-ins if space is available. 
 

I can report back once we return with how it worked in practice. 

I’m also looking forward to hearing your report. We are sailing on the 7-night on Fantasy for Thanksgiving week. I’ll be interested to hear how available walk ups are and what the activities are like now. 

4 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

It is all easy peasy to switch. For the perk they give you the highest speed available.

 Thank you so much! That's exactly what I wanted to hear!

Hi Everyone,

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find the answer anywhere.

Does anyone know what speed of internet package is included when you book it as a perk? 

Also, I know that the perk comes with one device per person. Does anyone know if you can logout on one device and login on another?

Long story short, we are wondering if we can jump on a laptop for a few hours one day without having to lock in the laptop as the only device for that person for the whole week.

Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge!

That's awesome news. Thanks Everyone!

We are doing the 14-day Ireland and Iceland in 2020. Since we will likely want to spend every minute that we can ashore, it will be great to have breakfast dropped off each morning while we are getting ready.

Hi Everyone,

We have a couple of cruises booked in Concierge Class cabins and I was hoping someone could answer a question for us.

I've seem some older posts that mention an expanded in-room breakfast menu (the one you can hang on the door the night before to get it delivered) that includes hot items like omelets, bacon, sausage, smoothies, etc...

Does anyone know if that is still offered in Concierge rooms? I don't see any mention of it anywhere from Celebrity and I can't find anything recent that indicates one way or the other. Hopefully someone with some recent experience can fill us in!

Thanks!