rodndonna

She was still "going' to Vegas at that point ?? yikes! Can't imagine what her return flight would have been like .....🤮

We broke our rule of testing cruises at the lowest grade - standard interior (with drink, wifi etc). Was just too hard to pass up testing the YC experience for the price point. 😎 Thanks Tabby, I read your thread about your experiences with YC (interior and balcony) and that was part of our decision to give it a try with the (last remaining) inside cabin.

Title pretty much says it all ... We have spent the last couple of years cruise line sampling managing HAL, Celebrity, Princess and NCL. Time to try MSC! So - we just booked our first MSC cruise on the Seaside for late next March. Nabbed the last interior YC cabin available 😏 We generally sail insides but have been known to splurge on Aft balconies. Hummed and hawed over Premium Aurea aft wraparound cabin (non-YC) or interior YC cabin with comparable cost. Really wanted to try YC (although I expect we would be content without) so going tat route. Also hummed and hawed over Seaside or Seascape. Seaside had and extra port day (Nassau - no big draw - but I believe we are in the minority who have never actually been to Nassau!). Also thought Seaside "might" be a slightly better YC experience as there seem to be less YC cabins on that ship. Anyway, we've pulled the trigger so can look forward to finding out what MSC (and YC) are all about 😀

is there a Rant 5 coming/ ... it hasn't sounded all that bad (except for Embarkation).

We are looking at booking our first MSC cruise and am kinda surprised with the thread response being so resoundingly in support of TA booking over MSC, and in particular in case something goes wrong. I guess intuitively with other line bookings we always book direct as I feel like I have more control over the booking (no in-between) . I guess my biggest concern is that maybe MSC is known to have more issues with bookings than other cruise lines. Is that the case? What kind of problems arise? I see one poster referring to being downgraded from YC, but wondering how common that is and what other kind of issues arise from the MSC side. We're looking at a run-of-the mill Seascape 7 day Caribbean next March in a Premium Aqua cabin or YC inside cabin if that matters ....

Just one final comment from me .... (famous last words)... I totally understand people's frustrations and that thinking of "I have been a regular XYZ cruiser for 35 years... and they are not focusing on "me" ... their loyal customer" I kinda would argue they are focusing on "you" , but more in the form of the "new you" ... As an example If you are a now loyal 75 year old cruiser you likely started with HAL when you were 40-50 years old .... they were focusing on you then, and that's still who they are still focusing on I expect. There is still something for everyone, but the focus I believe is the 40-55ish demo ... and that demo has a much wider palate and more dietary restrictions/desires that previous generations. Maybe I am wrong, and I am not a cruise business expert, but if I were a HAL like brand of cruise, that is who I would focus on.

I totally agree. The majority of time people complain about food decline from the "good old days" they complain about "steak" and/or "lobster" .....without noting the PLETHORA of new options and dietary restrictions that are now accomodated. For us, the things we eat today is NOTHING like what we ate 40, 30, 20 years ago ... . The restaurants (ones that have have survived changing trends in what people eat) have varied over the years, my grocery stores have varied over the years, Most of my diet today (probably 5 out of 7 suppers a week) are items I NEVER ate 30 years ago.

I'll only add that, although I am no coffee exper, I think that the decaf coffees at Dutch Cafe and such are as good as the regular coffees. I am "sensitive" to caffeine and typically have a regular coffee in the morning (can only drink half of it), and then only decaf after that (afternoon and after dinner occasionally). I can't tell the difference in quality (but again - no expert)

If they are making the effort to develop the menus for the venue on Aqua, I would expect some of the better/popular ones would start making their way into the MDR menus for veggie/vegan options on all ships expanding what they have currently.

Since Covid we have sailed HAL, Celebrity, Princess and NCL and have been lurking on those boards. They all have an equivalent version of this thread resurrect regularly. I suspect the boards on the lines I don't peruse much have them also.

Using a site like Cruiseplum (it's not a booking site - so can be named here on Cruisecritic) the cruise price history is easy to check. Like you I see no difference in prices for 2 cruises I have booked and another one that I have been looking at.

Do you know people that would actually do that though? How common do you think that would be? I wouldn't ..I've never booked a cruise I didn't have a good expectation of taking. As a person who always books HIA and therefore always has refundable deposits, the promo is of limited interest to me, but I think it is good opportunity for others to book "Best Fare" price without having to risk typical deposit.

That is very good news - love Thai food and are "mostly" plant based diet (some fish) - so 2 big wins for us 😀

For the CO to be refundable - it would have to be booked as a refundable (HIA based) fare though..... is that correct? We always book HIA anyway ...just wondering

Correct, NB is the same. Was living in NB before coming to Ontario in 2017. Sunday shopping was alive and well in NB and as far as I know still is.

At the end of the cruise, Cole (the CD) said they had been working for 3 months prior to bring Woz onto the cruise. Just another example of how much effort went into making this cruise above and beyond the norm. I do now get to forever casually work in the phrase "....I was on a cruise with Steve Wozniak....."

Thanks for the review ! We were on your TSE cruise and nice to relive experiences and read about the experiences we missed (like 360) It was our first Princess cruise - so the bar is set perhaps a little high now for Princess 🤔

apologies for a tangent question - relating to Plus fares for Casino players (discounted fares) Does anyone know if the additional cost to Plus (say $60/pp/pday) is discounted by Casino rate at the same level of discount against the fare? For example - if one received Casino discount of 15% against cruise fare - would they effectively get that 15% discount against the added Plus charges - so essentially $51 instead of $60pp/pday? I ask because that is how it works with HAL and Casino discount fares. With HAL and their "Have it All" or HIA fare pricing, there is an advantage in booking with the HIA fare as that add on cost is reduced. HIA can generally be added later, but no Casino discount would be applied if not included as part of the fare. We have only sailed Princess once (last week) and not really expecting a Casino discount offer - but - I am curious 🤔

We currently have 2 bookings with HAL that are both HIA ... One for Sept 2024 booked more recently (a couple of months ago) ... it does itemize "refundable" in the Special Services One for Dec 2024 booked much earlier in time (more than a year ago) it does not itemize being "refundable" in Special Services (but still clearly is refundable from the Cancellation Fees table) So - from our experience - yes - HIA bookings have been refundable for quite some time, BUT, "itemizing" it in Special Services is new(ish)

Just checked ours - correct spelling. I don't think I would have noticed but would have raised questions about the validity with Moday!

My thoughts based on very limited experience (just off our first Princess cruise on the Discovery) - the Medallion is a great technology feature, but still not fully where they want to get it to. With regards to dining - ideally as you walk up - they can see your name and ID pop up and greet you name. If you scan, they can confirm who you are and then greet you by name without making a mistake. On our first day of our cruise, we walked up to a bar, ordered, and he knew who we were no problem. On day 2 we had charges for the steakhouse specialty dining (we don't eat meat) and there seem to be quite a number of people at guest services with charges that were in dispute. Very noticeably for the remainder of the cruise, we were asked for a room number to confirm for drinks or scanned our medallion. Eventually the medallion technology could evolve to work better in busy areas, just not there yet. Still a great improvement though we thought. When you get a chance take a look at the screen they are looking at (like the dining podium) with all of our pics and names popping on and off and moving around the display. I think they need to work a bit more on that algorithm.

We just came off our first Princess cruise (Discovery) and it was the first cruise ship Casino I really had an issue with the smoke smell. I say "smoke smell" because even when we would go when there was almost no one in the Casino and could not even find see smoking (or see any ashtrays) ... it still had a heavy cigarette smell. I really didn't get it ... for a new ship I would have expected really good smoke eaters.

I really didn't mind the 1 year as opposed to longer durations more typical (at least on other lines) - as it should refund by then if not used. I agree with you though, if you have another cruise with Princess booked coming up - no reason to buy more FCD's.

Like others on this tread - we were on the Discovery - indeed - amazing experience! The only other element I thought worth bringing up was the incredible speakers brought on board for this cruise by Princess for the enrichment session and nightly stargazing. They were both really top notch and very entertaining. And then having Steve Wozniak on the cruise and sitting in on one of his talks was quite an unexpected bonus. This was our first Princess cruise and the only problem with it was that it had so many unique highlights that I'm not sure it was very representative of a typical Princess cruise. We purchased cruise deposits so we can test out another "standard" Princess sailing. 🙃

It's the only one HAL carries, so I expect the same. Not a fan.... but it's OK ... always looking at more options for less or no-alcohol drinks as we get older ....🙄