Kiwiaus

Hoping we some of these when we are on in 2 weeks.

 

 

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Can't beat a Marlborough Sav Blanc. $6.99 from my local bottle shop and great quality with it. I understand NZ Sav Blanc is the top selling wine variety in Australia!!!. Goes great with pavlova (another great thing from NZ). Ok now I am having a stir!.

We have done a 3 day cruise from Freo in July on the Eden & are again travelling on her in the July school holidays from Freo up to Singapore. We have also travelled from Freo up to Singapore 4 yrs ago in March on Royal Carribean. Once you get north pass Geraldton (also depending on the weather in Perth) the seas are generally flat as. I do get seasick, so I took a tablet before we left on our cruise upto Singapore, as wasn't sure what to expect. There was one day, think it was the 2/3 day where I woke & wasn't feeling great (passed though a storm) took a tablet & was fine the rest of the day. After that didn't need to take anything as like I said it was flat as but its better if she is prepared & comes home with all her medication, then not take it & ruin your holiday.

Being School holidays, there will be lots of kids onboard.

Doing the 3days cruise we did go & book the speciality restaurants as soon as we got on & we will do this again in July, & we found the food fine, didn't dine at Salt Grill only Angelos & Dragon Lady (tip: the portions are small & there is nothing stopping you from ordering more that 1 entrée, main or dessert if you want, haven't done it but think this time we would)

The ship itself is nicely done up, there are nice bars, trivia is always fun, shows are great, the cruise director on our cruise was an absolute hoot. I think if you go with an open mind then you can't be disappointed, we certainly did (our 1st cruise was on Royal Carribean) & we loved it.

As I'm not sure what islands you go to. However we have booked private tours in both Komodo(this is costing us $US100pp, not sure who that is though as its on my husbands emails, we pay when we get there) & Lombok (daytour to Gili islands www.lomboktoursandtravel.com costs us IDR450,000 each). In Bali we are hiring a driver to take us around (if you need his details let me know) & the other stops we will just be going local.

Hope this helps, if you have any other questions please ask & I hope you enjoy your trip.

Hopefully you will do a review, we are doing the same cruise in July, so hopefully you might have some tips that are useful for us.

Hi, We are on the same cruise :). There is a group of 11 of us. I have just started up a roll call for our cruise on cruise critic. We have booked private tours in Bali, Lombok and Komodo Island and are not doing any ship tours. In Probolinggo we have just decided to take a shuttle in to the city as ship tours are too expensive and it seems like the private tour providers are not reliable. Cheers, Steve

Look at Accor hotels for accommodation as a lot of them children are free if in same room. We have booked Paris, Switzerland & genoa though them. We are staying at apartments in Venice star splendid San Marco. Make sure you book your trains early, usually you can only do it 3 mths in advance unless international when I think it's 6 mths.

Hey Sue,

Yes you guessed correctly we might indeed be similar ages.

KiwiAus is another Ozzie family on Fantasia at the same time. I have briefly made contact with them and a lady from Patagonia on the roll call for this cruise.

I would love to meet you guys for a drink one time as sounds like english speaking people will be the minority on this cruise.

I too have been trawling through this forum for many months and am very thankful for all the posts of other cruisers as I have learnt so many tips :)

See you on board in a few weeks.

Cheers Bronwyn

Sue & Bronwyn we would love to meet with you. Our gathering could be bigger than the roll call:). We are a similar ages as well. We leave Aus on 13 September and are doing a 9 night on MSC Poesia from Genoa on 24 September before the MSC Fantasia cruise. I am a bit worried though as we fly in to London initially and our daughters have mentioned about packing lightly as the shopping is so good. :eek:

Steve & Diana

I have received a reply from MSC Australia re what is included in my cruise booking. Please note in bold below re the nightly turn down service. It seems their new brochures are out of date already!. Also I was not aware that 24 hour cabin service was included in my original booking (B2 balcony) so that is a bonus. That is as long as cabin service means room service?????????

"Please see below list of what is included in your cruise fare for bookings who do not have the Experience Pricing as per our brochure terms and conditions

Accommodation in air conditioned cabins with en suite bathroom serviced twice daily

Daily program delivered to your cabin show casing shore excursions, special offers and events of the next day

Port and handling charges

All meals on board including breakfast, lunch and dinner in selected main restaurants or at the self-service buffet open 20 hours a day, afternoon tea, Captain’s cocktail party and Gala dinners

Water, tea and coffee provided in self-service buffet

Complimentary pool towels

24 hour cabin service

Complimentary use of selected on board facilities including mini golf, library, pools, whirlpools, sun beds (on board facilities can vary from ship to ship)

In relation to the new Experience Pricing we have received information that the nightly turn down service will be included in all grades"

As a first time cruise on MSC I am still confused about what to expect with the change to Experience Packages on my sailings, since I will not be on any of the packages. How do I know what services were included in my original booking?. An example is I received the new MSC brochure today and they state that the evening goodnight turndown service is available on the Fantastica but not the Bella experience. Would this have been included on my original booking as was it a standard service before the experiences were introduced?.

Wow it has to be the worst day of the year to be on a cruise ship in Freo. 100km plus winds plus driving rain. I hope they are not leaving tonight :eek:

So my reply was

"You have booked a category B2 which category has been changed from May 2015 to Fantastica class.

This year, it is still called category B2. There are no difference from category 2 to Fantastica class."

Was free 24hr room service included in B2 - I don't recall this(?) but it seems to be part of Fantastica. I am thinking we won't be getting anything extra that what the B2 would have allowed based on what others have said.

Interesting as we got a different reply from MSC today.

"As you have booked on the old pricing which does not include the experience options , you can request continental breakfast in your cabin on the prices we have booked you with.The Experience package is only valid for new bookings from now for 2014/2015"

Suuluu, if they are going to treat a B2 booking as part of Fantastica as per your reply from MSC it would be good as it was only continental breakfast room service that was included as being free of charge under the old B2 bookings.

Hi Again Kiwiaus! Funny I noticed same thing and emailed them today, then found this thread. We are also booked in B2 and I will also post the response when I receive one.

Suuluu, Hi to you again!....I have e-mailed MSC this afternoon, so we can compare the answers!

That is typical MSC!

 

Come to think about it, when I was on a suite on the Armonia in Spring, it was an Aurea a in. I had not booked under that scheme. There was a brochure on the desk about what was included in Aurea but I had not been converted to that deal. I chased my cabin steward for my missing slippers and he said you are not on Aurea so you don't get any. I pointed out that as a Black Card member I did regardless of Bin and he went and got me them. So seems Tim is right, they will know what you've booked under and that is what you will get. May have to remind them sometimes onboard though!

I think we will send an e-mail to MSC Australia to confirm a few details and take the reply with us on board :). By the way Amo Mondo and Skipper Tim I appreciate your replies as I have loved reading your posts on this forum and Skipper Tim your live reports from MSC cruises are fantastic. Thank you to both of you.

Kiwis us, are you sure that your cruise is covered by the new experience pricing policy? In the UK it does not come into effect until winter cruises 2014 onwards. I see you're booked on a late Septemeber cruise. I would have thought that was still on the current system prior to the Bella, Fantastica etc.

 

Unless of cours MSC are bringing this experience into effect for different countries at different times.

I had a look today on the Australian website and they have changed the pricing for the cruise based on the new experience packages.

We are booked on cruises where MSC have introduced the new Bella, Fantastica and Aurea packages after we booked. Where does that leave us in relation to the services we receive on the ship?. We have booked B2 balconies. If we go under the Bella package I see we will have to pay for continental breakfast in our cabin yet when we booked this was included in the price. I am sure there are other changes as well.

Loving your reviews & the view coming into Venice is amazing, we have a balconey booked for this cruise so will be fantastic to sit out there & watch. Can I ask what camera you have (need a new one, so am seeing what other people are using before we leave)

I echo Irishcruisers comments. Great review and photos. We are doing the same cruise in October and your review has certainly got us excited. Thank you for taking the time and effort to do this, :)

I was of the impression that employees of MSC are a lot better paid than those on US cruise lines. This is why the tipping policy is in place. When on Royal Caribbean we tipped for service because we knew wages were low. On MSC we would not tip unless we received extraordinary service.

Thanks kiwiaus. As a first time cruiser I do find some of this very confusing and learn most from these boards. I'm interested in what you've said about the drinks booking. So currently I have the Allegrissimo in my shopping cart for 2 adults 2 kids (11 and 14) and it is 490 euro - exchange rate today $718 aud. I understand everything in my shopping cart will be charged to my final bill when we complete the cruise. Is that right? When you say you booked directly with MSC - did you call them and have you/will you then prepay in aud before you go?

Suuluu , our girls are excited there will be 2 other Aussie kids on the ship :). They want to know if you have boys or girls or 1 of each. Regarding the excursions we are a bit reluctant to book the explorer formula as we think we can do Olympia and Corfu by ourselves. We cruised on the Voyager Of The Seas out of Fremantle last year and got the cruise bug. Really the only port we think we definitely want to do an excursion is Athens. Pre booking the drinks package in $A gives us a bit of piece of mind that we do not have to worry about the exchange rate offered on the ship.

Yes booked directly with MSC, the drinks package was then added to the cost of the cruise & will be paid when we made our final payment to them this month.

Hi

I'm in Aus and booked on 5/10 Fantasia Eastern med. I can't see any explorer packages... When I log in to the reservations on board section it just shows the excursions available by port. Does that mean they aren't available on my cruise or am I looking in the wrong spot?

We are on the same cruise :). The Explorer formula cruises are in the MSC Brochure and are available in Australia and NZ. They can be booked directly with MSC Australia or NZ.

The 3 excursions included in the package are:

Corfu. Archilleion's Palace

Piraeus. Athens And Acropolis

Katakolon. Olympia and Shopping

The cost is A$202 $NZ246 an adult (14 plus) and A$150 $NZ183 a child. For a family of 3 adults and 1 child I calculated the saving was A$207 by getting the package instead of buying the tours individually. We still have not booked this yet....still thinking about it.

Also we pre booked the Allegrissimo drinks package directly with MSC Australia. We were surprised how the price for this was lower than we had seen advertised anywhere. Cost was A$92 a day total for the 4 of us (2adults and a 12 & 14 year old).

We have found MSC Australia very good to deal with and when we e-mail them they get back to us promptly.

OK Explorer packages must be really popular.:)

Thanks, all the way from New Zealand,,,

 

I was in Christchurch on the last Lions tour,,, Beautiful country... and I am a big Sharks supporter, sooooo glad the Sharks finally beat the Crusaders....

Caveman I was loving your review until now :) It is good to see the Sharks back to their best. Since leaving NZ and moving to Perth I have become a Force supporter. We will see you in the Final :eek: Your review has convinced us to get the drinks package. What more do I need to say.....loved it.

We are doing Eastern Med & Western Med cruises on MSC in Sep/Oct. Having looked at the Explorer formula packages for each cruise it looks like we could we could save about 20% compared to booking each excursion separately. Average cost is about Australian $60.00 for each of us (3 adults, 1 child). This sounds reasonable to me for the tours offered. Does any one else have experience booking explorer packages. Feedback would be appreciated.

Michelle, we have 2 daughters (12 & 14). Our first cruise was last year. They didn't want to go. By the time we got off the cruise they were upset because they did not want it to end!!. We are going on more cruises this year and they are very excited. Once hooked there is no escape. :)