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sthelder

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Posts posted by sthelder

  1. From another thread about Fantasia class aft balconies, upon checking the 13th deck plan, it appears that deck 13 aft balconies are Cat 6 without much, if any, room for chairs.

     

    Oh, MSC now classifies deck 13 aft cabins on Preziosa as balcony? If there is no change to the "balcony" size (which is really standing room only), it would be quite disappointing, as on other Fantasia class ships, these were classified as oceanview.

  2. Divina's 9162 will be the one next to the "hump" section, i.e. to the aft of Fantasia's 9162.

     

    Divina's 9162 is a category 6 balcony, whereby the balcony is a little "shallower" than category 7 and above balcony.

  3. Think many other cruiselines also restricted bookings to the same country ip address, probably due to regional pricing. From my knowledge, from the top 4 major cruiselines, only NCL allows international bookings at a global price.

     

    I just checked out MSC US website, Divina is still shown as going to repo to Europe in April 2014. Apparently bookings could still be made (I could not proceed further than getting a price quote as I am not accessing from an US ip address).

     

    Crazy.

  4. Wow, by the time of final payment date for Armonia, you are probably in line for a 20% black member discount...

     

    I usually choose baed on the itinerary, companion and date, rarely specific cruiseline. Having said that, MSC does have more interesting Europoean itineraries and if you like their style, good value for money.

  5. I suspect the extreme caution taken might be due to Norovirus outbreak on board. It's not uncommon for the ship to take precautionary actions but they might not announce it to the guests.

  6. How do they know to give us free water in Europe since we are Americans? Never heard of that.

     

    Apparently, it's based on how/where you booked your European cruise. If it's via MSC US/Canada or a North American TA, they will provide a bottle of 1L mineral water per cabin per day (water vouchers, to be presented to the waiters when making order).

  7. I think this thread ought to be posted on the Q&A forum with Mr. Vago.

     

    I do appreciate the efforts to provide information in the native languages and with a bit of digging, there are tons of information available. Yet when it comes to the business end, like finding out schedules (especially for those cruises not targeted in your region), booking cruises, checking status etc, it is not very user friendly.

  8. I would most likely go with itinerary...more likely than not NCL (Houston!) Royal Caribbean and Carnival in Caribbean, and MSC in the Europe (Black Sea, Holy Land and even Longyearbyen).

  9. It's an interesting read about Malaysia, Singapore and China. As I grew up in Malaysia and am staying in Beijing at the moment. Sometimes, I just sort of got used to the environment and the locals here tend to say I am more like a Chinese than a foreigner, I hope it's complimentary :o

     

    The best parts of Malaysia, landscape wise, are in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak on the Borneo island). Georgetown (Penang) and Malacca are both great from a cultural perspective though. Also, a visit to Orang Asli (West Malaysia) or Ibanese (Sarawak) village is definitely worthwhile (think Embera village tour in Panama).

     

    Visiting a huge country like China via cruise will only allow a glimpse of what it has to offer. Even a historic city like Beijing, has many things to offer than an overnight cruise stay could ever fill. Imagine if someone could only take cruise tour US from Alaska via Panama to Boston, it will be undeniably great fun but it's just not a complete package.

     

    As my DW and myself are in our 30s and we have a 3yo daughter, it's more convenient for us to travel via cruise. More often than not, after a cruise, the cruise was like a teaser and I could not help but hope, one day, time and health permitting, we will be back with a land tour.

  10. We walked a mile to the Monorail, rode up and down its route from the airport to opposite suburbs and peeked at a couple of sleepy commercial areas. At one of them we met two lonely Mormon "elders," young missionaries who seemed as lost as we were. They were happy to speak to someone in English.

     

    They were from California. "Have you ever been to California?" they asked. "Have you ever met a Mormon before." Being standup guys we told them the truth. When we lived in an antebellum house on Baltimore's Union Square -- the area where H.L. Mencken used to live -- religious solicitors came by all the time. So we told Jehovah's Witnesses we were Mormons and Mormons we were Witnesses. Nice smiles back and forth. Short and sweet. Worked every time.

     

    Gosh, I recall reading a review by a local cruiser (it's on a routine China-Korea-Japan cruise though), he met those misisonaries too...unsurprisingly, he didn't recognise the difference, just like Westerners probably don't know the different Buddhist sects.

     

    Well, I believe kettles and double-screen Chinese custom/security checks are local things. Chineses do love to boil water and make teas. And double-screen security checks are applied to air travel here too.

  11. Looking at 8005 (the porthole), is there any chance it also has a "secret balcony" similar to the aft oceanview cabins on deck 13?

     

    Or just my imagination running wild, seems to me 8006s are different to the same category 5 oceanview on deck 5.

     

    MSC0910814_MED.jpg

  12. If anyone making up stories here it’s you ,do you get paid by CCL or just volunteer:rolleyes:?

     

    Read in another thread where the OP warned the readers about balcony security. Let's just say, he wasn't very friendly to the OP too.

  13. The best post on this board for the past one week!

     

    Congrats to OP and his wife! It will be an amazing, life perspective changing experience, to become a first time parent.

     

    Sort of knowing the feeling, as we are also praying to have a second child for quite a few years. Our daughter eagerly wants to have a little sister/brother to play with her too.

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