Opera at Sea. 8th April

[caviargal]

Caviargal - you will be very welcome and we can assure you of fun times.

We will also be delighted to help you celebrate the milestone birthday :-).

 

Remember there are differences between the Med and the Caribbean/Transatlantic. Just one for instance in the Med. Room Service is charged in the Caribbean it is Complimentary.

 

Yes, I have done 4 Med cruises to date and understand that the policies as well as the flavor of the cruise is very different. Room service for me is pretty much limited to coffee in the mornnings.

 

I will enjoy celebrating my birthday with all of you!

[czechmate]

Room service for me is pretty much limited to coffee in the mornnings.

 

I will enjoy celebrating my birthday with all of you!

 

On the room service issue we are right there with you.

 

So should we add you to the April '06 list now? :-)

April 18th, 2006 - that will be the last of 5 days at sea and the night before we reach Funchal - so it will be time for a good party!

[Benitad]

Czechmate ... rub it in, why don't you? ... invite all and sundry on the transatlantic and go without me! boo hoo.

Actually, the more people who sign on to April 2006, the more I salivate!

[czechmate]

Benita - you know you are invited - and very much wanted!

[henri]

Hey Czechmate,

I thought we should not say that last phrase....:eek:

Perhaps she can't stand it ...;)

Greetings to all,

Henri.

[caviargal]

Czechmate ... rub it in, why don't you? ... invite all and sundry on the transatlantic and go without me! boo hoo.

Actually, the more people who sign on to April 2006, the more I salivate!

 

Benitad,

 

If you are looking for a cabinmate, we should chat!

 

CG

[Benitad]

Thanks for the invite, cg! The cabinmate isn't the issue, it's whether I can swing the vacation days!

 

Czechmate: a suggestion. Pretty please, put your cruise photos link on a separate thread because I have a tough time searching for it everytime I want to check for updates!

[czechmate]

Will post a new thread to photographs.

Your request is my command!

 

ROTTERDAM

Thanks for your message yesterday. Appreciate it. Come join us 8th April, 2006. You would me a welcome addition.

[czechmate]

Well we can add one more to the list for April 2006!

 

Having heard our stories about our fantastic time and seen the photographs Daniels sister Michaela (aged 25) is going to be joining us.

[czechmate]

Duplication. Apologies

[czechmate]

Under the thread "Msc 2006" Magwa gave a lead to 2 sites where MSC information was available.

 

Shock horror what do I discover the itinerary for Opera 8th April, 2006 transtlantic is different to that given when we made our enquiry and booking.

 

Cruise is reduced by one day.

 

After departing Funchal :

OUT go Malaga/Almeria, Malta, Dubrovnik and Venice.

 

In come Malaga only, Marseille and ending in Genoa.

 

This is a huge disappointment.

As you can imagine e-mails are winging their way to our USA TA.

[henri]

On this 2006 OPERA transatlantic trip there are more changes.

On some cruise-travel-sites there is also no more Cayo Levantado, but San Juan.

(See for instance : http://www.*****.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=19380)

 

Further: the stop in Almeria is almost always only for embarkation for the people who went to Granada, where is :Alhambra plus Generaliffe-gardens, (very beautiful) big Cathedral with the graves of Ferdinand & Isabel (by their marriage Spain became one unit/country!), Palace of Charles the fifth. This tour starts in Malaga, and the stop in Almeria is only for one hour and nobody is allowed to leave the ship!!.

 

Hopefully it is turning to the original way, for those who wanted this specific cruise.

 

Henri.

[czechmate]

Hello Henri

Hope that you and Marian had a great weekend with Carol and Mike (Glowing Amber) and we know that you will have shared a lot of laughs. I look forward to receiving Carols e-mail telling me all about it. Will drop you a line tomorrow!

 

I checked also on the msccruise.com site and they show Cayo Levantado as a port - the same as Magwas lead gives - and they show Marseille and then Genoa.

I was aware of Malaga/Almeria and this being just a pick up point. What we are sorry about is

a) the loss of the extra day at sea

b) not visiting Malta and Dubrovnik and then disembarking in Venice

c) there will only be 6 ports of call.

Whilst we do love the sea days the ports too can be rewarding.

[czechmate]

In my "Review" writing about Negatives I said MSC were hard to deal with!!

 

Guess what! My Orlando USA travel agent is not able to get clarification of the April 2006 transatlantic itinerary from the USA Headquarters of MSC. The Manager "thought" it was that we were given! They are now trying to ascertain the facts!

I would love to think that what they told us before is accurate - but I doubt it.

 

Carol and Mike report a brilliant suoerb weekend with Henri and Marian in Holland. Lucky them!! Henri you better be prepared for an influx of visitors - you and Marian are just to good at playing host! and live in such a lovely spot with many of natures beauties all around.

[henri]

Dear friends,

 

Did you notice that there are allready more views on this thread than the 'Roll-call'-one ??:D

 

We are glad that Carol&Mike had a fine weekend, and thank you for the nice words:o, but….before the influx of visitors can come we have to lenghten our house, to create more cabins : :( just like they are doing now with the Enchantement of the Seas).

 

I think you put your finger on the bad spot (do I say this right??) when you noticed that MSC is hard to deal with. There is a big problem with their "speak with one tongue".:mad:

Their management is different in Europe, U.S., and on board. Should it be that this is 'normal' in the container-transport-world ?? Don't they know that cruising is something different ??

Like I mentioned in an other thread, I received an answer on my mail regarding this (among other things), where they were saying "because management regarding cabins during the cruise is different" !!

Perhaps we should offering them our "expertise" and "experience" how to handle this ((New job : :) )) , because this is no good promotion for MSC.

Btw, It is said that Celebrity is following/reading on all boards of all sites all comments about their cruises/crew/ships. Anyone know if MSC (and others) do the same ?? Maybe MSC should do this !!

 

Henri.

[venicecruiser]

What was the weather like on the days across the Atlantic? How warm was it?

 

 

Claudia

[glowing amber]

;) We spent the w/e with Henri and Lady M, The weather was dutch,:confused: just think they did just for us..We had a birds eye view of there beautiful country,showing us wonderful gardens, natural wonders and The Queens Home....{little hard to see but I believe it was there covered with trees and greens}

So much was seen it's hard to list it all.

We enjoyed each other and looking forward to our next visit maybe in NYC this fall.:)

[glowing amber]

You ask about the weather duing our crossing? It was wonderful one day better than the other or was it the GREAT people we meet that made it feel that way?

 

maybe a sweat shirt //I think I came out of shorts and into capri during crossing

close to italy it was cooler.....with all the going on I'm not really sure?

During crossing we sleeped late and closed the Lounge

no place to go just having fun........................;)

 

What was the weather like on the days across the Atlantic? How warm was it?

 

 

Claudia

[glowing amber]

;) We spent the w/e with Henri and Lady M, The weather was dutch,:confused: just think they did just for us..We had a birds eye view of there beautiful country,showing us wonderful gardens, natural wonders and The Queens Home....{little hard to see but I believe it was there covered with trees and greens}

So much was seen it's hard to list it all.

We enjoyed each other and looking forward to our next visit maybe in NYC this fall.:)

[venicecruiser]

glowing amber - Thanks for the weather info. I really want to do either the Lirica or Opera spring 2006 crossing. I initially looked at Lirica thinking that as she started her crossing later than Opera perhaps the weather would be better. Now I am considering Opera maybe a little more after seeing czechmate's wonderful photos and knowing that some, perhaps all, of the 2005 spring crossing may again be on Opera. Looked like a lovely group that I would enjoy meeting.........

 

 

Claudia

[varadero]

hi

 

a lot of pictures are ours. There are some from mary, carol (glowing amber) and barry.

We made a collection of all the best pictures.

 

 

The weather on the ocean was very good, every day in bikini, but the last day was not very warm.

 

cynthia

[varadero]

hi

 

a lot of pictures are ours. There are some from mary, carol (glowing amber) and barry.

We made a collection of all the best pictures.

 

 

The weather during the crossing was very good, :D every day in bikini, but the last day was not very warm.

 

cynthia

[venicecruiser]

Sorry gino and cynthia - I did look at your photos and they were excellent! I should have said so initially.:o .........Thanks for your weather comments, too. Are you two planning to do Opera's spring 2006 transat?

 

Claudia

[czechmate]

Cludia - Hi - well we have made e-mail contact and will do all that we can to assist you.

 

My Orlando T.A. tells me that Mr. Henwood the VP of MSC Sales USA will be writing to me. The big question now is "Will he?" or will he re-inforce No.1 of the "negatives" in my review! :-)

Maybe the problem is that there are too many V.P.s, . Ps, C.E.O.s etc and no one doing any work!! :-)

[henri]

Aye, Aye,

 

that's just what I mean by 'taking over' this strange differences between management in Europe, U.S. and on board. It's about the right hand and left pocket :eek:

"Hey,.....mister Sasso, can you do something about this ?? " :confused:

 

We're allready as long at home as we were on the OPERA-transatlantic-trip :(

Time flies, isn't it !!

 

Anyone heard something of Robyn?? Dear Robyn, let hear from you !?:D

Hope everything is oke !!:)

 

Henri.