Can't book online

[Carpgirl]

Hi:),

 

I'm trying to book online but keep going round in circles.

 

Once I click on book now I get a message:

 

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT MESSAGE

 

Booking in this website is for residents in UK Country.Please click here to be redirected to the MSC Cruises Global site.

 

If I click on the cross in the top right hand corner of the message it throws me back out to choosing a cruise again. It won't let me continue without clicking on the cross though.

 

What am I doing wrong please?

 

Thank you.

[AmoMondo]

Hi:),

 

I'm trying to book online but keep going round in circles.

 

Once I click on book now I get a message:

 

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT MESSAGE

 

Booking in this website is for residents in UK Country.Please click here to be redirected to the MSC Cruises Global site.

 

If I click on the cross in the top right hand corner of the message it throws me back out to choosing a cruise again. It won't let me continue without clicking on the cross though.

 

What am I doing wrong please?

 

Thank you.

 

My guess it is not recognising your location in the Channel Islands as being part of the UK. You'll probably need to phone them to resolve it. I only get that message when I try booking when I'm on holiday overseas.

[Skipper Tim]

There is a technical workaround which I successfully used to access the booking stages of MSC UK and MSC South Africa a week or so ago while in Turkey - proxy servers. When you use a proxy server for the web, all your web traffic goes via the proxy server and as far as the host site is concerned you are located where the proxy server is.

 

1) Google " free proxy server" or jump straight to hidemyass.com/proxy-list/

 

2) Note the IP address and port no. of a currently active proxy server in the location you wish to appear to be, e.g. the UK. Ensure that it can handle secure (https) connections to deal with the MSC booking system.

 

3) In Windows, these settings need to put into the browser's settings. On Mac and iOS they are system-wide and so go into system settings. Remember you are looking for the network HTTPS proxy setting which will probably be currently blank. The word "port" may not appear but it is the number after the IP address sometimes shown as 12.34.56.78:xxxx where xxxx is the port no.

 

4) For good measure disconnect from the net and reconnect - in whatever way you like: switch off and on wi-fi, log out/in etc..

 

5) Now when you go to msccruises.com and choose the country of your proxy server you will appear to be in that country - the same for any other secure website. It will be slower as the connection is going through a free proxy server.

 

6) Be sensible about use of credit cards. These are not trusted proxy servers and all your data is being routed via them so either just use them to obtain information, prices, availability etc. in different countries then contact MSC or an agent to book, or else use a separate credit card that you only use for potentially fraught transactions and monitor it periodically for any unexpected activity. Remember, the credit card company is still responsible for any fraudulent activity.

 

7) Finally, remember to remove or disable the proxy details once you are done and reconnect to the net as before.

 

If MSC did not have this daft, blunt and ignorant approach to website access, and more broadly, market-segmentation, none of this would be necessary.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Tim.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Skipper Tim

[Carpgirl]

Thank you for your responses they are very much appreciated.

 

I tried phoning but was on hold for ages. I got fed up in the end & decided that if MSC makes it so hard for me to book, I'll look elsewhere.

 

Thanks again:)