Tired of dealing with MSC cancellation’s to begin!

[kidless]

We love MSC and even though customer service can be a bear at times we muddle through because we love the onboard experience and the price point! However when is enough, enough? 
 

We have dealt with a lot of the same issues as many of you…..long hold times….incompetent customer service representatives on the phone…..lousy internet site. We even had a lovely 12 day cruise booked on a Mediterranean cruise on  Splendida for October 2022 that MSC removed us from and moved us to a 7 day on Seaside…..going to different ports leaving on a different date at a much lower price that they had not adjusted. No one called us, emailed us or sent us a carrier pigeon. We only found out though another poster here on Cruise Critic who was also removed from the sailing. So we waited to see if they would notify us…..they never did. So we called, at first the representative was like no you booked Seaside……sorry no we booked Splendida…..so we were told “Oh well,  Splendida cancelled you can keep or cancel and rebook” Gee thanks for making us feel valued and appreciated so ok let’s cancel and We will rebook with Royal Caribbean. Ok! 😳 

 

We forgave MSC you know all that Covid craziness, lost employees, cancelled cruises the world went a little mad so ok new people, ships being moved around, we got it.  On October 17th we boarded the Divina and our first Yacht Club experience and it was absolutely wonderful. Even though our Butler was no where to be seen the first half of the week said he hurt himself…..but he made up for it….and we didn’t care! We were on a cruise and it was fabulous! Not to mention a special Anniversary cruise that had been put on hold for 18 months…..did I mention Covid? We may have gone a little over board in jewelry shop watch for hubby Diamonds for me! How come casino players get free cruises for dropping big bucks what about us jewelry store suckers? Added perk was all the money we spent would help push us up to Diamond! That’s a nice little perk! Dave wants a chocolate ship! 
 

When we got off Divina Dave said upgrade all our future cruises to Yacht club! Wahoo don’t have to tell me twice! Now we had a few cruises booked and you know having MSC change anything on an already booked cruise is always tedious, time consuming and dangerous. But got  our November, 7 day upgraded……January, 4 day upgraded…..March, 12 day upgraded……August, 7 day upgraded! Wahoo……

 

Quick check of my credit card from October was stunning everything we purchased on board hit our card as pending then the total was charge also so looked like double hit and it was a LOT. The pending ties up our card and took 3 weeks to drop off…..frustrating but I’m still an MSC cheerleader! 
 

Then our 7 day Meraviglia cruise arrived….so excited. Now we had a few hiccups in Yacht club like being told to arrive at port at 10am to stand outside on a chilly morning with 40 of our new friends for 45 minutes but it was Meraviglia’s first day at Port Canaveral so we understood.  After quite a wait to board in the waiting area we are in the yacht club! Yahoo let’s get the party started Mimosa for me please. We were the first ones in the yacht club followed by 50 of our new friends for the week! We were told to have a seat and our butlers would be coming to escort us to our suites!  Excitement is growing! We didn’t see our Butler for first half of cruise on Divina……going to be cool…

feel so special! One after another a butler came in and whisked some lucky couple away……after 3 mimosa’s and a bottle of water 2 hours has past and except for a couple just walking in we are the lone people left in the topsail and have been for awhile. Who needs a stinking butler anyway 2 hours is enough time to wait off to the cabin we go.  I’d say that was the worse off it and maybe it was. It’s a cruise for Pete sake we have a great time together. So a string of little petty things doesn’t lessen our good time so no need to mention…….matter of fact it was so nice at the end of 7 days Dave got off and I stayed on board…..for next 4 day cruise!
 

I saw Susanna down at the future cruise desk on Saturday she gave me a pretty good price on an inside yacht club we’d had a balcony but since just me inside is fine. Susanna could not get it to go through so you see we are not the only ones who suffer with their crappy internet site! Fine give me balcony yacht club what’s a few more hundred 🥺  gee that one went thought! Oopsie she may have hit the button twice! That’s right she charged me twice. Not a problem she assure my husband and me it would be removed Monday morning first thing!!! Awesome ok bye Dave love ya babe but looking forward to four more days……Mimosa please! Now on Monday it still wasn’t removed and Monday night the awesome concierge (these guys were great) calls me over and says Susanna needs my address because she is going to give me a check to cover the double charge. Why does she need my address to cut a check plus don’t they have my adress 🤪but ok…..when am I getting check…. Tomorrow she said tomorrow.   Wednesday night rolled around still no check. Now I’m told they will mail me the check. Absolutely unacceptable we all know how fast MSC mails out their checks. Did I mention  I had talk to my husband that day and not only did they charge my credit card $1296 TWICE for the cruise but $1296 hit twice as pending that’s a total of $5,184 on our card. We had also spent $750 on the 7 day which hit as a charge and also hit as pending so now our card is up to $6684. Now I know the pending will eventually in a few weeks fall of but it’s not the point.  I tell the concierge  this isn’t acceptable and I’d like to talk to a manager. I was told it would be removed…then told I’d get a check….now you are mailing it? Well moral of story still haven’t gotten a check never got to talk to a manager but had a great time on a super duper expensive cruise….. (we have put in dispute with cc company)

 

Now The straw that broke this camels back is…….let’s talk Voyager Club. Before October we were close to Diamond after all we spent on Divina we should have hit Diamond except we didn’t…..David did. Even though I booked cruise…….I booked all the pre-stuff, I bought all the jewelry and shore tours and it all went on my credit card they gave David every single point. I know, I know it’s a little thing in the big picture….but dang I wanted to be Diamond I do all the work…..I sit on hold for hours…..I explain things a million times……I pay for it out of my account, I wanted to taunt him with my chocolate ship. So we did ask MSC to fix it, a very nice man name Mr Lee even called and said they’d make the adjustment that was naturally almost two months ago and still not fixed. Well we will beat MSC at their own game so in November we had my name put as lead…..and I did a second YC 4 day cruise solo! This would catch me up ….. right? Wrong! They gave Dave (who thinks it’s the funniest thing on earth as he sits in his recliner slowly consuming his chocolate ship) ALL the points……even for booking the second cruise……..I swear they even gave him extra points to really get under my skin! So I’m done……They win ….. January cruise is paid in full but getting ready to make March’s 12 day Yacht club cruise final payment and I just couldn’t do it…..you mess with my chocolate ship MSC so I cancelled and actually found a great 11 day on Celebrity Cruise and saved $1700 …..so take that MSC and if you don’t get your stuff straight I’m cancelling more!!!!

[ready2cruzagain]

I know you are upset and I understand but some of the things that you are upset about are not MSC's fault. Such as the hold on your credit card is not MSC, that is your credit card company.  It is up to them to release the funds. 

 

Also, only the Voyagers Club member who makes the final payment for the onboard expenses will receive the points so I am guessing your credit card was in your hubbies name and that is why he received the points. 

 

I agree if you are not happy the best way to go is with your wallet and feet.  That is what we have always done. 

 

At least you have CC to get it off of your chest. Happy cruising.

Edited December 15, 2021 by ready2cruzagain

[kidless]

28 minutes ago, ready2cruzagain said:

I know you are upset and I understand but some of the things that you are upset about are not MSC's fault. Such as the hold on your credit card is not MSC, that is your credit card company.  It is up to them to release the funds. 

 

Also, only the Voyagers Club member who makes the final payment for the onboard expenses will receive the points so I am guessing your credit card was in your hubbies name and that is why he received the points. 

 

I agree if you are not happy the best way to go is with your wallet and feet.  That is what we have always done. 

 

At least you have CC to get it off of your chest. Happy cruising.

Nope everything was paid for with my credit card he is not on card! I purposefully signed for everything with my on board card which used my credit card. And my credit card told me it is the businesses  duty to release the pending charge since MSC puts the pending on to make sure the money is there before the final bill hits at end of the week. And it happened on two different cards so siding with credit cards on this one especially since it’s never ever happened with any other travel or business I’ve ever dealt with.
 

I honestly don’t see anything I stated that is not MSC’s fault. Except for maybe the having to wait outside at port or perhaps they could have been better prepared but I’ll give them that one as I stated that dang Covid. 

 

I understand the cheerleading I also love MSC and cheerlead them and make excuses for them. And I’m not upset I’d call it more annoyed it just seems to be so much work dealing with MSC….nothing is easy and they don’t seem to appreciate our business. We still have 3 cruises booked so we will see….

[deliver42]

With their beautiful ships and usually good on board service, it's a shame they, as a Corp., like to jerk people around, and it doesn't matter the Voyager Club status.

[phissy]

Totally agree with you on this, Kidless.

After our last cruise on MSC and all the accounting and on board issues, we cancelled our other 3 bookings for next year.

We have only paid deposits on those.

 

The funniest one was when YC Director offered to 

” buy” us  dinner in specialty restaurant for all the mess ups. 
We accepted and had dinner at Sushi Restaurant. We ordered 1 item each and after receiving those decided not to order anything more. 
Waiter said bill was covered.

Checking cruise charges on last morning , found the dinner was charged to our account.😆🤣 Since it was a small amount, let it pass.

But, this totally sums up MSC and our experience on board. Spent everyday  dealing with an issue on board. 
The worst one was, our jacuzzi did not work and we had repair men in and out of our Suite for 4 days. Not much of a Royal Suite experience.

(Still dealing with MSC post cruise to try and get correct Voyagers Points)

Edited December 16, 2021 by phissy

[styles27]

That’s weird about the points. In 2019 I did a status match with MSC to Diamond Status.
Both my husband and I are Diamond. Both of us have equal points because I use both of our VC #’s when I book a cruise and our credit card is in both our names. (2 cards same account number)

 

Even after our Divina cruise last month we each received equal points. (It was a VC double points voyage)

 

I’ve said this to another CC member that told us he had over $40k invested in FCC…nuts to me but whatever floats his boat (pun intended lol)

We never book more than 1 cruise at a time with a company, any company.

Too many what if’s and uncertainties especially during a pandemic. Too much of a chance to be disappointed when cruise lines move their ships around and change itineraries. 
Where MSC sucks is they don’t always inform booked passengers of these changes and that’s completely wrong on so many levels. 

It appears that the majority of similar stories to your’s that I read on this site are from people who have multiple cruises booked.  They have hundreds if not thousands of dollars tied up for a couple years out. Yikes! 

 

I’ve never seen the benefit of doing that and we’ve been cruising for almost 40yrs. 

[kidless]

3 minutes ago, styles27 said:

 

It appears that the majority of similar stories to your’s that I read on this site are from people who have multiple cruises booked.  They have hundreds if not thousands of dollars tied up for a couple years out. Yikes! 

 

I’ve never seen the benefit of doing that and we’ve been cruising for almost 40yrs.

 

 

 

 

We do have few booked. Deals are great right now and we had some FCC’s to use. Although cruise I cancelled today did have FCC which I will get a refund for. All are just deposits except January on Meraviglia which I won’t cancel. I do love MSC on board but like you don’t think I want all my eggs in one basket. 

[ready2cruzagain]

11 hours ago, kidless said:

Nope everything was paid for with my credit card he is not on card! I purposefully signed for everything with my on board card which used my credit card. And my credit card told me it is the businesses  duty to release the pending charge since MSC puts the pending on to make sure the money is there before the final bill hits at end of the week. And it happened on two different cards so siding with credit cards on this one especially since it’s never ever happened with any other travel or business I’ve ever dealt with.
 

I honestly don’t see anything I stated that is not MSC’s fault. Except for maybe the having to wait outside at port or perhaps they could have been better prepared but I’ll give them that one as I stated that dang Covid. 

 

I understand the cheerleading I also love MSC and cheerlead them and make excuses for them. And I’m not upset I’d call it more annoyed it just seems to be so much work dealing with MSC….nothing is easy and they don’t seem to appreciate our business. We still have 3 cruises booked so we will see….

Well if you know me I am not a "Cheerleader" for any line. I was just stating the facts.  I especially am not a cheerleader of MSC right now because of booking a certain cabin and being thrown into a Guarantee so for you to call me a Cheerleader is wrong. Hope you find a cruise line you like.

[kidless]

1 hour ago, ready2cruzagain said:

Well if you know me I am not a "Cheerleader" for any line. I was just stating the facts.  I especially am not a cheerleader of MSC right now because of booking a certain cabin and being thrown into a Guarantee so for you to call me a Cheerleader is wrong. Hope you find a cruise line you like.

Except your facts are actually your opinions. We checked with both cards on both occasions because we have never had that happen before with any company it is on MSC side.
Obviously you didn’t read the entire original post….it is long! 
 

ps- We love MSC but it gets to a point of absurd dealing with them. We cruise Royal & Celebrity and never have these issues….even during Covid. 

Edited December 16, 2021 by kidless

[styles27]

2 hours ago, kidless said:

Except your facts are actually your opinions. We checked with both cards on both occasions because we have never had that happen before with any company it is on MSC side.
Obviously you didn’t read the entire original post….it is long! 
 

ps- We love MSC but it gets to a point of absurd dealing with them. We cruise Royal & Celebrity and never have these issues….even during Covid. 

Agree on the credit card “hold” thing.
 

We have had a similar experience recently with a resort we stayed at in FL the week before our cruise last month.
 

They put a quite sizable hold on our card when we checked in and it took 3 weeks for me to get it taken off. 
Chase told me it was on the merchant’s end not their end. 
Finally after 2 phone calls to the resort the resort manager took the 45 seconds it took to release the hold while I was on the phone with her. 
By that night it was off our card. 
 

So for us too it wasn’t our bank who wouldn’t drop the hold it was the resort. 
 

Supposedly the manager of the resort told us it’s “supposed” to automatically drop 24 hrs after we check out but sometimes they have to manually do it. 

[psmarkle]

Here's a play-by-play issue I'm working in real time, trying to make good use of my on-hold time! 🙂

 

I am currently on hold with MSC "customer service" right now...going on 32 minutes so far.  I have a booking for 5 of us in YC on the new Seashore sailing on April 9th. Made the reservation back in July once I received my FCCs from our April 2021 cruise that MSC cancelled due to covid at the time. Using our Casino 30% off coupon, it came to $6,792.00 for the 5 of us.

 

Scroll forward to this week (Dec 13th) when I logged in to verify my final payment date and amount, and what to my wondering eyes does appear?  My son was dropped from the reservation and the price was showing $7,962.76...approx $1,300 more with 1 less person!  Whaaaat??

 

I talked to an agent named Frank back on Monday...short version, can you please e-mail your original MSC confirmation to our Existing Reservations team to get that price back?  Sure!  Delivery failure 2x. Ughh!  So, now at minute 40 right now with Adriana who's manager told her I'd have to contact my booking agent to remedy this.  Ummm, I am, I tell her. I booked through MSC. Oh, let me put you back on hold.  At least her manager says she got my son back on the reservation, but my total is showing now as $6,945, still not to the $6,792 I have in writing on my confirmation.  Please hold again....

 

OK, Adriana says, I have to transfer you to our Casino dept because I'm not showing the casino discount, so they would have to apply it.  Huh?  I explained that the $6,792 IS the price after the casino discount has been applied.  Oh, please hold again...

 

Now talking to a Brian who handles both regular and casino reservations.  Re-sent my original confirmation to msc existing reservation e-mail (Frank gave me an incorrect e-mail back on Monday, hence the delivery failure) and gave him the auto-generated service request # (SR Number, they call it).  He's trying to open the attachment. Back on hold again...1hr 9 mins so far. Brian did say there are a lot of new agents now that MSC is ramping up operations; he just started in July and will take his first MSC cruise in March, on the Seashore. They still can't open the confirmation, so scanning it in right now to try it that way.  They finally could open the third e-mail file...back on hold.  1hr 31 mins, so far.  Success'ish, Brian says "corporate" was able to open the confirmation, made the changes...but it'll be 72 hours before it reflects on the webpage. Fingers crossed??

 

1 hours 43 minutes of frustration.  To you Travel Agents out there, I don't know how you have the stamina to deal with this on a daily basis...you're better than I am!!

 

 

[kidless]

4 hours ago, psmarkle said:

Here's a play-by-play issue I'm working in real time, trying to make good use of my on-hold time! 🙂

1 hours 43 minutes of frustration.  To you Travel Agents out there, I don't know how you have the stamina to deal with it this on a daily basis...you're better than I am!!

 

Ugh I feel your pain! I do get the whole Covid thing new people excuse but I don’t. I’m not having these issues with Royal or Celebrity. Not to mention I’m sick of Covid excuse!   We love MSC their ships are beautiful and service onboard is stellar and the price point can’t be beat. But they are so frustrating to deal with and there does come a limit to one’s patience and MSC doesn’t really seem to care about the customer.  There is no other way for them to get the message then cancelling cruises. 
 

We have been on 3 cruises since October We watched every sail away….we could see the amount of people on deck of ships sailing past and MSC ships were empty compared to others. Their reputation and customer service is a big part of their empty ships. We had 600 on Meraviglia in November on a ship that holds 6000. 😞 

 

Was your issue resolved? Watch that booking!!! 

[psmarkle]

Glad to report that as of this morning, the website has our correct booking now, # of pax and the right price/balance due!

 

I would love the ship to only have 600 pax!  Ours is a spring break sailing, so I'm expecting a more full ship. However, we will be in the YC which never felt crowded on the Seaside even pre-covid.  Isn't it interesting how we (at least me) looks at everything pre-covid vs during covid?!

[kidless]

14 hours ago, psmarkle said:

Glad to report that as of this morning, the website has our correct booking now, # of pax and the right price/balance due!

 

I would love the ship to only have 600 pax!  Ours is a spring break sailing, so I'm expecting a more full ship. However, we will be in the YC which never felt crowded on the Seaside even pre-covid.  Isn't it interesting how we (at least me) looks at everything pre-covid vs during covid?!

It was nice with low capacity on board but it also made some of the bars and activities a little boring because it was a ghost town. 

[deliver42]

Everything about cruising is a hassle now, but  MSC compounds the problem with their customer service, or lack of it. I don't know if it's on purpose or incompetence.

[Morgsmom]

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

Everything about cruising is a hassle now, but  MSC compounds the problem with their customer service, or lack of it. I don't know if it's on purpose or incompetence.

I usually just say lack of dedicated resources in both training and IT.  

[notme2012]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:41 AM, psmarkle said:

Here's a play-by-play issue I'm working in real time, trying to make good use of my on-hold time! 🙂

 

I am currently on hold with MSC "customer service" right now...going on 32 minutes so far.  I have a booking for 5 of us in YC on the new Seashore sailing on April 9th. Made the reservation back in July once I received my FCCs from our April 2021 cruise that MSC cancelled due to covid at the time. Using our Casino 30% off coupon, it came to $6,792.00 for the 5 of us.

 

Scroll forward to this week (Dec 13th) when I logged in to verify my final payment date and amount, and what to my wondering eyes does appear?  My son was dropped from the reservation and the price was showing $7,962.76...approx $1,300 more with 1 less person!  Whaaaat??

 

I talked to an agent named Frank back on Monday...short version, can you please e-mail your original MSC confirmation to our Existing Reservations team to get that price back?  Sure!  Delivery failure 2x. Ughh!  So, now at minute 40 right now with Adriana who's manager told her I'd have to contact my booking agent to remedy this.  Ummm, I am, I tell her. I booked through MSC. Oh, let me put you back on hold.  At least her manager says she got my son back on the reservation, but my total is showing now as $6,945, still not to the $6,792 I have in writing on my confirmation.  Please hold again....

 

OK, Adriana says, I have to transfer you to our Casino dept because I'm not showing the casino discount, so they would have to apply it.  Huh?  I explained that the $6,792 IS the price after the casino discount has been applied.  Oh, please hold again...

 

Now talking to a Brian who handles both regular and casino reservations.  Re-sent my original confirmation to msc existing reservation e-mail (Frank gave me an incorrect e-mail back on Monday, hence the delivery failure) and gave him the auto-generated service request # (SR Number, they call it).  He's trying to open the attachment. Back on hold again...1hr 9 mins so far. Brian did say there are a lot of new agents now that MSC is ramping up operations; he just started in July and will take his first MSC cruise in March, on the Seashore. They still can't open the confirmation, so scanning it in right now to try it that way.  They finally could open the third e-mail file...back on hold.  1hr 31 mins, so far.  Success'ish, Brian says "corporate" was able to open the confirmation, made the changes...but it'll be 72 hours before it reflects on the webpage. Fingers crossed??

 

1 hours 43 minutes of frustration.  To you Travel Agents out there, I don't know how you have the stamina to deal with this on a daily basis...you're better than I am!!

 

 

We had a booked cruise in April, that MSC finally applied the FCC in July. Then in the end of Sept., MSC takes that ship out of that port. We booked the other ship that sails from Dubai. It has been over 3 months and the FCC still has not been applied. MSC's home office in Geneva makes all the changes to reservations for FCCs. After we hopefully sail on this, we are done with MSC. They absolutely suck in customer service.

[misand]

On 12/15/2021 at 5:39 PM, kidless said:

We love MSC and even though customer service can be a bear at times we muddle through because we love the onboard experience and the price point! However when is enough, enough? 
 

We have dealt with a lot of the same issues as many of you…..long hold times….incompetent customer service representatives on the phone…..lousy internet site. We even had a lovely 12 day cruise booked on a Mediterranean cruise on  Splendida for October 2022 that MSC removed us from and moved us to a 7 day on Seaside…..going to different ports leaving on a different date at a much lower price that they had not adjusted. No one called us, emailed us or sent us a carrier pigeon. We only found out though another poster here on Cruise Critic who was also removed from the sailing. So we waited to see if they would notify us…..they never did. So we called, at first the representative was like no you booked Seaside……sorry no we booked Splendida…..so we were told “Oh well,  Splendida cancelled you can keep or cancel and rebook” Gee thanks for making us feel valued and appreciated so ok let’s cancel and We will rebook with Royal Caribbean. Ok! 😳 

 

We forgave MSC you know all that Covid craziness, lost employees, cancelled cruises the world went a little mad so ok new people, ships being moved around, we got it.  On October 17th we boarded the Divina and our first Yacht Club experience and it was absolutely wonderful. Even though our Butler was no where to be seen the first half of the week said he hurt himself…..but he made up for it….and we didn’t care! We were on a cruise and it was fabulous! Not to mention a special Anniversary cruise that had been put on hold for 18 months…..did I mention Covid? We may have gone a little over board in jewelry shop watch for hubby Diamonds for me! How come casino players get free cruises for dropping big bucks what about us jewelry store suckers? Added perk was all the money we spent would help push us up to Diamond! That’s a nice little perk! Dave wants a chocolate ship! 
 

When we got off Divina Dave said upgrade all our future cruises to Yacht club! Wahoo don’t have to tell me twice! Now we had a few cruises booked and you know having MSC change anything on an already booked cruise is always tedious, time consuming and dangerous. But got  our November, 7 day upgraded……January, 4 day upgraded…..March, 12 day upgraded……August, 7 day upgraded! Wahoo……

 

Quick check of my credit card from October was stunning everything we purchased on board hit our card as pending then the total was charge also so looked like double hit and it was a LOT. The pending ties up our card and took 3 weeks to drop off…..frustrating but I’m still an MSC cheerleader! 
 

Then our 7 day Meraviglia cruise arrived….so excited. Now we had a few hiccups in Yacht club like being told to arrive at port at 10am to stand outside on a chilly morning with 40 of our new friends for 45 minutes but it was Meraviglia’s first day at Port Canaveral so we understood.  After quite a wait to board in the waiting area we are in the yacht club! Yahoo let’s get the party started Mimosa for me please. We were the first ones in the yacht club followed by 50 of our new friends for the week! We were told to have a seat and our butlers would be coming to escort us to our suites!  Excitement is growing! We didn’t see our Butler for first half of cruise on Divina……going to be cool…

feel so special! One after another a butler came in and whisked some lucky couple away……after 3 mimosa’s and a bottle of water 2 hours has past and except for a couple just walking in we are the lone people left in the topsail and have been for awhile. Who needs a stinking butler anyway 2 hours is enough time to wait off to the cabin we go.  I’d say that was the worse off it and maybe it was. It’s a cruise for Pete sake we have a great time together. So a string of little petty things doesn’t lessen our good time so no need to mention…….matter of fact it was so nice at the end of 7 days Dave got off and I stayed on board…..for next 4 day cruise!
 

I saw Susanna down at the future cruise desk on Saturday she gave me a pretty good price on an inside yacht club we’d had a balcony but since just me inside is fine. Susanna could not get it to go through so you see we are not the only ones who suffer with their crappy internet site! Fine give me balcony yacht club what’s a few more hundred 🥺  gee that one went thought! Oopsie she may have hit the button twice! That’s right she charged me twice. Not a problem she assure my husband and me it would be removed Monday morning first thing!!! Awesome ok bye Dave love ya babe but looking forward to four more days……Mimosa please! Now on Monday it still wasn’t removed and Monday night the awesome concierge (these guys were great) calls me over and says Susanna needs my address because she is going to give me a check to cover the double charge. Why does she need my address to cut a check plus don’t they have my adress 🤪but ok…..when am I getting check…. Tomorrow she said tomorrow.   Wednesday night rolled around still no check. Now I’m told they will mail me the check. Absolutely unacceptable we all know how fast MSC mails out their checks. Did I mention  I had talk to my husband that day and not only did they charge my credit card $1296 TWICE for the cruise but $1296 hit twice as pending that’s a total of $5,184 on our card. We had also spent $750 on the 7 day which hit as a charge and also hit as pending so now our card is up to $6684. Now I know the pending will eventually in a few weeks fall of but it’s not the point.  I tell the concierge  this isn’t acceptable and I’d like to talk to a manager. I was told it would be removed…then told I’d get a check….now you are mailing it? Well moral of story still haven’t gotten a check never got to talk to a manager but had a great time on a super duper expensive cruise….. (we have put in dispute with cc company)

 

Now The straw that broke this camels back is…….let’s talk Voyager Club. Before October we were close to Diamond after all we spent on Divina we should have hit Diamond except we didn’t…..David did. Even though I booked cruise…….I booked all the pre-stuff, I bought all the jewelry and shore tours and it all went on my credit card they gave David every single point. I know, I know it’s a little thing in the big picture….but dang I wanted to be Diamond I do all the work…..I sit on hold for hours…..I explain things a million times……I pay for it out of my account, I wanted to taunt him with my chocolate ship. So we did ask MSC to fix it, a very nice man name Mr Lee even called and said they’d make the adjustment that was naturally almost two months ago and still not fixed. Well we will beat MSC at their own game so in November we had my name put as lead…..and I did a second YC 4 day cruise solo! This would catch me up ….. right? Wrong! They gave Dave (who thinks it’s the funniest thing on earth as he sits in his recliner slowly consuming his chocolate ship) ALL the points……even for booking the second cruise……..I swear they even gave him extra points to really get under my skin! So I’m done……They win ….. January cruise is paid in full but getting ready to make March’s 12 day Yacht club cruise final payment and I just couldn’t do it…..you mess with my chocolate ship MSC so I cancelled and actually found a great 11 day on Celebrity Cruise and saved $1700 …..so take that MSC and if you don’t get your stuff straight I’m cancelling more!!!!

Susana messed up our cruise reservations for March.  For over a month I have been going back and forth only to be told they can’t honor the rate and cabin that I booked with her.  Nothing they can do since I am off the ship. Very frustrating!

[misand]

On 12/16/2021 at 10:41 AM, psmarkle said:

Here's a play-by-play issue I'm working in real time, trying to make good use of my on-hold time! 🙂

 

I am currently on hold with MSC "customer service" right now...going on 32 minutes so far.  I have a booking for 5 of us in YC on the new Seashore sailing on April 9th. Made the reservation back in July once I received my FCCs from our April 2021 cruise that MSC cancelled due to covid at the time. Using our Casino 30% off coupon, it came to $6,792.00 for the 5 of us.

 

Scroll forward to this week (Dec 13th) when I logged in to verify my final payment date and amount, and what to my wondering eyes does appear?  My son was dropped from the reservation and the price was showing $7,962.76...approx $1,300 more with 1 less person!  Whaaaat??

 

I talked to an agent named Frank back on Monday...short version, can you please e-mail your original MSC confirmation to our Existing Reservations team to get that price back?  Sure!  Delivery failure 2x. Ughh!  So, now at minute 40 right now with Adriana who's manager told her I'd have to contact my booking agent to remedy this.  Ummm, I am, I tell her. I booked through MSC. Oh, let me put you back on hold.  At least her manager says she got my son back on the reservation, but my total is showing now as $6,945, still not to the $6,792 I have in writing on my confirmation.  Please hold again....

 

OK, Adriana says, I have to transfer you to our Casino dept because I'm not showing the casino discount, so they would have to apply it.  Huh?  I explained that the $6,792 IS the price after the casino discount has been applied.  Oh, please hold again...

 

Now talking to a Brian who handles both regular and casino reservations.  Re-sent my original confirmation to msc existing reservation e-mail (Frank gave me an incorrect e-mail back on Monday, hence the delivery failure) and gave him the auto-generated service request # (SR Number, they call it).  He's trying to open the attachment. Back on hold again...1hr 9 mins so far. Brian did say there are a lot of new agents now that MSC is ramping up operations; he just started in July and will take his first MSC cruise in March, on the Seashore. They still can't open the confirmation, so scanning it in right now to try it that way.  They finally could open the third e-mail file...back on hold.  1hr 31 mins, so far.  Success'ish, Brian says "corporate" was able to open the confirmation, made the changes...but it'll be 72 hours before it reflects on the webpage. Fingers crossed??

 

1 hours 43 minutes of frustration.  To you Travel Agents out there, I don't know how you have the stamina to deal with this on a daily basis...you're better than I am!!

 

 

Very similar situation with rates and issues.  They couldn’t get the discount back now I’m paying more, plus they switched my angle cabin I picked. Note this is the 3rd cruise they have done this on.  I have spent to many countless hours calling MSC.

[psmarkle]

DSiL is probably not going now due to fears over covid (despite all the articles I send her about covid and cruising safety), but I am choosing to keep our current reservation with her on it in order to 1) keep the price we got which is only $200 more than what we paid for our last cruise for 4 people pre-covid, and 2) this keeps our current room which is classified as a YC9 grand deluxe suite that has a pull down bed out of the ceiling so if it's only 4 of us vs 5, we each get our own bed.  To me, worth paying the extra $$ and just having SiL be a "no-show" at embarkation.  I don't want to cancel her reservation and have MSC move us to a 4-person room.

[dexddd]

On 12/29/2021 at 7:04 PM, notme2012 said:

We had a booked cruise in April, that MSC finally applied the FCC in July. Then in the end of Sept., MSC takes that ship out of that port. We booked the other ship that sails from Dubai. It has been over 3 months and the FCC still has not been applied. MSC's home office in Geneva makes all the changes to reservations for FCCs. After we hopefully sail on this, we are done with MSC. They absolutely suck in customer service.

Count yourself lucky.  It took us 16 months to get fcc from March 2020.

[dexddd]

18 hours ago, psmarkle said:

DSiL is probably not going now due to fears over covid (despite all the articles I send her about covid and cruising safety), but I am choosing to keep our current reservation with her on it in order to 1) keep the price we got which is only $200 more than what we paid for our last cruise for 4 people pre-covid, and 2) this keeps our current room which is classified as a YC9 grand deluxe suite that has a pull down bed out of the ceiling so if it's only 4 of us vs 5, we each get our own bed.  To me, worth paying the extra $$ and just having SiL be a "no-show" at embarkation.  I don't want to cancel her reservation and have MSC move us to a 4-person room.

Good move.  As I've said before, MSC covets thy cabins.  Before they figured they could charge more for square rooms, they held those.  Then on Seaside, rooms for five had to be for five.  We tried to book as our college kids not going to share the tiny couch.  Oh no, not able.  We did a work around.

 

Then a couple months on a later sailing, added two in one room close to sailing and they got a room for five. 

[Cruising89143]

I’m just seeing this as I don’t check MSC often but because I just read that the new Seascape will cruise from Miami at the end of the year, I came over to check out the board. 
 

We have had a total of five cruises on MSC booked since April 2020. All we’re in the YC because we wanted to experience it for ourselves. After the first cruise out of Barcelona (Grandiosa) was canceled by MSC due to Covid we decided to book future cruises since they handled the first refund promptly. Unfortunately our luck ran out. I can understand Covid, staff shortages, etc. but overall their customer service in Ft. Lauderdale just gets worse and worse. 
 

We had a cruise booked out of Italy on the Seaside for this May. I became so frustrated dealing with them that I canceled and booked the Celebrity Edge. We love Celebrity’s Retreat and their overall product even though the cost was almost double. I’ll gladly pay for ease and piece of mind.

 

What’s interesting to me is Ken Muscat who is over the MSC U.S CS department is a former long time Royal Caribbean executive and I expected better. Their training program (if they have one) needs help. Not sure we will give MSC another chance unless they place a ship out here in Los Angeles. Not worth flying across country for. At least for now. 

[sidari]

1 hour ago, cruisingator2 said:

I’m just seeing this as I don’t check MSC often but because I just read that the new Seascape will cruise from Miami at the end of the year, I came over to check out the board. 
 

We have had a total of five cruises on MSC booked since April 2020. All we’re in the YC because we wanted to experience it for ourselves. After the first cruise out of Barcelona (Grandiosa) was canceled by MSC due to Covid we decided to book future cruises since they handled the first refund promptly. Unfortunately our luck ran out. I can understand Covid, staff shortages, etc. but overall their customer service in Ft. Lauderdale just gets worse and worse. 
 

We had a cruise booked out of Italy on the Seaside for this May. I became so frustrated dealing with them that I canceled and booked the Celebrity Edge. We love Celebrity’s Retreat and their overall product even though the cost was almost double. I’ll gladly pay for ease and piece of mind.

 

What’s interesting to me is Ken Muscat who is over the MSC U.S CS department is a former long time Royal Caribbean executive and I expected better. Their training program (if they have one) needs help. Not sure we will give MSC another chance unless they place a ship out here in Los Angeles. Not worth flying across country for. At least for now. 

Does not matter who is in charge if they are Micro managed from elsewhere, pointless having Managers if you refuse to allow them to Manage.

[kidless]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:43 AM, cruisingator2 said:

I’m just seeing this as I don’t check MSC often but because I just read that the new Seascape will cruise from Miami at the end of the year, I came over to check out the board. 
 

We have had a total of five cruises on MSC booked since April 2020. All we’re in the YC because we wanted to experience it for ourselves. After the first cruise out of Barcelona (Grandiosa) was canceled by MSC due to Covid we decided to book future cruises since they handled the first refund promptly. Unfortunately our luck ran out. I can understand Covid, staff shortages, etc. but overall their customer service in Ft. Lauderdale just gets worse and worse. 
 

We had a cruise booked out of Italy on the Seaside for this May. I became so frustrated dealing with them that I canceled and booked the Celebrity Edge. We love Celebrity’s Retreat and their overall product even though the cost was almost double. I’ll gladly pay for ease and piece of mind.

 

What’s interesting to me is Ken Muscat who is over the MSC U.S CS department is a former long time Royal Caribbean executive and I expected better. Their training program (if they have one) needs help. Not sure we will give MSC another chance unless they place a ship out here in Los Angeles. Not worth flying across country for. At least for now. 

We moved our Mediterranean cruise for October to Royal Carribean after MSC cancelled our cruise without notifying us. We also cancelled our 12 day in Yacht club on Divina and booked Celebrity. We do love Yacht club and in General MSC but man they are frustrating.