Aurea - Priority Boarding and My Choice Dining

[CaroleC]

Just booked a 12 night cruise on Grandiosa for next April and have opted for an Aurea cabin. I know this gives us priority boarding, does this mean we can ignore the embarkation time of 1pm that has been allocated? Also, it states on the booking details our dinner time preference is first sitting approx 6:30, however, I wasn’t given a choice when I made the booking online. I understood we could dine at any time with the Aurea package. Please tell me I don’t have to ring MSC in an attempt to amend it.

 

 

[Cruiseforever11]

1 hour ago, CaroleC said:

Just booked a 12 night cruise on Grandiosa for next April and have opted for an Aurea cabin. I know this gives us priority boarding, does this mean we can ignore the embarkation time of 1pm that has been allocated? Also, it states on the booking details our dinner time preference is first sitting approx 6:30, however, I wasn’t given a choice when I made the booking online. I understood we could dine at any time with the Aurea package. Please tell me I don’t have to ring MSC in an attempt to amend it.

 

 

Hi Carole hope you are well. Yes you get anytime dining ignore the 6.30 thing. Regarding the check in time in all the cruises I've done since the start up from covid no one once has checked what my check in time is and I know people turn up much earlier than their embarkation time. Also that time will probably change anyway so I wouldn't worry about it. There is a separate line for Diamond and Aurea guests so you will be fine.  I'm going on the mini cruise on 24th April on the Grandiosa with a load of family members(60th birthday celebration)in outside cabins and we have all got 10am check in but we will actually check in a bit later than that as everyone travelling down that morning. 😊

Edited August 1, 2022 by Cruiseforever11

[CaroleC]

51 minutes ago, Cruiseforever11 said:

Hi Carole hope you are well. Yes you get anytime dining ignore the 6.30 thing. Regarding the check in time in all the cruises I've done since the start up from covid no one once has checked what my check in time is and I know people turn up much earlier than their embarkation time. Also that time will probably change anyway so I wouldn't worry about it. There is a separate line for Diamond and Aurea guests so you will be fine.  I'm going on the mini cruise on 24th April on the Grandiosa with a load of family members(60th birthday celebration)in outside cabins and we have all got 10am check in but we will actually check in a bit later than that as everyone travelling down that morning. 😊

Hi Suzanne, yes we’re both good, hope you and Nick are too. I thought that would be the case but I wanted to check before trying to ring and speak to someone. Wouldn’t have normally booked Aurea but I didn’t like the cabin choice that was left in Fantastica and it will be nice to be able to use the Top 18 Solarium area. Got a Premium Extra DP as well so I’ll be sampling all of the more expensive cocktails 🍹🤪

[defbref]

If your leaving from Southampton's Horizon Terminal (MSC usual terminal), then I believe the AUREA line doesn't start until after security, so you still have to queue with everybody else initially. YC do get escorted to front of queue for security and they then also have a separate area for check in up the stairs.

[Cruiseforever11]

1 hour ago, defbref said:

If your leaving from Southampton's Horizon Terminal (MSC usual terminal), then I believe the AUREA line doesn't start until after security, so you still have to queue with everybody else initially. YC do get escorted to front of queue for security and they then also have a separate area for check in up the stairs.

Yes thats right the same with Diamond we started after security. Yc which I will experience in a couple of weeks starts from dropping the luggage off.

[defbref]

2 hours ago, Cruiseforever11 said:

Yes thats right the same with Diamond we started after security. Yc which I will experience in a couple of weeks starts from dropping the luggage off.

 

Yes I did YC at Southampton back in May and doing it again in October. Look for the white tent outside to drop your bags off, then you will be escorted thru security to the upstairs area where you will be offered a drink while they check you in. Then Butler escort to the Topsail for a welcome cocktail. 

 

Process took 20 minutes from leaving car to cocktail in Topsail back in May. 

[CaroleC]

2 hours ago, defbref said:

 

Yes I did YC at Southampton back in May and doing it again in October. Look for the white tent outside to drop your bags off, then you will be escorted thru security to the upstairs area where you will be offered a drink while they check you in. Then Butler escort to the Topsail for a welcome cocktail. 

 

Process took 20 minutes from leaving car to cocktail in Topsail back in May. 

I wish we could have afforded YC, however, the cruise is for 12 nights to the Canary Islands which, hopefully, will be nice and warm so a balcony was a must. Unfortunately, balconies in YC for this length of cruise were way out of our price range. Maybe one day 😉

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by CaroleC

[Cruiseforever11]

4 minutes ago, CaroleC said:

I wish we could have afforded YC, however, the cruise is for 12 nights to the Canary Islands which, hopefully, will be nice and warm so a balcony was a must. Unfortunately, balconies in YC for this length of cruise were way out of our price range. Maybe one day 😉

 

 

You will enjoy that cruise it was the one we done in beginning of May this year. I can't remember if you saw our pics of our aurea suite we had right at the front. It is a cruise we would like to do again. I know what you mean about the YC prices they've really hiked them up. I have 5 cruises booked with msc 2 more this year and 3 next year. 4 of them are yc but I got good deals on them when they were trying to get people back. We were looking at cruises in 2024 for across the pond on one of the seaside class and yc is coming in at nearly 8/9k for a yc bal in the caribbean even before the flights are added on😳 So that won't be happening anytime soon.

[CaroleC]

20 minutes ago, Cruiseforever11 said:

You will enjoy that cruise it was the one we done in beginning of May this year. I can't remember if you saw our pics of our aurea suite we had right at the front. It is a cruise we would like to do again. I know what you mean about the YC prices they've really hiked them up. I have 5 cruises booked with msc 2 more this year and 3 next year. 4 of them are yc but I got good deals on them when they were trying to get people back. We were looking at cruises in 2024 for across the pond on one of the seaside class and yc is coming in at nearly 8/9k for a yc bal in the caribbean even before the flights are added on😳 So that won't be happening anytime soon.

We haven’t done a Canaries cruise for several years so I’m looking forward to it. I know what you mean about the prices, I gulped when I checked them out for YC lol. We’ve just returned from a Med cruise on RC’s Wonder of the Seas out of Barcelona. That wasn’t cheap either but I guess you pay a premium for sailing on a new ship. It was absolutely fabulous and now I want to go on the World Europa!  We’ll probably wait though until she’s been in service a while and prices hopefully drop a little 🤞

[Cruiseforever11]

1 hour ago, CaroleC said:

We haven’t done a Canaries cruise for several years so I’m looking forward to it. I know what you mean about the prices, I gulped when I checked them out for YC lol. We’ve just returned from a Med cruise on RC’s Wonder of the Seas out of Barcelona. That wasn’t cheap either but I guess you pay a premium for sailing on a new ship. It was absolutely fabulous and now I want to go on the World Europa!  We’ll probably wait though until she’s been in service a while and prices hopefully drop a little 🤞

I might be able to help you on that. We are on the Europa 20th October maybe you could meet up with us. Here is my email message me and I will explain all 😊

sbcruise2022@gmail.com