On Board Tour

[DaveyGK]

Hi. Is there any kind of on board "behind the scenes" tour? I'd be so interested to see the bridge or the bowels of the ship and see how it all works? 

Or am I being stupid and this is just a massive security issue?? 🤔 

[yellow-submarine]

If you drop dead you can visit the morgue. 🤪 Joke aside, I second that. Such tour would be interesting epecially if you are an engineerer, technically minded, ship enthusiast or just a curious cat.

[RudiRatlos]

We did this last year on MSC Preziosa. Afaik it is offered on most MSC cruises, but cannot be pre-booked. Just ask for it at the shore excursion desk or (if in yacht club) the concierge.

The tour was done in two parts: laundry, kitchen, backstage theatre on seaday, bridge and engine control room while in port.

 

[yellow-submarine]

Thank you Rudi. Am I correct assuming that it is a very limited size group and you need to be quick to book? Roughly what time is the tour on port day, does it allow you to have normal full day excursions at the destination?

Edited January 3, 2023 by yellow-submarine

[RudiRatlos]

We "applied" for it the first day on board (actually the concierge asked if we would be interested and I did not hesitate to answer "of course", knowing that this tour was sold out on our earlier cruises), but they cannot tell you for sure when or even if it will take place (apparently the captain reserves the decision). Bridge tour started at 10:30 or 11:00 on port day in Helsinki, therefore no full day shore excursion would have been possible - we just took the shuttle to town afterwards.

We got information about date and time the day before (I think, if we had booked a shore excursion also for the same day, we would have been asked to decide which we participate and cancel the other - but I'm not sure about this as we did not book any shore excursions on that cruise).

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by RudiRatlos

[Griff4AU]

I am just off the Preziosa. Rudi is correct. 3 different tours are offered and they are listed in your daily. 

[stp_mmh5]

Just off Seascape and they offered a behind the scenes tour. Three options as well. I think one was just theater/galley/deck 4 stores etc. Another was Bridge and ECR only and finally the full tour split over two days. Bridge and control room were only available in a port day, and the rest was done on a sea day. 

 

I signed up on boarding day with concierge, and had to wait until the night before to find out when it was going to happen due to the excursion desk waiting for confirmation from the captain and chief engineer of their schedules. 

 

We did the full tour, and on the first day there was about 15 of us total. About two hours from beginning to end. Next day we easily doubled for the rest of the tour. About three hours give or take for that one. Good times and great info, only downside is that phones and photography are completely restricted on both tours, which is the polar opposite of what we experienced on Meraviglia in 2017. Granted the bridge and ECR weren't available for touring then. I think the cost was $90 pp

[DaveyGK]

Thanks for the information all. Fingers crossed I get to do one of the tours in 2 weeks on World Europa  

Edited January 4, 2023 by DaveyGK

[Kportscher]

My kids would love that, did they say anything about an age limit for the tour? Thanks 

[Nikita4]

16 hours ago, Kportscher said:

My kids would love that, did they say anything about an age limit for the tour? Thanks 

On the world europa the min age was 6. on the Grandiosa last year it was 16.