Is it ever possible to sit in MDR with someone who has beverage package if I do not?

[flahagan]

I'm going on Divina transatlantic in May, Miami to Rome for 25 nights and will be traveling with a couple who are long-time friends.  I drink very little and had planned to purchase a bottle of wine for my stateroom and just fill in with the occasional glass of wine.  However, my friend told me yesterday that she's purchasing the Easy drink package for her and her husband as a surprise birthday and anniversary present for him.

Now I feel I'm stuck.  Of course we will be dining together in the MDR every evening but I don't want to have to spend nearly $1000 just to eat with them!  I want to call MSC and see what my options are but I'm afraid they'll change my fare if I call - that seems to happen.

Have any of you had success talking to the maitrre'de on the first night to get this straightened out?

Thanks in advance.

[Gissy1]

16 minutes ago, flahagan said:

I'm going on Divina transatlantic in May, Miami to Rome for 25 nights and will be traveling with a couple who are long-time friends.  I drink very little and had planned to purchase a bottle of wine for my stateroom and just fill in with the occasional glass of wine.  However, my friend told me yesterday that she's purchasing the Easy drink package for her and her husband as a surprise birthday and anniversary present for him.

Now I feel I'm stuck.  Of course we will be dining together in the MDR every evening but I don't want to have to spend nearly $1000 just to eat with them!  I want to call MSC and see what my options are but I'm afraid they'll change my fare if I call - that seems to happen.

Have any of you had success talking to the maitrre'de on the first night to get this straightened out?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can. I frequently do MSC without a drink package and no issue with sitting with others that have a drink package.  You can order your bottle of wine and the ship will keep the remainder for you (make sure they put your cabin number on it) and then have it another day or at another bar, etc.

[Gissy1]

Yes, you can. I frequently do MSC without a drink package and no issue with sitting with others that have a drink package.  You can order your bottle of wine and the ship will keep the remainder for you (make sure they put your cabin number on it) and then have it another day or at another bar, etc.

[flahagan]

18 minutes ago, Gissy1 said:

Yes, you can. I frequently do MSC without a drink package and no issue with sitting with others that have a drink package.  You can order your bottle of wine and the ship will keep the remainder for you (make sure they put your cabin number on it) and then have it another day or at another bar, etc.

Thank you so much - makes me breath a little easier as I would hate to have to eat alone!

 

[Gissy1]

Yes, you can. I frequently do MSC without a drink package and no issue with sitting with others that have a drink package.  You can order your bottle of wine and the ship will keep the remainder for you (make sure they put your cabin number on it) and then have it another day or at another bar, etc.

[Gissy1]

I travel by myself quite frequently and have have no problem asking the maitre d' to put in at what they call a "sharing table".  That way, you also get to meet a lot of other people.  May give your friends some alone time too 🙂 

 

[flahagan]

25 minutes ago, Gissy1 said:

I travel by myself quite frequently and have have no problem asking the maitre d' to put in at what they call a "sharing table".  That way, you also get to meet a lot of other people.  May give your friends some alone time too 🙂 

 

Thanks, I would absolutely have no problems doing that if I were actually traveling alone, but my friends live in Utah and I live in Florida and this is an opportunity for us to be together.

[blueslily]

I'm glad I found this post. I was just told by MSC  customer service today that we cant do this due to policy. We have 2 cabins booked. One has drink pancake using the sale that's going on right now (and keeps going on, lol). The second one does not since she doesn't drink much. Neither do I, but in my cabin we both had to get the package for the booking.  The bookings for our 2 cabins are linked. When I called today about something different,  the rep told me that we can't sit together in the MDR for dinner because the other cabin does not have the drink package. Man, that was a moment. So, is that true? This is for Seascape. I see the response above, but I think her situation is different. We know one another and linked our bookings when we originally reserved the cabins. When I originally booked the cabins, nothing was said about both cabins needing a drink package to sit together in the MDR. I'm hopeful the rep today wasconfused, but she was a bit adamant about it.

 

Thanks! 

[lcpagejr]

On 4/23/2023 at 9:17 PM, blueslily said:

I'm glad I found this post. I was just told by MSC  customer service today that we cant do this due to policy. We have 2 cabins booked. One has drink pancake using the sale that's going on right now (and keeps going on, lol). The second one does not since she doesn't drink much. Neither do I, but in my cabin we both had to get the package for the booking.  The bookings for our 2 cabins are linked. When I called today about something different,  the rep told me that we can't sit together in the MDR for dinner because the other cabin does not have the drink package. Man, that was a moment. So, is that true? This is for Seascape. I see the response above, but I think her situation is different. We know one another and linked our bookings when we originally reserved the cabins. When I originally booked the cabins, nothing was said about both cabins needing a drink package to sit together in the MDR. I'm hopeful the rep today wasconfused, but she was a bit adamant about it.

 

Thanks! 

Why would that make a difference???  They always ask to see your card so they have your information. Granted I've only cruised MSC in Yacht Club...but other cruiselines dining rooms could careless whether you have drink package or not as they always ask for your card atleast at the beginning of cruise. I wouldn't wory about it 

[perakcruiser]

On 4/24/2023 at 3:17 AM, blueslily said:

When I called today about something different,  the rep told me that we can't sit together in the MDR for dinner because the other cabin does not have the drink package. Man, that was a moment. So, is that true? 

Yes, this is the rule. How strictly is in enforced? As usual with MSC that varies a lot.

 

On a cruise in 2022 we were in the exact situation. We had linked bookings but got different tables because of the drinks packages. At the end only the maitre d' decides if yes or no. In our case on a half empty ship we got a table together. This maitre d' was luckily not interested too much in drinks packages 😄

 

Which in the end also meant free water for all, because the waiter only swept the card of one with drinks packages and filled all the glasses. I am sure many guests will expand this to wine. So it works be totally stupid by the cruise lines not to have this rules, the waiters have enough to do and cannot also control drinks sharing.

 

On a full ship the maitre d' will anyway refuse to relocate.

[mackfam]

Does this apply if one couple has the premium drink pkg and the other the easy plus?

[1kaper]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:09 PM, lcpagejr said:

Why would that make a difference???  They always ask to see your card so they have your information. Granted I've only cruised MSC in Yacht Club...but other cruiselines dining rooms could careless whether you have drink package or not as they always ask for your card atleast at the beginning of cruise. I wouldn't wory about it 

 

 

I just got off a cruise.  Most of us had that easy plus.  My sister had the easy. She was booked in a different dining room than we were.  I'm willing to bet that everyone in that it had something to do with drink package.  We were never asked to see our card at dinner and they just brought us wine whenever. 
We asked if she could get moved to our dining time and we were told maybe.  They would put a note on our door if they did.  We never got a note.  The next night we asked to switch to her dining time and were allowed.  I should also note she had very late dining and it wasn't busy. 

 

3 hours ago, mackfam said:

Does this apply if one couple has the premium drink pkg and the other the easy plus?

 

See mine above.  It did when one of us had easy and the rest had easy plus. 

[Mimala]

My sister and I just got off the meraviglia and neither of us had the drink package but were sat at a table with people that did have the drink package.  It was a table for 8. So they don’t seem to always follow that rule, I guess

[wayne_trisha]

Last year cruised on Divina and family sat at one table even though some did not have the drink package. I think it is one of those rules that rarely gets enforced.

 

[1kaper]

7 minutes ago, wayne_trisha said:

Last year cruised on Divina and family sat at one table even though some did not have the drink package. I think it is one of those rules that rarely gets enforced.

 

 

You can't link reservations ahead of time.  It won't let you.  I tried. 

[Morgsmom]

8 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

You can't link reservations ahead of time.  It won't let you.  I tried. 

You absolutely CAN link reservations ahead of time; you just can't do it by yourself.  You need your TA to handle or to call MSC

[Morgsmom]

1 hour ago, Mimala said:

My sister and I just got off the meraviglia and neither of us had the drink package but were sat at a table with people that did have the drink package.  It was a table for 8. So they don’t seem to always follow that rule, I guess

Likely because you were "sat with" others.  In the case where reservations are deliberately linked the official cruise policy is that all must have the drink package, otherwise there might be collusion ("oh, only half of us need the package and we will all just share")  

[1kaper]

2 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

You absolutely CAN link reservations ahead of time; you just can't do it by yourself.  You need your TA to handle or to call MSC

 

 

 They will link two reservations that have different drink packages?

 

I was able to link to one reservation on my own, my friend who had same package.  When I tried to add my sister's I got the message that we couldn't link because we didn't have the same drink package. 

I wouldn't bother calling, I've been down that road with MSC.  It was easier to deal with it on board. 

[wayne_trisha]

1 hour ago, wayne_trisha said:

Last year cruised on Divina and family sat at one table even though some did not have the drink package. I think it is one of those rules that rarely gets enforced.

 

 

1 hour ago, 1kaper said:

 

You can't link reservations ahead of time.  It won't let you.  I tried. 

I don't know about linking reservations. What i do know is we sat at a table as a family and our son's family did not have the drink package. We went to the dining room together and asked to sit at one table. it was no problem.

[sverigecruiser]

On 4/27/2023 at 1:44 PM, perakcruiser said:

On a cruise in 2022 we were in the exact situation. We had linked bookings but got different tables because of the drinks packages.

 

Do you know if new tables are assigned if some at the table add drink packages during the cruise?

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 5/15/2023 at 11:41 AM, 1kaper said:

I was able to link to one reservation on my own, my friend who had same package.  When I tried to add my sister's I got the message that we couldn't link because we didn't have the same drink package.

I couldn't link my and my parents' reservations even though all of us had the Easy Plus package. The system simply refused to. I booked ours during one holiday promotion, while I booked theirs during a different holiday promotion. Alas, we'll never know what would become of it because the sailing was cancelled due to pandemic.

But we will know in November, since for our next sailing, we have the Easy Plus, while my parents and in-laws don't have any packages. This board assured me that we would have no problems sitting together. I am not paying $1K more for drink packages they will not even use just to sit together.

[4sallypat]

I linked my booking with my sons' separate stateroom booking online but none of us have a drink package.

 

I am the only drinker out of our group of 4 so I will be buying ala carte.

 

Drink packages are beginning to annoy me as it seems as if MSC wants everyone to drink heavily.

Did the math on CruiseMummy and found that I would have to drink both mine and my wife's allotment of over 8-10 drinks a day to break even. I'd be dead of alcohol poisoning!

Sort of silly IMO since I only drink 3-4 per day and that's on a sea day (2 days) whilst at port I'd drink a lot less on board....

Edited May 19, 2023 by 4sallypat

[new_cruiser_75]

On 5/15/2023 at 8:41 AM, 1kaper said:

 

 

 They will link two reservations that have different drink packages?

 

I was able to link to one reservation on my own, my friend who had same package.  When I tried to add my sister's I got the message that we couldn't link because we didn't have the same drink package. 

I wouldn't bother calling, I've been down that road with MSC.  It was easier to deal with it on board. 

We were able to link our reservations (we have the drink package and the other 2 rooms do not).  We did have to call as their website sucks (as everyone knows/finds out).  Now, will they let us all dine together... we'll find out in just over a month 😉

[Oceansaway17]

Any cruise line that tells me I can’t sit with friends or family because they drink and I don’t, then that cruise line would never get my business.

perhaps drink package should go away and everyone pay as they go with a program to give discounts once you have had 20th drink .

[4sallypat]

On 5/21/2023 at 1:35 PM, Oceansaway17 said:

Any cruise line that tells me I can’t sit with friends or family because they drink and I don’t, then that cruise line would never get my business.

perhaps drink package should go away and everyone pay as they go with a program to give discounts once you have had 20th drink .

Just got off the MSC Sinfonia and did not get a drinks package as I am the only moderate drinker.

 

Paid ala carte for my drinks and after 7 days, paid $190 USD which was a lot less than paying $360 x 4 ($1440) for 4 people to be able to dine at the same MDR table.

 

Guest services did however send a bottle of chilled sparkling wine w/ canapes as a gesture of apology after our first night underneath the buffet kitchen when it got loud due to heavy cleaning.