Cancelling/moving a cruise with MSC USA?

[Elkins45]

We booked a cruise during my wife’s fall break but now she’s changed jobs and can’t go. I either have to cancel for both of us, change it to a solo for me or move to a different date. I see on the MSC website that cancellations are supposed to be done in writing, but what if I just want to move or make it a solo? Can I do that over the phone? Would you trust them? I hear horror stories about MSC phone support.

[morpheusofthesea]

7 hours ago, Elkins45 said:

We booked a cruise during my wife’s fall break but now she’s changed jobs and can’t go. I either have to cancel for both of us, change it to a solo for me or move to a different date. I see on the MSC website that cancellations are supposed to be done in writing, but what if I just want to move or make it a solo? Can I do that over the phone? Would you trust them? I hear horror stories about MSC phone support.

Just did a change yesterday. DW got new school schedule and had to change booking. Emailed our Travel agent at 8am, she got on the phone with MSC at 9 am, had the confirmation paperwork emailed to me at 10 am. Travel agents are the way to go with MSC.

[Selion]

@Elkins45 You can request change or move by calling MSC.  It does not need to be in writing.  If the agent on the phone doesn't seem to know what they are doing, hang up and call again.  MSC's phone agents' knowledge about their own policies & products vary greatly.

[cellfree]

Some bookings, such as Fantastica, allow you one cruise change. We have done it through an MSC Agent on the phone. When I called to make a change I knew what I wanted to rebook. I had to cancel the first booking (refund arrived in a decent amount of time) and then told Agent what I wanted to book in its place (had to put down a new deposit). Worked ok for us. Strange you cannot move original deposit to new booking but “it is what it is.”

[morpheusofthesea]

10 minutes ago, cellfree said:

Strange you cannot move original deposit to new booking but “it is what it is.”

What is strange is that our change yesterday required no such refund. Our deposit was transferred to new booking. Travel agents are the way to go. (No, we are not travel agents) . We are pleased with the extra OBC we get every cruise, some have even reported as much as 10% of the cruise fare by using travel agents. This is in addition to Voyager discounts of 10% from MSC.

Edited June 1, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[1kaper]

53 minutes ago, cellfree said:

Some bookings, such as Fantastica, allow you one cruise change. We have done it through an MSC Agent on the phone. When I called to make a change I knew what I wanted to rebook. I had to cancel the first booking (refund arrived in a decent amount of time) and then told Agent what I wanted to book in its place (had to put down a new deposit). Worked ok for us. Strange you cannot move original deposit to new booking but “it is what it is.”

I had fantastic booked.  I was told by one agent we couldn't change it.  Another said we could change it to any cruise.  Another said to only the same itinerary.  We got it changed to a different itinerary.  

We had to change again and were told we'd have to pay a fee.  We were told we couldn't.  We eventually changed it with no fee.  (we were ok paying the fee, it was my issue that we had to change)

 

For both changes we never had to cancel and put new deposit down, they just changed the reservation.  We still have same booking number. 

55 minutes ago, Selion said:

@Elkins45 You can request change or move by calling MSC.  It does not need to be in writing.  If the agent on the phone doesn't seem to know what they are doing, hang up and call again.  MSC's phone agents' knowledge about their own policies & products vary greatly.

 

1000% this.  

[IsanTom]

On 6/1/2023 at 9:07 AM, Selion said:

@Elkins45 You can request change or move by calling MSC.  It does not need to be in writing.  If the agent on the phone doesn't seem to know what they are doing, hang up and call again.  MSC's phone agents' knowledge about their own policies & products vary greatly.

That's very TRUE!

[Elkins45]

To follow up: I called today and the whole process took about six minutes. They are apparently using some sort of VOIP phone system so I had a hard time understanding their customer service person due to electronic distortion. Because of that I elected to just cancel and then rebook later rather than try to have them reschedule.