tkwbear

I had the same problem with the initial login from my iPhone. However I am able to see all current bookings.

I sailed the Grand last July on a back to back Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver. Since I had an inside room, I spent a lot of time outside and enjoyed the lower promenade. My room was decent, but I did not enjoy the public areas. There was a foul smell from the laundry room, 2 doors down. The buffet restaurant was poorly designed with large sliding doors on each end. Wear your coat to the restaurant when cruising in a cool area. I didn’t go to any shows but was told the smell was bad in the show room. The ship looks nice from afar but there was quite a bit of rotting wood on the lower promenade deck. Food was fair to good. Service was fair though my cabin steward was very good. The front desk consisted of newbies. I found out the hard way to buy my transfers before boarding as they will not sell you one to Seattle once on board. No one seemed to know why; they were not sold out.

I became friends with a crew member and want to send her a gift. A Starbucks card seemed like a good idea but they aren't usually accepted out of North America and her ship is in the South Pacific. Amazon is an option but she already has too much luggage. Suggestions?

I bought the standard package for an upcoming transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona. It was under $100 but now I'm hearing the internet on the Divina is poor. If you have recent personal experience with the Divina internet I would be interested to hear about your experience.

That is how the US parties go, but it is a much bigger deal in Europe. At least on the Poesia last fall, it was a group of hundreds with many Europeans showing up in pin stripe tuxedos. The wine was amazing, unlike at the US parties. They had a good live band playing too.

The prices are way too high now that's for sure, but it doesn't stop there. I bought a 3 specialty restaurant package yesterday for the Virtuoso for $120. It had been $71 in the past. However Virtuoso has some interesting options so I decided to go ahead and get it.

This is true!

I believe that was the date. 6 days, right? However I didn't include any packages so mine was less. I just got off the phone with an MSC rep. I didn't get any help for my issues with their website/IT. When I purchased the beach tour, it gave me no notification, so I bought it again. I got a notification for that, but my credit card was charged twice. So yesterday I had them refund one of them. The refund on the email was $0.0 when it should have been $52.00. No change on the bank statement. There are no specialty restaurant packages for sale on the website. Plenty of other stuff I don't want though. Also embarkation is 4pm! That's way too late. No times are given for ANY shore excursion. It's just a mess. I expect chaos when arriving in NYC because I was on the Meraviglia when it first came to Orlando and it was a comedy of errors. I was told there are NO transfers to the airport, though they have some sight seeing tours that end at the airports, but there is no "for guests with flights after 3pm" help. I would like to buy my ticket soon, not the day of disembarkation. Also I keep seeing ads about MSC selling flights and hotels. I save a lot of money on some flights on Princess, so I am hoping I can do that on MSC but all I can find on the website is that "we do it". Regarding the Veendam, it was my least favorite ship (though Island Princess is MUCH worse). Venndam was once a normal Statendam class vessel. I loved the other 3. However they threw a bunch of balcony cabins on the stern (that looked like they could fall off easily), took out the rear pool, and made the ship overcrowded. I sailed it to Hawaii and it listed to the starboard side the entire cruise, so my ocean view room got a REAL GOOD look at the Ocean. That was my second and final time to sail Veendam. I've only visited Bermuda once. There was a ship docked down there, it was an Azamara. I talked to people from that ship and they seemed to like it, but the new President (who hates old and small ships) will fix that. I believe all Azamara ships are refits from other lines.

That's interesting. I had 200 days on the Rotterdam, which I loved. It's now sailing for Fred. Olsen cruises, along with the Amsterdam, which I had over 100 days on. It looked like the Rotterdam but it my opinion, Rotterdam was far superior. I also loved the Maasdam (95 days). I did the Voyage of the Vikings (35 days) on her in 2009. She was slated to return to service as the Renaissance next month, but while being worked on in Brest, France she broke away from the dock and hit a bridge. Now the cruises are delayed until May. It's a startup French cruise line that bought her as their only ship. I cruised the Konigsdam last May in Alaska. It was a noticeably worse experience. The ship was shabby and the crew didn't know their jobs. It was over an hour in Ketchikan for them to get the gangway set up. Heat went out one cold night and they told me a blanket was on the way. It arrived the next day after the heat was back on. Also for my convenience, the single supplement is now ALWAYS 100%. I looked at sailing a cruise on the new Rotterdam to Curacao, but an inside room was more than an MSC balcony. So they won't be seeing me aboard anytime soon. Also for the newer class of ships, you had better be on the 5th floor or higher or you will be pounded by music all evening. I priced that Bermuda sailing in September. It's higher than my 11 day cruise in April and it's only 6 days. If you want sticker shock take a look at the European cruises in June and July.

The September sailing might be under the current flash sale, many NY sailings are. HAL's Zaandam still goes all the way to Montreal, which I also love. I'm a 5 star Mariner on HAL but the idiot President they hired years ago (who had never been on a cruise ship) screwed up HAL. He was canned early during the pandemic, and is now ruining Azmara.

Bermuda is nice with pleasant weather. The Meraviglia will be doing those cruises later in the year from NYC. Their Caribbean itineraries don't look that good. The Canadian itineraries are also a bit lame, with no visits to Quebec. It looks like overnights at Ocean Cay are pretty much going away. 😞

No, I didn't include the beverage package or the internet. I did not get a Diamond member discount, so I called today and asked about it. The clerk couldn't give it to me either, evidently because it's a flash sale. So she gave me $100 SBC, which I am happy with. My final price was actually $1063 for the midship balcony on 12. I tried to get my favorite cabin stewards on starboard but those rooms were booked so I got port which is actually a better fit for this cruise. I can get by without the internet because my T-Mobile plan works everywhere (so far). I do drink but not that much. Lots of website issues with them, more than normal. No specialty restaurants can be booked, she saw the same thing. My first attempt to book the beach excursion hung up so I booked it again, and was charged twice. So she refunded one, but the email says the refund is $0. Unable to register credit card due to "service unavailable" so she told me to wait until 2 weeks before sailing.

They are having a flash sale that ends today though they often extend it. Depending on how you book it you can get different prices. Using the flash sale and assuming your grandson is 2-3 I got $ 2,138.81 midship balcony on 11 or 12. (I'm on 12). My cruise was under $1200. I think this should be a good cruise. The short cruise partiers and the fun bunch from Miami will not be aboard. I know much of the crew I liked will still be around for this cruise so that was what got me over the hump.

I wouldn't normally do that, but DI had pestered me many times in Alaska and in the Caribbean. I knew they wouldn't like it, which made it a little fun. I've booked the beach tour. So since you liked the food I will probably try that. The beach only tour is 5 hours. It's $37 cheaper than the one that includes the falls. The only thing I don't like about this itinerary is there is no stop at Ocean Cay. However MSC rarely visits Curacao except when repositioning. I was on the last visit of the Meraviglia, in November 2021. That's when the ship repositioned from Miami to Orlando. Curacao is one of my favorite ports. Thanks again!