panamapd

Disembarked 2 hours ago. The cruise was wonderful! Re the tests. We ordered ours via Nph, similar to Randox. You do the tests yourself and it doesn't have to be observed. We did the tests at 4pm on Saturday as sail away was at that time Monday. Tests took 15mins and we got the results and certificates almost immediately. We printed the result at our hotel in Barcelona. Embarkation was at 10am and we were on the ship by 10.20. There were no issues with our tests. Be sure to pack something white and something tropical for the theme nights Also if you are embarking outside of the UK and disembarking in Southampton there will be an immigration check. We were only told the night before to be at the venue at 7.15am. We got there at 7.10 to be confronted by a huge queue and only 2 immigration control officers. It took about 40 mins!

Hi - I asked this very question of MSC UK. We are embarking MSC Virtuosa on Monday from Barcelona. We are British citizens and are all vaccinnated. This ship sails at 4pm. We were told that we have to do our antigen test at 4pm tomorrow. The test doesn't have to be observed but we do need to present a negative certificate. (I got this all in writing and printed off should I be told something different when we arrive!).

Received an email today which states "Please note that as long as the test comes with a Negative result certificate is all good" So we will have copies of this email, our vaccine certificates and will do our antigen test through NPH (iMed) UK who we have used before. Will let you know what happens when we get back to the UK!

Well, we were told something different by MSC UK! We are UK citizens and are all vaccinated. We were told that the antigen tests don't have to be observed. They just have to be UK/EU approved. We were told verbally. I have since sent an email asking the same question so I have the proof in writing! (We are embarking Virtuosa, in Barcelona, on Monday).

To the original poster, I don't know if you have sailed with NCL but I would argue that MSC is more akin to the Norwegian ships rather than the Oasis class. If are are familiar with NCL they have an enclave called the Haven, on the MSC ships its the yatch club. We have sailed with all three cruise lines, along with many others. Now we don't mind the MSC ships but of late, have found ourselves sailing more with Celebrity, Princess and Cunard. For us, we like the Solarium on the Oasis Class. We also like the fact that we have the "run of the ship". With the newer Princess ships they have the Sanctuary rather than the Solarium. However, you can chose whether or not you want to pay a bit extra to patronise that area. On MSC, there is no option, especially on the newer ships. You have to pay a lot more to sail in the yatch to enjoy areas at the front/bow the ship that in most part are free to use on other lines.