perakcruiser

Thank you.

There is not just a single pick up time, but certainly not so frequently as in Marseille. And things change fast, best is to wait until on board and ask at the excursion desks, extremely unlikely that the transfer will be sold out.

And what about the many passengers that do not embark/disembark in Venice? Can they use the water bus or are they forced to use the coaches? And are "tender" tickets needed?

I spent a lot of my OBC on booze, birds, and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

Both companies know how to deliver, never a mistake to book a cruise with them. I sailed 3 times on Celebrity and numerous times on MSC. I am willing to pay 20 % more per day per person on Celebrity. Basically only the price decides for us in the end, when sailing with our (young) kids, certainly Celebrity is not an option.

Your perspective is wrong. MSC is not a low-cost line, that maybe is your US centric view, because some US lines like Disney are ridiculous expensive. MSC is Italian, even some guys at MSC USA seem to dilute the experience because they think this is needed to conquer the market. I guess many people cannot manage a holiday in Italy, so they also have problem with a MSC cruise. That is where the *sorry* dumb reviews with the "inedible food and rude crew" come from. MSC is the untouched number one on the European market, everywhere, even the markets in Italy, Germany or UK are so different. That is because they provide a quality experience. Certainly not matching the lines with double prices.

Actually it is already difficult enough for the cruise lines to set up the tours. Not just Christmas and New Years Day, Epiphany also. Celebrity had to cancel many excursions because the local travel agents could not provide busses and guides on that days. MSC in Europe is certainly more powerful to handle this as they deal with it long time already. But surely they will not be able to provide extra busses when the tours are sold out.

The algorithm decides, no humans involved. My experience, prices for August (with is the super hot season for MSC) never go down.

Pentecost holiday in many European countries, almost no chance for a last minute grab. For those great last minute rates you really need to go offseason. I am cruising with MSC the same week in Europe (other ship), have booked already and I am 100 percent sure that it will not get cheaper.

I don´t like this pure train ride where you have to immediately return. Basically it means going there, 10 minutes break, going back. Almost not worth to go out of the train. $226 sounds a hell of money, but it´s Norway. For a six hours trip with bus, train und lunch this is actually a pretty fair price. And the train one way is enough, a lot of tunnels.

So where does this endless line of people walking over the Europa bridge come from? 😄 But as said before, it depends on the terminal, if it is B it is only 2 km to Colom. And don´t forget, there are people who are fit and want to walk. In our earlier days we walked all the way from the port to Sagrada Familia and back. It is not such a big thing. The walk from the Terminal behind E to A feels longer. And probably is😉

Yes. For some unknown reasons MSC is doing the refunds extremely quick now, have not experienced this in the past 😄

Just one thing to add, even it looks so attractive and inviting from the port, you cannot walk up Montjuic directly. There is no way to cross the road B-10, you will end up at an underpass that is unfortunately closed. If you want to walk you need to go all the way to the Drassanes roundabout first and then back. For public transport you can use the busses 88 und 89 from the stop Moll Ponent to Metro Parallel and then onwards. Unfortunately it is not possible to buy a useful ticket on the bus. Also cannot buy a T-familiar card as a foreigner online. So there is no real practical solution, but when your cruise ends or starts in Barcelona, you can get the T-familiar at the airport already.

MSC is indeed not selling cruises starting in Tunisia and Morocco on their websites, but I am not sure if local travel agents might sell these cruises for MSC in their local markets.

This is available on all MSC ships since I cruise with them (2011).