Ottawa_Cruiser

I'm sailing on her May 18th and can let you know how busy it is.

That definitely can't be right.

Yes - we had 9:30am for our first sailing and we arrived at about 10am due to terrible traffic and torrential downpours. It was the second sailing out of Brooklyn on April 29, 2023. We were onboard by 11:30am. It is very unlikely anybody will be onboard much before 11am, apart from Yacht Club.

We ended up just going for it and booking. We booked 36 days out. I do believe we got a good price, so I didn't want fares to jump.

In August, I highly doubt prices will go down.

They didn't appear to check on my last two sailings out of Brooklyn, however, I did notice on my documents for my May 18th sailing out of Southampton that it indicated if we showed up more than 30 min ahead of our assigned time, we would need to wait outside. I am not sure if this is something standard out of Southampton, or if they're rolling it out everywhere. What I will say is that they assign times to make embarkation as easy and seamless as possible. If everyone overlooks their assigned time, you lose the right to complain about the chaos that it might cause.

As you can see from my signature, we are about to go on our third MSC cruise in 13 months. I had LOW expectations for our first sailing April 29, 2023 (Meraviglia's second sailing after repositioning to NYC). I figured for the cost, I had nothing to lose. I had heard all of the horrible things, such as terrible food and long long waits for drinks. I experienced none of that. Is it the best cruise ship food? No. But I'm not cooking and it was still very tasty. I didn't experience any rude crew members. On our second sailing, our dining room attendants weren't the best. Again, not the end of the world. The Meraviglia is by far the most beautiful ship we've sailed on. Go. Have fun. Enjoy.

Hi! iMessage worked without issue without the wifi plan on both my April 2023 and December 2023 sailings. Where are you looking to sail from? I have sailed out on NYC twice and we have just booked on the MSC Virtuosa for May 18, sailing out of Southampton. We were pretty loyal to NCL previous to this. Go in with an open mind. If sailing out of NYC, it can be challenging with a certain type of passenger group who don't understand North American etiquette. I have heard sailings are better from Florida. In my opinion, you can't beat the cost of MSC in terms of what you get. Is it as good as NCL? No, not to me...but for $500-$700 less per passenger per cruise, I'm not going to complain! 😜

Yeah - I wish I had a crystal ball. LOL.

Thank you.

Hello! We are looking at the May 18th sailing out of Southampton on Virtuosa. We have not yet booked it. I'm curious for those that have waited until the last minute, has price increased or decreased? Let me know your experience or thoughts please. Thanks!

I'm so sorry to hear this news, Jamie. I know when he had the health issues onboard you were all very worried and it was clear he was special to you all. I'm hoping the memories you have can carry you through.

As a Canadian, I will say I prefer Montreal. I live in Ottawa and go to Montreal at least twice a year for 2-3 nights. It's an awesome place.

That's so cool! Thanks for the video.

The towels on sun loungers isn't an MSC issue. It's a rude/entitled passenger issue. I have sailed with MSC twice now (Meraviglia). For the price, I'm not sure what people expect. For the price, I'll continue to sail MSC, but perhaps not out on NYC anymore.