Mud_Shark

Thank you all for all the clarifications and information. Never would have understood all these points without the CC Mind Meld!

We are new to MSC but appreciate that MSC has status matched our Princess loyalty level and granted us Diamond status. In reading the perks, it mentions a night of free specialty dining. Can someone please provide info on any restrictions associated with this. As in: 1) is this perk limited to certain cruise lengths or any short cruise is also included? (we sail on a 4 night in Jan and a 7 night in October with MSC) 2) Are there any fees associated with this - as in are gratuities included or extra? If extra how much are they? 3) Are there venue restrictions or is this good at any of the restaurants? 4) Are there menu restrictions - as in only certain items are included? 5) Can you make a reservation before boarding to use this perk? Thanks for any and all help. Don

I thought I had done reasonably well this week, but it was a ZERO! The exact same weight as last week. I knew I wasn't going to blow the doors off, but hoped or one or two pound loss.

It seems to be a new system. You put in your info and you get a link to send to your friend to use before they book.

Sorry - Never mind- I found it. I did a search and that link was blank, but I found the link elsewhere on the Princess site and it seems to work.

I have done this with our daughter last year, but can no longer find any info on this refer-a-friend program on the Princess website. Anyone able to help or know if this was terminated? TY

This was not a full week for me as I just decided to start eating a little smarter on the weekend, but still down 4 lbs this morning. I consider this to be a good start, though I know the first week is always the easiest to drop a few lbs. But I was on days off these past 4 days, so I walked a lot and held to regular eating times and patterns. Now I start my 12 hour night shifts tonight, and I have tended to use food to keep me awake and going by grazing on quick convenient (high calorie) type foods. I will try to curb that somewhat, but will not go overboard and defeat myself.

Ok - I am here:-( Not certain how this all works, but on surface scan simply looks like we weigh in weekly and report results here, so that is what I will do. Need to be held accountable. We sail in just over six weeks. Overweight male at 256 lbs starting today. Would love to be 240 by sail away, but I am pretty pathetic at this weight loss thing, so I will probably accept 245. Don

Nice pic!

My understanding from our experience in April on the Enchanted - the two included SD dinners (at that time it was two included) - there was no extra charge against our folio. The one time extra we went for SD on our own dime the 18% was added and showed up the next day on our folio.

Vancouver is our home port. We usually target an 1100 arrival. There will be line ups, but usually the lines move quite quickly. There can always be glitches, but usually we are onboard within 45 min to one hour.

Our daughter and son-in-law also preferred The Catch to the crown grill. My wife and I also enjoyed it. There is a surf and turf option. There are obviously more cuts of beef available at the crown grill, but there are better kinds of fish at Rudi's. I actually am in the minority, preferring Sabatini's first, Crown grill second, and Rudi's third, but all three are great so it's not a disappointment to do any of them.

I look forward to your answer to that question when you try it. I would think that chances are against you, but you never know.

So did we! booked during the online TA's 3 day sale in June.

Personally, absolutely love it. Great Burger. Great onion rings or onion soup. Battered fish and chips is also solid. Not a place to go when on a diet, but I would eat there over the MDR twice per cruise, but DW isn't as big a fan.

I had COVID in October 2023 on the Royal Princess. The FCC showed up at the end of July. I had never put much concern over it as I was well fed and cared for during my isolation and it was not the fault of Princess, but I had given up, thinking they had ended the policy of refunding for days in isolation. Yet one day, it showed up. Maybe they have streamlined the process and your experience might be quicker?

I am having this problem as well. Will follow the same advice.

These cabins are usually the same price as a standard Balcony. We had one once for two weeks. It was fine, but I think I would prefer the balcony for the same cost. There is less storage space in these rooms, though we are not heavy packers so we were fine with that. The little extension with the slanted full size window is like a solarium. It can get very warm in there. Fortunately there is a heavy curtain to separate that area from the rest of the room. My wife loved that area when it got all warm, but it was not for me. She would set up her chair and table in there and read and browse the net. We sailed the Caribbean. Maybe if you are sailing Northern Europe (or in your case - transatlantic) it might be preferable to a standard balcony. We did not experience any motion issues.

Couple things: 1) Last price rise for internet was actually January 20th 2024. I know because I pre-paid one day prior to the deadline for our 2024 cruises. 2) On the Enchanted in the Caribbean in March and April, internet was good mornings and evenings, but very slow from lunch to diner time. Wouldn't load some sites, spinning wheels etc. 3) If it jumps in price again, it will likely price us out of the market. Even with the 50% off, if sailing for a month it is already almost $400 for one device. Choke cough. We like to sail for about that duration and may just pick up internet for one day every week or so if no port calls.

We just use band aids, which we bring along anyway.

Amen!

I am buying these! Thanks Edited - 2 minutes after posting - I have purchased these! due to arrive in one day. Unfortunately, we don't sail for almost six months 😞

We had our grandchildren with us on the Enchanted back in April. We assumed the retreat pool was age restricted, so stayed with the main pool - which they loved anyway. But another onboard pointed out that there are no signs restricting the retreat pool to a certain age. Not sure myself.

In 2025 we sail back-to-back (well, I guess side-to-side) on MSC Seaside and then Star Princess. Sounds like it will be my mission to sample both pizzas and determine for myself who is #1!

I guess the one wasn't really a beach, just roadside parking lots with a bit tricky access points into the water. They probably have names, but we just stopped where we saw diving groups stop and swam out from there. It is difficult to get in and out though. The easier spot was right beside the large salt pier or whatever it is. It is by the salt flats. The beach there has easy access into the water. We saw a couple turtles and others said it was a common spot for snorkeling with them.