Julia’s Journey’s

Great live from.

 Thanks 

On 3/28/2023 at 6:22 PM, Robkat said:

Oh, I guess I should have been a little more descriptive about what I was referring to ... 

What I meant is that it was sad that MSC's reputation of handling passengers' various requests/changes/calls to CS for info or help, etc. are quite often met with ineptitude or misinformation or, in some extreme cases, actual problems created with the bookings.  

I'm not saying that this is universally the case, but it happens and gets reported upon sufficiently often enough that a first time MSC cruiser, like the OP for example, feels that in order to make a fairly common cabin change, the best way to mitigate potential detrimental changes happening is to outright cancel the booking and start over.  

 

In my opinion, this is a reputation issue that MSC should address.  

We decided to try MSC as hubby has a friend who enjoys it, I emailed my TA who I have booked over 30 cruises with and she responded she cannot work with MSC, they don’t answer the phone and don’t want to work with agents😳

Thanks so much for the review from another South African 🇿🇦🇺🇸. Im in the process of booking my first MSC cruise and so different from our others where I can select cabin and have room service if I choose without making those choices at time of booking and no charges for them. Which options do you find make a difference and you would not cruise without. I also read that not all cabins are available unless air is booked thru cruise line - so why pay to choose cabin if most are blocked off?

Your review was so helpful for a first time MSC cruiser, thanks for daily info, menu’s and spa prices.

Enjoying the live from and all the pics, it’s been 3 long years since we did a TA and miss them, especially the fun pre cruise times.

I’ve had 3 cruises booked that go to Morocco and every time something happens so still haven’t gotten there. Glad you enjoyed.

21 hours ago, rxlowry said:

Entertainment was pretty weak.  There’s definitely money grabs.  We had the trio package yet we spent more in each restaurant.   We did the virtual reality stuff which was extra.   There wasn’t a ton of teens but younger kids due to it being October.  In Yacht Club it seemed mostly 40s+.  I do not think I’d go if not in yacht club on msc.  
I just posted another day of my blog.  Some menu pics there and way more details. The problems come a little later some misses on food and service.  

Thanks for the info, I really need to research them and figure out if it’s for us. Some people we know love them so SO has been wanting to try them out.

Following along and wishing you freedom tomorrow.

Interested in more of your thoughts on the MSC product, I’m booked on my 30th princess cruise and we have done 10-11 others, mostly Disney with a couple of carnival and RC thrown in. We have been toying with the idea of trying MSC and not sure if one in EU or Caribbean would be better, we are not drinkers, like to do one or 2 specialty dinners and live longer cruises (14 - 30 days). I’m in my mid 50’s and hubby in early 60’s.

What was entertainment, age demographics etc like?

Was it nickel and dime-ing all cruise?

Enjoying your live from and land portions and all caught up.

Harryfat1,  thanks for the great review, all caught up and awaiting the rest.

On 10/9/2022 at 8:36 PM, travelin.sisters said:

…has finally caught up with the rest of the party before the cruise ends & sheepishly wanders in to the potluck late, carrying a few random offerings inspired by the wonderful posts in this delightful thread…

 

 

…the love boat dream did not need improving or updating IMHO but the version on the Majestic certainly looked more appetizing than this thing on the Sapphire…

…your photo of the condiments in the buffet reminded me of the consternation among passengers & confusion to the crew when they served hotdogs with no mustard available (how unamerican)…we were not only the Sapphire’s return to service cruise but also her first on this side of the world (her current stops in Hawai’i will be her first even though I was told she has been to more ports than any ship in the fleet)…like the Majestic she shows the marks of being built for the Asian market, the first time I got in an elevator & looked to see what floor our destination was on I couldn't tell what button to push because it was only in Chinese…

…here is a mooring line for your collection (mostly taken for the cat to scare away any rodents)…

…I am surprised at your troubles with getting the same table each night as we have succeeded on the Grand, Majestic & Sapphire this year. The Grand & Majestic were nowhere near full, but the Sapphire was 80+%. Also on every Princess ship since we started telling them about our food allergy issues, the head waiter (now restaurant manager) has take over checking our orders & even bringing the menu the night before incase anything needs to be modified for our needs…

 

If my SO gets that love boat dream for dessert it will be a heart broken unloved dream, not sure why they had to change it from the original with the great base to what OP posted😳

SO tells them to hold the red stuff and put chocolate sauce, same with the cheesecake, hold red dots and sauce 😬

Agree with OP, love the princess product but over the lack of entertainment, they really need to bring back the shows like they had previously where we had 2 good shows nearly every night and both had a early and late audience. They also used to have fun bands and dancing in the plaza at night.

Thanks for all the info, we are on our first Island Princess cruise in December, we love sitting at the IC on the grand and Royal class and probably going to miss that. 

5 hours ago, hpeabody said:

 N in PA?

Same here 👍👍👍

On 5/26/2020 at 9:08 PM, jwattle said:

Ummm...it is after all "CRUISE" Critic, not All Inclusive Critic, or Winnebago Critic, or Motel Critic, etc..., so it stands to reason that a majority would skew towards cruises. Logically thinking, at any rate.

Lol 😂 

22 minutes ago, 4HeatonsGal said:

In the booking, on the payments tab.  It gives the outstanding balance and then

"Deposit due by Jun 25, 2020 or booking will be cancelled.

Remaining balance is due by Jun 06, 2021 or booking will be cancelled."

Mine never gives that, guess cause I use a TA, it shows my gratuities I can prepay and my OBC but never a balance due. Didn’t receive anything from TA for this booking either but it’s still showing after 2 weeks, I will email next week.

3 minutes ago, 4HeatonsGal said:

There is no indication on the booking or Captain's Circle account to say there is anything pending.  Just the extended date for the deposit in the booking showing when it is due.  I guess we will be on hold to Princess to get that extended if the refund isn’t back by then.

Where are you seeing the extended date for deposit due- I don’t see that on my booking.

3 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Interesting, on May 19, you wrote "We lived in Hawaii for many years and have lots of family who are Hawaiian who still live there.…We are hoping the islands open up for visitors for our annual trip in August to see family but we are not sure that will happen."

 

If as you claim, you live in Hawaii, then why would you need to wait for Hawaii to open up to visitors for your annual August trip to see the family that still lives there?  Very confusing...

I saw this earlier and thought the same as you 😂😂

What is amazing that after saying princess Is ‘‘incessant lying, scamming, shameless’ and even if offered a free cruise the answer would be ‘no’ as well as probably having a going out of business sale‘ for the past months that after he received his refund from his CC dispute, why hang on the princess boards if you detest them so much😡😡😡

10 minutes ago, MTJSR said:

Speaking of the tv series, did anyone else notice that the buffets got very little screen time overall?  And for the variety of MDR menus, specialty restaurants and other food venues, food in general was just a passing image. I wonder why?

Maybe next season if cruises start again. 
Maybe I’ll get to watch them again with DD while she is here hanging out the next couple of weeks - good excuse 😂😂😂

47 minutes ago, K.R. said:

chrysalis

We are still awaiting our Credit for the second half for Crown Princess March 16th.  We also choose Opinion 2.

Keep posting your status.

Thanks 

This thread is about the cruise TV series there are lots about refunds, let’s try not make this about refunds too.😳😳

21 hours ago, sewgood said:

Everytime Timothy does his laugh, I have to chuckle as well.

We really enjoyed the series.

If you can't go cruising it's the next best thing.

My husband even made me serve him afternoon tea while he was watching it. (just kidding)

Me too, I giggled every time he laughed.

1 hour ago, patrickmoran said:

Unless the cruise lines sell less than 50% of the cabins, there isn't much they can do.  Like the airline, they need to pack them in to make money.  Cruise fares would have to double or more.

Hubby flew home Thursday and flight was about 50% full, flee back to work Monday and flight was about 60%. 
Everyone had to wear a mask in airport and on plane, there was no onboard service etc.

22 minutes ago, Coral said:

Having worked in IT for 30 years - I don't think this should have been an issue (working from home) in 2020. They had a ton of employees working from home for years, even before COVID-19 happened. Their infrastructure should have been in place with other employees working from home for years.

I work for a corporate Company, we have a lot of people who work from home regularly so when this happened we easily adjusted to it but some countries like India, Malaysia etc don’t have the same infrastructure so it had its issues. Some of our competitors who don’t have such a lenient wfh policy have struggled with it even being 2020. 

14 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Lots of flights are that way. I remember once booking from Edinburgh to NYC was less expensive than London to NYC even though when starting in Edinburgh you had to connect in London for the NYC flight.

 

It was based on direct air miles from Edinburgh to NYC which is less air miles than London to NYC.

 

I once had a co-worker who had a flight from Houston to Pittsburgh to Charleston (WV). Because of fog, the flight from Pittsburgh to Charleston was cancelled and he rented a car to get home. He requested a refund for the Pittsburgh to Charleston flight that did not occur. The airline refused, saying that since Pittsburgh was further away from Houston than Charleston, he actually flew more miles than he had paid for even though he did not get to his destination.

It’s crazy but more than double the price is just highway robbery 😳

Binge watched a couple of weeks ago and really felt like I was onboard with it on the big screen. Recognized some crew and passengers from our cruises, they were filming on one of our past cruises I think it was the Royal.