slei15

On 3/23/2022 at 11:24 PM, AngryBirdah said:

 

Very well said!  With all the doom-and-gloom I had read around MSC, I was pleasantly surprised even by the Seashore Spring Break cruise!  If that's the worst it gets, then sign me up for future ones.

 

Was your Whirlpool room Forward or Aft?  I'm thinking of one of those suites for a me-and-wife cruise later this year.

 

Thanks!

Always aft. Forward are way too windy.  We made that mistake once!

15 hours ago, AngryBirdah said:

 

We had a Port-side balcony.  We embarked just before sailing time, so we weren't affected by noise and gas fumes.  The balcony was perfectly usable from sailaway onwards.

 

Yes, they closed balconies for cleaning on Day 6.  The day at Ocean Cay.  I'm not sure who would rather sit on their balcony instead of enjoying the fantastic, beautiful island?  In any case, they were done cleaning our Deck 12 balcony by 1030 when we were getting off the ship.  We enjoyed the late afternoon and night on our balcony after returning.

 

Not sure how you come up with "2 days unusable" out of that scenario.  Also, I quite appreciated the freshly cleaned balcony 🤷‍♂️

We were in a port side whirlpool suite for the 3/12 sailing on deck 11.  We boarded by 11:00 AM and went to cabins as soon as they were available.  Did not smell ANY gas fumes from the tanker at all.  On day 6, they were done cleaning the balcony before we opened the curtains.  Sat in the whirlpool plenty during the week and absolutely loved it out there.

We did run into quite a few issues on the ship...the elevators we found to be horrendous most of the time, the buffet on that first day for breakfast was miserable, and all through we were missing some MSC staples on the buffet (kids corner, ethnic section) that we are used to. We had to spend many hours at guest services resolving shoreside issues caused due to multiple cruise movements (we were sailing on an FCC that originated March 15, 2020). The french onion soup in the dining room was cold and had no soup left almost every time I ordered it because it had been sitting so long it all absorbed into the "crouton". The thermal area constantly had areas not functioning. We were on the Meraviglia Christmas week with 960 passengers and 1,400 crew members, and it was obviously a different experience than last week with about 1,100 crew members and 3,000 passengers.

From a business sense, I totally understand why MSC did not staff up the ship.  When the initial contracts ended where they were staffed up for 50% capacity, they did not backfill all of those expiring contracts based on the overarching booking trends, cancellation trends, and passenger counts.  Better to accept 2-3 weeks of misery and not pay for hundreds of extra staff onboard for all of those other weeks they are not needed. That said, for those of use who sailed in those few painful weeks, it does put a damper on the desire to sail again anytime soon, as we are accustomed to a certain level of service that wasn't there.

For us, we were on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady a week prior to this sailing.  Everything about that cruise was incredible, and the hot mess of this SeaShore sailing was a big letdown from that experience.  It was also a night and day experience from the Meraviglia over Christmas, and pretty much every other MSC cruise we have been on outside of the Seaside inaugural, though this one may have even been a bigger mess than that.  I don't feel that the design changes from the Seaside to Seashore added anything to the ship aside from chaos and confusion. The buffet is not well designed, even if they did have an appropriate number of stations open. Having to walk through the arcade on deck 18 to get from the main pool/slides to the Jungle Pool/Kids Club was annoying when you were dripping wet going between the two. Walking through/outside the specialty restaurants to get to the adult pool was a bit weird. 

All this to say, we did still have a great time on the trip. Despite the issues, the only bad cruise is a cruise that returns home (or gets stuck on a sandbar in the Dominican Republic). No trip is going to be perfect for anyone. I have had plenty of land vacations that weren't the best either. You make the best of the situation, figure out workarounds to issues, and find a way to enjoy it. You are not at home dealing with work, school, and real life. Everybody these days is even more stressed in the days leading up to a cruise with the worries of "what if one of us tests positive" (side note, that did happen to me the day before we were supposed to sail on Virgin in January, hence the rescheduling and 2 cruises in 3 weeks). It takes time for that stress to go away, and amplifies minor inconveniences the first couple days into what feels like the end of the world. If I had never cruised before, didn't know what to expect, and hadn't had previous amazing experiences, I don't think we would have felt like there were any major issues on this sailing that would deter us from coming back. Being spoiled living in Florida with 30+ cruises under our belts, you tend to notice things more.

She is going straight to dry dock from the crossing.  Maybe if it was not sold very well, combined with the continuing travel restrictions everywhere, it was easier to just cross it empty.

22 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

So with Aurea or any experience are we free to go to whatever dining room we want if it's less than 1400 pax?

We were still assigned a specific dining room...but our seating time was open anytime between 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM. There was no fixed seating.

We were told anytime there are less than 1400 pax it is open seating for all when we sailed over xmas.  I think Aurea is in a section of the Waves dining room on 5, but again, doesn't matter when it is all open seating. They did have a fully vaxxed dining room and a non-fully vaxxed one.

Just now, ready2cruzagain said:

OHHHH, I sure hope so! Where did you hear this?

Received a TA update e-mail from them about an hour ago...

7 minutes ago, kelleherdl said:

Until MSC opens up bookings for the Caribbean beyond November 2022 your choices for a cruise move are limited.  Myself, I’ve chosen to do an interim cruise move waiting for the new schedule.  We sail YC so we don’t want to lose a deposit by straight cancellation.

Bookings will be opening tomorrow (1/5) for Winter 2022-2023.  The new SeaScape will be coming to Miami December 2022.

6 hours ago, tkwbear said:

I've been watching this site to see which ships have been going to their private islands. I've checked the 3 Florida-based MSC ships and none have been to Ocean Cay since before Christmas. I also checked 3 HAL ships; none of them have been to Half Moon Cay since before Christmas.

 

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MSC-MERAVIGLIA-IMO-9760512-MMSI-249973000

Something is inaccurate on that site as I know for a fact that the Meraviglia did in fact dock at Ocean Cay on 12/28.  I have pictures from clients proving them being there that day lol. We also docked at Ocean Cay on the Meraviglia on 12/20 (though it was cut from an overnight to leaving at 9 PM due to an impending storm).  

The $1,119.10 is excluding port fees and taxes.  It is $1,407.82 when including the $144.36 pp ($288.72 total) that it shows in the fine print for them.  That amount is also only factoring the 5% voyager's club discount, not the 5+15% that is available for that sailing.  Total price for a BR1 with the Voyager's 5+15% deal, including taxes and fees, should be $1,239.94.

If you are looking at March 12, we will be on that sailing as will friends of ours and my in-laws...8 english speakers right there!

In current times with all of the travel restrictions across the globe, you are likely to find 75+% english speaking out of FL.  Our Meraviglia cruise last week was probably in the 85-90% range....

Yellow status will occur from as little as 1 single case in a crew member even in the absence of any passenger cases. It is not overly concerning. There are currently only 5 ships sailing revenue voyages from the US that are actually Green.  Hoping we don't hear of anything crazy in the next couple days as we are due to board on Sunday (and just got off of an 8 night on the MSC Meraviglia yesterday which is one of the 5 green ships.) Even the "huge" outbreaks the media was reporting on represented less than 1% of passengers/crew on the ships this past week with no serious illness being reported in the media...Norovirus outbreaks are much worse than that!

37 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Wow

$100 is certainly not worth it. Makes me wonder about those getting on next week.  I will say those juggler guys were amazing. What a shame people are going to miss that.

30 crew members currently in quarantine in Miami with covid…likely related to production as they are always together with no masks while they practice and perform. 

A kind MSC rep pointed out to me this evening that the recent wording changes to the testing requirements removed any reference to NAAT being acceptable. Now specifically says RT-PCR only for under 12 and RT-PCR or antigen for over 12. She wasn’t sure if NAAT or no longer being accepted, but for safety I would avoid it if possible until there is clarity. 

30 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

Sorry to bother you seli15 again but did you get burnt before by MSC?  I just called again and they told me they'll refund me back on CC within "one to two billing cycles"....

Never ended up losing anything, but went through many many many hassles and hours upon hours on the phone getting things corrected.

8 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

Oh wow....our credit was due to 5/15 discount and the government employee discount applied after final payment.  We booked our cruise after final payment though.  Sounds like it's best if I just use it before going on board...

 

Do you know if I can pre-pay gratuities also using the negative balance?  Thanks again for your help!

Absolutely…they call them service charges and they can be prebooked with the balance. 

16 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

Wow. So MSC lied to me. Twice over the phone they told me I’ll get a refund on the CC after the cruise…..

 

I better call them soon thank you!

Ok so there may be a possibility of that....It depends on the reason for the negative balance.

99% of the time a negative balance is the result of a late discount being added (post final payment) or an FCC being applied and not being fully used.  In these cases, they generally do not refund it (unless they have changed their policies very recently, but I have always been told my clients need to use it all pre-trip).  If there was an actual overpayment, that would be refunded post cruise.  I know they haven't changed policy on the FCC side, but possibly on the late discounts? I always advise clients to just use it pre-cruise for the avoidance of any doubt.

17 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

Omg that’s crazy!! Do u have a link on where MSC says this??? This is crazy!!!!

 

im so glad I asked and thanks for your help. How do we purchase on board credit 

No link as to where they say it...Just know from experience!  Call your TA or MSC to purchase OBC (or any other pre-sailing item like excursion or drinks) and make sure that negative balance gets applied against it.

1 minute ago, FrostyJoe said:

I have a negative balance also. Can I just use the negative on board to add to a slot machine and play a few rounds and cash out?  Or do the slots pull from your CC on file instead?

The negative balance will not carry over to on board.  You need to use it to pre-purchase something prior to leaving. You can purchase OBC with it, which will then in effect allow you to spend it on slots. 

13 hours ago, Fla Mike said:

 

Olive Garden... The McDonald's of Eye-Talian food, yummy in my tummy!!! 😝

Can we order the unlimited soup/salad/breadsticks? About the only thing worth eating there!

9 minutes ago, buckeye25osu said:

 

Thank you so much.  How early is too early?  We get into Orlando at 8:50am and plan on being on the first GoPort shuttle at 10:00AM which gets us to the port by 11:00AM I think.

At least in pre-covid days they didn't usually open the doors until 11.  We were among the first 20 passengers in multiple times getting there around 10:30-11.

The room description for the sea terrace mentions a fully stocked mini bar in the cabin…is that included and do you know what is in it?

Let's not forget that everything either needs to be deep fried or cooked in a vat of butter, and there is no al dente for the pasta...cook it until it falls apart!  And the mac n cheese...make sure it is made out of cheese powder from a cardboard box!

And the portion size...none of this "tasting sized" nonsense...Every plate should have enough for 3 meals on it!

2 minutes ago, buckeye25osu said:

 

Awesome, we'll do 7:30 if that's "early".  Wife would kill me if I had us eating at 9 every night!

Our first MSC cruise they gave us a 9:15 PM late dining with our then 6 and 8 year olds. We brought them with us to the dining room and it was promptly changed to 5:30 😂

7 minutes ago, buckeye25osu said:

 

Thanks for all of the awesome info-  Our flight gets in early to Orlando so we're planning on getting on the first bus (pre-booked)to PC and getting in line.

 

A lot of people said the pizza is great, as it should be for an Italian line!  I love pizza so I'm excited to eat that multiple times.

 

It's too bad they didn't use the credit on the balcony upgrade.  Thought of doing the triple dining experience but I just don't think i'd like 2/3 of the options too much (Kaito and Ocean Cay).  Maybe I'll see about renting jet skis at Ocean Cay.

 

Our Balcony is a Fantastica on 11.  Reservation was already updated once to add the Voyager number and apply the discount.  Showing Early Dining when I wanted late.  Should I call?

 

Thanks again!

When you get on the ship, you can go the the maitre'd to change your dining to late. They will usually be standing outside of the dining room on boarding day for this purpose. Realize that late dining on MSC means 9:00 PM, not 8:00 like most....Way too late for us!  They do have a 7:30PM option under "early".  

Deck 11 is perfect...cabins above and below you, so minimal noise.  We had the same feelings on the specialty dining...the menus just didn't do it for us.  I have read that the Hola Tacos for lunch is amazing and reasonable. I am excited for that one over Xmas. Also, being an Italian line, the pasta dishes are generally very good.  Try the fresh pastas on the buffet at lunch that they cook in huge paella type skillets on the buffet line...