slei15

MSC has a section on its website, under the Voyagers Club tab, where there are selected sailings offering either an extra 5% or 15% discount on top of the 5% regular discount for club members; you get €/$50 OBC when you book one of these selected cruises. Otherwise, no, you don't get OBC just for being a member.

 

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And on the Voyage Selections it is only silver members and above that receive it, and you sometimes have to ask for it to be applied.

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Local food tour or cooking classes with the Cozumel Chef, an American ex-pat living in Cozumel. She coordinates an authentic Mayan/Yucatanean cooking class at a local woman’s house in Cozumel and also runs local food tours taking you to 5 or 6 different places where the locals eat. Food and experience is amazing for both! $80/pp for each tour and well worth it. We have done both. http://Www.cozumelchef.com.

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Interesting- we did rhapsody out of Venice last year and embarkation lunch had prime rib (I was blown away). Unfortunately the rhapsody buffet went downhill for the remaining trip. Hopefully your experience will be in reverse :).

 

 

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We have the ultimate dining package so we should be good the rest of the week!

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As we just finished our embarkation day lunch on the RCCL Rhapsody of the Seas, we realized that the deck 16 buffet on the Seaside would be considered upscale gourmet compared to this one. It is all about perspective!

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Hard to tell if all these high tops are at the entrance, but the flooring looks different to me which indicates two different areas. There does appear to be a significant amount of regular tables too and some extra awesome outdoor seating that i would personally choose over the mdr.

 

 

 

 

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Those are the ones right at the entrance, and to my recollection, the only high tops in the buffet.

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The only high tops I remember were right at the entrance. Everywhere else I remember regular tables.

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We were on the Xmas sailing as well. Some things were incredible, some had drastic room for improvement. Any cruise will be as good or bad as you allow it to be. Just go into it with the mindset that you may not have the same level of service as some other cruise lines and you will be fine. We are currently booked for Thanksgiving 2018 and spring break 2019, using what we learned on the Xmas cruise to take it upon ourselves to improve the experience (Aurea whirlpool suites for both instead of fantastica experience). Have a great time, and take all those super negative reviews with a grain of salt. I have a hard time believing people when they say there was nothing edible the entire 7 days etc etc. The more detailed reviews in the forums tend to be more realistic and provide the good and bad to allow you to plan around the bad. A lot of people’s complaints are on very subjective things, and a lot of people have unrealistic expectations (like my FIL who was trying to compare this sailing to Celebrity and saying it was miserable). If you know what you paid for and expect that, you will have a great time!

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I tend to drink a lot of grey goose with soda on cruises...can I order a double to have it last longer with the package, or would that be over the $ limit?

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I've cruised before but never with the kids and the pricing has me a bit confused. I'm seeing it's not a whole lot more to get them their own room vs in cabin with us but am I missing something? It seems if I book separately 1 adult/1 child in a room on a single reservation (x2), it is a lot cheaper than if I book 2 rooms with 2 adults and 2 children on the same reservation. The room types were the same on both reservations. Is this real or am I doing something wrong?

It is a quirk in the booking system. When you put in 2 adults/2 kids/2 rooms it thinks you want 2 quad occupancy rooms (8 total people). To show the same price just select 2 adults/2 rooms and put in the real birthdays when you go through. The kids will be the same price as the adults anyway as person 1 and 2 are always charged adult rate regardless of age.

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Trying to decide which one will be better. Has anybody seen both? Anybody know if the SJ3 has the bunk bed sofa or a regular double sofa bed? Family of 4, two adults, two boys (8 & 5). From a square footage standpoint I think they are about the same with totally different layouts. Suggestions?

I was on the week after thanksgiving. Most of the main shows in the theater were 6:30, and 8:30. The shows in the centrum were around 10 pm. So if you had early seating you had time to kill before the show at 8pm

 

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Thanks! We have the UDP so we will try to book reservations to go to dinner right after the 6:30 shows!

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Going on the 1/21 sailing and trying to plan our dinner times. Anyone been on since it came to Tampa and know what times the shows are? TIA!

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We have been home around 10 days now and still MSC have Failed to send the Feedback form that was requested onboard the Seaside!

 

The Voyagers club have also failed so far to respond to two emails sent to them regarding this and the issues surrounding the Black card perks mentioned in the review.

 

They will never win the "how to win friends and influence people" award .... :mad:

 

 

 

 

 

We were considering booking in April another cruise but my patience is wearing very very thin with MSC.

I also sent an email directly to customer service about our issues the night we got home on 12/30 and have yet to hear a peep out of them. We did receive the survey and completed that as well.

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The sofa pulls up into a bunk bed. Technically it is both. There are no pullman bunks, but it is technically 2 separate beds with one raised up out of the couch.

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Hi, thank you for your extended review!

 

 

 

Is it true that smoking is permitted in all exterior places like balconies and decks?

Not at all. There is one side of the deck 7 pool area allowing it, and one part of a deck above the other pool. No balconies.

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Yes, most of the time MSC is cheaper. However, like everything, if you shop around you can get deals.

 

Examples of our cruises in 2017 which were all balconys, except as noted, and OBC subtracted from price of cruise. This does not include Insurance or Airfare, but the cruise and any additional perks that we paid for.

 

MSC Divina $2,000 w/Beverage Pkg

 

X Reflection $2,100 Elite+ Don’t need Beverage Pkg

 

Regal Princess $1,500 Elite

 

RCI Anthem OTS Virtual Balcony $1,900 Diamond+ Don’t need Beverage Pkg

 

RCI RCI Harmony OTS $2,100 Don’t need Beverage Pkg

 

MSC Divina Aurea $2,300 w/Aurea perks +

 

NCL Escape $2,100 Mini Suite w/Beverage Pkg & 3 Meal Dining Pkg

 

As you can see prices are very comparable.

 

There are tricks to booking a cruise to get a more reasonable price. We would rather cruise more times a year than go for the higher category cabins. JMHO!

Of course this also factors in loyalty perks that many haven’t achieved yet, and cruising at times of year that many people with young kids (and teachers) can’t cruise!

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It could have been my post that you saw...I included most of the info below and posted the dining times. But anyway, when you get right down to it, a buffet that seats 450 people as the only other free dining option on a ship of 5,000 isn't adequate. It's not a good choice for those who don't care to dress up for elegant night or for those who missed dinner due to an excursion, nap, massage, or other activity. The buffets on other MSC ships offer much more at dinner so I think there is some surprise that Seaside does not. The Divina always had something similar to what was being served in the MDR and always had several pasta choices. That's not available at the "family buffet" on 16.

I completely agree the deck 16 buffet for dinner was smaller than we were used to, however, they did have a full salad bar, and at least 1 choice from the MDR menu every night. I ate the duck with vanilla sauce of some sort from the MDR menu up there one night. There was always a fish filet option as well, and 2 different pastas. You had to look carefully at the whole buffet to see everything as the food was tucked in every nook and cranny, but it was a full meal, and not just burgers, dogs, and pizza. The only thing really missing from the traditional dinner buffet was a carving station, and maybe a bit more variety of main courses. As far as the 450 seats, it was more than enough as it was always empty.

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What’s this now? We need to have a code to order drinks now? We can’t use plain English to explain what we want?

So they are offering the Drink package on Seaside? We could nor find it while booking last night.

 

Cheers.

 

 

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The code is for upgrading from the classic drink package to the deluxe. It is only applicable with the Aurea package or a promo that included the classic drink package. It has nothing to do with ordering drinks on the ship.

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Why can't kids eat off the main menu?

They can, however many children don’t like sophisticated food.

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It is my understanding that it is 12 drinks per person. NOT wine and beer with dinner unless you use a ticket. That would have been nice though.

 

 

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If it was booked with the promo giving the mealtime drinks package then you will get free beer and wine with dinner.

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Thanks for writing such a detailed review. Hopefully some of the service problems will be improved over time. One question, did you try the F1 simulator or bowling? Or notice prices on them or if they had long lines?

We did not use them. It was quite expensive and they did not offer the full cruise unlimited package. Not sure the exact prices. Lines were never long for them.

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Is there a way to pre order a case of drinking water.....OR purchase once onboard Seaside?

 

Understand you are not allowed to bring on a case when you board the ship??

They have a water package $37 for 14 one liter bottles. I believe it is coupons that you turn into the bar like the fantastica drinks. There isn’t room to store them in the cabin.

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Being told this is not available on my sailing (Dec 15, 2018). They really need to get their stories straight.

I just added it for Nov 17 2018 and Mar 16 2019. It should be available, you just have to get a rep that knows about it.

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So we don't need to pay for kids to upgrade - and they still get upgraded?

Correct. Sort of. They don’t upgrade the kids, but our kids still got whatever they wanted with the classic non-alcoholic package.

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Could someone please explain what you gain by upgrading to the deluxe package?

Free mini-bar, premium alcohol brands, higher end drinks like the martinis at the venchi chocolate bar, more selection at the gelato bar (ice cream bars), etc. for $112 it was very worth it.

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