1kaper

You have to walk to your muster station to become familiar with where it is, that's why they have you check in there. It would all depend on where the muster station is in YC. In my case, our muster station was 2 floors down (not YC)

I don't think she was saying there were actual children there. She implied that it was adults acting like children.

I’ve heard about it on Carnival but never experiences first hand. I also haven’t done shorter than 7 days on carnival. I also don’t stay up late. I did recently do a 4 night in another line and it was a whole different experience. Someone in my group described the adults only pool as “a scene from Jersey Shore”. Complete with push-up competitions to the music. I didn’t spend most of my time around there. It didn’t bother me. But it was definitely a new vibe I hadn’t encountered on a cruise yet. there was one man we ran into 3 times over the trip and he was intoxicated, loud and starting arguments with everyone each time.

Not my but my sister booked Bella inside, got an inside wheelchair accessible room which was nice.

i know how much you can take home. my question was how much extra you have to pay for stuff to know if it’s worth it to bother taking extra home.

People love the cove balcony. I did not care for it. I don’t get the hype. It was closed in and dark. I didn’t like being on the lower deck. we were under a noisy part but surprisingly it didn’t bother me. I used to wonder what they were doing to make that noise but never stopped me from sleeping. Or woke me up.

They will link two reservations that have different drink packages? I was able to link to one reservation on my own, my friend who had same package. When I tried to add my sister's I got the message that we couldn't link because we didn't have the same drink package. I wouldn't bother calling, I've been down that road with MSC. It was easier to deal with it on board.

You can't link reservations ahead of time. It won't let you. I tried.

Book through a travel agent. Sometimes you can get on board credit, but what really matters is if something needs to change, they deal with it. MSC has it's benefits. Excellent customer service is not one of them. I'd much rather someone else deal with it.

The ship Overall I liked the ship. Last year I found Divina was very compartmentalized. Maybe it was because some parts were closed due to COVID. I found it wasn't hard to get around this ship. I didn't find it too big. Very few times I had to go to another floor to get across the ship. It was clean overall. I did go to one washroom near the Shine bar on the first day. There was no soap in one sink. At the end of the cruise it was still empty. I would have expected that to be picked up. I like the Jungle pool area because it provided shade. A few of us did the zip line. It was fun but pretty slow. Not scary at all. The waterslides were similar. Entertainment I didn't do any of the shows. We did karaoke two nights. Some of the group went to the silent disco. We checked out the deck party one night but didn't love the music - just personal taste. Ports We did Nassau and Ocean Cay. I've been to Nassau a few times so I stayed on the ship and quite enjoyed it. Some of my group went to Junkanoo Beach. The rest went to Warwick Resort. Both enjoyed their time. We rented umbrellas at Ocean Cay. And enjoyed floating in the water. Again the bar was jam packed and took forever. We waited too long and the food court closed. The two food trucks close to us had run out of food and closed as well. We went over to Lighthouse Beach to get something from the food truck there. When we got back the bar at the lagoon was closing. Shortly after that they closed the lagoon. Apparently it closes at 5:30 pm everyday. I was not aware. Lighthouse Beach stays open. Debarkation Some in our group chose express debarkation. The rest of us walked off later. It was chaos for both groups. The line up started near the exit, went back through the bar, past the chocolate shop, all the way back into the theatre, around and back up. It was a long, hot wait. The express people took over 45 minutes to get off. It was more than an hour for the rest of us. I have never experienced a debarkation like that. From what I read, some floors were called more than an hour after their scheduled time to get off. I know they were calling people to debark while there was still a long line. 0/10 Overall Experience Overall we had a good time but I may not be as quick to book another MSC as I was before. I've sailed on full ships before and haven't experienced lineups and congestion like this. It was definitely a party atmosphere. I know that shorter cruises usually tend to be more booze cruises. That wasn't my experience last year, but it was a totally different circumstance. Sea day at the adult pool was quite the experience. Lots of very full people, people doing pushup competitions. A very different vibe than other cruises I've done. There was one man in particular we kept running into who was very drunk and was starting arguments with people regularly. I know there are rude people everywhere but I ran into a lot more of it this cruise. As mentioned with the elevators, people cutting line (and not caring if they got called out). There was even one lady who wouldn't move her bag so two people could sit down on the trolley instead of just one. We already had another cruise booked on this ship for September so I'll see if this was a one off. It is also a longer cruise.

This was my second MSC cruise. My first was last year during COVID restrictions, same itinerary, different ship (Divina last time). This year I cruised with my mother, sister, niece, a friend and her niece. We booked an inside cabin, Fantastica. My sister booked inside with Bella. She ended up in a wheelchair accessible room, which was quite nice. Embarkation We had a 12:30 embarkation time. By the time we got to port it was later, closer to 2pm. We chose the line for "outside of check in time" and basically walked right through to security. We didn't wait at any point. It was very fast and smooth. 10/10. Muster Drill When we got on, my friend had some seats. We had a few drinks. Some went to grab some food. We hung out there until rooms were ready - which was pretty much when it was time to do muster drill. We went to our rooms, watched the drill, called in the code and then went to our muster station to swipe in. Ours was 2 floors down. It was a zoo trying to get down. People who had finished up were trying to get up the stairs, the rest of us trying to get down. Once we got there it went fairly quick. Except the next day I got a note on my cabin door saying their records said we did not complete the drill. There was an announcement at breakfast about it but I couldn't hear what they were saying would happen if we didn't do it. I heard a number of other people saying they got the same note despite having completed it. A bunch in our social media group had the same. I called guest services to let them know, she was pretty unconcerned and told me not to worry about it. To avoid any further issues, I called again and put in the code. We did not get any more notices. 3/10 Room The room was fine, it was clean. As mentioned, it was my first inside room. I can't say that I'm a fan. I've only ever done balconies and I think I would continue to book balconies in the future, particularly if travelling with my husband and kid. I feel like in a balcony room, if i come back to relax I still feel like I'm on a cruise. The beds were hard, same as my experience on my last MSC. Elevators This was the first cruise we took that had the newer type of elevators. I heard on Carnival you put in the floor you are going to, and the number of people in your party. Here you only put in the floor. The first day was an absolute nightmare. I assumed they were using some of the elevators for luggage. Every elevator that came was jam packed and stopped at every floor. I thought the new system was to avoid that. Normally I would take the stairs but this time round I was recovering from treatment that severely limits my fitness level. And I was travelling with my mom who is also very limited due to a heart condition. Going up the stairs several flights was simply not an option. Other days were better other than peak times. But I noticed that if you were going up, everyone got the same elevator assigned, didn't matter what floor. You only got a different elevator if you were going down. Not sure how this is any different than that usual setup. The other frustration was that if you weren't standing right in front of the elevator, you didn't get on. People didn't care who was first. Sometimes you had to wait for 3-4 elevators before there was room on one. If one happened to open that wasn't close to you, the people who came behind you just got on. It was very frustrating. Food The pizza, as always, was awesome. I can't say that I ate much else at the buffet. Breakfast buffet was fine. We did eat at the late night buffet and that was always good. MDR was hit and miss. Italian night was my favourite last year. This year it was not. I had carbonara that was pretty tasteless. I wasn't as impressed with the food as last time but it certainly wasn't awful for the most part. There was a long, long line to get into the dining room the first night. The second night we still lined up but it went quicker. There was lots of cutting in line. Drinks We had the easy plus. I loved that you could order a drink that wasn't in the package and pay the difference. I tried a champagne and a few cocktails. I also got my woodford reserve in my old fashioned. Line ups were long. The staff was working hard but the bars were often overwhelmed with people. If a server took your order it would take a long time to get (I understand they are busy) and it was often hard to get a server to take orders. The other issue was not all the bars were stocked. They all had the same menu but you couldn't order all the drinks on it. They had a fancy Gin and Tonic menu that a couple of us wanted to try. I never did find a bar that could make most of them, let alone all of them. I think we got to try one and one of the ingredients was still missing. I did find a new favourite - the Hugo. to be continue...

I just got off a cruise. Most of us had that easy plus. My sister had the easy. She was booked in a different dining room than we were. I'm willing to bet that everyone in that it had something to do with drink package. We were never asked to see our card at dinner and they just brought us wine whenever. We asked if she could get moved to our dining time and we were told maybe. They would put a note on our door if they did. We never got a note. The next night we asked to switch to her dining time and were allowed. I should also note she had very late dining and it wasn't busy. See mine above. It did when one of us had easy and the rest had easy plus.

I‘ve never been able to get a clear answer. Anytime we’ve ever brought extra back (like an extra bottle each) they never made us pay when we declared it.

It wasn’t that it was too long. It was that I did it all and got a notice I hadn’t. Then there was an announcement about those who got the letter but I couldn’t make out that they said. I spoke to a number of people and it was posted in a group that many of us did it correctly and got the notice.

To who? If I saw anyone I would. But even if I didn’t at some point it should have been picked up. I was on 4 nights. They messed up the muster drill. A bunch of us who had watched, called and swiped are card got notices that we didn’t. I called guest services to let them know. They didn’t care.

I just got off a cruise and can say this is the worst behaviour I’ve seen. The elevators were a complete disaster. You often had to wait for the 3rd or 4th elevator and so many just jumped on despite others waiting before them. There was a long, long line to enter the dining room that moved slowly. A whole family cut in line in front of my niece. The people in front of them pointed out twice that the line started way behind. They just laughed. My niece said something about it and the response was “you must be some hungry to care”. someone described the south beach pool on seaday as “jersey shore” (as in the show). This was just a few things. I’ve only ever sailed MSC and Carnival. I hear a lot about bad behaviour on carnival but I haven’t seen much bad behaviour there. the worst I’ve seen was this cruise. Granted it was a 4 night which I know tend to be a little more rowdy.

I just got off MSC and a lady had her seeing eye dog on (I assume because of the type of harness it looked like it was used to help guide her). He had a clearly marked harness. While I admired the dog I didn’t approach (much as I wanted to) but I did see other people approach and ask to pet the dog. Her response was that he was working. it was interesting to see when her partner arrive she took the harness off so they could greet each other. It was very cute. The. The harness went back on and back to work.

also on the ship. The one thing I did see was no soap in some of the dispensers in restrooms. I went to one when I got on the ship and there was none on the left side. The entire trip there was never any. I noticed it in a few more places. I saw lots of other cleaning being done.

me too!

Still too rich for my blood.

If it makes you feel better, I did.

I fly. Yes. I have done a number of cruises with differing check in times. My last family cruise we had the last check in time, long after hotel check out. We followed it. I don’t care if others don’t. But I repeatedly see the comments to just show up whenever (not just here). And then see numerous complains about long lines and long check in times. Part of that is due to people showing up out of their assigned time.

I totally read it the wrong way round. Sorry.

There is a bus stop not far at George and Pitt St. . There would be bus going all along the road the rental company is on. Guess the final challenge is money. But there are tons of vendors in the cruise port. Perhaps a small purchase and ask for Canadian change. You would want Route 1. George and Pitt would be close to the port. Your stop would be somewhere between Ashby Corner and Walmart. I'm sure if you let the bus driver know where you are going they'd drop you at the closest stop. https://www.cbrm.ns.ca/route-1-glace-bay-sydney.html I assume you are going to Budget on Welton and not at the airport. That would be a much longer walk.

I've known people to pack ketchup when heading to all-inclusives down south. They do have ketchup there but it apparently isn't as good. So they bring their own.