Motegi

I’m posting this for a friend who is trying to status match before his first MSC cruise.

Can anyone tell me whether Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite or Hilton Honors Gold will match higher status on Voyagers Club?

The last status match table I saw seemed to indicate that Hilton was better.  
 

Just wanted to make sure so my friend can get the best possible experience.

Thanks in advance!

6 hours ago, xcell said:

Thanks...

For this upcoming cruise (woohoo, tomorrow), they wanted $1200 CDN pp min bid to go from YCI to YCD.

I think my cruise is fully booked or all the YCD are sold out.

 

 

 

Just to clarify, the numbers I mentioned were not though the online bidding website.  These offers were given by the concierge after we boarded.  
 

Our cruise also appeared nearly sold out online with only two YC1 showing available when we booked our cruise two months ago.

However after we boarded we found out that there were only 160 passengers in Yacht Club with 14+ cabins unoccupied. 

Although I saw it mentioned in NCL’s press releases leading up to the launch of Prima I haven’t really seen or heard about it from actual passengers.  Surprisingly I don’t see any results when I search for videos of it on YouTube where I can find practically everything else Prima related.

Are they still running this game show onboard?  If so how do they do it?  I would assume that they don’t install an entire grocery store on stage for the game show. 
 

Thanks in advance for any info regarding the above. 
 

We were booked on one of Prima’s first sailings to Iceland last year but switched to Star when they dropped the Ireland stops from Prima’s itinerary. 

On 8/18/2023 at 6:19 AM, xcell said:

I guess the ship wasn't sold out?

 

May I ask, was this a free upgrade ot monetary?

Under $300 total for the 4 night cabin upgrade on Seaside. 

Under $500 total for the 7 night cabin upgrade on Seashore.

We were just onboard Seaside YC this week.  We had booked YC Interior YIN and talked to the Concierge on embarkation day and

were offered an upgrade to YC Deluxe Balcony Suite YC1 which we accepted.

We did the same on Seashore in the past as well. 

We were told by the Future Cruise representative onboard Ssaside this week that MSC will also be using that time to dredge out the channel to the island in preparation for the arrival of the MSC World America. 

Following.  
 

Looking forward to hearing about you day to day experiences onboard Seaside now.  
 

It’s been a few years since we were last onboard Seaside and we are anxiously anticipating our cruise.

We’d love to hear what you think of the cruise director and what the theme nights are onboard right now as we start packing for our cruise!

Thanks in advance!

10 hours ago, styles27 said:

Some who were on his last sailing reported on another social media forum that he announced his retirement from being a CD to them. They also reported he said he wasn’t leaving MSC but taking another position. 

Who knows if that’s accurate. He may have announced he was leaving for his break and nothing else. 

Thats quite interesting.  
 

When we last saw him in February of 2022 onboard Seashore we sat down with him in the Brooklyn Cafe and he told us he was retiring from his Cruise Director role in order to take a shoreside position with MSC.  He told us that it was his last cruise and he appeared to be very excited to start the next chapter in his career.  
 

We told him how much we appreciated his enthusiasm and multifaceted talents over the years as Cruise Director and wished him luck with his new adventure.  
 

Of course it appears that he wasn’t able to stay away from the Cruise Director role for long as i think he helped inaugurate World Europa and Seascape.  
 

Pam and I are both shocked and saddened to hear of his sudden passing.  

OMG, what terrible news.  Gene was our favorite Cruise Director on any cruise line and the best on MSC by far.  He was so talented and so personable and had a way of making everyone feel welcome onboard.  What a tragedy to lose such a wonderful man who was right in the prime of his life.  Deepest condolences to his fiancee and family.  He will be missed by all.  

Here is a photo of the last time we saw him on Seashore in February of 2022.

10 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

For consideration, the 1-1-1 limitation is now in writing for all dining

 

 

Bummer

2 hours ago, cougrx23 said:

Great posts, this will be our first time on NCL and this big of a ship, any tips for a first timer?

If you booked your cruise with the “Free at Sea” offer I would recommend that you make reservations for your two free Specialty Dining restaurants as soon as they are available 120 days prior to your cruise.   These reservations fill up very quickly especially on a larger ship.  

Also try to book your excursions early as the popular ones may sell out.

1 hour ago, Chasing Summer said:

Does it only work if you have a Specialty Dining package? I tried Moderno first and then LaCucina second and it still says put in a cc for $141.60. No way to say using Latitudes voucher. In the past I've always had to book once on board but with so many people having the SDP, it's hard to get a reservation then.

I believe I was able to do it over the phone with an NCL rep

1 minute ago, zqvol said:

Just an FYI only one of your Latitude vouchers comes with wine. 

Yep, now planning to use that one at Moderno.  

6 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

Yes it can. We often use it there.

 

In fact, if you are likely to want to order multiple apps or desserts in other places then it is best to use the latitudes voucher in Moderno.

 

The wine list is available there.

 

Just remember, when making reservations, reserve Moderno first to avoid having to pay for it when booking.

 
Thanks for the info!  That’s precisely what we were thinking as far as ordering multiple apps and desserts at Cageys and LeBistro.

So we will use our Latitudes vouchers at Moderno and Teppanyaki and use our SDP at Cagney’s and LeBistro

We will be cruising for the first time since the new more flexible Latitudes Dinner vouchers were introduced.  

Reading through the various threads discussing the changes to the vouchers which allow them to be used at more specialty venues I wasn't able to see whether the Latitudes "Dinner + Wine" voucher was able to be used at Moderno.  

I know about Cagney's and LeBistro, but does Moderno also have a "Complimentary Wine List" as well?

We will have the 2 dinner SDP plus the 2 Latitudes Platinum vouchers to use on our upcoming cruise on Epic.  

Thanks for the information!  We will be onboard on the 15th.  We were last on Epic in 2019 in the Med and didn't mind its little quirks.  

4 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

Could it be a charter?

That’s my prediction as well

52 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

That’s great!!!  And let’s really hope next variant is less virulent than the omicron. I do hope Covid just goes away but we all know that’s not going to happen.

As a healthcare worker who has spent the last two years in the hospitals I believe that for much of the planet COVID has already transitioned to become an endemic disease.  With the majority of the population having developed immunity either through infection, vaccination, or both we will have seasonal variations much like influenza rather than the pandemic type scenarios we had at the beginning.   

Great news!

We were on Meraviglia last week and were told by staff that we had no new COVID cases onboard. 

Looks like Omicron is fading away as quickly as it appeared.

Yes the two device package would probably be the best choice for your circumstances.  

However, I've also experienced difficulty using two different devices separately on a single login.  I had to go to the Photo Desk on Meraviglia last week and have my account reset just to allow access again.  Ended up only using my phone on the Wifi after that rather than try to switch back and forth with my laptop. 

Morgsmom is correct.  Unfortunately the sports bar food is no longer included.  Drinks at the sports bar are included in the drink packages though.

For our cruise this week on Meraviglia all five members of our group took an at home self guided test 3 days prior to our departure.  The plan was if any of us tested positive at home we would utilize MSC's Cruise with Confidence program to reschedule as the rules stipulate that one must contact them 48 hours before your scheduled departure.

Happily we were all negative using the at home test kits.

Next we each went to our free county testing sites the following day to obtain our official tests to be used for boarding as these tests would fall within the stipulated 2 day window prior to departure.

Again we all tested negative.

With the results in hand we proceeded to port as scheduled and underwent MSC's newly reinstated additional testing at the terminal prior to check in.  

I was ok with MSC's current two stage testing as Omicron has been shown to have high false negativity rate during early infection.  In fact, many of the available antigen test kits recommend a two stage testing regimen.   If a person tests positive 2 days prior to their cruise they would hopefully be able to remain at home and not have to proceed with traveling to the port or incur the additional associated expenses.

We only added our own voluntary pretest as a precaution to protect our investment.

However I think it would be nice if MSC would slightly expand the window for their Cruise with Confidence program to allow rescheduling for those who find they are positive on their required 2 day prior test rather than letting those people fall into the cracks.    

5 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

The way I see it is that, for the near future, cruises will experience "port instability." We were to go on the Jan 16th Divina cruise and two ports were canceled two ports were substituted,  and the rest all had their dates changed. The changes were not announced until after the sailing was underway. So, if you booked an independent excursion, you would be scrambling to contact the tour company to cancel and then reschedule. For the time being, it might be more practice to just suck it up and take the ship excursions with fifty or so of your best friends on a big tour bus.

Most of the itinerary changes were due to onboard positivity numbers exceeding the thresholds set by the governmental authorities at the ports of call.  

Hopefully the additional layer of testing being reintroduced prior to check in will screen out more positive passengers prior to boarding and thus keep the overall positivity onboard below those thresholds.  

Also the Omicron surge peaked nationally earlier this month and is quickly waning.  

6 hours ago, Fogfog said:

@Motegi

Did yall go to Coz ?  Wondering if the Mexican ports restrict just walking alone etc

We usually have a couple of stops we like to make 

The Mexican Federal government has lifted most of the restrictions for cruise tourism.  Their only rule is that COVID positive passengers must remain quarantined onboard.  Other than that they do not have any threshold of onboard positivity that would prevent a ship from being accepted at a Mexican port of call unlike most other destinations in the Caribbean.  

Along those lines we had zero restrictions in Cozumel or Costa Maya on our visits.  We were able to explore on our own and hire taxis that would take us anywhere we wanted.  

Most businesses were open and operating.  Masking indoors/outdoors was not enforced.    

Yes the new contact tracing wristbands on Meraviglia look like fit bits.  They are waterproof and we thought that they worked better than the old rubber bands that they had aside from being a little chunkier.

Unlike mscdivina2016 our group still wore ours around most of the time during the cruise as the bands were easier for some of us to access than their cruise cards.   Also two of our cruise cards failed during the cruise and needed to be replaced so the bands were helpful in those situations.  That being said we did forget to wear our bands on occasion and no concerns were raised by any of the staff.  

Staying aware of our surroundings we never sat in one location for more than 10 minutes outside of the dining room.  Usually we would sit down for a drink and then move on to the next lounge.  At the buffet we found that the seating areas to the left and right forward of the main buffet were usually devoid of passengers.  In addition we didn't interact much with other passengers outside of our group of five.   

I truly feel that MSC's reintroduction of another layer of testing at the terminal prior to check in will dramatically reduce the number of passengers needing to be quarantined onboard as more will be screened out before boarding.  This will also, in turn, reduce the number of passengers needing to be placed in isolation because of contact tracing as well.  And it will reduce the likelihood that the ship will be forced to make itinerary changes by staying below the onboard positivity thresholds set by many ports of call.