LP Dad

My experiences, on two MSC cruises:

I boarded within the last hour of check-in and there was no problem. Not even a mention by the staff member. Of course, you're taking a risk if you cut it close.

MDR is all assigned seating, and most tables are large. There were no solo tables on either of my cruises, and very few tables of two --- and certainly none available. The buffet is mediocre. 

Generally, MSC food is acceptable but not great. Shows tend to be a collection of the same performers with different themes. In my experience, the shows lean towards music only...so as to appeal to the  international clientele. 

I think a three day cruise would be an excellent introduction to MSC. Even if you dislike it, you're not stuck for long.

I would close by noting than both my MSC cruises were European, and I've heard that their cruises out of the USA are tailored to American tastes. 

LPD

Full disclosure: I haven't sailed out of Saudi Arabia.

But on the Lirica in 2018, we sailed through the Suez Canal and Red Sea for 6 days without any restrictions on bars or casinos. We docked at three ports in Oman and overnighted in Dubai, and, again, no restrictions. 

On-deck lighting was turned off and sharpshooters were aboard as we sailed through the Gulf of Aden.

LPD

I'm impressed that a previous poster has both the insight to pick stocks that have done "even better than Amazon" , but also the ability to differentiate between "stocks for investment" and stocks for the "added OBC".

Amazon is up 12, 040% since its IPO. A $1 million investment would be worth over $12 Million. But her stocks have appreciated even more!

If her preferred stocks are up even more than 12, 000%, shouldn't she have put less into CCL, and more into her favourites?

I like making my points, but I like others making them even more.

LPD

On 5/5/2020 at 8:58 AM, LP Dad said:

If someone had invested 5000 USD in the market 5 years ago today, current net values are as follows, depending on what was purchased:

 

Amazon                   27 301

American Express     6342

Vanguard 500             6720

Caterpillar                   7809

Carnival                       1732

 

This assumes dividend reinvestment. I am relying on a publicly-available calculator, which only has last week's prices. I used 5000 as that was the approximate investment required to qualify for shareholder OBC (at the time).

 

CCL investors, those have been expensive free drinks.

 

LPD

 

 Just for fun, I re-ran the numbers for today. I didn't include dividend reinvestment because I used a different calculator this time. (If this has a material change on the numbers, please cite it, thx.) I used the same five investments and went back five years, so the cost of acquisition date is now +/- Dec. 30th 2015.

A 5000 investment would be worth:

Amazon                      24 305

American Express        8585

Vanguard 500                9039

Caterpillar                   13 253

Carnival                          1988

Someone in the thread said that he had received "thousands" in OBC, in which case he might be a (very rare) winner in having purchased CCL stock. (Unless he had invested in Amazon.) Others, taking one or two or even several cruises, all on CCL lines, every year, would have been better off financially investing in many other stocks.

If people want to judge their return on the OBC as a percentage of their investment in CCL, that may be comforting. In my view, it's also interesting to look at the missed opportunities for capital appreciation elsewhere.

LPD

I am interested in this cruise, but I'm concerned about the number of sea days. Thirteen of the first seventeen days are at sea. That number could actually go up if any of the first three ports (Reunion, Mauritius, and Seychelles) are closed to cruise ships.

Back in March, there was something of a riot when the Sun Princess docked at Reunion. The ship left early and proceeded to Mauritius, where it was not allowed to dock.

I give the OP full marks for adventure, but I'm going to wait until the new year to decide, and I suspect my decision will be no.

LPD

I received confirmation this morning that the Preziosa TA  to Brazil in late October is cancelled. There will be no substitute ship or sailing. 

I was offered the expected 125% FCC. I believe those who booked on the Canadian site will get a full refund if they don't use the FCC by Dec 31, 2021. I'll want to confirm that eventually, and decide what to do. 

LPD

I was booked on the TA to Brazil. I should have known it was about to be cancelled since MSC customer service assured me on Monday it was a go 😒. Flights were through Air Canada Aeroplan, and they're waiving cancellation fees. I foolishly paid in full for the cruise --- not a lot of money (inside cabin). I only cruise in November, and only repositioning cruises, so I'll see what's on for Nov 2021.

Sorry to others who've had their plans changed for them.

LPD

I wish I had an answer --- for me as well as for you.

I'm due to join the Preziosa in Le Havre (France) in late October. It will have departed Hamburg a few days earlier.  The itinerary calls for ports in UK, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, and Brazil.

But:

1. Who knows if non-Europeans will be allowed into Europe, and, if so, what the self-isolation rules will be.

2. How many ports will allow cruise ships to dock?

3. Will the Preziosa be sailing out of Brazil this winter?

4. Will MSC be interested in getting the Preziosa to Europe this fall? (She's currently off the coast of Florida.)

I'm afraid I'm generally pessimistic that this cruise will happen. In fact, I doubt there will be much if any cruising until well into 2021. My only "educated feedback" would be to wait until you are sure rather than booking speculatively. I wish I hadn't, but that was last fall when all this was unthinkable.

LPD

11 hours ago, cfoster711 said:

CCL stock is a great deal right now.  

Or, put another way, "Shareholders have lost $25 billion in equity since last June --- don't miss out on the fun!"

LPD

If someone had invested 5000 USD in the market 5 years ago today, current net values are as follows, depending on what was purchased:

Amazon                   27 301

American Express     6342

Vanguard 500             6720

Caterpillar                   7809

Carnival                       1732

This assumes dividend reinvestment. I am relying on a publicly-available calculator, which only has last week's prices. I used 5000 as that was the approximate investment required to qualify for shareholder OBC (at the time).

CCL investors, those have been expensive free drinks.

LPD

2 hours ago, Aussie Gal said:

I was not chiming in with false information. In fact what I said was true. My friends on the Amsterdam had sent me an email with the information that LA would be closing and therefore they cannot leave Australia until April 15th on Delta Air. 

I suggest you drop the shovel.

9 hours ago, Aussie Gal said:

Unfortunately, LA airport will now be closed so they are now trying to work out how to get to the East Cost of the U.S.

Source, please?

20 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

That's negative, as far as Toronto-Pearson; Air Canada does have a daily non-stop LAX - YYC (Calgary), as do Westjet, Delta and United. Unfortunately do not know what the current status of those flights are under the current circumstances

This is completely untrue. Air Canada has four flights per day LAX-YYZ (788,790,792,796) and WestJet has one (1101). They all departed and arrived yesterday as scheduled. Air Canada canceled one flight today. Obviously, things are changing, and some or all flights may be suspended going forward. I'm amazed that people want to chime in with information that is not only false but easily obtained with the smallest effort.

2 hours ago, Kindergirl said:

wow! I knew I asked the right group! I love the idea of getting them to Van. I’m in Ottawa, but I’ll drive there to get them if need be.

 I know you're thinking out loud, and you have a lot to digest. All this has been thrown at you out of the blue.

But please reconsider driving to Vancouver to get them. It's a 45-hour drive each way, and that's 45 hours of driving, not a 45-hour trip. Five days of 10-hours-a-day, each way. 

A five-hour flight (even after a transpacific flight) seems more gentle for an elderly couple. You could fly to YVR and return with them.

Hopefully, HAL will get them (and others) to somewhere in eastern North America. 

WM

I've done several Mediterranean cruises (with MSC, Costa, and HAL) and I only have high-school French. Assuming you're heading to the common ports (in Spain, France, Italy, etc.) you won't have a problem. Keep in mind that the passengers on MSC will be primarily European, and the announcements will be in several languages.

Food is subjective, but I wouldn't say it's one of MSC's finer points. I don't cruise for the food, but many do. I often skip dinner in the MDR and eat at the buffet.

I book cruises when I've decided on the itinerary and the ship. I doubt prices will drop considerably until just a short time before sailing, to fill empty cabins. By then, you'll have a hard time getting the right flights to Europe at the right price.

Lastly, Marseille and Paris are about 800 km apart, so you're not exactly "heading to the port" from Paris. There are very fast TGV trains that are expensive, or slower, cheaper, regular trains. I don't recommend driving, as it's a long journey, fuel is expensive, and there are tolls. Air Transat flies between Toronto/Montreal and several cities in the south of France.  (Sorry, mods, if one isn't supposed to mention airlines.)

LPD

The responses to this topic have all been correct, but I would add that bottled water can be brought on board at any port, not just the port of embarkation. I enjoy trying the brands of different countries (not everyone's idea of adventure) and consistently brought some aboard at various ports. They went through the scanner and nobody even commented.I assume soft drinks are the same but can't confirm.

LPD

I was in Cadiz last month and rented a car for the day to go to Gibraltar. (There were no cruise excursions and no timely public transit links.)

I got a rate of about 26 EUR for the day. There was a "railway station pickup surcharge" of 19 EUR, but that's where the car rental office was, so OK.

A few weeks ago, the car rental company sent two emails notifying me of photo-radar speeding charges: 91 kmh in an 80 zone (highway) and 75 kmh in a 60 zone (off-ramp). This is, respectively, 6 and 9 miles per hour over the speed limit. Each charge had a fine of 100 EUR, although the fine would be halved if I paid within 72 hours. I go to Spain at least once a year, and obviously don't want any problems driving, so I paid them. After all, the interest on Spain's national debt is over 2000 USD per second, and we all need to do our share.

Spain's transport ministry adds 10 EUR as a fee, and VAT on the total, so the fines were 62.10 EUR each.

The car rental company charged 81 EUR inclusive as an administrative surcharge. This is waived if you take "Fines Appeal Waivers Insurance", and the fact that there is such a thing tells you all you need to know.

So my little car rental cost 26+19+62+62+81: 250 EUR. At least it's a nice, round number. And I got frequent-flyer points with my credit card.

It's their country, and their rules. And an expensive lesson for me.

LPD

HalFacts shows pictures of stateroom 6127 on the Konigsdam. Take a look.

Based on these I booked an inside sideways on the Nieuw Statendam for the TA departing Rome this Sunday. I hope my stateroom is similar, because I'm on board for 21 days. If it's not, oh well, it's not.

LPD

AL3X, of course you're right that not all stakeholders win every time in the short term. (I own a wholesale supply company, so I can attest to the fact that suppliers are often the first place companies look to squeeze.) But I sure love it when our customers are profitable, especially when they appreciate our role in their success.  The ones that aren't profitable pay slowly, fade away into oblivion, or, worse, go bankrupt and stick us with unpaid bills.

As to whether or not Carnival Corp's approach is best, I leave that to the experts. The five-year share appreciation is essentially nil, although there were periods (2018) when it was up nicely. And a 4.7 dividend yield is attractive.

I've sailed twice with Costa (including the Concordia a few months before she sank) and it's pretty basic. My first HAL cruise is a TA later this month. 

LPD

You are now talking about "the quarterly stock price" and "short-term results vs. long-term strategy".  That's a pretty quick pivot from your original declaration that "there is such a thing as enough profit".

"Driving the quarterly stock price up is a relatively recent invention." Yes, only since the Buttonwood Agreement.

LPD

17 hours ago, bEwAbG said:

I think it's pretty universal to all cruise lines these days.  There is such a thing as enough profit but good luck getting any American company to believe that.  Chasing ever-higher dollars that will eventually not materialize quarter after quarter after quarter.  It's a race to the bottom to see who can come up with the next scheme to make more money at the expense of the customer experience.  Combine that with all of these new builds and the whole industry is going to be in a real pickle when the next economic downturn hits.  

Do you invest in the stock market? If so, do you invest in companies that are satisfied with "enough profit" or do you seek out companies that try constantly to become more profitable?

If I heard the CEO of one of my holdings say, "I've been thinking about it, and I've decided there is such a thing as 'enough profit' ", I'd sell today and invest in a competitor. 

Profits reward investors, employees, and suppliers, and are necessary for every company's survival. Increased profits attract investors, and, sorry, but investors are insatiable where profit is concerned.

LPD

I used the prepaid 40-item package on the Lirica this past November and was very satisfied. Dress shirts and trousers came back ironed as though they had come from the dry cleaner. Everything was tagged, including underwear. Polo shirts were pressed. A pair of socks, as you might guess, is counted as one item.

In true MSC fashion, the form listing the items being sent out had no reference to any sort of package. It had individual prices. So I wrote down the quantities of each type of clothing, totalled everything, and noted that I had the package. The first time I sent 21 items and the second 19 items. I suspect that no one at MSC was counting as closely as I was.

LPD

This has probably (certainly!) been answered elsewhere, but since the thread is new:

Is every drink covered?

A Budweiser?

A Bombay martini?

A glass of champagne?

I imagine you have to buy the second drink at the same time as the first, or does HAL adjust the price of the second drink on your account?

Thanks in advance.

LPD

Whenever I'm talking to a politician or an activist about the "climate crisis", I always ask which tax cuts they support to combat climate change. Their stunned and shaken reactions --- which never vary --- assure me of their true motivations.

LPD

We used Ramasside  last year and would highly recommend. Guide very knowledgeable, with a safe and polite driver. A woman joined us last-minute and they were vey apologetic that the car was small for three backseat passengers. (They actually offered to change vehicles, but we didn't want to delay the start.)

We had the Cairo Layover Tour, from about 6am to 6 pm. The guide, Mina, was prepared to spend as much time as we wanted at all the sights. He was also helpful in giving advice on how much to pay for guidebooks, trinkets, etc., from fairly aggressive local vendors.

Sorry to be so late to this thread. You may have gone already.

LPD