Heartgrove

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! So sad to read about the crewmember on the Rotterdam. Prayers for their family members. Sue and Louie arrived home later than expected last night. Their SWA flight was delayed over an hour for mechanical problems. Sue did bring home my Bronze Medallion which I should have received if I had been aboard. I have a second chance since we decided it still isn't Sam's time and booked what will be my birthday cruise on the MSC Seashore. Actually it will be two weeks earlier but my birthday is so close to Memorial Day it makes travel difficult. We had the MSC Transatlantic cancelled for Fall so we quickly decided to do this cruise to use a deposit. Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

They will normally not give you the Status Match until you are actually booked on a cruise. There are exceptions though, and I was one. For some reason I received my Status Match almost four years ago when just showing interest before our first MSC cruise. It took my wife until actually being booked even though she emailed the Voyagers Club twice - and did receive responses from them explaining she needed to be booked on a cruise. Once booked you are retroactively granted Status Match, which means the discount as well.

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! From just yesterday for our Port of the Day, the Rotterdam docked in Cozumel photographed by Sue. Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

The Port of Norfolk Cruise Terminal was scheduled to be closed this year for remodeling. Carnival embarks/disembarks five-six cruises each year from there. Luckily work had not started so CCL/RCCL are able to use it as an alternative for Baltimore. The terminal area is one of the worst as it is so crowded that parking is offsite and passengers need to be bussed to the terminal. After Basic in NJ, the USCG sent me to Engineman "A" school in Yorktown, VA for four months. I was lucky as my mother had a childhood girlfriend who had married a career Navy sailor and had retired to Virginia Beach. On my long Liberty weekends I would catch the 'hound and travel down to stay the weekend with them, my 2nd family away from home. Sandi @StLouisCruisers you are right that the Navy has an open house for one ship each weekend. One of the Liberty weekends while visiting I did a "Busman's Holiday" and toured a USN LST! Luckily I had civvies to wear.

Sam in better days when he could still get up on the one couch. I miss our cuddle time.

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! Happy "Louie Louie" Day to DSIL! Sue and Louie (DSIL) have finally made a port on their Rotterdam cruise this week. In Belize, the seas were too rough to tender and yesterday seas were so rough they couldn't dock as the Pilot boat didn't come out. At least they are making one port call this cruise. Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

Get a couple of other passengers (6-8) to share a taxi van to the gate. They are usually waiting by the pier and are also available to travel back to the ship. Much cheaper.

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

We have sailed from San Diego twice on on 7-day cruises to Cabo, Mazatlan, and PV, and stopped in Ensenada returning fro a 18-day RT to Hawaii to satisfy government requirements. Seven night cruises from LA won't travel far down the coast though. Still - would definitely book it!

Thanks for the Head Up! It looks like 7-night sailing beginning 10/04/2025 from LA. That also raises the question of a possible Grand Voyage to arrive at LA. Ho about Japan Transpacific to LA?

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

The website shows an 11-night cruise that circles Japan on Oct. 2 - Oct. 13, 2024. Nothing is shown for 2025 but given past history there should be a similar cruise in 2025.

Late on to this thread but thought I would weigh in. We have sailed the most on HAL so it always feels "comfortable" when we board. Our bookings have been Neptune Suite, Signature Suite, Vista Suite and Verandah. Lately we have only booked a Verandahs for other reasons. The most enjoyable HAL cruises have been the roundtrip on the Eurodam to Hawaii, B2B Western and Eastern Mediterranean on the Nieuw Statendam, and our first HAL cruise which was Canada/NE on the Veendam. We have booked a 27-day B2B on the Rotterdam this Fall, and a 28-day B2B on the Nieuw Statendam in April 2025. But our new preferred cruise line is MSC in Europe. We haven't cruised MSC yet from the USA but will next month in Yacht Club. We have cruised in both Yacht Club from Italy and Fantastica-Experience from Germany. I don't understand the negativity on CC for MSC. Best bang for your buck (especially Yacht Club) in my opinion. We have tried Viking Ocean and are one-and-done. Never have seen so many "entitled" passengers aboard a cruise ship! Also have done Carnival twice but unless sailing from Baltimore/Norfolk and reasonably priced, forget it.

Thanks for the revue. Read with interest as we are on the same ship next month but a different itinerary. Our first time sailing MSC in the USA and on a bigger MSC ship. We were on the Carnival Venezia last November that had the same style of elevators. The concept is fine during the cruise - but doesn't work on disembarkation day. Finally had to travel to the top deck to travel down to get off! We are actually Diamond so the discounted fares make a difference.

Only because there have been previous posts about slow credit card refunds being processed by MSC, I wanted to post this. Last week we received an email that our Fall MSC Divina Grand Voyage was cancelled. We spoke to our concierge on Friday morning and asked for a refund of the deposit for that cruise. Our booking was for YC and he said that it might take 2-3 weeks to process. My AMEX was credited the next day on Saturday morning! Kudos MSC!

I actually find it to be a better experience! With only a small portion of passengers embarking/disembarking the process is a lot faster. When we boarded in Genoa, exiting our cab the stevedores saw that we were YC and immediately escorted us to where the YC crew and lounge were. Our documents were checked and we were probably in the Top Sail lounge in less than ten minutes. Nice short presentations by the Concierge and YC Director, then escorted to our stateroom. Probably 1/2 hour total.

Thank you Jacqui, thank you Roy, thank you Debbie, thank you Vanessa, thank you Ann, and thank you Dixie for all your work. And thank you everyone for being here! @StLouisCruisers Happy Birthday Sandi and your sister! @Overhead Fred and @erewhon Happy Anniversay! Stay Safe, and prayers for those in need. - Jack

It just depends on the port and who is manning the lines and counter. My DW who is a 4-star and DSIL who is a 2-star traveling as two solos today just boarded the Rotterdam - together. They arrived at 11:00 am and were both onboard at 11:10 am. No one told my DSIL that she had to wait. Embarkation took ten minutes. Nuff said!

I am not sure if you only cruise in the USA or also travel in Europe. Speaking in generalities, the reason I mention checking MSC's site is that in the USA the vast majority of cruises are RT returning to the same port in Florida and NYC. For European cruises, a good majority use what I would call "bus stop" sailings. They are also RT but you can start at a variety of ports and then return to your embarkation port. Because of this they allocate a certain number of staterooms to each port. For example, the first time I sailed YC on MSC I wanted to embark from Civitavecchia. I didn't like the lack of suite offerings from there so I checked the same cruise for Genoa (the next port of call) which is only four hours by train further North. Much better stateroom selection so just rearranged my trip to embark there instead. Regarding cruisedeckplans, they do not differentiate between MSC Yacht Club Deluxe Suite and MSC Yacht Club Deluxe Grand Suite which is slightly larger.

Best to check the MSC website as cruisedeckplans is not 100% with classifications. One item to point out is that the four Fantasia-class ships have the YC restaurant separate in the Aft Section of the ship. World-class, Seaview-class, and Meraviglia-class YC are self-contained in the Forward Section.

Still more than $15/$25 per day for CO.

I know how it works and I feel that for $15 a day for CO it is not equivalent to sailing as a 4-5 Star and sailing in PS and NS. When cruising on MSC in Yacht Club I'm usually paying about $3K more than Aurea. For THAT, I expect extra privileges - and get it.

You should not be allowed into the Four and Five Star Priority line if you are Club Orange. Let there be a separate line below them as we have paid more than $15 a day for the privilege.