KINGBOBOFTHENORTH

Margaritaville at Sea also sells it as an excursion for $149.99 per person. This does include roundtrip transportation. https://margaritavilleatsea.com/current-offers/grand-lucayan-ultimate-resort-experience

Yeah, and it took an act of Congress. As you said, not going to happen again.

It's NOT called soggy bacon, it's called "flexible" bacon!

Yes, they were all cancelled more than 48 hours out. I received a refund for one of the excursions and the "battle" is over two others.

If I'm going to be gone for more than a few days, I park offsite at Orlando Fast Park. https://www.thefastpark.com/airport-parking/orlando-mco They have continuous shuttles to/from all three terminals. If you open a free account online, you can make a reservation and not have to pay for it until the end of your trip. Without an account, they'll want you to prepay for a reservation. If you're going to be traveling over any holiday weekend, you'll want to have a reservation. There are numerous other off-site parking facilities as well.

However, Royal Caribbean is making HUGE profits from their water park on Coco Cay so it's possible MSC is looking at that and saying hmmmm. (But Ocean Cay is much smaller than Coco Cay so I doubt it.)

My wife could not attend a recent MSC cruise we booked so I went alone. The change occurred after the final date for any refunds so I knew I was not entitled to any money back. So I did not inform MSC of the change until I showed up at the cruise terminal and informed the Rep that she couldn't make it. No questions were asked about why. The next day on the ship I checked with Reception to make sure they knew she wasn't there so that I would only be charged gratuities x 1. They did know and indeed my bill only contained gratuities for one. (I am still battling with MSC over a refund for the previously booked excursions she did not take.)

Interesting. Would have to be a completely different product because the minimum length of a cruise from Tampa would have to be 4 nights since the closest foreign port is Cozumel or Merida. Even Nassau would seem to require 4 nights. Keep us updated if you hear more!

Interestingly, while they advertised Utopia could be booked on Friday June 23rd for the public and Thursday June 22nd for past guests, I was able to book our cruise on Wednesday night June 21st. Utopia sailings were listed and bookable so I grabbed one!

Brightline train service begins late summer. I definitely recommend the train. And if you still want to stop in Fort Lauderdale, you can. And then continue on to Miami when you want to with an additional ticket.

It may be too early for them to have their excursions posted. Check back in a couple months.

Because Orlando is the happiest place on Earth!

Check out platform sneakers; they're huge right now and all the brands Nike, Adidas, Puma, Vans, Converse, etc have them.

I figured out shore excursions quickly enough; you have to log-in to your cruise and then click on each port and it will display the options. They've never offered transfers (or airfare) in the American market. You're on your own for those.

My recollection from a couple years ago is that on MSC you could use more than one device, just not at the same time. I can recall having my laptop hooked-up in the room but when I went on deck or about the ship at night, I could connect on my phone and it would disconnect me from the laptop. But on my most recent MSC cruise, I again chose the 1-device option on my laptop and it would not let me later connect via my phone without upgrading to a 2-device plan.

Perhaps the flight is also picking up cruise passengers in Martinique or Guadeloupe?

I always bring a power strip with 6 outlets on it. Never can have too many! (phone, wife's phone, camera, laptop, etc!)

Yeah, Marella is homeporting Marella Discovery at Port Canaveral this year. TUI moved their UK & Irish charter flights from Orlando Sanford (SFB) to Melbourne Orlando (MLB) to be closer to the port.

Call MSC Reservations and ask that his number be added to the reservation. No other requests.

Looks like it's near the Color Line terminal. Color Line has a daily cruise ferry ship headed to Kiel, Germany. I just looked at the pics I took when we sailed on Color Magic last year and it looked like an AIDA ship was docked nearby. Different terminal than Color Line uses but close. We took a taxi from Oslo Central Station to our terminal because there's no Metro or train that goes to that area that would be practical. Unless MSC sells a transfer bus from the station to their terminal, you'd be best to go via taxi.

It does keep the crew busy with embarkation being available in multiple ports but as a guest I felt no impact. But it's just good business sense for MSC to do it because it allows passengers to embark from ports closest to where they live without incurring as much travel expense. Also, MSC does this to some extent in the Caribbean because on one cruise we embarked in Martinique but embarkation was available in Guadeloupe and St. Lucia as well. In addition, just got off a NCL cruise in the Med and they too were doing it. We got on in Athens but others got on in Haifa and Limassol, so it's not just MSC that does this.

I've done one MSC cruise in the Baltic, two in the Persian Gulf out of Dubai and one in the Red Sea out of Jeddah. The crew speaks English so communication is never an issue. The number of Americans is probably only 10-20% so it's definitely a more-foreign experience. And as mentioned above, announcements are in 5-6 languages. If you're looking for an international experience, DO IT! If you're looking for a mostly American experience in Europe, book Royal or NCL.

I don't recall many kids on MAS nor kid's activities.You'd be better-served by sailing on one of the mainstream cruise lines.

I just got off Splendida in March and the ship is wonderful. If that's your preferred itinerary, go for it. Poesia is the smallest of the three. I personally would do World Europa because it's brand new and I've been on the other two and I don't normally repeat ships.

Definitely the train from Hamburg Hbf to Kiel Hbf. Many of the trains are ICE high speed trains. Then take a taxi from the ranks outside to the Ostuferhafen cruise terminal where MSC operates from. As noted above, it's not the ones within walking distance from the train station. In Europe MSC sells transfers to the ship but this has not been available from MSC Americas. But if you can find the MSC shuttle bus, they'll sell you a ticket to the bus there at the station. But I think if you're paying for two or more bus passengers, might as well use a meter taxi. When we got off the train at Kiel Hbf, there was a MSC rep in the area where all the tracks & train platforms end and you go into the station building itself. If no one is there, turn right and go into the shopping area of the station and take the escalator down to the ground level. You'll see the bus queue and ticket seller for the bus down there.