Mattnvick

My son is getting married next year on Europa. Is there a florist on board if his bride wanted fresh flowers in her hair? 

They will have a wedding planner but just wondered as I don't know if they sort things like flowers and if they do maybe they come on to the ship from a florist in Port.

Thanks in advance for any replies if anyone has any experience with this.

Just read that email. Sad

I don't think anyone really knows why. We discovered it last week. All very odd.....😏

On 11/22/2020 at 10:44 PM, cruiseguyinorl said:

 

Yes, the Meravigila will be moving to Port Canaveral in November of 2021 and staying at least through April of 2022 doing 3/4/7 night cruises per management at MSC that contacted me.

Bret

Today i tried the Canadian and the US sites. Put in Carribean for February and March 2022 from Port Canaveral.

Both sites came up with "No results  according to your search criteria please try again"  

I can't believe that  14 and 15 months respectively every single sailing for 2 months from Canaveral is completely sold out. 

Are they definitely still using Canaveral as a port?

Was looking at cruises on the Canadian website Feb/March/April 2022.

All stops at Ocean Cay seem to be leaving at 1800. 

They used to be there much later.

Just wondering why the change....?😏

On 7/29/2020 at 1:33 PM, nunuc2000 said:

In a nut shell, we booked a May 2020 cruise on the Seaside late last fall, then of course, Covid happened.  We did not cancel the cruise ourselves, but MSC did. Prior to that happening, we'd had all sorts of other non-covid related issues with our booking that necessitated multiple frustration filled dealings with MSC customer service.  If we hadn't already been beyond the final payment date while dealing with all of those problems, we would have cancelled... the abhorrent customer service was truly that awful. 

 

Fast forward to March, and MSC cancelled our cruise due to Covid.  That part is fine... and we fully expected the option of a FCC or a full refund, just like EVERY OTHER CRUISE LINE WAS DOING.  (In fact, we had 4 other cruises booked with 3 different lines that all took that stance).  But nope... Not MSC... they instead declared that ONLY Americans would have the option of choosing one or the other, and that Canadians (and all other non-American bookings) would ONLY be granted a future cruise credit.  They thought they were being incredibly thoughtful by extending that credit to be used until the end of 2021... and stipulating that ONLY after that expiry date would we be allowed to apply for a full refund in 2022. Oh I don't think so!  

 

After 7 different emails, 4 phonecalls (that encompassed a total of 21.5 hours of hold time and talk time), they refused to budge, saying that was their official policy.  Even when I pointed out to them that on BOTH the American and Canadian MSC webpages they have their Legal Terms and Conditions policy showing that they are legally compelled to refund passengers in full if they cancel a voyage in advance for ANY REASON:

 

No part of the Fare is refundable, except as specifically provided as follows: (i) Before the Voyage begins, the Company has the right to cancel the Voyage for any reason without notice. In such event, The Company shall refund the full amount of the Fare received, and the Company shall have no further liability whatsoever. )

 

...they still said "Nope... sorry... you'll have to wait a couple of years to get your money back". Wow... just wow. 

 

So... having exhausted every angle I could by dealing directly with MSC, and based on the advice of some folks on this forum who are in the same boat (pun intended), we contacted our credit card company to dispute the charges.  SUCCESS!  Visa was great about hearing us out, reviewing all of the documentation, and have now refunded us in full, and they are going after MSC.  One person had stated previously that if passengers disputed these charges with their credit card companies, that MSC might not accept a future booking from said persons. Oh no.. say it ain't so! (Can you hear the sarcasm in my words?)  

 

So in summary, if you're Canadian and facing the same problem, you might want to consider contacting your credit card company.  I'm glad we did!

 

 

We too were due to cruise in May this year and MSC cancelled it. As fellow Candians we felt the policy of FCC with money  back process only being started at the end of December 31st 2021 was poor.

Had it been just dh and i we probably would have opted for the FCC but to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary we were bringing our kids and respective partners with us. The window of opportunity to cruise all together again was basically nil and i wasn't happy for MSC to hold on to nearly 10k for nearly 2 years so we did the same and reversed the charge with our c.c. co.

It was very simple, as they agreed with us it was too long to wait for a reimbursement of money that was ours when we didn't received the goods ie cruise we paid for.  The money was refunded on our next bill and they said 2 more bills clear after that with no dispute my MSC and the money was ours to withdraw as we pleased.

The chargeback was never disputed by MSC. 

We have done 3 other cruises with MSC and really enjoyed them and had no issues with their customer service. For dh and i we would happily book another cruise. I just feel they dropped the ball for basically everyone except Americans on their refund policy over covid.

Yes to the first.

The 2nd can vary cruise to cruise. I would aim for noon.

I'm surprised you already know your disembarcation time. But you are proably safe to finish breakfast but may have to vacate your cabin before you go to the dining room. Im also surprised the main dining room is open as late as that on that day. 

Reserving get a you general admission not a seat. Dont know whether its the some in cirque shows.

You can order whatever you want to eat and yes you can you can take your towels off to use on shore

On 5/26/2020 at 8:04 AM, mef_57 said:

My impression is that they are just getting business taken care of and as their offer is strictly a credit, then there is no need for you to have done anything. 

What did you think your options were?  Was there really anything for you to decide?

When a company has many thousands of dollars of my hard earned money and tells me the only option I have after they were unable to deliver the thing i paid them for (not their fault but not mine either!) is a voucher to use with them again in the future. They also tell me if its not used by December 31st 2021 only then would I  get the said money back.

The "strictly credit" is contrary to the terms and conditions in the contract I signed in which they told me specifically to read before making a deposit id say there was quite a lot for me to decide. 

2 hours ago, Até said:

That does make sense in regards to the Canada policy, FCC only since it's basically the only choice for now.  I don't think you can get the FCC converted back to a refund until much later, if at all.

We were told if the FCC wasnt used by 31st December 2021 then you would be refunded. 

1 hour ago, mef_57 said:

Given the bad rep for MSC customer service, I am pretty impressed they are dealing with it without a 3 hour phone call or multiple enquiries 🙂 

But, if you had wanted to fight them for a credit or have your credit card company work to get the credit back, then their proactivity could be considered a CYA move. I

Im not sure what you mean tbh. I haven't called them or emailed them. I've done nothing but still recieved an FCC.....

1 hour ago, Até said:

I've read on other boards that some cruise lines will temporarily put the money into a FCC after the sail date passes even though a refund was requested, until a refund is requested or processed.  Did your FCC include an extra  25%?

We haven't yet requested anything. Not refund or FCC. We haven't been in touch with them at all.

But to answer your question yes the FCC they sent does include the extra 25%.

Canadian cruisers Has anyone received a FCC without filling in the form on the site?

I received one this morning (our sailing should have been this month) but we hadnt filled in the form yet as we were still deciding what to do.

A little confused.........😏

2 hours ago, retiredgram said:

So how are we going to eat and drink??

Easy 😄👍

On 4/28/2020 at 2:34 PM, JAGR said:

In case you are booking any Seashore cruises out of Miami in 2022, I came across a few snags that you may run into. 

1.  When you go to do a booking and put in your VC number, your discount does not always come through.  You may have to go back and repeat to get it.

I have been finding this the past week on all cruise options i have been putting in. Seaside, Seashore and Meraviglia. Gave up in the end. 

Just to put this all in to perspective at least you can all talk and speculate  about your refunds which hopefully you will get in  60, 90 or 120 days time.

Some of us dont get that option. Refund only after December 2021  if we haven't used our FCC. 

Don't like to think what might happen if we disagree with this blackmail by not even applying for the FCC. Maybe our money just disappears into their coffers for ever........😏.

17 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Just curious, how can it be "well over 30 days" when the first cruises from Royal were cancelled at the end of march? I would think we are just now getting to the 30 day mark. Not saying RCL isn't taking longer, but I would think if they started paying last Friday that is about 30 days. Pretty darn good in my mind.

Seems a  lot of people cancelled well before the cruise line did as they were getting nervous but were still entitled to a refund many were still waiting. 17 pages on it so far on just one thread and there are other threads Some have started to get it but a lot haven't.

3 hours ago, stephenSJ said:

A table on a UK travel agents site pasted below. You can probably guess who is slowest. 

 

How long is it taking for the cruise lines to refund bookings?

The cruise lines have published these guidelines for issuing cruise refunds from the date they receive the refund request:

• Azamara - 30 days
• Carnival - 90 days
• Celebrity - 45 da
• Crystal - 30 days
• Cunard - 60 days
• HAL - 60 days
• MSC - 120 days
• NCL - 90 days
• P&O - 60 days
• Princess - 60 days
• Royal Caribbean - 30 days
• Virgin Voyages - 30 days

I know this is the UK and from travel agents but I find this interesting especially with it showing Royal refunding in 30 days as if you go to their cruise critic forum there are pages and pages of people complaining that they haven't recived their refund (some started to trickle out just last Friday) and its been well over the 30 days this list talks about. Does it mean in the UK Royal gave priority to the TA's?

2 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

I booked on the Canadian site. Only the FCC was offered for the cruise they cancelled.

 

Perhaps, it doesn't make much difference. AFAIK, MSC has make no funding arrangement with the banks or the debt market. So, they're paying the refunds from cash flow. Negative cash flow. So, don't expect the CC refund anytime soon.

 

My advise to the Americans is to force a refund through their CC company after 3 months.

1 hour ago, shipgeeks said:

Well, we opted freely for FCC, and have no regrets.  We expect to cruise on MSC again as soon as we can, and we have faith in their future.

Happyinvan we are too are in the same boat (excuse the oun) as we are in Canada.

Shipgeek from a personal PoV firstly had a refund even been offered i would quite possibly gone for the FCC. What i object to here in Canada  is not even being given the choice. Unless you count a choice as being offered a refund in nearly 2 years time. Personally i don't. 

Also this  was a trip with our kids and partners  for our anniversary and being able to all get together for a week in the future will be nigh on impossible. Had it been just dh and I  that would be different. 

Not from MSC but this week we received our credit from Air Transat for our flights.

Originally it was one booking for 6 people.

 The credits came in over 3 days - each one being sent individually.  You would have thought even if they were seprate they would all have arrived together......but no

No wonder this process is taking so long if they all follow that blueprint.

 😱😱😱

The link below is the whole article. The piece below that it is a quote from it.

Is the reason MSC pax opting for FCC is so high is because the basically they werent offering a refund to the majority (US being the exception). 

If you read the article without knowing the whole picture the "loyalty" of MSC's clients might impress you.......Way to spin things MSC😱🙈 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5284/?et_cid=3327335&et_rid=185661849&et_referrer=Boards

....."In the case of MSC Cruises, the percentage is even higher -- between 80 to 85 percent of passengers are rebooking rather than opting for a refund, according to the UK Managing Director, Antonio Paradiso".......

On 4/22/2020 at 10:32 AM, nyk24 said:

Just had a cheeky idea.

 

I could email the MSC UK & Ireland CEO - Mr Antonio Paradiso (he is also on linkedin) and politely put my grievance to him along with a link to this thread or maybe leave the link out but just say there's a lot of unhappy people on some of the big cruise forums?

 

These guys are human after all and I have heard stories that the big wigs at MSC do like to fix things when things go wrong sometimes. Has anyone ever emailed a cruise line CEO and what happened?

Not a cruise line but a very large UK airline many years ago when we lived there. Sent a complaint letter  to the top as i was advised by a friend letters of complaint are never escalated "up" the tree but go to the top and they will pass it down but not before making sure something gets done. It was settled in a very timely and satisfactory manor. I should add we also took them to small claims over a breach of contract and won that too uncontested. But as i say many years ago.

On 4/17/2020 at 11:46 AM, DCGuy64 said:

I am posting this question on behalf of someone I was chatting with online who lives in Canada. My understanding is that MSC Canada is only offering FCC at this time, and that a refund is not possible until the end of 2021. Can anyone on here verify or dispute that? I'm trying to give the individual some hope that it might not take that long. (with the proviso that policies may change at any time). Thank you.

Sadly you understand correctly 😢 Yes here in Canada we who booked though MSC cruises Canada (we arent allowed to book through the US site unless we have a US TA) have been told no refunds only FCC at 125% if base fare. If FCC isnt used by December 31st 2021 then and only then will a refund start to  be processed. So almost 2 years before we will see our money returned.

Deleted

51 minutes ago, blcruising said:

I'm prepared to be added to the do not sail list, then. NCLs loss is Princess, Carnival,  Royal, and MSCs gain. 

Please be very careful before booking MSC unless you are in the US and just recently the UK. (US pax were offered a refund immediately, UK were not but this has since been changed). We booked with them for a cruise due to sail May. Its cancelled (obviously) but here in Canada there is no refund offered until December 31st 2021!!! We have tried disputing it with our c.c co. (MBNA) who wouldnt take it on as they said they would lose, as the reason the cruise was cancelled wasn't because MSC didn't want to sail but because they were prevented from sailing by government decisions ie reasons beyond their control. So right now we have to take the 125% fcc or wait 20 1/2 months before they even START to process a refund assuming they are even still in business. 

36 minutes ago, lastchamp64 said:

 That is a fair assumption. Perhaps there is truth in this!

No it was because the president asked them to 😉 see below

Just saw this on another cruise line group. I checked and it was actually posted by the President. Please no political comments please. Just passing along the source.

1 hour ago, cruisingator2 said:

At my request, effective midnight tonight, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC have all agreed to suspend outbound cruises for thirty days. It is a great and important industry – it will be kept that way!