Mattnvick

1 hour ago, CruisingFox27 said:

Possibly because the sailing date and the storm are closer. More regular updates keeps the call centre call volumes down.

I thought there was something "brewing" excuse the pun for an update 5 hours after the last one. Seaside coming in a day early at 8am tomorrow anticipating POM to close and will set sail before that to a safe place. PAX can stay on or get off. Doubt they will be be back before Monday at the earliest. Totally sucks for European people flying in. Trying to find a hotel in Miami will be nigh on impossible. That's assuming the airport will even be open. 

Funny we were talking tonight saying when we lived in Europe (UK) we never gave a thought to hurricanes except when then sometimes came on the news. Certainly wouldnt have known about hurricane season and avoiding it for a cruise we would just have been looking at the summer holiday.

Now we live in Canada and track them all the time and know we wouldnt ever take the risk to cruise July to October.

So as promised yesterday MSC did a Dorian update at 1pm today. No changes to Seaside or Armonia but they are doing another update today at 6pm. 

Is this just because the storm is getting closer so the updates become more frequent?

Now that they have done away with the drinks vouchers for us personally i dont think the difference for guaranteed dining and possibly a higher deck is worth the extra you have to pay.

We always went Fantastica but our next one is Bella and unless we want an aft cabin on Divina or Meravilglia i cant see us ever going back to Fantastica.

On 8/5/2019 at 7:20 PM, mlbdude said:

We also witnessed several groups with their own music and speakers, first time we have seen that on MSC. 

Nice review . Thank you. The above i highlighted as we came across it for the first time on Seaside.

While im all for people enjoying themselves i think MSC needs to stamp on this bringing their own speakers and music.

 The group on Seaside had it so loud i actually thought it was coming from the ships speakers.  

Personlly i think it may lead to issues. What one person enjoys others may not and i dont think you should have to move away to a different area which some people may say is the answer. Everyone has a right to enjoy their cruise.

Latest from MSC

6 hours ago, Beamafar said:

That's very interesting, Vicky.  DH mainly drinks Heineken, so even the most basic package is enough for him.  I have more refined tastes, however (😁) which necessitates a higher-end package.  It would be perfect for us to just upgrade me.

I totally get that Bea 😀 and if i can get any more information i will pass it on. 

Matt has messaged the lady who says she has done it but hasnt yet sailed. I would say it would be fairly unusual as it seems pretty industry standard if one upgrades in the cabin eveyone has to. 

However, Im sure there are probably a lot of instances where one passenger would be happy with Easy and one prefer premium or premium plus. Be nice if you could decided and upgrade based on what actually worked for you. 

I imagine the reason  apart from the obvious almighty $ its too open to abuse sadly.

On 8/14/2019 at 6:31 PM, Beamafar said:

When I read something like that on here I just think "Yeah ... well best of luck with that onboard"!  

On a f/b group this came up a short while ago and someone said yes they went to a bar and just upgraded themself no questions asked about who else was in the cabin. Obviously you pay the 15%.  Maybe you just have to find thd right bar 😝.

Another member due to get on on Saturday upgraded just herself not her partner not sure if that was on line or through the call centre. Will try to find out and report back. Of course thay could be just another MSC glitch that actually went in someones favour.......might be the exception not the rule

6 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Right now many TA's are offering $100 obc for all 7 night cruises as part of 4th of July sales plus free grats and specialty dining. 

3 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Awesome! Especially since MSc has stated the $400 is fully refundable. IE- cash after sailing.. Great deal- congrats!! 

 

Add to that what my TA is currently offering in OBC ($175  which is also refundable).

Living in Canada but would like to book through the US (the prices are better than the Canadian site) who are all these great TA's?

1 minute ago, thetaro said:

You guys simply can't deny the fact that other cruise lines are doing a better job. Shaming other cruisers and shoving T&C on their faces don't change this fact. 

 

It would be karma when something happens to your cruise and you come to the board and be quoted the T&C like a bible. 

 

You will continue to get the short end of the stick if you don't try to fight for more customer protection. No cancelation, no refund of the deposit, mandatory DSC, the list goes on. 

I think we will just agree to disagree.

Also  i think you will find that those of us that have replied saying basically it is what it is (and we are by no means MSC cheerleaders , realists possibly) when/if as you seem to hope we have a bad cruise (that was classy btw....😏)  instead of coming to the board and "whining" we just get on with our lives and chalk it up to a bad experience.

It happens sometimes and its called life. We accept it and dont come out fighting mad looking to place blame and expecting compensation. Its bad for the stress levels 😉

45 minutes ago, sidari said:

You cannot apply another deposit to an existing booking!

Yes normally i would agree. But Sidari this is MSC! you could call and be told no or you could call (or even call back) and be told yes 😉😉😉

Calling MSC is like playing the lottery. Sometimes you win and sometimes you dont 😂 and also like the lottery even that is a business that makes money 😉

7 minutes ago, CruisingFox27 said:

 

The info has stated we can transfer our deposit to another booking, can this be an existing booking or does it need to be a completely new booking? Just wondering if we can transfer our deposit to another of our cruises? I suspect not, obviously but thought it worth checking if anyone had experience.

That's an interesting thought and only MSC will be able to tell you what they mean by it  😉

However i see where you are going with it and technically they should say "new" booking.  But as it didnt i would definitely be arguing my case to see if can be applied to an existing one. Good luck. 

10 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

remember the hurricane incident differently.  Can you please provide a reference indicating where "MSC did better for their guests than anyone else?"  I believe others were offering full refund and 50% future cruise credit while MSC only offered 25%.  Here is the press release: 

It wasnt Hurricane Irma to which i was referring. It was before that i think Harvey.

Even that one a few posts below mine you will Bea say how well they were treated when an hurricane occured.

 Re my reference, Port of Galveston was closed and the RCI board was lit up with how badly they were handling everything. Wouldn't cancel the next cruise due to sail but pax couldnt actually get to Glaveston because of air port closures and flooding. Couldn't tell pax on board what they were going to do and thus those people couldn't make plans etc etc. Carnvial didnt do too badly with their information and making decisions.MSC (I believe it was Divina)   took stock of the situation did a very quick trip into I believe Cozumel  got supplies, offered pax alternatives whether they wanted to stay or go and got the hell out of Dodge. Pax were extremely complimentary

You said please tell you how MSC did better than anyone else. Its not always about money or compensation as some people seem to think or need.

Sometimes its about actions good or bad. Sometimes MSC do better than others sometimes they don't. 

No one puts a gun to anyone's head to foce them to sail their cruise line. Its your choice. If you don't like what one does then you try another.

Cruising seems to be the worst thing where people jump up and down amd complain and expect "compensation". MSC fill their ships primarily with non Americans. Of the small % that do sail them you will get those who enjoy the  refreshing change and their way of doing business  and you will get those that don't.

Either way it wont actually hurt the. MSC bottom line and that's basically the main point for them as they run a business.

4 hours ago, evandbob said:

, sometimes by about $200 per fare.  With a "lesser" priced port now on the itinerary, the cruiseline fare should be lowered, or an equal amount of OBC granted.

 

Im not sure what point you are trying to make as this is EXACTLY  what they have offered. $400 per cabin OBC paid out afterwards for all or whatever portion you have left after the cruise.

18 hours ago, abbeytravelstheworld said:

For those of you that have done ruins tours from Costa Maya how doable would this be with a stroller? We had not planned to do the ruins but now we will end up with 2 stops at Costa Maya in our back to back we might look at it. We have a 10 month old with us. 

 If your stroller has fairly sturdy wheels i would say at least Kokumlich ruins are totally doable as long as you are ok with the 2 hour bus ride.

The only bit you couldn't do is climb to the masks together but could be done separately. Same with the palace. Have you thought of using a backpack carrier? 

7 minutes ago, Reds4life said:

Speaking of Armonia and the number of ships sailing out of Miami, looking at Summer 2020, only Seaside comes up as an option. Is this temporary or did they decide to pull out Armonia since Cuba is not an option?

Probably not worth their while to keep Armonia in the Carribean as she is older and only now really able to offer the standard Carribean route which given the choice most would go for the newer ships.

To me (hope you are reading this MSC) it would be now be an ideal opportunity having had Cuba taken away to take this ship  up to Seattle/Vancouver and do an Alaskan itinerary. 

9 minutes ago, Mitziismydog said:

Another thing to beware of is that Canadians cannot book transfers from ship to airport because the Canadians and Carnival have not signed the contracts yet. When you call Carnival US, they tell you to call the Canadian number. You call the Canadian number, and eventually, after a looooong wait, guess who answers?? The Americans! They are getting the overflow calls because the Canadians are overwhelmed and likely understaffed for the transition.  So, you tell the American you know they can't help because they've said so previously and ask to speak to the Canadians so they put you back in the queue and when you get through again eventually.... Guess who?? Another American!!  I finally (after about 4 days of this nonsense) ask to speak to a supervisor, and the lady comes back on and finally explains the part about the Canadians not having signed the contracts, so can't offer transfers.  So I say, let me get this straight..... Everyone else can book transfers, but not if you're Canadian, even though the Americans are still helping with the calls and booking? Yup she says.  I have all the sympathy for the poor employees dealing with the calls etc, but it's pretty horrible that the change to the Canadians was rolled out before they were ready. Geez, you'd think this was government, lol.  Rant over😁

Im confused - what has Carnival not signing a contract with Canadians have to do with a transfer for an MSC cruise?

21 hours ago, Jayhawk said:

Thanks! That sounds like a good recommendation. We'll be beached out by then, not as much fun as the classic cars tour though 😞 .

Any particular operators you'd recommend for a day trip?  (We don't do ship tours.) I'll head over to the CM page too.  🙂

Is there any particular  reason you dont do ship tours?

 We did an MSC tour of the Kohimlich ruins in Costa Maya in April. Its about a 2 hour drive and hence the reason we didn't want to go with a private operator (if there is an issue with a ship tour  the ship will wait).

They gave us water and a packed lunch. I think we were the only tour there. IThe ruins have a nice lot of shade and the tour guide was excellent.

Really enjoyed it and it was run extremely well and i think maybe $10 more than a private one. 

I see MSC cruises has posted the new itierary to replace Havana on the Cuba oops thread 

Kudos to them for doing that. Shows they monitor the board closely just a pity they didnt start a new thread as it may get "lost" after a few pages.

Next weeks cruise going to Costa Maya and the week after going to Key West.

3 hours ago, Beamafar said:

 

The same is indicated on both the UK and Ireland sites, Vicky.  Yet they're showing a 14 night from 2nd May (which would include the 7 night sailing on the 9th  🤔)

Oh Bea who the heck knows.......You could call MSC and be pretty certain they wouldn't.......😉

I know we are waiting to book the 9th (we had so much fun woth our friends a couple of weeks ago we decided to do it again and take all the kids for our 30th anniversary instead of just the 2 of us doing a food tasting Italian trip).

However we are flexible on dates and i think id be more concerned had we already booked it and found it "missing"  😀

20 minutes ago, Até said:

For me on the US site the May 16th, 2020 is gone also, but I do see that 4 day on the Canadian site.  It doesn't make a lot of sense, it would make more sense if it were a three or four day ending May 23rd.  That would indicate May 9th was changing to a 10 or 11 day.  Personally I'd be glad I wasn't booked already.  I hope it's not some odd early Summer charter.

Ugh i seriously hope its not a charter. Im just hoping its another of MSC's usual website anomolies.

I think it shows though they didnt use a new comptetent web builder for the new Canadian site 😂 just the same old same old

So tonight the May 9th 2020cruise on Seaside western carribean has disappeared completely.

They are however showing a 4 night cruise on the 16th to the Bahamas that i have never seen before but apparently there is nothing left except aurea balconies.

Oh my hope  this gets sorted soon. Have been  monitoring the May 9th cruise and waiting to pull the trigger. There were lots of room yesterday today there isn't even a cruise........

6 hours ago, mafig said:

Let us know, OK?

Will do but DH has taken it on as the booking is in his name. He says it wont be today. 

20 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I typed this in response to another thread, but thought it may be hijacking so I'll start my own thread for discussion about the size of ocean cay:

 

I'm a bit concerned about there being a YC area on Ocean Cay when it's all said and done simply due to size restrictions. In fact, I'm a bit concerned about the size of Ocean Cay even if MSC does not dedicate space to YC. According to MSC, Ocean Cay is only 65 acres. That's tiny. Teenie-tiny.

 

For comparison sake,  Half moon Cay (CCL) is 2,600 acres, Great Stirrup Cay (NCL) is approximately 270 acres,  Coco Cay (RCL) is 140 acres. Granted, these islands aren't entirely developed,  but even if the developed area is close to the total size of Ocean Cay, there isn't any wiggle room for people to spread out. Example, on Half moon cay, approximately 60 acres are developed, but there are an additional 9 miles of beach for people to spread out on (even if just walking/exploring). 

 

I recently returned from CocoCay on Anthem of Seas. Even thought the ship is slightly larger than Seaview (168 gt vs 153 gt respectively), they hold virtually identical amount of passengers at double occupancy (4132 vs 4180 respectively).  I would estimate that CocoCay has about half of it's 140 acres developed, maybe slightly less. If my logic holds true, that means the developed area of Coco Cay equals the total amount of area available on Ocean Cay (with no wiggle room).  Based on persnal experience, It's going to be super tight even without reserved area for MSC. 

 

If MSC reserves some area for YC, it couldn't be more than 10-15 acres could it (25%)? Taking the total amount of usable space down to about 50 acres for the remaining 4000 or so guests. My home sits on 10 acres. I can't imagine 150 YC guests stretching out on my lawn. Our cabin up-north lies is 100 acres. I can't imagine 4000 people fitting there either.

 

Of course, I'm just playing a numbers game that doesn't tell the whole story. Add to that, my calculations could be off so I welcome additional mathematicians to chime in.  Perhaps the space available on Ocean Cay is much more user friendly than the usable space on competition islands, which would make this discussion nothing more than a null hypothesis. However; it's been MSC's business practice to pack more people into less space (as identified by space ratios on all the new builds), so I do think space is going to be a restraint with or without a dedicated YC area. 

 

I'm headed to Labadee (RCL's little slice of Haiti) in a few weeks. It's 240 acres. We're coming in on an Oasis class which is significantly larger than any ship in the MSC fleet. I'm interest to see if it feels as crowded as Coco cay did. 

 

I've been following the development of Ocean Cay since MSC announced (4? 5? years ago). Getting close to the actual opening is exciting. The final product is anyone's imagination, but it's interesting to me and I thought it may be interesting to other cruise buffs :). 

 

Norwegians island Harvest Caye off of southern Belize is only 75 acres. I was there in February on the Getaway.

They have an area for only the Haven (i wasnt in the haven) but the island never felt small or constricted to me.

There was a beach, a pool, a wildlife area and zip line.

Although i wasnt too impressed with NCL i thought the private island was something they did really well.

I dont think you need to worry about the 6o acres in Ocean Caye. I think it will be beautiful. MSC takes a pride in their appearemce of their ships  i have no reason to believe the island will be any different.

Im looking fwd very much to going there

So we booked a cruise back  in March this year for a December 2020 cruise on Meraviglia.

We dont usually  book that far ahead but they had aft cabins available and on top of our 5% vouagers discount they were also offering a special 10% bellisima discount so 15% total. So we jumped on it.

This morning in our in box  an email thanking us for our booking 😏 is a new invoice with a new price. Its increased by US$87.22 so approx $120 Canadian. 

Shows no discounts given now at all but amounts dont equate to that. The new price is more than the 5% we would get with voyagers but less than the 15% origianlly applied. 

Sigh.......off to the phones i go lol. Will see what their "explanation" is.