Vill85

Looks great can't wait to be back on.

Maybe 2 can sleep in the same bed and booking a cabin for 4 will save money

Cruise lines won't allow more people to stay in a room than the stated room capacity.

When I have a bit more time and have the pc fired up I will copy a posted reply to my post on FB on this subject by a former MSC crew member who we met on Seaside at Xmas on his own cruise holiday.

 

He also bears out what has been said about how the charges are distributed.

Other cruise lines aren't even that secretive about where daily gratuity charges go, with Norwegian stating clearly that not all of it goes to crew members and goes to the company for 'crew enrichment'. So honestly it wouldn't surprise me if this were standard across the industry. Overall, given what MSC says on their website etc. about tipping, I'll just pay the gratuity and be done with it all.

Here's my hot take.

Specifically on MSC you are told that tipping is not the policy. I know some people like to do it and some people are more public about it than others. I guess it makes them feel good to know other people know they are tipping. Me personally I will pay the gratuities as I'm booking so it is included with the price. If they are given to the people great, and if not that is between MSC and the employee. As far as I'm concerned that's where my tipping stops. I don't tip anything beyond daily gratuities because it says not to and I don't tip for things generally. I feel like rewarding someone for doing their job, eh not really my responsibility. Anything not included in the bill is not something I'm worried about.

I would totally never use my vape in my room and on my balcony. In the unlikely situation that I would, I'd probably avoid doing it near the smoke detector in the room and blowing down and away from it. If I were to do it in, hypothetically of course, use one in a YC balcony on Divina, I wouldn't have be caught doing it at all either. ;) Just don't be dumb with it and you'll be fine.

Butler will pack clothes and everything else back into your bags at the end of the cruise, just like they will unpack at the beginning. Dirty or not, they use white gloves so it shouldn't be an issue.

is it known if you will be able to walk all the way around on the aft balcony cabins (like look directly back from the ship in front of the window?). Some images showed a divider.

I answered as many as I could with the amount of info available, hope it helps!

• Is the chocolate/coffee/creperia essentially the same on both Meraviglia and Seaside? Will there be chocolate fountains?
  
• I have separately heard about a “tube” slide and the “slideboarding” slide. Are these one and the same? I see the racing slides on one side of the ship, what looks like a standard,docile brown slide in the center, and what I assume is the slideboarding slide on the other side. The website mentions that there are 5 slides –if so, where is the 5th one?
  
• I see the term “ropes course” thrown around, but I think this is more of a play area – no harnesses. Is this anything more than a rope bridge / water cannons – can’t tell much from thevideo?
  
• Will the standard YC1 balcony have a lounger? No.
  
• What are the two separate sections aft of the ship on deck 18? Are these accessible? Those are balconies for Aurea balcony rooms.
  
• Are there typically adults only sections of MSC ships? Yes, the back pool is adults only, but it's not very heavily enforced.
  
• Will there be afternoon tea served in the main dining room? Yacht club? Only in Yacht Club on the Divina, not sure if Seaside will have it.
  
• I assume Cirque du Soleil is unique to Meraviglia and will not be on Seaside? It's not on Seaside, no.
  
• I think I read that the casino is smokefree? It is.
  
• I think the panoramic aft lifts will be express lifts (only decks 7 and 16)? Yes, but it will stop on other floors for Aurea suites. The forward lifts will be designated for YC? No, but they will have keycard access. Will they go to all floors or just the spa and 16-18? They will go to all floors.
  

That's not something an average cruise line would do for free, shows that they are trying to make a big dent in the American market once Meraviglia gets here.

It's definitely just random. Not to brag or anything (totally bragging), but my BF and I were upsold (so not really an upgrade, just a lucky deal) from a Fantastica Balcony to Yacht Club on Divina for only $250 extra. It'll probably never happen again.

Were all drinks available ship-wide? Or were the red stars excluded outside YC?

I think it was two or three cruises ago on Royal that we say a transgender photographer onboard. The company is definitely transgender friendly.

 

 

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I think it's important to not assume the gender of the employee just out of courtesy to them. Sometimes it can be quite triggering to someone if they are misgendered. Happy cruising.

I feel like lanyards are for lazy people. Why are people so against pulling a card out of their pocket when they want to make a purchase. Honestly it comes down to people feeling entitled, get a grip!