Hlitner

We noticed that in the review. Personally, I see advantages to the MSC system (we have done it) because they expedite folks through the check-in process and have them wait in a large lounge next to the ship. We just sit there, drink champagne, and wait for our butler to escort us aboard. I do not see an advantage to being in a small lounge outside the port. Hank

We have done it without missing a meal :). A few years ago we were on a long HAL TA cruise that ended in Harwich, England, We disembarked after breakfast, got in our reserved van (which we shared with another couple doing the same thing) and drove directly to Southampton where we boarded the QM2 for the return voyage to the States. We were on the QM2 in time for lunch, so no missed meals :). We joked about that day since we did not have time to spend any money in England (other than paying for our transportation). We have also posted that we have, multiple times, done round trip cruises to Europe with varying time between the two cruises. For us, it is the best of both worlds since we get two nice TA voyages and some time on land (this has varied from a few days to a few months). We often take a TA repositioning cruise from the USA to Europe in the spring, and always look to see if there is a good option for a return voyage. Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. This coming year we could not find a reasonable return voyage that worked for our land itinerary, so our return is via air. The only underlying issue is that we cannot spend more than 90 days (out of 180) in the Schengen zone, so this is a limitation on our independent land travel (unless we leave the Schengen countries and go to a place like Montenegro). Hank

I think the Schengen issue has not been accurately addressed. The current rule (for those of us with USA Passports) is that you can spend no more than 90 days in any 180 day period. Once you reach that 90 day limit you must leave the Schengen zone for at least 90 days before returning (for a new 180/90 day cycle). Hank

Princess must be looking to compete with MSC :). If you are in MSC's Yacht Club (a suite ship within a suite area) you check-in at a white tend right outside the terminal. From there, you are escorted right through security (no lines) and to a large lounge inside the terminal (unlike Princess, MSC does provide sparkling wine/mimosas and some nice bakery snacks. When they are ready to board, some of the Butlers escort folks right onto the ship (you walk through and past the lines) where you have reserved elevators to whisk you up to the Yacht Club's lounge. Hank

You could just turn on the tap or get all you want in the Lido (where it is run through a charcoal filter). But if you must, some distributors and markets sell water in a can.

We would have agreed with the sentiments exprssed in this thread until our recent 18 day cruise on the new Explora Journey 1 (Explora Journeys Cruise Lines). For those not familiar, this is a new luxury line, in the process of building six 900 passenger ships. It is a wholly owned company of the MSC folks which means they have very deep pockets, are privately owned, and are not beholden to a board of directors or bankers. The Aponte family, has made it clear that this line will stress luxury, quality, and very high quality cuisine. Their ship does not even have a MDR, but rather has 4 sit-down restaurants, an expansive upscale lido, and a small venue that features cuisine from Michelin Starred guest chefs. While we had some issues with the EJ product, the cuisine was amazing and at a level we have not experienced on any other cruise line. DW and I found each of their dining venues to be quite amazing in that they all had very high quality. While not everything was perfect, it was the first cruise ship where we would have been fine visiting any of these restaurants on land. I mention EJ1, because I think they have essentially tossed out a challenge to the luxury cruise industry. The Luxury market is very competitive, and we are hoping that this new cruise line starts a positive trend. Seabourn has already made some major changes (no way to know if this had anything to do with the new EJ competition) and we shall see if other lines follow suit. As to the mass market lines, we agree that the trend (in cuisine) has been downhill for many years. DW and I cruise many different lines, and not a single mass market line has impressed us (in terms of cuisine) for many years. It is almost like they are racing against each other to see who can cut-back the most...in the shortest period of time. Last spring when we spent 6 weeks on the Westerdam, there was lots of talk (at the bars) about cut-backs. While a few of us thought the MDR food was better than we expected, we heard nobody say they would be willing to go to a land-based restaurant and pay for those meals. While we can all agree that food/cuisine is subjective, I doubt if many would flock to a MDR quality restaurant..on land. Hank

Going to the Greek Islands, late in the season, does have its pros and cons. The main pro is that the crowds will be much smaller (although that huge ship provides enough of its own crowd) and you will certainly avoid the sweltering heat that can make the summer season very uncomfortable. The downside is that on Santorini and Mykonos there will be some closures of cafes and shops (there will also be some places open). Kusadasi should be fine, but we would suggest booking a private tour/guide well in advance since there will be fewer guides available that time of the year. And when it comes to Kusadasi we strongly recommend a small private tour...and not a large group cruise tour. Make sure your tour of Ephesus includes a visit to the Terrace Houses (an extra entrance fee and not always part of large group tours). Our "go to" tour company in Kusadasi is Ekol (this company will also provide tours in Istanbul...if desired). Hank

Getting from the train station to Moll Aldossat via public transit would be a real pain....if carrying luggage. In such a case, we suggest making your day a lot easier by simply grabbing a taxi at the station. The local taxis do use meters (its the law) and its an easy drive between the train station and port. Hank

Finding a driver/guide in Le Havre, to go all the way to Rouen, is not likely. Even if you did find such a person, you would pay many hundreds of Euros. My suggestion is to simply take the train, from Le Havre to Rouen, and arrange to meet a guide in Rouen. Rouen is also a city that can be done DIY with the help of a guide book or downloading local info. We have walked from the station into the heart of town with no problem. If you do not get any specific tour guide recommendations you can always use a third party site such as the popular "Tours By Locals." Arranging to have a local guide meet you at the train station is always an option. Hank

Delos is essentially a non inhabited island just off the coast of Mykonos. There are no villages/towns and the tour is all about the ruins. Hank

Ok, so I guess you condone this kind of behavior on the part of your chosen cruise line. So you have no problem if a line overbooks (substantially) and routinely denies boarding to anyone who happens to show up at a port. Lets put this in proper perspective That ship has over 2000 cabins. Folks that book those cabins are required to pay, in advance, and are not entitled to any refund if they fail to show-up for the cruise. If the ship was entirely full, why would the cruise line need to sell more cabins than they have? Any no shows has paid and is not entitled to a refund.. But RCI is obviously selling cabins they do not have! That is simply greed. There is no reason for any cruise line to oversell cruises! The sad thing is that RCI is depending on some no shows, RCI will keep what those folks paid, and they will also sell those same berths to others. The cruise line is simply selling the same product more than once! Some would call that fraud. The cruise line would say it is good business? Hank

You assume that everyone has travel insurance. Another issue is that many cruisers are still among with working and take valuable time off for their vacations. To then have a cruise line say, oops sorry, is not a nice thing for somebody who may have used their entire vacation for that cruise.

Are you serious? What if a couple had flown 10,000 miles, to Brisbane, for that cruise? Perhaps they paid thousands of dollars for their air.

When someone asked us how we can afford to cruise over 100 days a year my quick answer was that we never go in the casino :). Hank

Having done back to backs in many places (US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, etc) it is safe to say that turn around day procedures vary depending on the country, port and cruise line! Our turn around days in Canada (in both Quebec City and Montreal) have been relatively simple with no major hassles. In the USA, there is the silly "zero out" policy which makes the process a royal pain for those that want to stay on the ship without spending a few hours ashore. In most other places we have had few issues, although the UK can be a real hassle (even worse than in the USA). As to the cruise lines, some will issue a cruise card for the entire voyage (assuming one has the same cabin) while others issue a new cruise card for each segment. And it is the same with accounting. Some lines will close out the on board account after each voyage/segment while others just carry it over like one long voyage. Hank

We have boarded both Celebrity and Princess (numerous times) when cabins were not available until after 2pm. The biggest fiasco was on one Silhouette cruise when most of the cabin keys did not function. They eventually had to set up a few desks, around the ship, to distribute new cabin keys and many of us were not into our cabins before 4pm...unless we could find the cabin stewards and convince them to open the cabin door (but we still had no keys). We think the best line for getting folks into their cabins, early, is HAL. On the other hand, we have an upcoming Princess cruise (next week) that has a very large group aboard (a major auto club). Large groups can be booked onto just about any mass market ships and are all too common on 7 day Caribbean cruises. Hank

Missed that part. We routinely cruise on everything from 400 passenger luxury ships to 4000 passenger big ships. While we enjoy all of our cruises, there is something very special about being on smaller vessels that is lost on the huge ships. There is a reason why nearly all the true luxury ships carry less than 1000 passengers. Hank

This thread (and some others) are causing me a little concern. For decades, we have heard the usual "O is a Premium Line" from one particular "O" fan/poster and finally got around to booking 35 days on the Vista. Now we are reading threads that are less than complementary about various aspects of "O" and hope we have not made a mistake in finally booking this line. We are flexible with dining (late is fine, shared tables also OK) but would not be happy being rushed or pushed out of a dining venue at 9:30...after the ship encourages us to make a late reservation. Makes very little sense and is "low class." Hank

Makes me smile as we have spent our share of time in Barbados (on our own). Walk out of the port and you can simply get a taxi to take you to the airport (for a lot less than 120 Eur. I think the fare for a taxi is about $40 US (about 37 Euros). Cruise line transfers (not just on EJ) seem to be akin to licensed theft :). Hank

While we agree that using a cruise ship as a low cost way to "see the world" is not practical, we do understand the sentiment. Most large cruise ships tend to have limited itineraries, which best fits their business plan model and the ability of places to even accept huge ships. Traditionally, the most exotic itineraries (without lots of repeating) have been done by small to medium size ships. As to your list, consider that MSC does not currently operate in Asia, most of Africa, New Zealand, etc. Their current operations are centered in Europe and, to a lesser degree, in Florida. Celebrity and Princess do operate in many parts of the world, and they both have relatively large ships. Holland America also has a long history of worldwide operations with interesting itineraries, and their newer ships are a good compromise in size (between huge and small). Cunard also has some terrific longer itineraries, and if one books one of their lowest category inside cabins, the cost is reasonable. But as a life long world traveler, I would caution that wanting to see the "world" is best done on land (with perhaps some cruises in the mix). Consider that a large majority of Europe, Asia, and Africa and not within range of port days :). While we love to cruise (and do it about 100 days a year) we also have enjoyed our extended land trips (often via rental car). I do not know if the OP has much experience with longer cruises, but we would strongly suggest trying a longer cruise (i.e. over a month) to see if that lifestyle is something that you find satisfying, We have been on many longer cruises and met many folks who realize that being on a ship for weeks or months is not quite what they had expected. Many folks do not like the many consecutive sea days that often are part of long exotic cruises. We once took a TransPacific cruise where 12 of the first 14 days were at sea (the only intervening port was Honolulu). Many on that cruise were restless/unhappy with that many sea days...while others (including us) did not even care about getting off the ship in Hawaii. Hank

Maybe yes, maybe no :). Many folks (including us) have unlocked iPhones and we actually modify all the factory settings at the time we activate our specific cell phone provider. One can certainly take a chance that everything is set up the way you would prefer, or one can be a bit cautious and simply check your own settings. On iPhones, if you have "Cellular Data" turned on you get some additional options for data roaming. And this is where some folks have gotten themselves very nasty cell phone bills (from their own provider) because they were not techie enough to understand that "data roaming" can be very expensive if one is traveling on a ship or internationally. On iPhones (and I do not speak to Androids) keeping "Cellular Data" turned off should avoid any possibility that you get nailed by "data roaming" fees. Also keep in mind that Apple is constantly modifying the iPhone software so what we have today may well change tomorrow :(. I am still trying to adjust to some of the changes to the latest IOS 17 changes. The reality is that as the software gets "smarter" we need to also get smarter. Tough for we seniors. Hank

It shows up on my phone (in the upper right) as "Cellular at Sea." But the bottom line is that if you have doubts (and related anxiety) just wait until you are docked or at anchor. We all have our own level of comfort and/or risk tolerance. We do have one more suggestion (for everyone). In your phone settings you have the option to turn off "Cellular Data." On iPhones this is under "Settings, Cellular" and then at the top you can turn off the slider for "Cellular Data." On Androids it can vary and I have no expertise with those phones. By turning off the Cellular Data option, the phone will not download apps or other data from Cell Towers, All data downloads are only done through WiFi. When you hear about these tales of folks getting huge cell bills after international travel, it is sometimes caused by their phones downloading data from cells which are not covered by their provider plan. Hank

Like your wife, we turn off airplane mode when we are close to shore (within about 10 miles). It is a simple matter to determine if my phone is connected to a shore-based provider (which costs me nothing since we have T-Mobile) or the ship's Cellular at Sea. If the latter I quickly turn on airplane mode. Ships generally turn off their cell tower (i.e Cellular at Sea) when they get about 10 miles from shore. Hank

To us, this is a fabulous topic :). We used to have the same debate, and then we started cruising in both the Yacht Club and also on luxury lines. We find things we like about both and will likely continue to book luxury lines, some Yacht Club, and even a few mass market lines. It is safe to say we just love to be on cruise ships. There are pros/cons about small luxury ships and large ship within a ships. On MSC, we actually enjoy going out to be "with the masses" and enjoying all the various entertianment options that only exist on very large ships. On the luxury lines, we have really enjoyed our fellow passengers, the terrific space ratios, and laid back atmosphere. The small ships (we love the 450 passenger Seabourn vessels) are also great when visiting ports. \ No question that the ship within a ship is a big development in cruising. In a sense it is a throw back to the olden days when "liners' had 3 or more classes. We think it makes sense because folks can choose what level best suits their budget and wants. The irony is that it is the luxury lines where there is little class distinction. Hank

When we were on EJ, back in Oct, DW suggested (to one of the "suits" from Geneva) that they refer to the "Conservatory" as the "Aquatic Immersion Experience." The "suit" liked the suggestion and said he would pass it along. I do not think he even realized we were teasing...which is frightening. Hank