NanWales

lovetravel1114, thank you for your insight,  started to relax a little in regard to sailing with MSC.   Last few cruises have been with Cunard, and to be honest the prices have gone up to such an extent, it does not feel like the service etc., you receive is worth the higher prices.   Did not realise they had shows like the cirque du soleil, we lived in Montreal for several years, which is the home of Cirque, and were lucky to see quite a few performances during that time, which were amazing.  We are expats, so cruises which offer more international cuisine, and service is something which has been our way of life for many years, my DH loves trying different foods, so more varied the better for him.   You will be able to recognize us disembarking the ship in Southampton, we will be the couple to too much luggage!   One of the benefits of driving down from Wales, no limits on what you can take.  

57 minutes ago, lovetravel1114 said:

One more thing! If you like 'cirque du soleil' type of performance, you must try 2 carousel productions on board. They are like mini version of cirque du soleil. Both are quite similar to each other but I watched both and like them all. Each show was about 15 pounds if you book on board, and 9 pounds if you pre purchase. This is the only show that you need to pay. 

Booked MSC Virtuosa sailing from Southampton July 1st.  It will be our first cruise with MSC, usually sail Cunard or Celebrity, have also cruised with Princess and Royal.  Decided on this cruise as a break before summer holidays with our grandsons.  Having read a lot of comments,  wondering if we have made a mistake, as many contributors to the MSC board here have such awful experiences.  Only managed to get my DH to agree to go as we have booked into the Yacht Club, which seems to be at a similar level as grills on Cunard or Retreat on Celebrity.  Just keeping fingers crossed our trip will not be anything like the experiences some have had.    Though I appreciate you tend to read about complaints more often than not on these forums.  Any comments greatly appreciated! 

Returned yesterday after a great cruise on QE, food in QG excellent, and crew were some of the best we have met.  The only thing in the 17days to cause friction in our suite was the internet connection,  DH paid for premium package as he needed to keep in touch with colleagues whilst on board.  We  have  sailed with Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, who's wifi is pretty good,  but sorry to say Cunard need to sort their internet out, it is the worst.   During any 24 hour period, there were many hours when he could not get a connection,  and when he did often the connection would just drop.  He did go to the pursers office, but had no real explanation as to why this was happening.  In the end he would wait until we were in port to go online.  One amazing incident though, in the middle of the med, when no mobile or internet available he would get offers on his iphone from Domino's Pizza UK, this happened several times, so perhaps Cunard  and other cruise lines could take advice from Domino's.  I would explain he has the app on his phone as our older grandchildren order a pizza as a treat when they stay with us!

We are booked on the 18th September cruise, you may  not be aware that its the week of the Southampton Boat Show, so traffic etc., will probably be worse than usual.  I believe the show is on until the 19th September.  We live in Wales and decided to book a hotel and drive down two days before.  We have always driven down one or two days prior to sailing, and on numerous occasions have hit delays.

Hello Hattie,

Been great following your recent voyage, really envious. DH and I are due to sail on the QM2 in March (Dubai to Southampton) seems a long way off at the moment We previously sailed on her two years ago. and sailed on QV a number of times. We really like Cunard compared with a number of other lines we have sailed with . You mentioned in one of your last posts you were flying into Cardiff, didn't realise you lived here in the land of rugby, and male voice choirs. Welcome home, hope it wasn't too cold when you arrived back.