MisterBill99

7 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

You are wrong. People not book MSC "because it´s cheap", people (like me) book them, because they love the product. A cruise line can never survive with just being cheap, that´s something that works for airlines, but not for a ship one spends a whole week or more. 

I did not say that everyone who loves MSC does so because it's cheap. I said that some people put up with the issues because it's cheap (many will post "well, it's a cheap cruise line, what did you expect" when people complain after their cruise). Many others obviously have no problems. The OP here clearly did and so did we.

15 hours ago, JT1962 said:

People either love or hate MSC. I’ve had mostly good experiences on the 9 cruises I’ve had with them in the last 30 months. Luckily, there are many other cruise lines to choose from.

We sailed MSC back in 2017 and swore we'd never do it again. We went again last month in a Yacht Club inside cabin and it was a completely different experience. We'd definitely go back, but only in YC. It's a completely different experience. I know there are many people who love MSC, we ran into several of them in elevators on our cruise. Good for them. And there are many who accept the problems because it's cheap. That's fine, too. But not us. 

1 minute ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Just remember using FBC vs. the airline has one benefit- payment later and one possible benefit - cheaper.

Compare that to the restrictions that have been discussed in many posts including seat selection,  rescheduling difficulty and a myriad of restrictions that come with booking with a consolidator instead of the airline or a TA.

 

Well, the agent actually got my seats assigned when I booked, so I avoided that problem (this time). There are benefits to doing it both ways. I will check prices close to final payment and decide whether to book on my own or stay with Celebrity. It's unfortunate that they're no longer the same price as the airline.

18 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Good point--you are right.  I had it in my head that you paid the fee as soon as you reserved your flight.

No, that's the thing -- they seem to be hiding it in the price of the ticket.

5 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Presumably this is not refundable and it may help address people who book to hold the flight and then cancel before final payment.

Given that it's not broken out, I can't see why it isn't refundable. They didn't make me pay it upfront when booking my flights that are not due until final payment.

Maybe I'll file a low price guarantee claim and see what they tell me, whether they tell me that it's because of the fee.

2 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Yesterday, I found this flyer published by Celebrity: Flights by Celebrity Flyer 

 

It contained one single lonely FAQ:

 

As opposed to this page from 2019, which says

Our Lowest Airfare Guarantee means your clients get the best value in air travel with 24 hours to find a lower price, with ABSOLUTELY NO BOOKING FEES. Benefits no other cruise line offers

celebritycorporatekit.com/content/uploads/2019/06/AirCelebrity_Flyer_Corp_and_Incentive.pdf

I booked flights for my upcoming Celebrity cruise today, and the price was $20 more per person than what I was seeing on the airline's site. Since Celebrity has a low price guarantee, I figured that I would file a claim to get 110% of the difference back as OBC, as it their policy. In going through their FAQ to figure out how to file a claim, I came across this item, which is new to me. And it's definitely a change from how it used to work because their old promotional material said that there were no booking fees for using FBC. Does anyone know when this changed? They do not list it separately on the invoice so I guess it's part of the fare.

So basically, since the price difference was $20 and their fee is $25 (international flight), I guess that they were $5 cheaper than the airline. I don't want to book it myself at this point because the cruise is not for another six months and I do not want to end up with $5k in nonrefundable tickets.

It's on this page: FAQs: Booking a Cruise + Flight with Us | Celebrity Cruises and here's the item:

On 3/13/2024 at 7:49 PM, kaysha2004 said:

There is no baggage benefit for booking your flight through Celebrity.  You'll pay whatever the airline charges.  Take caution, they usually book you on the worst itinerary with long layovers and multiple stops.

I'm not sure when you last booked airfare with Celebrity, but that hasn't been the case for over a decade. Yes, if you had an airfare included fare where they picked your flights you were at their mercy, but as others have said, you select your own flights, and you pay whatever the price is for those flights.

14 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I often won't eat a full entree, having had gastric sleeve surgery several years ago. When I have gone to Butcher's Cut, I have been allowed to swap out my entree for a second soup/salad/appetizer on two occasions. You might be able to ask about swapping out your dessert for a second soup/salad/appetizer.

 

You are correct that ribeye is not included on the BC tastings menu.

Wow, how generous of them to allow you to get a $15 appetizer instead of a $40+ entrée. Hopefully you're just using your free Diamond meal and didn't actually pay for a dining package, since it would be very poor value if you did.

5 hours ago, Back to school said:

Delta promotion bar tab April 7 expired,  interested for dates.

Huh?

12 hours ago, rebeccac said:

24 hours

Well, it's odd that the website said that the deposit was due by the 17th, and I had initially been holding a different date, and it lasted longer than 24 hours. Maybe TA courtesy holds are held longer than those made by sailors themselves.

In any event. I paid the deposit, so I did not test out if the date was accurate.

My TA made a VV reservation for me today (Wednesday). The email says, "Your Puerto Rican Daze & Caribbean Nights booking is on hold for 24 hours" but when I look at the booking in the app, it says that the deposit is due by 3/17 at 11:59pm, which is Sunday night.  So, which is the actual deadline for the deposit to be made and not have the booking cancelled, 24 hours (Thursday), or Sunday?

The cruise is not until 2025 (nor is it the reduced-price balcony that requires full payment up front), so it doesn't fall under the must be paid in full at booking rule.

BTW, I read a comment today from someone who was on this cruise, and they DID get to Nassau early, at 6:30am. And they were allowed off the ship several hours before 11am (not sure of the exact time). So obviously the comments here about their not being allowed to dock early were incorrect. They also got $28 back per person, presumably for the port fees (although I find it odd that they have to pay it for their own island). Of course, when Royal missed their private island due to weather guests got $50, but it's more than I expected from MSC since in the past they did not refund missed port fees, and I did not get any money back when we missed Grand Cayman on Seaside.

3 hours ago, RICHARD@SEA said:

Anything that cuts time in Nassau / Bahamas is a good thing for all onboard!!!

While I would agree for myself and for those who have been there many times, there are people who walk to the beach or do an all-inclusive or just want to get off the ship after an unexpected sea day and shop, and for them, arriving at a possible 9am instead of a 11am would have given them more time at the beach, since the 11am time is already much later than other ships.  And they weren't very far away, so had they not sailed all the way north, they could have easily gotten there earlier. 

As for schedules and time between ships mentioned above as the reason why they couldn't arrive earlier than planned, according to the port schedule three ships arrived at 7am, one at 8am and nothing else until Meraviglia at 11am. It just seems like something nice they could have done for passengers who were upset over missing Ocean Cay the day before (and yes, I know what the contract says, and it wasn't their fault because of the weather, spare me).

14 minutes ago, tymike said:

Or....they could offer a full bar in the theatre itself and let everyone order what they actually want!

I guess that would happen in an ideal cruise world!  

It does on other lines. Just not on MSC. Which means that MSC is not an idea cruise world, I guess.

Actually, I should clarify that Virgin did not have a bar in their theater, but they had a cart right outside the entrance. Maybe other lines do similar. Celebrity and Royal have bartenders roaming the theater who you can order from.

On 3/7/2024 at 7:10 PM, NewAtSea2024 said:

Yes. That is the document. My question was "What does it mean when they say "non alcoholic cocktails", "Fresh Fruit and Protein Cocktails", "Flavored Water", "wide range of hot drinks?"

 

Are they mixing bar drinks with those you can get at the buffet? Is Specialty Coffees included? Bottled water?

Buffet drinks are free for everyone, so they would not be listed as included in a drink package.  The hot drinks include coffees (what else would it be?) Yes bottled water is included in th package.

Your original post asked, ""non alcoholic cocktails"? Would that include virgin frozen drinks?" and it seems pretty obvious to me that it is. You can find bar menus online, where they list the non-alcoholic beverages available (look at the virgin drinks section). This site will probably answer many of your questions: MSC Bar Menus and Drink Prices 2024

Flavored water is presumably bottled flavored water like vitaminwater brand stuff. I do not see that listed on the menus.

1 minute ago, tymike said:

Re: the Carousel shows and the drinks.....

I was on a B2B very recently and the first show I tried the 'included' drink.   Nope....didn't like it.

The next show I just brought my own from the casino bar with no problem at all.

 

Have a great cruise!

The problem is that you're still paying for the cr*ppy drink. They should offer it at a lower price if you have the beverage package.

5 hours ago, Frequent_Cruiser said:

There is indeed a mentioning of “A surcharge of $5 for second entrée or more applies” on the menu after the regular entrees. It appears that the surcharge would apply to all additional regular entrees. 

Thanks, that's the version I had seen, and the $5 footnote applies to the + on the Entrees header. The asterisks on individual items are the typical "Eating undercooked food may be unhealthy" warning.

1 hour ago, Beachin2 said:

We are 0 for 6 at CC.  Have been by there - but have never been on the island.  Those misses were in the days before they turned it into an amusement park though.

Was that before or after they built the dock? And the whole island is not an amusement park. There is a kids play area, but there's also a very nice pool (no charge) and lots of beach.

1 hour ago, wetterthanwater said:

 

I was seated with people with a drinks package on my recent cruise on Euribia and I didn't have one. None of us changed our table.

But presumably they were not linked to your reservation, it was just random. So, like I said they appear to enforce it before you get on the ship and then don't care once you're onboard.

2 hours ago, Frequent_Cruiser said:

Day 1

Thanks for posting. I am curious to see the images of at least one of them since there seems to e some difference of opinion on social media on whether the $5 second entrée surcharge applies to all entrées or just some of them which are marked on the menu (on an earlier scan I saw, people were confusing the "item may be undercooked" asterisk with the second entrée surcharge flag). . But I can wait until Sunday.

5 hours ago, Hydrotx said:

See you in YC.  Looking forward to it myself this weekend. 

We'll be in the lounge and sundeck (when we go under the bridge) for sail away wearing Mardi Gras beads. Come say hello.

I haven't seen any recently, but will be on the ship starting Sunday and will try to capture them, even though we'll be in YC

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

I was booked on a cruise with several friends in different cabins. All but one of us had the Easy Plus drink package. I was NOT able to link our bookings with that one passenger prior to sailing, but once we were onboard, I was able to get him moved to our table.

OK, so their system enforces it.. until you get onto the ship.

You're not allowed to share drink packages.

Also, I've read that MSC will not seat people with drink packages at the same MDR table as people without them (which I usually think is a pretty stupid policy). So, you're going to run into a problem if only one adult has it, unless you eat at the buffet every night (or specialty dining).