MisterBill99

On 9/28/2023 at 10:24 AM, Hydrotx said:

Good to hear as I'll be in 16006 on my next cruise. 

Have you taken the cruise yet? I'm on deck 14 currently, but, 16006 just became available. I like the location, but am concerned that there might be a galley above it that would wake me early in the morning.  The other discussions here are about the balcony cabins, I believe.

6 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

I'm just curious why a cabin steward would even think to look in on a cabin more than once or twice a day.  Do some pax put out the "please clean room" tag/light multiple times?

You can put it out, but they're not going to service your room more than twice a day! I just think that she's confusing the room being serviced when they get back with constant servicing. As I said earlier, if I put towels on the floor before leaving for the day and then again when I was back before dinner, it might seem like it was being done constantly.

FYI, it appears that they are owned by Nationwide. The company answering questions here does not sell them, so I would not expect them to give you an answer. Here is a description of their focus from their website.

Detour is founded and operated by adventurers who live the lifestyle and understand the rewards and risks associated with experiential travel. 

Update -- ignore my "Hi Steve", I hadn't noticed the Q&A was with a different company this time.

Someone who was on the recent MSC cruise that got rerouted from Nassau, Bahamas to Canada the day before they sailed (due to bad weather) claimed that some people who were supposed to be on board had cancelled and had their insurance cover it. Is there any policy that would do this, other than utilizing the Cancel for any Reason coverage (which presumably would not be at 100% and not everyone has)?

Similar question for people who were supposed to go to Israel and had their itinerary changed. 

Thanks.

Hi, Steve. I'm wondering if there was any insurance that could have provided coverage for the people on the three-year cruise that got cancelled right before sailing recently. Would it even have been something that could be covered since it was (supposed to be) so long? 

Relevant article I just got sent from Cruise Critic.

How Often Is Your Cruise Ship Stateroom Cleaned?

"Even though twice-daily stateroom cleaning has long been the standard in the cruise industry,"

47 minutes ago, lilalila said:

Black has been renamed Diamond.  Due to COVID MSC pushed out their loyalty expiration dates (yours seems to have gotten double the amount of time).  If you are showing Diamond with an expiration of 10/2027 I wouldn't try do anything with your loyalty term or ask any questions. 

I figured that the 12/23 date was my Covid extension, since it should have expired in 2021 (plus I think it only should have been extended to 2022). Obviously, I am not going to do anything if the date stays as 2027.  I'm wondering if anyone else who was supposed to have expired last month also got a surprise extension.

I do have a cruise booked for March, so it would make sense for them to have extended it to then. But that doesn't seem to be something that MSC typically does (i.e., things that make sense).

On 12/17/2023 at 9:02 AM, shipgeeks said:

Silly me; I assumed that cruisers are now more aware that MSC is not a clone of royalnorwegiancarnival.  I

Funny, I must have missed that part of their constant TV commercials.

Also missed the part that warns prospective customers that we're a budget cruise line, so keep your expectations low.

4 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we've never returned to our cabin to find the towel still dirty or the bed unmade. This has been our consistent experience over the past so many years. Perhaps we've been fortunate to have diligent stewards. During the first few cruises, we were pleasantly surprised by how promptly and efficiently they managed to clean up the cabin. And later on, we thought that's a standard practice till this time.

And if you use towels in the morning before you leave for breakfast and in the afternoon before you leave for dinner, then the usual twice-daily service they do in the morning and before bed (typically starting around 6pm) in the evening would explain what you're seeing. Are you claiming that it was made in the morning, and you came back to the cabin around lunch but then went out again and the room was serviced three times a day?

You made a few valid points in your post, but your insisting that some things that make no sense are actually true is making your whole story suspect.

Just now, michelle.zhang.90 said:

This is what our fellow cruisers shared with us. It's fine if you have your own judgment. Personally, I've never heard of such things before, but I've also never encountered such a dreadful cruise experience. For me, it seems entirely plausible.

Except that the ship would have refused to let them leave with their luggage if they were going to incur a fine.

On 12/30/2023 at 7:22 PM, michelle.zhang.90 said:

We chat with people and found there were some guests flew back home in the first port due to dissatisfaction of this cruise.

Since someone else commented on this, I figured that I would as well. This sounds extremely unlikely, since it would have meant they left after only two days and they would have received a hefty bill from MSC, who would have been fined for violating the PVSA by allowing them to embark and disembark at different US ports without a distant foreign port in between. I suppose they could have left in Nassau, but it still seems unbelievable unless someone was sick.

6 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. What I mentioned occurred on every single time during our previous cruises with Princess, Norwegian, and MSC. We've never returned to our cabin to find wet towels on the floor and an unmade bed, not even once.

I've never heard of cabins being made up more than twice a day. Maybe the timing just worked out for you, and it seemed like they were doing it constantly.

18 minutes ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

A previous comment on this post indicated a decline in YC. I would be so mad if I invested a considerable amount in YC and received unsatisfactory service. I highly recommend staying updated on recent reviews of Meraviglia. Frankly, it seems like the management no longer cares customer satisfaction. The captain does not look like a captain, really, more like a chef. We cruised with seaside in 2018 as well. If you think back then is bad, you will hate Meraviglia today without any question.

Well, we're in an inside YC cabin so it wasn't that expensive, certainly not compared to the balcony suites. Everyone tells you how great MSC is, but when you come back to complain, they tell you "Well it's a low-price line, what did you expect?" I even saw someone post that when there was a complaint about YC, saying it's not fair to compare it to a high-end cruise line. Funny thing is. MSC's description of YC doesn't say "but we're a low-price line, so take our claims with a grain of salt".

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

We sailed MSC once back in 2018 and did the status match with Celebrity. I thought it was to Black level but when I checked their website last year it was showing me at Diamond, with an expiration date of 12/31/23 (which was later than it should have been). We have a cruise booked for March, and I was thinking we would not have status (not a huge deal since we are doing YC), but just logged in and see that I am still diamond with a 10/2027 expiration. Has anyone else experienced this? I figured I would have to try applying for the status match again, which I understand is supposed to be a one-time thing but have read others say that they were able to do.

10 minutes ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

That sounds good too.  Over the last four years, my children have grown, prompting us to shift from cruising to exploring other countries during our travels. We used to cruise twice a year now once a year. If all cruises are going down at some point, we probably will cruise less. I heard Celebrity and Princess are both still very good which left cruising as an option for us. It's just too sad to see how bad MSC goes now.

Celebrity has gone down too, at least in food. But it's still better than MSC. We are trying Virgin next month; the food is supposed to be excellent. But it won't work for you since it's no kids.

Trying MSC Meraviglia in March, but in the YC. We did the Seaside in 2018 and hated it, but YC was the only thing that could get me back on the ship. But now I'm reading here that it's gone downhill as well on Meraviglia. I guess I'll see if that's also a one-tme thing.

2 hours ago, michelle.zhang.90 said:

so sorry about that, especially after how much you paid for YC. Time to pause cruising for a while.

Don't you mean "Time to pause cruising MSC for a while"?

On 12/26/2023 at 4:50 PM, cantgetin said:

The expiration date for status match has changed so many times that I can't even keep track of it.....maybe 5 times....?

Reminds me of the Holland America shareholder perk offer. It always has a one-year expiration and  people think it's going to expire, but they keep extending it.

7 hours ago, cantgetin said:

That will definitely be a plus for some people

 

And a negative if one of your party doesn't like the hammock.

I was wondering if Virgin has Friday night passenger-led Jewish Sabbath services? Not asking if a Rabbi is on board, obviously they would not, but other lines have a meeting room booked, and they put it in the schedule. The room then has prayer books and challah and wine. 

On 12/13/2023 at 2:48 PM, FFMilesJunkie said:

Status match is ending Dec 31. Don't put it off! 

They've extended it through 2024.

On 11/25/2023 at 10:47 AM, tbmrt said:

Just checked google and it says Jose Enrique is permanently closed!

 

Wow, you're right! Looks like it happened last month with no advance notice (or cancelling existing reservations) according to comments on their social media page. I wonder what happened? 

31 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

My only purpose for bringing this up is as an example of something that was never taxable before but now is.  Tax rules change every year.  The only iffy, maybe is if you sign up for a new credit card and get a sign-up bonus that is paid out in cash & does not require any spending in X amounts of days.  Rare, I know but it must've happen as the IRS has rules for it.  At least that is what I was able to discern from the 3 links I posted. Not sure if you looked at them.

 

Honestly, the tax implications of using a few hundred dollars  of BOA RC rewards when booking a cruise is something I'll never think about.

There will be tremendous pushback against any change that would make credit card rewards taxable. And I've been doing credit card rewards for a long time and cannot remember seeing an offer that did not require a minimum spend to get the sign-up bonus.

And FYI, you might want to check those sites you referenced to see what they say about cruise line credit cards. Here's one from The Points Guy which explains why you can do better with other cards.

Should you get a cruise line credit card? Here's a closer look - The Points Guy

I just wanted to say that this is a rare case where this credit card is not a poor choice. You can easily do better than the 1% it offers on everyday purchases and 2% on cruise line purchases. And you can get it back in cash instead of having to wait to redeem it on a cruise.

1 hour ago, Cigar King said:

I'll bet the payment needs to post with BoA before the 10th.  I'd make it a week early just to give myself some wiggle room.

This is incorrect. The purchase date is what matters. I just wouldn't do it on a weekend.