MisterBill99

3 minutes ago, luckyinpa said:

 

i always wondered how much commission they do get since my TA gives me 10 percent ish across most suites i've booked on a few different cruise lines. i just assumed he gets at least 20 and gives me half.

Never thought much about it, but I think that it's less, and I'm sure that it varies by line. This particular TA was offering much more percentage-wise for YC than they were for non, maybe they had a deal with MSC.  With Royal and Celebrity, I can routinely get 10% from a popular online agency.

Maybe it's like car dealers, where you pay what you think is the invoice price, but in reality there's more than they are getting on top of that.

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

 I simply log into my account on the MSC  Cruise USA webbsite using my email and password, go to "Cruise Details" and it shows me OBC from MSC ..

 

Thanks, not showing for me, so I will ask the TA. They're giving me over 10% OBC on their own, which is very generous for MSC (who none of my regular TA's wanted to deal with because they apparently don't pay much in commissions), so even without the $100 from MSC I'm doing OK, but I would like to get it.

21 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

None of our OBC from MSC or our TA ever showed up ahead of our cruise.  On the second day of our cruise on Seaside, I stopped by the concierge to check if the OBC had posted...it was there by at least day two.

Interesting, since the OP here seemed to be saying that theirs had shown up  on the website, and presumably that was before the cruise.

On 10/10/2022 at 10:20 AM, mafig said:

I see my $600 obc is listed as non-refundable on MSC's site.  When I booked this cruise my TA said it was refundable.  I can manage to spend it, or whatever's left cash it out in the casino, but I now wonder if this obc really came from the travel agent or if it came from MSC.

Anyone know?

When does your OBC show up online? I just booked and am supposed to get $100 from MSC for their current promotion and $350 from my TA. I'm sure that the latter won't show up until very close to the cruise, or even not until I am on board. But should I see the $100 from MSC? I just paid the deposit today. I figured I'd ask here before asking my TA to investigate.

On 9/27/2023 at 4:53 PM, luckyinpa said:

royal , princess and NCL always had put it back on my credit card so this is something new to me and ill be checking for every new cruise line in the future.

Off-topic for this thread, but i you have a credit going back to your credit card on a cruise ship, you are better off changing the registered card to a debit card instead. Getting it on a credit card that pays you rebates will result in effectively losing that percentage on the refund. Putting it on your debit card (which I would normally never use when traveling) doesn't cost you anything when the credit hits.

The other option is getting the cash from guest services the last night of the cruise.

On 9/23/2023 at 10:50 AM, lcpagejr said:

Thats what  I do.... I take a cash advance against room ...play a few slots and cash out.... 

When we were last on MSC several years ago, I had OBC to spend and loaded $100 to a slot and took it to the casino cashier. The guy refused to cash it out, I still remember his snooty response, "we are not a bank". We went back to the casino later in the day and used the credit and played a couple of spins and won a few dollars and then cashed that out.

Do you get the same level of service if you're in an inside YC cabin vs. a duplex suite?

8 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

rule one: The wife is never wrong. 

rule two: When the wife is wrong, rule one applies. 

This reminds me of my feelings about MSC the first (and until now only) time we sailed with them, not in a YC cabin.  I've seen your rules in other forms, substituting customer to wife at the Stew Leonard's grocery stores in CT/NY/NJ. On our MSC sailing, the customer was always wrong. Looking forward to being in YC next year where my understanding is that the customer is indeed always right.

2 hours ago, HLR said:

 

 

The only problem is that that "Red Hook" is in St. Thomas!

Parking Options | Stormy Pirate Charters

Stormy Pirates

 

That is disappointing, but not at all surprising. I found a couple of websites that discussed parking alternatives, but they ended with "at $25 a day, there is no real alternative". Only problem is that parking is now a truly obscene $45 a day, even more so when you realize that there's not even a garage for people sailing during the winter who could potentially return to snow on their cars.

Taking Metro-North, the subway and the ferry is an interesting approach, but I can't see doing it with suitcases (although I have seen people with them on MN trains). I suppose if you can pack light or are more adept at dealing with luggage on trains, it's an option.

2 hours ago, Até said:

If you last sailed in Dec, 2018 your Voyagers Club membership should have expired back in Dec, 2022 - that's including the one year extension MSC gave during the pandemic.  If yours doesn't expire until Dec, 2023 then MSC is doing an undeclared extension, which wouldn't surprise me given the newest offer of status matching to one level higher than normal.  I think status matches may be drying up a bit.

 

If you're sailing in YC the Diamond benefits won't be of much value.  Specialty restaurant value would depend upon the ship, but again YC significantly makes up for the loss.

 

ETA: Having a booking has never helped extend Voyagers Club membership date,  you always needed to actually sail before the expiration date.

Actually, it was January 2018!

I checked the list of benefits. The specialty dining is the one of most value, but like you said, being in YC makes that less important. We'll be on Meraviglia, BTW.

This seems like the right place to ask this. We sailed MSC in 2018 and status matched to Black. We have not been on MSC since then (we hated it). I found an inexpensive inside Yacht Club cabin in March, so we have decided to give them another try (we were not in YC the first time). My status shows Diamond and expiring 12/31 of this year. Is there any way to get that extended if I have another cruise booked? I believe that I read that you can only status match once, is that correct? Not really sure if there is anything I'd need from the higher level other than the free specialty dining meal, since we are in YC (and maybe not even the meal). Before anyone asks, both my wife and I did the status match, since back then each person was getting a free specialty meal for two people. This changed to a max of one per cabin the week before we sailed, and they would not honor it (just one reason why we hated the cruise).

Do they use the Old San Juan or Pan American Pier?

35 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Hearing from someone on an Avalon cruise right now, they were to disembark in Vilshofen, but turning around and going to Engelhartszell.  They were in Passau today and they were preparing for flooding. 

 

I want rain, but not *that* much!

 

@steamboats, hope you and all manage to stay dry.

Yes, I'm on Envision and just posted that above. 

We are now docked and are next to the Tauck Joy, which we started out next to last week in Budapest. Apparently many ships are being rerouted. We're heading to Prague tomorrow, so we'Il an hour later than scheduled. Folks who have flights out of Munich have to leave 45 minutes earlier than planned. 

Excess water was not on my August Danube cruise  bingo card. 

Currently on the Avalon Envision. The Danube water level is very high and it's still raining. We were supposed to disembark tomorrow in Vilshofen but we had to turn around and now we're heading to Engelhartszell. We were there in Passau today and they are preparing for flooding when we sailed past. 

I finally got around to calling Celebrity. Oddly, they showed her with 199 more points than the website was showing and already at Elite Plus. But I gave her the missing crews, and she offered to fix the Power Up points, so all will be good.

I do not understand why their computer showed a different point level than I see when logging into her account.

8 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

 You say Prague to Vilshofen.

 

Ugh, this is what happens when I post too late at night. I meant Budapest-Vilshofen. I was so concerned about getting the end port correct that I messed up the obvious piece.

I recall reading elsewhere about problems past Vilshoften, but maybe not recently.

Thanks.

17 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Although overall on a downward trend, the level at Pfelling is still doing fine. 323cm. Budapest had risen a lot apparently, now down to 226cm. That is still pleasant of course.

 

notamermaid

Pardon my possible ignorance, but is the bottom line that for my Prague-Vilshofen cruise next Tuesday that I should not have any water level issues? 

Thanks for the continued updates in this thread.

2 minutes ago, wineoclock said:

Ahh thank you. Dh covered my MIL pre existing (she’s still fine) but forgot to add my dad! Expensive (financially) mistake but being there meant more than money. 

That's interesting, I've never had to list people with pre-existing conditions when getting the policy. It was just a batter of purchasing the insurance in time. Maybe a UK thing (I am in the US)?

On 8/3/2023 at 12:01 AM, wineoclock said:

Glad your dh is doing good. We had a land holiday booked last year & my dad (already unwell) deteriorated. Cancelled our holiday & insurance refused to pay as foreseen event. Even appealed it. Nowt. But I got to be with my dad at the end. That was priceless. 

Presumably, you did not have coverage for pre-existing conditions. Most policies will cover that if purchased within two weeks (may vary) of initial deposit. Sorry to hear about your dad.

3 hours ago, gold1953 said:

Same here plus I had one more cruise. Suddenly in December his points matched mine!

With or without calling them? 

5 hours ago, Tierun said:

My wife and have always sailed together, but I have more points than her because of power up points. She doesn’t always complete the tasks. I remind her, but she gets sidetracked and forgets. So now I’m about 20 points ahead of her.

most times for videos, they allow you to enter multiple CC numbers at the end of the activity. If it's a simple survey, Ib just page back and enter my wife's CC number and resubmit.

So I found my complete cruise history on the Celebrity website, and it appears that my wife is only missing one cruise (35 points), and I found the points history, and she is missing six Power Up points. Yet she is short over 200 CC points compared to my account (and my number is correct). So it seems like they either messed up her conversion a decade ago (which I think I would have noticed) or else their system screwed up in keeping track of the points. I have not called them, but I will tomorrow now that I better understand the situation.

OP, how did your husband's procedure go, and did Celebrity agree to do anything for you?

6 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

Depending on the AI pricing, the Al Bacio benefit is worth a financial calculation based on how much you drink. After our next cruise, we go Elite+ and I am going to book a dirt cheap rate and pay as I go to see what we really spend after utilizing the Elite breakfast, Free Al Bacio Coffee and Happy hour. I'm pretty sure we will save a few bucks.

I did the math, and it wasn't going to worth it to us at ~$800pp per cruise. We can make do sharing a single Wi-Fi package, and I'm going to have plenty of non-refundable OBC to cover that and gratuities (yes, I know I can cash it out through the casino if necessary). That we can still go to Cafe al Bacio whenever we want for coffee and tea (and canned water) for free makes not having the drink package far more palatable.