CruisingFox27

I don't belive so, but we wouldn't regularly order anything that wasn't available from the bar. Our orders would be a soft drink, bottle of beer or a mojito 🍹 On Divina if you want the full, waited on bar service you'd need to be in YC.

If you're looking for fellow sailors for your cruise, the roll call section would be the best place to check. Although, Med cruises generally attract less CC members.

There isn't a permanent bar, it's a pop up bar. All of the Divina class and below ships have the same set up. The drink selection is limited, it's obviously not a full bar but more extensive than just serving bottled drinks. And it's never been my experience that the hours are limited, it's always been open all day when we've used the Aurea sun deck, we'd usually be there 10am - 6pm on sea days.

I always travel with a pair of small nail scissors, and a small pair of hair scissors, packed in my hold baggage. It's never been an issue with flights or with MSC.

How many plug sockets are there in each cabin? And what type are they? US/EU? If there are no usb ports I'll need to calculate how many multi usb adapters to pack.

It's MSC, what's written and what happens aren't always the same thing....😂

As an alternative, assuming you're referring to having dinner in a speciality, you could book for lunch. Or, if you look at the dinner menus and nothing of note appeals, have the concierge book the speciality restaurant.

It's pretty safe to assume that the ships won't be going through the Suez Canal. The MSC WC has rerouted down the West Coast of Africa. And any itineraries due to traverse the Suez have been pulled. I suspect a lot of cruise schedulers are currently very busy finding alternative routes and ports.

No dumb questions, only dumb answers 😉 All the bars have QR codes on the tables for you to scan, and there are usually paper menu's available on the bar too.

We sailed through the Suez in mid-November, but our port calls to Egypt and Jordan were cancelled. We had a heavy military presence on board, far more so than we've seen when sailing in that region before. As things are currently, I wouldn't want to be sailing there now MSC Poesia started her WC on 5th Jan, they were due in Malta today, then Rhodes, Cyprus and to traverse Suez 16th Jan. They've been to Alicante and Malaga instead, currently sailing on the West Coast of Africa, just off Morocco. So, definitely no Suez.

We aren't sailing in Europe, we're sailing from San Francisco. I will still be crossing my fingers that it is better in reality than it sounds 😁

We're not entitled to a full refund in the UK, it's at the discretion of the cruise line, depending on the circumstances. We had a cruise booked with a different cruise line in November, our planned ports included Egypt for the Pyramids and Valley of the Kings, also, Jordan for Petra. All of those were cancelled. We were offered the option of cancelling in full/FCC.

We are in a similar situation, but UK based, so we can't have our medallions mailed. The priority embarkation appealed as a benefit. However, I've lowered my expectations on what this actually entails. Our regular cruise line has a separate priority check in desk or separate area, depending on cabin/eligibility for priority. After check in, you clear security and board. As we know no different, I hoped for similar. From what I've read, Princess check in is just 2 queues, blue and green. After that, you're sent to wait in an area for boarding, which seems where the priority applies, those with the higher priorities board first. It sounds a bit disappointing, but we're not sailing from FFL so it might not be, we might be surprised, but I'm managing my expectations that we'll just have to do a lot of queuing and waiting.

It prevents people sharing their package drinks with those who don't have packages. The Thirsty packages and limits are specific to SA cruises as they have a lot of issues with drinking and packages in that region. This is the first year they offered packages. I suspect, it'll be the last.

The new packages came into effect at the end of November when Splendida arrived on her repositioning from Italy. Just checked my calendar and we disembarked on the 23rd November. So, it was the 24th November. This is the first time they've had drinks package for the region. Although, I understand there have been issues and they are also reintroducing vouchers for SA again.

It's unlikely the menu's would be posted here due to the demographic of the passengers. There is a Splendida group on the social media platform that we're not allowed to mention 🙂 📚, they're probably available in there.

The thisty and thirsty plus are the new names for the new South Africa drinks packages. And they've had to introduce limits on the packages there. Perhaps someone pressed the wrong button when doing a website update.

Are slippers provided along with the robes?

We're not Canada either so sadly we won't have medallions in advance. Hopefully, the priority embarkation is going to be straightforward and easy to understand once we arrive. It's all sounding far more complicated than our usual cruise line and the priority embarkation we're used to. Do you receive an embarkation time or is it a general, open operation?

A great review as ever, thank you for taking the time to post in such detail.

We've never felt it necessary to pay for any additional item whilst cruising with MSC. I'm not sure what you consider these add on costs are but there's absolutely no need to pay for anything extra. As with all cruise lines they'd like you to spend other money but it's not necessary at all.

We embarked Splendida at the end of October for the 27 night repositioning cruise. We did note areas which appeared tired but they spent a lot of time doing maintenance during our cruise. I think i read that she'll go in for a 2 week dry dock next year too. We're only English speakers and we've never had an issue with language on board, English is usually the first language onboard. The menu's do vary in different regions but a lot of the choices are regular to MSC fleetwide. Aside from a couple of issues with dishes, we had excellent food during our trip. We didn't go to any shows or the spa so can't comment there, I'm afraid.

If you do self disembark, you could be of within an hour of docking. Do bear in mind that docking times aren't guaranteed though. We once waited an extra 2 hours to dock in Barcelona due to the port being busy. Although you'll need to be out of your cabin at the assigned time, it's possible to stay onboard for an extra hour or two.

Thank you. So we join the blue queue for Medallions and then there's a priority queue for embarkation- we're not platinum or elite, the priority is assigned with our cabin. But presumably the same principle applies. Hopefully!

Shipping is only an option for US passengers though, is that correct? I'm therefore unsure how our priority embarkation will work if we don't already have our medallions.