CruisingFox27

And now the perks are pretty much per cabin rather than per person. As long as one of you is Diamond you'll receive most of the benefits.  

19 hours ago, Abdullah mustafa said:

Today was my cruise from dubai, khasab, oman and back to Abu Dhabi and i missed it since i had a problem with my passport, the guy who was wearing and MSC uniform at check-in said that i can take the following trip later from Abu dhabi-ba ni yas back to dubai on 21st of December instead , but now if i want to have the same ports and there's is the same exact route after 10 days can i do that instead? I don't know who to contact since i couldn't find any msc customer service in the uae, any tips on what should i do? I'm so lost since this is my first cruise and I tried my best to prepare. Thank you in advance 

Who did you book your cruise with? I'd suggest they would be your best point of contact to rearrange. 

I'm sure I sail with a completely different MSC cruise line to some of the people who post here. Or we're just very lucky that they've never run out of anything we've wanted and have always had super service and very organised cruises. 

We've just booked to sail to a few of these ports next year. Thank you for lots of detailed information. Looking forward to following your journey. 

Did you sail from Puerto Rico? Shipmate states the itinerary for that week as PR, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten, St Thomas and returning to Puerto Rico on 31st March.

16 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

You will most likely still need a jacket, at least a good wind breaker, up on deck for sail away but I hope your weather is sunny and warm.  That wind and possibly the fog will get you every time, though.  
Someone just posted on FB about being so disappointed and unprepared that it was only 66° in San Francisco and everyone was freezing.  Well, 66° in the sunshine December is a warm winter’s day here.  But again, that damp wind will get you every time.  

Thanks. We're from the UK,  so we'd consider 66/68f to be pleasantly warm, it's certainly not what we'd consider freezing 😀 

13 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Sept and Oct are usually the best months, if not on the very warm side in San Francisco.  Hawaii will probably be hot but you know, weather changes.  
But, on average, it should be really nice weather.  

We're sailing from San Francisco to Hawaii late September so this is reassuring. 

@travelin.sisters   I just noticed your recommendation to this review on another thread. We've just booked our first Princess cruise, sailing on the Crown for next year. San Francisco, through Hawaii and the Pacific to NZ. Our first time to all of these ports. I hope we have luck with the weather and docking. 

Thank you for such a fabulous and detailed review. I too am a planner and a researcher, people who don't like lists are suspicious to me 🤣 My pre cruise spreadsheet has already been prepared 😁

This has been fantastic to read, so much new information is brilliant. You have a wonderful writing style and it was a pleasure to spend a few hours this morning 'sailing' with you. 

Love the bears, also view people who don't like cute bears with suspicion 🧸

And your puppy is also adorable. 

And we're booked 😁

290 days to read all of the Princess threads. 

Thanks again for all of the information and advice. I'll probably be back for more 😊

17 hours ago, Shippy said:

NOTHING compares to the YC.

A mini suite is nothing but a glorified balcony cabin.

If you are used to the YC, at least get yourself a full suite on Princess.

But....no butler...private sun deck with buffet...etc.

But... I do like the suites on Princess. The experience is better if you go on a ship with a concierge lounge. They do not all have that.

We are fine in Aurea so it's not that we only sail YC. It's the additional space, sofa and experience benefits that will hopefully be the bonus with the reserve mini suite.

The Princess full suite is double the cost of a mini suite but there's no private pool, sundeck or butler. So we aren't entertaining one.

16 hours ago, BeeeJay said:

 

 

People no-show for The Sanctuary while others are waiting for spots when its full and they don't get charged.  So I would translate that into you can cancel any time.  But agree with just doing some days, it can get pretty boring up there after a while.  I've been doing a mix of the adults only Terrace Pool and The Sanctuary.   I really like the Premier package.   The 4 internet devices and being able to order food and drinks anywhere is super handy.

 

One comment on service---it has varied in quality a lot for me on Princess.  It has mostly been far superior to MSC (even Yacht club) and even getting off and on the ship on Princess has been much easier than MSC (even with the Butler walk off).  But at times they have no showed on the drink orders and the sanctuary there have been two days they never offered tea service to me while I saw them doing the service.  They also forgot another ladies lunch order and never asked her for an order the other day even though they offered others surrounding us.  Its good but spotty.  Yacht club was the same, but you could always easily go right to that bar beside the pool.

 

After 5 MSC cruises and currently on a 14-night Princess, I would say the biggest difference is the demographic.  MSC gen pop is truly miserable.  It reminds me of scenes from the peasant class in the movie Titanic lol.  Not that I didn't have a fantastic time but the simple buffet crowding and manners vs Princess is night and day.  Everyone is so nice from workers to other passengers on my Princess cruise.  On MSC there was a very large amount of total dbags.   And way too many kids.

 

I don't think you can go wrong either way if you go in knowing what to expect.

 

 

We've clearly been very fortunate, happy passengers, always super friendly crew, never many kids. You do get some weird people sometimes though, even in YC 😂 That's just life though, isn't it.....

Thank you all for the responses, that's a lot of very useful information. Although we do love, love YC, we've been on many great Aurea sailings so are pitching it to be more that level than YC. Although, it's more expensive than YC when adding drinks 🙄 I think we'll have to forfeit The Santuary as it's $950pp for the whole trip 😳 A select few days for some sea days, maybe...And being a long repositioning cruise, I'd hope that the sun decks and ship generally would not be too busy. Our recent MSC Splendida repositioning only had 2500 passengers.

If you book days when you board in The Sanctuary, can you cancel them later without penalty?

Princess Plus sounds ideal, we don't need top shelf drinks but do like not having to worry about adding drink costs on. With the limit of 15 being alcoholic drinks, that'll be fine - I'd get into double figures with water and coffee but not sure if I will with cocktails, although I'm willing to give it a go 😂

Although we do eat later, usually 8pm to 8.30pm ish, we were assigned 9pm which was just to late. We were hanging around 8pm to 9pm and then only had a short evening after dining. The biggest issue is needing to be ready at a fixed time, we missed the flexibility of eating when we were ready and no time pressure. 

It was a massive disappointment removing the drinks package, Aurea was such a great deal before. 

4 hours ago, Stockjock said:

To me, the Aurea labelling is pretty close to meaningless.  In my view, the perks aren't especially noteworthy.  Sounds like you got what you wanted at a good price, and that's what matters.

Compared to? Fantastica? 

It really depends what's important for each passenger. We've only ever sailed YC or Aurea, under the old benefits. With the changes to the benefits, we tried Fantastica in April. It confirmed that even with the reduced benefits we'd still book Aurea. Although we were lucky to be in an overflow area of the restaurant and at a two top, the fixed time dining was detrimental to our holiday. As was not having the Solarium to use. 

Thanks @BeeeJay looks lovely! Relaxing and boring sound great 🙂 We've just completed 28 days in YC on a repositioning cruise, with a very mature demographic and the One Pool for our 17 sea days. Fighting for a sun bed doesn't appeal!

Is there a restriction on number of drinks, as mentioned by @9tee2Sea above? We'd be looking at the plus package, it states online drinks up to $15, but nothing about a specific number. And I know 15 sounds a lot but if that includes water, coffee and soda, it really isn't when it's hot and a sea day.

2 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

just get Princess Plus or Princess Premier and you will be set for drinks, wifi and grats. And also for room service, I think.

 

We love Princess, even though we usually travel in lowly inside or obstructed balcony on deck 8

at best.

 

Also, I would NOT travel on anything older than Royal Princess.

 

 

 

we book the time we like in advance. You can book the same time every day or make individual reservations for different times on different days.

yes, but having a reservation helps skip the line. Although, I doubt there will be a line at 8 pm.

 

Princess is a rather tranquil line. There is an adult only area, and I think it's free, but we never tried it because we do have a kid with us.

You may want to ask your Princess related questions in the Princess subforum rather than in the MSC one. 🙂

 

Thanks. I have also posted in the Princess forum too. The ship choice is dictated by us wanting to do specific itineraries, and they are the only ship options. We don't mind slightly older ships, we've sailed Orchestra etc and had a great time. We'd definitely have the plus package for drinks and wifi. It's just working out the dining suitability, I think, we don't enjoy having to arrive at a set time.  Tranquil sound ideal 🙂

48 minutes ago, lele100 said:

so, during lunch our options are the buffet or snacks? is this on sea days ? what about on Island days and embarkation day? Thank you.

Your included lunch options are the MDR or the buffet. That's any day, except embarkation day when you are requested to use the buffet.

We are contemplating a Princess cruise, we’re long term MSC sailors and would like to understand the different levels and benefits of Princess to ensure we book a cabin and experience that meets our needs. It would be a lengthy repositioning cruise, so we don’t want to be those people on board complaining it’s unsuitable because they didn’t know what they had booked – we’ve all met them, lol.

When we book MSC we’ve always booked Aurea or YC. Our primary priorities are the Anytime dining, having a table for 2 and no queuing for dinner. The availability of breakfast delivery – in the absence of tea/coffee facilities. We very much appreciate the private sundeck, it’s always quiet and no fuss for beds. On longer cruises, having a sofa and cabin space is beneficial. We have always had the drinks packages included (the old Aurea package did) the mid range AIB&R or Easy Plus would be fine, and we do need Wi-Fi.

So, from initial investigations, I think we need a Mini suite or Mini suite reserve? What are the main benefit differences? The cruises we’re looking at are on Diamond Princess and Crown Princess – what size ship would these compare to in the MSC fleet?

Cabin category, what are the differences? - M1 MB MD ME

Cabin location – things to be aware of and consider? All of our cabin locations have been deck 13 forward or Deck 15 and 16 forward. I read comments about having a covered balcony? Deck 9 uncovered – can everyone then just look onto your balcony? D232

The dining option shows as Dine My Way – it states about booking, is this for a specific time? Do you have book on the app each day, every day? Can you do that later in the day, i.e. 6pm if you want to dine at 8pm? What happens if you’re late/early? Can you just turn up and be seated? We like to dine later rather than early, 8pm would be the earliest we’d usually dine.

How is the food? I know it’s always a contentious issue, but I’ll say now we have always been very happy with MSC food and like having multiple choices and the flexibility of ordering a variety of different courses.

The Sanctuary – who has access to this - is it complimentary for anyone - mini suite, reserve mini suite guests? Can you purchase day passes? Cost? Is food and drink available and included in the cost or in the drink package?

We rarely, if ever, go to the theatre or do activities, so they aren't a concern. It's dining and having a peaceful sea day that would feature highly for us.

Any other information from those of you who have experience of both cruise lines, would be much appreciated.

Main dining rooms and buffet for all meals are included. Your MDR will be assigned upon boarding. There are snacks available in the piazzas. The only upcharge for meals is the specialty restaurants. 

If you've booked the Aurea experience you'll have access to the private Aurea sun deck, Anytime dining and the spa. Bathrobes and slippers. The website will have the full list of perks included with an Aurea experience booking. The list isn't as long as it used to be but still plenty of benefits. 

We sailed on Lirica in April and have previously sailed on Orchestra. We love the more intimate ambience. The ships don't have the glitzy appearance of the new ships and certainly not the amenities of anything any newer. We're fine with that but if that's something you're looking for, it may not be for you. 

On 11/27/2023 at 6:24 PM, dream2cruise said:

Do the magnets need to be a special type?

We just have 2 versions of these. Small and large. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322252780577?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=3DlR8taoQ3i&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=wzunQteXSYC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

6 hours ago, Ed342 said:

What about Divina ? Will it work ?

Yes. We've used them on Divina.

6 hours ago, mvh said:

What time can I expect to be on the island if it says 8:00am arrival. I am looking to book my own excursion that starts at 9:00am from the cruise port. We are gold status and supposedly we get priority tender (whatever that's worth). Do they hand out tender tickets the prior day? 

Although its been a while since we last visited,  we received priority tender tickets in our cabin the previous evening. You can then go straight to the tender queue point rather than having to collect tickets and wait in a lounge for your group number to be called. 

The wait time at the exit is hard to predict, no reason you couldn't get down there as soon as you can. They are usually pretty good as getting people on and off.

6 hours ago, showingdiva said:

I hope the person evacuated makes a full recovery.  Never an easy decision to medivac, especially involving a helicopter.

We're currently on Splendida, we've had 4 passengers requiring a medivac. We had to speed up and adjust our arrival in Oman for one. Diverted to the Seychelles for two of them, by tender not helicopter and one in Mauritius. 

Hopefully all will be fine for them.