Morgsmom

3 hours ago, mmbcater said:

Typically you are paying $200-300 more using a promo (I own a agency) and $200 OBC is not worth that to do that.........

Ah, but NOT always with MSC.  Often it's $40 to get $200 🙂  MSC math is not terribly good.  As is their IT department

17 hours ago, amygutman said:

Kiddo got a kick out of ordering "pizza delivery" after a swimming. It was a fun movie night - pizza, chocolate cookies, salad, hamburger and fries all from room service at around 2100. 

No charge in the YC (for movie or for the food, even though the TV listed the movie price as 4$ - the charge was "0$" on the final bill), and other than the tip for the butler, it was free. 

Very cool indeed. 

Warmest, Amy

@amygutman You were able to order a movie in your YC room for no charge?  Do tell... that's always been a beef of ours that we should have to pay for a movie in YC.  (For those who say "why do you want to watch a movie in your cabin on a cruise.. blah... blah... we just enjoy sitting in bed at night and watching a movie!)

19 hours ago, mmbcater said:

FYI-You should always book Escape to Sea when booking the Yacht Club because everything is included! Booking free wifi and beverage package fro YC is a waste of money because you already have it!! 

Not necessarily true.  There are times when you can book with OBC for the same price as Escape to Sea or only a few dollars more.  For example, for $40 more in total fare you could get $100 or $200 in OBC for the yacht club sailing.  Other times due to pricing discrepancies, you can book for the exact same price as the Escape to Sea but get the OBC at the same price.  It pays to look and which promo you choose.

If you only sail YC then there really is no reason to go to such lengths to keep Diamond, especially with it's diminished perks.  The only thing of "value" you'd lose is a specialty dining for 2. Certainly not worth hopping across the States to take a cruise to keep your status, in my opinion.

Completely agree with @Nunagoras  We sailed on the Grandiosa out of BCN in February but would have preferred to leave from Rome.  HOWEVER, the YIN category was shown as sold out of Rome, but we could get it from Barcelona, so we went that route.  If given a choice I'd rather have spent extra time in Rome as, it is true, you can easily get the feel of Barcelona in one cruise day.

The only real answer is "IT DEPENDS"...  

Yes, just enter the DL.  Make sure that the birth certificate has a raised seal.  A photocopy will not suffice.

14 hours ago, debnjoe1438 said:

Will be going on my first MSC cruise in December. Could someone tell me if MSC has a dinning room open for lunch on Embarkation day? I will be sailing on the Seascape. Thanks

Not in the Caribbean unless you are in Yacht Club.

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

The answer for everyone is that this pergola is reserved for a YC cabin not RS or OS. So everyone can add this to their list of 'strange happenings' .

Do you think the Guests made up the sign themselves???

1 hour ago, JAGR said:

Nice idea, but money won't help right away.  The entire IT staff is very busy right now with all of their end of school activities.  It may get worse next year, as they transition from half-day kindergarten to full-day first grade.

OMG, just spit out my coffee.  YOU WIN THE DAY!

57 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Your travel agent can always call their rep to find out.

Really? I've never been able to find out in the past if there were large groups on my sailings.  The only way is by googling the date and sailing to see if a group has it posted somewhere. We've inadvertently sailed on the annual Goth cruise (wonderful group who were dressed far more dapper than DH), a spring break cruise with 1000+ Canadian teens that were out of control, and a Swingers group 🍍🦩..... Didn't find out until we were onboard.  

On 5/6/2023 at 4:03 PM, cruisnfool said:

Can someone tell me about MSC’s tours in Rome

The reason one might book an official Rome tour is if they are concerned about making it back to the ship on time since Civitavecchia is a good hour from Rome itself.  Otherwise there are other independent excursions that are less expensive and more intimate.  Depends on your level of risk.

Are you flying in same day? To Venice?  It's still quite far from the cruise terminal in Trieste. 

You can drop off your luggage around 10am.  Can't say what there is to see there but if you are just arriving after travel I imagine you'd rather just get onboard the ship.

Lord have mercy.  How about instead of all of those requested onboard donations to "save the oceans" (or whatever) we all chip in a few bucks to FIX MSC'S IT Department?? I'm in for a $20 😆

He's on the Seascape right now.

11 hours ago, RaNKoR said:

Currently sailing with MSC and they decided to notify us 2 days into the cruise that our cabana we booked months ago for their private island was somehow accidentally sold to us even though we are not in a YC suite (we are in an auria suite). So we had to give it up. Apparently this happened to a bunch of people.

Not my f'ing fault the website let me book it 3 months ago.

Read the part about the website allowing you to do something... then question it.  The MSC website? WHAT?  It's always perfect 😉

58 minutes ago, kaz828 said:

As well is there somewhere to look to see the range of pricing over time, do they do price adjustments? We are looking at the YC category 

The do NOT do price adjustments.  YC has non refundable deposits and you can make one change, but not on the same booking, per se.  Given the $ of YC, I would absolutely use a TA as you can get 5-10% of the price (pre taxes) back in onboard credit.  

1 hour ago, Mimala said:

My sister and I just got off the meraviglia and neither of us had the drink package but were sat at a table with people that did have the drink package.  It was a table for 8. So they don’t seem to always follow that rule, I guess

Likely because you were "sat with" others.  In the case where reservations are deliberately linked the official cruise policy is that all must have the drink package, otherwise there might be collusion ("oh, only half of us need the package and we will all just share")  

8 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

You can't link reservations ahead of time.  It won't let you.  I tried. 

You absolutely CAN link reservations ahead of time; you just can't do it by yourself.  You need your TA to handle or to call MSC

2 hours ago, Ryan82 said:

Just off Grandiosa. Had premium plus drinks package. Paid nothing for all the drinks in L'Atelier bistrot nor Kaito Teppanyaki. I suspect the OP had an easy package?

The OP was reporting about Hola.  The drink package is certainly covered in L'Atelier and Kaito.

41 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

So no COVID testing to get on the ship?  I know I didn’t have to on Celebrity in December. 

Correct, No Covid testing to get on a the ship.  As an aside, we now pack 4 "at home" Covid tests in our First Aid Kit.  They take up little room and we figure that if we start feeling sick on a cruise we'd like to self-test FIRST before heading down to medical to report ourselves and be put in quarantine 😞

21 minutes ago, Greygooser said:

I was told they will replace all snacks except for the Toberlone bar at no cost. If you eat a second Toberlone, expect to pay for it.

They won't replace the Pringles :(.... My guilt late night cruise pleasure

15 hours ago, LuiK said:

Just have a look at the MSC website:

 

https://www.msccruises.com/en-gl/Discover-MSC/On-Board/All-Inclusive-Packages.aspx

 

"Includes all beverages priced up to €14 / $16! [...] The Premium Extra Package can be enjoyed in our bars, buffet, main restaurant and specialty restaurants as well [...]"

You are missing the part where it excludes signature venues... which Hola is

35 minutes ago, bruce85 said:

If you upgrade from Bella do you get access to the aurea deck?

If you bid to upgrade and win an Aurea upgrade you should get all of the benefits 

2 hours ago, Paphillyguy said:

This article is just plain wrong.  The ship was NOT shut down.  IT is poor journalism and ridiculous that MSN would allow this completely false statement be published.  Also, the person they list as a source is a lawyer that specializes in suing cruise ships. He makes money off issues with cruise ships.  

 So true.... That so-called lawyer is an ambulance chasing - er... ship chasing... Hack.  I've read the report and all of these items are common on every single cruise ship.  Too little staff, maybe some training issues, but nothing to grab your pearls about.  The romaine was at 47?  Oh, my.  Do you know how nearly impossible it is to keep lettuce below 42?  I'm happy it's bug free and clean, thank you.  Piled up dishes?  Well maybe if the guests didn't take so much food and waste so much there wouldn't be an issue.  At the end of the day any inspector can walk into any restaurant --- ANY RESTAURANT -- and give them a 100 or a 67.  There's always something to be found. A good inspector will point out issues and ask for immediate correction (when possible), a pissy one will get a pair of tweezers and look for ... well, anything.  Food is (for now at least) produced by humans. 

Ok, off my soapbox. My point is that the inspector seemed to be overstepping and the cruise lawyer is a whack-a-doodle (all respect given for fear he files a slander suit or something equally frivolous)