Zephyr173

Yesterday (Aug 27) was the first formal night on our Preziosa sailing. We are in YC, and headed to the restaurant by Deck 7 to see the people.

Several ladies had the gowns, jewels and sparkles. I estimate about half had dressed up more than usual. About 1/4 of men wore jackets, some with a tie. I would say that I was a definite exception with a tux. Even in YC restaurant. I only noticed 2 other gents at the theater wearing tuxedoes, even if it was captain’s night.

Tonight is white night.

No issues when we sailed in September 2017. Obviously not as fast as at home, but still reasonable. However, I did not stream videos, and did no FaceTime, as I had the basic package. Just enough to get newspaper from home, do email, and surf the net.

We had a couple's package on Splendida, summer 2016. We were booked with Aurea experience, hence we each had a massage included; we could choose from the entire list on offer, except for 1 of the massages (I don't remember which one as excluded).

We requested and obtained a couples massage, which indeed took place side by side in a spacious, relaxing room.

We both chose the balinese massage, which we enjoyed. Our recollection is that time went by rather quickly, i.e. the massage was for X minutes, and was done in X minutes, 00 seconds. I got the impression that the staff's and the spa's time is at a premium - which it is on a cruise ship - and this is quite different from what we feel at our usual spa at home, where we are regulars and are certainly not rushed.

We have not done any other massages on MSC because of our perception as detailed above. We may be amenable to give it a whirl on our next cruise, though.

Hi Susan,

You will find all the information, and more, to answer your question on this thread started by Pete (Skier52):

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2505973

I can access my bookings using different browsers (Safari on iMac and iPad, MS Edge and Chrome on PC). But strangely, I cannot for the life of me access the Voyagers Club section, even after resetting passwords numerous times.

I have Simply given up.

We did a behind the scenes tour on Divina, summer 2017. Very interesting, and we spent quite some time in the galleys and food prep and storage areas. The tour ended with a tasting of prosciutto at Eataly. We also received a nice MSC kitchen apron.

These sailings usually have a port of call that is what I would say the “main” port of the sailing. For example Genoa rather than Marseille.

Embarking on a main port means the full drill. Sailing from a secondary port means a briefing (with you jacket) in the theatre. About the same duration, but you are seated until you need to put the jacket on.

There are indeed designated exits and entrances for new and other pax.

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Your are better using the Port's own schedule. I find lots of errors on CruiseMapper.

Here is the link for this month:

https://portspb.ru/en/Ships_Schedule

We did Rome on Splendida in the summer of 2016. They had set up the "Vatican Express", i.e. a short bus ride from the ship to the train station, and then a nice train ride to the Vatican. From there, it is easy to take in some very nice Roman sites. I remember getting to the Vatican around 10. We had enough time to do a complete Hop-On-Hop-Off bus ride before heading out for lunch.

We're rather new to cruising. Our first cruise was on Sinfonia and we absolutely fell in **love** with the ship, and were in fact impressed with the quality of the service. As read on many threads, MSC takes care of cleanliness all the time, and we saw that on Sinfonia.

For our part, we prefer the European crowd and vibe and enjoyed the people on board. There were many fine friends: Italians en masse, Brits, Germans, Japanese, a few Chinese (great dresses on formal nights!), Russians, and a few Americans. I don't recall any other Canadians. But all this meant for good times especially when mingling in the MDR for lunch, or at bars and poolside.

Thanks TooFar for asking this question. We are in the same situation as your are, in St-P on 30 August, also with Alla. Our tour is set to go at 7:30, and the ship docks at 7:00. I've read that customs can take a good 1 1/2 hours.

But remember that being YC means that the butler will escort us from YC through an exit reserved for YC guests, that bypasses the other. So getting off the ship is really quite easy.

The rest is a mystery to me as well.

I concur with Bea. Our very first cruise was on Sinfonia, with fantastica experience, and I purchased a beverage package similar to what PJH is considering (the name has changed since, but it's pretty much the same).

The Following year, we were on Splendida, with an Aurea experience. As Bea points out, it is just a few dollars more, but the cost/benefit difference is remarkable.

Last year and this year, we are in YC. But, when we go back on an MSC ship with no YC, we will definitely opt for Aurea experience.

Hello!

Can you tell me till when is the check-in time from Kiel?

Thanks

You can check in up to 2 hours before departure.

Thanks, Chris.

Was concerned about deck 15 due to the Gym below with all the running machines - had a bad experience on Princess with the Gym open all hours and terrible noise.

Did you hear the Gym action from your deck 15 cabin ?

We have stayed on Deck 16 and didn't hear any noise from the pool deck. Then again, there a quite few sunbathers when we want peace and quiet to sleep in the stateroom.

The gym (Deck 14) is mostly below the Top Sail Lounge. Also, the gym does close somewhat early evening. Deck 15 cabins are mostly above the spa and thermal area.

This review was certainly outstanding.

I'm not as gifted as Lovetocruise2002 for scoping etc. but I'm willing to try. We will be on Preziosa, YC, from 25 August to 1st September. We will be happy to sniff around the ship to get information you may be interested in.

Only one of you will receive the points as things stand, the one who pays the final bill, the points are not shared between you.

DW & I have sailed 3 summers in a row with MSC. She paid for 1, and I for 2 (Aurea and YC) yet we both have the same number of points, and the totals are consistent with the points scale and our on-board expenses.

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Thanks Plucasana. I was not aware of this. Great suggestion.

Got our cruise ticket by email yesterday. The “suggested” CI is 15:45. I will surely be there earlier.

We just upgraded from Aurea to YC for our October sailing. We are also celebrating our anniversary. :) this thread is really amping up my excitement level!

 

 

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Our friends Beamafar and Skier52 nudged us over the YC edge last year, as we had an Aurea booking for a second time. Aurea is quite an experience, but our friends were absolutely right in their guidance. We will not regret but rather cherish your choice of upgrade.

We will be sailing on Preziosa, from Kiel, on 25 August. Also YC. At what time were you able to board? The most convenient itinerary from Hamburg to Kiel I found gets us at Kiel Hbf at 9AM. I’ve found a great place for breakfast, but I now need to find a way to spend a few hours... but how many? I know the ship is to dock at 10AM and of course throw off a few PAXs, which takes a bit of time.

Thanks for your kind reply.

My "go to" process has always been: double the Celsius, subtract 10%, and add 32. Always comes out within 1° of Fahrenheit. :)

Yep. Close enough and easier to do mentally than the actual, which is 9/5 x Celsius + 32.

The reverse is (F-32) x 5/9, to get Celsius.

Some thoughts on tonight's show...The Wizard...

 

Once again, I am not sure if this show had a story line. If it did, I missed it. It was another variety type show with a collection of aerial elements, acrobatics, magic show type illusions, etc. We are starting to notice a theme here with the shows on MSC. While entertaining, the shows lack the elaborate set designs that we are use to seeing on RCI. The crew here is talented, vocals are very strong, the costumes are unique but they are not the Broadway type shows that one would find on RCI or even DCL. Again, no real complaints. We still enjoyed it. Those are just the differences we have picked up on.

 

 

 

 

 

Loving your review. I’ve never been on RCI (yet) but I had a similar impression about the MSC shows. We find them entertaining and certainly more fun than being behind a desk at the office.

 

We got the picture as to why the sets are somewhat elaborate but not necessarily lavish when we took the “behind the scenes” visit on Splendida. The spaces he artists have to work, change and deal with the decor is surprisingly tight. For example, we were 12 guests during the visit of the dressing area and were (politely) jockeying for standing room. We highly recommend that visit; it also goes on to the galleys and other crew areas.

I guess it dépends on which drinks package you purchase.:confused:

The Fall 2020 repos should be available to book from around March next year (though one or two may be released even earlier than that).

Thanks Bea. I will ask the cruise desk when we sail, next month. Have a great day.

Hi Bea,

I think ssmea03 is writing about the glass sliding doors on decks 15 and 16 that lead to the YC. But it would be a great idea to have such a secret bar!

The Garden pool and bar are not reserved to YC. The pool deck area just happens to circle the Muse restaurant. Riclop is right that the Aurea sundeck (deck 18) is a kid free zone. I don’t remember if the Garden area is kid free. I don’t recall seeing any when having lunch at the Muse (we were YC), but we didn’t go there because it was *packed* solid from what we could see.

As far as I know, non YC cannot access Le Muse. We were asked for our cards the first couple of days, i.e. until they recognized us.