perakcruiser

Some of the designs would be perfect for the MSC World Africa.

I am following MSC prices very detailed for many years. "Better price" has nothing to do with booking farther in advance. It is - as with almost all other cruise lines - driven only by demand. You booked 9 months for 1000, the ship is almost full 3 months before departure, the price goes up to 1500 or higher. The ship is still half empty 3 months before departure, the price goes down to 500. Just one thing is guaranteed, the prices during super peak summer season in July and August never go down, same with Christmas holiday. And sometimes strange things happen, half a year before we were talking here on CC about the really special route the Musica is going in the Eastern Med and how attractive the prices are. These prices went totally through the roof and the ship is sold out for months. In the end you have to know the price that makes you happy and if you get that price, just book.

If you are not qualified for a priority ticket, this will not work. And even with priority some tours and YC will tender before "normal" priority.

I am very sensitive to smoke and never had any problem on MSC. The smoking zones are so small and so easy to avoid. Never experienced any smoke outside this zones. About the elevator, avoid cabins in the aft, this elevators are always the most busy. Certainly there are crowds when a big ship is sold out, but experienced cruisers like you will surely know how to avoid them.

9 in Europe, 1 in Asia, 1 in America (from Cuba with no US pax). But I know this soft serve, which is not allowed to be called ice cream in Europe by law 😄 , is a big thing in US. When I had ice cream time on MSC cruises in the buffet it was real ice cream. But not gelato unfortunately 🙂

Probably this soft serve is a thing only for the US market. Never have seen it on any of my 11 MSC cruises.

Never been in YC, but I apart from the other YC advantages would guess that FOOD is quite important to answer this question. I would certainly give up a balcony to change the MDR menu to the YC menu. And I am not unhappy with the MDR at all, but what I read and see from YC food here that pushes me more and more into opening the purse on one of the next MSC cruises 😄

You will miss something if you not try MSC. And you should never trust a review from a person you don´t know. Not personally, but if you are active on CC and read the MSC forum you will find so much people you can trust. I had a quick look through some of the one star reviews here on CC and can without any concerns declare that the writers are complete id***s 😄 The chance that a MSC cruise will be your first bad cruise is zero.

Virtuosa also.

"Lobster night" is something very new on MSC on very limited sailings. Surf and turf or whatever you call it was always with king prawn, never lobster. Still 90 percent of the sailings or more will not offer lobster for free at all. Before it was 100 percent.

I should be mandatory for all new MSC customers to first deal for example with Alitalia (now ITA Airways) or any government agency. Then all with give MSC sure 10 out of 10 for CS 😄 Italian hotels are another story, paying them a lot of money and being treated as a stranger who wants to stay in a private home for free is absolutely amazing. But part of the experience😉

Nobody chooses MSC because of their shoreside customer service. Actually nobody deals with an Italian company because of their customer service. No, let me say it in this way, nobody deals with European companies because of their customer service 😄 Yeah, it is about expectations, I am still surprised that they offered you to change the DOB for free 😉 But your cruise will be great and you will book again, no matter what happens now before departure. And MSC knows this.

If the reservation/regular line guy offers me to change the DOB on the reservation free of charge, I would happily tell him to do this immediately and not care about the voyagers status at all. Who knows, what the next guy you call will say, maybe "I can do, the fee for this is 100 USD"😉 And I would contact the VC after the cruise, the risk that they damage something on the reservation would be too high for me 😄

MSC will have transfer, but only from the airport their European guests who booked the flights from MSC are landing. No idea which NY airport is this.

In that case forget about the package for both of you, it would be a waste of money. If the water drinker at least drinks coffee, then you can think about it.

From my experience there is zero difference between MSC and the other lines. Tendering can look slow and disorganized sometimes, because people with the wrong tender tickets are sent back and still try to sneak through. At docked ports if you want to get off early stand first in the line and you will always be able to get off first. Good point and also true for all cruise lines, they can dock in the middle of the city and make you feel it is a 30 minutes bus ride to get anywhere. Bari is indeed one of the most ridiculous examples.

Certainly they will not do this, but also certainly the rep on the phone cannot tell you anything but the official rules.

That´s from the coffee bar menu, same on all ships as far as I know. Only available in one bar, usually close to the reception. Should be definitely available with Premium, the frozen coffee delights were also included in the coffee cuddle package that MSC guests loved oh so much.

But it is the truth. The other option would be that they lie to you "yes, yes, all fixed the way you want" and then you realize on the ship that certainly it is not. At the beginning of my MSC "career" I also dealt with the hotline about the dinner times, was pretty useless On board it is easily solved at the restaurant. Also this is just the way it goes. But good news for you, in Civita the boarding time slot is usually not enforced. Only in Genoa I had this not so happy experience.

Difficult to say. There are definitely embarkation days where you will find the priority check-in so wonderful. Depending on the ship the Aurea cabins also can be a very worthy upgrade. Certainly Aurea is no use if you not intend to take the advantages of the Spa pass.

Actually "Aurea" is the "spa category" and certainly the spa pass is including always. As shown here: https://www.msccruisesusa.com/cruise/experiences-staterooms

As your cruise is so far away don´t expect MSC acting too fast. Just wait. No use to call the US hotline, as they also have to wait for informations from Naples. "Call again" means "We know nothing and cannot decide anything".

Yes, one need to understand that it is an algorithm is handling this upgrade thing, no humans are involved and MSC is also not involved. It´s a product from Plusgrade, any questions what their algorithms are doing cannot be answered correctly by anyone, I guess including the Plusgrade CEO 😄

I don´t think this tour will exist anymore after the Grand Egyptian Museum has opened.

No equipment. Bars, theater can. Baby club is from 1-3 years, maybe they allow you to come for baby time.