perakcruiser

9 minutes ago, ashley321121 said:

If I wanted to take a 2am flight on 2/12 would that be doable? 

Yes, you can disembark anytime after the 9am arrival on Feb 11. Certainly you also can stay until lunch time on Feb 12. And you can go to city and return anytime between. 

6 hours ago, kernow said:

The Fjord cruises in May depart on 12th or 19th, neither of those are likely to be main school holidays.

Good, I one time crashed with no idea into this Pentecost holiday week in central Europe without knowing, that was not good. 

34 minutes ago, RudiRatlos said:

It's used also on baltic (Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Kiel, Warnemuende) and western european cruises (Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Southampton, Lissabon). 

Also in the Middle East. 

And also on other Norway cruises with starting points in Germany or Denmark.

And Brazil.

Even the Caribbean cruise I did with MSC had embarkation almost at every port, but this has changed I think. 

8 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

There's a school half term week at the end of May, dates may vary across the county but will apply to all of England. And probably the rest of the UK. 

Ok, I was talking about this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecost

Careful. There is one week school holiday in may. I don't know if everywhere or only in the Catholic countries as it is a religious thing. The one after Easter 😄 But in this week all ships will be packed. All other weeks on May are not busy at all.

In the Norwegian ports MSC does not let people embark so this will probably a big British majority except this one week I mentioned.

51 minutes ago, billybeachboy said:

I'm told there is a free on in the gym locker room, are you able to confirm that please?  

Been on the Virtuosa in November, used the gym everyday, did not recognize a sauna. Or even a locker room except the one in the spa.

Certainly the Hilton would work 🙂

But if you not get a special rate it will be four or five times the rate of any other four star hotel. With no advantage in quality or service in my humble opinion. Sometimes the Hiltons are normally prices, sometimes

absolutely ridiculous, no idea how the system works.

But if money doesn't matter this is certainly the most convenient option. 

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

He tried to get them back, but apparently when the pandemic struck the three of them went to Venice, Italy and began a street performance act and made more money from 'TIPS' doing so that they no longer want to return to cruise ships. (So much malarkey posted on CC about Europe being a no tipping society).

I think the story maybe is a little bit different and they don't perform on the street but outside at the cafes. These are not really tips, this is a music contribution that is mandatory and at a fixed and crazy high price. It indeed goes to the musicians. Every tourist who ever took a seat in a Venice cafe or other very touristy places in Italy knows it and never forgets 😄

If you have your Cappuccino at the bar without taking a seat you don't have to pay which is what all locals do. The price goes down 80 percent 😄

Street performances without a licence are strictly illegal in Venice and these licences are verrrrrrrrrrry difficult to get as far as I know.

Yes this is possible and the luggage goes with you. But from the airport hotels only the B&B Hotel Roma Fiumicino Aeroporto Fiera 1 is on the way where the bus can drop you. Probably there are a few more in this area called "Leonardo Park". But this one I stayed and can recommend. South of the airport there are billions more, but this is not so convenient.

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

Never saw this ship that is docking next to us.

That is the favourite cruise line of the Germans. Par with Celebrity cruises, maybe a little bit better. You need to speak German or English, with all other languages you will be lost. If you check their prices you maybe will be a little bit shocked, but everything is included, drinks, tips, whatever. The only line I ever sailed with a final bill of zero 😄 

35 minutes ago, transientoftheseas said:

I booked 13 staterooms for my family and have been watching this thread for any indications of changed to the Damman stop for their Jan 22 sailing. Should I expect an email from MSC a week before the sail date or sooner? I am not sailing myself but I am planning their excursions so any information would be helpful.

You can only wait. And monitor closely if Damman will be on the map for the next two sailings. I doubt it. 

1 hour ago, Noncon said:

Yes the visa issue is still a problem and negotiations between SA and MSC appears to be at a stalemate, and IMO the issue isn't likely to be solved over the next few weeks.   Bahrain was a great stop, just wish we had more time to plan excursions, but the schedule change was short notice.  

Don´t forget last season the problem was not solved at all. And MSC changed Dammam into a sea day instead of changing to Bahrain. Certainly with ZERO compensation for the guests, that was very unfair. 

13 hours ago, Griff4AU said:

I so I was on the MSC Preziosa from 27 Dec to 3 January. I expected there to be more Euros on board as it’s their Winter too, but this was a 90%+ Brazil crowd

Flights to South America from Europe are still very expensive, still far away from normal (same with South East and East Asia). And so many ships spend the winter in Europe and Middle East, the Canary Islands and Dubai cruises right now are much more attractive for the European crowds. 

21 hours ago, showingdiva said:

Ghent is lovely, isn't it.  My preference to Bruges.  Also like Blankenberge as an alternative.

Zeebrugge is such a brilliant stop with countless options nearby. One of the few I would never stay on the ship.

37 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I'm confused by this statement.  Are you saying that MSC can bring on more crew if there's a passenger surge but they aren't doing so for some reason?  I guess I just thought that MSC are facing the same human resource shortages that many industries are facing both on land and sea.  Though I don't really know enough about how the cruise industry hiring works...

I think it is not easy. They surely will try to bring more staff at peak times as @Stockjock wrote right now from the Virtuosa. 

But the Virtuosa is sailing her tour from November to summer next year with roughly 2500 to 3500 pax. Just in these two weeks now there are 6000 or more. Not easy to handle this for sure. 

8 hours ago, agentJoey said:

Cruising on this ship in January first time on MSC. Hope it is better. Seems MSC gets alot of negative reviews

It is easy to seperate the useless reviews from the useful. Just click on the profile, if somebody registered 30 minutes before and has exactly one post certainly this can be ignored. Not worth to think if there really was a dead animal in the salad 😄

The good thing about a board like this, you get to know the people. At the moment @morpheusofthesea and @Stockjock write reviews, just two examples of highly reputable people sharing their precious opinions with us. So many others that can be fully trusted, just ignore the Register-Rant-Disappear-People. 

2 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

This is in no way to imply that the OP's review of their experience on Meraviglia isn't valid. 

Sure it could be valid, why not.

But it is useless, if you go on MSC or any other line the first time in the most busy week of the year, what you expect? Seasoned MSC cruises know how to handle the masses, still I would never go that time if I not have to follow school holidays. 

14 hours ago, Stockjock said:

We are doing the MSC tour to Lubeck.

Good idea, I have been there maaaaaaaaaaaaaaany years before. Well worth to go, but certainly depends on the quality of the tour. 

You really did NYE in style and MSC did also, great! 

In Hamburg unfortunately the public transport ignores the port on Sundays. If you want to leave the ship better take the MSC shuttle. 

5 hours ago, Newleno said:

I have been on 9 different cruiselines over 500 days of cruising, all the other cruiselines had cold ice tea 24/7 included in your bargain rate,  MSC is just different. 

No, all European or Asian cruise lines will not offer cold ice tea. It is something totally US, very strange that you expect it everywhere in the world. 

12 minutes ago, LinRon3 said:

Like my earlier post, we found some MSC ships to be more strict than others. 

Yes, every answer you got was true (somehow). Because everything is possible 🙂

Ships, ports, staff (who is on duty this day is not on duty the other day), sometimes you get away with six bottles of wine, sometimes one bottle of water will set off the alarm. 

6 minutes ago, Basketball wife said:

I want to change the date with similar itinerary but

When I read "Quebec" I think it is good to remind you, that you should ignore everything said by a Non-Canadian. Every market has different rules, mostly totally different. 

10 hours ago, KarimaJ said:

Is there any Indian food on the MSC buffet?

Depends on the number of UK pax. If the ship stops Southampton then Indian food options are available daily😄

17 hours ago, Stockjock said:

I wonder if this is a common practice on all cruises, or just ones that they consider popular?

Maybe not on all cruises, but on most. It is absolutely logic that MSC needs to limit the bookings to allocation. Otherwise loads of cabins are not bookable because they are occupied one or two days. Late releases for YC cabins were very common, now with the upgrade bidding less.

The Virtuosa cruise you are talking counts as five different cruises that share one boat. You cannot grab a Rotterdam cabin from Southampton. Only if it is empty for the next cruise also, then there will be a late release. 

When MSC has to change the number of seatings the old times get cancelled. Happens many times. One of the reasons for this.

In your case it looks like they have to change from 2 to 3 seatings because the ship will be on full capacity I guess. 

In Northern Europe MSC is happy about every guest who wants late seating 😄