perakcruiser

If it is the Preziosa, calling her a lower class ship should disqualify you from ever booking MSC again 😉 And I find it quite generous from them that they offer you a refund just because the ship has changed. Usually they not even give a refund for a dropped port.

Multigeneration family trips is the original DNA of MSC. And it is impossible for Italy lovers not to love the Mera. At least not after visiting the Mozzarella station.

Oh! I found it was a very nice 1km walk thru pedestrian only area. And my 73 year old mom could do it easily with her suitcase to and from the ship. Of cause "luggage" is different, some have wheels, some have not and I also would not be motivated to carry a golf bag or so. The end of the journey is indeed the Radisson Blu hotel.

This is ridiculous as most of the Fantastica benefits have very limited use for the majority of cruisers. As all others said, it is mainly about choosing the cabin by yourself or not. On the other hand, the price difference between Bella and Fantastica is usually so small, not really worth to think too much about it. You pay a little bit more and get a little bit more. If it will be a great cruise or not has zero to do with this choice.

I boarded in Cannes and liked it. Walking distance from the train station and much smaller crowds. Certainly the process to start the boarding takes longer than normal, so even with a YC booking I would not show up at 9 or so. Waiting there is ugly as there is nothing, maybe also no YC facilities landside. But you also don´t need to wait until 14:30, something in the middle should be fine.

On the webpage. If no cruise and fly is available, then MSC does not offer it for this market/route.

You're welcome. I am cruising with them for more then 10 years, never been in any "speciality" restaurant not the YC. And I am a beef eater, but apart from one or two beef dishes that I know they do perfect, I avoid it, beef is really their weak point, but with so many alternatives absolutely no problem for me. By the way, beef is also the weak point in many restaurants in Italy, of course not when they are specialised in Bistecca Fiorentina. Which MSC also serves for a upcharge.

Well, this is quite simple, and certainly it is not MSC to blame. I easily could choose food I totally dislike from the buffet and in the MDR and then complain. But it was my lack of knowledge and to a certain extent also lacking experience with MSC. After cruising many years with MSC I can honestly say the food there is good. I have many dishes I love and I am looking forward to and they always suprise me with new stuff. Yes, overall good and not exciting, but I dont expect five stars when I pay for three stars. Yes, no filet mignon and no expensive seafood if you not pay extra. Not willig to pay for this and complaining is a little bit ridiculous.

Water, tea and coffee (and milk and lemon slices) are available 24 hours at the buffet.

This is a big topic at MSC and for the crew members, especially if they come to MSC from RCCL or Carnival. They cannot behave so "over friendly" to European and Asian customers as these will find it annoying or even unacceptable. And will complain that their privacy was not respected. Usually the MSC rule seems to be "be invisible, but if the guest likes to talk with you and introduces himself by its name, follow his standard. Don´t call someone by his name if he did not tell you his name."

---The Comedy of MSC errors post is exactly the kind of faff I'd like to avoid. Relax. This won´t happen to you with a simple Balcony cabin booking and no "special discussions". Just keep the booking simple and not touch it after it is done, then you don´t need to worry. 2. No, all fine with this. 3.2 Usually no chance 3.3 Only you can answer this for yourself, yes, per person. 4. 3yo usually should have no problem to enjoy the kids/baby club. The staff there was brilliant on all our cruises. Wish I could say this about MSCs other facilities also. 5. You will have no problems in Hamburg and Amsterdam. Le Havre I dont know. 6. There is no real daytime entertainment for families outside the kids club except water park and these outdoor stuff. Bowling and video games are not suitable for a 3yo and need to be paid. 7. Yes, aqua park is included and great fun for all ages. 8. Yes, gratuities are fully included, cannot be changed or removed as it is all included in the cruise price. 9. Free at the buffet, otherwise have to pay. For Brits only the coffee also in the MDR (lunch/dinner, morning free for all) is included. You don´t need to fear high extra costs as they occur on the US lines, many people leave the MSC ships with a bill of zero. For us it is usually around 50€ for a week.

Yes, that is exactly the point, the big difference is occuring, when the Italians (and also some Spanish or French) don´t fly to the cruise but board in their home country. Then many families with members from 3 to 90 dress up to the max. I have to admit that I also don´t know how the Brits dress on a cruise from Southampton, as some said, the TO should know his compatriots much better than the Americans like you and others like me here in the forum. I only can tell him that the Germans, Dutch, Polish, Austrians ... that come over to the cruise with Ryanair and Easyjet will not be very formal 🙂

You probably have not made many MSC cruises in Europe with an Italian majority on board. But on the Virtuosa to Scandinavia with a lots of Brits and Germans things certainly will be a little bit different. Still many will dress up, not because they have to, but because they want.

Yeah, it sounds a little bit strange, but the cruise lines have done that before (in South Africa), I guess MSC knows what they are doing. Certainly partly a different clientele, but in case of your ex-Compatriots not. They are fully prepared to spend half of their annual salary or more for the World Cup 😄 For the cheap flights you need to search directly at the webpages of the Middle East LCC. Ah, maybe in 2026 MSC will send a ship to Vancouver, who knows.

I never got a invitation for the Gold hour @ Spa, always had to go there by myself and book. While I agree with you about the question if the 'loyalty' benefits were worth the loyalty, keep in mind that the other cruise lines in Europe often have zero loyalty benefits and don´t offer any program (but Costa has).

Don´t forget, MSC started only a few years before to really push aggressive in the US market and offered the status match. Before somebody with "Black" was something most have heard of but never seen. No wonder with the 1 night / 1 point system even for a YC booking. Now things are different of cause, but certainly it is guaranteed that a "new" status will get the benefits of Black/Diamond and B/D will be downgraded to Gold and so on. So without any doubt the best that can happen for us cruisers is that MSC is not touching the current system.

It is not similar but comparable. Both are surely not comparable to Meraviglia, Seaside, Virtuosa... But a Spa pass for these ships is around double the price of Lirica- and Fantasia-class.

Unfortunately you can only book affordable accomodation in Doha with a ticket. In this case it would be a ticket for the final, which is a) not available and b) not cheap with prices up to 1500 USD. Apart from that the MSC World Europa and MSC Poesia are available as hotels until Dec 20. This cruise is the first cruise where cruise companies are allowed to embark passengers in Qatar again. During the World Cup all lines had to reschedule the Doha embarkation to Dubai or Abu Dhabi. As the ship is the Europa people cannot change to another port as the ship is all the time in Doha. The only solution probably is indeed to stay in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat or Bahrain and fly over on the 20th. The European guests will just fly to Doha on the 20th and not need accomodation.

Well if I need to choose if I want to visit Venice or Disneyland, I would know what I choose. Even the number of rides and slides is shockingly small in Venice 😄 As @Georgia_Peaches I probably need to be shanghai´d to set a foot on a Disney ship, but that is not the point. The article is useless as probably all articles by people who know nothing are. So many things are just plain stupid wrong. "Although it has been offering Caribbean cruises for about a decade now" - much, much longer, do your research if you pretend to be a journalist. "The truth is, I got what I paid for and encountered more logistical hassles and nickel-and-diming than I’ve experienced on most of the 50-plus cruises I’ve been on." - The truth is that it is quite simple to finish a MSC cruise with a bill of zero. Kids Club, Water park, all free, and so on. "the buffet menu aboard MSC Seashore rarely changed and the venue in which the buffet was set out was both crowded and confusing to navigate." - What? The menu changes every day completely. Yes, pasta is available as yesterday, but you need to look a little bit closer, it is a different pasta all the time. Totally different. Meat carving is different, fish and so on. "Some days there was a Mexican station, though it was hard to find in the enormous venue." - What you are talking is the "Ethnic corner", where - certainly - the food is not Mexican every day, as - as said before - it changes every day. It is not easy to find at all, same position all the time. One buffet counter somewhere had a rotating selection of hot lunch dishes, but when I finally found my way there, none of the dishes were labeled. In fact, nothing was labeled anywhere on the buffet - Never experienced this, always everything was labeled. Labeled in 5 or 6 languages. A highlight of every family cruise I’ve been on is the free soft-serve ice cream on the pool deck - This is a highlight for you, wow! Machine "ice cream", which is not allowed to be called ice-cream in many countries 😉 is considered as the lowest level by Europeans, something you only buy at McDonalds for a extremely low price in every currency. There are only two ways to get free ice cream on MSC Seashore... or you head to the one buffet counter that offers snacks for one hour from 4 to 5 p.m. every day, and you get in line with scores of other hot and hungry cruisers to ask for one of two flavors - In all my MSC cruises the ice cream was available for dessert not only from 4 to 5 but also after lunch. And it were always 3 choices. As no normal thinking parent is allowing their kids to have ice cream more than one time a day, maximum two because holiday, this is absolutely adequat. It’s hard to say how much this was a fault of the kids club versus my daughter’s capricious personality - By reading your article I have a special idea who is to blame and it is not MSC 🙂 because MSC attracts a diverse, international crowd, many of the kids my daughter’s age at the Junior Club didn’t speak English. This made making friends difficult. - It is very good for kids to mix with other nationalities/languagues. For kids this usually is easy, at least my kids have no problem with this, certainly because they are used to it. Instead, you must stand in line to use a kiosk to fund your cruise account after you board. - Just dont do it with a kiosk with a long line. Go a few steps to another one or wait a few hours. It would have been nice to be able to designate our specific choice during the initial booking process rather than spending even more time in a line. - Do your homeword and book Fantastica and select your time in advance. To me, the ship seemed better suited to couples and groups of adult friends traveling together - MSC is the main choice for families ALL AROUND THE WORLD, they have this reputation for a good reason. What it is seems for you is the complete opposite for the rest of the world. By the way, recommending booking the YA for a family with kids is at least strange. Sure we all have a lot of things to criticize about MSC, but this article is unfortunately from a clueless person who is not qualified to criticize them. Here on this board probably every user is more qualified.

I don't think any cruise line is heating the pools. And kids care much less about the water temperature than adults as I know very well from my kids 🙂

11 is safe. Just prepare yourself with knowing the shortest way to walk. Depends on the track your train will be situated.

You better stick with the US cruiselines, MSC is not for you.

MSC in Western Med would probably perfect for you. Or MSC in Brazil. But no MSC ship is a "quiet, sit-in-the-sun, retire early kind" ship, that is totally not the concept of MSC. When sailing from the US, maybe some more "quiet, sit-in-the-sun, retire early kind" are on board, that I don't know.

You make not like the answer but it is the only correct answer. The drinks package price is the price you are offered during the booking process. Depends on your country, the ship, the route, the ongoing promos, whatever. One good news is that it is unheard of that anyone ever got a cheaper price / offer later when not having booked the drinks package already with the cruise.

In practice it is not such a big thing it may sound. EXCEPT for wine drinkers. If you are planning to enjoy some nice glasses of wine you really need to PREPARE yourself with reseach and upgrading you drinks package to the right level BEFORE the cruise. Otherwise it will be a unhappy and/or very expensive story. You also can opt to ignore the drinks package and pay by glass / bottle.