perakcruiser

2. Meat and fish are better on Celebrity, pasta is better on MSC. Overall celebrity deserves a higher rating, but this is certainly reflecting the price difference between the lines. 3. Depends on the specific cruise. CdS has been substituted with another brand many years already, have not seen these shows, people seem to like it. Not predictable if your specific MSC cruise will provide high quality opera/classical music.

Yeah, sounds great, but from my experience MSC with small children, don't bet too much on this. Highchairs are available. We were on one the Mera with our nine month old, even the ship was already many months sailing they still waited for all these wonderful things to come and probably will do so in 2022 also 😄 Still the cruise with our baby was excellent. And with our meanwhile two kids we not considering any other line anymore. Just follow the old MSC rule to prepare yourself and not bother them and if something's going wrong blame yourself and not MSC. Completely waste of time to ask the MSC customer service about those topics. They have no idea and absolutely have no idea when it comes to a new ship.

Great for you two that you did it already 😉 Unfortunately I did not and now have to wait. But I am not so pessimistic, as soon as the war has ended, I expect life will go back to normal very fast. Surely not in the Ukraine-Russia-relationship, but with wide parts of Europe and Russia. That sounds a lot like North Korea but not like Russia. Or what some Westerners say about China without ever have been there or knowing one Chinese person. A "global jail" everyone can leave whenever he wants is something new to me. OK, but lets better stop here, anyway, Americans, Western Europeans and Asians for sure have totally different opinions on this topics. We all wait and see when St. Petersburg is back on the cruise agenda.

While I totally enjoyed the two pre marriage cruises with Celebrity "quite a while" before, now with kids our choice is certainly MSC. Your teens will have a lot of fun with others in their age from around the world, that is much more important than some slight differences between YC and Retreat. In the future, when we cruise alone again, I want to revisit Celebrity for sure but this will still take "quite a while" 😄

Thanks, I should have made clear that I am only talking about the MDR. No idea what is going on in the "speciality" restaurants.

I don't think there is any wine by the glass priced higher than 15 USD. All high end wines are only available by bottle. In that sense "entire" is probably correct.

MSC will not help you, only the US TA will be able to do so. Note that by booking outside the EU you have given up all your EU travel and customer protection rights.

No, the worst case is that you will not be allowed to board the ship at all as some countries will not allow MSC to dock with passengers without visa. If you want to research the Israeli government websites you can do so by using the Opera browser with VPN. Otherwise all Israel websites are blocked in Malaysia. From my experience with MSC (had this question on a cruise with a stop in Turkey) they will refuse to tell anything about it. Especially in this case as MSC does not have a office or website for Malaysia or Singapore.

If they not fix it by December and the TV stays black during the World Cup this will be the end of the Divina 😄

Only Christians can go to Isreal for religious reasons. That is the official version. Many do indeed visit Israel, if you are Christian you best ask around at your church. MSC will most probably not give you an answer on this, maybe the Israeli embassy in Singapore will do. There is a small chance that the cruise stop is visa free, but there is also the chance that you will be denied boarding the whole cruise without a visa for Israel.

St. Petersburg is still on the Poesia schedule in 2023, but the chance that it will happen is extremely small I guess. Which is sad, because the Baltic cruises are rater unattractive without it. Maybe 2024.

No, 2009 or earlier. Probably earlier. The Poesia sailed from Europe to New York in Winter and did her Caribbean rounds from Fort Lauderdale. I don´t remember any details except that it had Key West as a destination sometimes.

The problem is the wines by the glass. And that is the pure decider also for us. Forget about Easy, but also Easy plus is hard to say if the package is worth it without really seeing the wine offerings. It is a very close call depending a lot on the wine by glass offerings in the MDR.

Yes, every ship has one (1) dedicated coffee bar. Usually it is close to the reception, but on the older ships maybe not always. How to find this coffee bar? Search for the iced coffee drinks these are only available here. Cabin cleaning was offered one time (morning) on our last cruise. Which - as it is MSC - does not mean that it could be two times on other ships/routes. The mini fridges are stocked. As it is MSC the room steward sometimes empties it for you if you request for it. Or tells you that you should empty it by yourself and put the stuff in the wardrobe or cupboard. But at least we had it emptied on all our MSC cruises and never got "error" charges for the mini fridge.

Ours had two (excellent) bunk beds for the 3rd and 4th passenger. But there could be also other types, you should be able to find out with the deck plans. If both is available, go for the bunk beds.

The baby club is open with the two usual programs "Baby Care" (baby alone) and "Baby Time" (you with the baby).

3. Certainly you can combine starters and mains as you want. 3 starters, one main, no starters, two mains, whatever, nobody cares. 4. You will not be able to link the bookings if not all have a drinks package. But this is necessary to sit together at dinner. Second chance is on board, in theory the maitre d does not really care about the packages (depends on the person of cause) when you ask to be seated together. But a table for 7 will maybe not so easy to get. 5. You need to understand the concept of elegant/gala (no formal) on European cruise lines. It should be seen as offer for you to enjoy the cruise more. It is not an obligation. The "requirements" are only minimal and can be easily met with normal shoes, trousers and not even a collared shirt is needed. But you might feel not so comfortable if you share a table only with people who want to celebrate the elegant night and dress up to the max 😄 And there are many doing this, especially from Southern Europe and France. Yes, buffet is open always and the dress code there alwwys is extremly casual.

Reminds me about the cruise terminal in Costa Maya, a commercial nightmare, a place so terrible that one better stays in an inside cabin for the whole day.

Very simple answer, because they did not manage it. For years there was the option to register the CC during web check in, in my case it NEVER worked. Always had to do it again at the real check in (as everybody else) and this delayed the check in heavily. "I have done it already online" - "Yes, I know, we have to do it again now" So they invested in these terminals.

Depends on the port I guess but basically YES. We often did this, come to the terminal in the morning, get rid of the suitcases, went away for sightseeing, coming back in the afternoon when the long lines are gone.

I dont completely understand why it should be a pain to spend 30 seconds to swipe the credit card on the terminals. I would consider it a pain to stand in line at the reception for 30 minutes to hand over the credit card for swiping. And before when it was done at check in it delayed the check in so much. The terminals are one time really a great invention that makes cruise life more easy.

I was one time with MSC on a two weeks cruise (no B2B) in the Caribbean from Havana where the menu did not repeat after one week to my surprise.

And the Mozzarella for obvious reasons 🙂

And for some strange and not understandable reason ALL iced coffee drinks are considered exotic enough to be ONLY served in that one dedicated bar. At the times my beloved coffee cuddle package still existed my first move after boarding always was to find that place. But usually most bartenders will prepare a coffee shakerado for you. This insider drink is not listed on any menu of cause, but easy package is ok for it.

You (luckily) missed the lanyard I got already two times 😄 And yes, as supercheap as these gifts are, the are carrying the exact number for Gold and Diamond to my suprise. So indeed a last minute booking can produce a missing tote bag. Which then needs to be upgraded from the gift shop.