perakcruiser

Oh yes, they do. And it is higher than other cruises for 7 nights, €84 instead of €70.

If you are not forced to or can opt to include this during the booking it will be added onto your account on a daily basis. Only in this case you can change or remove. The charge depends on the route and age.

OK. Just checked, as expected all kinds of cabins including YC are available.

This is a cultural business gap. The anglo-american world is giving local staff the rights to decide things, in southern Europe and all of Asia everything has to go thru HQ. EVERYTHING in Malaysia, the local branch of a business cannot make the smallest decision without approval from HQ. It is the same thing in the other direction. Had this a couple of years before, we were told better just drop the luggage and go sightseeing in Venice and come back late afternoon when the chaos has ended. Which we did, had a great day in Venice and in the evening we could more or less walk directly on the ship. Sure MSC is to blame here, but definitely also the port authorities. I know that some ports are far away from everything and leaving is not really an option. But Venice or Genoa or Napoli are perfect.

You are not writing where you embark. Different ports have different allocations, but basically it is totally impossible that a cruise in November 2023 is fully booked.

No, the WE will go back to work on Dec 20. Doha and Dammam are on the itinerary.

Totally strange as ALL cruise lines I know charge you for picking the cabin by yourself. Maybe some where the base fare is already 10 times higher than MSC not. And the surcharge for Fantastica is so tiny, all others I know charge much more. And definitely MSC is the not the best line, but the line with the most "equitable environment".But I guess you are right not to go with MSC, it is probably just not the suitable product for you.

Sometimes day passes are available, sometimes not. During COVID hard times no day or week passes at all on board, only pre booked. If that has changed now, I don´t know. I don´t remember the price of the day or week passes on board, just remember that they are much more expensive than in advance.

If you booked via MSC you need to call them, if you booked TA you need to ask them.

Just don´t touch the booking and nothing will be changed. But yes, if you read "2nd seating" on your cruise card, you have to go to the maitre d to change.

Your problem as MSC beginner is that your research is more or less useless because all the Bella/Fantastica/Aurea stuff changes constantly. And many ships are older than these "tiers", that is relevant when we talk about cabins. So older reviews are outdated. Let me give you an example. To make Fantastica more attractive MSC decided that some activities in the Kids Club were only free with Fantastica tier. I am not sure if the kids club staff really enforced this. It was a stupid idea and removed fast. Some years before you also could select your cabin will Bella, get the free breakfast delivery to the room and so on. Basically there was almost no difference. So during covid MSC finally found the key to promote Fantastica, the choice of cabin. This is something many people seem to like. During the cruise there is no difference if you booked Bella or Fantastica. Aurea is a different thing, as they have their private sun deck and restaurant and the best cabins can only be booked with Aurea. But while the price gap between Bella and Fantastica is very small, the gap to Aurea is very big.

This one I like also, but I don´t think it will be on MSCs lists in Europe, only Caribbean.

Yes, you can, but only at the beginning of the cruise. One of the first days. MSC has some Sauvignon Blancs, which exactly depends on the route. I like the one from Friuli called Tenuta Villanova. Not too spectacular, but really good and priced fair also.