perakcruiser

Not with a cruise company but with airlines when my mom in law passed away. Death of a close family member is maybe the only case where airlines are willing to refund (or give credit or reschedule for free). I needed to provide death certificate of my mom in law, birth certificate of my wife and our marrige certificate. And there is a problem for you as you wrote "GF". Even I assume that MSC would be as generous as the airlines, 50% of the money for flights and cruise is gone. Also a travel insurance will probably not cover her, but this is pure speculation and certainly hige differences between insurances and countries.

No, absolutely not. Only for cruisers from special markets who paid the port fees separated from the cruise fare. For other customers nothing will be refunded in case of a no-show.

No, but Saturday is part of the weekend. "Weekend" in Saudi Arabia means for most people Saturday and Sunday, for some Friday afternoon to Sunday and for others Friday to Saturday. And for the Banglas, Nepalese and Pakistani in the lower ranks only Friday. As a tourist this is completely irrelevant except for the bus schedules.

The Europa will be used as a hotel for the World Cup. I liked the idea, but when seeing the prices I prefer to do a cruise: https://www.qatar2022.qa/book/en/cruise-ship-hotels

In Europe the easy package wines are wayyyyyyy under equivalent of 9/10. Half maximum. Easy plus gives you a limited selection of some long time MSC favourites with retail prices up to or around 10€.

Not really. Aurea. Diamond. Families with baby. 11 is the worst time, you maybe will wait hours. usually from around 2 pm it will be acceptable.

Unfortunately Ryanair's Genoa flights usually do not fit to cruise departures and arrivals. If yours does, great for you. Ryanair is the most punctual airline in Europe, we always choose Ryanair if possible.

I also had the feeling that EVERYBODY got free water in the MDR on board of Virtuosa at the Dubai cruises. I thought maybe it was because the majority on our table had a drinks package anyway so they just put the bottles on the table. Certainly we did not ask questions about it 😄

Best offer usually comes at the time of booking. Sometimes 20€ per person per day. UK booking includes water and coffee, so definitely useless to buy the package for "occasional glass of wine at dinner" only.

This is a good question that is not easy to answer. 4 years ago on the Armonia in the Caribbean the Aurea restaurant had a upmarket menu. Not a YC menu but many dishes from speciality restaurants. Bascially it was the MDR menu with one or two dishes changed. We were unhappy not to have Aurea. On the Virtuosa I did not recognize any menu differences. We were happy not to have paid for Aurea. Conclusion, the only person that could give the right answer is someone that is now on a Non-YC-ship with Aurea.

Not the same class and quite different spas. But both are very good, overall I would prefer the Mera spa.