perakcruiser

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.

I definitely would not touch this wonderful booking before being onboard. If the gratuities really show up (which I do not expect) it is easy to correct at the reception.

This is a company from Italy that behaves like a company from Italy. Anyone who "looks down on kids" will be thrown overboard. "Bambini first" is the overall motto. But your kids probably will have more fun in the Teens club than in YC.

OK, we all (and me especially) love to complain about MSCs terrible IT and website. For a good reason. But after researching for a cruise with another line I have to say that the Royal Caribbean website and the Costa website are by no means any better. RCCL has great promos on the Singapore landing page, but if you search for are cruise in detail you get absolutely ridiculous prices where the kids not sail free as advertised. As usual with US companies a myriad of crazy fees and taxes are added very late and the advertised price has nothing to do with reality. With Costa there international pages not include the cruise in Asia. For this you will be directed to costaasia com. A webpage that is not working at all and looks and feels like programmed by guys who where fired for incompetence from MSC 😄

Yes, no problem to arrive later than your check in time. Usually around 3pm there are no more check in numbers/groups because the number of new guests is already very small and you can walk straight on the ship.

Nice to see this MSC signature dish again, before it was only available in speciality restaurants and sometimes in the Aurea restaurant. Hope you enjoyed it.

Find it quite interesting that the transport Acqua Panna all around the world for the YC 😄 Well, good for them to have a container line also.

I think this depends if you have booked Bella or Fantastica. At least before the big changes this year Fantastica allowed to change a passenger (name) for free. TO could go for this if booked Fantastica (or higher). Otherwise I cannot see another option than no show and after the cruise get some fees back for the missing pax. Depends on place of booking, if it is Europe than probably nothing will be refunded as no port charges have been paid.

That is normal because Europeans and Asians prefer the room steward to be invisible and doing his job discreet when they are out of the ship or eating. And also some staff prefers it in this way and for this reason prefer to work on MSC ships. Others like the "American way". Very nice review, I am enjoying to read.

Well, as MSC is keen to tell us that Venchi has nothing to do with them, they are just some outsiders that rented an by coincidence empty store on the ship😁 so you cannot get a 2€ Cappuccino there with you superdeluxepremiumplus drinks package, this is of course for sure.

You will get a new travel document PDF with the OBC voucher. This voucher is the only way to claim the OBC on board if it is missing. The chance that they honour an e-mail on board is rather limited. The term "show on our account" is a little bit strange, but maybe they mean that your TA can see it.

No. At this time the pricing model was very different, there was no Bella, Fantastica,... But the inside cabins (as the others) had many different categories, usually based on the deck. So your upgrade was only from inside/outside/balcony deck 5 to the highest inside/outside/balcony deck.