perakcruiser

And usually people care about the quality of the food, not about the gentle movements of the waiter serving it 😄

Here we go! Venice: If you embark here you obviously have done your sightseeing before you boarded the Armonia. If this is your first stop a certain amount of unhappiness cannot be avoided. The ship docks on the mainland, a tender boat to Venice is needed. And the tender goes to the cruise port and a dock that is far away from everything, People Mover is useless, the walk to the train station is very boring. From there the interesting things begin. The famous trip with the ship thru the Giudecca Canal will not happen anymore, even leaving Venice does not offer any good few anymore. What we did: Took the tender in the afternoon, walked Venice a couple of hours and went back. If your cruise ends here, MSC has myriads of offers and the transport to the airport is surprisingly cheap. And they have excursions that end at the airport (or train station). Dubrovnik: I don´t see much use in the MSC excursions here. As before we just took the as always extremely crowded public bus to the old town and back. MSC also offers a shuttle bus. Kotor: The fortress and the views from above are the big thing, but even more the sailing into Kotor thru the fjord. Actually out of Kotor, as sailing in is very early in the morning. Corfu: Here there is not much to do if not taking one of the reasonable priced MSC excursions. Alternative is to walk to town and the city beach or take the MSC shuttle bus or public bus. With proper planning you also can take a ferry to Albania and back, which is what I would do if coming to Corfu again. Zakynthos: As I said before, the boat tour there is the big thing on this cruise. The boat will bring you to the famous shipwreck beach, the blue cave and some great beaches. Usually a 30 minutes swim stop at the beaches and at the cave. All is phantastic, especially swimming in the caves. You can do this with MSC (€ 68 for adults, €48 for children) or cheaper with a local tour operator. Keep in mind that the last tender boat back to the Armonia is set for 14.30 (usually later because of a long waiting line). You have to discuss with the local operators if you can make this. For us it worked perfect. Thanks to priority boarding we left with the first tender at 8.00, walked 25 minutes to the mytours boat (unfortunately exactly on the other side of the port), went on at 8.40 and the boat left at 8.45. With two adults two kids it is well worth the effort, it saved us around €100. Bari: If your main interest is food, there is no need to go out of Bari. Otherwise there are two magical places nearby. The Trulli houses in Alberobello and the Sassi in Matera. All can be done with MSC for the usual prices. Alberobello you can also do by yourself, head immediately to the train station and take a bus, they are quite frequent. Matera is better, actually it is as amazing as Zakynthos. Great if your cruise starts/ends from Bari, otherwise it only can be done with MSC as the busses are very unfrequent. Actually we had to go at 7.40 and back at 19.30, but it was so so so worth it. Matera is a place you will never forget.

Will do on Monday!

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That depends if you booked with MSC USA or with MSC in Europe. If you booked for example with MSC UK or MSC Germany all is paid already, including the tips. It is quite possible to have a bill of zero on board. If you booked with MSC USA you will have daily tips and strange taxes added to your cabin bill. No individual tipping, but nobody will punish you if you do (discreet). For example our cabin steward from India was so nice and helpful last week that I tipped him 10 euros, the highest tip I paid in my life 🙂 This all will probably change very soon and USA will enter the first world final pricing 😉 because California made this a law.

The thing is that the US cruises are full of Diamond members and the European cruises still see a very limited amount of Diamonds, maybe 30 to 40 per cruise and that includes the non-Diamonds from the same cabin. Difficult situation for MSC, yes, they are talking about the new level above Diamond for years. But you better not make the Diamond members, who worked themselves up for years (like me) VERY angry by pushing them back. You both get the free photo.

Actually they do not end at 11:35. The tenders run all day, but there is indeed a gap of maybe 45 minutes or even 1 hour after the first big wave. We were not explained why, but we also did not care too much as we were in transit and visited Venice in the afternoon with a tender off the boat at 1:30 and back at 5:00. Actually it can be considered as a normal tender port, there is no difference to Zakynthos or Kotor.

Always happy to help 🙂 And - in the name of my 7 year old daughter on behalf of your 8 year old daughter - I really have to insist that you take the Blue Cave and Shipwreck Beach tour in Zakynthos 😄 It is so so amazing. And even the MSC price of 68 EUR adult / 48 EUR kids price is absolutely worth it. About Bari kids maybe will choose Alberobello over Matera, but here I would say, don´t let them choose😉 There is a reason why this list is so long: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_shot_in_Matera

The trip was great. I do think this is the cruise with the best ports. The kids club did deliver as usual which at the end is the most important point. Food in MDR was normal MSC standard, supringly two times Lophius piscatorius was served, no idea how this excellent fish is called in english 🙂 Buffet was not as good as I am used from MSC. Pizza great as always. As it was Pentecost holiday week in Europe the ship was (as expected) completely sold out. And the extended Armonia really cannot accomodate so many people especially in the buffet. But when you stay in a cabin with four people you better not complain the others who bring their kids 😄 Dubrovnik is still amazing on a second visit, Zakynthos is sensational, the Shipwreck-Blue Caves-Xigia Beach boat tour is a must. MSC offers it for a OK price, can be done cheaper with good planning. Kotor is one of the best in Europe. The fort can be attacked from the side by walking up the serpentines instead of the stairs. To my surprise there was no entrance fee for those who did😄 In Bari I highly recommend going to Matera, it is unfortunately only possible with a MSC excursion. Alberobello is an alternative you can do by yourself by taking a bus from Bari centrale. Conclusion: You are doing this trip because of the ports, not because of the Armonia.

Yes, the terminal building itself is very easy to miss. But at this point you almost stand in front of the ship🙂

Actually it is not, it is really just that Googlemaps STILL has a totally stupid mistake. No one would walk this way if not using Googlemaps. Embarking in Bari otherwise is dead simple, we even walked last week the 1.7 km to the port entrance (only one entrance, no matter ir cruise ship or ferry) from the train station as we arrived early in the morning and had time to kill. I knew the way from another stop in Bari some years, but used Googlemaps also and thought "What is wrong with them", turned it off and just walked straight to the ocean and then turned right 🙂

Not if you want to burn OBC

I guess thousands including myself would say this sentence also, but if you want to have one of the best cabin on the ship (excluding YC) you HAVE to book Aurea, that is part of the MSC game. I hope your agents gives nice cashback, because he has obviously no idea about MSC Cruises 😄 Great stuff, congrats!

Don´t expect any staff on MSC to understand what you mean with "egg crate". I also do not, but it sounds funny 🙂

MSC is much more friendly then others and not kicks you off the boat at 9 am like Celebrity does. There is no clear rule, we always left around lunch time, so I don´t know the latest time.

Probably only on US sailings, otherwise MSC would not find butlers for the ships in other parts of the world. Which is why MSC made it impossible to remove the gratuities for (almost) all Non-US-Pax. They know exactly the risk of removal for all nationalities 😉 Last time I booked I had to pay the gratuities with the deposit already. An on my travel documents they state the Hotel Service Charge as "Cancelled Items", which sounds like I cancelled it. I know it is just that I will not get charged double, but it sounds strange 😄

All places in Europe have excellent public transport, you don´t need to think about this. Just decide by price. First decision: Western or Eastern Med? Or both with two cruises after you made the long trip to the other side of the atlantic ocean. Most important: Avoid the hot season in Europe. The week before and after Easter, the Pentecost week and the long summer holiday from mid June to beginning of September.

Depends on the route. Usually it is a Nestle brand, but it changes from time to time.

The Australians I know don´t tip, just like the Asians and Europeans do not tip. You can do whatever you want, nobody expects anything. And everybody is happy about your tip no matter how high or low. The nationalities you would insult by trying to tip them are not working on cruise ships 😄

Was not the case at our last Eastern Med cruise. I expect a lot of people boarding at the other places. We board at Bari this time.

Definitely not. The 151 includes the Doge's Palace. The entrance fee there is very expensive, that is why the difference is so high.

He cannot, only local currency for cast transactions. But in all these countries there are myriads of moneychangers who change EUR and USD to local currency with excellent rates. Only Sing Dollar is even better. British pounds are worse, but not a rate disaster. GBP are used by MSC and all Caribbean cruises that do not start in USA have EUR as currency.

Sure, that is the norm. Before one also did not know the menu of the next day, so how to know if opting for MDR or buffet? Now with the app and the menu for the whole week this has changed, so a few times I could tell the waiter. Which he appreciated.

Well, even more disappointing is the Pinot Grigio from the Easy package 😄

How crazy is this!!! Thanks for the warning if we ever go there. I will leave the wallet on the ship and tell the family I "forgot" it. Even more crazy is that a MSC ship runs out of Pinot Grigio 😄