perakcruiser

2 hours ago, sidari said:

Costa add the mandatory charge to the final bill onboard seperate from the cruise price.

Very funny, it was MSC who sued Costa in Germany a couple of years before for exactly this. Certainly Costa lost and then changed to abolish the charge completely and include it in the cruise price. It did not know that they did not do this in UK also. 

26 minutes ago, sidari said:

PC ... The DSC on MSC is now included within the cruise cost for cruise customers from the UK since 23rd June 2019 and has not been removed, your information regarding the DSC and other lines is not 100% correct.

Costa have a Mandatory DSC which cannot be removed, P and O cruises say they have removed the DSC but it has likely been added into the cruise fare as MSC have done. 

Note that CMV and Fred Olsen charge Gratuities!

 

Well if it is included in the price as with Costa* and MSC UK, then I would not call it a "mandatory DSC" anymore, as it is not visible and as you say with P&O it is just a part of the cruise price. Same with this mysterious port taxes some nationalities have to pay. I never heard of the lines "CMV" or "Fred Olsen" (funny name), but certainly they also cannot break the law. There is just one "trick",  do not sell your cruises "officially" in these markets, just use global webpage so you only need to follow the law of the place where the company is based. Genting Cruises is doing this, they can force all passengers to pay service charges. 

*Costa defintely cannot add a "mandatory" service charge to the accounts, if they not collect it with the stated cruise price in the catalogue it is purely voluntary. Very surprised to read that UK law doesn´t protect customers from companies changing the "final price". 

On 2/19/2020 at 9:40 AM, richnorto said:

This will be our first cruise outside of American lines, so I DO want to know. 

MSC will never ever disclose, they never did and never will do. One thing that is sure, they changed the system all the time during the last years and especially after the all inclusive drinks packages went popular. And the true answer if you ask staff on board how much they get from the DSC is "I don´t know". I would not bet that ANYONE including the captain (who don´t care anyway) on board knows the system exactly, these decisions are made in Italy and Switzerland. But you can indeed expect that the DSC goes to the staff. 

On 2/19/2020 at 9:40 AM, richnorto said:

If only $200 of $300 paid in gratuities goes to Service Providers, I would rather take my $300 and the additional $100 we would add and tip personally. 

How you want to handle this? The DSC goes to hundreds of people, you want to give your waiter and room steward $200 each and all others nothing? Well, that is the reason why cruise lines don´t like individual tipping and ask not to do so. 

With all this discussions don´t forget one thing, the staff on cruise lines are not unhappy and low paid people, it is still a dream job with extraordinary high salary for so many.

17 hours ago, Reds4life said:

Part of this issue is the fact that MSC calls this a Daily Service Charge where other cruiselines call it Gratuities... Then, MSC charges a similar fee and calls it a DSC. Thus, some confusion occurs. 

It is very simple, MSC and all other European cruise lines cannot call it "Gratuities", this would be totally illegal as by law they cannot collect Gratuities from their guests. Same with the port fees or port taxes they cannot collect from the guests from these markets. The DSC is already on the verge of being illegal, they solved this in the way that  guests can delete this "suggestion" and the cruise lines are not allowed to ask any question about WHY. Some years before guests only could delete by giving a reason, certainly MSC was sued for this and lost. 

In Europe most cruise lines already have abolished the DSC and Gratuities completely (or never had it). MSC seems to have removed it in not so price sensitive markets like UK or Switzerland, but they are probably for a good reason afraid to do it in the main markets like Germany. Selling the cabin 140 Euro more expensive can make a difference. 

8 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

How long is the walk from the ship to that port area?  I hear it's quite a long walk.  Are there shuttles or golf carts or anything for those of us with old, aching joints?

It is only 50 meters. When you get off the ship you are almost inside already. The area itself is quite big, but honestly speaking, I found it totally horrible and would stay on board if I would dock there again.

Stopp, I forget, there is free Wi-Fi! Yes, Costa Maya was the only stopp with free Wi-Fi in the Carribean, OK, in this way it is a good place to leave the boat. 

8 hours ago, Cruising_Gals said:

Correct.  This from MSC website:  "Onboard bar purchases will incur a 15% bar service charge, automatically added to your final bill."  Now, if you buy a drinks package onboard, they add the service charge, if you pre-book, the "discount" is not getting charged 15% service charge.  So you get a discounted price, just as with the pre-booking of internet, excursions, internet, etc.  Not sure if this then means the bar staff don't get a tip, that's what it sounds like, otherwise they would just say discounted 15%, right?  Sigh...

I am not giving up, even it is so tough 😄

The Daily Service Charge goes (in some not published way) to the staff, the 15% on board service charge goes to the company. So for the staff it is totally umimportant if you pre book your drinks or buy on boards.

20 hours ago, Reds4life said:

Oops, I guess just the Diamond folk get something good lol! 

On trips with a lot of tender ports the tender priority is a great thing. On trips with no or only one tender Gold is almost useless indeed. 

21 hours ago, Liviucostin said:

You should know that for some reason on more than one occasion they switched Ajaccio with Toulon. That happened with me unfortunately so I didn't get the chance to see Corsica.

So sad, Corsica is really a great highlight and a "special" thing.

21 hours ago, Liviucostin said:

Also, if you want to go to Cinque Terre I recommend the MSC excursion to not have to worry about getting back on time. 

As is Cinque Terre of cause. If you want to do the real hiking between the villages you have to go by yourself. Head to the railway station as early as possible, bring enough water. Very challenging, but so much joy to do. If you are not that fit, then better stick with the excursions.

7 hours ago, Cruising_Gals said:

You can remove them if you feel you didn't receive good services- but you can't modify them like on other lines.

This certainly depends on the nationality again. While there are maybe some nationalities that cannot modify, most can of cause. For example it is quite common for families travelling together in two cabins, that the DSC is deleted for one cabin and doubled on the other, so that the person with the highest amount of Voyager points can reach Gold or Black faster. Cutting down 50 percent is certainly also not uncommon. 

6 hours ago, camofwilliamsburg said:

Bar staff are not included in the daily service charge. Tipping bar staff is customary and added to bills.

 Who told you this? Maybe bar staff lurging for tips? 😉

Either it is a lie, very new or only on specific sailings. Certainly on European or Asian sailings it would be a desaster for bar staff if they would been removed from the DSC with almost zero tips for them. But certainly it is possible that MSC realized that on US sailings the bar stuff gets tips, so they reduced there other earnings for fairness reasons. 

10 hours ago, sidari said:

Mickey ... Since the DSC has been included in UK pricing as of June 23rd 2019 my understanding is that it cannot be removed

Very simple rule in many countries, what is included in the final price cannot be removed, what is not, that cannot be collected by force, no matter it is a service charge or port fees or whatever. 

On 1/28/2020 at 8:20 AM, aprilF said:

We will need a place for lunch in between Pompeii and Herculaneum.  We will have a car.  Our preference would be a winery but we cant take a very long time for this meal, two hours max driving included.  Any recommendations?

If you have a car and love pasta, you should really consider to visit Gragnano. Also on the Amalfi coast consider the hike „Sentiero Degli Dei“, so amazing.

Cannes, nothing special to do, but a nice city walk. Palma, there is a quite nice shopping mall very close to the port. Otherwise Palma is a classical stay on board stop if you don't want to do any of the excursions.

10 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

The only 15% charge I have heard of is on bar drinks.

Then prepare for a couple of 15% surprises more.

And certainly the salaries on all European and Asian cruise companies are much higher, otherwise they would get no staff.

Very simple, US boats low salary, high tips, Non-US high salary, no or low tips. At the end it ends up same same, because the cruise companies know the numbers very very good.

47 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

I read on another thread that the Daily Service charge that is automatically added to your bill goes to MSC, not the service employees on the ship.  How many people cancel the auto charge and pay the employees directly?  Also, what are some guidelines to tip each person?  

You still refuse to understand that the DSC is not the 15% service charge on board. 

Second, you should understand that MSC is a European company, staff is not living on tips, but on salaries. 

16 hours ago, orderfire said:

Oh man, this is really excellent news!   Thanks for posting.  ☺️

No real news, MSC had the "pillow menu" with a wide choice of pillows already in 2014. Maybe you just did not ask for it at that time. But indeed typical MSC "cruise and learn" style, not everything is black and white, you just need to know. 

15 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

When was the last time you attended an opera performance on a Carnival Cruise Line ship?  Meraviglia's theater was filled to capacity that afternoon.  Why would such a successful program be eliminated?

Because it is expensive and it is already almost eliminated from MSC 😥 I do not see many chances to save it, but if you were lucky to enjoy on your last cruise, please tell them! 

On our last cruise on the Sea view there was zero classical music or opera so we cut down the DSC 50% and also told them how disappointed we were. 

49 minutes ago, skiierx131 said:

First time reading MSC doesn't divvy out the daily service charge in a thread like this. But it doesn't surprise me in any way.

The daily service charge is not the 15% service charge for on board services. MSC has a bonus reward and incentive system for the staff that is connected to the daily service charge in some way.

13 minutes ago, HofstraJet said:

Have a MSC cruise booked for next month. Wondering if as the sail date approaches if MSC sends out discounts on drink packages, internet, shore excursions, etc.

 

Should I just book or wait for a discount?

 

Are any of them cheaper on board?

No discounts on these products just because the sailing is coming closer. Almost always more expensive on board. The only thing worth waiting is the cruise fare itself, if you are flexible then you can hope for a very good last minute offer in case the ship is booked not so good. 

Should be no problem at all. And the railway station is just a very short walk from the ship.

5 minutes ago, Até said:

Whether you have the Drinks On Us package that charges 15% on each drink or purchase a' la carte and directly pay a 15% "gratuity" or have a newer drinks package that is all inclusive there is no way to tell what part of these the bartenders will actually get.

I don't know where this idea is coming from that the 15% charge for services on board is going to any staff member. This belongs to the company and goes to the company. And it is a main reason why the cruises are so cheap 🙂

But certainly you are right, how the crew is paid will probably remain undisclosed and a mystery. And the system changes all the time anyway, now with so much more tipping US pax on board, MSC surely has changed already.

7 hours ago, geospyder said:

I learned something 🙂  As much as I've traveled I had not heard of the Schengen area.  Looks like I'll be good to go.  

This is important for ALL cruises is Europe, not just in the North.

If there is one non Schengen port included the things get much more bureaucratic. If all Schengen everybody can enjoy total seamless travel, even if you hold an Afghanistan passport 😄

1 hour ago, Jembeccatoo said:

 

If I prepay my drink package before sailing, there is no 15% gratuity charged. Does that mean unless I tip for each drink, the bartender gets nothing at all?

The bartender certainly not gets anything of the 15%, this service charge belongs solely to the company. In Europe they have this strange concept of salary instead of gratuities 😄

It was the Seaside and not the Seaview, but at the end of the cruise I was told that the Zipline was booked zero times during the whole cruise. So probably not included for anyone. 

1 hour ago, phissy said:

Not sold out, so thank you for the recommendation. Appreciate all the help and suggestions.  Anyone have experience with Hamburg Card / multi day city pass?

I remember there was another hotel built in this area when we last time were there. So if you cannot get the Novum at your time of booking, there is a second option. 

We usually buy the 9 o clock group ticket. it can be used monday to friday all the time except 6 to 9 in the morning, weekends all day. The ticket is valid for all harbour ferries also which is a great way of sightseeing. Weekends thousands of others have this idea too 😄

The Hamburg Card only makes sense if you plan to visit museums. 

10 hours ago, melnemac32 said:

Babysitting is free?  Were you able to book this ahead of time?  If not, when did you arraign the baby sitting? And do they baby sit for 10 month olds?  I'm trying to find anything online about this...  and there is a frustrating lack of details out there.  Thanks!

Don´t expect too many details before you board. First cruise with MSC is always leaning time. The hotline knows nothing, don´t waste your time. 

You cannot "book" the babysitting, there are fixed times. You bring the baby or not. No idea if they also take 10 months olds as our baby was 13 months as I wrote.

On 7/30/2019 at 1:15 AM, Preziosa said:

Hotel Hafen Hamburg is Very close

The correct name is Novum Hotel Hagemann Hamburg Hafen. There at least one other Hotel Hamburg Hafen and it is far away on the other side of the river.

The hotel is good and reasonable prices, but probably sold out also. 

We were on the Mera with our 13 month old baby and it was absolutely great. Yes, babysitting is offered and it is free.