perakcruiser

13 minutes ago, MikeNKim said:

I am worried what I am missing in why these cruises are so cheap?

MSC prices follow European school holidays, so the price goes up extremely in main season and also goes down extremely in off season. That is the same for all European cruise companies. 

As you are from Canada, they will probably add harbour taxes and stuff like this to the price. 

9 hours ago, mapsmith said:

We like :

Inexpensive

Italian

Great Food.  (Some of the best on the seas as long as you don't want steak at every meal.)

Friendly Officers and Staff.

They used to have the entertainers and officers eat with passengers.  One of the few lines that actually still has a Captain's Table some nights.

Not USA centric.  That is, more European than American.

I would emphasize on this. And add the detail that they are certainly the most kids friendly line. 

But Italian is the key factor for us, the US companies are too american for us and the Germans too german. We sometimes sail with Celebrity and TUI Cruises also, but only on MSC I have the Italian holiday feeling that is priceless for me. 

Following closely now as we will go for our 10th MSC cruise on the Seaview in October.

But I better not read the YC menus otherwise I regret that I will notbe able to get this in the MDR :)

On 9/19/2019 at 11:13 AM, PopcornDK said:

My wife enjoys a good glass of wine, and loves cocktails, while I am an avid beer lover and none of us is in to champagne.

Difficult! 

Easy is perfect for you, but your wife will never have a good glass of wine in that case. 

20 hours ago, marco said:

I don't think you'll have an issue if you all agree to dine at a specific seating..  We were a group of 22 last year on the Divina and folks were all booked in different categories.

Armonia is totally different from Divina. 

On 8/24/2019 at 9:27 PM, dawcruiser said:

We are sailing on the Armonia we have a n ocean view cabin my brother in law has a suite how can we get a table together for meals.

If your brother in law gives up his right to dine in the My Choice dining restaurant (La Pergola), you can get a table together in the Marco Polo Restaurant.

On 10/30/2018 at 7:41 PM, Cauzneffct said:

The requirements for Americans leaving from Miami are different than those for Europeans/other nationalities embarking elsewhere.  I’ve read that there’s a $75 visa for US travelers, but it’s unclear as of now whether it’s automatically taken care of by MSC or if we have to affirmatively do anything ahead of time.

That must be a special rule at Miami cruise port if Havana is the first stop.

Here you can see that the US is not one of the 20 countries, that need a visa:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Cuba#Visa_required

I wonder what bad things the Pinoys did to be on that list 😄

Correction, 15 Euro is when reaching Cuba a second time on one cruise. First time costs 25 or 30.

Almost all nationalities don´t need a visa for Cuba. 

What most need is a Tourist Card. These are provided by MSC, either free or 15 Euros per person will be charged to your account. If you don´t want to leave the boat, you can cancel the tourist card at the reception. 

36 minutes ago, FGJones said:

Are there trays and covers in the buffet? Are you able to get a plate of food and take it to your room?  Or is room service the only in-room option?

No covers but trays. Not sure if it is allowed, but many do. Unfortunately some very bad mannered and lazy people later put out the tray with dishes in front of their cabin. Totally dislike this, if I decide to have a coffee and cake in the afternoon at the cabin, I certainly return the tablet to the buffet later. 

4 hours ago, FGJones said:

 

Is on-ship entertainment not included in the price of the cruise? 

Everything except the Buena Vista Social Club and Cirque Soleil (on other ships).

On 10/18/2018 at 2:22 AM, FGJones said:

I read her the section about the local Cuban musicians performing on board and she said that the show will be first-come-first-seated but there will be two performances.  

I think this is a reaction about the very unsuccessful performances of "Buena Vista Social Club" musicians before. Their show was very expensive (no, I don´t remember the price) and probably the theater was 80% empty. So this sounds much better now.

25 minutes ago, firstcarib said:

I’m hoping as MSC are an Italian company they will serve decent strong Italian coffee on board all their ships

Certainly they do, as Italian as in a Milan coffee bar, but not for free. The free coffee is what I would call a "thin watery brown beverage" 😉 , but definetely brewed from real beans at least. If you don´t have a drinks package, get yourself the "coffee cuddle" coupon book. Unbelievable good value. 

YC and Black Card is totally different. 

But I also don´t know at what time they start searching you, we left never later than 11:00 on cruises that ended at "normal" times. 

That is one of the reasons why the enter the US market so aggressive. You can´t fill these ships with the usual bunch of Swiss only 😄

We never heard or read about the "premium option" when we were on Armonia. So maybe this is new and that is why not to much informations available. 

On our dinner table we had people that took the excursion to Kohunlich ruins, they were very satisfied. 

My sister just told me that she thinks the "cruise ship holds our passports and gives us a plastic ID. So we can swim and get on and off boat at ports" Can anyone speak to this?

This depends on your nationality. Especially some Asians and Africans have their passports collected for the whole trip (if it is not Schengen only) But for some ports like Havana everybody has to bring the passport everytime getting on and off.

If you want to board early and have no priority you should be ready to pick your boarding number before 9. You can leave then again and come back around 1. How late you can stay? Technically as long as they call out your name and tell you to get off the boat. If you want to avoid that embarressment get off before 1.

Bella and Fantastica Inside, Seaview and Balcony cabins do not qualify for bathrobes.

NCL changed things a couple years back - Europe bookings have all the taxes/surcharges/gratuities whatever people argue to call them on the NCL boards are rolled into your price. In the US the cruise prices are reportedly less but you are charged 20% of the "value" of the various packages you pick which add hundreds of dollars.

Can imagine that. Also a reason why we never consider booking from Singapore website. You would expect that consumer protection should be very good there, but it is not. From my experience only a European booking (also not all countries) protects you from crazy taxes and fees and tips added to your bill. We really want to have everything rolled into the bill, for this the cruise price certainly can be higher.

Are you in Europe?

No, in Malaysia. But I usually book from Europe.

Read the fine print. There are many in/outs with NCL promos and limits plus fees on the packages.

I did. There are no fees mentioned. Just a cryptical "At some destinations there could be some taxes and VAT occur". And Internet is limited to 60 minutes per person, that of cause is not too exciting.

As a MSC/Celebrity/TUI Cruiser who is attracted by the NCL policy with free premium drinks, no service charge/tips and free internet I will follow this closely.

So, is that aft area really open to the public? There appear to be stairways in each corner...can guests use them?

Yes and yes.

Big advantage of this aft cabins on deck 9, you are only 30 seconds away from the water, tea and coffee station. Others have to perform a half marathon to get there :cool:

I've never seen extra pillows in the cupboard on MSC ships, P, but, you're right, you can request extra pillows from the steward.

Hmm, maybe the extra pillows are there because we usually have cabins with additional bunk beds. But anyway, the steward will take care.

Also, does Armonia not have YC?

No YC, but a separate restaurant for Balcony Fantastica and above.

Will MSC provide extra pillows upon request? Is there a way to submit that request in advance? I just saw a photo of my class of state room (Oceanview Fantastica) on the Armonia and those two sad pillows will not do.

There are more pillows in the cupboard. If not, the room steward will bring immediately as much as you want. "In advance" I highly doubt, this is not MSC culture.