perakcruiser

You mean the Baltic Sea? Sure, have a lot there.

Or you mean the Baltic States? Tallinn is most popular destination, but also have others.

Perhaps MSC has just given up of Bella and Fantastica passengers and are devoting all of their time and effort to YC and Aurea.

Nothing has changed for Bella and Fantastica in the last years. I mostly book Fantastica but only because Bella is sold out already when you book late. In terms of how you are treated during the cruise there is not much difference. Aurea has the spa included, the drinks package and My time dining. Nice, when there is a good offer would I grab it. Otherwise not.

But all sailings should get between 5%-20% off, what are these people at MSC trying to do, BS all of us?

"The discount can be combined with all promotions and offers unless otherwise stated."

... as well as frozen coffee beverages which were about $4.50 +/- on the Divina, so it was a very good deal for us.

For many years already I expect them to put out the "frozen coffee delights" but they are still in. On our cruise in November I ordered six cappucinos and nine frozen coffees, paying only 23 € can indeed be called a very good deal :cool:

Where is Costa now?? Europe mostly...hmmm..... Where will MSC mosty if not exclusively be in a few years????

It seems you not only have no idea about the Seaside but also about the cruise market itself. Costa is Carnivals flagship for the South European market as AIDA is for the North European excluding UK. Of cause Carnival has no interest that Costa fights with their US brands in the US market as well as they will not send AIDA ships to attack the US :D

MSC is strongest in Europe and Asia and I bet they will perform very good in the US and the caribbean market. They maybe will not have you on board, but when I read the Seaside reviews here in this board it is quite obvious that they made alot of things right.

You have to 'rent' a shopping cart, bring your own bags, and there is zero customer service besides the cashier. Very different than my local grocery stores where they have baggers, people that actually take your groceries to your car, as well as people walking around cleaning the stores during the day. Delis, fresh baked goods, and family meals are common in all but the discount stores around here, Aldi has none of those things.

This is a good example about the difference Europe - US. You might know that Walmart tried to break in the German market a couple of years before. They did it by leaving everything the way they do at home. It ended in a disaster, a heavy loss and they ran away from Germany very fast again.

One example, there was a person at the cashier to put the shopping things in a shopping bag after paying. The German customers usually shout "Don´t touch my things, after paying they belong to me only". The idea of somebody carrying the groceries to your car if you are not disabled sounds more than embarrassing. Well, in many European countries still a car with automatic gearing is considered something for very old or disabled people, always when friends from Europe visit me in Malaysia they make jokes about me driving with automatic gearing :cool:

If you think that a room steward on MSC has much more cabins to take care compared to US lines, well this is because many cabins will have the DND sign always out. I am used to let him clean the cabin one time a day in the morning, but not again in the evening. But when I cruise with my parents the first thing my mum lets me do is telling the steward that he is not allowed to enter her cabin before she checks out :D

I note in your information that you can ask to have them removed but do you have to give a reason? Can you simply say you don't want to be charged or is it only deducted if you are complaining about the 'service'? :confused:

As you say, it is a Service Charge, cannot be called "tips".

You just can say "I want to delete the Service Charge". According to the law of most (or all, I don´t know) European countries, MSC cannot ask for a reason. Before 2014 MSC did not respect the law and was sued in a couple of countries. That´s the story about it.

I have looked, and most of 2018 is completely, fully booked for Yacht Club. We need bigger YC's, with more inside options as well. I hope future builds have around 500-600 guests, with the larger facilities to match them. I really want to go more MSC, but I like others, will only go YC! MSC, why cant you have an "all YC vessel", like the ships of Crystal? That would be so great!

No. MSC ist the cruise company of the people and will continue to do so.

No, I am afraid not.

Who ever stopped you or anybody of doing this? When we have a wine/water package of cause we bring our unfinished bottles back to the cabin if we want to have it there.

My question is: Are those of you who are not accustommed to paying tips, paying a higher/different cruise price than the rest of because tips will not be paid?

Strange question, certainly paying tips or not is not effecting the cruise price because it has nothing to do with the cruise company.

Or if you talk about the Service Charge, this question can only be answered by MSC. As we know, all catalogue prices of cruise companies are different in all countries, depending on the things like harbour taxes, service charges and so on.

And at the end almost everybody is paying a higher/lower/different price because the prices change at least every week. Maybe not in all markets, but in MSCs big markets Italy and Germany and a couple of other European countries.

Uhh, my mistake.

Thanks, curiously enough, the privilege list I have in front of me (in Spanish) omits the line "Priority access on Tender boats and during shore disembarkation." May be it slipped the translator's attention, as everything else is there.

See the spanish website. "Desembarque prioritario en puertos que requieren lanchas" is included for Black and Gold members.

However, I'm reasonably familiar with the subject.

You remember the brand name of the "Easy" "European" :D wine package wines?

But suzyed asked about the "dinner wine package" which actually is called "Dinner wine" and includes 7 bottles of house wine. So what nikkiw60 posted has nothing to do with it I guess. And as the price is 83 € for caribbean sailings 106 USD sounds realistic.

Yes my info was from the US. Site. What a way to mix us all up! Different offers for different countries? What a wild ride.

Same same with all other cruiselines. Or almost all.

I will take MSC Splendida in Feb.

No difference between Fantasia and Splendida. Just add the water package to your cruise, it is only 27 € for 14 bottles.

I don't know if that is a typo or not, but it's $160 for the package.

No, that is something else.

It is very difficult to discuss this, as the packages are different in the Caribbean and in Europe. I realized in the Caribbean there is no water included, maybe because it is free for all there?

I guess the 106 USD package is the 83 EUR package. In this case you only can choose from MSC "house wines". It is a brand from Sicily (I believe) and the two reds at least in Europe are Merlot and Cabernet,the whites Chardonney and Grillo, Rose I don´t remember.

Anyone tried to take alcohol on the ship? How tight is security?

Have to admit I did it a couple of times, especially when I was younger and not a dad and a rolemodel for kids :halo:

As far as I remember I was stopped only one time. And that was when I came back from land excursion with a very small backpack. Then the only thing that happens is that you will get the bottle back on the last night before leaving the ship.

My brother is eight years younger than me and still unmarried, on our last family cruise he brought two beers on the ship from every land excursion with no troubles except our mom complained him :cool:

There is a current review up today about the Seaside Aurea Balcony: the couple say it was the worst cruise in 43 cruises. MSC is really the Yacht Club or nothing! You did the right thing, keep a lookout for YC (even in a inside YC) would make for a great experience, at a cheap price!!

Without even been in the YC I could not disagree more. In all cabins and classes MSC has offered us the best value you can get for your money and (certainly) not the best product, but always a very nice experience.

With so many brillant and balanced reviews from reputable users in this forum, I am very suprised that people really fall into a trap by cancelling because of "fake news". But I can understand the panic of the other cruise companies with MSC pushing so aggressively in the Carribean cruise market ;p

When would be the best time to get my service charges removed?

So easy answer, when you pass the customer relations desk and the line is short or not existent. Usually at the first day the line is long with people who want to handle this immediately and on the last night people complain about errors in the bill.

How was someone who paid YC prices equal to someone who paid a lot less for the lowest category cabin? (I mean in terms of reward for spend). When I shop in my local supermarket and spend, say, €50, I get 50 points. Why should someone who only spends, say, €20, get the same just because they shopped in the same store?

As I said, not suprised that they changed.

There were also "bonus points for spending", before. You got 1 point for every $/€200 spent onboard. You now get 100 points for every $/€150 - so less spend for the equivalent number of points.

Ah, did not realize this, in the old times I never ever reached this 200 €. Now with family I get this 100 extra points at least, guess with more kids that extra points will grow more :cool:

Pre VC, I always felt it was unfair that those in the lowest category cabin got the same points as those who paid YC prices.

Can understand, but I liked the old world where everybody was more or less equal outside the different types of cabins. One night, one point, done, please come again.

Then came the YC, the Bella/Fantastica/Aurea thing, bonus points for spending and so on. Of cause noboby can be suprised, it´s suprising that it was not in this way before.

What languages do you (or anyone else) think it would be best to have cards IN?

I've read some of the waiters are Thai and it seems like the ship's waitstaff and kitchen staff is typically SE Asian so I'd go with those languages.

I maybe should not talk about a ship I never saw and that is sailing thousands of km away from me. But on all other ships from MSC there is a very, very small number of waiters (or cabin stewards) from Thailand. Actually I never saw one. From my experience the highest number are Indos, the second highest Pinoys. And the rest is all around the world, but really very small numbers. With Bahasa Indonesia you should be on the safe side. If the waiter not understand, then probably his supervisor.

I totally enjoyed reading this review - thank you!

Unfortunately, the points table doesn't 'cut & paste' correctly, Kim.

 

I agree about you questioning the poster re getting to Black. I'm Black 3 times over at this stage (I have 30300 points :p)

But you must compare the old MSC Club rules with the new Voyager rules. Before if you made one longer cruise you almost had black. Nowadays the max you get is 2000 points in YC and lousy 700 in Bella! Anyway, could you please donate 6000 of your so many points to me? :cool:

And I don´t remember for sure, but I think the "old" Spa benefit was a 1 day pass for Silver, not a 1 hour pass for Gold.