perakcruiser

Every year they say next year

Browse is enough for you. Water, Ice, Coffee and Tea are available 24/7. At breakfast time there are also (fake) juice options. No, nowadays the cruise lines are already happy if all manage to wear long trousers. The Gala or Elegant night is for you to enjoy, many guests enjoy to make photos with their nicest cloths on this special night, but it is all up to you.

Yes, it is a lot of stairs. Maybe not the most suitable for old folks and young kids. The easy walk down at the water is closed since I first time heard about 5T. Maybe these a special tourist taxis, La Spezia is a big industrial town where locals need taxis also. And they surely will not pay 15 Euros for a short city ride.

15 Euro for less than 2km, impossible! Sounds realistic.

Been 3 times to 5T, never bought the useless card, only the train tickets. There are booths were you would need to pay entrance fee to the trail if you not have the card. But there were never people there. And I don´t think in the last 20 years all trails were open, one or two or three always "broken".

Correct!

I have the feeling as it disappeared also from all MSC websites except MSC USA. Which certainly is not some kind of escape road for MSC. But @KimPossible1 has to prove that these T&C were in effect at the time of booking, from now on I will save the PDF every time I book.

I think from Athens will be a little bit less than from Italy and in the Western Med. But sure more kids than usual. The point is if the Aurea restaurants still have a better menu compared to MDR on Lirica Class. If yes, in my opinion it would be worth the upgrade. My experience is from 2018, so absolutely no clue about now.

OK, if these Terms and Conditions were in effect at the time of your booking I cannot see any reason at all how MSC could refuse your claim.

I checked my booking conditions, there is nothing like this clause 6 you mentioned in your first post. I really wonder why MSC could deny. Is the stuff you quoted from their website or where did you get it?

Before Covid (at least, I have not sailed with a Lirica-Class-Ship since then) these ships hat the huge advantage that the Aurea Restaurant had a different menu with some great choices from the Speciality restaurants. I don´t think any of the older ships has a hot tub in the spa. We are cruising in the Eastern Med in the same week with the Armonia, I hope you are aware that it is Pentecost school holiday week in some countries and you will not be alone on the ship 😉

If you booked with a 3rd party, MSC will not entertain any requests from you. If your booking ended up with MSC USA, MSC in Europe will not even give you your money back if they cancel the cruise 😄. If you booked outside the EU, you automatically have given up all EU travel and consumer rights. Which in 99 percent of the cruises is not problem, but in 1 percent is a disaster. There is a reason why people like us here in Malaysia book in the EU, because their consumer rights are priceless. And we have none and the companies know this very well. So good that nowadays this is so easy to do online. Sorry for being off topic. You have to go through your "online 3rd party". But there are not just the category "Inside", "Oceanview" und "Balcony", there are much much more. So if your Balcony cabin is let´s say a BL3 and the Inside is a IR1 the cabins cannot be on the same deck. Maybe the 3rd party can get cabins next to each other, but expect that you will have to change the category of at least one cabin and this will not be free.

One bottle never is a problem. Ice dispensers are numerous in the buffet area accessible 24 hours a day.

Is the Splendida already available to book? I only have seen the Bellissima.

Depends if you booked with MSC Brazil, Australia or elsewhere. Rules are different for basically every market. I have no idea about their Brazil or Australia rules.

What kind of luxury shuffleboard is this? Thought shuffleboard disappeared on all the newer ships. And on the older ships it was always free and still is but nowadays usually the pucks are missing and will not be replaced 😑

I don´t know the answer but I recognized it also. It was really strange, I booked online and could choose basically from all cabins in the area, sent my brother a message with the cabin number so he can chose one next door. He tried one day later and said not one single cabin available. My guess is that consolidators bought all the tickets, what else could it be? But the tip with the phone agent is good, we needed another cabin and the MSC phone rep was able to get one for us. Not instantly, he told my "give me 24 hours" and then called the next day with success news.

I thought so also until I got this letter from a doctor. It was a company that provided this service especially for cruise line, I thought they will video monitor me, but I just needed to upload a photo from a negative test to get the letter. From your story I sounds to me that you did everything correct, the agent on the phone also and then the stuff was sent to the HQ in Italy and there it is.

But make sure you get a Prosecco and not Asti what the Italians usually use to mix with orange juice. Or maybe you will like Asti Orange, who knows :)

I only remember that some day they changed the Bistecca Fiorentina to a T-Bone steak (maybe anyway the same) and the lobster pasta. And that I never saw somebody order something from these cards 🙂 I was quite an active cocktail drinker during my student days, but the first time I heard about a drink called Mimosa was on cruisecritic.

As far as I know they plan to bring a ship back to China (Shanghai/Tianjin). And I am pretty surprised that it really works to send around the big Bellissima just for the Japan/Taiwan market. But they maybe will give up South Africa.

Probably, all my MSC cruises have been in Europe and Asia, one in the Caribbean (no US port, no lobster). And yes, even the upmarket European lines do not give out a lobster for free 😄 But I know the Lobster Night from Celebrity and have to say it is nothing worth writing a postcard to mom, had much better seafood on land.

Yes, their system had issues recently but since a few days it works again. But maybe not for your sailing, maybe you give them a call. "not available" does not mean "sold out". Internet and other "activities" will be more expensive on board, but certainly all is available. If you really cannot book any excursion before April 5, just go to the excursion desk on day 1, I am pretty sure that all excursions are still available and nothing is sold out.

They plan to have one bus for French, one for Spanish, German, Italian... English is always included as lingua franca. Sometimes they have not enough guests for a "Spanish bus", so they have to put the Spanish speakers on the English only bus. So "to be confirmed on board" is just a phrase the MSC lawyers put in so you cannot complain. Not relevant for English speakers apart from cruises in South America (I guess) or Japan/China.

Good, because lobster at gala night is not something you can expect at MSC, I never had it from 2011 to 2023 and will not have it in 2024😄 I know that on some ships at some times MSC did offer it, I only believe because I saw the photos.