perakcruiser

No, MSC will honor. The changed things so often already. When they moved away the free Fantastica photo, people with old bookings before the change had a * on the cruise card to show that they were qualified for the free photo. Maybe they will handle it the same way this time.

That was fun! Great athmosphere, wonderful parade. And it looked like it would rain every minute, but it did not 😄

5pm in Fuerteventura and certainly we will join. Fits perfectly to the end of the excursion from the cruise ship at 4pm as the parade starts in the harbour 🙂

MSC has, but the ports do what they want. As read here, Barcelona port one day does not care, the other they force to empty the ship. But still the very relaxed leave the ship policy is a big plus for MSC.

The Bel Air Bordeaux is a "classic" airline wine. From the old times when airlines offered food and drinks😄 Now still available, but not free. So no surprise this winery is doing business with cruise lines also. Actually I like this Bordeaux for decades, yes, nothing super special, but a wine I surely would not refuse.

I have done "Interrail" as a student in Spain, Portugal and Morocco 30 years before, after going through this "school" you can handle Europe forever, at least Western Europe😄 And as our budget was extremely limited at this time, maybe this is the reason why I am still afraid of European taxis even I long time changed already from backpacker to cruiser 😛 Remember trying to get a train ticket from Madrid to "Celta" at that time, long discussion with no success. Until finally the man understood that I wanted to go to Vigo. I only knew the name of the football club, no cellphone to check, that were the old times with no internet. Also been to Bilbao and Zaragoza which I loved a lot. But not remembering too much unfortunately. That is a great idea. I have been there during this Interrail trip but never again even seeing it from the cruise ships many times. Remembering that one could just walk in the Olympic stadium, it was amazing. Hopefully the weather is good.

Deal done! I will take the train from there to T2 🙂 Is there anything interesting to see at the Camp Nou construction site at the moment?

Oh, I did not know that Uber is allowed now in Barcelona. Good news. Anyway I will use public transport this time.

You will be fine, just be prepared that you will not like the house wines. But Easy Plus also does not give access to the good wines. It may sound strange but for me the main use of the Easy package are the coffees from the good Italian machines instead of the tanks 😄

Wow, this must be a world record, at least in number of inhabitants per Decathlon 😄 But do you really think there are big differences between all these hotels in Viladecans or Sant Boi? Mostly these are all the international chains like Ibis. We were very happy with the Alexandre Hotel FrontAir Congress and landing at 23:00 and knowing a scheduled (!) shuttle to the hotel is ready to take was pretty cool. Sure, I believe you when you say the taxis in Barcelona do not cheat tourists, but I have moved on, I don´t want to use old world taxis anymore, just because stupid governments do not allow Uber, Bolt, Grab....

Putting this here as it is a better place. I saw bus 46 at Plaza Espanya on boarding day, that is why I thought to take it. But the commuter to the airport is also attractive, it is included in the T-casual, right? Where it stops in the town center? Fast or slow is totally unimportant, I have more than enough time to kill 😄

The hotels near the airport usually have a free shuttle service to the airport, but maybe you need to book it directly at arrival as the cars fill fast. And if you booked the hotel in Viladecans, there are excellent last minute shopping options for your girlfriend, the highly recommended Alcampo for example. Don´t know if you have Decathlon in US, we do have in Malaysia 🙂 , there is also one in Viladecans if you want to buy sports stuff. I continue to join the line with a bif thank you for the excellent report. Even it did not include what I hoped for, Garden Kitchen as an option for the Diamond meal 😣

My flight out of Barcelona is in the evening so I have no worries at all. So finally we are planning to learn more about the busses. People told me I should use Bus 46 to the airport as I can be used with my "T-casual" I still have. Another bus I have heard of but never seen is the bus 88/89 at the port. Let´s see if it exists 😄 But only if the waether is great, otherwise the shuttle bus to Plaza Colon.

Actually less than the US companies, but more than some (Northern) European rivals. Still no reason to worry about add on costs on MSC.

Certainly there are! But unfortunately there are some red wines I don´t like. Chianti, Barolo in Italy, Rioja, Tempranillo in Spain for example. Usually not a problem with any white (or rose) wine, except maybe this Beringer White Zinfandel I nipped today at the Celebrity Captains Club party and declared undrinkable😄 You are absolutely right, the duty free prices do not beat the supermarket prices with tax. Just have seen this yesterday in the port duty free with some wines I saw at Alcampo a few hours before. But in this case not need to carry the wine to the ship is also some kind of value. @Stockjock You are really choosing good excursions, your girlfriend should praise you for this 🙂

We bought the wines for our Celebrity cruise that started yesterday in Barcelona at Alcampo next to our hotel. They had a huge selection, but - as usual in Spain - 95 percent Spanish wines (which I am not familiar with). And the selection of wines with no cork was much more limited than in other countries, the Spanish winemakers seem to be more traditional 🙂 As a Sauvignon Blanc drinker, I hope this will not disappoint: https://blume.com.es/en/blume-sauvignon-blanc-wine/

Not happy.

The Udon noodles are also hit and miss in the MDR. On one MSC ship excellent on others I did not like at all. But it may look simple, it is a really difficult dish and certainly no cruise line has chefs from Japan.

Will go on Infinity next week, I expect the food a little bit upscale compared to MSC (but less upscale compared to 10 years before), everything else I think I would prefer MSC. But the route from Barcelona to the Canary Islands is exactly what I want and Celebritys price was right. Last cruise was my first diamond. At check in I got "WELCOME", at GS I got "GOLD" and then finally "DIAMOND" 😄 Mildly annoying is the perfect wording, but as always, I never expect MSC to be perfect.

Even the itinerary is maximum boring, you should consider to visit Cinque Terre from Genoa. It is very relaxed in winter when almost empty. I expect 3000 kids on board next week, but you are prepared for this, not your first cruise during christmas holiday 🙂

It is very important to know that the rules in Dubai and Sharjah are very different. Sharjah is just north of Dubai, the other airport is there. You will not realize when crossing, but Sharjah is dry.

Yes, very few, but they exist. Thankfully.

If you mix up the countries and move your VC account to Finland then you will not be able to enter through your "old" country website and not the new as well. I once had to change because I really moved to another country, what chaos it was to get back access to my booked cruise and the VC account. Old MSC rule, keep things simple as possible, avoid any changes.

This thread make me feel I am a genius. All my MSC cruises I saw big crowds but never when I was at this point. Maybe I should share my secret with you, when there is a long lone for example at the carving station, I don´t go in that line but grab a salad, a slice of pizza, something from the ethnic corner... It is not meant that everyone coming to the buffet joins a long long line that passes all stations. The word "station" says it all 😄

Actually it was planned as a cruise ship and not a private boat for the family. One of Gaddafi sons wanted to start an African Arab cruise line. MSC of cause was very lucky to get a Divina sister ship with a discount after the Libyan Civil War broke out.