mcoler181

ABPMSC22 gives you 15% if sailing MSC.

I believe it is only draught on the easy package and from memory Heineken was the only draught available on Seascape. 

Massive choice of bottles/cans on the Easy Plus package if you can upgrade. 

3 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

We sail Sunday on the Seashore but cannot access our luggage tags. We are checked in and have our boarding passes in the app on our phones. I checked with our concierge and he said not to worry as we are in YC. They will take care of it when we check in.

Our luggage tags were on the last pages of the boarding passes etc. 

Is it the same menu/food served in the Aurea restaurant as the MDR?

I'm sure we received ours 2 or 3 times from memory. 

23 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

I’m curious about this as well. We have been invited to upgrade on some cruises but not on others.

 

Seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

I suspect it depends on how full the sailing is and what sort of cabins are selling well at that particular point.

We are in a YC interior in June which have sold out, there are quite a lot of YC Balcony Suites left and we have been offered an upgrade to one. 

10 hours ago, ajoneen said:

The dock not support 2 ships

Am I right in saying that Ocean Cay is currently closed or due to be closed for some work to be done? The assumption was that it was to increase the dock capacity so World America could dock there, could it be that increased capacity will allow two ships to dock there? I hope not as it would make the island very busy. 

Does Seaside have a pizzeria? Seascape didn't, shame.

Virtuosa holds about 1300 more guests than Seaside but is 30,000 tonnes bigger and has 400 more cabins

25 minutes ago, maclover said:

Starting a trip with hopes of a free upgrade seems like setting yourself up for disappointment. With a 99% likelihood that it won't materialize, you're better off settling into your original plans from the get-go.

Not sure how you took that as me hoping for a free upgrade, not really too bothered about cabin category. We pretty much always go for the cheapest option as we use the cabin for sleeping and getting ready.

If they did upgrade us for free though, I would certainly accept it. 😂

17 minutes ago, Até said:

Moving from a YC interior to YC balcony often requires a bid that is more than if you booked the YC balcony in the first place (early).  The minimum bid is frequently just a few hundred less and not worth the loss of cabin choice and getting the least desired cabins.

 

Those YC balcony cabins will be awarded to bidders from regular balcony cabins where the bid amounts are more reasonable, especially for those who booked without drinks, internet, etc....

 

There's a small chance corporate won't 100% fill the YC so it may be worthwhile to ask the concierge as soon as you board.

Yeah the lowest bid plus what we have already paid is actually more than the current advertised price. 

We are booked in an YC Interior for 5 nights, I had an upgrade offer for a deluxe suite. The lowest offer is £770 in total so we aren't going to bother.

Question though, when I looked there are still 19 of these cabins available to book, if they don't sell out is there the possibility of a free upgrade or would they just leave the room allocations as they are?

2 hours ago, Itaybre said:

Hi,

I have never been to a cruise so I am inexperienced here, but I have already decided on the dates for the cruise.
But when I try to buy it from the local MSC site, they are enforcing travel insurance and not the best payment methods.

 

I have checked out other sites, and such insurance is optional and since I already got one for my trip, I don't event want theirs. Is there any issue if I book through other MSC site?

We are English but booked through an American travel agents site, once booked we could add excursions etc through MSC's US website

I just priced one on Seascape 2026 and it was nearly £11k, which is about $14k, owners suite that is.

I don't know why the staff would be concerned about what price a product is being sold for? 

Not that I can imagine it will be ever in my price range, but what are you talking, ball park figure for a week?

We have booked Aurea for next year on World America, assuming its the same as World Europa...

1, Jacuzzi's x 2 (I think) and a bar.

2. Looks a lot more spacious and less crowded.

3. Not Sure.

We also went for it as it was only about £600 more for the Infinite Balcony Room for a family of 4 compared to either inside or ocean view, cant remember which. I also liked the idea of anytime dining in a dedicated restaurant. 

1 hour ago, Huntingdon1701 said:

Thanks - that's really helpful to know. It's only a five day cruise so I have to book on the first day or I won't be able to fit them all in. 😆

Not until October. I've sailed on her 3 times before, but this is the first time not in Yacht Club. 

This will be our first time in YC, looking forward to it.

On 4/11/2024 at 9:57 PM, Momto3girlsintheCarolinas said:

This post will stir up trouble, but I am curious about what people think.

 

My partner and I will take our first MSC cruise in about a month.  We've sailed other lines, but not MSC.  I want to keep an open mind and remember that being unhappy on a cruise should be tough.

 

I understand that MSC is cheap and that one should keep their expectations realistic, given the low-cost fare.  Rarely can one enjoy Kobe beef at a cheeseburger price.  However, it occurs to me that there should be some minimum standard that guests can expect.  Otherwise, it seems like gaslighting guests and justifying poor food and service.  

 

I think it is important to have reasonable expectations for the price one pays, but when I read reviews that talk about inedible food and rude crew, that seems to go beyond the pale.  

 

If MSC sells cruises even with awful food and service, what motivates them to improve?  There is none, I guess.  It seems unfair that people should be able to get reasonable service at a fair price.  Like, even the cheeseburger should be edible. 

 

What if a family can't afford other lines?  Shouldn't they get a quality experience, too?  Or should they not cruise at all or put up with this standard of food and service?

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so please play nice.  I am interested in what others think.

I have only done one MSC cruise, 2 weeks on Seascape, staff were excellent across the board, may have encountered one or two that weren't the most friendly but never rude.

Food was more than acceptable, found the buffet to be a typical buffet, I had read reviews stating dinner was no different to lunch but the one time we did have dinner in the buffet there was definitely more choice.

MDR was really good, smallish portions but never left hungry and you can always get multiple starters or desserts if you wish. We had maybe one or two meals that weren't fantastic but never had a bad meal

Specialty(Butchers Cut, Teppanyaki and Hola) were all really good, no complaints at all.

The food and service is certainly not awful but then maybe we have lower expectations than others

Only done Royal before x 4 and MSC were half the price, Royal MDR food was maybe a bit better form memory (last two were 2019 and 2012) but I have also heard that the food has gone downhill on Royal so maybe they are now on par.

I can't speak for Virtuosa, but we spent two weeks on Seascape in Feb, the ship was full both weeks but apart from peak times in the buffet and the pool deck on sea days it never felt crazy busy.

You can easily avoid the crowds if you play it smart.

Coincidently we are getting on Virtuosa the day you get off. 

36 minutes ago, notley-cruise said:

Aurea is ANY TIME dining.

 

That means if your assigned restaurant is open you can have dinner.

 

They certainly have tables which can seat up to a dozen,  a baker's dozen might need two tables.

 

Assuming all of your party are on Aurea experience cabins and suites ?

We all are yes, thanks. 

24 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

It would be courteous to speak to the Maître 'd in advance and let him know what time you all wish to dine each day, as a single table of that size just arriving without warning can impact on either your service or the service of others.

 

Similarly you may not want to all dine at the same time on some nights so keeping the staff in the loop, if plans change, would help a lot.

Yeah we did plan to go and speak to them after embarkation, I guess we would always generally eat around the same time each night unless we had other plans, so should be able to give them an indication for most nights.

When are you on out of interest, we are on her on the 29th June. 

There was a central point on Seascape, so would assume there will be on Virtuosa, just an assumption though. 

Can anyone advise what are the dining times in Aurea restaurant please and are we able to just turn up or do we have to make a time reservation?

Also, there is going to be 13 of us in total, will they be able to cater for this in the restaurant and put us all on one table?

Thank you.  

Oh, the ship will be World America if that helps. 

On 4/11/2024 at 10:22 PM, marti2282 said:

Wonder if this has been implemented on Seashore?

From poster on Seascape 
“MUSTER DRILL - new format, go at any time after boarding to have card scanned, watch video in room at any time, dial 881 from cabin phone and done.”

This is exactly what we did on Seascape in February accidently, we went to the MDR to see where I table was, this happened to be our muster station, they just asked to scan our card while we were there then watched the video and made the call once we got to our cabin. 

Sorry to hear of your experiences, we went on our first MSC cruise on Seascape in February. We were in an inside cabin, we honestly didn't experience anything like what you did thankfully. We did have to change an excursion due to one being cancelled due to being late into Jamaica and the lady on the excursion desk was quite abrupt and rushed us but apart form that we didn't really experience any bad service. Our room attendant was very discrete and would just see him now and then in the corridor, but he would be in morning and night and the room was always clean, we did have a bit of an issue with him not leaving spare toilet rolls and on a couple of occasions he took the hand towels and didn't replace them, but nothing major.

Regarding the food, again we found it totally acceptable for mass catering and had some really lovely meals, some maybe less memorable but nothing we disliked.

I suppose regardless of price there is no excuse for bad service or manners from the staff but when it comes to the food they are at the budget end of cruising so cant really expect world class food in my opinion.