Stadleter

4 minutes ago, sidari said:

BB ... So far we are not affected but there should be a global position from MSC like the other lines and not one for each Country offering varying degrees of changes.

Indeed. 

 A european cruiser complained on another board that he has paid around 30% of the cruise cost, and that MSC is offering him back only 20 % return for a cancelation. 

If it only picked up passengers in Barcelona then we could just sail round the Med and not bother docking, just enjoy the ship, [emoji6]
but there are already passengers on board who got on and so need to get off again in Genoa and Civitavecchia so we need to stop there.  No idea how they are going to sort this one out. Unless they cancel our cruise and just gradually empty the ship.

Italy on lockdown. This is going to be nuts. 

Does anyone know or heard if Genoa is still in operation as I cannot believe they would be 

On 1/16/2020 at 1:29 AM, Number34 said:

We are on a 7 day cruise in April, port intensive - Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Messina, Valletta and Barcelona with only one sea day. I have unlimited data roaming on my phone and wondering whether the connection will be good enough whilst in port to use it instead of paying for internet access on the ship. I like to use it as a hotspot for my iPad to check email, download newspaper etc.

Advice welcome.

Unless UK Brexit  untill April you will be fine 😛

Did that tour, i only used data from mobile phone, you can stream from Netflix without problem. 

3 hours ago, glorialagos said:

Still hoping to learn about the spa.  Does anyone know?

 

+1, i also would like to know is the spa good. 

Italian cruiser, which line is better for you, MSC or Costa? 

On 11/29/2019 at 11:09 PM, Europeantraveler1 said:

:0(

Do you remember how much a gelato cost?  Important question since we have the two grandsons who LOVE ice cream and gelato!!!!

 

I think it is 4,5 euro + 15% service charge for two flavors of ice cream.

IMO, if  you have ports in Italy, just eat gelato on the shore. 

Chocolate is around 7-10 euro per bar (100 grams=

No  streaming, the net connection cant handle it. 

In UAE you have free wi fi in malls and hotels, dont remeber about the port. 

Also have in mind that some apps can be blocked (signal, telegram) etc. 

Dubai in march is a gamble beacuse it can be to hot. 

I would do a week of Dubai and then go to  Europe. Try to board in Barcelona. 

11 hours ago, ditmar2007 said:

That really surprises me. We had those little machines where you placed the card, put in a slip with carbon copy, and went back and forth with a sledge. Then you could sign.

Those are gone.

Did they take the PIN-less card in any shops?
I guess hotels have to take PIN-less cards if they want US customers

These sledge things are the machines you are talking about.

I have a credit card since  2006, and have not seen one of them in use nowhere in Europe. I remember around 2000 that when my father paid with credit card, they would put the card on one of these and make a slip.

But, newer machines like the one in the second picture also have the ability to print receipts that have to be signed.
The problems is that in the next year there will be no more option to authorize by signature, only by PIN.

I have an Amex and a Visa Gold. Amex was issued 2-3 years ago. Visa was issued 1 month ago. Both are credit cards, not debit cards.

Visa gold does not allow authorization by signature, only by PIN.

Amex still allows authorization by signature, but will stop working 31/12/2019

3 minutes ago, SirWolf said:

even if they issue a PIN it can only be used to withdraw ‘cash advance’ on a ATM.

Same in Europe. 

All the CC have the PIN to withdraw money from ATM, and you use that same PIN to verify purchase. 

Ok, this is a tough one to explain but here goes. EU (european union) in all of its birocratic wisdome has decided that in the future  (01.01.2020 i think) all credit cards transactions have to be verified by PIN. 

So have in mind that next year you cruise the MED or travel in EU you will have to verify ANY CC purchase or usage by PIN. Authorization by signature will no longer be done. 

So have your PINs ready. 

It is called PSD2 directive from 14/09/2019

It's strange they did not allow you to self disembark, we asked last month for it together with 60-100 other passengers, they scaned our ID's on the way out and no problem occured. The ship docked at 08:00, we were in our car at 08:30.

On 11/16/2019 at 6:30 AM, perakcruiser said:

Norway continues to behave extremly ugly to cruise companies. It will get totally worse in 2025. If you not done the norway cruise until now, I would recommend to go no matter what ships MSC sends.

North Europe is not only Norway and fjords. You have Poland, Finland, LT, Latvija, Estonia, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany... 

Pleased that newer ships are going to the Baltic 

56 minutes ago, spence1936 said:

Our cruise is in 2 weeks.  We are going to US I do think I read we will have to go through immigration to fill out a declaration form.  We have a Sunday departure and I can't seem to find any info about the volume of traffic on Sundays just Saturdays.  The good thing is (I hope) is it looks like our ship may be the only one disembarking that day.  I have to admit I am stressing quite a bit.

 

Venice is flooded, and it could take weeks for the sea level to go down, and beacuse od this cruisers are going to port of Trieste, around 80 km from Venice. 

Unfortunatly in the 5-10 times i was in Italy i found the traffic to be very heavy on sundays especially between 09-00-13:00.  

Download the waze application and you can see the time needed from your destinstion to airport, depending on the time of the day. 

They have started sending Crew to the boat so i hope no more suprises. 

7 hours ago, merdon said:

Thank you for the information. I'm looking forward to my cruise next year on the Grandiosa!

Take the daily or cruise thermal spa pass, saw a youtube video it is the same like Bellisima. 

Bellisima spa was great, better equiped then 80% of the land hotels. 

6 hours ago, MissyMoo68 said:

Well, we missed our train!  The ship only started disembarking at 9.30am and, thanks to MSC's typically inept organisational skills, we only got off at noon!

 

However, the earlier train had not cost a lot in the first place, so we got another pair of tickets for less than 40 Euros.

People who are in the hurry to catch planes/trains usually take their own luggage and self disembark... 

I did that last month on Bellisima and was in my car at 08:20. The boat docked at 08:00.

Also, you could see when you would approximately disembark day earlier via the ship news, so i would not blame MSC for everything 

Offtopic Bob, but i also booked Esmeralda on 13/01.

What is your itineary? 

We were thinking of booking on the Barcelona roundtrip from 13/01/2020.

But the problem is that we also have to book plane tickets. 

Are  new  ships usually delayed or is this  a special circumstances? 

Just to replay, room 13212 is a normal balcony room, with a sofa.

Will upload pictures.

Overall it was a great cruise, the ship is excellent, and the termal and spa area is beyond words.

Would book MSC again.

Acutally the question in my mind is this, are  delays normal when a new ship is delivered, and is there a possibility for a new delay that would move all the january cruises?

I thought of possibly reserving a cruise in January 2020, and maybe booking plane tickets.
Should i proceed? I mean i know they will reimburst me for the cruise if the ship is delayed, but airplane tickets are a problem.

Poslano sa mog RNE-L21 koristeći Tapatalk

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

I can understand your concern, however I would caution against the use of photos posted on 3rd party websites like TA regarding the layout of your stateroom, unless they're cruise-specific sites. This one would be much more reliable, I think. 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Discover-MSC/Cruise-Ships/MSC-Bellissima/Staterooms-And-Suites.aspx

Thx for the advice,  wont happen again.