mom22frogs

If she can't swim, put it on her and don't be bashful about it! We were doing a small boat tour in the Caribbean this year and the boat hit the bottom of a swell, resulting in a MASSIVE wall of water rushing over us. Everyone was fine, but you don't necessarily always have time or warning.

Nope, different ship. Looks like a great cruise though. I'm not sure what the difference is. We're in port an hour earlier than you and have quite a few options for Genoa. It's a bit earlier in the month and some of the options are going down to Portofino, etc. Is it possible they're seasonal and winding down by then? Dunno. And maybe losing one hour makes it tight on doing Milan?

The excursions that sell out disappear. There should be a pdf you can download that shows all the options. Is your time in port short? Ours shows Milan and longer options. If they’re in that pdf but not showing you could call the booking agent. They could be sold out.

Did you take a picture and try to report it anywhere? To me it sounds like a training issue but then you put that in the context of their other recent safety inspection fines.

Both sides or one? Google says the EU has similar laws to the US about obstructing emergency exits.

Gary Bembridge of Tips for Travelers on youtube has some terrific msc videos. He just did an update showing yacht club, etc. on the Virtuosa. I've been pretty much all Carnival up to trying MSC and for me the only thing that was noteworthy in being better (which would vary by the ship obviously) was the SPA. These people are seriously into their spas, oh my. MSC seems to excel at disorganization and pain in the butt. Expect their customer service to be even worse than anything you've read online. I like to think I'm a pretty easy customer, but the things they couldn't do, the things that took HOURS to fix on the phone were just astonishing. We're booked on MSC for a couple more but only because they're cheap and go to the ports I want to go to. Otherwise, they're not worth the hassle, at least for me. I looked at canceling our upcoming cruise and switching it over to NCL for a similar itinerary, similar dates, but decided to stick with MSC because for that comparison the spa was better. May live to regret that, we'll see, lol.

Sailing out of the US or Europe? Sounds like a fire hazard honestly. On our Virtuosa cruise they did not block the stairs, but there are definitely things that raised your eyebrows about safety, making you wonder if they'd be allowed when sailing from the US. Blocking the stairs would probably fall in that category. Yup, obstructing emergency exits is a no no. https://amazingarchitecture.com/articles/7-features-of-an-emergency-fire-exit-staircase

When I sailed on the Virtuosa two months ago some of the options that should have appeared (specialty dining, shows, etc.) never did. I called and got told IT knew and would fix it, but of course nothing happened. Then I called and tried to book and got told the travel agent you booked with has to handle it. Then the travel agent was given some line about how they just weren't available, all while the europeans going on the cruise that I was chatting with through FB were in fact booking those things. So the travel agent pushed harder and got things booked, but it was shall we say a harbinger of the disorganization MSC brings to their process.

Some ships already have that. The Virtuosa did for our Southampton sailing.