teddyd33

People are mentioning that travel insurance will protect you for the loss of air fares due to the cancellation, but what travel insurance covers for cancelled flight protection because the cruise ship isn't ready on time?

I have had a look at my travel insurance and there is nothing that mentions anything around that type of situation.

After getting off the Enchanted on Friday, I found that the MDR waits were lower than expected although we did start eating earlier (around 5:30-6pm) based on the feedback that I had read previously. We also asked the Restaurant Manager to ensure our table is reserved to ensure we get the same table and wait staff as we always prefer this. They were very accommodating for this! 

I love the concept of the medallion app, and last year on the Sky it worked perfectly, although during this sailing due to full capacity and lack of staff / too manager passengers it was very hit and miss. Some drinks came fast, others were lost in transit. However, contacting guest services (via the app), they were able to deal with it very professionally. I do feel that this item is overlooked on Princess compared to other lines, their guest service team from my interactions (e.g internet issues, drinks not arriving) were able to resolve the issues there and then.

The things that weren't resolved were the staffing issues which led to outcomes such as long queues for drinks, buffet issues, no one monitoring towels (or reminding kids to not jump in pools...) which I am certain the guest service team have no control over, but rather a head office decision. 

3 hours ago, Adventures ahead said:

We disembarked yesterday too. Based on what I’d read, to avoid disappointments and avoid lines, we bit the bullet and dined at 5:30 each night, not our normal MO. Ordering coffee at Intl Cafe using the Medallion was always quick. I found the app worked well for ordering. Loved the Find your shipmates feature and Do Not Disturb button outside cabin door. Room service didn’t take more than 30 minutes. Used it several times. It was obvious they were short-staffed at the cafe for handing out food but lines weren’t bad when I was there.

 

Got Princess Theatre seats we wanted at the back by showing up 25 minutes early. It was a challenge for people turning up 10-15 minutes before (due to full capacity). A very few people even stood along the wall at the back for production shows and a very few left.

 

Before booking in June, I called ahead Office twice and was told they were holding capacity at 75%. At some point that changed. Captain’s Circle hostess told me they were full with 3660 guests (for that I’m disappointed with Princess… it’s called bait and switch, not cruise ‘with confidence’), 600 being children, totally understandable for a 7-day cruise mid-summer.

 

Wifi wasn’t good. At least iMessage worked well to people at home and between us onboard so I accepted the fact after a couple of days. After expressing my thoughts re the internet (FB wouldn’t load and I couldn’t update apps, emailed often lagged by more than 30 minutes), was given a $25 goodwill credit. We’re Elite, bought Standard fare as DH doesn’t drink and Plus fare not cost effective for us. I think the internet troubles may have been a result of full capacity and so many passengers buying the Plus pkg. People don’t log off. 

 

Anyway, the cruise wasn’t terrible and we made the best of it. As said, they simply sold too many cabins for this particular week. Was told by hostess that longer cruises before and after weren’t full.

 

To avoid disappointments, I often lower my expectations, a coping mechanism. I didn’t expect Princess to go from zero to hero at this point in time.  This was our first cruise since Feb 2020.  It’s been harder for me to let go of the full capacity issue. 

Interesting to hear that you were also told that they were holding capacity at 75% as we were told something similar when booking too as we were told they are only selling balcony cabins and then they must have changed the direction nearer the time.

I don't have any issues if a ship is at full capacity as pre-COVID this was the norm, and had sailed on the Royal Princess inaugural sailings which were also full, the challenge arrises when they don't have enough staff to meet the guest expectations and what was marketed (especially with things like half opened buffets etc), so they are quick to fill cabins but not quick enough to ensure there are adequate number of staff around.

I'm sure this will improve over time, but I have a feeling that they probably were't ready just yet for a full capacity sailing...

Have just disembarked from the Enchanted, and will have to agree with all the other posts. In short, the ship is lovely, but they simply booked too many passengers for the amount of staff they had. This was a significantly worse experience that what we had received from Princess in the past, and a completely different cruise experience compared to the Summer Seacations on the Sky.

The staff were trying their absolute hardest with the situation, but at the end of the day, corporate sold too many cabins for their capacity. Interestingly, when we had booked the cruise, they were only selling balcony cabins, then opened up to inside (so someone from corporate must have thought it was worth selling extra cabins even if not at full capacity).

Examples of this include: 

- Buffet only 35%-50% open and even with this, there were delays in replenishing items. Plates running out, knives and forks running out.  The pastry area was a complete joke, with just banana bread offered and a few other items. When we sailed on the Royal Princess during the inaugural sailing, the pastry section would be bursting with multiple items. 

- Massive queues at Salty Dog due to having only 2 staff members there

- Took 30 mins for a drink at breakfast, as the same staff member who was mopping floors, also had to do drink services for around 10 tables outside

- App Ordering resulted in drinks taking 1 hour to deliver, although contacting guest services sped this up

- 20 min queues for drinks at the Lido Pool

- Captain (or should I say, Commodore) claimed weather in Gurnsey meant we could not dock, but I study weather charts and I could see the wind did not pick up in the afternoon. After speaking with staff, I came to the conclusion it was due to the fact they had 3,700 guests, and not enough staff to safely run all the tender boats in time.

On 10/25/2021 at 12:02 PM, mikegarland said:

Are Clarins products still provided in the Suites on Marella ships? I cannot see any mention on their website anymore.

I just got back from the Marella Explorer 2, Junior Suite and they still had Clarins products in our room. 

2 hours ago, BestGuessed said:

Hi Teddyd33 …. YES !! Thank you so much … IT WORKS 👍🏻😁😆

 

My husband has just managed to access my emails for me.  Why the IT lady on board who we spoke with twice couldn’t have given us the advice you have just provided, I do not know.  All she said was that the wifi here doesn’t support iCloud and that I would have no success in accessing my emails.  My husband set up another account which was less than satisfactory but iCloud is working now.

 

Thank you once again. 

No problem, glad to have helped! 

Does both the App Based version (i.e opening the mail app to download your emails) and also the Web Browser Based version (i.e visiting https://www.icloud.com/mail on Safari) not work? 

On 9/24/2021 at 9:38 PM, molecrochip said:

Practical testing requirements for the Caribbean cruises on Britannia/Azura and also the wider vaccination policy post 31 December 2021 will be announced on 30 September 2021.

 

They are holding off as long as possible so that they can be as favourable, whilst still being sensible, as possible.

@molecrochip, do you happen to know if this is still an accurate timeline?

Our final balance is due soon and we have not heard anything yet from P&O regarding the logistics of getting off at the Caribbean Ports, so any guidance would be appreciated if this the latest guidance will be shared tomorrow.

Hi there! 

Does anyone have any guidance for claiming back taxes or gratuities if you missed your cruise ship? In other words, I paid for a cruise but missed it (and hence have paid 100% of the money), is there an EU / Europe wide law to say I am entitled to receive my taxes back and gratuities paid given I did not board the ship?

Any advice would be great if anyone knows! Thanks. 

2 hours ago, 2013cruiser2013 said:

Why can't I find any news articles about this? 

 

 
Unlike Princess, MSC have been very shady about the whole situation! Profits over customers. 

20 minutes ago, cruiser man 60 said:

Italy is in complete lockdown with U.K. Airlines suspending all flights until April, everything is shut!!

But for MSC, everything is business as usual (well for their UK customers that is!) 

7 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Are the major players offering refunds? I thought they were sticking with FCC too. 

I was told this over the phone (and other posters on here have mentioned this). If you are not allowed on the ship, such as if you have a cough etc, you will be denied embarkation and no refund, and no FCC will be offered. This was from the UK centre. 

Even Costa Cruises says explicitly they will refund you the cruise ship, and all transport if you are denied embarkation.

This is what worried me before my cruise, as what incentives are there for someone to not admit they may be at risk of the virus, if MSC says explicitly you aren't getting a refund if you do admit it!

Most other big players (Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Celebrity) are offering you to cancel the trip up to 2 days before departure (up to 31st July) and will offer either a FCC or refund. 

44 minutes ago, cruiser man 60 said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-51787238

 

a lot of Italy in lockdown so most med cruises will be cancelled 

Wouldn't surprise me if MSC say that Genoa is no where near these regions, and there is nothing to worry about - just like what they said to me in writing last week when I was worried about transiting via Milan (which is now officially on lockdown!)  

6 hours ago, Até said:

I was on the MSC US website and noticed they were actively making changes to pages, so went to look.  At first it caught my eye because it was dated February 7, then suddenly changed to March 6, now the homepage states March 3 again.  I figure it's a new policy being enacted.

We will have to wait and see then. 

If they are banning anyone travelling through Milan, then why is it fine to do this for future cruises, but not on the cruise I was supposed to take last week in which I would have had to travel through Northern Italy to Genoa. Hopefully this will help my case in trying to get some sort of refund for all of the lost airfares and cruise fare...

Also, I saw on the news today Italy is now banning anyone travelling out of Milan into areas like Genoa, so it would be interesting to see how people will be able to get back home when the leave in Genoa (and given most people would go to Milan airport). 

12 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

I’m going to reach out to a few high impact YouTube Influencers and Cruise Content Creators to get this exposed. This company’s lack of response is downright negligent in my opinion. 

 

 

Sounds good - happy to provide my experience for you in which we were denied any offer to move the cruise on the 29th of Feb, travelling through Northern Italy to head to Genoa! 

3 hours ago, antiq said:

Hi, 

We are scheduled to cruise on the Grandiosa on 5/2 from Marseille,  stopping at 3 Italian port.  The TA who contacted MSC on my behalf replied that it is scheduled to sail as planned.  Standard cancellation policy will apply, if I cancel now we will lose 50% and 75% penalty from March 18th onwards.

If they are not allowing Italians to board, it does not make sense that MSC are still stopping at Italian ports.  We are coming from Australia and currently Italy is on Level 2 alert - Exercise High degree of caution and I might have to comply with 14 self quarantine upon returning to Australia due to my line of work .  I have send an another email requesting a possibility of rescheduling without cost or free cancellation.  Hopefully there is some good news.

This happened to me - but I was sailing from Genoa in Northern Italy on the 29th Feb when the outbreak occurred, and when I asked them, they insisted that the ship is going no where near the infected regions - which we know is a lie given how close Genoa is, and how we would be transiting through Milan to get to Genoa!

MSC said I would lose all my money if I were to cancel it, as it was only 4 days before sailing...sadly we lost out on the full cruise fare. This was supposed to be our first MSC cruise, and I won't even sail with them again now due to how they treated us!

Just now, debsjc said:

 

What is the logic in testing all the passengers who were B2B, and not all the crew from the previous cruise?
Only that they don't have enough test kits, I suspect. 

Yeah, lack of testing kits and perhaps this is the minimum sample size needed to get a "good enough" result 

Just in: "Official: new COVID decree measures here in Italy. All sports events - also Serie A - can only be done behind closed doors for 30 days. No more fans in the stadiums. "

If Italy is stopping fans from watching sport events in stadiums, why are cruise ships allowed to depart from Northern Italy with 5000+ passengers onboard? 

1 minute ago, LAOkie said:

I’m in the US - I called MSC to discuss my options for my upcoming May 11th cruise, which has 3 stops in Italy (Genoa, Florence, and Naples). They informed me that they are treating this cruise as “business as usual”, which surprised me seeing as how the entire country of Italy is under a Level 3 warning (reconsider travel), with Milan and Venice as a Level 4 (do not travel under any circumstances). 
 

It does sound like they are allowing Med cruisers scheduled for March/April departures to postpone or choose a different itinerary with no fees. (Was told this by MSC and also saw this on the CC website). 
 

No word yet for my May cruise, but I was told to call back Tuesday/Wednesday and they should have an update for me, so we’ll see. 

Interesting about the March/April departures notice. It seems for my case which I wasn't allowed to change the date of my cruise given it was departing in February (on the 29th!) from Genoa, and I purchased it in the UK. Same as you, they treated that cruise ship business as normal even though 5 days ago, the outbreak from Italy occurred, and the UK government advised against all but essential travel to certain areas in Northern Italy. 

Hopefully you will have more options than what I was offered as it develops! I was probably just unlucky given the sailing date was 29th of Feb and the massive Italian outbreak was only around a week earlier...

4 hours ago, GatorMomInNC said:

 

Wow, I cannot believe that MSC would not allow you to rebook given the current situation in Northern Italy!!  Even though I have insurance on this cruise, some part of me was also thinking that if I didn't cancel, MSC would work with me.  But after hearing this, I really don't see that I have any choice but to cancel before my paid in full date, and now I don't even see any reason to wait.  As my husband this morning said, let's cancel the cruise and if we can't get flight changed/refunded and we are able to travel at that time, we'll just go and do a land journey.

Yes I know right! And when I was asking about them for any flexibility they said about how Genoa isn't near the regions (even though the UK government advised anyone north of Pisa, which is Genoa, to self-isolate if they have any symptoms)! 

"Your sailing isn't going any where near the quarantine places and we have taken preventative actions for more than a month to ensure the health and safety of our guests and crew and installed a strict embarkation policies."

Given they said the above to me I wasn't exactly happy with their response as they didn't share any empathy with our situation.

16 minutes ago, blueslily said:

 

Interesting. MSC did not allow you to chose a different sailing in the future like some have posted here saying that MSC is offering for Med sailings in March and April? I guess it was technically a Feb sailing. But, seems odd I guess if its true for March.

 

When did you cancel?

 

Maybe I  am confusing what was posted about MSC allowing for date changes for Med sailings. Oh, maybe because it was not booked via MSC USA? 

 

Yeah, to confirm this was booked in the UK not USA. 

Their main argument to me that everything was safe still - I received the following from MSC when I was asking about changing our booking, and see if we could do anything 4 days before sailing: 

"Your sailing isn't going any where near the quarantine places and we have taken preventative actions for more than a month to ensure the health and safety of our guests and crew and installed a strict embarkation policies."

From my understanding, as it was evolving so fast, with changing policies not everyone knew what was happening so we lost out.

I am hopefully that others on here will be able to change their booking as 1) they would have a lot longer before sailing 2) if they booked it in the USA then they are imposing bans to travel to Milan and parts of Italy, so it can be claimed on insurance. 

12 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

I am very sorry to hear your experience. I understand that in USA, MSC has told travel agents that for those cruises in March and April in the Mediterranean they have made special conditions. Are you from USA?

No, based in the UK so they must have a different policy than the USA agents 😔

I will add my comment in another thread here, incase anyone was instead in learning about MSC's response to my situation for a 7 night cruise sailing on the MSC Grandiosa leaving Feb 29th. 

We were due to embark in Genoa (Northern Italy) yesterday, with a flight to Milan. Based on the based outbreak there was last week, we decided it was going to be very hard to want to travel through those areas to reach the port - plus if we pick up something, we wouldn't have wanted to infect others on the ship. Plus, the thought of the ship doing the same route every week (which may have picked up guests from those regions the previous week), and people leaving, departing all the time made this a very risky situation for us.

Sadly, although I have cruised many times before, this was due to be my first time on MSC with the newest ship, MSC Grandiosa. We had been looking forward to the trip for months, but sadly it just wasn't meant to be. MSC were not forthcoming in offering a credit to move at all, so I doubt I would sail with them given how inflexible they were given this situation. We will be massively out of pocket for this one from the cruise, flights and paid transfers.

18 minutes ago, WH_Cruise said:

 

That is disgraceful of MSC and literally putting profit over peoples lives here.

 

Assuming your insurance wont cover it either if MSC are still willing to sail?

Yes, the insurance are unlikely to cover it given MSC are willing to sail. There is a clause that you can cancel it if it is within a certain radius of the "avoid all essential travel areas" (which Genoa is close to). Unfortunately, Genoa was just outside the zone.

I was extremely surprised, as I thought MSC would have allowed for some sort of back-credit for UK guests to use in a year given these extreme risk. I didn't fancy the risk of flying us flying into Milan, then getting the train down which is close to the outbreak areas. Plus, we wouldn't have wanted to risk anyone else on the ship if we were travelling very close to the areas (I thought MSC would have been happy for us to make this decision, not penalise us!).

I'm guessing other guests may have more flexibility, given they may have a sailing date that is further in advance. Given ours was less than a week when the Italian outbreak occurred, we were very unlucky!

12 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

I do not think that for MSC is business as usual. They know what is going on with their ships, being refused entry on ports, with the Italian nationals being denied boarding on Italian ships (!) and with countries advising against traveling to important ports in Italy like Venice.

MSC shall cancel any cruise which was going through the Mediterranean for March and April, refund the money or give a certificate which is valid at least until the end of 2021.

I agree about how MSC is not business as usual.

I was due to embark in Genoa (Northern Italy) yesterday, with a flight to Milan. Based on the based outbreak there was last week, we decided it was going to be very hard to want to travel through those areas to reach the port. Plus, the thought of the ship doing the same route every week (which may have picked up guests from those regions the previous week), and people leaving, departing all the time made this a very risky situation for us.

Sadly, although I have cruised many times before, this was due to be my first time on MSC with the newest ship, MSC Grandiosa. We had been looking forward to the trips for months, but sadly it just wasn't meant to be. MSC were not forthcoming in offering a credit to move at all, so I doubt I would sail with them given how inflexible they were given this situation. We will be massively out of pocket for this one.