Froggitt

On 10/4/2021 at 1:31 AM, thesnoopster2 said:

You might be able to try this.  This is a quick article on connecting your one device through wifi, then using Bluetooth to share the wifi.  I would love feedback on this type of strategy.

 

https://www.nextpit.com/share-wifi-over-bluetooth

Didn't read the article but this works on MSC. Android/Settings/Connections/Mobile Hotspot and Tethering/Bluetooth Tethering. You then connect your IOS or laptop to your phone using Bluetooth.

On 9/29/2021 at 10:21 PM, zekekelso said:

Never played on a ship. PLEASE tell me there’s a cap on that 10% rake, at least if NLHE.  
 

But, yeah, even James Bond plays poker instead of baccarat these days. Get with the times MSC. 

$25 from memory on NCL

7 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

Which sailing were you on?

4-11 Sept from Southampton

On 9/11/2021 at 3:55 PM, desire882x said:

Hi Folks,

 

I've just got back from a 7 night cruise on MSC Virtuosa and wanted to share my experience. I've been on 4 cruises (a mixture of Royal Caribbean (Symphony of the seas etc. and Virgin Voyages) and I'm in my 30's.  I want to share my experience as I noticed there are very few reviews of this ship.  I've written some quick bullet points of my overall experience, I'll write a few review and post it on the review section of this website.

 

I was on the 4th Sept - 11th Sept Cruise around the UK (Portland / Liverpool / Greenock / Southampton). I will be comparing my experience with Virgin Voyages as I was on Scarlet Lady a few weeks ago.

 

Initial Embarkation Procedure

I arrived at Southampton at my allocated time, I was met with long queues all the way around the building with limited social distancing and hardly any people wearing masks. After around an 1hr 15 mins my temperature was taken and I was let inside the terminal. After another 30 minutes we were asked to show our cruise ticket...we then queued again and another desk asked to show our proof of vaccine. We then joined another queue to have our tests, after this we were then told to go to the security check. At this point we were asked to show our passports, we were then were advised to go upstairs and queue at another desk and were asked to show all our documents (Insurance / Proof of Vaccine / Passport / Boarding Pass etc.) At this point we were given a 'Watch' which we were told was for contact tracing. We then waited for our results and finally could board. Total time was just under 3 hours.

 

I felt the process was quite complex compared to Virgin in terms of showing different documentation at each desk. With Virgin I found the process much more simpler.

 

1) Stage 1 Show Tickets / Proof of Vaccine and Passports

2) Stage 2 take Covid Test

3) Stage 3 - Get Results

4) Stage 4 - Show Boarding Pass and get on board.

 

Positives

Room was a good size and house keeping did a good job tidying up

 

The Main Dinning Room is impressive and the service is great here

 

Food was very average in the buffet but did the job...

 

Shows were pretty okay

 

F1 Simulator was good

 

Negatives

 

Serious Lack of Staff in all areas

 

Staff are really worn out and unhappy (Spoke to 5 members of staff who openly told me they can't wait to get off the ship)

 

Ship is running a 'skeleton service' buffet restaurant was only ever 50% open at lunch time, there are only two places to go for breakfast with the one restaurant

closing at 9:30am!

 

Massive Massive Massive Queues for Breakfast (on some days) often wait times of 40 minutes+ to get it

 

Really BAD Processes in place...e.g some stuff you can only book in person such as tickets for shows / restaurants and F1 Simulator / Golf ETC, some stuff you book on your TV/ Phone app ..so it can be confusing having pieces of paper with Spa Bookings and Restaurant Reservations as a lot of stuff does not sync with the App!

 

A lot of processes don't make sense for example to make reservations for the restaurants you have to go to the Bar?

We had numerous issues such as the sensor / lock on our door not working, we queued a total of 8 hours over 2/3 days just to resolve this simple issue. 

 

House keeping staff unfriendly for example we needed more toilet paper was told we had to request this via guest services as apparently house keeping staff are not allowed to give toilet paper to guests directly....

 

Lots and lots of noise at night...we were in a balcony cabin on the 13th floor and every night there were lots of banging which we believe was from the staff as it happened every night at 11:45pm - 3:30am. I am guessing this was the staff performing some sort of maintenance?

 

Lack of Drinks on board - Despite having the drinks package, a lot of drinks were unavailable for example there were no fruit juices. After 24 hours on board some restaurants had ran out of Coca Cola Cans and resorted to providing a 'water downed version' of diet coke to guests.

 

Food not labelled on board in terms of allergens or diet (Vegan etc.) Staff unsure of what was in food.

 

A lot of machines in the Arcade are not working and the guy who runs this is the most rude unfriendly person you could meet in your life! I lost around 16 credits on broken machines and was told by the guy 'not my problem speak to guest services'.

Way too many people on board I felt like the ship was 85% capacity I was told it was around 60%+

I felt the slot machines were set to a real 'low win rate' could just be my experience but I didn't win anything...

 

There were confirmed covid cases on board, a lot of people were not wearing masks and no one was enforcing this. After covid began spreading on board more announcements were played on the ships speaker to social distance etc. 

 

Music Lounge / Piano Player - opposite guest services so its very hard to even speak to guest services when you have music blaring in the background!!

 

Queues to get drinks....why not have soft drinks such as water etc in a vending machine to allow guests to get drinks themselves ?

 

Confusing Processes- Guests are allowed to get cold drinks in the buffet but are not allowed to get hot drinks...?

 

Arcade - Very very old games stuff that you would expect to find a carboot sale!

 

Confusing Advice - Guest Services saying don't use your watch for any payments its only for contact tracing and all restaurants asking to you to show your watch to order drinks....

 

Strange Disembarkation Process - Guests are removed from their rooms at 8am, and again ques to disembark.

 

Conclusion

 

A very very different experience compared to my cruise with Virgin Voyages in Covid Times...

 

I had multiple issues on board mainly not being able to get into my room, which resulted in my card being reprogrammed which resulted in my fun pass not working, the wifi not working and generally not being able to use my card with anything.

 

I spent in total 14 hours of my holiday at guest services...when I asked to speak to a supervisor I was told I would have to wait in my room most of the day for them to ring. Apparently the supervisors don't see anyone face to face!

 

When I did speak to a supervisor they just said 'sorry we can't do anything complain to MSC when you get back on land' they would not give any compensation, no restaurant vouchers, no spa vouchers, nothing.

Overall this is a cruise I would not recommend you go on...even when more staff are made available the processes on board are just confusing and don't make sense! For a brand new ship the processes are outdated....

 

P.S - I can confirm the stories posted online regarding this cruise are true with the high number of covid cases being present on board. MSC should of really not allowed more passengers to board at Liverpool and Greenock the ship needs a full decontamination. This morning I saw another several hundred guests queuing to get on board....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was on the same cruise. Your post is accurate.

Couple of things maybe you didnt notice....Tannoy "Would Mr and Mrs Xxxxx call extension 99 from their cabin".....positive covid test, to me met by men in hazmats at their room. Also, did you notice the cruise director disappeared halfway through.....my guess was he also got covid and was isolating.

Europe.....well UK only.

21 minutes ago, LeCommandant said:

I think that MSC prefers more profitable games such as Slot Machines. They only keep the most profitable for them. 

But how much profit did they make from me that cruise in the casino? £0.00. 

10% rake, which is fairly standard on cruise ships, if exorbitant compared to land based casinos. A very profitable enterprise for the cruiseship casino. Just use one of the Baccarat dealer/tables, rather than paying them to shuffle cards all shift.

Plus a table or two of poker players really warms up the atmosphere in a casino if its a lively game.....brings people in/encourages them to stay even if they're playing slots or blackjack.

Was on Virtuosa earlier this month. Came away with the impression that MSC really doesn't care about Covid. Examples:

• they have four main dining rooms and yet only one was open for breakfast and lunch, into which they ram people onto tables an inch apart - people then tightly queueing all round the ship and back again to get into the one dining room
• they put random solos onto one large table
• the only place staff asked for a mask to be worn was on entering the dining room. 90% of people in the theatre weren't wearing a mask and not one member of staff asked them to do so. Total contrast from Princess a couple of weeks earlier when everywhere you went, you were reminded to wear a mask if you werent doing do
• Bizzarely they asked people to wear a mask when outside on deck, although again, this was never enforced. All there was was an hourly tannoy "Please wear your masks" which got rather annoying.

I'm assuming the cruise director and his badly fitting suit went down with Covid halfway thru the cruise as he was never seen or heard from again.

Passengers were getting more information about Covid outbreaks on the boat from googling newspaper reports than from MSC. If you ever heard "Would Mr and Mrs Smith please go to their cabin and call extn 99", you knew they had tested positive for Covid, and would be met there and swiftly removed by men in white hazmat suits to "the Covid deck".

Was recently on MSC Virtuosa. Went to the casino around 10pm on the first night, asked where the poker table was. Said "we don't have Texas Holdem on MSC, you can play 3 card poker instead", and that I was only the second person that had heard ever asked for poker.....apparently there isn't the demand for it. Meanwhile, there were three Baccarat tables that were empty for the whole cruise.

I enjoy a game of late night Texas Holdem on my cruises. I was told that MSC was similar to NCL, where there is often two poker tables and a waitlist, even with a 10% rake. I guess I'll be avoiding MSC in future.

PS I'm sure no poker players would be offended by using a Baccarat table for poker......

I've pasted below the above list of exclusions, and the list IN CAPS of the exclusions from the ticket of a current Virtuoso sailing. Starship club being the difference.

• Venchi 1878 establishments, Lavazza Coffee Shop, Jean Philippe Chocolate, Coffee, Crepes & Gelato and Starship Club)

• THE OFFER IS VALID IN OUR BARS, AS WELL AS THE SELF-SERVICE BUFFET. MAIN RESTAURANT AND SPECIALITY RESTAURANTS, BUT DOES NOT COVER SIGNATURE VENUES (VENCHI 1878 ESTABLISHMENTS, LAVAZZA COFFEE SHOP AND JEAN PHILIPPE CHOCOLATE, COFFEE, CREPES & GELATO)

What is the “Tasting Menu” referred to on the Diamond benefits? Is it a cut down version of the full menu?

Trying to set a device as a wifi hotspot while connected to wifi will not work. However there is a solution....bluetooth. I just tested this with an Android phone connected to wifi, I paired this phone with my iPad (which had wifi turned off) and bingo.....a new icon appeared on the iPad where the wifi icon used to be and I could happily browse the internet on the iPad connected to the Android using Bluetooth and then using the Androids wifi connection.

Still no news from NCL. However this looks interesting

This August, Virgin Voyages' shiny new ship Scarlet Lady will be sailing from Portsmouth around England's southern coast — and Virgin Red members can get early access to tickets.

And now Celebrity announce UK cruises this summer. NCL where are you?

And now Royal Caribbean announce UK cruises from Southampton. Decent new ship too, just like MSC. 

SUMMER HOLIDAYS FROM SOUTHAMPTON • JULY 2021

ANTHEM OF THE SEAS

Looks like MSC are doing exactly this.....round Britain cruises for UK people only. NCL leaving all that pent up cash on the table.

But didn't those sailings have some non-UK ports, e.g. Cork, Le Havre, Iceland? These new sailings will be something like Southampton, Portland, Belfast, Inverness, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Southampton....maybe some clockwise, some anti-clockwise.

Anyone else think the recently cancelled Norwegian Encore, Jewel, and Jade will be redeployed to the UK this summer/autumn?

2 hours ago, Darcy03231 said:

Even if the cruise lines don't require vaccination, I wouldn't be surprised if some countries require it for visitors as the vaccine becomes more widely available.   Dh is fully vaccinated and I get my first (and maybe only) shot on Saturday.

Which is where this thread started, because of all the unknowns with the different countries and their vaccine coverage and their infection rates, I can see single country only cruises being scheduled over the summer.

No way is any cruise company going to risk being the virus capital of the high seas. They're all going vaccine only, possibly with some exemptions for those unable to get the vaccine.

As if by magic, more justification for "round UK only " cruises appears

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/overseas-travel-ban-extended-until-july-due-to-third-wave-fears-p0t06k0bg

I guess they would give him a bell to wear round his neck.....

Yes I agree somewhere between no hope and Bob Hope of anything in Italy/Spain/France this summer.

Here is a link to the P&O plans https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/cruise/po-cruises-plans-uk-staycation-sailings-this-summer - never been on P&O, was waiting till I was in my dotage.

UK sailings will replace cruises on Arcadia, Aurora, Azura and Ventura which have been cancelled until the end of August and on Britannia and Iona until the end of September.

As the EU seems to be going to hell in a handcart, with their disastrous vaccine procurement programme, and now with a third wave taking hold across mainland Europe, I can't see any cruise ships in the EU this summer. Conversely, the UK has had a terrible pandemic, but now looks to be under control with over 50% of adults now vaccinated with at least one jab. Is there any sign of "round the UK" sailings being scheduled, similar to what P&O have announced? You could probably deploy every NCL ship supposed to be in Europe, into the UK, and fill every one of them, as there is so much pent up demand for holidays, and this would count as a staycation.

Some real world, as opposed to trials, vaccine efficacy...

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-linked-to-85-and-94-drop-in-coronavirus-hospital-admissions-in-scotland-study-shows-12225532

The COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK could reduce a person's risk of being admitted to hospital by as much as 94% four weeks after the first dose, new data suggests.

Experts examined coronavirus hospital admissions in Scotland among people who have had their first jab and compared them to those who had not yet received a vaccine.

Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Glasgow and St Andrews and Public Health Scotland (PHS) looked at data on people who had received either the Pfizer/BioNTech jab or the one developed by scientists at the University of Oxford with AstraZeneca.

Four weeks after receiving the initial dose, the Oxford jab appeared to reduce a person's risk of hospital admission by 94%.

Those who received the Pfizer jab had a reduction in risk of 85% between 28 and 34 days after the first dose.

All the Westbound cruises are available to book this Autumn/Fall, however *all* those ships are currently in the US, and there are no bookable cruises Eastbound. Anyone know anything e.g. they will travel to Europe empty, they are already in Europe, they will announce dates when the lockdown is over, the Westbound cruises will all be cancelled and the ships will stay in the US this summer (cancelling all the summer/fall Europe 2020 cruises).

On 9/6/2019 at 8:33 PM, KeithJenner said:

Totally irrelevant to the point they made, where they didn’t in any way suggest that it was free (or even mention that they got it as a perk).

 

Thats before we consider that, being from the U.K., the gratuity on the perk is irrelevant anyway.

Depends on how you view paying £99 for Free at Sea for a 7 day cruise.....coincidentally it works out very similar to the 20% on the "free" US drinks package.