1 hour ago, drsel said:

Be careful the MScCruises.com website states that the ban on non Europeans is till 31st July 2021.

Yes, I know. 😢 I guess part of me wants to believe that a company couldn’t be so cruel as to KNOW they would not be letting certain passengers onboard an upcoming cruise and just not tell them. However, I know that is foolish of me. Like @DCGuy64 though - we will be traveling to Italy for our vacation regardless of MSC’s decision!! We will either switch to Costa or we will explore Italy own our own by land. (Appreciate your suggestions on the Amalfi coast, by the way! 😃) And if they cancel we will be requesting a refund and NEVER booking with MSC again. 💁🏻‍♀️

16 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

I logged into our reservation and now see that MSC has extended its ban on US and non-Schengen area residents through July 15. I called MSC and was told it was a "corporate decision." The representative told me she had no information regarding our August 28 sailing. Obviously, since it's next month, I'm getting a little nervous. She told me our options were to move the booking to another date or get a refund, in the event that MSC continues to restrict US residents by the time we're supposed to sail. On the bright side, they answered the phone right away! ☺️

Yes, the ban is set to be lifted 4 days before my sail date. I am not holding on too much hope of getting on that ship. 😢 Very disappointing and frustrating, but we do have our landbased Italy plans in the works! 🇮🇹

6 hours ago, Stockjock said:

I'm in the USA and received my cabin assignment a week or two ago.  This is for a fall sailing.  Not sure if that assignment had anything to do with allowing Americans back onboard, or if that played no role.  I was pleased with the assignment though (Bella Oceanview upgraded to Bella Balcony w/minimal lifeboat obstruction).

The cruise that was cancelled was a much better deal (unobstructed balcony, drink package, same number nights, better itinerary, $300 USD less), but it is what it is.

I was upgraded from a Bella Oceanview to a Fantastica Balcony! 😃 You know, on this cruise I more than likely will not be allowed to board…🤣

Our cruise is now 14 days away and we just received our cabin assignments (after losing the cabins I chose back when I made the reservation and being dropped to Guarantee)!!  I am optimistically looking at this as a good sign that US travelers will indeed be allowed to board the ship! 😃 I don't see why they would assign us cabins yet if they didn't think we would be allowed onboard - it seems they would leave them for a possible last minute traveler to purchase.  Or, of course, they could just be stringing us along to postpone having to issue refunds...! 😕 

I (albeit foolishly) threw caution to the wind and booked a cruise with MSC for July 19th!! 🤔  Of course now it's a waiting game over the next two weeks for confirmation that we'll be allowed onboard - LOL!!  If we aren't I'll be booking a last minute cruise with Costa. Nothing like having no idea what's happening with a vacation that starts in 14 days. 🤣  I am very excited to return to sailing, and I'm sure it will be a lot different from what it used to be, but enjoyable nonetheless.  ☺️

10 minutes ago, Couple-Somerset said:

why can we enter Barbados from the UK but Costa view Barbados as a Red Country

why cant we enter the USA but Costa welcome guests from the USA (to cruise alongside us).

 

MADNESS - AND IT'S NOW POLITICAL NOT SCIENTIFIC

Absolutely agree with you on that one!!  I understand these are unprecedented times and countries and companies alike are continuing to scramble to figure it all out, but it's reached a point of insanity. Nothing makes sense. And while I've heard pretty bad things about Costa, MSC has left much to be desired in their handling of these situations.  Barring an absolute emergency situation, keeping people in the dark until DAYS before they're scheduled to set sail is unacceptable. Just my humble opion...🙃  Still hoping we're allowed on our ship, but if not I'm probably switching to a last minute Costa cruise and just getting a refund. 

@drsel The red list contains countries that are not allowed onboard, and the US was on that list up until a few days ago. I spoke with 2 different people at Costa and they both confirmed that US citizens are now allowed on their cruises effective immediately.  🙂  If you scroll down to the bottom of the page it explains what people from those countries must do before boarding.  

https://www.costacruises.com/cruising-soon-again/safety-above-all.html

Here's a link to the approved countries and the not-allowed countries:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OQgsAE4SRnlLCo5BstaKs9QxhX5f-OxR/view

I understand all this might change at any time, but it's a good start and I hope MSC follows or I might be switching ships at the last minute - LOL! 

Just noticed that the US has been added to Costa's list of countries allowed on board.  I'm hoping that means MSC will SOON follow suit, seeing as how my cruise departs in 18 days - LOL!! 😟 Anyone heard any updates?? 🙏

5 minutes ago, drsel said:

http://m.msccruises.com/en-gl/Mobile/Itinerary-Updates.aspx

 

*Cruises until the end of July 2021 are only available to guests who are residents in Schengen countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland) and in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania.

Thanks, @drsel - I did see that link earlier in this thread, but the US site is worded differently and the person I spoke with on the phone said the guidelines are different. I’m sure I’m just being ridiculously optimistic, but this is all the US site says as of right now: 

MSC GRANDIOSA CRUISE UPDATES

29 minutes ago, drsel said:

Have you made the final payment, which is required 90 days prior to sailing ?

Only Europeans will be able to board MSC Mediterranean cruises Uptil 31 July 2021

We have made our final payment, and we’ll

wait for MSC to cancel on us, but I’m just hearing conflicting stories regarding non-schengen countries. And even now the US site says it’s only until July 14th. 🤷🏻‍♀️I was told the UK would not be able to sail but the US would. 🤔 I’m not holding my breath on that, but that’s what I was told.

5 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

That's exactly our case, too. I requested time off for vacation months ago and it would be a hassle to cancel it, but because we booked airfare from the US that has a stopover in London, we're considered as coming from the UK by the Italian government, thus a 5-day isolation period applies. This despite the fact we were both fully vaccinated more than 2 months ago. To make matters worse, MSC is only allowing Schengen-area residents onboard until the end of July, and our cruise is August 28. Unless things change with MSC and Italy, we'll end up not going anywhere. I suppose we could postpone until next year, but that brings concerns of its own.

Hey DCGuy64, have you heard anything officially from the US MSC people? I spoke with someone today that said that they are in the process of assuring that vaccinated US citizens will be allowed to board the ships after July 17th, and that's why the US site hasn't posted the same thing as the UK site regarding cruises through the end of July???  We actually have a July 19th cruise out of Italy scheduled, and I know I should be cancelling but I keep holding on!!!  LOL!!!  As you mentioned, time off requests have already been made, and I'd hate to cancel this vacation if it winds up being good to go! So just wondering if you've been told or heard something different from the US side. 

2 hours ago, drsel said:

Next month, July 2021 is very unlikely. Not sure about Aug & Sep also.

 

We are hoping that Oct 2021 sailings will allow  FULLY VACCINATED guests of all countries to board, because vaccination numbers would be much higher by then & active cases significantly lower.

Also, there will be less demand after the holiday season

I just don't understand why they aren't allowing US passengers on their ships sailing in Italy and Spain when Italy and Spain have both opened their borders to US travelers? It's just frustrating... ☹️

Well that's great! 😞  I'm scheduled on the Grandiosa for 7/19.  Do I take a preemptive strike and cancel my cruise so I can start working on a vacation Plan B???   Or do I cross my fingers and hope for the best knowing I probably won't be able to get on the ship and I probably won't know until a few days before the 19th??!!  Ugh..  Thanks, MSC.  I know COVID's changed the game, but not a very good first impression. 😠

Thank you, everyone, for the advice!! I definitely learned a lot from all of your responses.  Now we just wait and see if US citizens will even be allowed on the Grandiosa's 7/19 sailing!!  😮   I don't want to prepay for anything else until we have the official OK.  

8 hours ago, Tapi said:

Did she mean to allow four hours before your flight home? Or from ship arrival to debarkation? 
 

What’s your itinerary? If all the ports in your itinerary contained in the Shengen Area, your debarkation process will be quicker since there will be no customs/immigration  procedures. It literally took us 5 minutes to go from ship to sidewalk. But there’s more to it. Read along: 
 

Here’s my personal experience cruising on MSC from Civitavecchia. Keep in mind that this was pre-pandemic, so some protocols may be different. 
 

- When we booked our cruise, the itinerary showed a 7:00am return to Civitavecchia, so I booked a 12:25pm flight home. However, the airline changed our departure time to 11:25am a few months later, but we were reassured, both by MSC and people here on Cruise Critic that we’d still have plenty of time to make our flight. 
 

- We booked transfers from Civitavecchia to FCO with Stefano’s Rome Cabs. Best decision ever (more on that later). 
 

- Once on the cruise, we noticed that departure and arrival times at various ports of call were different than what was on our original itinerary. This messed up a bit some of our pre-booked independent tours but nothing proved as stressful as when they changed our return to Civitavecchia from 7:00am to 8:00am. With the revised flight departure time of 11:25am, it would now be very tight to make our flight home.

 

- We were traveling in an Aurea stateroom, so we were given an 8:15am “meet time” at one of the lounges (similar to what the screenshot portofrome posted above). No mention of self-assist debarkation anywhere on the paperwork that we received. So I went to Guest Services and asked about it. The person that I spoke to said that there was no formal “self-assist” program, but that I was welcome to go directly to the gangway with all of my luggage and be allowed off the ship as soon as they were cleared. 
 

- The ship did arrive back in Civitavecchia right at 8:00am. I thought that there would be a long line for self-assist debarkation like in the US so  I stood in line about an hour before arrival. However the long line never materialized. There were maybe 15-20 people total waiting to disembark. 
 

- Once we received the “all clear” (about 15 minutes after docking), we walked right off the ship. As mentioned above, we didn’t have customs/immigration since our itinerary was fully contained in the Shengen Area, so we were literally standing on the sidewalk in 5 minutes. We were speeding away from the cruise terminal around 8:30am and we made it to FCO a little before 9:30am. 
 

- About transportation to the airport, pre-booking our transfers through Stefano’s Rome Cabs was a great decision, and one that made debarkation morning much less stressful. I had pre-booked and paid in advance on line. I requested our transport for 7:00am but once I realized that our arrival time would be 8:00am, I emailed them from the ship the day before. They emailed me back and said not to worry, that they tracked the ship’s arrival, and that our driver would be there waiting as long as she needed to.

 

And she was. As soon as we excited the terminal, we saw her holding a sign with our name, as well as umbrellas (it was raining pretty heavily). She jumped into action, helped me with our luggage, handed umbrellas to my wife and kids, and walked us to our waiting van parked 20 feet away. We were on the road in no time. Since everything was paid in advance, we didn’t waste any extra time processing payment transactions at the last minute. Booking our transfers through this company was one of the absolute best decisions of the entire vacation. 
 

For the record, we did make it on our flight, but we used every single minute of our time traversing the busy lines at FCO. But I learned my lesson and I will never book such a tight flight ever again. 

Thank you!! Definitely appreciate the detailed information from an experienced Civitavecchia traveler!!! 🙂 

8 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

Agree; the train to Rome is super easy and they leave every 20 minutes or so. It's a lovely ride and since you are staying in Rome and not going directly to the airport it'd be very convenient.

I'm just worried that the amount of luggage the 4 of us have will make the train ride cumbersome...? But maybe not? With only 25 days left I really need to figure this out!!! LOL!

9 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Taxis are notoriously expensive going from Civitavecchia to Rome. Why not consider the train instead? Much cheaper and, in my opinion, more relaxing. The train station in Civitavecchia isn't that far from the cruise port. Only 1 mile, and you can get a taxi at the port to take you there.

https://www.rometoolkit.com/airport/civitavechia_train.htm

 

I did consider the train, but I'm worried that 4 of us traveling each with 1 large suitcase and 1 carry-on might be a bit cumbersome? But maybe I should rethink that...

7 hours ago, Stockjock said:

I arranged a private driver to take me from the cruise terminal to FCO airport, and it was pretty fouled up. He got there early and had a really long wait and he was very irritated.  He said he could not wait for us anymore because he had another person to pick up, and had to get another driver for us.  It took quite a while for them to show up, we were stuck in the hot sun, sweating like crazy with all of our bags, and it was an uncomfortable and inconvenient hassle.

 

I guess you can do a shuttle like we did, but there certainly can be some variability as to when you get off the ship. I think if I had to do it again, I might’ve used an MSC transfer or just take a taxi (more likely).  

This fall, we will be in the same situation, Covid permitting, and this time I'll probably just grab a cab.  It's a 35 mile (usually) 45 minute or so trip and I'm guessing the fare will be somewhere in the 100 to 150 Euro range.  Not cheap, but convenient.  I will be checking on MSC's transfers as well, but I have a feeling a private transfer (taxi) would be more practical, if not a bit more expensive.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm afraid of - or worse, that the arranged transfer will just leave and not send another driver and we'll be out a couple hundred dollars.   I would be fine taking a taxi, but there are 4 of us - all adults - and I'm not sure how many minivan taxis will be available?  We could take 2 taxis, but that just seems excessive - LOL! Although that might be what we wind up doing.  And unfortunately we cannot use MSC's transfer service after the cruise because we aren't going straight to the airport - we're spending 2 nights in Rome and apparently they only provide transportation to the airport. 😞  Thanks for sharing your experience!! 

15 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

Assuming that there are no issues coming into port you could be off the ship by 8:30 if you self disembark based on the above. I'd personally not want to wait around the port for 4 hours (there's nothing to do there at that time in the morning).  Personally I'd split the difference at 2 hours past port arrival and enjoy one last breakfast and linger over coffee on the ship.

I was under the impression that self-assist wasn't allowed right now? Something to do with needing to sanitize every piece of luggage that gets off the ship.  I hope that information is incorrect, because I would definitely prefer to do that!! 

15 hours ago, portofrome said:

This is the schedule on June 4th, 2021 on Seaside and it should be the same for all the ships:

 

Oh, wow! Thank you so much!  That's very helpful!!  🙂

6 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Be debarking do you mean leaving the ship for good? Or just for the day? Four hours sounds about right for the entire process of final debarkation, so meaning they'll start letting people off around 7:30 and be completely done by 11:30. It doesn't mean 4 hours per person. I mean, they do some things more slowly in Italy, but not that slow! LOL When we've gone ashore in Civitavecchia, it took us about 20 minutes or so.

Thanks! I did mean leaving the ship for good - I know when we sailed on RC several years ago it didn't seem to take very long, and that was with a ship emptying all of it's passengers, so I wanted to double check.  But okay - guess I'll book a transfer 4 hours after the ship's scheduled arrival time to be safe. Thanks again!  😀

Hello! Does anyone have any experience with MSC's debarkation process in Civitavecchia? I want to arrange for a transfer and am curious as to what time to tell the driver to meet us at the port. I called MSC and the woman I spoke with said to allow at least FOUR HOURS!! :O  That seemed a little excessive to me, but this is our first time cruising with MSC so I thought I'd see if anyone has any first hand knowledge on the efficiency and timeliness of their debarking.  Thanks, everyone! :)