Gilpet

I recently (June) read on another site that the smoking area on the Lido deck on Ventura had been removed and the only smoking area was on the deck above and was uncovered. Can anybody who has been on board since June confirm if this is the case, please? I have sent 3 e-mails and also telephoned them but, apparently, it is no longer "policy" to provide passengers with this information before they board the ship! We are very interested in a cruise on Ventura in December but without this information we're not prepared to make a booking.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Gill

Thanks everybody for all the help and very useful information. We decided the most sensible thing to do was to book a later train so we now have more than enough time to get to Penn Station for the 4pm train.

Thanks again

Gill

Thanks Canuker and David, sadly self-help isn't an option for us as we'll have 5 (yes 5 lol) cases - one with clothes for QM2, one with clothes for Independence, one with things we'll want on both cruises and two to take on the coach tour between the two cruises - we never travel light but this is taking things to extremes lol. At least being on deck 6 we shouldn't have to wait too long if our cases are in the wrong places - I'll be having nightmares about that now!

Thanks for the advice

Gill

Thanks for your help everybody, it's all really useful.

Gill

Thanks, I didn't realise that the US citizens and the rest of us would all be in the same queue, I'd assumed you'd go straight through and we'd queue for hours lol. We're on deck 6 so it sounds as though we'll be amongst the last off as well - it's probably best not to book the 12.00 train from Penn Station! As this is just the start of our adventure we'll definitely need a porter's help with our luggage, if you don't mind me asking - how much would you normally tip them?

Thanks again for your help.

Gill

We will be taking our first Westbound TA from Southampton to New York in April next year, can anybody (non-US resident) tell me how long it normally takes to get through Customs/Immigration/Security etc? We need to make on-going travel arrangements so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Gill

Thanks for the help................we've booked :)

Thanks

Can anybody tell me where the outside designated smoking areas are on Sapphire Princess please? I looked at the website but it's very vague so I phoned to ask and I was told that there is only one outside designated smoking area and it would probably be on the Promenade Deck - can anybody tell me if this is correct, it seems very restrictive compared to most other cruiselines. Thanks

Thanks for your really quick replies AJ22 and Dai.

Gill

I'm really glad that somebody revived this thread. We will be in our first P&O suite on Ventura in December and I'd be grateful if somebody could answer a couple of questions for me please.

We have booked a B2 suite on early saver, we chose that category because we like the location (we realise that it's under the pool deck and could be noisy lol). We really don't want to be upgraded but I know we don't have a choice with the saver fare - if they did upgrade us it would seem that the only suite higher is a Penthouse suite as I've searched the deck plans and there couldn't see anything showing as B1, but there is a BE which I understand is a family suite - does anybody know where that fits in? Would they class that as an upgrade from a B2? I really want the answer to that question to be no, but don't humour me lol, I can take the truth.

Second question - we don't remove the automatic gratuities and, except in rare circumstances, we give extra as well. The whole concept of a butler is new to us but we will obviously be using his/her services (though not for packing and unpacking :eek:), do suites pay a higher amount of automatic gratuities and include the butler? If not then how much would the correct amount be?

Thanks for your help.

Gill

Thanks very much Bea, I'll give that a try.

Gill

I've seen that M&M's are arranged via Cruise Critic for cruises on Divina and I've read through the "sticky" at the top of the page. I can see that this only applies to Divina but some of the posts seem to imply that this happens on other ships although not via CC.. Does anybody know anything about this and how we can arrange it? We already have an unofficial meet-up planned but it would be nice to have an official one as well if anybody knows how. Thanks

Gill

The normal charge for the shuttle is four or five pounds per trip but a shuttle isn't always necessary.

Yes there really is that much difference. You say that you're not fussed about your stateroom or dining time so no reason not to book the Saver fare and save your money. The only other difference is where P&O provide any port shuttle Saver fares must pay for it but Select fares get it free. The normal charge is

Thanks, that was really useful.

Gill

Thanks Sidari and Bea, that's really helpful.

Bea, we've booked a balcony so it is the Allegrissimo package. I've looked at the link and that explains everything, thanks.

Gill

Great timing, I was going to pose a question about speciality coffees being included and now I don't need to :). We also have the Fantastica experience, booked when the promotion of the free all-inclusive drinks package was running. Ours states it is All-inclusive, inc. meals package A - would I be right to assume that means we can also get drinks in the MDR? Any ideas what "package A" means?

Gill

Thanks for the drinks package info - I've checked and we have All Inclusive with meal package A so I presume we are not limited by the vouchers and can also get drinks in the MDR, would that be right? Does anybody know if this would include the speciality coffees (latte etc)? We actually rarely drink alcohol but I do love my coffees lol.

I'm really looking forward to this cruise but does anybody else get nervous trying out a new line for the first time? Ignoring any packages, it's knowing things like what is included and what you have to pay for. I don't mind paying but I like to know beforehand that there will be a charge. On RCI any food in the Promenade Café and Sorrento's is free but on P&O you can get a free slice of cake etc with a paid-for coffee but otherwise you pay..........how does it work on MSC? Would you be paying for those glorious looking desserts in the pic or are they included? So many questions and so many months left to ask them :D.

Tarponjeff, our TA did everything for us and then told us our revised balance with the 5% discount, It doesn't appear on our actual invoice from MSC just the TA/s. Not long after we hit D+ with RCI my husband worked out how long it would take us to get to Pinnacle - 4 14-night cruises every year for the next 14 years!!!

Gill

Wow Heather, what a great review, thanks for posting it. We're booked on Preziosa for September and this has given us a very good idea of what to expect.

We wanted to try something new and I've always liked the look of the MSC ships but as we only cruise from Southampton we've not really had the opportunity until now. The status match was a bonus that our TA told us about, they sorted that out for us before putting the booking through so we were able to take advantage of the 5% discount, we were told that they wouldn't apply it retrospectively so the status match needed to be done first. Tarponjeff, did you do the status match before you booked? If not that could be the reason you haven't received the discount.

We've booked the Fantastica Experience and at the time that included a drinks package.............silly question time now lol - I understand that this will be in the form of 12 drinks vouchers, is that for the whole cruise or per day?

I agree with everybody else, RCI really are pricing themselves out of the market, we now just need MSC to vary the itineraries a bit.

Gill

Thanks for all you responses :)

I've had a look at the sticky post, Sidari, and it's really helpful - thanks for pointing it out to me..

Gill

Thanks for your really helpful answer Helen - I must remember not to drink too much before going to dinner ;). The ships certainly look beautiful so I hope we'll enjoy it as much as you obviously do. No matter how much information you can find on the MSC website, nothing replaces hearing different people's opinions.

We're going on September 13th Bex, and we got a great price as well, that was what finally made us take the plunge. We're looking forward to a new experience as well, we don't fly and only cruise from Southampton so it's nice to be able to try a line that doesn't normally go from the UK.

I think you're probably right, AEckhardt, I hadn't thought that there might be a lot of newbies on here as the sailings from Southampton are new. As you've done several NCL cruises are you in their Loyalty Programme? Did you know that MSC will match your status with other cruiselines programmes?

I'm sure that all of us newbies will enjoy the experience.

Gill

Oh dear, that's disappointing! I had hoped for at least a couple of answers to my questions considering the number of people who've read my post. Maybe people who cruise with MSC don't cruise other lines.

Gill

Although we've done several cruises with other cruiselines (mainly Royal Caribbean and P&O) we've never cruised with MSC before. We've booked one of their seven-day cruises from Southampton in September this year, can anybody who has cruised with other lines tell us what differences/similarities we're likely to find? We're booked into a Fantasia Balcony but not sure what difference that makes so any advice on that would also be helpful. Thanks in advance for any help, we're really looking forward to trying something new but any advance information would be great.

Gill

We were given a boarding time of 3pm for our 22nd July cruise on Ventura, we arrived at 2.55 and waited an hour before we checked in! We didn't expect to walk straight through but if P&O are going to insist that we stick to boarding times (don't arrive early and don't arrive late!) then they should stick to them as well after all we are the ones paying. They should go back to the old system of first come, first served and stop trying to be Big Brother!

Gill