TheycallmeDrew

"Somewhere around day eight, I started looking at MSC in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, they only have seven day cruises, and the itineraries don’t vary. If they had longer cruises in the Mediterranean or they had back to back cruises where the itineraries were even slightly different, I’d try to convince Cathy to cancel Virgin for another Yacht Club experience. " I am not sure if it's because you are looking at YC but MSC has tons of cruises longer than 7 days in the Mediterranean. We have an 11 days booked on Poesia in Oct and it's only 11 days because I wanted to get on and off at the same port. You might want to look at a different booking site if you are only seeing 7 days. I also liked this smaller ship because it's going to a bunch of ports I have not seen offered by other cruise lines.

Thanks for the review. I am surprised they only had O'Sheehans open for lunch as when I travel with my wife for food allergies she has to pre-order breakfast, lunch and dinner and eat in the main dining rooms. As for spicing the food preferences for passengers differ depending on where you come from. US residents generally want more salt in their food, Europeans prefer less and a lot of asian and south american residents want spiciness. The cruise line generally goes a bit more bland and you can add salt, hot sauce ect depending on your taste. I haven't found the food to be bland to my palate but that is my personal taste.

I enjoyed Q when I went there and left stuffed. I have heard that you should save a dining credit and go a la carte especially if you are not a big eater as the prices are cheaper than other specialty restaurants. I can't say for sure as I used a platinum voucher when I went.

Well it's never happened for me so I have no idea lol!

there are the standard ones that are the same on most ships. Last February I know Epic had only 1 Munchkinland (my favorite) that I could find.

Not sure about tacos but I did a tequila tasting which was really informative and found some tequilas that I actually liked.

That would make more sense. What site are you on? I posted what is displaying on the site I am looking at. There has already been 1 itinerary change maybe this one has not caught up yet.

Oct 23, 2024 sailing out of Barcelona

I did 11 night MSC and on gala night even the non YC dining rooms got free lobster. I found the pizza on MSC better than NCL and Royal, NCL has had better Indian food. I found MDR on MSC better than NCL recent cruises but I do enjoy the any time dining that comes free on NCL but a charge(Aurea experience) on MSC.

I was just looking at our cruise on Poesia in Oct 2024 and according to latest itinerary(it's changed once already) Genoa is 1pm - 4pm. Anyone else have such a short port? By the time you got off it would be time to line up to get back on!

Been on both and Epic bathroom doesn't bother me much but Escape being a newer and larger ship has more amenities and would be a better experience for a first time visit. Escape is probably my favourite NCL ship and I have been on every class of ship they have.

I was told by someone who used to work in the spa that the added gratuity was the only pay the spa person received aside from quotas on products that they push which is why the upsale is so high on spa visits. So on a let's say $200 service the person doing the treatment on get's $36. That is why I tip extra for good service. Also the tips are not pooled like they are in the shops.

I go to the spa often and I think you may be confused on 1 point (pardon me if I am understanding incorrectly). You said you took the special of the day correct? This is an already discounted deal and not subject to the latitudes discount which is against the regular packages. It's an either or situation. I have had this happen before and you have to figure out which is the better deal. Often it is the deal of the day so they may in fact have saved you some money if they gave you the port deal and ran it through later to save you taxes.

My wife is gluten free and soy free. The gluten is done well but sometimes the soy is missed since it can be added to things no ones thinks about (it was in the earl grey tea for some reason!). My wife advises and the only issue is usually embarkation day as she has not had the opportunity to pre-order that days meals. You order the next days meals the night before and they can often make things gluten free pretty easily unless it is a pre-packaged item that is delivered pre-prepared frozen like a dumpling or spring roll type of thing. Be careful in the buffet. For soy the chef in charge of the buffet told her he would make her something to order since they were using vegetable oil on grill and in fryer but gluten free would be easier. She did get soy poisoning on our last cruise and no one could figure out the source so we went to Le Bistro instead of MDR and got a nice surprise as they picked up the check. We didn't raise too much of a fuss as we were more concerned with locating the area of issue than finding someone to blame so it was a nice surprise.

I can only tell you when I was there not only could I buy the margarita with my easy plus package but they let me buy it for my dining companion since I was not having an alcoholic beverage with my meal.