Anastas617

I'll be cruising this month for first time on MSC and I was strongly considering booking a future cruise on board, but do any of you veterans know when the 2025 itineraries are typically released? I am considering a World America (I think that's the name, right?) in fall of 2025, but am not strongly committed to that and would prefer to look at some European options.

26 minutes ago, Marie50 said:

My agent told me I would not find out restaurant until I boarded. Is that correct?

There are several main dining rooms (MDR) on each ship. Your cabin card will have the assigned MDR and time when you arrive. If you do not like what was assigned, you can go to the Maitre'd and ask if they can change it for you. AFAIK the only differences with the MDRs is the location. Specialty restaurants and reservations are separate and can be made on-board.

Thanks for the review. I'm taking this cruise 7/16 and this helps a lot.

Did you happen to notice if Hola! was extremely busy on embarkation day for lunch? It seems the craziness of the buffet is a recurring theme for Day 1 and I hope to be on board and able to get a seat there instead.

Are there plenty of kiosks to book your shows or are there long queues for those? Am I to understand that you have to book the free shows as well as the two paid shows?

Thanks so much.

Thanks, folks. New booking made. Appreciate the feedback 👍🏻

10 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

IMO, NCL had lousy port times and the dread Ward Cove.  It would be one of the last lines I would consider for Alaska.

Thanks for the feedback. Good info to have.

Hey folks. Just asking the experts. I currently have a studio room booked on NCL Bliss for May 2024 (4th or 5th, I think...7 days r/t Seattle). I can book on Discovery Princess for a bit later (June 1) comped, just paying for Princess Plus. End result would be paying less than half.

I have never cruised NCL and that's the only hesitation I have is wanting to try them. Based on the ships and similar 7 night r/t from Seattle itinerary would you make the change? Is there any reason to avoid Discovery or is the Bliss superior, in general? From browsing, it seems Princess might be the best for Alaska?

2 minutes ago, garkar87 said:

The transfer shuttle with MSC is available from JFK airport. We booked thru the travel agent but you can call MSC directly to book.

Karen 

Thanks. I'll call and see if they have anything for LGA. If not, I'll just Uber/Taxi.

9 minutes ago, KarenGretz said:

It's an option in the TA booking portal or by calling them. However, the only options are pick up at JFK or EWR, at least in the TA portal....

Ok. Thanks for letting me know.

On 4/19/2023 at 12:36 PM, garkar87 said:

Just asking for my parents, they booked the port transfer from JFK for April 29th sailing.  Does anyone know where the MSC shuttle picks up (meeting spot) from JFK?

Thank you 

Karen 

Just curious on the port transfer. I've searched high and low and can't find anything regarding an MSC transfer from the airport. Can you point in me in the right direction? I was planning to drive, but am now flying into LGA.

Edit: Actually was flying into JFK, but my flight was cancelled and this was the best replacement option.

I made my first booking before I signed up for Voyager's Club. I then matched to my online TA status because I had nothing else to use for matching purposes. (The chart that is posted in these forums stated I would get Gold based on my Gold level, but I only got Silver. Oh well, no biggee). Anyways, I then booked a second cruise, entered my Voayger number and got my 5% discount.

Seeing that my original booking did not have my Voyager's number attached to it, I asked them to add it. They applied my 5% discount (which I did not expect) and dropped my balance due.

I will be cruising on Caribbean Princess and booked three excursions. All three were charged to my on-board credit. I can't recall what it looked like when I was booking, I just know that it was obvious I was using OBC.

Not sure if it matters, but I had already paid in full before I started booking excursions.

Looking forward to the report. I'm doing the r/t Brooklyn to Bahamas cruise as a solo in July. 

11 hours ago, smokeykat said:

JFK is the closest airport for you to fly in to. Cruise is out of Brooklyn.

Everything I have read online states Laguardia is closer. Also taxi/uber estimates are significantly less from LGA when I query.

6 hours ago, archer_310 said:

I took a screenshot of my number and status, so hopefully that will do.  Anyone know if I have to do this for each person in my party, or just me?

That should work. I've never cruised before, so I sent screenshot of my online TA status as that was my only valid option. I got my match the next day. 

52 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

So, cost of cruise went up by $365 and OBC went down by $200.

 

 

You did not say how the $365 price difference was resolved. Did Princess admit your original price should be honored?

 

You were short $200 in OBC and the $100 stockholder credit that was now applied still makes you short $100 OBC. Has that been resolved?

I originally had $250 OBC. $200 was removed and only $50 was showing. When they fixed my reservation they also applied the shareholder $100, so I now have $350 total OBC.

As far as how the price difference was resolved, I don't know. I have no clue why the total price changed and I have no clue what they did behind the scenes to fix it. I just know my TA said it was fixed, I pulled up my booking and everything was showing as it originally did (with the added $100 OBC). At that point, I took it as settled and did not feel the need to press the issue any further as much as I'd like to know how it happened in the first place.

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Nor do I.  I have NOT read a report about anyone's booking price changing due to applying the CCL Shareholder OBC.

I know, right 🤣. My inquisitive nature wanted a better explanation,  but my pragmatic side decided to just be glad it's fixed and move on.

Thanks again to the folks that listened and gave advice. I "should" have this resolved now.

I'll try to be concise: I spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with my TA who was going back and forth with Princess. I booked a guaranteed balcony (BF), but Princess claimed I upgraded to (BE) in January. This never happened. I asked why "amount due" appeared Friday if I did this in January. Princess also won't talk to me about reservation and my TA had no record of this.

After a couple more back and forths I sent my TA my confirmation at her request showing my total price, obc and that I had been assigned cabin C108 (BE category) at original price.

After an eternity,  the TA switched back to me and said that apparently the discrepancy occurred because I am a shareholder. I did send in my OBC request a few weeks ago, but never saw it added or received a response. I have no idea how or why that would have messed with my whole reservation,  but they fixed it. I just viewed my reservation and it is back to being paid in full and my extra $100 OBC is applied. Now I need to figure out how to spend it!

My TA was great even though she was from one of those huge online sites. I will be sure to send a review and hoping someone at the company reads it or cares.

Thanks, again. I appreciate all the feedback from this community.

13 minutes ago, Coral said:

While my TA does give me a discount off of the Princess pricing - I think there are several reasons to use a TA (even if she didn't discount). I appreciate her expertise and advice, I appreciate that if there is a problem with the booking - she is the one who has to be on the phone with the line fixing it as opposed to me, she has more power than I do because she is a top producer and they are more likely to want to make her happy than me as a customer and she offers other services that I benefit from that I can not get on my own. Travel agents are worth their weight in gold and are definitely an asset to customers if you get the right agent.

Thanks. I'll look into it a bit more. I really have no clue how to develop a relationship or find a good TA. The only one local to me didn't appear to want my business. Maybe I'll start combing the net and someone will jump out at me because I really have nobody to refer me or otherwise steer me to a good one. They all look good to me until they aren't! 🤣

I appreciate your feedback. I know us new cruisers probably annoy a lot of the veterans.

6 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I hope you get an explanation.  One thing is certain - if you have a booking and a deposit is paid, your cruise fare and perks will not change unless you initiate a change of cabin category, or want to re-fare under a new offer from Princess.  Your TA needs to explain where the $200 OBC went from Princess (they recently had a promo where each guest got $100 OBC).  The extra $50 is a group OBC from the Agency because of their bulk purchasing of cabin space. 

 

Another note for future is that there are online agencies (with live reps) who do offer discounts off the cruise fare.  IMO, there is no point in using a TA unless getting a discount off the Princess pricing.

 

Good luck getting this resolved.  Please let us know how things turn out.

Thanks @Steelers36. I appreciate the response. I booked MSC and NCL both direct and the experience has been night and day. I don't think I'll be using a TA again unless I find something drastically beneficial. 

I looked into this a bit more since I won't hear back from TA until tomorrow, but the excursions I booked using OBC are showing as confirmed and paid. It just seems like something really wonky happened in the system for this booking.

1 minute ago, Coral said:

Did you bid for an upgrade?

I did not. I received an email about bidding for an upgrade, but I never followed up with it, nor had a desire to. Email states I would have had to do that through my TA.

6 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Wait and see what happens after TA follow-up. 

 

Did your TA give you a discount off the cruise fare, or did you get the same price that was shown at the time when shopping for a cruise on Princess.com?  What you say can happen, but there is usually an explanation and you just don't have the details as yet.

 

It was an online TA. I am not 100% sure if I did the comparison at the time, but I have always found their advertised price to match the Princess site. Princess Cruises sent me the confirmation email. When my online TA looks into the booking, the price now shows as $1778.00 and OBC is only $50.

I apologize that this is a bit of a vent post because I have had nothing but frustration with Princess since I've booked.

So, I logged on as "booked guest" because the Princess website is useless and I can't login under my account without creating an entirely new membership number. I am now showing a balance due of $365.00 (due on 08JAN23?) and my $250 OBC ($200 + $50 TA bonus) is only showing as $50.00.

Princess won't discuss with me, so I need to go through my TA who sees the cruise price for my booking as a higher amount, thus the $365.00 balance owed.

They will follow-up with Princess for me tomorrow. I have the printed confirmation with the original price and OBC and "paid in full" on it.

I assume this will get rectified based on my confirmation evidence, but has this happened to anyone else? Like I said, I'm just venting a bit here, but I have found myself very dissatisfied with my Princess experience as far as pre-cruise and website stuff. It's left a very sour taste in my mouth before I've even gotten on the ship.

/rant over.

On 3/2/2023 at 7:00 PM, Match Game 72 said:

The show on the Broadway theater was Top Hits. It was well done. The Dirty Dancing scene was very entertaining. On the whole, I enjoyed the performance.

 

We did not see the shows in the Carousel Lounge. Tickets may be prebought for $12 each or $18 each while on the ship. Over the years we have seen many wonderful and amazing acrobatic shows. I'm sure this one is astounding, but we did not see it.

 

After the show, we went to Sky lounge for live music and a drink. After a late night snack at the buffet, we headed to the cabin. Late night snacks included 3 or 4 types of pizza, four types of premade sandwiches, some dried fruit and nuts, and a few small desserts. Was it everything that the buffet offered during the day? No. Was it enough? Yes.

Thanks for the info you are providing. Can I ask what the typical showtimes are for theatre shows? The way they do dining times has me flip-flopping my choice. 7:30pm is perfect for me, but if I choose "early" could I wind-up being assigned a terrible time like 5:30pm and unable to change it. Or if I stick with late dining, will that mean I probably will miss the evening shows? I chose late, but my gut tells me to switch to early.

Thanks, in advance.

These desserts and fitness classes have no bearing on whether I would get the Plus package, as it works out mathematically for me regardless. I would be lying, however, if I said I won't be trying one or two of these (not per day, that's madness!) during my trip. For research purposes, of course. And all that extra candy can stay behind the counter instead of getting tossed in the bin as soon as I walk away.

7 hours ago, Itochen33 said:

 

Meet the bubblegum squad! The NEW student group on board…

Looks like one person didn't get the memo about matching sweatshirts!