CruisingWalter

Do you mean the Sailaway Party? Most likely it'll be as the ship actually sails away, maybe starting at 8p.

I'm not really sure what 'too fancy' means but there is plenty of food to eat across the ship. The Galley is pretty straightforward, Pink Agave is Mexican, Extra Virgin is Italian food, Gunbae is meat, shrimp, vegetables... Certain things you'll be able to ask to have changed, other things are part of the meal. Really the only 'weird place' your partner may not want to eat at is Test Kitchen. If you want to see what the food is really all about, I have a full food review here from our first sailing on Scarlet Lady. https://youtu.be/pBolzKvXjMU

If your cabin is set up with only one credit card to manage all payments onboard, the Loot and Bar Tab will be shared by both Sailors in the cabin. If you would like to use two separate credit cards for each individual Sailor, you will set that up when you check-in via the App. Note that the Sailor Loot and Bar Tab will be credited to the primary Sailor only if you use two cards. Sailor Loot can be used in the Casino.

No, that's a hard and fast rule with 180 days. They don't bend that one, ever. But at least you're getting the loyalty discount, basically the same thing.

On our sailing the first two seatings were sold out, so not for our sailing.

We were Bella Experience on our very first MSC Cruise a few months ago and ended up with the 9:45p dining time. Not our first choice by any means, but it might have worked in our favor. Service was great, meals were hot and we had none of the complaints we have seen about the MDR being slow, food coming out cold or not hot or the wrong food. Basically our dining room was 25-50% full when we ate so our service was fantastic whereas the earlier two seatings were full. If it's helpful we posted our food review recently. The food was much better than we expected based on all the social posts we saw prior to boarding. https://youtu.be/8DNLLqRyCiA

As others have mentioned, this used to work quite well but of late they're not allowing this. You might have to wait till you're onboard to actually use the Loot. It would be nice if they allowed us to use the Loot in advance for this very purpose like some other cruise lines. For the tours that have additional capacity available, yes. In some cases there is very limited capacity, but where additional tours or added capacity can be added to existing tours, yes they will open up more slots for shore excursions.

Yep, the best thing the TAs can do right now is to remind their Sailors to hang tight and when the re-bookings come through, immediately look at the cabin assignments. Those can be changed easily. It does seem like the re-bookings are picking up the pace over the past few days from what I've been seeing in my various social feeds.

Yes, typically items come online around Midnight-ish Eastern Time on the date specified.

That's awesome, I was born and raised in the Hudson Valley and monthly trips to Broadway was my childhood all the way through college. Liza Minelli in The Act was my first show and then my sister married the second "Mr Mistofelles" from the original production of Cats 30+ years ago. I was basically a Broadway backstage rat after that until I moved into television production. The highlight will always be Yul Brynner in the King and I. I didn't even want to go, my parents dragged me, but when that scrim suddenly lit up from behind and there he was, dang, chills right up my neck. 🙂 The singers were pretty good on Seaside but it was the choreography and lack of discipline by the dancers that actually had us giggling during the shows. There were a couple of males and one female in particular who just could not keep up with everyone else. And some of the overall choreography in Peter Punk reminded me of our high school production of Pirates of Penzance. Nothing wrong with it, and it is entertaining, just not nearly as sharp as NCL, Royal Caribbean or Princess productions.

Honestly you're comparing two completely different categories. Celebrity is adult casual luxury while MSC is squarely a low-cost family cruise line. Really hard to compare the two, even with the Yacht Club. If it was my money, I'd be booking the Beyond because the level of service and quality of the food is stonkin' amazing. Each cruise line has its place and when you simply compare dollars for dollar, MSC is going to save you money on every cruise. But for for the overall experience and if you're interested in a more adult centric experience, then Celebrity would be a better fit. And of course Virgin Voyages is absolutely amazeballs being nearly all inclusive, amazing food, amazing bars and off the charts entertainment, and not a kid to be found anywhere. 🙂 Is Celebrity worth 50% more than sailing on MSC. All depends on the experience you're looking for. For me, yes Celebrity is absolutely worth 50% more than MSC when I want that luxury resort, adult-centric experience.

There is literally nothing for the TA to do other than assist their sailors with the Offer Request Form. From what we've been told, all TAs have been instructed not to call because it does nothing for the Sailors. If you call in and talk to Sailor Services you are apparently just 'added to queue' with all the Offer Forms, you are not getting ahead of others, despite what some people are being told on the phone. That's what has been relayed by our TA, it's literally out of their hands other than to make sure all of their Sailors have an Offer Request Form in.

If you are young at heart, yes, you should have a great time. It basically starts in the Roundabout, moves to The Manor and the finale is up on the Pool Deck. No dress code but they do encourage red if you have it. Purple is a nice alternative color too. My one suggestion is that if you are getting sensitive to loud music is to bring ear plugs for The Manor and especially for the pool party finale. The sound quality is amazing however the volume of the pool party is basically like an outdoor concert in a very concentrated space. We bring ear plugs now and it's much more enjoyable. The show itself is crazy fun. For me I prefer to be up on Deck 16 looking down at the party vs. being in the middle of the action on Deck 15.

The moment you get onboard. Reservations will fill in quickly for the shows and any events during the week. Such as the coffee tasting, tequila tasting, 80's workout, etc... For the free fitness classes, if you can't get registered feel free to show up at the appointed location and time. There are people who will book and not show up, or they may have additional room and let you participate. I've heard of quite a few folks who are able to participate in those events by simply showing up.

Closed toe shoes. They said "No" to any form of camera when we did it in May, even if it was affixed.

As with any other cruise line, you can choose the MDR or Buffet each day/night. The buffet should have homemade mozzarella and possibly burrata at least one evening. That is amazing! No, you don't have to purchase any cruise line's insurance, nor should you really. Good independent 3rd party travel insurance is almost always superior in coverage and lower cost than the cruse line.

In some ways very similar, on other ways very different. Food: I'd say the MDR and Buffet on the MSC Seaside (that we sailed) was better than the NCL Escape and Getaway. For Specialty dining NCL is better overall. We had two great meals at the MSC Pan Asian Kitchen and Sushi, but the Teppenyaki was definitely better on NCL. Overall NCL has a better selection of specialty dining than MSC. I actually just posted a food review of the MSC Seaside that might be of interest. https://youtu.be/8DNLLqRyCiA Bars: NCL wins that hands down. Much more consistent and better quality overall. Coffee: MSC wins this, especially the affogado in Venchi. Ridiculously good and only $7 each when we sailed. Games / Trivia, etc: NCL does a better job of this. The Trivia onboard MSC was fine, but the hosts were, shall we say, flat compared to the energy of the NCL crew. Pools: MSC pools were amazing and most of them were 6 feet deep. We especially loved the Jungle Pool with the salt water and green tint. MSC pools were much better than NCL. Service and Cabins: About the same. We had a lovely balcony cabin on deck 15 of the Seaside and remarked just how smooth that ship was over our 7 day cruise. Barely felt any movement up there even at full sail. Entertainment: Really not even close here, NCL has much better entertainment. The shows on MSC are entertaining, but not nearly to the same level as NCL. Doesn't appear MSC invests nearly as much into choreography or the talent. The leads can definitely sing, but overall the shows are not sharp and the sound quality, at least on the Seaside, was just too loud and overdriven at times. There's a line between having good loud audio and pushing it beyond what the system was designed to do. Ocean Cay: Now my favorite private island, even moreso than CocoCay. I love the natural ruggedness of it, yet it has plenty of wide concrete paths to get around the island. And if you book yourself on an overnight cruise, that is a really cool experience. I loved having the beach party at 9pm vs. under the blazing sun. MSC really had something special here with that island. And, unlike NCL, you can pretty much guarantee you're going to visit because of the pier. Barring any really rough seas or bad weather, you should be able to stop. We've done two NCL sailings and both times the private island was waved off due to waves. Overall for cruise experience across the 9 cruise lines we've sailed so far we gave MSC a 7 but for value we give it an 8.5. For what you're paying, MSC is an excellent cruise line with awesome service, great pools and some great food selections. But don't expect it to be the same as NCL. There will be some things you really like about MSC and others you won't. But accept MSC for what it is and you'll have a great time.

Yep, that was confirmed by an MSC U.S. rep on a recent YouTube livestream. Coming to World America. 🙂

What he said. It'll look something like this.

No pre-printed Bag Tags. The porters will tag your bags at the terminal. Yet another thing VV does differently. 🙂

There's no speculation, Brilliant Lady does have two changes that will be noticeable. Lifeboat configuration has changed, but that will not impact on the size of the balconies. It may mean that the lifeboats are much closer to the balconies though, possibly right on top of them. The aft of the ship has been squared up, we've actually seen pictures posted on Instagram from the shipyard that confirms this. We have not seen photos of the lifeboats yet. Both of these changes are being made to allow the ship to pass through the Panama Canal. The original 3 ships cannot primarily due to the lifeboats hanging over the side and because the aft flares out. The only thing remaining to be seen is whether the BL will have the lifeboats permanently mounted directly above Deck 7 or they will be able to transition from hanging over to the side, to a "Panama Canal" position to allow her to through the locks.

Generally it's the last Sea Day before Bimini. Sometimes it can be the night going into the last Sea Day. You'll find out when you get on board. 🙂

Don't even get me started on the IT side of things. Have any of you tried to make payments lately? It's like playing the slots. "Will the payment go through or fail?" But to your point, your TA can make reservations for Shore Things and Dinner via the booking engines so if all else fails, call your TA. Let them deal with it! 😂

Most likely your sailing was not available so they simply offered a refund. If you are working with a TA, they might be able to work with their VV rep to get that switched back to the offer, but you need to act quickly.

And was that the Nutty Old Fashioned next to it? My favorite drink on the ship. 🙂