sammee

2 hours ago, ObstructedView2 said:

Hi 🙂

 

After a one year period of time passed when we first quit smoking; we accumulated enough money to book a B2B voyage. 

 

Did my clothing really smell like that. Did my skin really smell like that. Did my vehicle, furniture & carpets smell like that. Did my everything really smell like that. Oh my goodness, it really did. 

 

 

✌

It's crazy what you can smell after you quit. I still buy for my son when we cruise, it's payment for the cat sitting. With these prices, it's better value for him to get those. I wish he'd quit, but that's something you have to do on your own when you are ready. I'll sit near the smoking area on the ships up on Lido and it doesn't bother me at all, but that stale crap in cars and small rooms, yeah, not so nice.

On the Divina, the kiosk was right there when you entered the ship, there was also a worker helping those they may have a problem registering their card. It was an easy process.

We didn't try the buffet for dinner, since it was our first MSC cruise.  But we always seemed to walk through there for my husband to top off the belly. They had a nice variety for breakfast and lunch. And their hours are much better too. I've only been on Royal and Carnival and I can say I like MSC buffet much better.  Those 2 lines used to be great, but seems a lot of cutbacks. The newer Mardi Gras, some say the buffet was great, I thought it was just a feeding trough. I was not impressed.

11 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

I thought they were getting off the cruise and getting on another one?

 

OP: Glad hubby is OK. I would wait until hubby gets up tomorrow before making a final decision.

 

Sometimes in events like a car accident you not feel certain aches and pains until after the event is 24 hours old.

 

Hoping for the best for hubby and you.

Sometimes longer. I was rear ended back in 2007. Left arm and shoulder aches, nothing serious, so I thought. Exactly one week later, I couldn't walk without severe pain on my left hip. It turned out I had a fractured coccyx bone (tail bone) and syatica crap going on as a result. So you just never know what's going to happen. If the car was totaled, I'm guessing enough speed was involved that may or may not effect you.

I tried Divina for the first time during the summer. Sail away was definitely different. I've heard alot of comments about bland food. I didn't experience that. I liked the late night choices. Besides the pizza (which was the best of the cruiselines), they had other items that were filling, tasty and easy on the stomache late night. My next cruise was Mardi Gras, but I actually liked Divina better. I'm not big on all the bells and whistles. I was quite content on Pride. Scheduled for Meraviglia out of NYC in May. I agree about the island, it was really nice. Hoping Meraviglia  doesn't turn out like some of you are describing. But we'll see. My biggest concern is NY.

5 hours ago, BroadwayGirl said:

Happened to us too on Anthem on our first trip with one.  They gave us a frayed cord that was clearly a fire hazard and kept hearing "thats all we have" until we said this is clearly a fire hazard waiting to happen.  We bring our own cords now. 

It was Anthem for us too out of Bayonne. It was packed with the Cpap and their xray picked up on it. That's we we bought black to match the color of the actual cpap cord and have them attached hoping for the best. So far Carnival & MSC hasn't bothered us, but there's always a first time.

On 10/3/2022 at 12:34 PM, PC 462 said:

Relying on the cruise lines for CPAP supplies is a crap shoot.  I was promised the same when I sailed on Anthem of the Seas and neither was in the cabin when I boarded.  It was late evening before I was able to obtain what I needed.  On Carnival, a call to Room Service has resulted in delivery of distilled water within 5 minutes.  Of course, Carnival has confiscated my extension cord once, so you never know!  I bring my own cord and order the water from Room Service and haven't had a problem for years.

I do wonder why the lines have so much trouble establishing and following one procedure for CPAPs.

That happened to us on Royal. And the extension cord they gave us, barely made it to the desk. So hopefully you did not have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and trip over it.  All these lines are hit/miss on what's allowed or not for Cpaps. Carnival actually told us to bring our own in the past since they couldn't guarantee having an extra cord. We have since, bought black cords to match the cpap cord and actually hook it up to regular cord before packing it up. We've been on MSC and Carnival since and haven't had a problem, (yet).

On 1/3/2023 at 1:15 PM, shof515 said:

the only thing that sucks on the hub app is that randomly it will skip a day and be a day ahead. like i will be on day 2 of the cruise and then all of the sudden the app will automatically default to day 3 activities, menu and other things. i always have to click on the day on top and changed it to the correct day. this happen to me mutiple times on different ships. kind of annoying at times

Glad to know, it wasn't just me. Elegant night was showing a day early on the MG in October.

If I'm not mistaken, didn't they do increases this past May? New price almost as much as my port fees and taxes, lol.

1 hour ago, groundloop said:

 

What opened my wife's eyes was on the first day when there was a problem with logging in to her WiFi.  We went to guest services and there were over 30 people waiting in the 'regular' line whereas we were able to walk right up to the Platinum/Diamond desk and get her issue resolved in under two minutes. 

 

SWEET!!!!!!!

 

 

That's true. I do appreciate having that for FTTF, had to use it a few years ago, when locked out of my cabin because they put my money on somebody elses account and they wanted my attention. I was so PO'd. But it was a short line, lol.

3 hours ago, Pellaz said:

Reports from people who have recently boarded with FTTF have said that they were able to enter the terminal early and were directed to a special FTTF seating area, similar to pre-COVID procedures.  

 

I don't think ANY rooms are guaranteed to be ready for occupation at embark now except suites, but FTTF, Ds and Ps can visit to drop off their luggage.  

Stewards now have MANY more rooms to clean than before the pandemic.  😞  

 

Regarding FTTF and capacity controls, remember also that Carnival has taken the length of the Priority line at Guest Services into account when assigning the number of FTTF slots on cruises.  

 

If one person (me!) is turning Platinum on their next cruise, with two roommates, I think we can all board together and also get, say, priority tendering.  However, my two roommates would not have access to the Priority line at Guest Services.....is that correct?  

 

 

Regarding 

That's what I'm seeing in posts all over, they can ignore their checkin time for FTTF while D&P's have to abide by that time. My first cruise as Platinum coming up, lol. All I care about as far as cabins, is dropping off our carryon and cpaps. 

So A won't make you platinum, but B will. Maybe after you get back from A, refresh your planner after about a week or so and see if it changes. I turn Platinum on my next cruise, which isn't booked until next November. It shows I have the earlier checkin day. I'm wondering myself how they are going to continue handling these checkins now that FTTF is back into play.

I noticed the same thing for the November sailing Thanksgiving. I'm still up in there whether we are getting a cabana since we'll be there on Thanksgiving, but would still like to see our choices for that day.

I was able to get the January 3 sailing out of Charleston to work. Not booking it, but it worked.  No luck with the Miami sails. I've seen this happen in the past. They want to squeeze everybody in like a herd of cattle, lol.

Deja  Vu! Last year, the complaints were rolling around about the heat problem. I sailed on her February 27 and was following for this reason. I didn't have any problems, but 2 weeks prior, it was "fixed". Last January, I heard it all. I guess it  has problems again.

15 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

So, our PVP called us this morning, as I had left him a message last evening. He still can't access our B2B bookings, but no matter as we have decided to dump those bookings. We are now booked on the 15 day Journeys cruise leaving on 9/29. Better islands, and $1300 less than the 15 day B2B that we originally booked. We will cancel our B2B bookings after we finally get our reassigned cabins. There is no way that they will be giving us the bowling alley balconies that we originally booked. Once I know I will list my gripes and give them to my PVP who will go to bat for me and try to get my nonrefundable deposits applied to my new booking. Even if I wind up losing my deposits I feel I we came out ahead. We now have a better 15 day cruise for a much better price. Good luck to the rest of you still waiting for your new cabin assignments. 😎

Oh that's a nice choice. I was looking at that one. Unfortunately, my husband can't get that much time off, so we settled on a 10 day for Thanksgiving. I hope  you get your deposits back, they really dropped the ball on this one.

9 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

What was the process for using your 30% off voucher?  Did you book direct or through a TA?

I booked through the casino. The letter they give you instructs you to email the casino.  They will ask you for a copy of the letter, instruct you to book you cruise and than they will take over from there. There was a problem with my sailing date and the expiration (coded 3 weeks short, oops on them), but it worked out after they figured out what was wrong.

I'm mostly Carnival too. I did my first MSC on Divina when it was in Port Canaveral this past August. I managed to get that 30% offer about midweek on my 7 dayer. Only 1200 people onboard, so we pretty much had the run of the ship.

Pizza knocks the hell out of Carnival and Royal. Buffet seemed to have more choices. Main dining room, similar to the others, but a few different items.

Watch the pools if you use them. I didn't pay attention and kind of jumped in from sitting on the side. Had my glasses on, so they got a wash down when I went under, yes the pools are deeper.

Ports are similar, except Ocean Cay is different from the others. We rented a cabana, but preferred HMC cabana. 2nd day, we just grabbed a free umbrella/chairs.  The lightshow was fantastic. 

Ssshh, don't tell anybody. I liked Divina better than Mardi Gras, lol. I liked it so much I used my 30% for Meraviglia out of Brooklyn in May.

I just use the dawn, I keep some in a travel bottle. The dawn is also good for washing eye glasses. It does a better job than the eye packets or sprays.  Never realized it until one of the techs at my eye doctor told me.

9 minutes ago, cruisebarbie said:

I  am loving your review!  I feel like I am reliving our trip on the Mardi Gras but also learning so much that I didn't know!  Also, regarding Serenity---it was strangely windy when we were on it too.  It is like a wind tunnel in that area.  And, no one was in the pool either--just people shoulder to shoulder sitting around the pool the ENTIRE time.  I went in to cool off one time and felt so strange!  

 

And the elevator situation--it was a mess on our sailing.  That is one big fail on this ship I think.  

 

Keep up the posts as your week goes on!

I was on the 10/8 cruise and the same wind tunnel effect. And the elevators, all we could do was joke and laugh about it. Especially the capacity sign, that could work if people sat on your shoulders, lol.

16 hours ago, mmtska said:

$149.95 for our cruise on Mardi Gras. I don't know if it'll make a difference in anything. Our cruise last year we didn't have it and we checked in at the right time and walked right on board. The room being ready is almost worth it to me. Even if it's just dropping off a bag. I'm the only one going without a CPAP, so it'll be good for the others with me. It was WAY more money than I was expecting. 

I don't need it now, but when I did it was well worth it just to drop off the cpaps (two). If something happens to them, you're screwed.  When we went on MSC during the summer, they actually had a spot that you could check your carryons, they'd give you a ticket and than you could collect them when ready to go to room. 

Casino has been busy. I got one for November 20, 2023.  10 days. Would have loved a Journeys cruise but husband won't be able to get that much time off. That's it I have 2 booked for next year.  Guess I''ll have to pick on 2024

I brought the retractable stainless steel straws, but it's also a pain running to clean them. I was big on the frozen margaritas last month.  They kept giving me the lime straws. So, I got a little inventive and didn't need my steel straw. When you peel the green wrapper off the straw, save about a 2-3 inch tape. Envision a twisty tie that you use on bread bags. Now take that little piece, wrap it around straw in the spot you're likely to grab on and twist it. No more sticky finger and you can give it alittle stir when it gets too thick at the bottom.

5 hours ago, Stockjock said:

When you receive a 30% casino discount, is that good on any MSC sailing or in the USA only?  MyVegas had a 30% discount certificate available for a while, but it was only valid on USA sailings, and while we are in the U.S., most of our MSC cruises are out of Europe.

The certificate I have doesn't specify and I booked a cruise out of New York, so I don't have the answer.

I was lucky enough to snag a cruise for Divina for last August too. MSC had been in the past, they surprise us here and there, same as NCL & Carnival (who is long overdue). Royal seems to be the most frequent. I got impatient, and booked MSC for May. I did manage a 30% out of the casino, I'll take it.