heathriel

Sailing in December — they’re removing Saudi. Disappointed, but oh well. Do they give any type of accommodation for this type of change?

Thanks! I just did.

Was on hold with them for around 15 minutes while they worked on the ticket. Said the two profiles should be joined in 5-7 days.

Good enough for me!

I've never sailed Celebrity before, but I'm a Platinum on RCCL, which from what I can tell should give me "Select" status in Captain's Club.

Does anyone know how long it takes to reflect that? I see that it has automatically filled in a number (the same) for Azmara and Celebrity in my Profile, and my RCCL number is there as well, and all seems linked properly, but there isn't a status change showing.

I'm particularly interested in being able to pre-purchase internet packages with the discounted price (I'm on a basic fare, as we don't drink), so I want to make sure we get the correct benefits reflected.

I’m having the same issue as an American — pretty much all the insurance they sell here doesn’t list Covid on the plan, even though it covers all the things (and more.). 
 

I found this which is reasonable (the last option is for non- us residents traveling outside the us).

https://www.trawickinternational.com/travel-insurance-plans/international-travel-medical-insurance-for-outside-the-usa/

I purchased a cruise with Cruise1st (UK TA recommended from this board) and it was sold as all inclusive — came with gratuities and premium drinks package. It’s clearly marked on both my receipt and in my MSC account. I do have to login on the MSC UK site to see it, though — as I’m in the US and it always tries to send me to the US site first.

Hi!

Will be on the Virtuosa in a month and am looking at the available packages to purchase in the pre-cruise planner, but I had two questions:

Laundry packages aren’t showing up in my account, even though people have said (and there’s even a link on the website that leads to nothing) if you buy them in advance they’re cheaper. 
 

I’ve been on cruises before where if you go through the “gauntlet” of sales offers when you first board the ship, they give you discounted packages if buy buy them right then — and they go away as soo  as you set sail. Are those available on MSC?

And, if so — is there any onboard discount for spa packages, or is the 30% discount for a massage the best it’s gonna get?

Thanks!

So here’s what I was thinking of doing, as there is confusion because my question is different from the thread it was merged into — I didn’t want to get off early, I wanted to miss a few nights In the middle:

11 day Mediterranean cruise:

Nights 1-4: on ship

Nights 5-7: off ship

Nights 8-11: on ship

Obviously, the ship moves to a few different cities in the middle there, but it only jumps from Portugal to Spain (still in the EU) and both of the day 5 and day 8 cities are at airports that are easily accessible so I can hop to where I need to work.

I’m struggling to figure out how this is different from when people *miss* the ship and catch up with it in the next port (except I’d be telling the cruise ahead of time), as I saw happen in Uruguay due to a private tour accident in the mountains, and  when the ship allows people to stay overnight in Multi-city within the same location stops like Bermuda/Cabo/Dubai, etc.

Hmm.. this thread seems to be for US/Caribbean sailings. 
 

I’d be traveling completely within the EU — does that make a difference?

I'm considering booking a cruise in between two trips I have in May because the price works better than getting a hotel, and it will be easier than flying home and then flying back. However, the timing is just a bit off. The cruise would start a few days before the first trip, then goes to a port right by an airport that's a quick hop to where I need to go, and there's two ports a few days further up the itinerary where I could get back on.

Is this allowed if I let the cruise ship know I'll be staying onshore during those days?

On 2/11/2022 at 3:20 PM, back to the islands said:

Was there a deck party any night? On Enchanted at Christmas we had one on night 6. Hoping we have one on the next Baja cruise.

There was the sail-away party, but other than that its been just MUTS (and only like 5 people there). Pretty dead up top from what I've seen after 8pm.

On an interesting note, the Marriage Match game last night was the weirdest I've seen in my 25+ years of cruising. Not sure what it was -- the energy was just really off. The crowd wasn't into it at all, the questions didn't lead to funny answers (just weird ones), and it was overall strange.

Steve, the cruise director, did what he could to salvage, but it was just odd.

I've been working all week from the Grand. Have had no issues at all with my VPN, Zoom, Teams and wifi-call meetings, and all the emails, slacks, etc.

Hah, my husband is so terrible at asking for change that he'll just tip whatever he's got on hand. I was so embarrassed the other night because he tipped one of the street performers in our restaurant 500 pesos ($25) and then suddenly we were surrounded by EVERYONE.

Having small bills is definitely useful, don't overlook this!!

5 hours ago, mtnesterz said:

Stomach upset from spicy food? Go to the buffet and ask for slices of papaya. They don't set it out but you can ask. Papaya has enzymes that will settle an upset stomach. 

 

Great to know for us next week. Will ask about it. Separate menu or off menu?

Off menu.

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

Can you give any more information about the curry - what meats and what sauces (Biryani,  Jalfrezi,  Madras, Vindaloo, Korma etc ? ) I think I can see some cucumber raita. Was mango chutney also available?  

3 hours ago, Sea Hag said:

I'm never a fan of these "secrets" threads, but this post of yours is pure gold. We dearly love Indian food and had no idea. Thanks!

4 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Do you recall what any of the dishes were called? I'm a sucker for "new & different" food.

They asked us ahead of time what kinds of things we would want, and I don't eat red meat or pork, so that drove the menu a bit, but we didn't get a chance to really order anything -- although I'm sure you could request something specific. It was served family-style. We had:
 

Chicken Biryani

Butter Chicken

Tofu Tikka Masala

Papadam

Wheat Naan

Raitha

We didn't have any chutneys, although I have seen some around the ship with other meals, so I'm sure that could be requested. The chicken was all on the bone, so definitely more authentic than one might be used to with an Indian restaurant. They told us if there were more than just the two of us then they could have more dishes, but there's only so much we can eat.

3 minutes ago, hllwdcruiser said:

Wait what?!? That looks amazing. What ship are you on? Can you ask if they do it across the fleet?

We’re currently on the Grand. They said Indian meals are available fleet-wide.

Just found this out on our current sailing, but there’s a secret Indian menu you can order in the MDR with 24 hours notice.

I was going to take pictures when it arrived but everything smelled so good we started eating before I remembered!

This is a whole different caliber than what they serve at the buffets/lunch menu.

Can you let me know if the fitness center is open and what the protocols there are? Thanks!

This reminded me of this article — sometimes the hosted cruises don’t have any participants 🙂

https://www.insider.com/goop-at-sea-gwyneth-paltrow-first-cruise-2021-11?amp

Just chiming in because I was wondering the exact same thing!

In our group’s case, it was a combination of the two:

We did have parts of the ship blocked off from regular use by other members that normally would have been able to use it (the chapel is usually the preferred room for Friends of Bill W. Meetings, for example), and we *also* spilled over into the normal ship activities due to large numbers when “off hours” — so for some that could be the worst case scenario.

I think it does depend on the group, though. We worked with the ship to have the least obstructive hours and prepped our attendees with a code of conduct to basically, well,  not be A**holes. A lot of people are just like “my money, my vacay.”

We ran a conference on our Antarctica cruise -- had 50 people there for the conference on a ship of around 1200.

They gave us the use of the wedding chapel during the days for our event, which caused the mass/FoD and other groups that would have meetings there to have to meet either earlier or later than they would necessarily meet on other ships, but there didn't seem to be any hard feelings. We posted announcements and other people were invited to watch the seminars.

We did end up dominating karaoke, trivia and voice of the ocean -- (ie, when you have numbers of people who you know you just end up having numbers of people cheering and voting for you) -- but we were respectful and for the most part I don't think our fellow passengers found us annoying. Quite the opposite, actually, as we ended up friends with many on Facebook.

So, I think it has to do with the group, itinerary, etc.

Thanks!

Right, but because I already have wifi purchased (included with Princess Plus), I don't know what the cost is for the upgrade. I don't even see the option when I login since it says I have wifi already.

I've tried in the past to use a router and it doesn't work to share princess wifi -- and on Mac at least, you can only use the hotspot settings to share Cell service, not Wifi, so that's a no-go.