seeriteR

I'm terribly sorry this happened to you and wish you all the best in recourse.

Thanks BB2014. I didn't mean to duplicate your information. You posted as I was writing!

...I would never had told dh about the save $200 by booking with a check deal because he would have wanted to do that.

 

Sorry this happened to you guys.

Ha ha! Yes, well, from now on, we will too! After serving my folks for 20 years and our own single experience, we thought we were just fine with saving the $200.

We learned that LJ is not a true "travel agent", they are a "tour operator". Most travel agents don't actually process your credit card payment, they only complete the transaction on your behalf with the cruise line. They don't retain any fare money paid by you. In the case of LJ, they took our money (or credit card), cashed our check (or processed the CC) and deposited the money to LJ accounts. The cruise line had no knowledge of it unless LJ paid them.

One saving grace for the December 1 Seaside folks was that LJ had to purchase airline tickets in advance. We got $99 airfare from Miami to Venice, which was one reason we rebooked the cruise with MSC.

According to Rubor's post (above yours), "most" paid by check because LJ was giving them a $200 discount to do so. :(

Just came across this thread now. We booked with Legendary Journeys our of Florida and lost money on both cruises. My parents used LJ for almost 20 years. We booked with them once previously and recently booked 2 MSC cruises with them. We paid cash (check) to save the $200. Hindsight, right???

So, we booked MSC Seaside transatlantic on December 1 and also MSC Divina transatlantic on March 8. Both trips were cancelled by MSC for non-payment. In order to go on the trip, we had to re-book directly with MSC. They gave us a great rate for the Seaside but no special deal on the Divina.

We learned there were 250 cabins booked on Seaside by LJ and 550 people were cancelled. Not sure on the Divina.

There is now a court filing open for LJ who is claiming bankruptcy. Supposedly, refunds will be available but in the US after anything goes through the legal system, there is very little that gets paid out. Only the lawyers are guaranteed to make money.

Here is the link to our Seaside Roll Call which is still being used to communicate on this issue. Would love to hear from others who are in the "same boat"!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2348751

And to add to the Divina mess for us, we had fully paid LJ, then fully paid MSC and now had to cancel our cruise due to the death of a dear friend, which is not covered by insurance. So, this is the most expensive cruise we never went on. Lesson learned.

You should get taxes and port charges back.

I just got off the phone with MSC to formally cancel our cruise. The agent said he would send the cancellation to Accounting and they would begin the process of refunding the taxes paid.

Thank you all for the many comments. My original questions were not answered but they are no longer relevant to me. Hopefully, I will never have to go through this again!

I wasn't expecting anything back but thanks for the heads up!

We had to cancel our MSC Divina cruise at the last minute due to a family matter. The cancellation is not covered by insurance. I realize we are forfeiting our cruise fare but that is not the issue. (No, we are not "rich" but we determined the situation warranted canceling last minute.)

We did not embark on the cruise. I contacted MSC 4 times before finally getting a response from reservations. I asked what would happen if we just didn't show up. She replied, "Nothing, but don't cancel unless you are absolutely sure. Wait until the last minute. You can still embark in NYC."

So, my questions are: Do I need to do anything? We did not pre-book any activities with MSC. Will MSC charge me for anything beyond the paid cruise fare, like gratuities?

I know we cannot be the only ones who have had this situation.

It is my understanding that HAL only provides Protestant clergy for the Christmas and Easter holidays. The rest of the year, unless there are any ministers or lay people on board who come forward voluntarily to conduct services, there is nothing available during the week. The Catholic priest on board will offer an inter-denominational service on Sunday, in addition to Sunday mass.

Thank you.

Does anyone know what the current status is for the inter-denomination Guest Minister Program? I have not received any posting requests for this year.

We plan to be on the Magic the end of this month. One of our stops will be in Belize, and we will tender to get there. Do you know if there is a beach close by that we can walk to once we get off the tender, or do we have to take a Taxi?

Hmmm. From what I recall, there is no water near Belize City that you would want to swim in.

Try the Amazing Race. We did it a few years ago and it was fun, different and challenging.

We'll be on Magic in January. Looking forward to hearing more.

In your case, go for Magic Eastern. And try snorkeling. It offers a new world of exploration and is very easy. You can simply stand in the water and practice with rewarding results!

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Good thread!

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With that gone, and Carnival prices on par with other lines now, we’ll be shopping around for our next cruise. Considering NCL.

Our NCL dining experience on Jade was not good. Food was sub par, service was extremely slow, waiters were not attentive. Ate in MDR twice for dinner, twice for breakfast so it wasn't only a one time problem. Moderno specialty restaurant was excellent. Ate there twice.

We found Carnival food and dining to be quite good. HAL is our favorite.

Horrified - that's exactly my point.

 

You (i.e. people in general) would not dream of doing it at home, or indeed on any other holiday (save at a 1950s holiday camp), and yet everyone accepts it on a cruise.

 

And other thought has just struck me; do people share a table in the Lido ? I bet they don't.

Yes, many people share tables on Lido when it gets busy. It gives meaning to the expression "We're all in the same boat".

Jim, your Seaside review mirrors our experience in almost every way except we were on board for 3 weeks.

We ate dinner in the MDR everyday and breakfast in the buffet. However, whenever we were given the opportunity to share close tables with non-Americans, we chose to engage in conversation because most of the time, they spoke English.

Our Guest Services experiences were also frustrating. As was our disembarkation which was delayed by 2 hours!

Thank you for such a detailed review, photos and videos.

I just booked with COSOL tours for May 31! Couple questions...

should we bring towels or is there time to air dry before getting back in the bus? I'll be the only adult and I remember dragging heavy carnival towels last time was rough. Bring towels. It is a one way boat ride either to or from the snorkeling. you won't know if you are on the bus before or after so better to have a towel. Also, there are limited chairs at the beach so you can sit on your towel.

Water shoes? Or are Teva type sandals fine? For the beach, either is fine. It is mostly sand but there are coral rocks.

We have our own snorkel gear, but will we need flotation type vests to do snorkeling between the pitons? Taking the 4yr old snorkeling for the first time and I don't want to be worrying about staying afloat while assisting her. Could just stay in shallow water I suppose. Vests are not required but I don't recall if rentals are available.

Are there any breakfast meats at the breakfast stop? One in our group is gluten free and was wondering about protein availability. If not, we'll just bring some packs of peanuts and protein bars to get through the day Foods were mostly fried or breaded. There were a couple of meats (chicken, sausage). It is more of a snack to sample small portions of various local foods. Water, soda and beer were available throughout the trip.

Hope this helps!

Just got back from our cruise and want to say what a great tour we had of St Lucia. Our guide was very friendly, and imformative, the tour was relaxing and fun. Covered pretty well everything and got back to the ship in lots of time. We would recommend Cosol Tours anytime. Kudos guys!

We have used Cosol twice and enjoyed them both times. Easy to work with, perfect timing, cold brews and drinks throughout the day. Wide variety of stops. Good choice!

The areas not accessible are the YC area and the Deck 19 Aurea area, not sure which other areas you found inaccessible other than not being able to walk all the way around the ship.

When we sailed Seaside on the 21 day TA in December, Deck 8 forward was accessible for Aurea only. Has that changed? Granted, it was only a small section of the ship, but I felt it was another reminder of our limited status on board.

We were disappointed that we could not walk around the outside of the ship on any deck.

In response to the OP, I think the pre-cruise hype from MSC and the limited amount of official information led to endless conjecturing posted on Cruise Critic forums which in turn caused "higher than reasonable" expectations that Seaside would be a "new & improved" MSC ship in more ways than just design. I know we were very excited to be on the maiden voyage and had little doubt this would be the best cruise ever!

I think if we went on Seaside without the high expectations, we would have enjoyed our cruise more than what we did. Having sailed MSC once before, we noticed that some things had not changed at all on Seaside - like the attitude of the staff (not the crew, they were great!) The staff has little or no empathy for their customers.

While Seaside does have some distinctive features, we found there were things (e.g.: water slides, theater shows, closed buffet for dinner, 2 hour dining, etc) that failed to WOW! the customer. They did do good on pizza, sweet potato fries and desserts!

In my opinion, if the current method of operations on Seaside doesn't turn a profit, they will change it - not because people are complaining but because the bottom line is suffering.

We will be giving MSC another chance as we are booked on the Divina in March!

Let me sum it up this way: your either Yacht Club, or your not. YC guests love the experience and others outside YC often don't. This is what I found on Divina, which is why I will never go non-YC on MSC again!

I agree. We were on Seaside for the inaugural transatlantic 21 day sailing. I have yet to read a poor review from a YC cruiser.

I gave it 2 out of 5.

Go to http://www.cruisetimetables.com and either choose Venice as your departure port, or go to the Ports of Call list and choose Dubrovnik. It will tell you who calls there, and their itineraries. EM

Good answer! It will save a lot of needless searching.

BTW, my car tag reads 'GR8 TOY'.

 

You should be able to figure that one out as it accurately describes what the car is.

Your name wouldn't happen to be Andrew K, would it? I worked with Andrew for a couple of years and he was very passionate about his Miata!

DANG... you folks are putting up some big numbers today! I’m still up for adoption ;-)

 

I’m betting this $10 per ride fee is gone within a month. Besides, the zip line looks amazingly lame. See how slow it goes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Seaside zip line is not a thrill ride unless its your first time on a zip line. I went on it twice during the TA. No line at all and that was when it was free! It has 2 speeds - slow and slower.

Mine was for my little Maltese who crossed the Rainbow Bridge last year.😢

His memory lives on!

In the case of SEASIDE, there are two buffets so the issue of the buffet being limited to other passengers should be a non-issue.

 

Anyway it's my understanding that this really only happens when the ship is at 100% occupancy, which is generally only during holiday and some summer sailings when the ship is loaded with kids and all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th berths are filled. This is generally when I don't cruise, so I'm hoping it's not a problem on my sailing. 15 day countdown for me.

On the inaugural TA, Seaside was about 2/3 full and the Marketplace main buffet was closed for dinner. The upstairs buffet is intended for families but is not limited to hot dogs and pizza. Although we never ate dinner there we did wander through it after dinner. It is much smaller than the main buffet.

We only ate in the Biscayne buffet twice and were not impressed with the seemingly limited selection at breakfast and lunch. For example, no omelette station and no sweet potato fries.