NCMtnBoys

Divina (2), Seaside and Meraviglia. Next year have Seashore and Musica booked.

Of the 34 cruises I've been on, 4 were MSC (2 Divina, 1 Seaside, 1 Meraviglia). Each of them were as enjoyable as all the other cruises we've been on. My favorite of the 4 MSC cruises was Meraviglia. That's a great ship! We'll be sailing MSC again next year, Seashore in May and Musica in October. No complaints and, no, we don't sail in YC and never will.

You’re welcome. On that site they have a button you can click where you can input your cruise departure information and it brings up all the excursions for that cruise. We had been to Corfu previously but Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes and the two Turkey stops were new for us as well! Enjoy your cruise!

We booked a five port excursion package through shoreexcursions.com. Every excursion was fantastic. We didn’t get to choose the excursions in the package but each excursion visited the sights I wanted to see. I was very happy doing this and would recommend them.

Booked a Bella Balcony guarantee and was assigned a handicapped room immediately. Since we don't need it, called MSC to see if they could assign us a different room in the same category and when the rep tried, she also kept seeing that only the handicapped rooms were available. We opted to pay a little extra and switched to Fantastica and a more mid-ship room. MSC didn't seem too concerned that we were assigned a handicapped room and don't need it, and didn't offer to move us to a different category to get us out of the handicapped room. We might have just kept it for the extra room, except that the room didn't have a couch so that there was more space in the room.

We did a seven night cruise last September round trip Athens which included Istanbul, Kusadasi, Rhodes, Mykonos and Santorini. Loved all of it! I was looking for a seven night sailing that included Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Istanbul. We made all the ports and enjoyed our time in each port. We had booked a five port excursion bundle through a company and each excursion visited places I had wanted to go. Honestly, it was incredible to be in all those places. Seeing the Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, Ephesus, Oia, etc... one of the best trips ever.

I would have gone and decided for myself whether it was good or bad before losing half of what I paid. There are plenty of bad reviews for every cruise line but I've never let those be the deciding factor in taking a particular cruise. Of the 34 cruises I've taken, four have been on MSC and each of those cruises was as enjoyable as any other that I've taken. We have two more MSC booked as well.

There were no issues. Because the promotion our friends booked automatically came with the drink package, it ended up the rule didn't really apply to our situation. And on top of that, while the wait staff in the main dining room knew we didn't have the drink package, they still never charged us for soda at dinner all week since our friends had the drink package. A very unexpected, nice gesture on their part.

I won two slot jackpots on Meraviglia in May, totaling $15,700. By far, the best I've ever done on a cruise.

We used BOGO air for the first time for our upcoming September cruise on Jade from Athens. Our flights were booked with Virgin Atlantic routing us from Charlotte to JFK to Athens, but the flights are operated by Delta. On the return, the flights were booked with United routing us from Athens to Toronto to Charlotte, but the flights are operated by Air Canada.

It must. Our BOGO outbound flights CLT-JFK-ATH are operated by Delta and I am not able to even select seats ahead of time, let alone upgrade. I've tried the website, app, the airline the flight was booked with (Virgin Atlantic), calling Delta... everything. We cannot select seats ahead of time. Likely because we're on a basic economy ticket. Delta seems to be one of the few that are strict with not allowing advance seat assignments ahead of time with basic economy, even for a fee, and their website states that. No advance seat assignments or upgrades with a basic economy ticket. We were able to select seats with Air Canada for our return ATH-YYZ-CLT. While it would be preferable to sit together on our flights, it's not a deal breaker having saved considerably over booking flights ourselves.

Thank you. Yes, I've tried both Virgin Atlantic and Delta with their respective record locator numbers and neither will allow me to choose seats. I keep checking hoping that I'll be able to, but so far I've not been able to. When I called Delta the rep said I couldn't choose seats because it was a Virgin ticket, but I don't think that's the case. I think it has to do entirely with the segments being basic economy. I'll just be happy to be on the flights!

I had never used NCLs BOGO promo and said I never would... but never say never because I did end up using that promo for an upcoming Greece/Turkey cruise round trip from Athens in September. We got our flight assignments this past week and I'm very happy with what we got with one exception. Our outbound flights are CLT-JFK-ATH and we leave CLT at 1:20pm, 4 hour 40 minute layover in JFK, arrive Athens at 1:15pm the next day. Two day deviation. For the return we got ATH-YYZ-CLT and we leave Athens at 1:10pm the day we disembark, have a 2 hour 35 minute layover in Toronto and arrive back in Charlotte at 9:30pm. Our information says our outbound flights are Virgin Atlantic but operated by Delta, and our return says they're United but operated by Air Canada. So we were able to choose our seats for Air Canada, but cannot choose our seats ahead of time for Delta (the one exception that I am not real happy about). I've tried choosing the seats but since we're booked in Basic Economy I haven't been able to select seats at all for Delta. Booking the BOGO promo saved us A LOT of money and I can't complain considering the good flights we were assigned. There are folks on our roll call who also used the BOGO promo and ended up with two connections, so I'm glad just to have one. I had been searching for our flights for months and prices were running about $1800+ per person for one connection flights with decent layovers that left Athens at a reasonable time and did not have an overnight connection. Thinking that seemed really high, I finally decided to add the BOGO promo on our reservation and just hope for the best. I've seen multiple reports that NCL books the cheapest flights they can and sometimes that's why people aren't happy with what they got. But the day after we got our flight assignments I went online to do a mock booking of airfare and selected the flights NCL gave us and it came up to $3239 per person for economy. That's far more than flights I had been looking at and considering. We paid $1450 total with NCL through the BOGO promo. And if I had been booking flights on our own, I would not have booked the flights they gave us (except the return... the return flights they gave us are exactly the ones I had been eyeing and hoped to get). I wish we could choose seats ahead of time for our outbound flights to Athens but it looks like we'll have to wait until check-in and maybe hope that we can change seats at that time to sit together if our seats are not together at check-in. But it's not the end of the world if we can't and, for me, worth the savings. All in all I'm very happy so far with my first BOGO experience. We'll see how it goes between now and flight time, and with our flights, but so far so good.

Thanks for the review. Sailing the Jade for the first time in September. Sounds like a great ship!

Tip - Pack your patience. The area around the port is not built to handle the amount of traffic generated from people disembarking the ship and the next group embarking the ship. We were on Meraviglia May 21-28 and it was gridlock both the 21st and the 28th.

Thanks for the casino review. We just sailed Meraviglia May 21-28 and I will agree that parts of the casino on that ship were hot at times. And really smoky too. Some of those slot machines generate a lot of heat! I was surprised at how small the casino was and I, too, wished for more variety. I played a bit almost every night between dinner and the theater show, longer a few nights when we didn't have a show, and a few times on the three sea days. My luck and that of others I saw was unbelievable. I took a small amount of money to last me the entire week ($500) and decided I was going to bet small ($.88-$2) the entire week to stretch my money as long as possible. Day 5 of the cruise I still had $140 of the $500 left and after dinner hit a Grand jackpot/bonus round for $13,852.99, betting $1. A while later I got a nice bonus round on another machine and cashed out $650. The next evening after dinner I got a Major jackpot for $1,867.94, betting $1. Later on got a nice bonus round on another machine and cashed out $800. I was determined to come home with the bulk of my winnings and came home with $16,000. I saw someone else get a $4,000 payout in a bonus round and by the time I left a few minutes later he had his machine up over $6,000. Another lady had over $2,500 in her machine, another gentleman got a $1,200 bonus round and another gentleman got a Grand jackpot/bonus round for around $9,600. Typical for MSC? I don't know, but I've never seen anything like it on a cruise - and this was cruise #34 for me (fourth on MSC). The most I'd ever won on a cruise prior to this was $1,440 in 2008. The entire week I earned only 3,800 points so nowhere near enough for a free cruise. Betting small doesn't earn points very fast! Congrats on your free cruise!

We sailed Meraviglia May 21-28 and noticed four or five seats reserved for handicapped patrons on both ends of the highest row in the center section of the Broadway Theater. I think, though, that at least one to two steps down was required to get to them. They did have reserved seating for Yacht Club in the Broadway Theater, it's the far left section as you enter, 3-4 rows, so again, may require stepping down to get to part of it. I *think* part of it was on the same level as you enter, but can't remember. We were in the Carousel Lounge three times as well. I don't recall specifically seeing handicapped seating, but I do recall seeing some seating available at tables on the same level as you enter the theater.

Thanks, we're on the Jade Sept 10, which will also be our 4th NCL cruise (my 34th overall). Also using the BOGO flights, which will be our first time using that promo. Hoping for the best with what they give us... yes, I've read the horror stories, but willing to make the best of it for the $2000 savings. We're staying at the Athens Gate Hotel two nights pre-cruise. Glad to hear the ship is well maintained and the food is good!

There should be signage as you're exiting the ship that tells you what time the 'all aboard' time is, and it's usually 30 minutes before sailing.

Charlotte to Athens is exactly the routing we're needing for our September 7th Jade cruise. I did a daily search of airfare for many months and prices were very high. I'd read the unhappy comments from folks whose assigned BOGO air was not that great, and reluctantly decided to go ahead and add it to our reservation because the BOGO price was $1450 for one (free for 2nd - so $725 each) compared to $1800+ per person for the decent flights I would have booked myself. I'm not crazy about having given up control of our flights (first time doing so), but we're hoping for the best and will make the best of whatever we're assigned. I would not have added the BOGO air to our reservation if the savings were minimal, but our savings will be significant. This may be our first and last time using the BOGO promo, we'll see how it goes, lol.

We sailed through the same storm Friday night and most of Saturday enroute from Ocean Cay to New York on MSC Meraviglia. We sailed a very slow 7-8 knots while in the storm. At one point the captain said we would arrive three hours late in New York, but we made up time on the other side of the storm and arrived just one hour late on Sunday morning. The winds and swells were high but Meraviglia handled it very well.

Got off Meraviglia yesterday, we were early to all the port stops. We did the Disney Springs transfer at Port Canaveral. Plenty of time there. Be aware, however, that for MSC excursions, the excursions will still leave at their regularly scheduled time even though you may arrive early into port. This is because everyone has already been given a meeting time. And even then, you might not leave the port on time for your excursion. For example, our Disney Springs excursion stated that it was 1:00pm-7:00pm. I expected that meant we left at 1:00pm and arrived back to the ship at 7:00pm. But because of how MSC does their excursions, we didn't leave the port area until 1:40pm, and were told as we were boarding the bus that the bus back left Disney Springs at 7:00pm. MSC had us meet in the rear theater (Carousel Lounge) at 1:00pm. It wasn't until 1:20pm or so they then walked us off the ship to the waiting buses. A lot of wasted time doing it this way. We much prefer when the meeting point is shoreside and everyone meets out there at the bus and it leaves on time. I also expect that when they say the excursion ends at 7:00pm, that means you're back to the ship at that time. We missed a specialty dining dinner reservation because we got back after our reservation time and had already eaten at Disney Springs because they said we wouldn't be leaving there until 7:00pm. I will say, though, that even though we were told the bus left at 7:00pm, there were two bus loads of passengers that went over, and around 5:40pm a bus was loading to go back to the ship. There were enough passengers ready to go back early so the first bus left to go back to the ship at 6:00pm. YMMV with whatever excursions you choose, but I would think that having just the afternoon would be very much worth it. A lot of other ships arrive in the morning, so by your afternoon excursion time, a lot of the stops may be less crowded. If the ship is in port from 1:00pm to 9:00pm, it's the same amount of time as if a ship is in port from 8:00am to 4:00pm. Worth it either way!

I get it. We just made it to Diamond Plus in January, we were 7 points away and our cruise was 7 nights. I had been chasing Diamond Plus for three years after our January 2020 cruise got us to 168 points. Then Covid hit and my plan to get to Diamond Plus shortly thereafter was foiled. The biggest reason for me wanting to get to Diamond Plus ASAP was because it was attainable. And being so close, I didn't want to risk Royal making changes to the point levels before I could get there. I'll never make Pinnacle, but I knew I could make it to Diamond Plus.

I don't think I'd do the NCL air for just the $210 savings. You have no say in the flights, routing, layover, etc. No changes can be made with NCL after they assign the flights, you're stuck with what they assign you. It'd be well worth the $210 to retain control of your flights. On the other hand, we're using the NCL BOGO air offer for a cruise from Athens in September. I was reluctant to go that route and hate giving up control of the flight planning, but the difference between using their promo and booking air ourselves is upwards of $2000.

Tried contacting them for our Symphony cruise this past January but, like so many others recently, never heard back. Once onboard, went to the MDR to check our table assignment and my request seemed to have been granted.