terpshockey77

We are Diamond members on Royal and family members are going on a MSC Seaside cruise have invited us to join them. I'm trying to navigate how MSC works as far as rooms and pricing. One, should we get a match for our status before booking to get the discount? Two, what room level to book? We have often booked inside rooms so size is not as much an issue but I"m trying to understand the levels and what comes with each as far as dining and the room cleaned. Do they charge each day the room is cleaned? Do you have to pay more to guarantee eating in the dining room? We do not like going to the buffet.

We are Diamond members on Royal and family members are going on a MSC Seaside cruise have invited us to join them. I'm trying to navigate how MSC works as far as rooms and pricing. One, should we get a match for our status before booking to get the discount? Two, what room level to book? We have often booked inside rooms so size is not as much an issue but I"m trying to understand the levels and what comes with each as far as dining and the room cleaned. Do they charge each day the room is cleaned? Do you have to pay more to guarantee eating in the dining room? We do not like going to the buffet.

Are the ice caves at Mendenhall glacier likely to still be around in the beginning of September? If so, what is the best way to see them?

Our cruise this summer is on the Celebrity Infinity. While in the port of Juneau, I am trying to decide between a sea plane tour that flies past 5 glaciers or the helicopter tour that lands on a glacier. I have flown in helicopters before but not a sea plane. If I elect the sea plane tour, are there glaciers that I can walk on without taking the helicopter tour?

They live north of Poughkeepsie. I just used google map to map the route again and saw that a Friday morning is not a good time to travel. We will be coming in on a Sat morning.

Is the Statue close by the port that we could check in with our luggage and leave the ship to visit before we need to be back on board? We have relatives a couple hours from the port and will be spending the night with them the night before the cruise.

Ricky Matthews. Saw him on 3 cruises and he had a tremendous amount of energy. Our twenty year-olds liked him too. We wonder what ship he is on now.

We have been on a few cruises in 10 years and often met nice people and sometimes would get together outside of meals. One cruise we were asked if 7 people could join our table of 8. We agreed and were sorry we did. The family consisted of young adults in an obvious second marriage for both. Forget talking to us, the girls would not talk to their stepsisters. One night we got to hear the father lecture on the alcohol bill from the previous night and the night before last two of them showed up 1/2 half hour late so we had to wait for our dinner. I told my husband if I won at the slot machine we would eat at the steak house and I won $90+. I don't think I've won $10 before or after that but will not hesitate to request a change in an awkward situation like that again.

Thanks for your pictures and for the small tidbit that roast chicken is served at biergartens. Looking forward to visiting Bavaria and not sure what I can eat as sausage is not high on my list but know we will hit plenty of biergartens. We plan to visit Munich, Salzburg and board an Avalon river cruise in Passau.

Thanks you all for your replies! I feel a lot better not having to look for a hotel with a/c.

We are taking time pre cruise and one night post cruise and will be traveling south of Munich as well as Zurich. We have noticed a number of hotels without a/c. My husband is concerned but I figure we are near the alps and should be worried. Am I mistaken? We are traveling last August/early September.

Hi Karen, we wil look for you once on the cruise. We are going into Munich a couple days earlier and doing some sights on our own too. Have hired a private driver to take us on the Romantic Road and to the Steiff Museum (German teddy bears) Anything you have planned we should't miss?

Thanks, Karen

Hi Karen, We are going to Fussen to visit Ludwig's castles, Zugspritze, and make our way to Salzburg before reaching Passau to join the cruise, Karen

Karen, we are going on the cruise only part of the Highlights of Germany so we won't be joining the group til the 25th. We are going to tour southern Germany/Austria on our own before the cruise. Karen (quite a common name when I was born).

Thanks, Rebel54. We were able to look at excursions offered. Quite different from ocean cruising as not many tours are offered. While we were researching for the cruise, my husband noticed that not many cabins were booked on our cruise and were reassured to see the topic discussed. Also, thanks to all for your positive reviews on Avalon.

We are also on the Highlights of Germany cruise late August. We have done many Caribbean cruises but have not done a river cruise. When should we receive info on tours offered by Avalon? Do most people do the free tour in the morning and skip the paid tours or are they worthwhile?

We went to Italy last year and I saw a similar post but thought why not use restaurant bathrooms. Next year when I go back to Europe I will be happy to pay the ½ euro or euro to use the bathroom. Hopefully Germany and Austria will be better. In Italy I found that 3 items I looked for in the restroom was toilet paper, towel to dry hands and a toilet seat. I always had tissue with me. For some reason seats must be expensive. One restroom was a little better than a hole. Also, to conserve energy the light in a couple bathrooms was on a timer and cut off. I learnt to wave my arms to get the light back on.

We were on the Freedom this month and went to the lounge and had the coupons but didn't hear anything about drinks at lunch.

Thanks BamaEagle for knowing the name of the group the girls were traveling with. I don't how they were able to book rooms without adults in each room unless groups are able to do that. I wouldn't have believed the number if I didn't see them lined up at the pier and I didn't see many adults. 50 would have been a small group in comparison. I guess you would have had to been on the cruise to understand. I've been on many summer and spring break cruises and with as many as 900+ under 18 and not one have been like this one.

I know what a Quinceañera is as my daughter was invited to her friend's years ago. I haven't heard of girls taking cruises in groups. I didn't have a problem with a previous cruise where the girls came with families. I wrote large group as I didn't want to cruise again with a huge group of teenagers and surprised that Royal would allow that big of a group of teens.

I was just on the Freedom of the Seas with a large number of 15 year old girls on the cruise. My husband returned the first night from a show and said that there was a group of 400 girls on the cruise. I told him he was mistaken and the 400 number must include their families as we were on the Liberty a number of years ago and saw the girls with their families. Well, I'm not sure there were 400 girls in the group but there were a fair number on our cruise and I didn't see many chaperones with them. Unfortunately my daughter is a teacher and when we cruise with her we will have to go in the summer. Is there anyway to find out beforehand if there is a large group booked for a particular cruise?

Thanks for the quick responses. Our kids are at the diamond status now. Their significant others have not cruised before but good to know they will have the diamond status once they do go on a cruise.

Just back from a family cruise where we were able to use the Diamond Lounge for the first time. Our kids are in their 20s and we talked about future trips when they will be married. Is their spouse able to use the Diamond Lounge or do we just wave goodbye at the door?

My husband uses an app on his cell phone called CityMaps2Go. We've used this in Italy, Greece and Puerto Rico. We've checked the ports for a river cruise we will be on in Germany and most of the towns were available. There is a trial of 5 places and then he paid $4 or $5 after he saw he liked the app.

Great! Thanks for your response.

Do you remember how early you were? We are thinking 10-10:30 time frame.