Stockjock

We like the shows on probably a bigger scale than seems to be offered on Oceania, different bars/clubs, the GF likes to dance but I really don't, I suppose a broader array of venues. We like some of the MSC ships that have a Sky Lounge up high, overlooking the pool, with a band playing jazz or popular hits while we sip Grand Marnier in a snifter or a good red wine. I've always preferred the mid-sized ships, maybe 2,500ish in capacity. I think the GF likes some of the Monster of the Seas type vessels, since they have so many varied types of entertainment. That said, I'll probably still give it a shot. We have zero sea days, so between visiting the ports, getting back to the room, relaxing a bit, cleaning up for dinner and actually doing dinner, I'm not sure there will be a ton of down time anyway. As I mentioned earlier, if she gripes she gripes. At least I'll be providing the cruise, air and hotel.

You might be right. I had wanted to try something different, but in a good way. The reservations are fully refundable until August, so it’s something I will have to think about.

I have to be honest. While we love good food and good service, you guys are scaring the heck out of me with comments about hanging out in the library or hunkering down with a Kindle. Some of the "activities" mentioned sound tremendously boring to me. Will still probably do this, but the GF has been concerned that she'd be bored, and I hate to drop a chunk of cash on a milestone birthday cruise for her, and then have to listen to complaints during and afterwards.

I did Summit NYE 2022 with the then CEO aboard, and her sister Infinity this past summer. I thought Summit was in outstanding shape, particularly given her age. Infinity needed some help. They need to either Revolutionize Infinity or dump the ship, imo. It wasn't terrible, but not up to Celebrity's standards, imo. But I felt Summit was up to standard.

I also thought Butcher's Cut was very good. I'd improve the plating presentation, skip the bands, and possibly elevate the decor a touch, if it was up to me. The food quality is pretty solid, imo. Service was also pretty decent. In terms of plating, it seems as if many of the entrees are served without much attention to aesthetic presentation, and the items served often look pretty lonely, alone, or nearly so, on a huge plate. I've attached a couple of photos as examples.

Not sure who the musicians are. Not sure if it was a trial gig. It was a Med cruise. Not sure if they got off or not. But a buddy and I did a couple of specialty restaurants on Celebrity last year, and the service and atmosphere was First Class, particularly in Murano Restaurant, which was so impressive. Pretty good service in Butcher's Cut, but not in the same league, and really, I didn't need to have a band marching through the restaurant during dinner. Others obviously might feel differently.

That's why I wrote "quasi." As a side note, I was the announcer for a marching band, back when.

A small, quasi-marching band visits your restaurant during dinner. How would you feel about it? A. Hey, why not? It's kind of fun! B. Um, this is supposed to be an upscale specialty restaurant & we're trying to have a relaxing dinner. Not exactly the place for a quasi-marching band. C. Something else (explain,)

I see some opposed to this, but how is getting CC points for spending any worse than getting CC points for watching online videos that many probably don't watch anyway? The spend would give points to the branded credit card users, and this would benefit Celebrity/RCCL directly in several ways. I'm trying to view this from 2 perspectives. From a corporate perspective, i.e. more revenue. And from a customer perspective, i.e. more perks/benefits.

To clarify, it's a poll in the way that I had intended. I find the comments to be more meaningful than a simple click to vote tabulation format.

If you're priced out of Retreat, let me know if you try MSC Yacht Club, which I've heard good things about, and the pricing seems to be much better. I've sailed on MSC quite a few times, but not in YC. We did an Aurea Grand Suite for NYE, but that's not YC.

This is the poll. Do you prefer a spreadsheet?

Ok then, 100 points?

As you may know, Celebrity has a house-branded credit card, and typically they offer something like $200 or $300 in OBC if you sign up for it. But let's say they sweetened the pot, and in addition to the OBC bonus, they offered some Captain's Club loyalty points, let's say 50, and perhaps they could tie that to an initial spend challenge, perhaps spending $2,500 in the first 3 months or so. Would that make you more likely to sign up for their card? It seems to me as if they'd get a lot of new credit card business if they tried this. I know that the airlines make big money on their house-branded credit cards. What do you think?

While I've had some maddening shore-side customer service experiences, in terms of the onboard experience, MSC generally offers good value for the money. I'd take them in a heartbeat over Carnival. Likely over RCCL and NCL too.

I'm not sure if this will be helpful, as last year we did a Celebrity cruise from "Venice" that actually departed from Ravenna. In our case, we paid for a private water taxi to take us from our hotel (3 nights pre-cruise) to that Maritime Transit Center (or whatever it's called). There were people movers and other ways to get there, but the water taxi dropped us off on the docks, very close to where the bus departed from. Not sure what MSC offers, but we paid for Celebrity's sponsored transportation to the port and it worked out very well. When we flew into Venice airport (VCE), we booked a water taxi from the airport to our hotel's private dock. This is a bit more expensive, but really nice and scenic. However, during high tide, water taxis cannot get under some of the bridges in Venice, and so they had to drop us off at the closest public station and we lugged our bags to the hotel, which wasn't a piece of cake due to bridges/stairs/cobblestones and the fact that we don't travel light, but that's what we dealt with. Again, this may or may not be helpful, since we were departing from "Venice", and on another cruise line, but if it doesn't help you, perhaps it will help someone else.

Good to read some positive comments. We have a cruise booked later this year on Sirena, which will be our first on Oceania. I've read so many poor reviews, I've considered cancelling, plus, we're concerned that it might be boring. But at this stage, I figure that the best way to know is to try it for ourselves.

I feel obligated to inform everyone that, yes, I too have received my 3 points for watching that fascinating webinar last month. Woo hoo.

Exactly. It's easier for me to add to the thread to show a long-term pattern of often "bizarre issues", rather than starting new threads each time. I only add to the thread when I think what has occurred is germane to the conversation. That said, today MSC deleted my web account. As mentioned, for reasons unknown, they combined my first and middle name as one odd first name and had no ability to correct this. This locked me out of my MSC account with error code 502. They've asked me to create a new account in a few days. Hopefully, my sailing history will be added to the new account. It's worth noting that that they requested that I *not* use my middle name, which is a common name. So I think that's worth noting for others, i.e. it's probably best to not use a middle name with MSC. Thank you for reaching out to MSC Cruises. We received your e-mail. We can confirm that your account was reviewed, and the name has been properly updated on your voyagers club account, as well as your booking. Please note, we have deleted your web account. Within the next 24-48 hours you will have the ability to sign up again with the same information provided on your voyagers club account and booking. We kindly ask that you only provide your first and last name (your middle name is not necessary) on your web account. We appreciate your patience and thank you for choosing MSC Cruises!

I've done most of my sailings on either MSC or Celebrity. I've done 2 Aurea suites on MSC (larger and regular size), but nothing above Aqua Class on Celebrity. In my view... Both offer very nice, newer, modern ships and several older ones. Kind of a draw, but Celebrity's ships are smaller and I think that I prefer a ship with around a 2,500 passenger capacity versus 5,500 or even 6,000 capacity. In terms of service, Celebrity was head and shoulders above MSC. But...MSC has been improving, while Celebrity seems to be slightly in decline. I'd give the nod to Celebrity, but the gap is narrower than it was, imo. The same could be said for the food. Celebrity's standard MDR meals are in decline, nearly to the point of being in a freefall. MSC's main dining room meals have pretty much held steady, or maybe slightly improved. So again, nod to Celebrity, but that gap is also closing. Both have nice specialty restaurants, but nod to Celebrity again. That said, MSC's specialty restaurants are generally pretty good and tend to be more affordable. In terms of value, MSC wins almost every time, but every now and then Celebrity surprises me. In terms of the large 1 bedroom suite I got on MSC over NYE, I think a similar cabin would be double or triple what I paid if I had instead booked on Celebrity. Maintenance of the ships and cabins is a draw. MSC called themselves, "Masters of the Sea", and I think this is true, as they are also a huge container shipping operator, so they have a lot of expertise in this area. Customer service is better on Celebrity, especially shoreside customer service. Entertainment is usually much better on Celebrity. Excursions, drink packages, wi-fi and such, MSC typically wins that battle. In the buffet, again the gap is narrowing, but I have to give the win to Celebrity, although MSC makes the best pizza at sea. In terms of the loyalty program, you get more and better perks with Celebrity, but due to MSC's status match, you can achieve top status much, much faster. So I guess I'd go with MSC due to that fact. Celebrity cruises tend to have more of an American vibe, while MSC cruises have an international vibe. We like that international feel, although I get that some do not. What we don't like are continuous announcements in about 6 languages. In terms of receiving a non-paid for upgrade, you have a much, much better chance if you do a Bella booking on MSC and almost zero chance on Celebrity. But of course, upgrades don't always happen, but based on what I've been reading, at least 50% of the time on MSC (again, Bella only.) For the record, I don't typically book Bella. Let us know if you have any other questions.

Are you able to log into your MSC account, or do you get the same error messages that I receive?

That's what I figured, or perhaps only covered by the premium package.

I have a new issue that I think is appropriate to add to this old thread. If you scroll up, you'll see that they had issues with my girlfriend's MSC Voyager's Club account that seemed to be related to the way they listed her maiden name. Ultimately, they deleted her account and after some time, but not without many e-mails and frustration, they restored it. Now, I have the same problem, only I obviously don't have a maiden name and there have been no changes to my name on my MSC account ever. As I mentioned elsewhere, I cannot access my MSC login, as I get an error that reads, "Request failed with status code 502." I called MSC and they said they'd put in a request to try and fix it, but that apparently didn't work. I then sent an e-mail to the Voyager's Club e-mail address. Got a message back that MSC has randomly decided to combine my first and middle name and make that my first name and the only way to fix it is to delete my Voyager's Club account and re-do everything. I called MSC, and the agent spoke with a supervisor. They said there should be a way to separate my middle name and place it where it belongs. So that's where I'm at. Yet another unexpected and random error.

MSC Cruises Introduces ‘World’s Greatest Bars’ Program April 5, 2024 MSC Cruises is elevating its food and beverage offering with the new “World’s Greatest Bars” program on select ships, according to a press release. This new concept brings some of the most acclaimed bars to MSC Cruises ships, each for six months, to serve up something extra special to guests. The program includes bars Paradiso and Sips from Barcelona, Spain, allowing guests the opportunity to enjoy their popular cocktails onboard. Jacques Van Staden, vice president of food and beverage at MSC Cruises, said: “We’re delighted to bring the ‘World’s Greatest Bars’ concept on board our ships to create world-class and innovative experiences for our guests. The new program brings our food and beverage offering to new heights, providing unforgettable experiences not seen before at sea. We’re thrilled to have on board such exciting bars, SIPS and Paradiso, two bars ranked as some of the best in the world. These two bars are incredibly hard to get into right now, so we’re so excited that our guests can get a taste of the action.” Having started on April 1, the new concept is available for a six-month activation with the Paradiso pop-up onboard the MSC World Europa and Sips onboard the MSC Euribia.

One of my clients (w/a big Wall Street firm) is a retired U.S. Navy Commander, who graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis. I posted something about Capt. Kate on social media awhile back. He read up on her and said, "Captain Kate has earned her stripes, She's the real deal. Captain Kate is a rock star."