alyssamma

Apologies if some of these have already been answered... 1) Is Guy's Pig and Anchor BBQ open every day for lunch or just sea days? 2) Does each restaurant in street eats only service one specific item each day? If so, is this a standard rotation (i.e., day 2 of every 7 day cruise is the same)? If so, does anyone have a menu? 3) When going to the "free" specialty restaurants, can you order whatever you want? Like if I wanted 2 entrees is that possible, or is it one entrée? 4) How hard was it to make reservations for the specialty restaurants? I know this is highly dependent on sailing date...I'll be going 9/3 if that helps.

Just to give another data point, once I got on the ship I went to the YC concierge and asked to upgrade to a YC deluxe. They said $500 and I said, sold!

I think this is the real issue. If all you are worried about is canceling your cruise then Carnival might be the best option But if you want full insurance...covering air, hotels, etc, then it is almost always the worst option. And getting a FCC is imho worse than getting cash back.

Lol, you realize you replied to a FIVE year old thread?

I stand corrected. The 60 day window I was talking about is 60 days before you purchase the policy. But to cover pre-existing you *do* have to purchase within X days of initial deposit...usually 10-21 as @Moonarino said.

I never purchase insurance until I make final payment. No need to as everything is refundable before that. I know a poster above said they had bad experience with squaremouth, but those companies are just brokers. Anything you have to deal with you call the insurance company directly, or the TPA who administers claims. For example. I primarily use insuremytrip and buy Nationwide Essentials. I've had to deal with them twice for claims and both times called the TPA who handles payments of claims. For specific questions about the policy, I called Nationwide directly.

This is an excellent answer. I also use those 2 sites. I'll only add/clarify two things. Often for pre-existing, keep this in mind... 1) Most policies will go back 60 days (or less) for pre-existing. So, let's say you have a bad back and if it flares up you can't travel. So long as it isn't bothering you when you get the insurance (and by "bother" I mean something like you're under a doctor's care), then you should be covered. It doesn't matter when you made the first payment (this has been my experience at least). So purchasing now, just so long as you could travel *today* health-wise, should be fine for an Oct cruise. 2) This may be obvious but I'll say it anyway. If you need to cancel (or otherwise use the insurance) for something *not* related to your pre-existing condition, then the 60 day thing doesn't matter. In other words you could purchase the week before and still be covered for everything *except* the pre-existing condition. Hope this helps and doesn't confuse things more 🙂

🙂 Humble brag?

Well, def agree with this. Don't buy from cruise, airlines, or TA.

I've never found an advantage to using cruise or airline insurance. You can get relatively inexpensive third party insurance that will cover whatever you need. As @Babr said, it's based on your age and the age of your traveling companions. To give you an example, my wife and I are both in our late 50s. I just spent $150 for $5K worth of insurance. This will cover 2 cruises, airlines, and a trip to Universal. Trip interruption is $6250, Medical is $75K (with $250K for medical evac and $500 for dental), travel delay is $150/day and bags are covered at $600. 99% of the time I use Nationwide Essentials. I've had 2 claims with them in the past (one medical and one trip cancelation). Both times it was a quick, easy process to get reimbursed.

No

Sez the facial recognition software...

Yes, as long as you are in the picture it's fine...it's only if you *aren't* in the pic.

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I knew you could just do the drink package but was confused about how to do Elevate/Indulge. But now I see you can't 🙂

Is this possible to do, like you can upgrade from classic to premium bev package, or do you need to (re)book with that to begin with? TIA

Just to clarify something...if members of your party who did *not* pay for the package separately (i.e., they are in a different cabin) take photos *without* you, there is a good chance they will be eventually removed. You can, as @jwlane said, download during the trip. But if you wait until after when you get the link, their photos may be gone.

See my post above...no TA involved, just went to the website. Booking as a Voyager Club member will get you a 5% discount and a good TA will get you some nice OBC. If you're willing to take inside in YC then it will be significantly cheaper...

This. People talk about bad CS on other lines, but you haven't experienced bad until you've experienced MSC. Would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

Not sure what point you are trying to make. Of course prices change for everything - not just cruises. Book an airline ticket today and tomorrow it might be cheaper or more expensive. But we are talking about *average* prices. And if you read what I said, I didn't say you can't raise prices. I said don't raise prices *and* take away benefits at the same time. MSC, about 6mo ago, underwent a huge price increase for their product. At the same time, they greatly devalued that product. Couple that with their notoriously bad customer service, and I think it's a bad business move. But time will tell...

YC prices are all over the place. You can find the odd one higher than retreat, but 99% of the time it is much lower. Seashore Jan 29th sailing is $4100 for 2 in YC Deluxe\ Seascape Jan 8th sailing, $6800 for 2 in YC Deluxe The only Seascape I saw for $13K was a 14 day cruise...

This. Honestly, I think MSC has lost their mind. You can either raise prices or take away benefits...don't do both at the same time.

Well, maybe talking we're about 2 different things. You seem focused on music, I mean entertainment. Although for music, the Apex had Charity Lockhart (if you don't know who she is, google her with Aretha Franklin), an amazing Motown cover band, and many others. I put the music there FAR above anything I saw on MSC. Also, when music ends doesn't have anything to do with its quality (although on the Apex music lasted until around 1am every night...it was a DJ, tho). But again, I meant entertainment. Which means everything from escape rooms to comedians, to even magicians (who I generally don't like but was pretty da*n good on the Apex). MSC entertainment is, by necessity, usually acrobatics, singing and dancing. Some of it is very good, but it can't compare to X imho. In fact, I would go so far as to say RCCL (which includes X) has by far the best entertainment at sea. The shows I've seen on Royal ships is mind-blowing.

I was a huge MSC fan, and still am in many ways. Since the restart last Aug I've done 3 sailings, and about 10 overall. I've only sailed in the YC. If you take a min to just look at the MSC board, you'll see their #1 problem is customer service. And I don't just mean long hold times, I mean cabins and even *entire itineraries* changed and no notice given to the passenger. People who booked YC being kicked out, again with no notice (they just log in and see their booking changed). To say it's bad would be the understatement of understatements 🙂 Still, the YC is a product that I believe to be unmatched by X or Princess (and of course RCCL/CCL). Once you are there, you truly feel pampered and get pretty much whatever you want. Like most things, the perks have been watered down recently (e.g., the minibar is no longer restocked for free...you just get the contents it initially has without a charge). It is also a *lot* more expensive than it once was (but still cheaper than Retreat/Haven/etc). Still, it is an amazing product. I last sailed the Seashore in April, so saying this from pretty recent experience. I've never sailed Princess, so can't do a comparison, but for X...wow. I will say I've done one X cruise - Apex last Feb. I now have *four* more booked (Beyond, another Apex, Edge and Ascent). We have zero MSC cruises coming up. I can't say enough good things about X. And we stayed in steerage (just normal balcony cabin), not the retreat. The food I found to be superior to MSC YC (which has been very inconsistent lately), the ship design was more beautiful, the passengers we "nicer" (not that MSC pax aren't nice, but the pax on the Apex were just...better). Activities were better, but in MSC's defense they have to cater to many nationalities so their activities are more watered down. Entertainment is far superior on X. Give the YC a try on MSC...it really is something to be experienced. But be prepared to return to X.

From the Celebrity website... There is then a discount for being in the Captain's Club. Pre-price increase this took it down to $12pppd. Based on other reports it is now $15pppd. But even without the discount, it's $18 and not $29.

Yeah, if you ever remotely watch the news you'll know this has been going on for months. Lots of stories out there about this since Easter at least.