Hey Tina

The documents say you have a one hour window to board.

I cruised 8/6 and sat alone at the MDR every night and didn't have to request that.

The shows as well as all the cruise directors announcement were all in English.

7 hours ago, capriccio said:

 

You are penalizing ship staff for a problem you have with headquarters?  It seems to me you are just trying to justify not paying the auto-gratuities. 

It's like the people that go to land based restaurants and under tip because the temperature was too cold and they had to wait too long for a table. Your server doesn't control the temperature nor the popularity of the restaurant.

On 9/15/2019 at 10:33 AM, ssmea03 said:

I think you can safely assume that the official policy is that you must rebook to make the kind of changes that you want to do.

I think you can safely assume that you can't count on talking to MSC and getting the same answer twice. I recently wanted to downgrade to a guarantee cabin because the only cabin available in the experience and cabin type I wanted when I booked was an accessible one (which I don't need) and the first person I spoke with said it wasn't possible to downgrade once you've chosen a cabin. I thanked her, hung up, called back and got an agent who was able to change my reservation to a guarantee. If I had just listened to the first person I'd have assumed the person working for MSC knows what they're talking about (mistake) and dropped it, but I knew what she was saying made no sense.

Reposting due to unexplained deletion.

On 8/31/2019 at 1:49 AM, SyeCam said:

Hi all

 

I have read lots of topics about laundry and see that most people hang laundry in the shower area. I presume hanging laundry on the balcony is not allowed.

 

Thanks

 Is this a question? 

Meh. My time is valuable and I didn't want to spend my time on vacation complaining about something that I know had no malicious intent and I strongly suspect was due to a language barrier. Everyone is different though and the more people in the guest services line mean less people in front of me at the bar or buffet so I welcome people complaining 😄

The MSC site allowed me to book a solo cruise 3x. No funny business involved (e.g. I didn't book for 2 and have one person just not show up). I prefer a full size cabin, so I don't know about the availability of solo cabins. I had a crew member ask me "What, you don't have any friends?" when I told him I was on the cruise alone. You could chalk that up to a language barrier and respond "Of course I have friends, don't you have any friends?" or you could let it bother you for the rest of your trip and go to guest services and cause a scene and demand compensation. I chose the former. I don't go on a cruise to make friends so again, can't speak to that, and even if I could, me making friends on one MSC sailing doesn't guarantee the same experience for anyone on a different (or even the exact same) sailing.  That being said I did have conversations with other cruisers. I wouldn't say I made friends, but again, I don't travel solo to make friends.

I've cruised MSC solo in mid 2018. What was my experience? It was great. That's a very broad question so all i can say is it was great. I can't compare to NCL because my only NCL cruise was about 15 years ago. I had flexible/anytime dining with my Aurea booking. They have a thermal spa. I don't know what you consider solo friendly so that's another thing I can speak to.

1 hour ago, mafig said:

 

No!????

 

to both????

To the "yes or no" question.

No

2 hours ago, APDMOM said:

[...] We are going to take ours on Meraviglia to see if we can re-use them... Not sure, since Seaside is printed on them and I don’t even know if Meraviglia uses the same system.

Please let us know if this is possible. I have mine from Meraviglia and intend to take it on Seaside as well. The way I envisioned it was going to guest services and exchanging it, especially because the muster station is printed on it. AFAIK Royal Caribbean allows you to keep and re-use the band doing just that (exchanging it).

I think there are a lot of indoor space. There is an indoor pool, and that area has tons of glass on (each?) side. There is the Sky Bar (?), on the same level as the kids club. BEAUTIFUL views from there, and great free snacks as well. Also near the bars (the one on deck 5 near reception, Edge (coffee) bar, champagne bar) usually have huge windows next to them as well.

Of course I don't know your needs but I don't think you'll be lacking for indoor space to just chill out.

I think sometimes when you ask for the price the people on the phone have to add the item to actually see it. It happened to be with the internet, I asked about the cost difference and later I saw the OBS Cancelled line as well.

I sailed in Aurea in June and had a great time. (Unfinished) review in my signature

Looking forward to your review, enjoy your trip

Yeah, I never came back with my final thoughts, oops :( If you have any questions feel free to post and I'll check back and answer

I had a great time.

Huge variety at lunch and dinner, although pizza, breads, mozzarella, pesto, sundried tomatoes and salad were always there. Possibly some others, but hot dishes and desserts were constantly changing. In fact, my favorite dessert was the carrot cake, and I had it for lunch on day 1 and only saw it once after that, on someones plate, but by the time I got to the dessert station it was gone.

If you love strangers to "rub on you", then you must also try the 1 hour full body Traditional Thai massage for 150 bahts (only $4.50).

Thailand is the best value holiday destination, even after including the airfare

Yes, that's definitely a to-do. I've only had traditional "Swedish" massages here in the states, and then the Bali massage on the ship. I've heard a Thai massage is really different, and you're actually usually clothed and the masseuse really manipulates your body in a different way to those other massages. I'm looking forward to it. One day....

Have you tried the highly relaxing 1 hour foot massage for just 100 bahts (only $3) in Pattaya, Thailand?

If not, you don't know what you are missing.

Thailand is, unfortunately, still on my to-visit list, but I love nothing more than paying a stranger to rub on me, so I'll add it to my list.

Hamburg has more than one airport? That's news to me. I suggest you look at a map, then you'll be able to judge which is closest to the port or city center.

Miniatur Wonderland was really fun.

Get currency at your local bank before leaving Florida, and My Taxi is an app I used, sort of like Uber but for actual taxis.

The only disadvantage is to see luggage in hallways every day, and people not dressed up too much sometimes because its thee first or last day of cruise.

Maybe seeing luggage in the hall every day will make the last night less depressing :(

Oops, yep you are correct. My mistake. That would be a really expensive message.

 

 

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I know! So whether the increase is worth it is all subjective, but I did want to point out that it's not necessarily a "$100 massage"

so do you still have to pay the 15% service charge on the unlimited drinks package ?

No.

Seaside has already made some changes to please their customers. We shall see. Most people don’t think it’s worth the extra $1000 for my time dining and $100 message. Enough of this stupid debate. Have fun on your next cruise, as will I.

 

 

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Is that supposed to say "massage"? My included massage cost 289 euro.

Every new ship I have been on built after 2015 has a hand washing station at the entrance to the buffet. The best set up was on Anthem where Guests are funneled through a hand washing area with about 10 sinks. While some people don’t wash for the full 2 minutes- I didn’t see one person skip washing entirely. No more need for harmful sanitizers- everyone washes on the way in the buffet. I thought this was a new industry standard and am surprised seaside doesn’t have this feature.

 

 

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Two minutes? I think you mean 20 seconds

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/pub/Handwashing/HandwashingTips.htm