rool

2 hours ago, Griff4AU said:

Just adding on to what @roolshared as I was in Rio this past weekend. Land in Rio (or SP) and you're given a mask when exiting the plane. In the city itself, I noticed an uptick in mask usage but certainly not everywhere. Malls?  Maybe 20% wearing them.  The outdoor watch party for the men's football match?  LMAO! ('pretty darn entertaining for this gringo).

 

I'll be able to update this in a few weeks as we're 19 days away from sailing, but the Preziosa is full - so I hope it's properly staffed. 
 

We are back in our home state here in Brazil now and it's about the same as you say. An increase in Mask wearing but most aren't.

At bars for the football? Zero masks.

I'll keep an eye on the Anvisa website for any updates re cruises.

Enjoy your time there.

1 hour ago, travelberlin said:

We will also sail from Santos. Good to know that there is a test station within the terminal building. I hope that we find a place the day before but unfortunately it is Sunday. I will check with the places you have mentioned.

Ivi

We never used it as we were on a three night cruise but it looked like a walk in facility up some stairs as you enter the terminal building.

15 hours ago, Griff4AU said:

+1

 

I LOVE it down there. I love my country, but there are many other places on this planet where folks just "live life better and fuller" and I think Brazil, with their sense of family and "living life large," is one of them. Problems?  Loads of them, but I stand by my statement. Many are quick to become experts on places they have never been - those who are experts because of the internet I refer to as "keyboard commandos". 

So yes, I am willing to start the argument. There is no modern list that considers Brazil 3rd world as it has the 10th largest economy in the world.

I have lived here now for 4 years and, although it has to be paid for, I find the access to medical treatment faster and more thorough than that in the UK.

As for covid tests, as said above, many pharmacies such as Drogasil and labs such as Sabin offer rapid tests with results given between 20 minutes and 4 hours. 

I recently sailed out of Santos and I noticed there was an independant testing station within the terminal building. I don't know if the same is in the Rio terminal.

9 hours ago, neptuno said:

Unfortunately MSC has lowered its standards regarding US sailings, which are mostly Caribbean.  Of course, we love casual dining in the Tropics, but honestly, the difference now compared to ten years ago when MSC was new to Florida from Europe is sadly disapointing.  Dinner dress was once the European norm.  We still dress for dinner in the MDR,  OR if not in the mood, attend the buttet.

I concur especially here in Brazil where I have sailed with MSC the past three years.

Tank tops, pool shorts, flip flops and baseball caps are a regular sight in the MDR sadly.

To be honest I suspect that Brazil is treated differently and most of the standards we would see in Europe are ignored.

We had a leaflet in our cabin for our recent sailing in Brazil showing daily rates of $9.99 and $14.99.

I don't know what the differences were as we had a prepaid package so didn't look too closely.

Just to say to keep an eye on things.

We have a new wave in progress here now and there were 56 thousand new cases yesterday.

We flew home from Sao Paulo today and masks are compulsory airside at airports and on the aircraft.

We got the sparkling wine, macaroons and the bar of chocolate this week on Fantasia.

No gift though and the extra time given in the cabin on the day of disembarkation wasn't recognised along with priority for tenders. 

20 hours ago, mast3rn8 said:

 

New to MSC... is there an 'Elegant Night' on every sailing? Even a 3-night cruise?

We've just finished a 3 nighter in Brazil and there was no elegant night.

They did do white night and flower power.

1 hour ago, 8420PR said:

Wow that's very different to all the other MSC cruises I have taken (in the Caribbean, Europe and Middle East).  I've never seen paper cups and plastic glasses (apart from the pool bar) onboard.

 

Did you have a drinks package?  How much did a beer cost onboard?

Yes we have only experienced this within Brazil too. 

We had the easy plus package so didn't really take notice of the beer prices, sorry.

We are just waiting to disembark from Fantasia after a short cruise out of Santos. We have lived in Brazil for 4 years now so it's our third cruise here.

Very, very noisy and virtually impossible to get a seat at all around the pool deck and, as said above, extremely loud music is played all day around the pool. Music in the bars will mostly be sertaneja, forro or mpb. The couple of european musicians seem to have gone.

The buffet is the same, very long queues and difficult to get a table. I'd recommend breakfast and lunches in the dining rooms where available.

With regards to the buffet, only paper cups for coffees were available and disposable plastic cups were used for beer in all the bars onboard.

Table service, if available, is very slow in the bars, instead you need to queue at the bar for one bar steward to input your order, you are then given a receipt to have to queue again to give to the bar tender.

I don't know of this is all peculiar to MSC cruises in Brazil, it was the same on Preziosa in April, but we are doing a TA from Rio to Barcelona in March and if it's the same we will reconsider whether to continue cruising with MSC.

It's a shame because we just reached Diamond.

Congratulations.

I was 100 short of Diamond after a short cruise in April and updated my telephone number to get the extra hundred.

It took an email from me but it got sorted on the end.

We are due to sail on her on 21/11 and would love to know what bands are on board.

We have sailed a few times now to/from and within Brazil and there are a couple of bands and singers that seem to be regulars. 

Any general comments on the cruise itself would be welcome.

Many thanks.

Thankfully I have been able to book a drinks package on our 3 night cruise in Brazil next month. 

Maybe because most cruises here this season seem to be 3 nighters with a sprinkling of longer ones.

5 hours ago, travelingman said:

 

Which cruise are you referring to?

 

Stan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe all sailings that were previously on Crystal will now be transferred to the new ship.

Yes we did. Sounds very exciting. We sail on the first cruise on 6 March 2021 and hope we can sail as we are travelling from Brazil.

We did sail on the Neo Romantica about 4 or 5 years ago but for some reason I can't remember much. Old age or the drink package I suspect.

For some reason though I couldn't log into the booking to see which cabin I had been assigned. Did anyone have any joy with that or I wonder if they are still working on it?

16 hours ago, monsterl said:

MSC Preziosa

 

all remaining cruises from/to Hamburg have just been canceled by October 28, 2020 (including TA to Brazil).

 

According to the current status, the ship is going directly from Ocean Cay to Brazil, even though I am also skeptical that the Brazil season is taking place ...

 

MSC Meraviglia

 

also remains "over there" in the Bahamas. All departures from/to Hamburg in the period 01.08. - 05.09.2020 are now cancelled. The first cruise from Miami "after corona" is scheduled for October 31, 2020.

We are due to sail on Preziosa on 5 December from Rio but, as you say, I don't think the virus will improve quickly enough in Brazil for it to go ahead.

I hope I'm wrong though. Balance isn't due until early October so we have a bit of time to review and make a decision.

On 6/22/2020 at 5:40 PM, JohnJayJotaJames said:

Here in Brazil our pre-paid Christmas MSC Grandiosa cruise with Cirque du Soleil has just been replaced with MSC Seaview, which we've already done a couple of times. Cancelling will incur a 10% fee! 😡 They are refusing to refund 100%

We are in Brazil too (MT) and booked on Preziosa in December. I checked this morning and all the booking appears to be the same.

I'm wondering if the ships will arrive here at all if the pandemic doesn't peak here soon.

Balance due in October.

12 minutes ago, echick said:

Not a stupid question at all! It is blocked off so no one can walk by! That would be really weird if someone did, huh? 🤣

Weird for them ha ha.

Thanks for the reply 😉👍

53 minutes ago, echick said:

Yes, there is, but we didn’t feel it detracted from the great view! ☺️

We are in a similar cabin on Preziosa next December.

It may be a stupid question 😁 but is it a walkway past the window or is it closed off?

I don't want to scare anyone when opening the curtains in the morning.

Thanks

I just upgraded to a suite with balcony for our sailing in March 2021.

I quite like the idea of priority boarding plus the bottle of sparkling wine on embarkation and a few other benefits that I can't remember off the top of my head but they are listed on their website under onboard experiences/concierge.

We sail on March 10 and received cabin details today.

We booked an Inside Bella Guarantee and received a Fantastica balcony cabin so very happy with that.

We are about 5 short for our repositioning cruise from Rio on Fantasia March 9th. Just three weeks to go.

42 minutes ago, helengp said:

We were on this cruise same time as the couple making the videos....I have watched them and have spotted my husband sitting out on deck 5. They really captured the spirit of the cruise and the tours and it's been great to see their videos to remind us of what fun the trip was. If you are doing this trip you won't be disappointed. 

I'm going to have to look again now 😁

Did you travel as a couple and did you find socialising onboard easy enough as I noted they said the passengers were 80% greek?

23 hours ago, girlguide said:

 

There is a couple on You-tube posting videos of their experience doing this cruise in December - search for EECC travels

So far they have posted stuff about Athens, boarding the ship, day at sea, ship tour & the first 3 ports of call. On one of the videos she talks about the other Egypt excursion with the Nile cruise - she said they needed 80 signed up to run the excursion & so far they only had 20. So I'm not surprised they have cancelled that one & only offer the included excursion. Check out the videos if you can, they had a great time on the cruise. We're really looking forward to the trip.

Coincidentally I was watching them Friday night. It's very different to the kind of ships we are used to but, as they say in the video, it is the itinerary that we are going for rather than the ship itself. The ship looks fine but the bars reminded me a little of those on a ferry across the Irish sea and rather brightly lit. It may have been like that just when they were filming.

We are not going to watch the Egypt one as want to keep some things back for when we travel 😁

34 minutes ago, carolmic said:

December 22, 2019

I have read that there are two queues for embarkation for Celestyal cruises, one for Suites and one for all other cabins. Does anyone know if a Junior Suite qualifies for the Suite line?

I'm not sure it does. I think I read somewhere it is only S, SB and GS that qualify.