tikkas

Don't start buttergate again ;)

Oh, I'm not aware of "buttergate"!

Costa is to MSC what butter is to liver pate....

Thanks for the review - curious if you could have bypassed the end of cruise billing hassle by checking your account the night before. Incidentally this is not the first time I’ve heard this complaint. MSC seems confused as to how to efficiently process refundable OBC without creating a hassle for the passengers. One other question - I’ve not heard you can’t keep your luggage with you and do walk off before.....was any explanation given for that and does anyone know if this is standard? I’m about all things MSC Seaview right now as we are booked for next September in the Mediterranean, so thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We certainly checked the account the night before, and it was all fine. However you tend to add on some extras the night before, and this was only checkable in the morning of disembarkation.

Concerning luggage, no you can't just walk off with it, and this explains why then the disembarkation times are staggered. Having said this, I'm pretty sure that our luggage was ready and waiting for us in arrivals some one hour before we actually disembarked.

Happy to answer more questions!

Just got a great deal yesterday on the Seaview for November - could you explain the Fantastica programme vouchers please ?

I'm not sure I can give you a full description of the Fantastica package. However I can tell you what we benefitted most from: the drinks vouchers. We had a real lot of them! We didn't find they were particularly limited at all.

Yes we embarked in Barcelona. I would say the earlier you can go the better it is - at least try to avoid the 13.00 to 15.00 bottleneck.

This is the link to my review of the MSC Seaview, which we boarded on 22 June for a Mediterranean cruise.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=624915

Hope it helps!

Seems to me to be a bit of an overreaction. Lawsuit? Oh my.

Smoking is not allowed almost everywhere. However in my opinion it’s not properly signposted. That, combined with the selfish approach of some smokers, meant that somw smoking took place along the decks.

I'm cruising on the Seaview tomorrow and the Excursion and Specialty Dining possibilities have disappeared from the booking options when I log in to the MSC website. Is this normal?

You can hike to several rental car offices but it is a hike :). or... you can try to deal with

http://www.grautonoleggio.it/ which is a regional rental car company that has the closest office to the port. This company also "says" that they will deliver cars.

 

Beware that their web site is only in Italian. If you cannot handle the language you might want to install Google Chrome on your computer and set-up its Google Translate add-one. This browser comes in very handy for dealing with foreign language web sites.

 

Hank

Thanks Hank! Am trying my luck with the link you gave me. As you seem to know the city, if this doesn't work, is there a 'classic' rental car office you'd recommend?

We would like to hire a car in Genoa port, either from an office very close by or from a company which delivers to the port. Any suggestions?

We loved the ship, We were Aurea

 

The outside spaces work brilliantly, and the inside works well. We never found it felt crowded, unlike Meraviglia,

 

Pete

Can I ask: what the ship at full capacity?

Hi there! There are seven new shows on Seaview (different from the seven on Seaside) -- one showing each night of a weeklong sailing with three performances per night. Here's a list of the shows:

 

 

 

• Simply the Best: rock, pop and soul tribute to Tina Turner
  
• Eclipse: Pink Floyd tribute with a psychedelic feel
  
• Bizarre: acrobatics meets singing, with a French flair
  
• Animalia: an enchanting performance with an animal theme
  
• Fantasia: a celebration of the imagination and all things dreamlike
  
• Illusion: flamenco with a modern twist
  
• Emozioni: an elegant performance of popular Italian music
  

We were only on for three nights, and there was no show on the third night (due to the christening festivities). The ones we saw were "Bizarre" and "Fantasia." Both were phenomenal. The first one had lots of acrobatics, juggling, singing and Cancan dancing. The second was a more heady. It had a bit of a steampunk vibe but more colorful. Lots of toy soldiers, a ringmaster, more acrobatics and songs from movies like "The Addams Family" and "The Greatest Showman."

 

 

I'm not sure about bingo, as regular activities didn't appear in the daily program for the few days in Genoa, but I know for sure there will be daily quizzes on regular sailings.

Thanks for this! Could you tell me what are the showtimes?

Good stuff tikkas.I am on the same cruise and I am quite surprised that there are still some cabins available leaving the 19th June from Messina!

Some weeks ago nothing was available. I believe these are unfortunate cancellations.

Booked yesterday for 22 June sailing from Barcelona - am over the moon that I found a cabin! Can't wait.

In the area shown on the photo are the cabins 9004, 9006, 9008, 9012, 9014 & 9016 with

Bella Balcony experience.

I am not 100% sure but the area between the balconies and the ship hull looks like

part of the pool deck for the crew on deck 8 (please correct if wrong).

Thanks once again. That's even worse than I thought!

Deck 9 is the lowest deck shown in the photo, just above the name of the ship. You can also count down from the bridge located on deck 15. No vertical pole anywhere near deck 9.

Thank you! So not ideal in terms of views... What's between the balcony glass and the ship hull, then?

Help please! Which is deck 9 in this photo? Need to see if that vertical pole obstructs the vision from one of the deck 9 cabins or not.

Cruises to the Caribbean in late June or early July are really going at a relatively cheap price. I take it that this is because of the risk of hurricanes. Or not? Would you book a cruise to the Caribbean in late June?

Is there a particular moment before a cruise sail date when any cabins are released? For example, because final payments have not been made, or for any other reason?

I'm looking into our 7th cruise, but am shocked at the prices this year, and the non-availability of all the good ones. And I'm not even talking about a cruise in July or August - just late June.

Thanks for your feedback. My daughter is a performer, so maybe she will get excited about the circus. We certainly like the idea of getting in touch with other kids through the roll call threads. We've done that before while cruising on Disney. But of course Disney will always have a bunch of children of all ages. This is our kids' first time on another cruise line, and the current roll call only has a couple teenage boys so far.

 

In a "worst case" scenario, we'll just spend more time as a family and find things to do together on board.

Don't worry about your daughter making friends - after the first day, our daughters had already set a time for the next day to meet with some friends in the children's pool.

We have also done two, and tentatively planning one for March 2017. Weather not a problem.

 

On the other hand, seas can be rough any time, anywhere. You are on a ship, it can move. If you have sea sickness issues you must be prepared anytime you are on a ship.

Having just cruised the Atlantic, I am very aware of that :). I was wondering specifically about hurricane season and associated weather patterns.

... how have the weather and seas been? We are considering a Caribbean cruise for Easter 2016, and I'm hesitating!

Nice review! We were seriously considering Spirit for our Med cruise in 2016 but just could not convince ourselves to overlook the lack of amenities. We love balconies and would be forced to an inside with 4 (could not afford 2 balcony cabins at full price), one pool for the entire ship is not enough, no water slide, mini golf, fun stuff for kids and family to do kind of clinched it. The itinerary was exactly what we wanted but we had the opposite reaction in that the ship is also important to our vacation so we stuck with Carnival and lost out a bit on itinerary but gained all the bells and whistles to make our ship time enjoyable.

It´s the itinerary which made us choose the Spirit, after 4 years of wondering if we´d enjoy it. Unfortunately it´s the only cruise line which does those particular ports, so I suppose that if you love the itinerary then you have no choice!

We are booked on the Spirit for New Year cruise a family of 4 in an ocean view:eek:

 

We know that the cabins are very small, but for us, it's a do it this way or not at all, so we will take turns in the evening for showers and everything else!;)

 

But if you have pictures that would be great to see them!

I'm sorry I have no pictures! Enjoy your cruise!