styles27

Interesting. I prefer BH but Portland is a nice port too.

Wow not exactly comforting considering we’re on an all Bermuda itinerary from Boston in a few weeks.

Scary. I hope he’ll be okay.

Glad you’re having a nice cruise! Love the overnights in OC it’s my favorite!

lol true! Fingers crossed for you on the bid and the casino! 🤞😉

We purchased food in ports and carried it on the ship without issues. As long as it’s packaged you can bring it on. No fresh fruit or vegetables.

Ahh makes sense thanks

We cruise on April 7th on Pearl. When I do a mock booking for our sailing it is showing Club Balcony and Haven as being sold out however I’m still able to bid on Haven rooms. That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Last year we were notified 3 days before our cruise that we won our bid. The ship was only 60-70% full last year though.

They tend to have the same theme nights on all of their cruises (depending on the length of the cruise of course) There is always a white night even on the shorter cruises. We did a 10 day and 4 day back to back so there were 2 white nights on our 14 day itinerary Unfortunately MSC isn’t great about communicating this to guests before their cruise so they don’t get a lot of participation (except white night.)

Exactly why I asked if they had it in writing…meaning in the cruise contract. I don’t trust anything a phone rep tells me. If it’s not in writing the OP is out of luck sadly.

Did the cruise before yours happen to visit Colombia? If so that’s most likely the reason why you were delayed boarding. Hope things get better and you can enjoy your cruise!

Sorry this happened to you. I’ve never booked air through any cruise line so I’m curious. Do you have it in writing that they will guarantee to get you to the ship if you miss a connection?

@CILCIANRQTS you’re right there are quite a few folks who believe if they book air through the cruise line that the ship will wait for them if they’re late or will pay for them to meet the ship at the next port. I see posts about it many times a week on other social media sites. We always fly in at least 2-3 days before our cruise. The older I get the less I care about saving a few bucks. It’s all about convenience and having control of my vacation.

Completely agree.

Cruised Pearl from Boston last April and the Haven waiting area is still awful. It is a very small corner near the restrooms with too few chairs to accommodate everyone that needs one. We’ll be leaving on Pearl again on 04/07/2023 and we’re hoping they’ve gotten their act together as far as boarding goes. Last year it was impossible to keep those of us in suites/the Haven separated from others who did not have priority boarding. It was like a free for all because the ladies who were trying to control it couldn’t. People wanted on the ship and they ignored the fact that Suites and Haven pax had priority over them. We’ve left from Boston many many times since we live in RI we have taken advantage of being within driving distance to this port but it is the most disorganized port we leave from. I’ll let you know how it goes on April 7th!

Itinerary and we prefer the older ships on every cruise line

Exactly!

We did this itinerary as a 14 day 12/30-01/13/2023. It wasn’t sold as a B2B but it was a B2B. Kind of sneaky but MSC is known for their “ferry” service between ports in Europe so it’s just normal operations to them. Customs was very slow after the 10 day part of the B2B. Despite us booking this as a 14 day cruise (which was how it was marketed) many of us were on for the next 4 days and still had to go through immigration The ship didn’t clear immigration until after 2pm. We were told that immigration is very thorough when a ship returns from this itinerary including Colombia, Panama etc. I mean I wonder why right? I recommend you pack your patience and hope for the best but plan for delays boarding your cruise. For reference immigration was super fast after the 4 day cruise. We walked off and were on our bus to Miami International by 7:30 am.

56 and open to all of those things just not on a cruise ship where I go to relax not to have music of any kind blasting. This is especially troublesome when these charters are kept secret from unsuspecting passengers not in the charter group. If I want that kind of cruise experience I’ll look for a group offering it and book it. In the last few years we’ve attended the Stones at Gillette, Guns and Roses at Fenway, Gaga at Fenway, Chesney and G Brooks also at Gillette and countless other concerts. We’re huge music people. The difference is we don’t go on a cruise to watch a concert.

When I hear they are allowing YC access to non YC pax I’m reminded of @mscdivina2016who paid and booked YC but was moved to a room on deck 8 but his reservation still said his experience was YC. Could this be happening more and more and that’s where SOME of these “access” pax are coming from?

This article says 2024 so who knows which is correct? Although your article was from September and this one is from November so I’m thinking this is the most current. https://www.cruisehive.com/cruise-port-in-maine-votes-to-restrict-cruise-ship-visitors/87122?fbclid=IwAR1XCxNQ4td12GE4HcWCrkYcakscCPhUDJ_GvnGq2_u2vWiL5p78n0_XrbE#letiurzzqv3htjhlql

The Bar Harbor thing doesn’t go into effect until 2024 so it won’t impact the 2023 cruises

Wow talk about being creative to beat the system. I’m a retired hairstylist. I had a client who would come each week for a wash and blow dry. One week she asked me to “trim her bangs” and of course I did and didn’t charge her. The next week she asked me if I could “just snip the middle length at her nape as it was getting caught on her collar” When she came in the 3rd week and asked me to “trim over her ears” I nicely told her she would be charged for a haircut. She was flabbergasted! She said “but you’re only cutting a few hairs not a full haircut” There are people who think the rules don’t apply to them. She was ultimately working at getting a free haircut over a period of 3 weeks just to save an extra $30 at the time. Needless to say I never saw her again after that lol What gets me about this whole “trying to feed 3 people but only paying for 2 on a cruise” is we all pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to cruise are we really going to worry about spending an extra $70 on our kid’s or parent’s meal? Clearly we can afford it if we’re cruising. It makes zero sense to me.

I’ll be on the second sailing to Bermuda from Boston and will do a live review (04/07/23) Although sorry OP you’ll be there before me so maybe you can let us know lol I plan to post the ferry schedule and daily MDR menus along with the daily program…WiFi permitting of course lol I was on this same cruise last year. This was the schedule at that time.