Mark_T

I'm not trying to frighten anyone, based on reports here it is not a frequent occurrence, and there are plenty of reports of it not happening, but it is the risk taken when deciding not to notify and cancel in advance, in an attempt to avoid the combination of cancellation penalty and the repricing of the solo fare...

The person who does not show up loses the fare they paid unless they can claim on insurance.... ... the person who remain gets assessed as a single traveller in a double cabin, and now owes them an additional £500... I would be inclined to make the explanation for the no-show convincing...

Yes, there is no time based limitation on the double points offer.

That's the point though, the cruise fare is only part of the revenue and they do not want to lose the additional onboard spend, which is why they will continue to control the numbers of solo passengers onboard, and why they introduced the terms to allow them to penalise those using ghost passengers to get around the limitation... Usual forum rules apply.. 🙂 ... when you ask if something ever happened the answer is going to be yes. More often than not, nothing will happen, but you have to accept that it is possible and you will not have a valid complaint if it does...

Yes, but you do not get a refund for the drink package you have already purchased.

I guess it is a roll of the dice each time...

They retain that right in the T&C's even if the passenger is a 'no show' on the day, they did this to deal with solo travelers who were making ghost bookings to get around the limits on single passenger bookings. We don't often hear of them exercising that right, but it has happened...

Like many of these other changes, they are not making them on all ships at the same time, but it does look to be real on Equinox...

... other than this one it seems...

There is this from a few posts earlier...

There are other itineraries, even out of Florida, we are doing an 11 night Western Caribbean cruise out of Miami in February, there is a 14 night version if you want to add on the private island. This will be our 2nd MSC cruise in YC, loving the service and the price. When we booked this one it priced out at slightly above Aqua on a similar Celebrity cruise, but well below Aqua if you factored in the OBC.

Logically it would go to the pool for the 'Team' and housekeeping as usual.

.. the problem is not so much adding a paid option to the Gelato Bar, it is combining it with the removal of the free cookies at Al Bacio as confirmed a few posts up...

Here is the original reveal for anyone that hasn't seen it...

Same here, but although I agree it is unlikely, they are making great progress. I found this video from about a month ago...

Thanks for the suggestion, we'll take a look, especially re the cultural aspects, as that is one of the things we like about MSC as well since they try to appeal to the local Japanese market as well, rather than carrying their culture with them as a bubble in the way that Celebrity do...

Yes, we already did one cruise in YC and have another booked for Feb next year, we are not Retreat guests these days either, the prices just went crazy, which is why we are struggling so much with returning to Millennium, but not in the Retreat. We are in a C2 on Millennium for April '25, but MSC do cruise out of Yokohama as well, so waiting to see the schedules when they get released for 24/25...

Somewhat ironically, we are waiting for MSC to release the next seasons inventory for Japan before deciding finally to cancel Millennium... We sailed on her back in Dec '19, shortly after the refurbishment, and we did have a great time cruising from Hong Kong down to Singapore, but that was in the Retreat...

You can pick any ship and any cruise that has been loaded on the app regardless of what you have booked, but if you want something close to accurate on the menus just pick the current cruise on the ship and ignore the pattern of port/sea days.

I thought this was going to be another hyperbolic, overreaction thread, but having just looked at the current menus on Millennium I see that it is all very real, and very sad indeed... We've never previously felt the need to order more than one app / entrée / desert, and rarely had to go to the 'always available section, but based on the current menu we'd have to do that almost every day. The apps are down to soup/salad plus the old always available selection so sadly boring and uninteresting almost every day, and the entrées truly are of a school dinner standard with the unremitting side of mashed potatoes on everything except the pasta dishes. We've been holding on to a Japan booking on Millennium despite all the changes, but with the MDR being a write-off and only Tuscan and So5 as alternatives it is looking less and less likely that we will keep that booking. Still have time for Celebrity to reverse these recent menu quality reductions, but absent that we are probably done at this point...

If you plan to do that again it would be a courtesy to find them (usually easy to do) and just tell them to skip you that day, or the result will be them having to check multiple times to see if the sign is still there...

We've done the same in the past, but I suspect the confusion is between ordering off-menu and ordering from the MDR menu... ... but frankly, with the way things have been lately, I wouldn't put it past them to be cutting back on asking for stuff that is not on the menu in general.

Yes, it seems that both Titanium & Platinum match to silver now. If you got grandfathered in to Platinum Premiere or you achieve Ambassador, you may get gold, but nothing from Marriott matches to diamond these days.

In the past it has been variable, if they have the glasses, and not too busy, they would sometimes do them on request, but mostly I have heard them decline.

The Classic Package has not been reduced, it was $9 in 2021 and increased to $10 now, when you see higher prices quoted it is usually for cruises out of the UK or Australia where the gratuity has be be included in the price by law. Small martinis from the normal bars will still be fine, but you may not be able to order those at the Martini bar..