Mark_T

This is what I see: This is a 7 day cruise if you board and debark at the same port, but if not then it would be longer/shorter...

For the food I would also choose Murano, but there is no view in there, and for a first night sail-away Tuscan has its charm...

Tuscan is a great dining location for a sail-away, especially if you get a table by the window, so book according to the sailing time/sunset if you can... If you don't do this on the first night then I'd go for night when there is somewhere worth looking at as you sail off into the sunset, rather than a sea day.

Unlimited use, but the bandwidth is constrained so you will not be able to stream video etc. on the included WiFi, but you can pay to upgrade ...

This is what I've been expecting from the start, they just give room service a different jacket and call them the 'Retreat Team', not hard to see the appeal of that from a cost perspective.

... it is next year they are doing that... “Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve will be temporarily closed to MSC Cruises guests from April 7 to May 22, 2024 in order to make necessary guest experience enhancements and support the island’s future growth plans,”

Thanks for that confirmation, I had been wondering if the surcharge was a US market thing, at least for now...

The charge does not apply in the YC, so you are safe 🙂

Hence using the word 'request' ... If you need to have the freedom to pick when you eat then you get that with Aurea or Yacht Club, otherwise it is always going to be something of a lottery...

It was still a great cruise, but the app was of limited value until they got caught up about half-way through....

We had this on Eclipse in January this year, didn't even have dinner menus for the first few days and then they started to appear but did not exactly match the paper menu so if you relied on the app you could find yourself ordering something that wasn't actually being served that day...

Jamie has given you the best and most comprehensive answer so far, and as I mentioned earlier, you won't know exactly what the time is until you get on board, but all you know right now is that you are on the 'early' sitting, rather than the 'late' sitting, so if you are happy to eat late but unhappy to eat early you might want to change that, but otherwise once you get the time in your cabin you can still request a change...

Not so sure about that part, there was a mistaken post elsewhere that misunderstood the * vs ** on the menu and though it was only for the higher value choices, but that was incorrect...

As mentioned earlier, it is entirely possible that they were not in an Aura suite, but the total gain from their bid + another bid for the cabin they left, and even another bid from someone taking that one, so say 3 cabins in that chain was more than they could get by taking your bid if there wasn't much interest in your cabin... It is all about the whole chain, not just one individual bid.

I've been using a 'Currensea' debit card instead of Revolut as it handles the pre-auth problem far more elegantly. Only available in a few European countries at the moment but worth checking out.

It certainly plays a part... On our 2025 Japan cruise which is getting close to fully booked, you couldn't even get an inside cabin for what we paid for a C2 in January...

I though that had gone fleet-wide? ... have there been any recent reports of this not being the case?

There will probably be 3 sittings, they tend to offer early and late when booking and then spread people into the middle sitting from those. So 9:30 would be the start time for the late sitting.

This may help as well... https://m.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Assets/Dining-Times_June-2018.pdf

5pm is early, but it is not confirmed until you are onboard and there will be a card in your cabin with the sitting time and table number on it. You can see the Maître d' if you want to request a change and sync up tables with your companions. Aurea experience get anytime dining...

That is the sitting window, you should be there close to 5pm and will be expected to have finished and left before 7:30pm so they can reset for the next sitting. Often the window is a little shorter than that though, but it doesn't mean you can turn up an hour into service and expect a warm welcome 🙂

You already did... You will be expected to turn up at 5pm or very soon after, but as others have said, you can ask to change that sitting once you are onboard.

Generally it is always the same person and the same half-story that pops up so it is fair guess, but if you have a different one it would be good to share in an appropriate thread over on the MSC group, it would make a change from the same one each time...

Pretty much all cruise lines have the same wording in their conditions, don't let this put you off booking though.

That isn't what has happened here though is it... ? It is a move from Prime Ocean View to Ocean View, typically around a $50 fare difference...