1hotflyer

PTC- You could be right. Then again, I have read enough of these reviews to trust them a bit. Everyone makes their own choice. This was mine. I agree,I may be missing out on a wonderful trip. I also might be happy I cancelled . I will never know.

Rich-yes I am one of them. The situation is mine. Yes I caused it. I'm not whining or making a stink. If anything I am alerting my fellow CCers. I only wish I had read the CC reviews first. I'm not a cruise newbie. (I was on six cruises last year.) Perhaps I was frustrated but I do understand the situation was mine and I am going to accept the consequences.

Just in case anyone is considering booking an MSC cruise, be aware of something that just happened to me. Before I start I must state that this is not my first cruise rodeo. I have been on Princess (Elite status), Viking (Ocean and River) and BC Ferries. I recently booked a "long weekend" cruise out of Miami on the MSC Magnifica. I should have checked CC first, but I figured it would still be a fun trip, after all, what can go wrong in four days? After I booked the cruise, I began checking with my friends here on CC. I should have done that first! After reading six reviews of the ship and the way the cruise line operates, I figured my investment in my CC membership had paid off. THANK YOU FELLOW CCERS! I called this morning to cancel my cruise (20 hours after booking). MSC was happy to cancel my reservation, however, in accordance with their policy, they still charged me half of the fare.. Ok, I get it, that is policy. It just seemed that if the cancellation occurs within 24 hours it should be a full refund. I'm not going to make a stink about it with MSC or here. However, until I learn about some changes, I will not deal with MSC or any of their associated cruise lines or partners. I will leave it to the reader to make up your mind whether or not to follow my example.

Early November 2022. Viking Mars-Passage to India. Booked the cruise well in advance. About six months before departure, Viking announced the elimination of Sharm El Sheikh and the addition of an overnight in Aqba, Jordan. The UN had scheduled some important international meeting either right before, right after or during our stay. Regardless, Viking was unable to make port there. What a wonderful change! That allowed us to have an overnight in Petra, see the night show, hike the canyon and visit the Wadi Rum on a single visit. Absolutely fantastic. If I could schedule a cruise that had a change like that I would do it every time.

Or book with Celebrity.

PacnGoNow: Not to start a feud, your ideas are good, I have tried them. The problem is they don't work. The problem is in the second guest's phone number. When a number is input, an error message is generated that says "use numbers only." The form inserts parenthesis and a hyphen thus making it an entry the computer will not accept. If I had not just spent two weeks fighting the Ocean Medallion App on the Discovery Princess I would chalk this up to a random computer glitch that someone will fix quickly. However, my recent experience with Princess is that no one really cares about system wide issues. Princess seems to depend on the customer facing staff to cover for failing systems. Just my opinion based on two recent Princess cruises. I hope I am wrong and Princess fixes these issues quickly. I would like to book another cruise as soon as possible. Just in case anyone else is reading-I left a five page letter at guest services about things I noticed that were broken or did not function as advertised. In the interest of full disclosure, the ship staff said that some of these items would be fixed when the ship goes into drydock later this year.

Just curious if there is a projected time for Princess to fix the website so a person can book a cruise? I have been unable to book for the past three weeks (since I got off the Discovery Princess).

So we come to the point of all this. CC allows everyone to know what a cruise line is really like not just what the say or advertise. When the ad says Formal Night, I will put on a tie if I want to eat in the MDR. If I want to stay in shorts I will go to the buffet. I won't starve. If on the other hand the ad said Formal Night and someone else couldn't be bothered to put on his pants, or one of my fellow CCers told me about it before I booked the cruise, I will begin to wonder what other shortcuts the line is taking. IOW, if you are going to say Formal, follow through with it or get rid of the farce. I may have signed up for a luxury cruise as a gift to my in laws and want them to have that experience. Other times I I might want a week long vacation with nothing but eye candy. Thank you everyone for exposing the difference between what they advertise and what they do. I can now make a better decision.

I will be with you.

Has anyone been able to contact the photography department at HA group? I specifically had them take a few head and shoulder photos during my last cruise. I have been unable to get anything besides crickets from photography@hagroup.com. I just wish they would answer one way or another. Has anyone else had any success with the photography onboard princess cruises? Based on their (lack of) response, I'm not going to want any photos on my upcoming Princess cruise. Thanks for letting me rant.