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Brighton Line

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Everything posted by Brighton Line

  1. In the US booked directly with MSC you have to call MSC to pay gratuities before boarding and if you booked through a TA then call your TA.
  2. US citizen on a cruise starting and ending in same US port does not need a passport. You do need to prove US citizenship and your identity hence the original birth certificate a d government issued picture ID or equivalent like passport card. You can't fly without passport.
  3. Remove tips at Customer Service but make sure you tip the bar backs that bring up the bottles of booze you drink from or they guy that loads the clean towels for your room steward. Search them out since you cheap out and remove tips and only pay the people you directly interact with.
  4. I have to echo that, we took the Bermuda Ferry to St. George and when we were done took a local bus to Hamilton. It was great to see Bermuda and meet the polite Bermudans on the bus, constantly offering me their seat when the bus got full and I stood up for an elderly person. Then it was the Hamilton Ferry back to the ship.
  5. Not my experience in YC. The concierge was constantly breaking or combining bills for guests as well as staff on the last day. I've even tipped the lounge butler for the excellent service, and drinks without asking.
  6. They don't carry WABC as a television station so they would have to pay to get the feed, so I would say no they won't show it or do anything about it.
  7. The bill covers both ports Manhattan and Brooklyn. Manhattan doesn't even have shore power and Brooklyn's does not match what MSC has on board hence the NYCEDC opposition to the the bill as the NYCEDC would have to find a way to pay for the upgrade at both ports with Manhattan handling up to four ships at a time. This bill would also require EDC as a condition of the contract with the city’s cruise terminals upon provision of a community traffic mitigation plan prior to allowing access. These community traffic mitigation plans would outline measures to reduce the traffic, noise, and pollution caused by increased activity at cruise terminals. Brooklyn terminal has been there since 2006 and the Manhattan has been having cruise ships dock there for over a hundred years in one form or another since 1920 (Piers 84 to 94 now only 88-92). Not like you didn't know curise ships arrived at these ports.
  8. What damage can be done? The keycard is missing you report it. The card is disabled and you get another card. You can even get security to come open the cabin and inspect it before you enter, at least I would if the keycard is missing. Even when I enter a hotel room, I block the door open and go through the entire room checking everything from behind the curtains, inside the closet to the bathroom. It is not just the keycard at the door, many people in the hotel on on a ship have access to the room when it is not occupied. Leaving keycards at the door is no greater security risk IMHO.
  9. The bike tour operates in waves that start from different locations in downtown Manhattan not near the cruise port or your hotel. The travel north/uptown on 6th Ave in Manhattan to Central Park and 6th Ave a.k.a. Avenue of the Americas will be closed to vehicle traffic for its length as well as 59th Street or Central Park South is closed. From your hotel, an Uber or Cab could go uptown/north to the first Central Park Transverse Road at 65th Street to cross to the Westside of Manhattan and then downtown/south to the Port. Yes you will need some extra time as people will not know that 6th Ave is closed but you will still be able to get to the ship.
  10. Last cruise in November the tent was is the closest bus stall to the ship in the middle row. Our Uber just pulled up to the bus stall next to it around 11a there was only one bus in the row. YMMV
  11. The industry as a whole is shifting to room keys at the room. It is a saving to the cruise line by not bringing the keys ashore and having the port contractor search for keys that are in the wrong location and delaying boarding just to find or print another key as well as bringing ashore the equipment and supplies to make those keys. At least the passenger is aboard and the ship can sail while they address card issues.
  12. So my lobster tail tasted terrible because the person at the next table was in a ball cap which he refused to remove? I wear a uniform at work and even when I volunteer so I don't want to wear one on vacation.
  13. I just love not handing over my keycard everytime I want a drink in the Yacht Club. They have lounge butlers that aren't assigned cabins/passangers that know your drink of choice (bar staff anywhere else) and in your hand just after you sit down in the Top Sail Lounge. The YC staff generally feel friendlier that what I have experienced in the Haven and yes the YC MDR with different menu every day for lunch and dinner is way better than Haven's get old quick menu. Special orders do not upset them, if it can be made in the YC galley or you want something from the ship's MDR as long as you give them notice it will be there for you. And yes the pizza, you will get on board ship shape and leave in the shape of the ship.
  14. Rent a Boston Whaler go to the shipwrecks, feed the fish, snorkel the reefs, find a beach or sandbar, do your own tour of "Homes of Rich & Famous".
  15. It's simple, a License proves identity and a Birth Certificate proves citizenship exactly what a passport or passport card would do if you had it though you cannot fly with a passport card (valid for enhanced ID for domestic air travel if Congress does not push that back again)
  16. Bermuda has one of the highest port taxes on the east coast after New York City, sailing between the two you are clobbered. On top of that the Bermuda tax varies during time of year and length of stay in port. It is based on 24 hours/night docked. Are you sure the $140? Is that total or per person? My past two cruises with 3 nights docked it was $150 a person and that includes NYC port taxes as those were the only two ports on the sailings. When we did not go to Bermuda and went to the Caribbean (the Cape and Nassau) from the $150 we got back around $79 in OBC for missing Bermuda if that gives you a data point.
  17. Meravigila Deluxe Suites are all walk-in without doors even and rainfall showerhead with an additional handheld showerhead though both cannot be on at the same time. There are no tubs. The inside YC cabins have smaller showers with glass doors and no rainfall showerheads. I don't know about the two larger suites, I have not stayed there. I disagree Deck 16 is best as you can walk out of the Top Sail Lounge right into the hallway to your cabin instead of out the main door past the Concierge.
  18. Half a pizza?? You do realize you are on a cruise, just be like everyone else and order 2 and throw out three-quarters of both pies.
  19. Is your cabin number a YC cabin? Then you do not have to worry about what "experience" level you have on your documents. Even your keycard will say Yacht Club.
  20. If it is a US port of call after a foreign port of call all passengers must clear customs so this means getting off the ship and doing so. This is not just for MSC but for any cruise line as the US Government requires. That's why Vancouver is not stopped on the way to Alaska 😉 only before the home port in Seattle.
  21. It is not open the galley and most of the restaurant staff are ashore staffing the restaurant on the island. The buffet on the pool deck will be open for lunch, you won't have to go hungry or get in line with the reduced masses at the ship's buffet.
  22. And there are Lounge Butlers who work the lounge but are not assigned cabins who I guess you could call bar staff at any other location on the ship.
  23. Not considering it, but it comes up in the MyMTA App as one of the trips as well as MNRR to Subway and even Amtrak to Penn all in the MTA App.
  24. And before we had the East River Ferry by Hornblower that runs a line that never enters the East River from St. George Staten Island to South Ferry and then to the west side to Battery Park City and Midtown West on the North River (Hudson) the water taxi service painted their boats to look like a NYC Medallion Taxi so Water Taxi was a named used. Still see some of those yellow boats around but I don't think they are run by the original company.
  25. I've heard that the ship is considered full at the number of people that would be double occupancy in every cabin even if guests are not two in every cabin. That is the goal of sales (not counting any single occupancy cabins like on NCL). Purely from a sales aspect nothing to do with SOLAS or actual number of people in each cabin. Total different of the feeling of a full ship. Trying to get or return your silent disco headset and it taking almost an hour to do so would make me feel that the ship is behind full occupancy.
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