pdmlynek

Sorry for a newbie question; third time cruising, first time on MSC (on NCL we just had ‘any-time dining”). Unfortunately, MSC website does not provide much guidance. I’ve read through many of the discussions here; I apologize if I missed the answers. I note that for my upcoming Western Med cruise on MSC, my travel documents state I have requested “early seating” which, based on this discussion group appears that eating aboard the ship is conducted in 2 or 3 shifts. MSC Magnifica, a week-long cruise, to Spanish, French and Italian ports; I am not a YC member; and I won’t be eating in specialty restaurants, Questions: (1) Does Early Seating refer to the evening meal (dinner or supper) only? Or does it refer to other meals too, such as lunch and/or breakfast? (2) Does Early Seating refer to eating only L’Edera and Quattro Venti (both serve as one MDR), or does it extend to other non-MDR restaurants? I assume that buffet restaurants do not have eating in shift, right? (3) How much time is there between the first seating and the next seating? 1 hr? 1 ½ hrs? 2 hrs? (4) Just exactly what does “Early Seating” mean for the evening meal? We will be sailing on an Italian ship, serving mostly Europeans, in Spain, France and Italy. When in Spain, will ‘early” be 9:00 pm and late 10:30 pm, and when in France, “early” be 7:00 pm and late 8:30 pm? In Europe, if in Norway, early may mean 4:00 pm, right? (5) Does the “early seating” vary with the time at port? For example, if the ship is in the port until 8:00 pm, do they wait with the serving of Early Seating until 9:00 pm? (6) Do I always have to have Early Seating? Or can I sometimes have a late seating? Thank you!

Thank you very much! I really appreciate this. By the "main terminal building" you mean the Transmed terminal building, right? The reason that I am surprised is that typically the cruise ship terminals are separate from the ferry terminals.

Thank you! I appreaciate it!

Wow, this is exactly what I needed. Thank you! THANK YOU!

I had exactly the same issue when I checked-in electronically yesterday. I was about to post the same message here, but got distracted. Here is what I think is happening: at one point you had to fill out a health questionaire due to Covid, but recently most of these Covid restrictions were lifted. The cruise line told its webmaster to get rid off the health questionnaire, which was done, but the webmaster forgot to delete the references to it. It happens. I am sure that shortly someone at MSC will notice it and will takes steps to remove it. I noticed a health questionaire in the documents too, but it makes no sense to fill this out at the time of electronic check-in. How would you know now, weeks or months ahead, if at the time of board you'll exhibit symptoms of vomitting, diarrhea, cough, runny nose, etc.? it would not be relevant if you, now, exhibit those symptoms, weeks or months prior to your cruise.

We are booked on an MSC Magnifica sailing from Valencia. Sorry, but this is somewhat an embarassing set of newbie queries. (1) Just exactly where do we report for embarkation? There is no address in any of my documents where to go, just a vague directions such as "....take line 6 to Grau/Canyamelar station. The Cruise terminal is less than a mile south of this [metro] station." Yes, bu the Valencia port is huge, with many piers, most of them looking like they are for cargo. The GPS coordinate provided by MSC in the documents, 39°27'00N 00°19'30"W, is in a parking lot near a tank farm in a container port, that is nowhere close to the cruise pier. Is MSC trolling us? I see on Google maps where the cruise pier is. Do we just show up there? Or is there an building at the base of the pier where we should show up? On Google maps I see passenger terminals, such as Terminal De Pasajeros for Transmed at 39.4549°N 0.3270°W , but is that for MSC cruiselines? Likewise, I see a building labeled "MSC Terminal Valencia" at 39.4415°N 0.3275°W, surrounded by containers; I presume that this is a a building for cargo, not cruise ship passengers. (2) Is there a bus that runs from the airport to somewhere close to the pier? I note that we could take Metrovalenia line 5, from Aeroport station to Marítim, but it is still a hike to the pier from the Marítim station. But I do note that there are plenty of bus stations much closer to the pier (3) The pier for cruises is some 3 km long. Is there a shuttle provided by the cruiseline from the base of the pier? Surely, day visitors do not shlep for half an hour just to get to the end of the pier. Thank you!

I understand what you are saying, but it just seems wasteful to drag a checked luggage thousands of miles for the entire vacation just for the dash between the car and the airport terminal. I wonder if there is a way to store your coat someplace in the terminal. Or someone valet the car for you.

😄😄 No, I don't think that anyone is proposing to wear dirty underwear, or wearing dirty clothes! 😄

Typographical errors in documents occur. Transposed month and day in DOB, omission of a middle name, use of a shortened first name instead of a full name, etc. It should not be an issue. Further, when you change your surname, phone number, residence, or, in your case, gender, on documents, you should expect that outdated information will pop up sometime. I still get mail at my childhood home. I would not worry about it.

No. When you are flying into Miami in middle of the winter from your home in Edmonton, Minneapolis, or wherever you call home, you simply wear enough cold-weather clothing to be comfortable going from your car into your home airport, such as long pants, hoodie, maybe a coat. Sure, I get that. I do that too. But you WEAR your cold-weather clothes when you travel between your home and the cruise ship. You do not pack it. There would be no point of packing your cold-weather clothes with you.

Every evening, I launder my underwear, socks, and shirt that I wore that day. By morning, they are dry. I typically take with me 2 extra underwear, socks, shirt, in case I need to change more than once or twice a day.

Well, neither do I. Every evening, I launder my underwear, socks, and t-shirt that I wore that day. By morning, they are dry. I typically take with me 2 extra underwear, socks, shirt, in case I need to change more than once or twice a day.

To be honest, I find this entire thread curious. Why would one get a baggge handler to haul one's luggage? What is the point? When you go on a cruise from Miami, unlike when you go backpacking, you do not need to bring a tent. Nor a sleeping bag, nor a sleeping pad. You do not need to bring food, or water filter, or a stove, or cooking utensils, or eating utensils. Not even a towel or shampoo, body wash or conditioner. You do not have to bring almost anything, because everything is provided for you: shelter, bed, food, drinks, etc. Because the weather is warm, you don't have to bring any coats, parkas, long underwear, long sleeved shirts, sweaters, etc. You bring a few changes change of underwear and T-shirts, and a toothbrush/toothpaste. But what else? Just exactly what do people take with them that it take up more than a schoolbag?

OK, I am still confused, Are you suggesting that given IAATO lists landing places only around the Peninsula (incl. S. Shetlands, S. Orkneys) and a few places in Ross Sea, it would make sense that ships that land on East Antarctica will not be landing on IAATO listed places? Can an IAATO member ship land passengers in for example, anywhere in South Shetlands, given that there are many IAATO-listed landing sites? Or are the 44 IAATO listed landing sites just recommended sites, and the ship will land whereever it wants? Thanks

I thought that this was real until the very last shot. After all, Metallica gave a concert in Antarctica.

Thank you. It would make sense to increase the number of IAATO landing sites in Antarctica, given the rapidly expanding tourism in Antarctica. I take it that on the scouting trip by the expedition leaders to collect information did not include passengers walking on the landing site, correct? Or did passengers get off the ship and explored the landing site? Thank you.

Thank you for your detailed explanation. I appreciate it. I miswrote. I meant to write "IAATO designated sites", not "IAATO designed sites". Sorry about the confusion. I am confused now more than ever. The way that I understand how ships that comply with IAATO rules (which seem to be almost all expedition cruise ships) operate, is that all landings in Antarctica (60°S and further south) take place only at one of the 44 landing sites. There are no other places in Antarctica that passengers off such ships can land on. Or can such ship visit Antarctica and have its passengers walk on land that is not on the list of 44 landing sites? Thank you.

Thank you for the confirmation and explanation. I appreciate it. I wonder if IAATO knew about this when it designed the landing sites. I would guess that IAATO did consider this, but the idea of visiting more than 1 site at a time seems to go against the spirit of the rule of limiting the number of people on land at a time to 100. But I dunno. Secondly, do you know of other places in Antarctica where a ship routinely visits 2 or more landing sites at a time? Thirdly, maybe I am interpreting this wrongly, but "three Zodiacs loads at the base" for a place where the maximum number of pax is 60, and "5-6 Zodiacs-loads on Jougla Point" where the max number is 100, make it seem like that Zodiacs take up to 20 people. Is this correct? I thought that the maximum in a Zodiac boats is 11, given that IAATO defines a "ship" as a vessel with 12 people of more.

It would make sense to keep the capacity of the ships under 250, but surprisingly, acording to the IAATO Visitor Site Guide to Goudier Island dated 2019, they do accept ships up to 500 pax. The limit onto the island is 60, and into the base 35. For several days I wondered why this weird discrepency, and then I read a trip report in which the author states that the ship was running visit to two landing sites simultaneously: one to Port Lockroy and the other to Jougla Point. It surprised me that a ship can visit two of the 44 landing sites in Antarctica simultaneously!

I am not surprised. Most people that I know have not heard of Cruise Critic. There are countless discussion forums on cruising, or travel in general. There are hundreds of such groups on Facebook, Reddit, and dozens of platforms such as VK, TikTok, Baidu Tieba, Odnoklassniki, etc. There are so many groups on so many platforms in so many languages that nobody can keep them straight. And they keep popping up and disappearing way too easily, e.g., Thorntree. In some ways, I miss the days of usenet, in late 80s, where I can go and ask a question on something like rec.travel.cruising, rec.travel.antarctica or whatever, and I woudn't have to wonder if there are other discussion venues available. And if I wanted to look something up, I'd just use a table of contents to the internet on Yahoo! where someone already organized the internet, instead of trying to hunt and peck using Google, Bing, or other search engines.

Thanks. That makes sense. Typically, I am a light traveler, and I do laundry every evening in a sink, so that I do not have to pack almost any clothes with me. As far as detergent goes, I use whatever soap or shampoo is available to wash my clothes. For me, soap serves as hand soap, body wash, shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, glass cleaner, etc. But I recognize that most people do not do laundry in their sink every night, and they expect to have laundry facilities on ship, hence my query.

OK, thank you. I appreciate your explanation. I see that things are more complicated then I thought.

Thanks. I know exactly what you mean. On discussion forums, there is always a balance between resurecting old threads and starting new ones rehashing the same issue over and over again. There are pluses and minuses for both. I may do as you suggest, and collect my questions into a new post at some future point. I am just not there yet, because I am just starting out.

Thank you DON. As always I appreciate your comments. I wondered about this exact issue. What you are writing makes sense. Doing too many places in one trip will degrade the experience of the trip. Ceteris paribus, I too would rather do two smaller trip than one twice as long trip. A few comments and questions: (1) Although I agree with your premise that one should not do too much on a single trip because "you don't get enough time in any one location", is this true in this case? By your calculations, you'd get only 7 days in Antarctica. But isn't that the same or even more than most Antarctic cruises to the Antarctic Peninsula? (2) Are there many trips to just Falkland Islands (FI) and South Georgia (SG)? I've noticed that most trips to FI & SG are combined with either a trip to Antarctic Peninsula, or are visited during the repositioning between the Arctic and Antarctic regions in Oct and Mar/Apr. FI is also visited on larger vessels between Buenos Aires and Valparaiso. But there do not appear to be too many cruises to just FI & SG. And I would be interested in taking such a cruise. (3) A cruise that includes FI has less of an appeal to visit by a ship than SG, since FI can be explored independently by flying into Mount Pleasant from the UK or Chile, whereas SG has no airport. Thus, I am OK with missing FI on a cruise. Nonetheless, in your view do you believe that the ratio of time in FI:SG that you've had, 3:8 is appropriate? Or would you have prefered a different ratio? How would you ideally divide 11 net days between the two island groups? Thank you!

Thanks for letting us know how you decided. We'll be looking for a trip report when you get back, if you are up for it.