Janet&Carl

Splendor has not been in Australia recently at all - you are wrong there. We have not had any ships here at all since Covid close down until very recently and Splendor was not one of the ones that restarted.

Has anyone sought clarification on this ? Are we now allowed to take our own rapid antigen test without proctoring. This timeline now makes my testing 1. more expensive and 2. harder to get before travel given that it takes me two days to get to Seattle for my cruise. All new guidelines are effective for cruises departing on Tuesday, September 6, 2022 or later, and include: Vaccinated guests must continue to provide evidence of their vaccination status, either through VeriFLY or at embarkation. Pre cruise testing is no longer required, except for the following destination regulations: Canada: a PCR test can be taken 3 days before sailing or an antigen test can be taken 2 days before sailing Bermuda: a PCR test can be taken 4 days before sailing or an antigen test can be taken 2 days before sailing Greece: a PCR or antigen test can be taken 2 days before sailing Australia: a PCR test 3 days before sailing or a self-administered antigen test 1 day before sailing

We have done both several times. Like chalk and cheese. MSC Yacht club they cant do enough for you - the perfect cruise for us. Costa suites the first time we didn't even see our butler - not once. The second time we did but he was the laziest butler ever. Didn't do anything and referred us on every time. Couldn't serve us drinks from the bar couldn't show us how to use the unfamiliar coffee machine. Could not provide tea bags instead of coffee pods etc... All he did was bring us the provided pre dinner snack and the next days diary d'bordo. You do get on the first tender onshore and you may or may not get to eat in the Club restaurant, that depends on which ship you are on. And that is just about the only perk of being in a suite. The third Costa cruise coming up and we don't expect any different. Msc I came out of my suite to go to the bar for a pre dinner G&T and heard my butler say "no, no, no madame I will do it for you. We were escorted to dinner. We were boarded priority at every port, no queues. You will always get a special restaurant. You will always have access to the Top Sail Lounge. You will have access to the spa area and a seperate pool deck. And the staff will bend over backwards to make your holiday special.

I always book direct. I like to negotiate my own terms and not have someone do that for me. I find it easier to have the cruise I want that way than be told "it can't be done" by someone who may have never cruised with the line themselves.

Yes wine is included in the package. There are several "brands" of white, red, rose and sparkling such as prosecco or brut that you can choose from. The restaurants only serve soft drinks, wines and beers and do not have spirits which might explain why they mention that. All of the Costa ships we have been on so far have had a "Wine Bar" as one of their lounges. They also serve wine in other bars but may not have the whole selection.

We are Suva on a Saturday and Port Denarau on a Sunday

Not guests, staterooms. Its not in the planner. I do a dummy booking and add up all the empty cabins in each category then take it away from the total number of cabins on the ship (which I counted on the deck plan). I have been doing this every week. We did get to 110 staterooms booked but that dropped after final payment due day. Interestingly, it was the top end suites that seemed to become vacant.

Question about Fiji- When we dock, will there be people at pier offering tours? Since Carnival is not listing any on our cruise I have decided to try to book with someone when we dock. would like to do beach at one stop and cultural tour at other. Any suggestions?

Yes, you assume correctly. Thank you thats my problem the only concert on land we can go to while travelling is Barcelona on the 21xt. Of course we want to experience Azamara as well and don't want to miss the Destination Celebration. Therein lies the dilemma. 🙂

We travel in a suite so always get the premium drinks included. I don't like to use plastic so apart from sparkly water from a bottle I drink water out of the tap. I have never had a problem on any cruise line including costa drinking water from the tap.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I thought I had read that somewhere then couldnt find it again. I have looked at our planner - it has very small passenger numbers with only 105 cabins booked so far. The cruise is Spain intensive in November. I can't see the Azamazing evening posted. All excursions have a cost against them and I was looking for one that didnt. Am I looking in the right direction ?

So good to hear - we are MSC fans from way back but also think we will be a good fit for Azamara. I'm so looking forward to trying something new. We tried Princess, Costa (a few times) RCCL, and Genting, another company that is now bust and havent found our fit yet.

I'm sure this has been asked before and I'm sorry if I'm asking again - I'm going googly eyed trolling through the previous comments. We want to plan a visit to a music hall in Barcelona but don't want to book for the night that might be the azamazing evening. How do you know which evening it will be ?

yes it is easily done and can be done before you book - so that would make it applicable 🙂 all you need to do is contact them by email and show proof of your status on another line/hotel chain and you will be matched to an applicable loyalty status. You will then receive all the benefits of that status level.

List similar to mine and I came out with Azamara - we havent tried them yet or booked a WC but we are trying a 12 night on them in November to see what they are like first.

MSC is my favourite line - best pizza at sea - don't do burgers and fries very well but if you like seafood you will love MSC.

from what I have seen of cruise ships the dance floors are very small - I have seen pictures of Cunard but never been on one - they seem to have decent dance floors

but how much did you pay to stay at Xcaret ??? Bet is was 10 x what you pay carnival - the prices I looked at ran at nearly $2000 AUD per night !!

I got a deeply discounted cruise on the 23 day transpacific and was successful in getting shareholder OBC.

This is what a Carnival agent told me to do 🙂 recently

What are the benefits to booking your next cruise while you are onboard ?

Thanks for your post - can I ask how did you attach your shareholder statement ? was it a jpg file or a pdf file ?

Heard from Azamara today that they no longer require pre cruise testing unless the country you are leaving from requires it. We leave from Italy so will no longer have to find a testing site before boarding. A bit of a relief really.

There was a specific promotion of 500 USD excursion credit. I imagine it will only be able to be used for excursions as opposed to On Board Credit which can be used anywhere. It was a month after I booked. The promotion when I booked was $1000 OBC so I expect that I'll be able to use that as I see fit with excursions and on board spends.

Newbie question again - I've tried reading the whole 9 pages before asking and I still don't know - How do you see if the OBC has been applied ? do Carnival send you a confirmation ? does it just appear when you are onboard on your account? I'm not sure I'll know if and when it is applied. Thanks for your help - this is a really active and great pre cruise page.