new_cruiser_75

Google says no it won't 😕

Probably. I've never had the Bubbles package, but when we had the alcohol package my husband was able to take my card with him every morning to grab us both lattes

I find it by going to Carnival's site, scrolling all the way down, then it was under the "Already Booked" column

1st, I apologize - I'm sure that this has probably already been asked here but I couldn't quite figure out the best search terms and there are already 250 pages in this thread... I joined AARP and purchased more than enough in gift cards to cover our cruise. Thank you all for this suggestion! Question: can I only use part of one of these e-cards (saving the rest for later) or can I use it all now leaving me with a positive balance?

Thank you both for your suggestions/help. Turns out I missed the step of after entering the card info, scrolling down and entering the card amount in the "other amount" section 🤪 (as was suggested earlier in this thread). Luckily the funds were all still there on the card and now credited to our balance (I rechecked). Now to get an AARP membership and purchase more/discounted cards 😃

I entered gift card info the other day. Received some kind of "success" message but can't figure out where those funds went to, they were definitely not applied to our balance 😕 Any ideas?

Its been a while since I've cruised with Carnival, and I've never had dinner anywhere but the MDR. Can you tell me more about how one can dine in Chibang and Capitano once each for free?

We did get the email, but flew in from the west coast that morning so had nowhere else to go As to the others wondering why I might not choose MSC again, mostly because if they can't handle this (minor for them) emergency, I'm not too confident in how they would handle an actual emergency. Also, there are plenty of other lines to choose from in the same price range. Our experience, plus those of many others from other cruises/dates/ships that have been reported here just left a sour taste in my mouth... MSC would have to offer one hellofa deal for me to feel the need to give them another shot anytime in the near future since my other options are plentiful.

The MSC Seascape

My experience is: it won't be a problem at all. I have a last name like McDonald and it is in the system like Mc donald (space and only 1 capitol letter). Hasn't caused me a problem yet - fingers crossed I'm not jinxing myself 😉

I am a fairly seasoned cruiser, but this was my first with MSC. We booked a great deal for us and 2 cabins for our adult "children" (non YC). The ship was beautiful, though difficult to navigate - I never could get my bearings while traversing her. The staff we interacted with was pretty great, but nothing about the ship (nor our disastrous experience before getting to board) was even at a Carnival level. We will probably never sail with them again. We started our vacation with a red-eye from the Pacific Northwest to FLL. Flights were good - uneventful and smooth. We landed in FLL and arranged for SAS transportation to drive us to the port. (SAS was awesome! I highly recommend them!). After stopping to pick up 2 other families (traveling on NCL) we arrived at the port at 10am with all our luggage (a carryon each and one larger checked suitcase). While in the transport, our driver filled us in about what was happening at the port and that in their MANY decades in that area this was the 1st time they had heard of anything like this; so we started Googling and were aware of what was happening, but what could we do, there was no where else to go and no one had any idea how long we might have to wait. So, we tipped the porters to take all our luggage (should have pulled a few things out first, but hindsight...) and went to the terminal entrance. We were turned away - they were letting no one in but we could walk down to the Carnival terminal and wait in there; so we did. Ahhhh the AC was so awesome! We get seated and start chatting with others who were offered a bus over 😒 and were there about 15 minutes before we are told that we would have to leave - we could take a bus back to the MSC terminal to wait there; so we did of course. We are in line outside when the people there say that they are not letting anyone inside yet!?!?! After MUCH grumbling from other passengers they open the scanners to start letting people inside. Again, ahhhh the AC! But then we are just let into the lower inside check-in area (lucky us - many others were stuck outside when this got full). We get comfy sitting on the floor, playing many games of cards, and wait some more. After about an hour they let us upstairs to wait so that they can accommodate other passengers downstairs (it is now around noon and we are getting hungry but there is unlimited food waiting for us on board, right?). Again, we find a "comfy" spot upstairs where we can see outside and start to play some more cards. Some staff brings out a few cases of bottled water and we are lucky enough to snag 2 for our party of 6 😵 About an hour later, they send us back downstairs "so that they can process our boarding" 😄 - hahahahahahahaha! What did they do with the people who were down there? I'm imagining they sent them back outside and I am soooo sorry for them - I just can't imagine, it was sooo hot and humid! 😵 We are pretty close to the front of the line and we wait for about another hour before they start processing passengers. We heard rumor that they couldn't do anything until the tablets come off the ship... then we see the ship through a door to the outside that some of the staff are using; woohoo! We get processed (our pictures taken and room cards are printed) and head back upstairs for more waiting. We can see the ship through the windows!!!! Around 4:30 we are told that they don't expect to start loading passengers until 8:30 or 9pm! We haven't eaten (save some travel snacks we had left over) since grabbing breakfast at 6:30am at the airport! Also, not sure what they changed, but when we got back to the upstairs waiting room the second time, there was essentially no more wifi nor cell service. There are 2 vending machines in this area but by now they only have gum and breath mints. People are tired, and grumpy, and HUNARY! At one point some police officers come through to yell at the upper deck people waiting in the room next door... No word from the staff and we can see the ship docked right in front of us! Around 7pm we finally see guests starting to debark! But then the flow of disembarking passengers stops and we start to hope - then we are "informed" that there is still over 1,000 passengers still on the ship - WHAT!?!? At almost precisely 10 pm we finally cross the threshold onto the ship and beeline it straight for the only food available - the buffet. Around midnight they (LOUDLY) announce that we still have to muster before we can even pull away from the dock! I seriously can't even imagine what family with young children experienced. NCL docked before MSC and was the first to leave; Carnival was the 3rd to dock and second to leave; MSC was 2nd to dock and 3rd to leave with quite a bit of time after Carnival 😝 Yes, I know that someone was killed leading up to this and I do feel for their family but this review isn't really about them. After TWELVE HOURS without any real word from MSC (except the $20 OBC given) and hearing that Carnival passengers were at least given cookies... this could have been better handled by MSC! As @PharmacyRx said in their report "If this "non- emergency" overwhelmed them then what would they do in a true maritime, ship involved event where life boats had to be deployed?" After 6 days on this ship, the only thing that we thought was as good or better than Carnival was the décor (and the price). The staff was good, but not better. The food was good, but not as good. Ocean Cay was beautiful and you could use your drink package there so I guess that was better. Anyways, we will probably never cruise with MSC again, at least not for many years. Thanks for the stories, MSC... but no thanks Here are some pictures we took of the ship. Most of the others contain one or more of us so keeping those private 😉

Something I've learned since my original post: the boarding pass button on the MSC site doesn't seem to ever work and that's ok for 2 reasons the MSC rep said that all you need to board is the embarkation form from the 20+ page PDF that you receive (you don't even need the health questionnaire anymore) once you are super close to your embarkation date, the MSC app DOES have a workable boarding pass button that gives you a QR code that I imagine is helpful

I just had to share my excitement with someone (DH doesn't like us to share our vacation plans on most social media until we return - rightfully so) but I thought I'd share a little here 😄 We will be on the Seascape in under 36 hours, deck 11 mid-ship in both balcony and interior rooms, flying through FLL and using SAS transportation both ways; if you have any questions/requests for us to look out for, now is the time to ask. I won't be posting/answering until I get back though - I use vacation time to disconnect and reconnect ❤️ Some things I've learned while booking with MSC: you can't prepay the gratuity online but you can call them and prepay it (and prepay for other rooms without the system saving your card - we are bringing adult-ish children and don't want to pay for their games/drinks/souvenirs after paying for their rooms) even though the "kids" don't have any drink packages (we do) we were able to call and link our bookings; we'll see how that translates to dinning together. Fingers crossed we don't have to fork out even more $$ for drink packages for them too 🥴 the MSC site isn't nearly as user friendly as Carnival's but in the end it will save us $$ as I didn't purchase as much pre-cruise fun as I might have otherwise. Conversely, their call center folks are pretty easy to talk to (I just hate making phone calls in my old age 😝) what else will I learn over the next week? 😄 Anyways, did I mention that I'm excited?!? (here's a picture from our last cruise just because 😉)

I can't find any reliable info on this either and am super curious as we have our family spread out over 3 rooms

We were able to link our reservations (we have the drink package and the other 2 rooms do not). We did have to call as their website sucks (as everyone knows/finds out). Now, will they let us all dine together... we'll find out in just over a month 😉