ebeluga

@Essiesmom Thanks for the run down. Just curious if they have any 2-tops available in the dining and if so, what does one have to do to get assigned one? Also, do you mean that if you have fantastica experience, you will be provided slippers since you are diamond? Thx!

Their call center people would not comprehend the subtle differences of the wording!

He is going for high profit margin cruisers. If one is infrequent, they tend to spend more and just blow it off.

Following and learning the ropes from you, @Essiesmom 🙂

What about in general apart from bottled water? Is there a dispenser for tap water and ice abailable in the buffet? Thanks!

That would be a deal breaker for me. So does it come down to individual ship management or cultural demographics? Booked on a TA from Miami to Barcelona on Seaside... Welcome any insight!

EZ Air is a consolidator. Princess is not subsidizing my airfare. How is that for legitimacy?!

It is called mutual benefit. Cruise is a component of my vacation. If flexibility of my flights is being taken away, then cruise may not be part of my vacation - very simple. The ship is definitely not my destination.

This is going to have negative impact on those Transpacific or Transatlantic repositioning cruises.

So true, I am taking the decent quality with more days over luxury in this season of life! No need to be attended to for everything, better for my body and mind!

About the package buy-in pre-boarding, this is also what I observed in my recent Alaska sailing out from SAn Francisco - partly based on the fact that the blue lane really snaked around while the green lane is empty with half of a dozen iPad stations setup. This is based on my assumption packaged people would take advantage of the medallion free shipping and not needing to pick up at the port.

I guess they really want to push those packages. Next thing they will do is to eliminate more Elite benefits as people are accelerated into the tier!

Hmm, if they are strapped financially, they shouldn't dole out such generous compensation packages to their senior mgmt!

I recently requested one shortly after booking and received confirmation that the request was made on my May sailing. However when I got on board and saw no crib set up, I just asked the cabin steward and he promptly found one and set it up. And by the way, he had no record of our request.

Hello! Will be first time on MSC and on Seaside. Where might I get coffee? Just in the buffet? Is the coffee from syrup or brewed? How about speciality coffee? Thanks!

I tested that when I had a balcony but wanted to upgrade to a mini suite for a recent transpacific cruise because the "new booking" price had come down a lot after final payment. After my CVP said she was not able to do the upgrade even with my paying the new booking fare difference, I went to the bidding page and the minimum bid for a mini was as if I was bidding against the original higher minimum suite fare.

We breezed through last November but we checked in after 2:30 pm ish. I was not in a hurry to board.

Haha, the few times I had to deal with AARP customer support, they all sound like volunteers, reading off a script, absolutely no ability to solve a gift card problem!!

My recent 5/26 boarding in San Francisco Pier 27 took probably additional 45 min to pick up the medallion. And I went 2 hrs after the boarding window started. I think it depends on percentage of pax who have the packages which come with free shipping of the medallion. That would be same % + a few others who choose to pay in the green lane and out of the blue lane. The higher % with packages, the faster for the blue lane.

So weird. My CVP booked the two segments for me 2 weeks ago with confirmation emails. Checked yesterday and the bookings disappeared with the FCD back to our accounts. Unfortunately she is out on family emergency so I have to rebook them again myself and will ask her when she returns.

Hello, this is very helpful for my planning as I have the Top Half booked for this August which covers Darwin. Just wondering what priority disembarkation that you spoke of. Is it the Elite priority or Princess excursion priority? Also is there taxi or other forms of shared ride available? Thank you!

Is there good coffee, biscotti and good bakery on MSC? Hoping Italian ship has good coffee. I am v easy on food but coffee is a different story. Thx!

Were you in MSC YC or regular? I have one non-YC booked next April TA, first time MSC. I guess I wanted to practise my Italian that I have been learning on Duolingo...🙂

That is a very good suggestion. I am sure they have someone from the corporate to monitor and post on the social media site to promote their image, at least until they use a chatbot for the job.I too won't trust their 800 number people and avoid them as much as possible.

Yes, I tried to book a couple of cruises that advertised for $99 deposit and all ended up $800, so I did not proceed!