elbarney

Hello, I used to travel with Costa and moved to MSC.

Some years ago I was organizing a family cruise(Costa) with 4 cabins for a special aniversary. Some months after paying the deposit, they decided to charter the ship.

I had high loyalty status as I had more than 20 cruises with them and that provided me with a specifc person to contact, so I expected they at least pay the cancellation fee for the flights that we had bought for a confirmed booking, around 40€ per person.

Mind you, if I had cancelled at that pointm I'd have lost 50€ per person(deposit), so I thought it was only fair that they cover the very small and comparable costs.

They decided that I wasn't owed anything, it was my problem that they decided not to honor my reservation and it was under my risk to make any plans with a confirmed reservation.

At that point I was doing around 4 cruises each year with them, but I'm a planner, I like to reserve around 1 year before the date to schedule work.

I told them that if they have the ability to cancel 2 months before without consecuences, I wouldn't reserve anything more with them, as I don't feel that to be fair, I understand not paying 1000€ for cancellations on a cheap cruise, but at least the same amount they would charge me to cancel at that point feels reasonable.

So, when I got the opportunity because the status match, I tried MSC and I loved it.

At that same point Costa started taking into account only the last 3 years for loyalty status, losing everything older. I think this is the only company that does that. You will probably never achieve high status as that requires continuous sailing in suites. Fidelity doesn't matter(after 3 years).

As a summary, if you think MSC customer service is bad, be prepared for Costa. In my experience, is the only company with even worse customer service.

On the other hand, Costa used to have very nice routes that no other company did, so if you can tolerate the bad things, it can offer unique routes that no other company does.

 

1 hour ago, Serengeti228 said:

In principle, all the FCCs or CNCs being applied to a cancelled cruise are reinstated back to your account with the original validity terms and dates.

 

As your CNCs (150$) are to be expired (i.e. use by and sail by) in April 2021, you are able to use it again before it vanishes. In order not to lose the CNCs, you can try to make a cruise booking before April 2021 (i.e. before the expiry of your CNCs), using the website's courtesy hold function  (i.e. without making deposit) or call direct to NCL to make the book with a holding period (i.e. without making deposit) and ask the NCL agent to extend the CNC for you. Preferably, you should book a future cruise in 2022 or beyond to ensure that the future cruise booking won't be cancelled (by NCL again). If NCL denies to extend the CNCs for you and apply on the future cruise booking, then the situation speaks for itself.

 

Thanks for the info.

Other companies, unable to provide the services, are proactively extending the validity dates.

At this point, if my only option is to hold, call on the phone and pray it doesn't get cancelled, and if it gets cancelled I might or might not get a CNC back, I feel is not worth it.

I will take the loss and vote with my money, as I think this is not a good way of making bussiness. 

But still I don't undertand the reasoning, as they will be winning short term the coupon value and losing a client.... I thought the purpose of the CNC is just to keep you as a client....

 

 

We are in Spain, we have a certificate bought in 2017 that expires this april.

They cancelled our reservation last october and returned the certificate to the account, but they refuse to extend its validity, so we will lose 150$(real cost when bought onboard) this april without any option.

I don't know it this is a local office policy or a global one, but I feel cheated. I understand I had 4 years to use the certificate, but I feel at least they should extend for as long as the global stop lasts.

So, at least if you are in Europe, be careful when buying a certificate.

 

19 hours ago, sidari said:

Only with MSC.

 

On 3/30/2020 at 3:55 PM, camofwilliamsburg said:

I had no idea earned status can be lost. 

 

13 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I do recall that oddity to the Voyagers Club program when I applied.  Prediction--please note my crystal ball is exceptionally cloudy right now--such will change.  MSC will be among all of the cruise lines to encourage bookings.  Cancelling a past guest's status makes no sense to me if they want me to book another cruise.

I travelled with costa before. They changed the program in a crazy way.

You lose any point older than 3 years, even if you keep cruising. Every 15th of june....

I lost status, they lost a client.

MSC at least keeps the points if you keep cruising....

13 hours ago, CruiserMickey said:

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely research that option.

 

No wheelchair needed, but I do need to pace myself. More likely is having a long day (though there is quite a bit of travel between Civi and Rome anyways), and then taking the next day to rest completely.

This!

Instead of booking a very expensive excursion, book a train ticket to La Spezia(probably you next stop) for that evening, or next day, or a hotel in rome.

If you lose the ship(worst case scenario) just rejoin next day. 

If they allow you to join next day, just take a room in Rome, enjoy the full day, have a romantic dinner, and take a morning train to La Spezia.

 

5 hours ago, Aoifer said:

Hi 

 

We were on Connie last year. We stopped in Zadar. Celebrity did provide a shuttle. Cant remember exact cost but I think.. it was circa €13 p/p.

 

Thanks!!!

We will consider a taxi then.

Hello, just a question.

I saw that your cruise was going to stop in Zadar. Did you?

We are doing that stop later(August) and I'd like to know if celebrity provided a shuttle or not and what was the costs.

Thanks for the magnificient review!

19 hours ago, 2013cruiser2013 said:

No sommelier in the YC restaurant. There were 2 reds and 2 whites available every night that were included. We were always satisfied with the included offerings. 

In our sailing there was woman that seemed to be the sommelier. I say seemed because she never spoke to us, as I suppose there were more important guests 🙂 Maybe the same happened to you?

 

On 4/19/2019 at 8:48 PM, Beamafar said:

 

Perhaps on Seaside;  I'd like to know what the situation is with Venchi on Seaview.

 

It seems crazy that upgrading your package caused you to lose your entitlement to enjoy Venchi .

Just of seaview. Wondeful experience by the way.

YC booked long before change.

I was told that under no circunstances venchi was included. I was told that as it was the new season(first cruise in Europe) venchi is for pay for everyone.

I ordered anyway 2 different times and both the payment amounted to 0€. Both of the times they reiterated that I would be charged(very politely) before taking the order. The second time I even got told that luckily it seems that I was charged 0, but they might  adjust it manually later. I received the final account, and was never charged.

So, all in all, I'm still not sure, and neither are they, if they should be charging us or not.

 

Here MSC is a total outlier among cruise lines.

In fact Costa is worse. Your points have a 3 year expiration date, and are not renewable whether you cruise or not. Putting it other way, they only look your last 3 years for status.

When they anounced that change, I matched to MSC and never looked back.

MY experience in july in Preziosa.

You buy 1 card per cabin. Everytime you are taken a photo you ask them to scan your seapass or a barcode they give you on embarcation day. Every photo is then uploaded to a webserver. You are given a card with a code that allows you to download each photo, I think they are available for a month after the cruise.

In practice, in the fiords, internet wasn't reliable, so they asked me to take to them every photo taken from us. At the last day they burned us 2 cdroms with all the photos.

In any case, the package is for your photos, only as downloadable files, and unlimited in quantity. I had around 250 photos in 15 days.

Hope it helps.

I think it's an error.

1 month ago it was 55 pp or 90 per couple.

I suppose it's just a mistake, and 90€ is for 2 people.

Hi dB

On that little package list you have photographed on this thread.....you see the wine and

Water classic package....its the rose wines on this package I want to know about.

 

Cheers Bill

In July in preziosa easy package included the 5 la Jolla wines. Classic package had a much bigger selection to choose from. If meraviglia is the same, classic has many more choices.

Photo of selection in preziosahttps://goo.gl/photos/nsB6PVuAHyREsD8z9

Hello, just a question I have not seen answered anywhere. The RFID bands are for everyone or only for the more expensive experiences?

Can you keep it after the cruise?

Thanks!

I try to stay in Ca' Nigra in the gran Canal, very near to Piazzale Roma, so convenient.

http://www.hotelcanigra.com/en/hotel-venice/38-0.html

The two patios are wonderful.

Hi All,

 

USB charging> are there any?

 

 

Just arrived at home from Oosterdam, there were 3 usb outlets in my balcony stateroom, 2 in the desk and 1 at bedside.

The absurd thing is the fact that most airlines charge more for one way trams-Atlantic flights than for round trips if you book with the airlines - meaning that it is better to buy a R/T and just throw away the return ticket .

 

This is also my experience, buy a round trip and throw away the 2nd part.

Thanks to everyone!

My next trip finishes in Venice so I hope they will open them, as it seems perfect for that purpose.

Another time, thank you all.

Dear all, I have a question about the front terraces(sorry if it's not the right word) on vista class ships.

In particular, I can see on decks 5,6 and 7 that there seems to be a terrace that seems perfect for scenic sailings. When I was on the Noordam I tired unsucessfully to find an access to them, but I could only find crew only doors.

 

Do you know if it's possible to access them?

Are they always open?

Where is the door located?

Thank you very much.

 

Thanks!

[quote name='emmy']I did see an access door with a round window in the video posted before and when I zoom in on 'google search' photos you do see a door. Guess time will tell but I am hoping :) :)[/QUOTE]

[quote name='irishgal432']I don't think there is access, if you go to the video and stop it at 5:30, you will see those openings shown in the picture are part of the "equipment" area.

Maybe they can have the Diamond Sailaway party there.:)[/QUOTE]

When it was sailing for Pullmantur it was possible to get to those front terraces.
I suppose they will keep it open.
Looking "back" from the terrace: [URL="https://goo.gl/photos/4bW9mML1BDExGYnx6"]https://goo.gl/photos/4bW9mML1BDExGYnx6[/URL]
Looking to the right:
[URL="https://goo.gl/photos/D3q4y6VMxCvc5mreA"]https://goo.gl/photos/D3q4y6VMxCvc5mreA[/URL]
Looking to the left:
[URL="https://goo.gl/photos/4TeVumCcYPMnEfqJ6"]https://goo.gl/photos/4TeVumCcYPMnEfqJ6[/URL]
And looking to the bow:
[URL="https://goo.gl/photos/JqBXKBLVMUUt246e8"]https://goo.gl/photos/JqBXKBLVMUUt246e8[/URL]
In her old pullmantur livery:
[URL="https://goo.gl/photos/pn1parZKLpYxAUZeA"]https://goo.gl/photos/pn1parZKLpYxAUZeA[/URL]
[URL="https://goo.gl/photos/sSprf85X5uJRmCiZA"]https://goo.gl/photos/sSprf85X5uJRmCiZA[/URL]

It seems that only the last 3 calendar years will be used for status, not only at the start of the program but always.

That 26k points are not so low if you need to get 9k yearly to not lose them.

I'm on the verge of Gold Pearl, but I won't be able to keep it, so I'll be less inclined to travel with them.

In my experience, this is the first time a cruise company has expiration date on the loyalty points.

I will also be checking the MSC option.

In my experience is always in MPCC:

http://www.marseille-port.fr/en/Page/Harbours%20and%20terminals/12856

Probably a taxi is the best option, or a Costa transfer.

This maps shows the situation:

 

You can take the bus 35, but you have to walk from gate4(yellow) to the purple square on the lower left, around 2.5km. Not so convenient....

Not so many things to do in Celebration.

I have been on it as Iberocruceros Grand Celebration, and it's too closed for my linking.

There isn't a promenade deck near water, and they have closed the access to the terrace over the bridge.

It's reasonably well mantained, but I don't feel it will be up to Costa standards unless they refurbish it a lot.

You can see the inside here:

http://blog.iberocruceros.com/tours/celebration/Tour_ibero-celebration.html

There wass a small refurbishment this year, mostly in the area of the swimming pool.

Hope I don't make you worry, but keep your expectatives where they should be.

Thank you very much for your answer!

I'll book one of them.

Hello, I'm considering an OV in the Vision. I think is called that way, English is not my mother tongue. I mean a window stateroom.

I don't mind the double porthole or the extra noise, and in the deck plan the stateroom 2014/2514 look bigger.

Does anybody know if that is the case? I haven't been able to find information about that with the search.

 

Thanks!