potsie57

I will not sail until all the ports on my future itinerary are open and we can get off the ship!!!

I don't think anyone should be expecting to cruise until at least the late fall or early 2021.  Just my opinion...

On 4/13/2020 at 11:05 AM, shipgeeks said:

The only "poor ratings" I've seen are on reviews and posts here, mostly from people who did not understand that MSC is not a clone of the lines you mention.

And I've seen worse complaints on a couple of those lines.

Can you elaborate?

That's no excuse for the lack of service or the quality of food.

16 hours ago, Clancy14 said:

Thank you for your pleasant response. However, the ports are not that important to me. I’ve seen every port in the Caribbean, Alaska , the Northeast US and most of Mexico. We mainly cruise to just get away from our busy, stressful everyday lives. And see the ocean,  and sunrises and sunsets from our balcony. 
After we retire (1-2 years), we will do Europe. My DH will not fly, so we will need Transatlantics and Repositioning cruises to get us there and back. 
Stay safe. Stay healthy. And stay calm, everyone.  Better times are coming.

- Clancy

Okay, I can see that!!  If ports aren't that important anytime being on a ship is great!!!

On 4/9/2020 at 7:28 PM, Clancy14 said:

 

Hi!

 

Have 3 cruises booked currently - - - September 2020,  March 2021 and February 2022.  If the ship is sailing, so am I! 

I've had 2 different types of cancer, and the Norovirus---all on land! 

 

- Clancy

That's great you have that many cruises my only concern would be if the ports are open.  

13 minutes ago, scpirate said:

The Porter's don't work for msc .how late did you get there?. The Porter's make a killing on tips so I don't know what could have happened.

We went to all the MSC people and they kept sending us else where.  We were not late.  We probably should have dropped it off at curbside and then went and parked.  Other people were in line with their luggage too

I just want to mention what happened to us at the Port of Miami by MSC.  We were on the Divina March 13.  When we arrived at the port no one would take our luggage!!!  We had to carry it on the ship ourselves...What's with that?  Did this happen to anyone else?

Wonder why MSC is saying April 30 when they know they are closing until the end of May?  Crew members are being sent home for 2 months....

I was on this cruise, I will say Ocean Cay was awesome.  But, I was disappointed not to make Tortola.  We bought this cruise over a year ago based on itinerary.  We paid full price.  I know that my same room was half off if you bought in the last month.  Call me selfish but we feel we did not get what we paid for.   When we spoke to customer service on board their attitude was, "read the contract we can change ports at any time".   No compassion what so ever.   They would not credit anything.  We understand that this virus was out of anyone's control.   Well so long MSC.  Back to Royal...

We are still planning to board the MSC Divina this Friday.  We will take all the precautions.  We have a balcony room and sit outside on deck most of the time.  I work in Health Care so I could just as soon get sick at work and not on a cruise....Life is a Journey!!!

I got another upgrade offer this morning for my cruise next week.  My balcony room that I paid for is now 50% cheaper than what I paid for it, why would MSC think that I would pay another 500.00 to 1,000.00 per person for an upgrade?  At this point the upgrades should be free....I am going on MSC with an open mind and wanted to try a new cruise line.  I love Royal Caribbean.  MSC is not making any points with me right now.  I will wait and see what their cancellation offers are this week.  I still plan on going on my cruise though.

Can you walk from Garage G to MSC Terminal F?  Thanks for all the replies!!

We are cruising on the MSC Divina in a few weeks.  Was wondering if the Port parking ever get full?  Will we have a problem getting a parking spot?  They don't take reservations.  I don't want to park away from the Port...Thanks

Can you reserve ahead of time for parking at the Port of Miami or do you pay when you get there?  Is there a risk of the parking garages being full?  thanks

For some reason I can't use the Web check in on the MSC site...arghh

On 1/21/2020 at 10:01 AM, Anita Latte said:

I use the app, Cruise Mapper. A quick glance shows that two MSC ships in Miami doesn’t appear to happen again any time soon...so this may be a pointless thread. It was just so rough and unexpected, I wanted to warn people.

Hi Anita, can you do me a favor and check to see if there are more than 1 MSC ship in Miami besides the Divina on March 13?  thank you so much

Is anyone else having problems with MSC website today?  I log in and can't find my booking info. and I can't start web check in....Wonder if anyone else is having an issue...maybe they are working on the site?

They have them on the Seranade of the Seas by the pool in the smoking area

Thank you so much for the reply!!

We are booked for a cruise on the Divina on Jan. 2020 going to the Panama Canal.  I am looking at the Panama Canal tour for 159.00 per person, guess it is an 8 hour tour.  Is it really worth the money?  Is there any other tour to see some of the canal that is not as long?  I also was looking at the train tour that goes to Panama City but I don't know how much of the Canal you will see.  Any tips would be appreciated!  Thanks

3 hours ago, aimee0715 said:

I cannot even put into words how pissed off I am about this.  We had the most amazing trip to Cuba on Azamara in November.  I have thought every day of returning there.  Really the most amazing place I have visited.   We have another trip planned on Virgin in April of 2020.  I watched John Bolton say today that allowing Americans to travel to Cuba has not improved the lives of Cubans.  That is 1000% false.  There are so many entrepreneurial Cubans benefiting from the tourists.  So many paladars (privately owned restaurants), Air BnBs, taxi drivers, tour guides (although most call themselves taxi drivers because tour guide is a special license over there), shopkeepers, etc.  I am so disappointed for the hardworking Cuban people.  Trump's first set of restrictions really made things difficult for the Air BnB people and private tour operators because people just went on cruises and booked excursions through the cruise line to make sure they stayed within the rules. I so hope that you all are able to go on your cruises and see Cuba.  If you do, please look on Trip Advisor for a great tour guide.  We stopped in 3 ports and had wonderful guides in all 3.  The cruiseline excursions are on big, government owned tour buses (it is ironic that Trump's restrictions pushed cruise passengers to government owned tour companies 🙄).  

Rent a car from Hertz.com  they let you rent cars for the day.  We paid about 60.00 and did both the north and south ends of the island.  We booked ahead online. 

We rented a car in Bonaire and it was easy driving around, not much traffic either.  We rode trikes in aruba, wasn't too bad just more traffic than Bonaire

1 hour ago, Anitah2781 said:

Thanks so much! Did you just reserve on their website ahead of time?

Yes, we reserved online and printed out the reservation and brought it with us...