Alex71

That free Marseille shuttle story does provoke some thought. The article only talks about a bus that runs on Fri, Sat, and Sun. What about the other 4 days? Sounds kind of strange.

 

Hank

Also, if it's one bus with a capacity of maybe 50 seats. I wonder how it's going to cope wen two ships with 4000 passengers each are in port.

Here are some German prices:

Schiff: MSC Orchestra

Dauer: 7 Nächte

Abfahrt: 07.06.13

Route: Genua - Italien, Civitavecchia - Rom - Italien, Palermo - Sizilien (Italien), La Goulette - Tunesien, Ibiza - Balearen (Spanien), Ibiza - Balearen (Spanien), Villefranche - Frankreich, Genua - Italien

Innen 299

Aussen 399

Balkon 499

MiniSuite -

Suite 1.319

Schiff: MSC Armonia

Specialpreis

Dauer: 7 Nächte

Abfahrt: 07.06.13, 14.06.13, 21.06.13, 28.06.13, ...

Route: Venedig - Italien, Ancona - Italien, Dubrovnik - Kroatien, Korfu - Griechenland, Gythion - Griechenland, Kefalonia - Griechenland, Kotor - Montenegro, Venedig - Italien

Innen 299

Aussen 399

Balkon -

MiniSuite -

Suite 1.249

Our experience is that if one books early, prices out of the US are lower, whereas last minute prices are lower out of Germany. Nevertheless doesn't hurt to check the prices in an many countries as possible so that you can book through an online TA in the country that offers the best price.

Not sure why in the internet age MSC still offers different prices through different countries. I thought at least within the EU this was an illegal practice, but maybe it's legal in Panama.

I would try booking through an Italian online travel site. We booked an MSC cruise through an American site last year and had no problem at all, except when we completed the online check in, we had to do it through the American site and we were not able to change our country of residence to Germany. We kept it as US and did not have any problems at all at check in. We even got the free water vouchers that Americans tend to get.

 

For our next two cruises we found excellent last minute prices on different German travel sites, even lower than what they were quoting on the Italian MSC page, so I would recommend checking a few of these as well. For comparison purposes we also looked at prices on the UK MSC pages and found them to be higher than what we paid.

Not sure if I'm allowed to write this here, but the German sites we used were Cruise Pool and Preisschiff, the American site we used was Cruise Brothers. Cruise Pool was very good and efficient.

I would try booking through an Italian online travel site. We booked an MSC cruise through an American site last year and had no problem at all, except when we completed the online check in, we had to do it through the American site and we were not able to change our country of residence to Germany. We kept it as US and did not have any problems at all at check in. We even got the free water vouchers that Americans tend to get.

For our next two cruises we found excellent last minute prices on different German travel sites, even lower than what they were quoting on the Italian MSC page, so I would recommend checking a few of these as well. For comparison purposes we also looked at prices on the UK MSC pages and found them to be higher than what we paid.

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

MSC has cruises (on the Splendida) that originate in Valencia. Ibero and Pullmantur have a few, also, but not as many as MSC.

Agreed. You can join MSC cruises at almost every stop. Valencia was one of the stops of our tour with the Orchestra and a decent sized group boarded there.

Apparently, it's based on how/where you booked your European cruise. If it's via MSC US/Canada or a North American TA, they will provide a bottle of 1L mineral water per cabin per day (water vouchers, to be presented to the waiters when making order).

That's correct. We once booked through an American TA and also received the booklet with free water vouchers. When booking through German TAs, we don't get it, although they will throw in other perks such as free excursions. You can always buy 14 of these water vouchers for 26 EUR, so not a huge cost either way.

I'm wondering if the dress code depends on the season. O our cruises in summer and fall we had two formal nights and 5 / 6 casual nights. Over New Year's though, we had three formal nights, two elegat and two casual.

A tux might be slightly overdressed but not out of place. Most men will wear a dark suit on formal nights, most with a tie. On elegant nights a long sleeve shirt and no jeans will be appropriate.

Italians are very fashion conscientious and you will see this reflected in the clothing.

I bought one of these last July and was able to use it for my cruise in October. In October I bought another one, but was not able to use it for my cruise over New Year's. It seems they were more generous at the beginning but are now strictly sticking to that Full Brochure Price rule.

I saw a few folks with a suit but no tie, whereas I did not see anyone with shirt and tie, but without jacket.

The worst thing for me is the crowded pool deck on a sea day. This is where crusing can't measure up to a land based resort.

Ok, trying to come back to the original question. Here's why we think cruising is perfect for us with (relatively) small kids :

Before we had kids, we usually had a rental car, drove around in the countries we visited, played things by ear without always having a plan, without having hotel reservations and without knowing where we would find a restaurant for lunch and dinner. It happened to us that all hotels in a particular place were full. Sometimes we changed plans and drove a few more hours till we reached the next place we wanted to see, sometimes we slept in the car.

Now, with kids, that's all different. They don't like to spend a long time in the car, they need structure and routines, they have strong food preferences. Flying to an interesting destination, getting a car at the airport and just taking it from there no longer works.

With a cruise you have exactly the structure and routines that kids need. They sleep in the same room for the duration of the trip, have fixed dining times, their food preferences are easy to cater to. In addition, there are usually other kids they can become friends with, there's a kids program and in case a particular port doesn't interest them, they can even stay on the ship.

Cruising makes it possible for us to keep exploring new destinations, expose the kids to new impressions that can stimulate their brain and give them the opportunity to learn about the places we visit. Lastly, as others have said, it is a great way to spend time as a family.

On our recent stop in Catania there were lots of cabs at the port that offered Taormina for 25 EUR per person RT. We decided to stay in Catania and are regretting it a bit.

Why go on a cruise if you have to skimp and not do anything? I go on a cruise because I have saved all year for this cruise and I am definitately not going to skimp.

 

1. We go to the specialty steakhouse one nite. It is a very special time for us.

2. We book our excursions with Carnival. It is worth it and gives us peace of mind.

3. We shop at the ports and shop on the ship. What fun!

4. We hit the casino every night.....always find it entertaining.

5. We love the desert bars and coffee bars.....the food and coffee here is always outstanding.

6. We have at least 2 drinks of the day, wine with our dinner and after dinner drinks. Hey we are on vacation, aren't we?

7. We tip extra, they deserve every bit of it.

8. We don't bring, soda, wine or water with us. Who wants to lug all of that around, when you can buy it on the ship?

Good for you, but I don't think the purpose of the thread was to brag about all the things you can afford / blast out money for. The purpose was to give people some helpful hints on how they can save some money.

Great advice in this thread. Here's what we do:

- Choose a line that let kids sail free

- Pre-plan what we want to do in port. Use public transport where possible. That's great way to really connect with the place we're in and riding trains / metros is usually a lot of fun for the kids.

- Get the house wine by the caraffe. Found them to be good quality and excellent value.

- Don't buy any sweets / ice cream. We consume enough sugar with the deserts anyway.

- Don't get any sugary sodas. We will buy bottles of carbonated water though.

- Pick departure ports we can drive to so that we can avoid the cost of airfare.

- Pre-order the drink packages we want (water, beer) online for additional discounts.

- Limit the onboard shopping to a few small souvenir items

- Limit the amount of photos we buy

- Don't do bingo / casino / speacialty restaurants and any of the other money traps

- Buy OBC on the ship for our next cruise

- Compare princing in different countries. Pricing can vary quite a bit and it is often more cost effective to book through a TA in another country. For our summer cruise we got a great price from an online TA in the US, For our fall cruise, we got a great price through an online TA in Germany.

We were in La Goulette last week and didn't have any problems. As mentioned before, we had planned to stay on the ship, but MSC assured us that they had four ships in port every week and it was absolutely safe. We did not see an increased police presence. Our cab diver showed us the presiden't palace with a stop for a quick picture and even there, we did not see any police / military.

As a precaution, we decided not to do Tunis, but to got to Sidi Bou Said and Carthage instead. Most women getting off the ship had their knees and shoulders covered, although some wore super short skirts and still made it back safely.

We decided not to speak English while off the ship (my wife is American, I'm German and the kids have dual citizenship), but were not able to stick to that for the entire time. When we were back in the cab after the stop in Sidi, the kids said "Mom, can we now speak English again". I don't think the driver cared.

What made the trip unpleasant for us were the super agressive merchants trying to constrantly push their stuff. It was impossible to even look in the direction of a shop without being subjected to sales pressure right away. I know some of it is cultural, but it seemed they were even more desperate now, as fewer ships / tourists go there.

In case anyone has further questions, let me know.

MSC is still going and has a different ship in La Goulette almost every day. They posted the following on the MSC forum: "At this time MSC Cruises is monitoring the situation occurring Tunisia; however our operations to visit this port are still running as normal."

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1707447

It seems that American lines and their European subsidiaries are skipping Tunesia at this point, whereas others are still going.

Anyway, in that part of the world a little something can spark another outbreak of violence at any time, so what seems a stable, safe situation may change very quickly. With two little kids, we can't take any chances and are definitely leaning towards staying on the ship.

Other Mediterranean countries need our money too, so we'll spend it there. ;-)

Cool idea to do a live review. I'll keep reading along. Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks, everyone. Hopefully, we'll skip La Goulette, Sardinia would be a nice alternative. If not, we'll just stay on the ship. In any case we won't do any touring.

We'll be taking a Western Mediterranean cruise with MSC in just over two weeks with one of the ports being La Goulette.

With the recent news coming out of Arab countries including Tunesia, would it be safe to leave the ship? We have two kids who are 7 and 5.

Our plan was to take a cab tour to Carthago and Sidi Bou Said.

Any insights would be much appreciated.