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Anyone else booked Bellissima


thecruisers6
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Having booked Meraviglia at the time sales opened back in 2015 for sailing next month, I'd be less inclined to ever book again on a new ship without deck plans being finalised and being sure of which cabin I was getting. There seems to be a lot of unhappy clients who've booked Seaside and are now unsure what they've actually booked.

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We are booked for April 12th, the extra discount and free cirque show made it seem like a good deal. I figure if I don't like the finalized deck plans or our upcoming Divina sailing we could always cancel.

 

 

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Well hopefully see you on board ykennedy35 but now a little worried.

Was going from a cruisemapper deck plan sidari but just read the small print. It's guess work.

Hoping now that having booked a 6 person 'super family' we will be ok.

 

 

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We don't have the luxury of booking and subsequently having our deposits refunded should we change our minds and cancel. We're not playing on a level playing field as a result. With MSC's seemingly arbitrary way of allocating cabins, (you just have to look at the thread about cabin changes) the deck is stacked on their side for future bookings on new ships. We're not prepared to risk any possible losses should we not get what we thought we were booking.

 

Also, even taking into account the 5% + 5% discount with the Cirque du Soleil dinner & spectacle included (a value of €35 pp - and, you can be sure, has been built into the cost by the actuaries!) the prices are ridiculous for a Med cruise in March/April!

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Bea ... They are even being crafty with the 5+5% which gives a total of around 9.25%, the 5+15% give 19.25% so they are not even giving the full 10 to 20% discount!

 

It is a case of 5% off the full cost and then 5% of the balance, ok I know its better than nothing but why not just 10% off the total !

You also have the advantage of knowing that prices will go up later if you book early as we did with Seaside in late 2015 when the Deposits were lower.

That was because it was a ship we wanted to sail on, currently we have no desire to sail on Meraviglia or Bellissima.

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Yes it was 9.75% on mine. Gives me something to chat to the divina captain about I guess in the Yacht club in September. Is it just that we are British everything is stacked against us?

We're on NCL Jade in August and a Canadian lady just got an upgrade for $66 dollars with $50 OBC. I call and it's £2,450?

 

 

 

 

 

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I've booked as going with friends and it will be Easter holidays in U.K. and so made sense to secure booking. Happy with price paid. With this being the second ship in class the allocated cabins are more likely to remain same as less changes to design etc.

 

 

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I was torn between going cheap at £4,400 for 2 insides for the 6 of us and £6,600 for a super family with 2 balconies. Looking at the deck plans we thought they were either decks 13 or 14 on the aft corners or down the sides. Perhaps they could be anywhere then.

Ended up going for the more expensive option.

It's so hard to know what to do for the best.

We loved Splendida which was our first cruise last year.

Trying NCL this summer, which was £6,600 for 2 insides then trying Royal Caribbean next summer which is £9,000 for 2 insides, with a cheeky YC Divina in September on our own for our big 50ths.

Getting a headache knowing if we've messed up.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
Well hopefully see you on board ykennedy35 but now a little worried.

Was going from a cruisemapper deck plan sidari but just read the small print. It's guess work.

Hoping now that having booked a 6 person 'super family' we will be ok.

 

 

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I am sure all will work out. I am very excited and honestly can't wait. I think the super family is worth it. We got a corner Aurea and an side, there are 5 of us. Fingers crossed there won't be too many changes but we will make the best of it no matter what. This will be our first Mediterranean Cruise. Have sailed the Caribbean and Alaska. With an upcoming MSC Divina sailing in November 2017.

 

 

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Yes having read about meraviglia christening where Bellissima was described as Meraviglia-plus we're more excited.

Looking forward to Divina in September.

The med is very pretty you will love it. Not cruised but visited some of the ports.

 

 

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Having seen the videos and photos of Meraviglia and experiencing the overwhelming sense of excitement of sailing on her next Friday week, I'm beginning to come 'round to the notion of booking Bellissima. Perhaps not this far out, though. I'll wait 'til next year before making a commitment.

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Have a wonderful time Bea, can't wait for your views.

Have a prosecco and a gelato for me [emoji3]

Pouring down with rain and wind howling here just looking out the window dreaming of Divina.....

 

Thanks, Mark (& Jane). I'll be thinking of you when having my first Prosecco - hopefully being served by a butler pre-embarkation. :p Gelato, meh! Alhough the flavours do look very tempting - I'm just not a gelato person.

 

Weather-wise, it's been absolutely miserable, wet, windy, and cold here - a filthy day, as we'd say. To cap it all, our power went for the last three hours and has only just returned. Thank goodness I'd cooked dinner a little earlier than usual. (It's 9pm here). I have mobile broadband and the battery ran down in the dongle plus the signal went to 2G which is slower than dial-up!! June 16th can't come quick enough!

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Having seen the videos and photos of Meraviglia and experiencing the overwhelming sense of excitement of sailing on her next Friday week, I'm beginning to come 'round to the notion of booking Bellissima. Perhaps not this far out, though. I'll wait 'til next year before making a commitment.

 

Out of curiosity I had a look at the prices for Bellissima for the same date and same cabin in 2019 that I'm doing on Meraviglia next week. Taking into consideration the OBC that I have, Meraviglia is only costing us €100 more for the TWO of us than it would cost for ONE of us on Bellissima!!

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There seems to be a huge jump in price for 2018 and also 2019. NCL is double what I'm paying for August I booked last year.

Not so much across the Atlantic though.

Demand must be very high over here compared to US.

 

 

 

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There seems to be a huge jump in price for 2018 and also 2019.

 

Totally agree. Not too long ago you could get great offers on Grand Voyages (repositioning cruises) on MSC. You could get a balcony cabin for as little as €45 pppn. You can double that figure now.

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I know in the US cyber Monday and new year sales lots cancel and rebook or get OBC top ups. We're stuffed over here due to the deposits I guess. For our Divina cruise I have cancelled and rebooked the Miami hotel 4 times saving over $10 each time.

Looks like the super family 2 balconies are sold out on Bellissima for the UK Easter school holidays now. I feel better now [emoji3]

 

 

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Thanks, Mark (& Jane). I'll be thinking of you when having my first Prosecco - hopefully being served by a butler pre-embarkation. :p Gelato, meh! Alhough the flavours do look very tempting - I'm just not a gelato person.

 

Weather-wise, it's been absolutely miserable, wet, windy, and cold here - a filthy day, as we'd say. To cap it all, our power went for the last three hours and has only just returned. Thank goodness I'd cooked dinner a little earlier than usual. (It's 9pm here). I have mobile broadband and the battery ran down in the dongle plus the signal went to 2G which is slower than dial-up!! June 16th can't come quick enough!

 

 

 

Dear Bea,

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy every moment.

Take care

Mark & Jane

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Dear Bea,

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy every moment.

Take care

Mark & Jane

 

Thank you so much. :)

 

We're flying out tomorrow evening so hopefully will get down to the port and board the ship early on Friday.

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We are booked for April 12th, the extra discount and free cirque show made it seem like a good deal. I figure if I don't like the finalized deck plans or our upcoming Divina sailing we could always cancel.

 

 

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We are on this cruise. Staying in YC inside

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  • 1 month later...

Soooooo what do we all think about Bellissima now?

Mixed reviews from Meraviglia. Yacht Club and speciality dining get the thumbs up. Main dining room really quite poor.

Well I shall be putting some pennies away for the dining package whatever that may be and a little room service.

Really hoping they go with the Pub concept again (that pint of your DH Bea made me punch the air - there's only so much prosecco and cocktails you can take [emoji3]) Glad we booked looking like 44% cheaper than the competition according to my research anyway for a double balcony.

Happy days!

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Hopefully a lot of lessons will have been learned on Meraviglia, Mark. You've got the right approach, though; budget for the speciality restaurants. Butcher's Cut was fab! We didn't try the others as I don't eat Italian or sushi.

 

We've booked a couple of big trips - one for 2018 and the other in 2019 so it doesn't look like we'll be trying Bellissima in her inaugural season. I'd be looking at Seaview, first, anyway, as she's totally different.

 

I'm sure they'll have a pub-type venue onboard. As to the pint - DH taught one of the servers to pull a proper pint of Guinness. Unfortunately the barman was totally uninterested and continued to pull pints the way he pulls lager - eh WRONG!!! Our server friend told us that there were many pints being returned.

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