So free water during dinner after all??

[blynda]

If Mr Sasso is telling everyone that MSC give free water on their Med cruises I shall be writing to him tomorrow to ask for a refund on all the bottles of water we paid for!

 

As someone else mentioned, if he can't get his facts right it says a lot for the company!

[AmoMondo]

If Mr Sasso is telling everyone that MSC give free water on their Med cruises I shall be writing to him tomorrow to ask for a refund on all the bottles of water we paid for!

 

As someone else mentioned, if he can't get his facts right it says a lot for the company!

 

Hi blynda

Mr sasso was speaking to US clients going on European trips. They get a book of vouchers to exchange for bottles of mineral water. This unfortunately is not available to passengers booking through European TAs. Not fair, I know, but unless you booked through a US TA then you will not be entitled to any refunds for water purchases. US passengers also get better booking conditions than we do too (e.g. lower deposits and easier to get refunds if cancelling). Guess it is a far more competitive market in the US than here.

[alanwexford]

Hi Folks

 

Im the irish guy who originally posted the question to Mr Sasso on the usa site.

 

We have three cabins booked for the sailing out of Barcelona on 26 April next. We booked two cabins through a irish agent, and the third one through a us agent (third cabin is solo occupied and it worked out 300 euro cheaper by booking it in the states).

 

It will be interesting to see if our solo traveller gets the free water as she has been booked through MSC USA.

 

Also another thing was we requested adjoining cabins last september and tickets arrived yesterday. When we paid the final invoice in February, they had assigned us two adjoining cabins on the documents.

 

Tickets arrived yesterday and they are about 10 cabins apart now. We rang travel agent and their system is showing us as having the original two cabins. They cant get any answers from msc.

 

Should we ask for a upgrade?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi blynda

Mr sasso was speaking to US clients going on European trips. They get a book of vouchers to exchange for bottles of mineral water. This unfortunately is not available to passengers booking through European TAs. Not fair, I know, but unless you booked through a US TA then you will not be entitled to any refunds for water purchases. US passengers also get better booking conditions than we do too (e.g. lower deposits and easier to get refunds if cancelling). Guess it is a far more competitive market in the US than here.

[woodofpine]

The complication of it all... Abbondanza!:D

 

On board, you better have a voucher for water and in the Med the servers will look unswervingly unservingly if carafe table water is requested. If you can get them to bring it - good for you (you're a better man than I). Free water in cabin ain't gonna happen! Not yet anyway.

 

In my brief experience one can get varying answers to info requests on board but folks do try pretty hard. Friendly persistence helps. Sassos comments sort of reinforce what my head server indicated though, that what executive management is trying to do from onshore may not be getting implemented or firmly imposed on the somewhat nepotistic independant spirits managing on the ships.

 

Well it IS sort of fun... and mineral water is better than tap!

[diecastaussie]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie here, this is my first post, my wife and I traveled on MSC Magnifica on its Maiden Voyage from Hamburg to Venice at the beginning of March; lovely ship, pity about the service and the food. We are not American so we had to pay for our water and coffee. We were told on a number of occasions that "tap" or iced water was not available with the exception of 1 water and ice dispenser in the Sahara Cafeteria during lunch time which was always crowded.

We became aware on board that the American passengers were all given water vouchers obviously because at some time in the past the American travel agents had pressured MSC into providing it for their clients.

The 2 Euros per bottle was annoying but but even more annoying is the fact that the Australian MSC agent "conveniently" forgot to tell us about this during the booking process, especially when MSC policy prevents us from booking with any overseas agent where the fares were much cheaper.

.

[Bobkesq]

We just got off the Magnifica last saturday in Venice after a great week long cruise. Bottled water for this US customer was not free. My family drank 3 bottles of water at each dinner. Mr. Sasso is not correct. One of the things that I have found is that MSC lacks consistency. The value is excellent, in fact the 6 euros we paid each night for water was nominal and not a problem at all. We knew we were getting a great deal on the cruise and did not expect it to be free, but MSC does need to get the policies to be consistent and they need to make sure everyone knows the policy.

 

Looking forward to booking our next trip on MSC and will gladly pay for the water.

[drblue]

We just got off the Magnifica last saturday in Venice after a great week long cruise. Bottled water for this US customer was not free. My family drank 3 bottles of water at each dinner. Mr. Sasso is not correct. One of the things that I have found is that MSC lacks consistency. The value is excellent, in fact the 6 euros we paid each night for water was nominal and not a problem at all. We knew we were getting a great deal on the cruise and did not expect it to be free, but MSC does need to get the policies to be consistent and they need to make sure everyone knows the policy.

 

Looking forward to booking our next trip on MSC and will gladly pay for the water.

Hello Bobkesq,

Based on your recent experience, I haved a couple of questions:

 

1. Was there a CASUAL alternative during dinnertime? I am not sure if my 3 year-old son can manage a long dinner service every night.

 

2. Did the ship offer shuttle buses to any of the ports you visited, so you can explore on

your own? If so, how much were the uses?

 

3. Did you find any complimentary shuttle buses from Piazzala Roma in Venice to the Port?

 

I will certainly appreciate your input.

[AmoMondo]

We just got off the Magnifica last saturday in Venice after a great week long cruise. Bottled water for this US customer was not free. My family drank 3 bottles of water at each dinner. Mr. Sasso is not correct. One of the things that I have found is that MSC lacks consistency. The value is excellent, in fact the 6 euros we paid each night for water was nominal and not a problem at all. We knew we were getting a great deal on the cruise and did not expect it to be free, but MSC does need to get the policies to be consistent and they need to make sure everyone knows the policy.

 

Looking forward to booking our next trip on MSC and will gladly pay for the water.

 

Hi Bobkesq

 

I agree with you about the price of the water being so nominal compared to the overall cost, that it doesn't matter to me in the slighest.

 

You are spot on with your comment about the lack of consistency in policy. For me there are 2 areas where they really could and should do better - providing information that is accurate ( part of the problem seems to be communication of policy to all and the other seems to be not consistently applying it or doing something entirely different) and organisation. They'd reduce a lot of the grumbling and frustration from passengers if they'd sort this out. I also think that wherecompanies have different policies/pricing for different markets, they really need to make it clear that they do to. Mr sasso should have been well aware that anything he says is likely to be reported on forums within minutes, so should have made it clear that this offer was only for clients booking through US TAs and that the policy would only e coming in to effect for bookings made after this was implemented (whenever that is!).

[MMDown Under]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie here, this is my first post, my wife and I traveled on MSC Magnifica on its Maiden Voyage from Hamburg to Venice at the beginning of March; lovely ship, pity about the service and the food. We are not American so we had to pay for our water and coffee. We were told on a number of occasions that "tap" or iced water was not available with the exception of 1 water and ice dispenser in the Sahara Cafeteria during lunch time which was always crowded.

We became aware on board that the American passengers were all given water vouchers obviously because at some time in the past the American travel agents had pressured MSC into providing it for their clients.

The 2 Euros per bottle was annoying but but even more annoying is the fact that the Australian MSC agent "conveniently" forgot to tell us about this during the booking process, especially when MSC policy prevents us from booking with any overseas agent where the fares were much cheaper.

.

 

I can't believe that the provision of free water remains a problem.

 

In 2008, we were advised by the Australian MSC agent that free water vouchers would be provided on board for our transatlantic cruise.

 

No vouchers were provided, however, we had free water in carafes on our table at all meals.

 

I had assumed this would be the case on our next MSC transatlantic cruise.

[qldgal]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie here, this is my first post, my wife and I traveled on MSC Magnifica on its Maiden Voyage from Hamburg to Venice at the beginning of March; lovely ship, pity about the service and the food. We are not American so we had to pay for our water and coffee. We were told on a number of occasions that "tap" or iced water was not available with the exception of 1 water and ice dispenser in the Sahara Cafeteria during lunch time which was always crowded.

We became aware on board that the American passengers were all given water vouchers obviously because at some time in the past the American travel agents had pressured MSC into providing it for their clients.

The 2 Euros per bottle was annoying but but even more annoying is the fact that the Australian MSC agent "conveniently" forgot to tell us about this during the booking process, especially when MSC policy prevents us from booking with any overseas agent where the fares were much cheaper.

.

 

We are also Aussie's booked on the MSC Poesia for their Transatlantic cruise in Sept 2010 from Kiel to New York.

I was suprised by your comment about not being able to book outside of Australia, we booked on the internet through an American TA, as the prices were way cheaper.

Do not know if these means we will get water vouchers like the Americans? If we have to pay, we will have to pay.

[diecastaussie]

We are also Aussie's booked on the MSC Poesia for their Transatlantic cruise in Sept 2010 from Kiel to New York.

I was suprised by your comment about not being able to book outside of Australia, we booked on the internet through an American TA, as the prices were way cheaper.

Do not know if these means we will get water vouchers like the Americans? If we have to pay, we will have to pay.

Hi gldgal,

We have booked several cruises previously through a well known internet cruise agent based in Houston Texas and never had any problems, they even have a toll free phone number specifically for Australians on their website. However, when we started looking at the MSC cruise we got the "non negotiable" price from a local agent and then contacted the American internet cruise agent to book at their considerably cheaper price (about 60% of the local quote) They informed us that MSC policy forbid them from accepting bookings from anyone who was not a Canadian, US or Mexican resident. They further added that P&O, Princess, Cunard & HAL to name a few all now had similar policies. We even suggested that we could provide an American mailing address but we were told that the cruise lines were watching bookings closely and any infringement of their policy could result in the agency losing the cruise line franchise which they were not prepared to risk.

We also want to book a Princess cruise in May next year, but just cannot bring ourselves to accept that we must pay a massive premium to local cruise agents just because we live in Australia. A Balcony cabin is quoted by local cruise agents at AUD$5260pp; the American internet agent is currently quoting the equivalent of AUD$3720pp for a SUITE!:mad::mad::mad:. Go figure!

Would really appreciate any information that you could give us that would enable us to avoid being ripped off by local agents who]as a result of this type of policy figure that they have a monopoly on cruise bookings by Australians

Regarding the water issue, I would guess that as you have been able to book through an American agent you will be treated as a American and therefore get your water coupons, however, I would contact your agent and query this directly with them.]

[qldgal]

Hi gldgal,

We have booked several cruises previously through a well known internet cruise agent based in Houston Texas and never had any problems, they even have a toll free phone number specifically for Australians on their website. However, when we started looking at the MSC cruise we got the "non negotiable" price from a local agent and then contacted the American internet cruise agent to book at their considerably cheaper price (about 60% of the local quote) They informed us that MSC policy forbid them from accepting bookings from anyone who was not a Canadian, US or Mexican resident. They further added that P&O, Princess, Cunard & HAL to name a few all now had similar policies. We even suggested that we could provide an American mailing address but we were told that the cruise lines were watching bookings closely and any infringement of their policy could result in the agency losing the cruise line franchise which they were not prepared to risk.

We also want to book a Princess cruise in May next year, but just cannot bring ourselves to accept that we must pay a massive premium to local cruise agents just because we live in Australia. A Balcony cabin is quoted by local cruise agents at AUD$5260pp; the American internet agent is currently quoting the equivalent of AUD$3720pp for a SUITE!:mad::mad::mad:. Go figure!

Would really appreciate any information that you could give us that would enable us to avoid being ripped off by local agents who]as a result of this type of policy figure that they have a monopoly on cruise bookings by Australians

Regarding the water issue, I would guess that as you have been able to book through an American agent you will be treated as a American and therefore get your water coupons, however, I would contact your agent and query this directly with them.]

 

Hi diecastaussie,

 

There are 20 of us going on the transatlantic cruise, most booked with a company called cruisepros.com however I was unable to secure the type of cabin my husband and I wanted with them (only guarantee's when I went to book), so I booked with smartcruiser.com. Never at anytime during the booking process or since as we have now paid in full for the cruise. As the USD$ against AUD$ was at a good rate did they query me booking from Australia. We would have saved well over $1500 booking this way, which goes a long way when we have to pay airfares to get to the embarkation port. Hope this helps.:p

[diecastaussie]

Hi diecastaussie,

 

There are 20 of us going on the transatlantic cruise, most booked with a company called cruisepros.com however I was unable to secure the type of cabin my husband and I wanted with them (only guarantee's when I went to book), so I booked with smartcruiser.com. Never at anytime during the booking process or since as we have now paid in full for the cruise. As the USD$ against AUD$ was at a good rate did they query me booking from Australia. We would have saved well over $1500 booking this way, which goes a long way when we have to pay airfares to get to the embarkation port. Hope this helps.:p

 

Hi qldgal,

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll try this agent and see what they can offer. Anything to enable us to avoid having to be ripped off by local agents.:(

[Capricruiser]

We Europeans don't get the deals that North Americans do. We have to pay full catalog prices for our cruises (minus the book early and MSC Club discounts) and we don't get free mineral water. Local travel agents don't "rip off" anyone because they have to go along with the pricing the cruise lines charge. If a travel agency gives you a further discount, they are dipping into their commission.

[Bobkesq]

Here are your answers.

 

1.THIS WAS ONE OF THE UNUSUAL THINGS THAT WE DID NOT EXPECT, THERE IS NO CASUAL ALTERNATIVE, UNLESS YOU BOOK THE EXTRA COST DINNER, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO A 7 COURSE SIT DOWN DINNER IN THE DINING ROOM. WE HAD TWO KIDS AND ORIGINALLY WERE ASSIGNED THE 9:00 PM SEATING FOR DINNER, WAY TOO LATE FOR THEM AND US. MSC GLADLY REASSIGNED US AN EARLIER DINNER, BUT NO QUICK BUFFET OR THE LIKE ANYWHERE.

 

 

 

2.SHUTTLE BUSES WERE AVAILABLE IN DUBROVNIK AND AT THE END OF THE CRUISE IN VENICE. OTHERWISE YOU TOOK THE CRUISE SHIP EXCURSION OR WERE ON YOUR OWN. MY RECOMMENDATION IS TO GET A PRIVATE GUIDE IN IZMIR AND INSTANBUL, RENT A CAR AND DRIVE IN KATAKOLON, WALK IN BARI, TAKE A TAXI IN DRUBROVNIK.

 

 

 

3. MSC IS A GREAT DEAL, HOWEVER, NOTHING EVER IS COMPLIMENTARY, SO THERE WERE SHUTTLES, BUT THEY WERE NOT CHEAP.

[drblue]

Here are your answers.

 

1.THIS WAS ONE OF THE UNUSUAL THINGS THAT WE DID NOT EXPECT, THERE IS NO CASUAL ALTERNATIVE, UNLESS YOU BOOK THE EXTRA COST DINNER, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO A 7 COURSE SIT DOWN DINNER IN THE DINING ROOM. WE HAD TWO KIDS AND ORIGINALLY WERE ASSIGNED THE 9:00 PM SEATING FOR DINNER, WAY TOO LATE FOR THEM AND US. MSC GLADLY REASSIGNED US AN EARLIER DINNER, BUT NO QUICK BUFFET OR THE LIKE ANYWHERE.

 

 

 

2.SHUTTLE BUSES WERE AVAILABLE IN DUBROVNIK AND AT THE END OF THE CRUISE IN VENICE. OTHERWISE YOU TOOK THE CRUISE SHIP EXCURSION OR WERE ON YOUR OWN. MY RECOMMENDATION IS TO GET A PRIVATE GUIDE IN IZMIR AND INSTANBUL, RENT A CAR AND DRIVE IN KATAKOLON, WALK IN BARI, TAKE A TAXI IN DRUBROVNIK.

 

 

 

3. MSC IS A GREAT DEAL, HOWEVER, NOTHING EVER IS COMPLIMENTARY, SO THERE WERE SHUTTLES, BUT THEY WERE NOT CHEAP.

Hello Bobqesk,

Thank you for the transportation info. We need specific information that pertains to travelling with children. We booked the early seating for dinner and I hope MSC honors that request. I have a couple of extra questions:

1. What did you think of the Children's facilities?

2. Any other tips you can give me when travelling with kids (3 yearold boy) on MSC Magnifica?

[diecastaussie]

Hi Capricruiser,

 

Perhaps I should have been clearer about pricing.

 

I know that cruiselines have a base price for each cabin category on each cruise and it does not matter to them who sells the cabin as long as they receive that amount.

 

Most cruise lines will deal directly with individual travel agents in their home country e.g. US travel agents will deal directly with Princess, NCL. RCCL HAL etc. etc. in America. However, outside of their home country most cruiselines will either appoint an agent to represent them or set up a branch office which in turn will deal with individual travel agents in that country or region.

 

The problems start when the parent company decides to give their branch office or the appointed agent a helping hand by establishing a policy that restricts inter-country bookings; in other words gives their branch office or appointed agent a monopoly situation on all cruise bookings by people living in that country or region.

 

The level of greed made possible by these artificially created monopoly situations is what leads to the huge cruise pricing discrepancies that occur for the same cruise product across the various world marketplaces.

 

My point is this, we live in a global economy, we are constantly told that we have the ability to buy and sell on a world wide basis (witness the success of Ebay).

 

So why do some (not all) cruise lines have the right to tell any of us where we can and cannot buy our cruise tickets?

 

The cruise line will still get its base price for the booking regardless of where it is made, so it this discriminatory policy does not raise its income, in fact it may have the opposite effect as potential customers move away from individual cruise lines if they feel that they are being ripped off by discriminatory market policies.

 

As you may have guessed I have very strong feelings about the discriminatory nature of these policies and have on a number of occasions approached the Fair Trade regulators here in Australia requesting that they do something about them. However, in each instance,, despite admitting that the policies are clearly discriminatory and therefore able to be legally challenged here in Australia, the regulators say that they are powerless to take action as the policies are inevitably instigated from a company head office that is located outside of Australia.

[Koolkrewser]

Hi diecastaussie,

 

There are 20 of us going on the transatlantic cruise, most booked with a company called cruisepros.com however I was unable to secure the type of cabin my husband and I wanted with them (only guarantee's when I went to book), so I booked with smartcruiser.com. Never at anytime during the booking process or since as we have now paid in full for the cruise. As the USD$ against AUD$ was at a good rate did they query me booking from Australia. We would have saved well over $1500 booking this way, which goes a long way when we have to pay airfares to get to the embarkation port. Hope this helps.:p

Hi qldgal!

Just let me say that this o/s TA booking furore has been going on for some time, BUT let me tell you that we have booked with both US & a German online TA & had no problem with boarding. Not so much as a raised eyebrow. For our MSC cruise I have booked through MSC Australia as this was the best deal for this cruise, but in saying that our next will again be with a US as it is the best deal. That's what it comes down to in the end. With the 2 for 1 fares that we have paid, the water debate is negligible,

On another note qlgal, come on over to our rollcall for Posea 4th Sept & join us. 20 in your group to add to the 1800 aussies & kiwis that are doing this transatlantic cruise:eek:

[Bobkesq]

The children's program is not as refined as I expected it to be. It did look like the smaller kids had a more structured program which would work for you. My kids did not take part in the special programs. For their ages, it was very loosely run. There is a nice play area for kids and I am sure your children will apprciate that. It looks like an igloo and has slides and tubes for them to go through. The pools are also nice and seem like they have kids in them all the time. Very few adults ever made it into the pools.

 

I think it will be imperative for you to get the early seating for dinner, even if they originally assign the later time, they will make an accommodation for you and we ended up eating on Deck 13 for our dinner in the area usually used as the buffet at lunch and breakfast. We could not have been more pleased. We then had a nice quiet dinner with a great view of the water and sunset each night.

 

In general, m kids had the best time and enjoyed every minute, they were also old enough to do some things on their own and I think the 3 yr old issue would have been tough. Sorry I can't give you better specifics on things for such a young child. Have a great trip!

[drblue]

The children's program is not as refined as I expected it to be. It did look like the smaller kids had a more structured program which would work for you. My kids did not take part in the special programs. For their ages, it was very loosely run. There is a nice play area for kids and I am sure your children will apprciate that. It looks like an igloo and has slides and tubes for them to go through. The pools are also nice and seem like they have kids in them all the time. Very few adults ever made it into the pools.

 

I think it will be imperative for you to get the early seating for dinner, even if they originally assign the later time, they will make an accommodation for you and we ended up eating on Deck 13 for our dinner in the area usually used as the buffet at lunch and breakfast. We could not have been more pleased. We then had a nice quiet dinner with a great view of the water and sunset each night.

 

In general, m kids had the best time and enjoyed every minute, they were also old enough to do some things on their own and I think the 3 yr old issue would have been tough. Sorry I can't give you better specifics on things for such a young child. Have a great trip!

Hello Bobkesq,

Thank you for the suggestions re travelling with children. They all sound very practical. I will keep them all in mind.

[qldgal]

Hi Koolkrewser,

Excited to hear this cruise will have fellow Aussie's on board. Interested to know how you knew that their will be 1800 or so Aussie's and Kiwi's. That is more than half the ship.

Wonder if that will change the languages that they hold some of the activities in if the majority of passengers are English speaking. We love the trivia activities and wonder how they will do this in 5 languages.

Will be sure to hook up at the roll call.

 

 

Hi qldgal!

Just let me say that this o/s TA booking furore has been going on for some time, BUT let me tell you that we have booked with both US & a German online TA & had no problem with boarding. Not so much as a raised eyebrow. For our MSC cruise I have booked through MSC Australia as this was the best deal for this cruise, but in saying that our next will again be with a US as it is the best deal. That's what it comes down to in the end. With the 2 for 1 fares that we have paid, the water debate is negligible,

On another note qlgal, come on over to our rollcall for Posea 4th Sept & join us. 20 in your group to add to the 1800 aussies & kiwis that are doing this transatlantic cruise:eek:

[wotaripper]

Hi Koolkrewser,

Excited to hear this cruise will have fellow Aussie's on board. Interested to know how you knew that their will be 1800 or so Aussie's and Kiwi's. That is more than half the ship.

Wonder if that will change the languages that they hold some of the activities in if the majority of passengers are English speaking. We love the trivia activities and wonder how they will do this in 5 languages.

Will be sure to hook up at the roll call.

hi there 8 of us as part of the 1800 and yes this is from our t.a aswell hopefully a lot of the entertainment will be in english as there are so many of us. this cruise seems to have been heavilly marketed in australasia at bargain prices resulting in such high numbers . should be a blast.hope they know how much we all like to party over here !!!!!