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Meraviglia - bookings soon to open!

panamapd

By panamapd,
in MSC Cruises

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JPR61

JPR61

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I would hope that we will be covered for drinks at the show. At least being in YC we'll have a concierge to deal with any bookings and/or issues we may have ;)

 

I see you Aussies will pay slightly more in AUD than if you pay in Euros for the dinner & show package - $54 is about €38.75 according to today's exchange rate. I'm paying €35 for it.

 

Do you have to prepay? Because we cannot book cruises on the Ireland website, there is no facility to prepay - only prebook - 'cos it's not set up to take payments. That suits me fine - I can never understand anyone prepaying anything they don't have to. I imagine it's a nightmare getting refunds if for some reason you have to cancel plans at the last minute. Also, why give your money to a company before you have to?! Plus, we have €400 OBC thanks to having one of €10 vouchers which, sad to say, exist no longer :( so that'll cover the cost of the show - and then some ;p

 

Hi Bea

I know you've sailed with MSC a number of times, but have you used the €10 voucher before. Just a word of warning.

We purchased the same voucher on one of our previous cruise on the Divina. I booked my next cruise through a TA and MSC honoured the voucher (or so I thought) we again booked the YC so the voucher entitled us to $400 OBC. I had all the paperwork was even printed on my cruise check in docs that it was $200 in my husbands name and $200 in my name = $400 in total.

Anyway, I presented all these to concierge at check in and thought nothing more about it. On the second last night I asked for a copy of my bill and there was no OBC on my husbands account I querried this with concierge and she said that she'd check with MSC headoffice. Back and forth it went via email and phone calls but they said that it was only $200 and wouldn't budge on the other $200 even although all the paperwork was there. Was gutted we'd missed out on the other $200. Called and emailed MSC when we got home to complain, that was 4 months ago and still not got any reply.

So before you spend spend spend, just check your account :)

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

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I've used the voucher before without any problems - though it wasn't in YC so wasn't worth €400. I think it was €200 balcony cabin booking.

 

I've booked Meraviglia through MSC direct and the documentation is showing €400 OBC - hopefully I won't have the problems you've encountered. Hard to believe that they didn't honour it for you even with it being on your tickets - how awful for you. I'll make sure at embarkation that the OBC has been credited to my account before I go mad shopping (haha) so, at least, they'll have the week to sort it out if the ship doesn't have the info - thanks for the heads-up, J.

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SquishTheWhale

SquishTheWhale

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Just booked the Meraviglia and very confused by MSC! Only sailed NCL before, MSC seems way more complicated. The ship looks like it's going to be absolutley incredible though! I need to wade through all 19 pages of this thread to try and find out some more info. I can't believe the price though- £269 for 6 nights on a brand new and beautiful mega ship! It makes me far less sad that I can't afford to book onto Symphony of the Seas in Europe lol.

 

Just a quickie before I start wading through this thread- I noticed I could book the Cirque show already so I booked the show+cocktail package. It says it will be booked when I'm on board- so what do I do? Go to guest services to book this in when I board? Or will it be automatically done and a letter in my cabin? So I don't know which day it will be until I board? I don't know if I needed to book it this early, maybe that's an NCL cruising habit of booking anything you can asap. But I know we don't want to miss it! This cruise is a surprise for my fiance (who will be my husband by then)- he's not going to find out about it until Christmas haha! God knows how I'm going to keep my mouth shut until then!

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

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Just booked the Meraviglia and very confused by MSC! Only sailed NCL before, MSC seems way more complicated.

 

In what way?

 

I can't believe the price though- £269 for 6 nights on a brand new and beautiful mega ship!
That is an amazing price - Meraviglia's prices have just sky-rocketed in Ireland at the moment to ridiculous levels.

 

Just a quickie before I start wading through this thread- I noticed I could book the Cirque show already so I booked the show+cocktail package. It says it will be booked when I'm on board- so what do I do? Go to guest services to book this in when I board? Or will it be automatically done and a letter in my cabin? So I don't know which day it will be until I board? I don't know if I needed to book it this early, maybe that's an NCL cruising habit of booking anything you can asap. But I know we don't want to miss it!
There will be lots of info about this and plenty of reviews coming soon after the inaugural in early June.

 

This cruise is a surprise for my fiance (who will be my husband by then)- he's not going to find out about it until Christmas haha! God knows how I'm going to keep my mouth shut until then!
Congratulations and the very best of luck for the future - what a wonderful present for your 1st Christmas as a married couple. :)
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SquishTheWhale

SquishTheWhale

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Thank you for your help Beamafar! NCL doesn't have all these different cabin grades (Bella etc) and just one dining option so I think that's why I find it more confusing! Also the MSC website doesn't seem nearly as informative so it's hard to find out what it all means.

 

I guess nobody knows yet how the cirque thing will work- I look forward to seeing the reviews as they start rolling in!

 

I need to order a MSC brochure so I can wrap it up for him for Christmas haha. I'm pretty sure he will love it- who doesn't want a cruise for Christmas!

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

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The more you read up on it the more sense it'll make. It's difficult, too, to find the information you're looking for on the website - I still have to think "What heading did they put such and such under, again?" when I'm looking for something in particular.

 

I agree that the "Experiences" ie Bella, Fantastica, Aurea can seem very confusing. The other is Yacht Club but that's easier to explain. Prior to these named classes of cabin, MSC just used numbers eg Inside category 1 & 2, Outside (oceanview) Cat 1 & 2 Balcony 1,2 & 3 and suites and YC. Bella (cat 1) is the lowest category with the least facilities and less favourable locations, Fantastica (cat 2) has a couple of extras such as no charge for room service breakfast and better locations and Aurea (cat 3) has even better perks such as all-inclusive drinks package, free access to the thermal suite in the spa and a private sundeck. Here's a link which may help to explain more:

 

http://www.msccruises.ie/en-ie/Cruise-Deals/Our-Fares.aspx

 

You'll see under 'Fantastica' the following which deals with your 'flexible dining' question on the other thread:

 

MSC Meraviglia/MSC Seaside/MSC Seaview, you choose from Classic dining with first/second sitting, or Flexi dining with your preferred time. You can switch after booking or after boarding. If you choose Flexi dining, you can change your time daily, subject to availability, with priority on changes.
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  • 5 weeks later...
CruiseMH

CruiseMH

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I`m very excited to read the first reviews here.Also my Uncle will sail on the Meraviglia later this year,looking forward for him to tell me his experience.I have MSC in my mind for cruises since several years,but all my friends don`t want to go on MSC,so as they do not really offer competitive rates for single cruisers i will have to wait some more months/years till my first MSC cruise.

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AndyGurney73

AndyGurney73

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I see you did Radiance in 2003. That was our first cruise and the one that got us hooked. It was our 25th wedding anniversary.

Loved Radiance x have had a couple of boys so been off the ocean for a few years. This ship looks amazing, happy cruising and hoped you had a great anniversary

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Forums mobile app

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panamapd

panamapd

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Hi Beamafar - of course I've booked!! Unfortunately, not the inaugural as its during our child's term-time. By take off, I was referring to online posts and pictures.

 

To keep us going, we are doing a one night sailing on 15th September and then sailing in the October half-term.

 

I take it you have booked the inaugural? If so, I will be logging on every day to see the wonders everyone else has posted!

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

Posted
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Hi Beamafar - of course I've booked!! Unfortunately, not the inaugural as its during our child's term-time. By take off, I was referring to online posts and pictures.

 

To keep us going, we are doing a one night sailing on 15th September and then sailing in the October half-term.

 

I take it you have booked the inaugural? If so, I will be logging on every day to see the wonders everyone else has posted!

 

I booked what was originally hailed as the inaugural - June 16 sailing from Barcelona. MSC then added a week prior as well as the positioning sailing to Genoa homeport. As neither Le Harve nor Genoa are easily accessible from Ireland, I decided to stick with our original booking.

 

NorwegianCruiser will be on from day 1 - this poster does terrific videos of their cruises so I'm hoping for an early view before we embark.

 

It was thanks to your heads-up that I managed to book so early. The morning that sales were to open I rang MSC only to be told that the cabins weren't going on sale 'til noon. The rep knew me from previous dealings and so offered to phone me as soon as she could process a booking. I got a call just before noon so I reckon we're one of the very first to have made a booking on Meraviglia. It also happened to be just a few weeks before Voyagers Club was introduced so we managed to get the 20% Black Card discount before it was discontinued.

 

There was great excitement and interest when Meraviglia and Seaside were announced. I see from the lack of response to the announcement that Bellissima is going on sale next week that there's virtually no interest in it! Perhaps because it won't be a "new" concept ship whereas Meraviglia and Seaside are?

Edited by Beamafar
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alexpress

alexpress

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Loved Radiance x have had a couple of boys so been off the ocean for a few years. This ship looks amazing, happy cruising and hoped you had a great anniversary

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Forums mobile app

Thanks. Yes we did and have a good time and carried on for most years since then in Th Caribbean. . We just got off Adventure OTS in San Juan in February and met some of the people that we were with on the 2003 cruise.
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AndyGurney73

AndyGurney73

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Thanks. Yes we did and have a good time and carried on for most years since then in Th Caribbean. . We just got off Adventure OTS in San Juan in February and met some of the people that we were with on the 2003 cruise.

Sure you will have a great time, nothing better than being on the ocean. Happy Cruising

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Forums mobile app

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panamapd

panamapd

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Hi Beamafar - yes, it was great to be one of the first batch of passengers to book!

 

Re Bellissima, I agree that there doesn't seem to be much buzz about it. However, if it wasn't for your post, I wouldn't even have known that it was opening up for bookings next week!!

 

For me, I think they should have waited for the Meraviglia to launch and then launch Bellissima.

 

I don't know about everyone else but unfortunately I am starting to get new cruise ship fatigue. There seems to be a new ship every few months now!

 

I have just disembarked from the new Majestic Princess. As you know, we are sailing on the Meraviglia. I am also booked onto the new Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas!!

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alexpress

alexpress

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We are joining Meraviglia from Marseille. Hell of a place to fly to from here. Barcelona's a lot easier to get home from. We only booked a couple of days ago and managed to get the last Yacht Club suite by a fluke apparently. We are staying In Marseille for two nights and then Barcelona for two nights. No need to rush at either end. This will be our fifth MSC cruise having been on Opera. Lirica and Orchestra twice. Not done the Yacht Club before but we are Diamond Plus with RCL so expecting something similar or maybe better.

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