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Ocean Cay Opening Delayed Until October 2018

Mikesa1721

By Mikesa1721,
in MSC Cruises

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Cuervosar

Cuervosar

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Call it Sunday Musings, but the posts continue to amuse.

 

I guess running a multi-national shipping company, a cruise line, overseeing construction and maintenance of the vessels, staying abreast of continually changing regulations, and creating new resort islands is a walk in the park for the average cruise critic poster. And of course then there is payroll....

 

I get it, you were given a picture or a video of an island, you fell in love and now you have been jilted.

 

If the island is what made you book the trip and you cancelled, No worries, I can see that. If you feel better after venting here, good on you.

 

But for me, it is about the entire trip. Not sure when again in my life I'll get the chance to be one of the first on what looks to be an amazing new ship - The Seaside.

 

And for me, I've never been in the Caribbean proper, so hopefully I'll get the chance to experience an additional new port. I'd rather go somewhere "real" than a manufactured playground anyway.

 

It's not like there are no other options. Everybody cruises the Caribbean, others have their islands up and running already, so if that is what you are after, it should be an easy switch.

 

I chose Seaside because I wanted to see how MSC compares with other lines I've been on. I'm hoping for a different, hopefully more European experience. If it works, we'll do Europe and the Med with them, if not, back to other brands.

 

The Caribbean was our target for this trip, so then we started shopping. The huge new Royal ships just don't speak to me. Celebrity is a wonderful line, but I've been there and done that, and their new ships, while I'm sure they are amazing, just didn't get me to click the "buy" button. Princess is enticing, and would have had our vote but for the Seaside. Carnival scares the hell out out me and I don't like the way Norwegian handles dining.

 

So then MSC shows up with Seaside and I was smitten immediately. I called into customer service, was surprised by how efficient they were and booked within days of seeing the first ad. That is very rare for me, we usually brood about these things for months.

 

Am I worried that Seaside might not be ready, mildly. But that is a risk I took when I booked such an early sailing. It's on me. Am I worried that once I get on the ship there will be some bugs and procedures that won't be worked out. Not worried at all, I fully expect it.

 

I'm sure there are a few hundred people in MSC HQ right now undergoing sleepless nights and horrendous meetings trying to reconfigure itineraries and come up with new and hopefully better options. I've been a part of corporate teams that had to regroup when things went south, sometimes because of our own oversight, sometimes because of our own success, and sometimes because somebody we depended on dropped the ball.

 

So I guess the point of the post is slight bemusement at those who rise to anger so swiftly with calls of "we've been duped" "I'm a dissatisfied customer" "I demand compensation."

 

Building ships is hard. I imagine building islands is harder. Feces occurs. Sometimes it hits the oscillating ventilation device and you have to go back to the drawing board. If you want to be on the cutting edge, if you want to be one of the first, you need to be willing to be disappointed. It's just how the world works, or in this case, doesn't.

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sidari

sidari

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I chose Seaside because I wanted to see how MSC compares with other lines I've been on. I'm hoping for a different, hopefully more European experience. If it works, we'll do Europe and the Med with them, if not, back to other brands.

 

Sailing on the Seaside will not get you that experience because it is being designed for the North American market, it will have Italian officers and chef and service staff. If you want the European experience then book a cruise in Europe, MSC took away the European feeling from Divina during the first crossing to Miami from Venice when they covered all the Italian wall hung pictures with actors from the USA, they also removed European beers and wines and made other changes to suit the American market.

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deliver42

deliver42

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O had booked the Seaside for the ship AND the island, which will not be ready for my cruise. I called my PCC and cancelled this cruise, but as I told him, I will rebook when the island is complete. I fully expect to sail on the Seaside in 2019 because I loved the Divina.The MSC product works for me.

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suzyed

suzyed

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We booked because our friends are going and they love MSC and invited us to come along! We are on the 2/2018 sailing of the Seaside. I thought it would be fun to sail on a new ship and also to experience MSC for the first time.

 

In the meantime, we booked the Divina for November 2016 to get a "taste" of MSC and to see if we like it.

 

We won't cancel...not yet anyway. And if the Seaside is not ready, then we will just book something else. Final payment isn't even due until 11/2017, so plenty of time for other options if we chose to take advantage of them.

 

Disappointing to hear that the private island won't be ready...but I want to wait and see if they replace it with some other destination or just another sea day.

 

Time will tell!

Edited by suzyed
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suzyed

suzyed

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The seaside is on or ahead of schedule right now. They have replaced ocean cay with nassau unless the cruise is already stopping at nassau they will stop at another island to be tbd.

 

Sent from my SM-G928T using Forums mobile app

 

Yes, I believe it is already stopping at Nassau.....I just hope they don't extend the stay there. We typically don't even get off the ship in Nassau. We have been there so many times! :p

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All-ready2cruise Holiday Sharing Rare

All-ready2cruise

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Yea, I'm excited to be visiting SJ on our Divina cruise and strangely, of all our cruises, we've never ended up going to Nassau. The 1 cruise we were scheduled, Nassau or NCL, dropped the ball and there was no room for the Epic so, we did circles in Caribbean... it's a tough life but someone's gotten do it.. :p

 

Our Feb. 2018 cruise on Seaside we're not booked at Nassau so guess that's where we'll be going instead of the private island but, we're booked in Aurea area so we probably will have a lovely day in the spa... or whatever else we decide to do.

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All-ready2cruise Holiday Sharing Rare

All-ready2cruise

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I think we are doing the hilton for a beach day.IF we dont do that we will just stay in the yacht club

 

Sent from my SM-G928T using Forums mobile app

 

Was just looking at the Cruiseship Day Pass, looks pretty reasonable:

 

*Day Pass Prices:

 

Adults: $65, includes $40 free food and beverage credit

Kids: $33, includes $20 credit

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