Ocean Cay Opening Delayed Until October 2018

[diesel1973]

Been trying to check present price for my 1/23/18 booked Seaside cruise. All I keep getting is the message"no data found for given input". I then tried another Seaside cruise in Jan. and got the same results. Does anyone happen to know what is going on? Was going to call MSC next.

[sidari]

The same message appears here, probably because they are updating the details for the cruises, checked our booking and the latest itinerary for 23/12/2017 has now been added.

[Cuervosar]

I'm a rookie to the Carribean, can anybody give me a succinct comparison of the St. Thomas v St. Marteen change? I promise to check the ports of call boards as well.

[diesel1973]

Thanks,I sort of thought that is what they were doing. I am not very concerned about what ports we visit as I have been to most of them at least once. I am more excited about the new ship,Seaside. Hope that gets completed on time!!

[Beamafar]

Totally underwhelmed with the changes, why they removed St Thomas for St Maarten is beyond us. It is looking like a thumbs down for the 23rd December cruise with a move to Seaview when the island is open.

 

Dave, do you think Seaview will winter in the Caribbean?

 

PS I preferred St Maarten to St Thomas. Is it that you've been to St Maarten and St Thomas was to be a first for you?

Edited October 5, 2016 by Beamafar

[sidari]

Bea ... Seaview may well go to the UAE or Brazil or even China seeing as all cruise lines are in a rush to get there, some are looking at ships being built there while others are looking at having ships refurbed there.

 

We have been to St Marten on both sides and to St Thomas about three times, also been to San Juan, as the ports are only provisional we are not to happy at taking a chance on MSC doing what they did with Divina on the original TA when they removed Nassau after final Payment, I do not trust them not to add in the dump that is Freeport at the last minute in place of one of the others.

Edited October 5, 2016 by sidari

[Beamafar]

I don't blame you!!

 

I may have misread you - I thought you meant that you'd consider cancelling Seaside and book Seaview to visit the new island?

[sidari]

Would book Seaview at a later date if we cancel Seaside.

[jerseyaxn]

I dont think it is scheduled to be in america

 

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[Beamafar]

Would book Seaview at a later date if we cancel Seaside.

 

Oh, I get you!

 

These cruises on the new-builds are fraught with challenges. After booking what we were told was the inaugural on Meraviglia, they added an itinerary the week before, plus Cirque de Soleil won't be up and running 'til a month later so we won't get to see that. They also had Tunis as a stop at the time bookings first opened, even though it had been dropped from their other ships' itineraries beforehand. That has since been pulled, understandably, but it was a non-EU port which facilitated the opening of the duty-free shop onboard - something we'd factored in when deciding to book, as DH smokes so gets his cigs there. That's now a non-runner. I've thought long and hard about cancelling or at least changing the booking, but we got YC when the 20% discount applied plus €400 OBC from the €10 future cruise voucher so we'll stick with it, hope that all goes well and that the inaugural will get most of the teething problems sorted before we board.

 

Best of luck to you whatever decision you do make. You've plenty of time yet before that bridge has to be crossed and, hopefully, there'll be more definitive info nearer the time you have to make it.

[Beamafar]

I dont think it is scheduled to be in america

 

Her inaugural season is in the Med. But she's built for warm, sunny climes so it's unlikely she'll winter in the Med.

[calgaryhhr]

I just checked ours for February 10th, 2017 and the changes have been reflected on the itinerary. They are as follows:

 

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVAL

1 Sat, Feb 10, 2018 Miami, Florida 7:00 PM

2 Sun, Feb 11, 2018 At Sea - -

3 Mon, Feb 12, 2018 Ocho Rios, Jamaica 9:00 AM--5:00 PM

4 Tue, Feb 13, 2018 George Town, Cayman Islands 8:00 AM--4:00 PM

5 Wed, Feb 14, 2018 Cozumel, Mexico 10:00 AM--6:00 PM

6 Thu, Feb 15, 2018 At Sea - -

7 Fri, Feb 16, 2018 Nassau, Bahamas 10:00 AM--6:00 PM

8 Sat, Feb 17, 2018 Miami, Florida 7:00 AM--7:00 PM

9 Sun, Feb 18, 2018 At Sea - -

10 Mon, Feb 19, 2018 At Sea - -

11 Tue, Feb 20, 2018 Philipsburg, St. Maarten 8:00 AM--6:00 PM

12 Wed, Feb 21, 2018 San Juan, Puerto Rico 7:00 AM--5:00 PM

13 Thu, Feb 22, 2018 At Sea - -

14 Fri, Feb 23, 2018 Freeport, Grand Bahama 2:00 PM--9:00 PM

15 Sat, Feb 24, 2018 Miami, Florida 7:00 AM -

*Itinerary and schedule is subject to change.

 

So it looks like they have added Nassau, Bahamas in place of the private island for the first week. And Freeport for the second week.

In addition they changed the Charlotte Amalie port to Philipsburg!!! I wonder why???

 

I wonder why they would change the times of arrival at ports as well?

 

I'm on the Feb 10 cruise and originally it was:

Day 3 Ocho Rios, Jamaica 11:00 17:00 (now 9am to 5pm)

Day 4 George Town, Cayman Islands 09:00 16:00 (now 8am to 4pm)

[jerseyaxn]

Maybe because of travel time or it could be a million reasons

 

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[BermudaBound2014]

I've been predicting Freeport all along :(. Cheap garbage removal would (or at least should) be a primary decision factor. St Martin is also much less expensive than St Thomas from multiple fiscal perspectives.

 

Msc is a lovely budget line,but to keep cost down they need to keep expenses down also.

 

Those sailing for just the ship shouldn't be bothered. If you Are sailing for a picturesque Caribbean experience, these leave much to be desired.

 

For what it's worth, Matthew looks like she may take a direct hit on ocean cay. Hurricane of this magnitude can erase entire islands. More often, in addition to physical damage, geographical changes can remove entire stretches of beach. We all remember Emily and Wilma- there wasn't but a single grain of sand left in Cancun- sand was barged in to replace what the canes washed away.

 

I have two cruises planned in the next 6 months with Two separate private island stops in the Bahamas.I do not expect to stop at great stirrup cay over the holidays, but If we do it will be a nice bonus. I'm hoping that coco cay is repaired and ready for my April arrival. All the cruise line private islands will feel some of Matthews wrath - not to mention Nassau and Florida.

 

Prayers for safety are what matters right now :(

 

 

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[suzyed]

Nassau is getting pounded right now! Cuba too!

 

We're in St. Augustine and parts of our city have already been issued evacuation orders, as well as north and south of us. My daughter in Jacksonville Beach is being evacuated tomorrow and they are coming to us. We're more inland than they are...they're about a mile from the beach!

 

I can't imagine the damage that the Bahamas are sustaining...I just hope there aren't too many folks hurt or killed. :(

[ToplessPony]

We are booked on the Seaside for March 2018 and just had our cabins repriced today and the new booking confirmation has an updated itinerary replacing the Bahamas with Costa Maya and swapping the sea day to the last day of the cruise due to the port swap. We are good with this new itinerary and are hoping it sticks.

 

1 Sat, Mar 10, 2018 Miami, Florida- 7:00 PM

2 Sun, Mar 11, 2018 At Sea - -

3 Mon, Mar 12, 2018 Ocho Rios, Jamaica 9:00 AM 5:00 PM

4 Tue, Mar 13, 2018 George Town, Cayman Islands 8:00 AM 4:00 PM

5 Wed, Mar 14, 2018 Cozumel, Mexico 10:00 AM 6:00 PM

6 Thu, Mar 15, 2018 Costa Maya, Mexico 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

7 Fri, Mar 16, 2018 At Sea - -

8 Sat, Mar 17, 2018 Miami, Florida 7:00 AM -

[sidari]

Any chance you can enlighten us as to what "having the cabin repriced" is all about ?

[ToplessPony]

Any chance you can enlighten us as to what "having the cabin repriced" is all about ?

We booked an Aurea Suite and a Fantastica Inside recently and noticed this weekend on MSC's site that the inside dropped $252 from $1636 to $1384. Emailed the rep at MSC that booked the cruise for us and he rebooked/repriced the inside cabin at the new lower price.

 

Still 14 or so months until final payment but I'll probably check their web site at least once a week looking for new lower prices. This is our first MSC cruise so I have no idea how fast the prices fluctuate and don't want to miss any sales. :)

[sidari]

TP ... Thanks for that, the prices on the UK site for the Aurea suites for the 23rd December sailing 17 have increased in price here, Insides,Outsides and Balconies all had the same price! apart from Wellness and Aurea balconies.

[ToplessPony]

TP ... Thanks for that, the prices on the UK site for the Aurea suites for the 23rd December sailing 17 have increased in price here, Insides,Outsides and Balconies all had the same price! apart from Wellness and Aurea balconies.

 

Welcome. :)

[deliver42]

I cancelled a cruise on the Seaside for May, 2018 because of the Ocean Marine Cay fiasco, but I'm putting my 2 cents in anyway. I looked at the MSC website today. I was booked in the YC and had a $400.00 OBC. Todys price is exactly the same without an alternate island to Ocean Cay, and no OBC. While I can see no OBC because that was a promotion, how can they justify the same price with no alternate stop? I am now happy I cancelled. I'll look at them again in 2019 when OC is supposed to be open. Any bets?

[All-ready2cruise]

Does it seem like their website is a wee bit (yes, I'm being facetious) off?! I can't even look at our 7-day cruise on Seaside b/c all they're posting are 8+ day cruises :eek:

 

Man, they really need to up their IT dept. Call me, I'm available :p

[jerseyaxn]

I checked our i had the same problem .I could not see it either

 

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[calgaryhhr]

Does it seem like their website is a wee bit (yes, I'm being facetious) off?! I can't even look at our 7-day cruise on Seaside b/c all they're posting are 8+ day cruises :eek:

 

Man, they really need to up their IT dept. Call me, I'm available :p

 

Yeah, something is weird. I checked earlier today to see what the prices are like for our week long cruise on Feb 10, 2018 but it would only bring up a back to back two week cruise. It looked like there were some single week cruises in March, 2018 that it was displaying though.

[diesel1973]

I tried to check price on my booked 1/18 7 day Seaside cruise about an hour ago and the site was down for updating. Just tried it again and can't get anywhere with it! Seems like all cruise lines have the same IT dept.,Nonexistant Inc.:confused::confused::confused: