MSC Sinfonia - Tipping

[Flash2]

:confused: I assumed that I would be able to charge tips to my credit card, but I have just been reading the information sent to me by MSC and it told me to save enough cash for the tips. Has anyone travelled recently on Sinfonia who can tell me if I can charge tips, or if I need to take extra cash. It would make quite a difference to the amount of cash needed.

[suron]

We have not been on Sinfonia but have travelled 8 times in the past with MSC on their smaller ships (Rhapsody, Melody and Monterey). Regarding the tipping procedure - unlike some of the other cruise lines who automatically add a fixed daily fee per person to the shipboard account it seems that MSC still operate the system whereby tipping is left to the passenger's discretion. Looking in this year's brochure it says under Gratuities "It is customary to tip staff on board that have given personal service and we recommend as a guide that you set aside around £6 per passenger per day to be divided amongst staff".

 

We tipped our cabin steward, the waiter and his assistant and the wine waiter. Envelopes were available for us to put whatever sum we thought appropriate and we just handed these to the various personnel on the last day. We ensured we had sufficient Euros for this (or Lira which was the currency on board when we first travelled with MSC!)

 

As I note you are from England here is a piece of advice regarding your credit card company. Have you considered investing in a Nationwide Visa Card? They make no charge for converting foreign currency charges on purchases abroad and their charges for withdrawing local currency from ATMs is far less than those of other companies and the high street banks. Make sure you do not allow the cruise line or shops abroad to make the conversion for you as they will charge for doing this and the rates of exchange are awful.

 

I am sure you will enjoy MSC We hope to try one of the larger ships in the fleet at the end of next year. We are taking a Land Tour of the Rockies and an Alaskan cruise in May 06 with Dawn Princess - regretably MSC don't operate there!

 

Good Luck with the plans

Kind regards from

Suron in Bristol, England ;)

[Flash2]

Thankyou Suron, I will now go to get some more Euros. Also thankyou for the other tips about Visa cards and conversions, but as I leave in 3 days there is no time to set up a Nationwide Visa card, but I have noted that I shouldn't let MSC or shops abroad do the conversion.