First time cruiser!!

[Amy SweetWoman]

Hello!  We have booked on the Seaside for January 19.  We have never cruised before and are plain and simple confused!

 

Here are a few of my questions:

1.  How do I know if a certain night is a "theme night". Will they send us something that details this!?!?

 

2.  Zip line - the husband and kids are extremely excited about this!!  Is it $20 unlimited rides for the entire cabin??

 

3.  Picture packages - do they both come with digital downloads??  I'm confused as to which one to buy.  With the digital downloads can we print them at Walmart, CVS, etc when we get home??  Do they give you a release to do this??

 

4.  We booked the Bella experience??  I have no clue what matters in the grand scheme of life but will we be treated differently because we didn't pay as much as others??

 

5.  With our booking we got the drinks on us package.  I read there's a 15 percent charge on each drink.  That could rack up fast.  Should we upgrade to the Classic package?  What about the kids??  Do they need to upgrade and if not will they be charged the 15 percent when they get a drink?  And random drink question...can I walk up and get drinks for my husband, myself and the kids at the same time or do we all have to get our own?

 

I'll apologize now because I have about a million questions and will keep on asking them probably until I'm getting on the ship lol!!!

 

[Zephyr173]

Hi AmySW,

 

We have not been on the SeaSide, so we are unable to answer all your questions, but here is a start.

 

1. You will receive daily a planner of all activities.  The evening's theme and dress recommendations are indicated on the first page.  This is delivered to your stateroom.  You will find numerous examples of those in this forum.

 

4. You will be treated exactly the same as other guests on the ship, that is fantastically great.  The difference is that Bella simply is a no-frills experience, i.e. that any addition such as drinks will need to be paid for.

 

5. Beverage packages are a really personal issue, but if you enjoy a cocktail here and a glass of wine there, you certainly might want to do some research.  The Classic package is honestly pretty inclusive and certainly did the trick on our first 2 MSC cruises.  We don' have children; I'm therefore not confident enough to answer your question as to whether children need to purchase the equivalent package, but I would tend to guess yes.  Technically, the beverage packages are individual; in real life, you can fetch drinks for yourself and DH.  Again, as we don't have kids, I don't know if you can get 3-4 beverages on your own.

 

Enjoy your cruise.  MSC seemed, to us, to be a great family cruise line.