Live review from Seashore Western Med

[paulhulatt]

Great info, please keep it up 🙂

Do you have any photos of the bar menus?  Particularly interested in the champagne bar & cocktails so if you could get a photo that would be great.  Also, do you know the cost onboard of upgrading Premium Drinks to Premium Plus?

 

Thanks

 

 

Paul

 

[UniPac]

23 minutes ago, marielco said:

This is a photo taken of the theatre. All the seats with the signs on them are not to be used.  This is strictly enforced 

 

MSC is good at doing the things in a bad way. I am quite tall so I would definitely prefer the chairs with the larger back... not talking about I would love to sit next to my partner...

[marielco]

Enjoyed very much our evening In Teppanyaki restaurant.  Chef very entertaining and food excellent.  A number of restaurant packages available on board.  The prices shown don’t include the 15% service charge 

[Beamafar]

52 minutes ago, marielco said:

This is a photo taken of the theatre. All the seats with the signs on them are not to be used.  This is strictly enforced 

That’s ridiculous - every second seat 🙄. On NCL, they had every third seat marked so people could sit with their partners.  A whole group, who were together, sat across the row in front of us without anyone saying anything. 

[Beamafar]

44 minutes ago, paulhulatt said:

Great info, please keep it up 🙂

Do you have any photos of the bar menus?  Particularly interested in the champagne bar & cocktails so if you could get a photo that would be great.  Also, do you know the cost onboard of upgrading Premium Drinks to Premium Plus?

 

Thanks

 

 

Paul

 

The cost onboard for the upgrade would be €209.30 in the Med for 2 people for 7 nights including the 15% service charge. If you upgrade beforehand it’ll cost €182 if your currency is Euros (don’t know where you’re posting from).   It works out at €13 pppd and is a no-brainer.  Sad that it’s being discontinued from the Winter season. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Beamafar

[Domen]

Some were saying that you can visit the Italian ports without excursion that are organized by MSC. Is that the true in your case? Can you even leave the ship for the cruise terminal? Or can you maybe do some sightseeing after the excursions when they drop you off at cruise terminal?

[Beamafar]

52 minutes ago, Domen said:

Some were saying that you can visit the Italian ports without excursion that are organized by MSC. Is that the true in your case? Can you even leave the ship for the cruise terminal? Or can you maybe do some sightseeing after the excursions when they drop you off at cruise terminal?

Regardless of what ship you are on, you cannot go ashore in Italy unless on a ship’s excursion, as per Italian regulations.   They are even going to require all workers to display a Green (Covid) Cert to access their work places from October 15th.   Otherwise, they need a recent negative test or have proof of recovery from Covid in the previous 6 months. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Beamafar

[paulhulatt]

1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

The cost onboard for the upgrade would be €209.30 in the Med for 2 people for 7 nights including the 15% service charge. If you upgrade beforehand it’ll cost €182 if your currency is Euros (don’t know where you’re posting from).   It works out at €13 pppd and is a no-brainer.  Sad that it’s being discontinued from the Winter season. 

Thanks, unfortunately I don't have the option to upgrade on the MSC site so will have to suck up the 15% service charge and do it when we board I guess

[Beamafar]

Just now, paulhulatt said:

Thanks, unfortunately I don't have the option to upgrade on the MSC site so will have to suck up the 15% service charge and do it when we board I guess

We can’t upgrade on the (Ireland) website either.  I rang to upgrade. 

[sidari]

4 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Regardless of what ship you are on, you cannot go ashore in Italy unless on a ship’s excursion, as per Italian regulations.   They are even going to require all workers to display a Green (Covid) Cert to access their work places from October 15th.   Otherwise, they need a recent negative test or have proof of recovery from Covid in the previous 6 months. 

How long before there are demonstrations in Italy over this I wonder ? A friend who lives on Corfu posted a story from Greece that anyone wishing to access a Dentist now have to have a pcr test beforehand! 

[Huntingdon1701]

11 hours ago, Beamafar said:

That’s ridiculous - every second seat 🙄. On NCL, they had every third seat marked so people could sit with their partners.  A whole group, who were together, sat across the row in front of us without anyone saying anything. 

 

Virtuosa in June also allowed two seats before the gap, so at least couples could sit together. The set up in the picture is plain absurd - must be a crew member having a laugh. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Huntingdon1701

[marielco]

@paulhulatt here are some of the drinks menus I hope they are of use. 

[Beamafar]

Thanks for that, M.  I see my favourite red wine, Cabernet Cicogna is still listed as well as Rémy Martin XO.  Hope to be indulging in 5 weeks’ time. 😁

[marielco]

On 9/14/2021 at 6:38 PM, Beamafar said:

M, finally getting a chance to read your review.  Great info - keep it coming!

 

If you get a chance, could you post a photo of the laundry charges?   Does Diamond still get a discount?   We usually send DH’s shirts for ironing as soon as we board, though it’s getting quite pricey. 

Ironing only charges:

Gents jacket €5.50

Gents trousers €4.50

Gents shirt €4.50

Gents suit €7.50

[Beamafar]

Thanks a mil, M.  😉

 

That’ll help me decide what to pack for DH.  Quite pricey!   I wonder if Diamond still gets a discount. 🤔

[marielco]

Sorry Bea don’t know about the amount of the Diamond discount.  There is a box to tick on the laundry form if you are diamond so looks as if some discount will apply. 
 

Home safe now from our cruise.  Enjoyable week with some new experiences. One strange one was reading the planner last Thursday.  We were at sea and the planner advertised that the Captain was giving a “Welcome on Board” 15 minute presentation in the theatre that evening! This seemed really strange to me as the majority of people were disembarking in Barcelona at the end of their cruise the next day. 

 

[Beamafar]

Thanks, M.  I’ll just have to try and pack DH’s shirts without creasing them too much lol.  Not paying €4.50 a shirt to be ironed.  I’ll be checking out the discount.  The onboard discounts are never advertised anywhere so you never know which ones have been discontinued and which are actually available.   

 

Glad to hear you’re home safely.  Hope we don’t have the same issues around transfers as you did!

 

A very belated ‘Welcome Aboard’ message from the captain, indeed.  Had it been a day or so from when a major Italian port had guests embarking I would understand it as Genoa is usually regarded as the home port on those sailings, so it’s classed as ’Day 1’ from there, but that wasn’t even the case.  Anyway, for Seashore, IIRC, Barcelona is the home port. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

3 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

 

Deleted. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Beamafar

[Janet&Carl]

On 9/12/2021 at 3:19 PM, marielco said:

 

 

BTW there is a deck 13 but no deck 17.  

In Italy 17 is an unlucky number unlike the rest of us "Westerners" where it is 13 that is unlucky

 

[ocdb8r]

On 9/17/2021 at 11:44 AM, paulhulatt said:

Great info, please keep it up 🙂

Do you have any photos of the bar menus?  Particularly interested in the champagne bar & cocktails so if you could get a photo that would be great.  Also, do you know the cost onboard of upgrading Premium Drinks to Premium Plus?

 

Thanks

 

 

Paul

 

Paul - I've posted almost every bar menu (including the Champagne Bar) in a coupe of different posts on this thread here: 

 

 

Mods - any way to add these updated Bar menu's to a sticky section for MSC?

 

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by ocdb8r