Seashore - today - April 16

[cellfree]

Beware, check in line outrageous, will be in the cattle corral for another two-three hours, only priority Yacht Club and Aurea, no Diamond Priority. Certainly hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. 1140 now -have already been in line for 45 minutes - will update - yikes. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by cellfree
Added information.

[cellfree]

Feels like 75%plus are European, haven’t heard any English in line. Lots of children and youth. 

[deliver42]

75% Europeans is pretty normal for an MSC cruise.

[perakcruiser]

55 minutes ago, cellfree said:

Feels like 75%plus are European, haven’t heard any English in line. Lots of children and youth. 

Two weeks Easter holidays at the European schools and no more covid restrictions is a combination that provides the expected result. 

[cellfree]

Only hope the ship is prepared, was one of our rebooked cancelled cruises, most likely I did not consider the timing. 

First line - medical check of paperwork and security - 30 minutes.

Check in line - two hours of standing.

On board.

 

[cellfree]

Ship is beautiful. Staff outstanding. Buffet has lots of choices. So i would suggest they may be prepared!

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

What time did you arrive at the terminal to find the lines like that?

(I will try to arrive earlier; on this ship next Saturday.)

Edited April 16, 2022 by KINGBOBOFTHENORTH

[cellfree]

16 minutes ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

What time did you arrive at the terminal to find the lines like that?

(I will try to arrive earlier; on this ship next Saturday.)

We arrived at 1050 - or pretty close to that - have got to admit we were really shocked at line - 1050 was our check in time - appears no need to pay attention to that - at least not today. But right now we are lounging by one of the pools. Perhaps the increased number of

cruisers will be a benefit - more food choices, etc. Remains to be seen. Buffet area seating is very lovely. 

[Alvarado Cruiser]

Does MSC app have a chat feature to communicate with ithers in your party, while onboard?

[JAGR]

11 hours ago, Alvarado Cruiser said:

Does MSC app have a chat feature to communicate with ithers in your party, while onboard?

Yes, it does

[clemsonlori98]

We just got off ship yesterday.  Our experience was that they seemed to have been prepared for the crowds except for drink services.   You can serve yourself food in the buffets but you cannot serve yourself drinks????    This made zero sense to us therefore there was a bottleneck to getting drinks.   

[perakcruiser]

8 minutes ago, clemsonlori98 said:

This made zero sense

Drinks Packages

[clemsonlori98]

56 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

Drinks Packages

I was just referring to the wait times in the buffet.  We had to wait longer on drinks than anything else.   We were in YC so there was no problems getting drinks anywhere.  Just talking about wait time for a simple glass of ice tea.  

[perakcruiser]

20 hours ago, clemsonlori98 said:

We were in YC so there was no problems getting drinks anywhere.  Just talking about wait time for a simple glass of ice tea.  

This simple glass of ice tea may be free for you in YC and people with drinks package, but the all the others have to pay € 3 for it. So how they should manage this with machines? Cruise lines tried the machines to tap by yourself and using your cruise card but the result you might can imagine😉

[clemsonlori98]

2 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

This simple glass of ice tea may be free for you in YC and people with drinks package, but the all the others have to pay € 3 for it. So how they should manage this with machines? Cruise lines tried the machines to tap by yourself and using your cruise card but the result you might can imagine😉

You have to pay for simple iced tea in the buffet??   Wow.  Did not know that.  I just assumed everyone could get water, lemonade, ice tea for "free".  

[Morgsmom]

47 minutes ago, clemsonlori98 said:

You have to pay for simple iced tea in the buffet??   Wow.  Did not know that.  I just assumed everyone could get water, lemonade, ice tea for "free".  

Must depend on ship and sailing.  In the US/Caribbean tea/water/lemonade are free.  As are juices at breakfast.

[Oxo]

5 hours ago, clemsonlori98 said:

You have to pay for simple iced tea in the buffet??   Wow.  Did not know that.  I just assumed everyone could get water, lemonade, ice tea for "free".  

This is a first! I have been cruising since 1986 and on over 100+ cruises and never, even on MSC as Diamond, heard of paying for Ice Tea. 

I would be totally embarrassed if I was MSC!!

Which ship is this on where you have to pay for Ice Tea? I know the posting says Seashore. I just want to be correct when I reference this.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Oxo

[Nunagoras]

5 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

Must depend on ship and sailing.  In the US/Caribbean tea/water/lemonade are free.  As are juices at breakfast.

As far as I know, on all MSC cruises I went on they had at least one station on the buffet serving: Iced water, room temperature water, hot water, regular coffee and regular decaffeinated coffee, some regular tea bags and some concentrated juices at breakfast. As far as I know for US sailings they've added lemonade to the cart. On the MDR there used to be no free drinks, but all US passengers used to have a bottled water package, at least. Maybe they've free water on US sailings? Covid restrictions may imply that either way: Crew managed stations for the free buffet drinks or no station at all if no crew member available. Have a nice day!

[alyssamma]

7 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

Must depend on ship and sailing.  In the US/Caribbean tea/water/lemonade are free.  As are juices at breakfast.

This is correct. It also depends on where you book from. So an American booking a European cruise will get different things for free than a European will.

 

[psmarkle]

On 4/16/2022 at 3:18 PM, cellfree said:

We arrived at 1050 - or pretty close to that - have got to admit we were really shocked at line - 1050 was our check in time - appears no need to pay attention to that - at least not today. But right now we are lounging by one of the pools. Perhaps the increased number of

cruisers will be a benefit - more food choices, etc. Remains to be seen. Buffet area seating is very lovely. 

I just got off before you boarded. There was something going on with CBP that they had to pause disembarkation for about 40 mins before being allowed to resume. For us, that meant a leisurely b'fast and back to the room for final preps, but I did mention to my DW, "this is going to seriously screw up the timing of people getting onboard today!"  Most sorry you had to be the recipient of the next order effects of Customs holding up the procedures...not sure the reason, but I choose to believe it had to be in all of our best interests?

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

On MSC in Europe and in the Middle East, there was no free ice tea from the dispensing machines and you had to purchase it by the can (or free if you had a drink package). I've not been on a MSC cruise in the Caribbean/Bahamas in a couple years but my recollection is their dispensing machines in the buffet had free ice tea and lemonade. For U.S. cruise departures, they had to match what their competitors offer.

[cellfree]

20 hours ago, psmarkle said:

I just got off before you boarded. There was something going on with CBP that they had to pause disembarkation for about 40 mins before being allowed to resume. For us, that meant a leisurely b'fast and back to the room for final preps, but I did mention to my DW, "this is going to seriously screw up the timing of people getting onboard today!"  Most sorry you had to be the recipient of the next order effects of Customs holding up the procedures...not sure the reason, but I choose to believe it had to be in all of our best interests?

Interesting to hear that, I cannot imagine the wait at embarkation is always two hours plus, it is not easy to “stand” in a line for that long.

Tuesday afternoon - just leaving San Juan, we have a Sea Day then overnight at Ocean Cay.

Cruising along!

[m921759]

Did you see if there were wine or liquor tastings on board? We appreciate those activities on other cruise lines. Thanks!

[NMsunset]

3 hours ago, m921759 said:

Did you see if there were wine or liquor tastings on board? We appreciate those activities on other cruise lines. Thanks!

Hi 759-

I was on in February and they did not have tasting at the duty free, but had some good prices and sales...just follow the daily's for specials.

At bars, they did offer tasters of beer and wine when we asked.

 

Pre-pandemic, I did enjoy tastings on multiple MSC cruises

 

Cheers! 

[NMsunset]

On 4/18/2022 at 7:22 PM, psmarkle said:

I just got off before you boarded. There was something going on with CBP that they had to pause disembarkation for about 40 mins before being allowed to resume. For us, that meant a leisurely b'fast and back to the room for final preps, but I did mention to my DW, "this is going to seriously screw up the timing of people getting onboard today!"  Most sorry you had to be the recipient of the next order effects of Customs holding up the procedures...not sure the reason, but I choose to believe it had to be in all of our best interests?

This is not MSC (or other cruise line) issue, CBP/Homeland Security is the typical bottleneck for offload and boarding delays.

 

To think 2-3 hours to board a cruise during a pandemic is bad...then maybe travel in general is not a good idea for those expectations. Airlines with delays and cancellations are 1000% worse than any cruise line...

 

Go with an open mind and ENJOY that cruises are even happening.

Attitude is everything...

Cheers!