Wow, how comes so cheap from Southampton?

[johnnylikely]

There are some AMAZING deals from Southampton with MSC and Virtuosa- anyone know the official reason?

Most cruiselines seem to be raising their prices these days.

Desperation?

£180 solo traveller - 4x nights

£374 7x nights

 

That's mad cheap lol

[Cruise5life]

49 minutes ago, johnnylikely said:

There are some AMAZING deals from Southampton with MSC and Virtuosa- anyone know the official reason?

Most cruiselines seem to be raising their prices these days.

Desperation?

£180 solo traveller - 4x nights

£374 7x nights

 

That's mad cheap lol

There’s gotta be something wrong.    They have 4 cruises for the same dates and same ship.    And are sold out balcony’s.      Dates are Jan 6th 2023.   

[Nunagoras]

Basically speaking: Larger ship on a short notice versus only the retirees having real flexibility on last minute bookings is not a secret. They wanted to replace Preziosa with Virtuosa... Good luck now filling the ships. Either way: For the ones able to go: Enjoy till it's available!...

[perakcruiser]

Yeah, filling the Virtuosa in Northern Europe during winter, there is only one chance to achieve it, the shocking good prices.

 

Oops, we booked it 😄 

[sidari]

Much of the outside of the ship will be unusable, cannot begin to imagine a Xmas cruise with kids and the waterpark and everything else outside is closed ... 😳

[Aeroplex]

😂 I paid for 4 nights mediterran effectively 75€ on MSC Grandiosa. 
 

No single occupancy fee. 
Diamond Dinner, Macaron, Spumante 👌

 

180 GBP for 4 day… that’s not a bargain 😏
 

By the way, you can book the cruise also in France, Austria, Germany. Sometime there is a huge price gap 😉 

Edited October 8, 2022 by Aeroplex

[Essiesmom]

11 hours ago, Cruise5life said:

There’s gotta be something wrong.    They have 4 cruises for the same dates and same ship.    And are sold out balcony’s.      Dates are Jan 6th 2023.   

You have to learn to read the itineraries.  Viewing them on cruisetimetables.com, it is obvious you can buy the cruise in different lengths.  9,13,14&21 nights.  All start in Soton.   It looking forward, you can also do the cruises from Hamburg, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, etc.    Typical MSC scheduling.  EM

[8420PR]

£50 per person per night is quite typical for MSC in shoulder and off-season for less desirable cruises, and while it is certainly a decent price I wouldn't call it particularly unusual.   The lack of single supplement is more rarely seen though.

 

As always, you get what you pay for.

 

 

[johnnylikely]

I've never seen fares like that before from Southampton, esp with No single supplement- at the very least 125-150%

Edited October 8, 2022 by johnnylikely

[styles27]

Pricing for some of the Caribbean cruises is also very inexpensive. 
Really can’t beat MSC’s prices right now which is one reason we keep booking with them 

[Morgsmom]

18 hours ago, Aeroplex said:

 

By the way, you can book the cruise also in France, Austria, Germany. Sometime there is a huge price gap 😉 

Do you mean embarking in each of these countries?  or using different MSC websites?

[Aeroplex]

1 hour ago, Morgsmom said:

Do you mean embarking in each of these countries?  or using different MSC websites?

Using different MSC countries to book the cruise. 

[Morgsmom]

9 hours ago, Aeroplex said:

Using different MSC countries to book the cruise. 

so interesting; I have found significantly cheaper fares on the Italian website but cannot book as the default country of residence is Italy.  Is there a workaround?

[perakcruiser]

1 hour ago, Morgsmom said:

so interesting; I have found significantly cheaper fares on the Italian website but cannot book as the default country of residence is Italy.  Is there a workaround?

EU citizens/residents have the legal right to book anywhere in the EU and cannot be forced to use their "home" country website/dealer/agent. In your case you can try a fake Italian address booking, but then you are not protected by your home countries customer rights and MSC also can cancel your booking or do whatever they want with it😄 Also your travel insurance - if you have one - could be a problem as the address on the document not matches the address in your insurance policy. 

 

When you come from a country with almost zero customer rights and no specific MSC website, let´s say Malaysia for example😉, certainly it is not a big thing, in your case I would only take the risk if it is really worth it.

 

[Aeroplex]

2 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

EU citizens/residents have the legal right to book anywhere in the EU and cannot be forced to use their "home" country website/dealer/agent. In your case you can try a fake Italian address booking, but then you are not protected by your home countries customer rights and MSC also can cancel your booking or do whatever they want with it😄 Also your travel insurance - if you have one - could be a problem as the address on the document not matches the address in your insurance policy. 

 

When you come from a country with almost zero customer rights and no specific MSC website, let´s say Malaysia for example😉, certainly it is not a big thing, in your case I would only take the risk if it is really worth it.

 

You don’t need to fake any adress. Every website accept every adress. For US and UK I don’t know. 
 

But I would say it’s also possible for an Australian / Canadian to book through a German travel agency or MSC direct.
 

 

 

[Aeroplex]

1 hour ago, Morgsmom said:

so interesting; I have found significantly cheaper fares on the Italian website but cannot book as the default country of residence is Italy.  Is there a workaround?

Can you show me a screenshot ? Okay there shouldn’t be any barrier 😉 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Aeroplex

[jsydanma]

We booked a 4-night Virtuosa from Zeebrugge for 141€ / pers. (that includes Voyages club discount)

Amazing low prices, could not resist. 😄

 

[Aeroplex]

1 hour ago, jsydanma said:

We booked a 4-night Virtuosa from Zeebrugge for 141€ / pers. (that includes Voyages club discount)

Amazing low prices, could not resist. 😄

 

I usually use a 100€ voucher additionally  without any minimum order. 🙃 worked out perfectly 

[1trainer1]

we have booked 3 cruises in school holidays all out of Southampton for a family of 4 in Balcony cabins Each time and in total it has cost about £4,000 for Fantastica Cabins so we have booked our cabin numbers on each cruise as well

 

May Half Term, Week in August and October Half term, no drinks packages yet or parking but for 3 weeks holidays full board you cannot really complain

 

 

[Frode]

The prices are low due to the fact that "you get what you pay for" 😜 (ie low price = low quality)

[perakcruiser]

6 hours ago, Frode said:

The prices are low due to the fact that "you get what you pay for" 😜 (ie low price = low quality)

I don´t think so. On my last cruises with MSC I got really good for amazing low prices. Certainly MSC is far away from perfect, but when I think about all the cruises, holidays, flights, hotels I booked in this life I really have to say that the MSC cruises are unmatched in terms of price performance ratio. Maybe it is because of MSC, maybe it is because I am booking them so clever 😄

[egyptgirl]

I thought also to book this cruise from Zeebrugge but one obstacle that wil certainly prevent a lot of Europeans to take this cruise is that you need an international passport. Since we don't have this standard and can travel to a lot of countries with our national ID this would mean an additional fee of around 80 euros per person and especially a lot of older people never travel outside Europe. I contacted MSC and even you don't leave the ship in Southampton there is this ridiculous rule about the international passport, they don't even let you embark in Zeebrugge without it. So it will be more easy (and better weather) to cruise the mediterranean or Canary Islands or even Turkey. So this also can be a reason they have difficulties filling the ship especially with embarkation from european ports.

Edited October 11, 2022 by egyptgirl

[Aeroplex]

Here comes the cheapest balcony cabin, Suite or Yacht club suite I have seen so far 😉

 

The base fare are already very cheap, but booking through the austria MSC website with their free night special makes it even crazier. 

 

For 5 nights 😉 balcony from 269€ / 236 GBP, Yacht Club Deluxe Suite starting from 1000€

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Aeroplex

[egyptgirl]

 That's what I said in my previous post, that I can believe that they have problems filling the Virtuosa from European ports because although also cheap (aprox 400 euro for 7 nights) Europeans still have to posess an international pasport so aditional costs. And on the Belgium websites they always have crazy prices like this 6 night from 189 eur on 7 november, even with flights it comes cheaper then leaving from Zeebrugge for us. Last year we dit a 7 night cruise Med with flight from Paris included in balcony beginning september for 499 euro with MSC. So definitely keep an eye on the Belgium website 😊.

[1trainer1]

16 hours ago, egyptgirl said:

 That's what I said in my previous post, that I can believe that they have problems filling the Virtuosa from European ports because although also cheap (aprox 400 euro for 7 nights) Europeans still have to posess an international pasport so aditional costs. And on the Belgium websites they always have crazy prices like this 6 night from 189 eur on 7 november, even with flights it comes cheaper then leaving from Zeebrugge for us. Last year we dit a 7 night cruise Med with flight from Paris included in balcony beginning september for 499 euro with MSC. So definitely keep an eye on the Belgium website 😊.

 

what is the website address for the Belgian website?

 

I have always wanted to try Yacht club and for £1000 pp might be worth a go