$521…for real?

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Naive?  That may be a little unfair.  We spent a lot of time outside the YC...went to the water park, sport court and arcade...also did the simulators and watched bowling.  We walked the outdoor decks daily.  Inside, we spent a lot of time on the main promenade watching the overhead light show, listening to live music, in the casino and the shops.  Went to the sports bar/pub and had dinner in the steak house.  On the private island we hung out at the lighthouse bar and a beach near the spa area.  Had lunch at the YC restaurant.  In all those venues we never encountered unruly passengers or poor service.  I will say that the pool decks were hopping with activity as was the buffet.  Both areas were a little more lively for my taste but that's just me...

 

Do I think YC is better?  Yep...but I didn't choose the YC to get away from unrulies, I chose YC because we are at a point in our lives where we choose to sail in suites...regardless of the ship.  And like all the other categories on MSC, the YC prices are better than NCL and Celebrity...

Well said. 

[At Sea At Peace]

3 hours ago, CruisingNole said:

Every review/comment about MSC should come with a disclaimer if the writer stayed in YC. 

 

 

Why, isn't the Yacht Club is on MSC ships.  The Haven is on NCL ships.  The Retreat . . . . .

 

 

3 hours ago, CruisingNole said:

You cannot give a fair evaluation of a cruise if you’re spending 2x - 3x what everyone else is paying so you can spend the majority of your time in a bubble to insulate yourself from what’s on the outside. 

 

 

Seriously.  Nice try at classifying an entire group of cruisers. 🤧

 

3 hours ago, CruisingNole said:

 

And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with paying to stay in YC…

 

 

But I just did.  🙃

 

[styles27]

I tend to agree that you really can’t get a feel for the current pax problems when the ship is sold out if you’re in the YC. 
Why?

When you do go out of the YC to different venues around the ship you know if things get ugly, if there aren’t any loungers or chairs by the pools, if the buffet doesn’t have napkins and flatware or if the lines at the bars are 10-15 people deep you can walk back to the bubble of the YC and close the door on the craziness. That is huge! 

For those of us who didn’t book YC the only way to escape the masses is to go back to our room which we did more than on any other cruise. Thank goodness we had a great aft balcony as we were on it most nights by 8:30…never spent as much time in our room/balcony as we did those 2 weeks. 
 

I’ve cruised on MSC in the YC and out.
If I’m being honest there is no comparison to having your own TS lounge with snacks and entertainment, an exclusive YC only restaurant, a beautiful pool deck with enough loungers for everyone, private pool and hottubs, great outdoor bar and grill for breakfast and lunch not to mention the concierge and butler. 
 

The YC costs double or triple more than the non YC categories so it should be a heck of a lot better. I’m not saying it shouldn’t.
 

All I and some others are 

saying is, it’s impossible to know what it’s like to spend an entire cruise around pax like I described earlier knowing you can’t enjoy the ship or the pool or the lounges or buffets without being surrounded by them. 
 

In 14 days we got loungers 3 times. On embarkation day because we were on by 11:15, the day we were in Panama because we stayed on the ship and the B2B day because we were the first back on the ship before they allowed the new passengers on. 
 

The other days…simply not enough chairs on the outside decks. We were in South America where it’s hot and people wanted to be near the pools or on deck anywhere. A simple thing like adding more chairs could solve that. 

 

[mnpurple]

@styles27 I see how disappointing this experience was for you. I have to wonder if a lot of the problems were also the itinerary for this particular cruise.  We had three sea days and on the cruise I was on, Ocean Cay was cancelled, which lead to a fourth (3 in a row). That is a lot of time for people to be "cooped" up on a ship together. I would believe that is way too much and I really felt for the staff having the added day with all passengers on-board.  Not only were there a lot of sea days, but it was rough seas and the outdoor pools were closed at times.  I was in YC, but paying a lot of attention to people when I wasn't in the "bubble" because it was after you reported your experience and we wanted to explore what the ship had to offer. 

 

I noticed the pool decks being extremely crowded, but never saw anyone behaving badly. On the contrary, when we attended activities on the main pool deck, someone offered to share his table. After he left, we shared with some others. There were kids "being kids" playing nearby.  So maybe if they could add more loungers or enforce the "chair hogs" it would help.  MSC also was doing maintenance on the hot tubs and had several closed at a time during our cruise. Probably not ideal timing to do this on a capacity 10-day sailing.

 

We went to a number of shows and the only probably was people coming in late. We were in a few of the clubs, including the jazz club which was generally full, but a few spots to sit. The staff there was great and walking around taking orders.

 

I hesitate to post on many topics because we sailed in the YC and people want to perceive us as snobs.  Our first YC cruise, we did stay mostly in the bubble, but it was port heavy and we were tired. This cruise we did the opposite.  Next cruise, we will be in a YC interior, which is not too much more than some balcony choices outside.

[no1talks]

19 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

"I was left to wonder why other lines were charging so much for the same product."

Debt, G.P., all that COVID debt.

[no1talks]

I think I'll say a few things. It may perturb some folks. On this particular occasion, I don't care, because I'm going into a very rare three-day weekend and, as the youngsters say, I'm feelin' myself.

 

Like many CC posters on the MSC board, I've mentioned the "yahoo" problem. I've made recommendations as to the best course of action folks can take for themselves. In a post last month, I went so far as to say we would give Oceania a whirl, if our March cruise on Seascape is overrun with the raised-by-wolves constituency.

 

However, when I read comments about how MSC needs to raise the prices to keep the yahoos off the cruises, I become a bit irked.

The simple fact is this: Not all of those who would be excluded from MSC by a price bump are yahoos. A good amount are regular, upstanding working-class folks who would not be able to take their family on a cruise, but for MSC's low prices.

Another thing. Those who would tsk-tsk the YCers and say, "You, in your bubble, have no idea how rough it is out here, in gen pop! When you advocate for an exclusionary price increase, you are just advocating for a bigger bubble, right after poo-pooing the current bubble people. Sheesh.

Even more grotesque would be those among you who, perhaps, came up from modest beginnings yourselves. "I'm cruising now, and I don't want any hooligans to screw it up. Raise the fare and pull up the ladders. If it keeps out folks like I used to be, oh well."

Here's an idea that will eliminate most yahoos and still keep the fares affordable: Bring back actual dress codes. Nothing repels people raised by wolves quite like a good ol' dress code. However, this, too, will have collateral damage. Just as a price increase will exclude the salt-of-the-earth working families, a fair-but-firm dress code will put off those who were not raised by wolves, but do enjoy dressing like it.

I suspect you, gentle readers, know which of these two groups has somewhat less of my sympathy.

Seriously, though, the only thing required to significantly dampen the hooliganism is for MSC to enforce their own policies. There are already rules about swimwear in the eateries, diaper-wearing babies in the pools, out-of-bounds smoking, public drunk & disorderly, and just about every other "questionable" behavior.

Enforce your own rules, MSC. If lines get crossed, put a big, fat fine on the cruise account. Won't pay at check-out? Send it straight to collections. Even those raised by wolves want to avoid hits to their credit rating. If lines get really crossed, march 'em down the gangway, luggage in tow, as soon as the ship is in port. "Oh, now you're sorry about all that business you started? Parla alla mano."

 

Cheers!

[styles27]

12 minutes ago, no1talks said:

I think I'll say a few things. It may perturb some folks. On this particular occasion, I don't care, because I'm going into a very rare three-day weekend and, as the youngsters say, I'm feelin' myself.

 

Like many CC posters on the MSC board, I've mentioned the "yahoo" problem. I've made recommendations as to the best course of action folks can take for themselves. In a post last month, I went so far as to say we would give Oceania a whirl, if our March cruise on Seascape is overrun with the raised-by-wolves constituency.

 

However, when I read comments about how MSC needs to raise the prices to keep the yahoos off the cruises, I become a bit irked.

The simple fact is this: Not all of those who would be excluded from MSC by a price bump are yahoos. A good amount are regular, upstanding working-class folks who would not be able to take their family on a cruise, but for MSC's low prices.

Another thing. Those who would tsk-tsk the YCers and say, "You, in your bubble, have no idea how rough it is out here, in gen pop! When you advocate for an exclusionary price increase, you are just advocating for a bigger bubble, right after poo-pooing the current bubble people. Sheesh.

Even more grotesque would be those among you who, perhaps, came up from modest beginnings yourselves. "I'm cruising now, and I don't want any hooligans to screw it up. Raise the fare and pull up the ladders. If it keeps out folks like I used to be, oh well."

Here's an idea that will eliminate most yahoos and still keep the fares affordable: Bring back actual dress codes. Nothing repels people raised by wolves quite like a good ol' dress code. However, this, too, will have collateral damage. Just as a price increase will exclude the salt-of-the-earth working families, a fair-but-firm dress code will put off those who were not raised by wolves, but do enjoy dressing like it.

I suspect you, gentle readers, know which of these two groups has somewhat less of my sympathy.

Seriously, though, the only thing required to significantly dampen the hooliganism is for MSC to enforce their own policies. There are already rules about swimwear in the eateries, diaper-wearing babies in the pools, out-of-bounds smoking, public drunk & disorderly, and just about every other "questionable" behavior.

Enforce your own rules, MSC. If lines get crossed, put a big, fat fine on the cruise account. Won't pay at check-out? Send it straight to collections. Even those raised by wolves want to avoid hits to their credit rating. If lines get really crossed, march 'em down the gangway, luggage in tow, as soon as the ship is in port. "Oh, now you're sorry about all that business you started? Parla alla mano."

 

Cheers!

For some perspective on pricing.
 

Our 2 weeks on Divina last month cost less than most of our 1 week cruises the past 25 yrs. I went back and looked recently because we had this conversation with friends.

So there’s definitely room for them to adjust their pricing. 
 

A big problem with their low prices is they’re offering the unlimited alcohol with it. 
 

You said it…they already have policies in place to control things but they either don’t train the management to enforce their policies or they simply don’t care. 

Security? That’s a joke!

I had a stupid woman push her boyfriend into the aft pool landing on my back. I had my back to the side of the pool so didn’t see it coming. I’ve had 3 spine surgeries since 2016 so I definitely didn’t need a man falling on my back. 
My husband is not a confrontational type by nature but I really thought he was going to lose it. It was the second day of a 2 sea days before getting back to Miami so our patience with these people was gone after spending 10 days with them. 
Thank God the lifeguard saw the entire thing and did handle it. He physically pulled the guy from the pool when he wouldn’t get out when told to. 
I think security should have been called but the lifeguard was the only crew member in that area. 
 

The worst part of it was the couple laughed. They thought it was hilarious. They didn’t apologize even when people were telling them they needed to. They were clearly intoxicated and who knows what else they were on but their behavior was not normal. 

 

I’d like to know how you would feel if something like that happened to you or your family member?  

I wonder how many incidents need to happen before they take action. 
 

Carnival just put out a video announcement warning people that security is being enhanced and certain behaviors and marijuana etc will not be tolerated on their ships.  
 

MSC needs to take a good look at that. We never had these kind of cruises on Carnival. 

 

[no1talks]

25 minutes ago, styles27 said:

"Carnival just put out a video announcement warning people that security is being enhanced and certain behaviors and marijuana etc will not be tolerated on their ships."

Carnival may be all hat and no cattle, when it comes to following through with disciplinary actions. It wouldn't be the first time a business hoped the threat of something would be enough and then didn't make good on the threat.

I shall eagerly await the first "Carnival tossed us off the ship in friggin' punta cana!" post on CC.

Also, in fairness, from what I read across the various cruise line boards here, there is plenty of gutlessness to go around.

[SpencerJ]

On 2/16/2023 at 7:18 PM, CruisingNole said:

As of this posting, I can purchase 3 night interior cabin on Meraviglia in March with the basic drink package, wifi and gratuities for $521. And that’s with the single supplement!

 

I can’t help but wonder…why are they doing this? Why devalue an already diminished experience? When you look at what RC, NCL, Carnival are currently charging for sailings out of PC, it really defies all logic.

 

Considering how understaffed they are, is it really a wise move to practically give cruises away for the sake of filling the ship? This is greed at its worst. I almost booked, but I can’t help but think of the crew who are already being worked to death.

 

Hey MSC…DO BETTER!

I too take advantage of these rates because a CRUISE is what you make of it. I have to agree though. If they do not have the staff to handle this volume, then they need for sake of humanity, lower the occupancy for a few weeks. 

 

MSC is trying to build a clientele here in the US. People know there is a choice between who to cruise, and not to cruise, and they know people such as myself shop around. 

[CruisingNole]

1 hour ago, SpencerJ said:

I too take advantage of these rates because a CRUISE is what you make of it. I have to agree though. If they do not have the staff to handle this volume, then they need for sake of humanity, lower the occupancy for a few weeks. 

 

MSC is trying to build a clientele here in the US. People know there is a choice between who to cruise, and not to cruise, and they know people such as myself shop around. 

I have a friend on right now and joined the FB group to get an idea of what’s happening. Apparently most room service orders were just straight up cancelled during this cruise as they didn’t have the crew to fulfill the orders. Orders that do arrive are hours late with the wrong items.

 

Anyone defending this nonsense should join some of these FB groups to see what’s really going on instead of recounting fond memories from a year ago that are no longer representative of the current product.

[SpencerJ]

7 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

I have a friend on right now and joined the FB group to get an idea of what’s happening. Apparently most room service orders were just straight up cancelled during this cruise as they didn’t have the crew to fulfill the orders. Orders that do arrive are hours late with the wrong items.

 

Anyone defending this nonsense should join some of these FB groups to see what’s really going on instead of recounting fond memories from a year ago that are no longer representative of the current product.

 

 

Only if you could see the photos I have on my phone. It was a MESS. HOT MESS. 

 

People are paying sometimes thousands of dollars to be on this ship, and are on vacation. Building memories. 

 

I am in the groups lol. HOT MESS. 

[CruisingNole]

28 minutes ago, SpencerJ said:

 

 

Only if you could see the photos I have on my phone. It was a MESS. HOT MESS. 

 

People are paying sometimes thousands of dollars to be on this ship, and are on vacation. Building memories. 

 

I am in the groups lol. HOT MESS. 

Apparently there isn’t even pool deck beverage service…no servers walking around. You have to wait in line at the bar and the lines are long.

 

Delivering room service, serving beverages…these things are the most basic of basic services one would expect on a cruise….but apparently not on MSC.

[CruisingNole]

12 hours ago, styles27 said:

For some perspective on pricing.
 

Our 2 weeks on Divina last month cost less than most of our 1 week cruises the past 25 yrs. I went back and looked recently because we had this conversation with friends.

So there’s definitely room for them to adjust their pricing. 
 

A big problem with their low prices is they’re offering the unlimited alcohol with it. 
 

You said it…they already have policies in place to control things but they either don’t train the management to enforce their policies or they simply don’t care. 

Security? That’s a joke!

I had a stupid woman push her boyfriend into the aft pool landing on my back. I had my back to the side of the pool so didn’t see it coming. I’ve had 3 spine surgeries since 2016 so I definitely didn’t need a man falling on my back. 
My husband is not a confrontational type by nature but I really thought he was going to lose it. It was the second day of a 2 sea days before getting back to Miami so our patience with these people was gone after spending 10 days with them. 
Thank God the lifeguard saw the entire thing and did handle it. He physically pulled the guy from the pool when he wouldn’t get out when told to. 
I think security should have been called but the lifeguard was the only crew member in that area. 
 

The worst part of it was the couple laughed. They thought it was hilarious. They didn’t apologize even when people were telling them they needed to. They were clearly intoxicated and who knows what else they were on but their behavior was not normal. 

 

I’d like to know how you would feel if something like that happened to you or your family member?  

I wonder how many incidents need to happen before they take action. 
 

Carnival just put out a video announcement warning people that security is being enhanced and certain behaviors and marijuana etc will not be tolerated on their ships.  
 

MSC needs to take a good look at that. We never had these kind of cruises on Carnival. 

 

This is just sad. Sorry you had to experience this. Some people are just trash.

[styles27]

1 hour ago, CruisingNole said:

This is just sad. Sorry you had to experience this. Some people are just trash.

Thank you I appreciate that.

I did a live review while on board and I was trying to be positive and diplomatic because heck we’re on a cruise what could be so bad?
But after 10 days of this sort of behavior…it was just stressful. 

We’ve had so many positive experiences on all of our cruises over the years. Including the first 2 MSC cruises. 
It makes me sad to see human beings with so little regard for their fellow man. 
 

The people on here defending the company haven’t experienced what so many of us are in the last couple of months. The reviews are shifting and

not for the better. 
 

Divina crew is stressed to the limit. I don’t blame the crew at all. I sympathize with them. I don’t know how they deal with people like this day in and day out. 

The only way to fix this is to not sell out the ship with low fares and included alcohol. Until they are fully staffed it’s just not a good business plan. 

 

My husband just corrected me on the pool incident. We were in Panama that day had stayed on the ship to be able to enjoy the pools without many people. Unfortunately the 2 intoxicated idiots stayed on with us. Just bad timing for us. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by styles27

[skittl1321]

On 2/18/2023 at 9:21 AM, CruisingNole said:

Delivering room service, serving beverages…these things are the most basic of basic services one would expect on a cruise….but apparently not on MSC.

 

I had a Carnival cruise years and years ago, where every time I called room service, it would either ring for 5+ minutes, or they would answer the line, then hang up before speaking. When we hung the breakfast card out, they took it at night, but never delivered it in the morning. (My other carnival cruises did not have this experience.) The entire cruise we never managed to get room service.  That was WELL before shortages of cruise ship staff became an issue.   

 

I've never ordered a beverage anywhere but from a bar, I don't really expect servers walking around anyway, so I can't speak to that.

 

[CruisingNole]

53 minutes ago, skittl1321 said:

 

I had a Carnival cruise years and years ago, where every time I called room service, it would either ring for 5+ minutes, or they would answer the line, then hang up before speaking. When we hung the breakfast card out, they took it at night, but never delivered it in the morning. (My other carnival cruises did not have this experience.) The entire cruise we never managed to get room service.  That was WELL before shortages of cruise ship staff became an issue.   

 

I've never ordered a beverage anywhere but from a bar, I don't really expect servers walking around anyway, so I can't speak to that.

 

So you’ve never been on a cruise or stayed at a resort where there are cocktail servers walking around to take orders and clear empty glasses? I find that impossible to believe. I’m not the most seasoned cruiser, but I’ve taken at least 12 of them on various lines and this type of service is absolutely the norm.

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, CruisingNole said:

So you’ve never been on a cruise or stayed at a resort where there are cocktail servers walking around to take orders and clear empty glasses? I find that impossible to believe. I’m not the most seasoned cruiser, but I’ve taken at least 12 of them on various lines and this type of service is absolutely the norm.

Yeah, I see servers, I tip servers, they come back often, repeat. 
 

Every nice resort or cruise I’ve experienced. 

[styles27]

Having cocktail servers at the theater, pool and lounges around the ship was much more common when we all had to pay for every drink. 
Now that most passengers are purchasing the drink packages there’s no reason to have as many servers around…the cruise line already has our money. 

When they made money off of each drink the servers were anxious to wait on people. 
 

At least that’s my theory as to why we’re not seeing as many cocktail servers and being short handed isn’t helping. 
 

We never had to go to the bar for our own drinks on our NCL cruise last April. Will see if that’s changed when we go again in April this year. 

On Divina we had a cocktail server get our drinks maybe twice in 14 days and that was in the Jazz club. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by styles27

[KKB]

Just did 5 days on Divina for $425 solo with $200 OBC.

It was a bit of a "booze cruise" not surprising at that price point & it being 5 days.

Did discover it is a "training" cruise so some things weren't perhaps as good as they should be. 

Also heard MSC is trying to become the biggest line in the US in the next 20 years. 

They will have to up there game to do that, imo, tho the price point will certainly help them.

I had a good time but not a great time. I stayed 7 more days after (comped casino cruise) & it was a bit better. 
I will sail them again before passing full judgement!

[skittl1321]

On 2/22/2023 at 10:53 AM, CruisingNole said:

So you’ve never been on a cruise or stayed at a resort where there are cocktail servers walking around to take orders and clear empty glasses? I find that impossible to believe. I’m not the most seasoned cruiser, but I’ve taken at least 12 of them on various lines and this type of service is absolutely the norm.

 

If you notice I said "I can't speak to that"- I have no idea whether there were servers walking around or not, as I get my drinks from the bar directly.

 

But, my point was, the room service stuff is not new. It is not post-covid, and it isn't MSC specific.   Cruises really ought to just charge an arm and a leg for room service to discourage it. They clearly can't keep up, especially as ships have grown to small cities.

[Georgia_Peaches]

I think this is somewhat on topic because it deals with what you get for the pricing as compared to other lines so here goes...

 

I'm taking my mother on a short cruise so we can gamble together.  I want to treat her to a suite, which is the only category I will sail in on MSC.  So I have a hold on an inside YC room on Seaside for $1120 pp.  This pricing has gone up a bit but it includes everything except specialty dining but my TA is throwing in $325 OBC.  This is for 4 nights to Ocean Cay and Nassau (another of our gambling favorites).  By comparison, I looked into Celebrity and RCI for a similar 4 night itinerary.  Celebrity was offering a sky suite on Summit for 2K per person and Royal was offering a Grand Suite for $2,500 pp.  Royal's suite perks are laughable compared to MSC.  Celebrity's suite perks are comparable but still can't match MSC line for line (no included thermal area).  So it's a no brainer that we will go MSC.  While the cruise line may not be for everyone and the nonsuite categories may not offer some of the best services, for the price paid they are well on their way to dominating the American market IMO.  For every complaint about the MSC experience here on CC or other social media sites, there are thousands of happy passengers who understand the concept of getting what they paid for.

[dexddd]

On 2/17/2023 at 8:15 AM, CruisingNole said:

Every review/comment about MSC should come with a disclaimer if the writer stayed in YC. You cannot give a fair evaluation of a cruise if you’re spending 2x - 3x what everyone else is paying so you can spend the majority of your time in a bubble to insulate yourself from what’s on the outside. And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with paying to stay in YC…but to think your experience on the same sailing might mirror someone staying in a GTY interior would be naive, to put it nicely.

A gty interior on any line, any ship is aces wild situation.