I booked an MSC cruise even after being refused by my TA. Beautiful ship but many cons.

[morpheusofthesea]

13 hours ago, chaparro28906 said:

They have owed me $3500 for over 6 months and constantly give me new reasons that they cannot pay me. 

Did you use a travel agent to originally book your cruise?

  Reading this statement gave us concern. We had to cancel our April 2023 cruise on MSC because DW got sick on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam Spring break March 2023. You all probably read about the outbreak. She was hospitalized. Doctors advised her not to go on April cruise. Called Travel agent and cancelled with MSC. MSC gave us a refund of $3316 and our Travel Guard refunded us the difference $9015. We got the Travel Guard refund within 2 weeks of sending in the paper work. We have been waiting on MSC for the promised $3316, which our TA applied for on March 29, 2023. Had our travel agent call today per your posting. Just got our reply 15 minutes ago.

"The refund has been processed. Please allow approximately 3 to 5 business days depending on their bank to see the funds." 

   Thanks for posting. Hope your travel agent is as tenacious. She is not a high volume MSC seller, she says we are her only MSC clients. We only tell her to sell her clients Yacht Club and they will stay with you forever. 

  P.S. There are many travel agents out there like ours that also give their clients UP TO 10% back in refundable OBC.

 

[luv2sailAgain]

11 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

 

The truth is that it is all about status. Your TA probably has the lowest status with MSC, so no dedicated hotline, no perks, no bonuses, it is the same as with us passengers, some are YC, some are Bella Inside and they will not get the same experience with MSC 😉 

 

 

Not sure how this works, but my TA (not in US market, so no use for you) can handle this things. He has the highest status for TA with MSC, that is COMMANDER. On the other hand exactly this TA complains a lot about Celebrity Cruises, they ignore questions, reply extremely slow, bad availability on the phone and so on. 

 

To make it short, a TA who has a excellent business status with RCCL probably will tell you bad things about MSC and that he don´t want to do business with them. And opposite with MSC "Commanders". So always keep in mind, what a TA tells you always depends on HIS relationship with the cruise line and not your cruise experience. 

 

Thank you so much! This totally makes sense.

[phissy]

On 6/21/2023 at 7:47 AM, luv2sailAgain said:

 

 

I am planning a trip for two college age kids, my mom, and myself. I rarely make changes once my plans are made.However, my mom may be more likely to require a change.

 

Thank you for any help!

You should also be aware that if you are booking YC cabins with MSC, the deposits are non refundable. You are allowed 1 change within 90 days of original cruise date. This is why most use travel insurance,

Edited June 23, 2023 by phissy

[Spurschick]

On 5/3/2023 at 7:49 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

Actually, my TA told me that MSC offers some of the highest commissions in the industry (which is how I have scored some amazing OBC).  But to answer your question, no, I don’t expect a TA (or anyone) to work for free. If a TA is saying that it’s not worth their time to deal with MSC, that’s something entirely different (from getting paid) and their personal choice based on their own circumstance. But as a travel customer, I wouldn’t work with a TA who didn’t work with MSC…which has nothing to do with whether or not I want my TA to get paid. 

Agreed - their commission is very competitive compared to other lines. I am also finding the service at the mainstream lines severely lacking lately with 2-3 hrs to resolve simple issues. 
 

a customer will not stay with me if I decide to pick and choose what I will / will not book with them. 
 

in addition I had a first time cruiser that I made an MSC booking for. After their experience with me they went on over the next year to book 2 group bookings with over 50 cabins.  You never know what one small booking might turn into.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Spurschick

[chaparro28906]

6 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Did you use a travel agent to originally book your cruise?

  Reading this statement gave us concern. We had to cancel our April 2023 cruise on MSC because DW got sick on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam Spring break March 2023. You all probably read about the outbreak. She was hospitalized. Doctors advised her not to go on April cruise. Called Travel agent and cancelled with MSC. MSC gave us a refund of $3316 and our Travel Guard refunded us the difference $9015. We got the Travel Guard refund within 2 weeks of sending in the paper work. We have been waiting on MSC for the promised $3316, which our TA applied for on March 29, 2023. Had our travel agent call today per your posting. Just got our reply 15 minutes ago.

"The refund has been processed. Please allow approximately 3 to 5 business days depending on their bank to see the funds." 

   Thanks for posting. Hope your travel agent is as tenacious. She is not a high volume MSC seller, she says we are her only MSC clients. We only tell her to sell her clients Yacht Club and they will stay with you forever. 

  P.S. There are many travel agents out there like ours that also give their clients UP TO 10% back in refundable OBC.

 

I booked directly with MSC.  Maybe if I had used a Ta I would have an advocate.  My reason for the refund was also a missed cruise due to sickness.  They approved the refund. They just won't give it to me.  Today they emailed me and asked me to prove my residency in a country I do not live it. And they have a copy of my passport! 🤷

[chaparro28906]

6 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Did you use a travel agent to originally book your cruise?

  Reading this statement gave us concern. We had to cancel our April 2023 cruise on MSC because DW got sick on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam Spring break March 2023. You all probably read about the outbreak. She was hospitalized. Doctors advised her not to go on April cruise. Called Travel agent and cancelled with MSC. MSC gave us a refund of $3316 and our Travel Guard refunded us the difference $9015. We got the Travel Guard refund within 2 weeks of sending in the paper work. We have been waiting on MSC for the promised $3316, which our TA applied for on March 29, 2023. Had our travel agent call today per your posting. Just got our reply 15 minutes ago.

"The refund has been processed. Please allow approximately 3 to 5 business days depending on their bank to see the funds." 

   Thanks for posting. Hope your travel agent is as tenacious. She is not a high volume MSC seller, she says we are her only MSC clients. We only tell her to sell her clients Yacht Club and they will stay with you forever. 

  P.S. There are many travel agents out there like ours that also give their clients UP TO 10% back in refundable OBC.

 

No, I booked directly with MSC. Huge mistake.

[20165]

9 hours ago, chaparro28906 said:

I booked directly with MSC.  Maybe if I had used a Ta I would have an advocate.  My reason for the refund was also a missed cruise due to sickness.  They approved the refund. They just won't give it to me.  Today they emailed me and asked me to prove my residency in a country I do not live it. And they have a copy of my passport! 🤷

Not sure what credit card you used to book, but we denied about $3k of charges on our AMEX from our cruise last week.  MSC wouldnt/couldnt provide me any detail as to what those charges are for so let them duke it out with AMEX.  

[Georgia_Peaches]

4 minutes ago, 20165 said:

Not sure what credit card you used to book, but we denied about $3k of charges on our AMEX from our cruise last week.  MSC wouldnt/couldnt provide me any detail as to what those charges are for so let them duke it out with AMEX.  

Do you mean they wouldn't give you an itemized printout of your expenses while on the cruise or that there was an unexplained 3K charge on your bill?  I guess what I'm trying to understand is how you know that none of those 3K worth of charges weren't made by you or someone in your party? 

[20165]

8 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Do you mean they wouldn't give you an itemized printout of your expenses while on the cruise or that there was an unexplained 3K charge on your bill?  I guess what I'm trying to understand is how you know that none of those 3K worth of charges weren't made by you or someone in your party? 

Correct, no itemized printout on any of our 3 cabins.  When i called monday, they said the matter was already settled and they wouldnt email me a detail report of what those charges were for.  And im sure some of those charges are valid, i just have no idea which ones.  There were 22 charges on my amex ranging from $5-$400+ dollars.  The lady i was talking to at AMEX said she was surprised it did set off fraud alerts there were some many charges last week. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

13 minutes ago, 20165 said:

Correct, no itemized printout on any of our 3 cabins.  When i called monday, they said the matter was already settled and they wouldnt email me a detail report of what those charges were for.  And im sure some of those charges are valid, i just have no idea which ones.  There were 22 charges on my amex ranging from $5-$400+ dollars.  The lady i was talking to at AMEX said she was surprised it did set off fraud alerts there were some many charges last week. 

Wow!  Seems like such bad business practice on the part of MSC.  Sadly, it's likely going to take many people disputing charges in order for them to make a change in their practice.  I mean, how hard is it to provide a print out of charges?  I remember when the envelope would appear on the door on the last night of the cruise...then it moved to the TV screen.  The fact that MSC are not doing either of those things is frankly, just stupid.  Good on you!  I would have done the same.

[20165]

2 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Wow!  Seems like such bad business practice on the part of MSC.  Sadly, it's likely going to take many people disputing charges in order for them to make a change in their practice.  I mean, how hard is it to provide a print out of charges?  I remember when the envelope would appear on the door on the last night of the cruise...then it moved to the TV screen.  The fact that MSC are not doing either of those things is frankly, just stupid.  Good on you!  I would have done the same.

Exactly.  I dont ever remember not receiving an itemized receipt on any of the 30+ cruises we have been on.  Also, the other cruise lines would put pending charges on my credit card throughout the cruise, but they would all go away and i would get one lump sum charge at the end of the cruise based on the itemized receipt i got.  MSC, 22 actual charges on my credit card that dont correlate to anything we can think of buying. For the larger dollar amounts, it looks like they were bundling charges.  who knows.  Crazy.

[perakcruiser]

2 hours ago, 20165 said:

Exactly.  I dont ever remember not receiving an itemized receipt on any of the 30+ cruises we have been on. 

I dont remember not getting an itemized receipt on any of the 10+ MSC cruises I did. And certainly never anything has been bundled. There have been wrong items one or two times which immediately were removed after I complained at reception. But I would never leave any cruise ship without checking and settling the final bill. Also during the cruise anytime you want you can MSC let print out a detailed bill that would also include charges that have been maid two minutes before. 

[Oceansaway17]

On 4/30/2023 at 2:32 PM, rsail203 said:

When I told my Travel Agent I was considering a cruise on MSC, she absolutely refused to have anything to do with it. Not even for a commission, was she willing to do any business with MSC. She kiddingly said if I booked MSC, she would fly from Florida to New York and slap my face. So my previous reading on cruise critic about MSC and TA's was obviously true. But, I watched videos online about the Meraviglia, and it's a beautiful ship and reviews were mixed and I needed a week away so I booked it and obviously will not turn it over to my TA.

 

The problems that I've seen about MSC rules are pretty ridiculous:

 

1. Not allowing you to switch devices on wifi.

 

2. Not allowing you to use your drink package in specialty restaurants.

 

3. Smaller portions in the dining room.

 

4. User unfriendly website and app.

 

5. Muster drill in room and then telephone call and everyone jamming stairs to check their card at muster station.

 

6. Copied from a cruise critic entry:"Their pre-cruise booking process, e-mail communication, and online/phone support is a glorified turd in most instances.  

 

7.  Charging extra for two shows.

 

8.  Not allowing drinks in the theater.

see ya should listen to your travel person.

Funny she had lots of anger towards MSC.  

[doones2]

On 6/22/2023 at 7:15 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

I don't know anything about why you are deserving of a $3500 refund or why you haven't received it yet, but I was onboard the Meraviglia for 18 days in April and I don't remember even once being spoken to by a photographer or any announcements about spending more money onboard...

I was on World Europa and not once did I ever have a photographer pester me to purchase and I don’t remember announcements about spending money on anything in the shops.  Sometimes I think people complain about any and everything.  Stop the stressing and enjoy your cruise.  And I would never do business with a travel agent that picked and chose only cruise lines that are easy to deal with for them

[jimdalva]

And No drinks in or even near the pool!

[1kaper]

On 6/22/2023 at 2:45 AM, chaparro28906 said:

MSC nickels and dimes you to death. Their photographers (of which there is an army) constantly hound you to buy photos. Every announcement is advertising more opportunities to spend.  And the daily paper is half advertising to sell you more stuff!

 

I have never sailed RC but I hear they nickel and dime you to death. My sister hated her cruise with them and cited that as one reason. She did not find MSC did that. Nor do I. 
 

Everything I have experienced on MSC I have experienced on Carnival. And my friend who I travel with on NCL experienced the same.
 

I find far less announcement about sales on MSC. I can’t even recall one. Carnival is constant. The RD is much quieter than on Carnival. 
 

the one exception I found was the first day where the staff try to sell drink packages or dinners. But I just say no thanks and keep going.