MSC cruise and flight package

[iloveglee]

We’ve booked a cruise flight package on msc seaside to Caribbean. I’m interested to hear from anyone who has been on one of these. Flying on BA charter from Gatwick. 
 

particularly interested to know how long you have to spend at the airport for the flight home, considering that cruises tend to dock early and flight home is likely to be late afternoon. 

[Mark_T]

There are often tours available on the departure day which will drop you off at the airport at the end of the tour, that can use up four or five hours typically.

[iloveglee]

Thanks that’s useful to know. We’re sailing from Barbados but won’t have chance to see much of it as we go straight to the ship from the airport. A tour might be the answer, I’ll look into it. 

[perakcruiser]

Your shuttle bus to the airport will not be too early when your flight is so late. We before had an evening flight to Europe with MSC from Havana and did not leave the ship until 4pm.

[emmas gran]

Friends did this trip in January and we did it in 2019. They did not disembark until about 12.30 to take the bus to the airport I can’t remember our timings. However the airport boarding process was like a rugby scrum complete nightmare for both of us.

They did not offer tours for them and they were flying at around 5 pm, it took around 90 minutes just to drop off luggage and absolutely no control of passengers.

[iloveglee]

It did occur to me that possibly they’d not enforce embarkation early on passengers who would have hours to wait at the airport. It also occurred that checking bags in might be a nightmare. This is something we’re going to have to think about as neither myself nor one of the friends I’m travelling with are able to stand for any length of time. 
 

We have just been given our flight times. The flight length is considerably longer than the equivalent scheduled flight. Why would this be does anyone know. It’s the same distance whether scheduled or charter. 
 

 

[kelleherdl]

If HAMRAG is online, he’s done this itinerary a couple of times from the UK. I’m assuming you are doing the Bridgetown Barbados embarkation. He’s got some tips on disembarkation day. 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

2 hours ago, iloveglee said:

We have just been given our flight times. The flight length is considerably longer than the equivalent scheduled flight. Why would this be does anyone know. It’s the same distance whether scheduled or charter.

Perhaps the flight is also picking up cruise passengers in Martinique or Guadeloupe?

[emmas gran]

I don’t think Hamrag does the package offered and arranges his own flights adding time pre or post cruise.

Regarding Martinique and Guadeloupe they have their own charter flights over the weekend, we had delayed departure as one of those flights didn’t land till 11 pm.

Our friends told me yesterday the outbound flight was originally 10.30 and changed to 8,25 from LGW, so I would have an overnight pre flight at Gatwick and not take any notice of times given until nearer the cruise 

[iloveglee]

We only just got our flight details. We’re under the impression it’s a direct flight. They could change though, it’s a while to end November. 
 

seems as though the airport experience is going to be challenging. Although lately when hasn’t it been. I think we might look into assistance at the airport. My friend is not able to walk quickly if it becomes necessary, along with us not being able to stand for long. 

[perakcruiser]

12 hours ago, iloveglee said:

It did occur to me that possibly they’d not enforce embarkation early on passengers who would have hours to wait at the airport. I

Which is one of MSCs biggest plus as all other cruise lines I know kick you off as early as possible. 

[Mark_T]

8 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

Which is one of MSCs biggest plus as all other cruise lines I know kick you off as early as possible. 

They don't have much choice when in US ports though as they have to zero the ship before they can begin boarding...

[perakcruiser]

3 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

They don't have much choice when in US ports though as they have to zero the ship before they can begin boarding...

yes, I know, but that happens only in US ports. 

[iloveglee]

They don’t only kick you off in US ports. We were kicked off two ncl cruises, once in Athens and in Trieste. Way before we wanted to leave. And on a costa cruise  in tarragona we hung around for ages as we had a late flight. When they realised we hadn’t got off they put an announcement out for us and sent people to find us 

[iloveglee]

Emmas Gran - there's a bit more information I'd like if you can provide it and don't mind.  Was the plane used a wide body jet with two aisles.  What was the seat configuration 3/3/3 or 3/4/3.  And how was the leg room.  We have flown many times to Florida with BA, although scheduled not charter and the space was always very good, but this is quite a long time ago, and things have changed a lot, especially since covid.  

 

This is information I would have liked to have before we took the plunge and booked, I did put a query on Trip Advisor in the Cruises threads but didn't get a response.  I should have thought to ask on here where there are more people likely to know.  

 

We did contemplate upgrading to premium economy, but it was an extra £600 per person, and I had no idea whether you'd get the same amount of space as you would on a scheduled flight.  I do know for sure that no matter what type of place you fly on, they have the facility to get in extra rows and and extra seat across the width of the plane so as to squeeze in more people.  

 

I am really hoping we didn't make a mistake booking this before we were fully aware of all the snags there might be.  When we were younger we'd have taken any kind of flight, in fact we have taken many flights where we were squeezed in like sardines, but when you're younger you don't have the creaky joints that you have as you get older.  

 

Last question, was the trip worth it. 

 

[emmas gran]

When we did the trip it was Virgin Atlantic from LGW in January 2019 but our friends were on the BA flight earlier this year but it was an older plane (they are travelling at the moment so cannot ask them questions). If you can swing Prem Econ I personally would for the comfort factor, I think they were in Business but not impressed with it the seats were not allocated until you got to check in for us or them

We were in YC and that’s all I have done for the 5 cruises and another booked, so done 11 weeks and 2 weeks booked. The ship can be a bit of a zoo outside YC to be honest and you can go and look at some comments on the Seaside roll calls.

 

Was the trip worth it is a difficult one to answer, it was our first MSC YC and we did a 28 day Dubai to Tokyo within 4 months so it depends on the deal you have with your T agent . Would I do this trip again No sorry neither would our friends.

Happy to answer questions 

[iloveglee]

Thanks Emma’s gran for the info. It’s really useful and much appreciated. I believe virgin is a better airline than BA generally. I think the plane may be a 777 which are quite old planes. I’m bemused still why it takes longer than the scheduled one, unless they have to go the polar route, which we have experienced travelling to florida. Something about never being too far from land. 

 

I was assuming the actual cruise would be pretty busy but we do at least have a balcony to get away from things. It’s definitely the flight aspect that seems challenging. We May certainly have to consider upgrading if we can do it at this stage. 

[Mark_T]

2 hours ago, iloveglee said:

Something about never being too far from land. 

 

if whatever plane they are using has less than a 180 min ETOPS rating then it can't fly direct....

[iloveglee]

Mark-T. Thanks for the response. I’m not sure what it means though. What is an ETOPS rating? 

[Bgwest]

How does one go about booking flights through MSC?

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, iloveglee said:

Mark-T. Thanks for the response. I’m not sure what it means though. What is an ETOPS rating? 

It is the flight-time that a twin engined aircraft is certified to be able to fly on a single engine so it sets the maximum distance it can be from a suitable airfield on its route.

 

With 180 mins of flight time the aircraft can take a more direct route, with only 120 mins (or less) it  has to go a longer way around to stay closer to suitable airfields.

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by Mark_T

[emmas gran]

7 hours ago, Bgwest said:

How does one go about booking flights through MSC?

This particular cruise from MSC comes with a flight included price for the UK cruisers and is slightly reduced fare 

[iloveglee]

Mark T. Thanks for the info. It’s kind of what I thought but explained it clearly. 
 

Bgwest. This cruise we booked through a cruise travel agent. It’s an exceptional deal, cruise, flight, airport parking, transportation, for little more than cruise only on Msc’s website. It doesn’t explain why outbound takes an hour more than the scheduled flight, inbound 2 hours more. I think they may have given me incorrect flight times. I wanted to check for myself due to its being a charter so not showing in the regular schedule. I’m going to check back with the agent. 

[iloveglee]

I went back to the cruise agent, and indeed they had given me incorrect times for the return flight.  plus i hadn't realised that barbados don't change their clocks, so by the time we go the time difference will only be 4 hours not 5.  so that issue solved!!

 

The issue about what the cruise line does with a plane load of passengers, after docking at 7 am, and the return flight being 13 hours later they don't seem to be able to tell me.  From what has been said already on here, it seems they may keep passengers onboard for longer than usual.  Then, apparently they transport them all, wholesale, to the airport.  So the bag check being like a scrum seems very likely.  I am given the impression that the staffing of a charter flight applies only to onboard, and not ground staff.  So it won't be BA staff doing the check in.

 

I think it's likely to be a 777, with a 3/4/3 configuration, rather than what we have experienced before on a scheduled flight,  a 3/3/3, so a bit squashed.  We are 4 travelling together so hopefully they'll put us together but 4 in a row is definitely a squeeze.  We have no choice about that though, so will have to just suck it up.  

 

Booking a package longhaul is not something we have ever done, cyprus was the longest flight we ever did in this kind of situation.  The deal with so good though, it seemed a shame to pass it up and go independently.  Let's hope it hasn't turned out to be too good to be true.  

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, iloveglee said:

The issue about what the cruise line does with a plane load of passengers, after docking at 7 am, and the return flight being 13 hours later they don't seem to be able to tell me.  From what has been said already on here, it seems they may keep passengers onboard for longer than usual.  Then, apparently they transport them all, wholesale, to the airport.  So the bag check being like a scrum seems very likely. 

Is this actually an MSC fly/cruise, or a package your TA has put together themselves?

 

If it is MSC organizing the flights, transfers etc. then I'd expect them to be more organized in terms of the time you leave the ship and transfer to the airport.

 

If it is a TA package then MSC are probably going to expect you to be off the ship at the usual time in the morning...

 

It used to be a lot easier with Barbados, we last did a fly/cruise out of there 15 years ago with a different cruise line and we went straight from the plane to a coach and on to the ship without even seeing our checked bags, they went to the ship on their own. Similarly on the return we last saw our bags when we put them outside our door on the last night and then not again until we got back to Gatwick... things have probably changed a bit since then 🙂