New to MSC

[cbfb]

41 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

The cabin looks good, because you will have a nice view to the rear due to the indentation just aft of your cabin. This photo will show you what is directly above, and what is directly below you, and as someone else mentioned, it looks good.

As to the dining time, you could be assigned at any time during that window.  If you don't like your assigned time, once it is assigned (you won't know until onboard), politely discuss this w/the Maître d.

Thank you so much! 

[emmas gran]

9 hours ago, cbfb said:

I believe it’s fantastica so it would be assigned. Love the idea of being an American minority!!! Thank you for all the information. 

If you are sailing out of Miami / Florida ports the ship will have lots of Americans onboard

[JamieLogical]

There are multiple dining rooms and the seating times in them are staggered. So if you choose the early dining time (5:00-7:30), you will be assigned the early dining time at whatever dining room you get assigned to. For example, when I was on the Meraviglia in April, there were four dining rooms. One of the dining rooms, Waves, actually had 3 dining times, 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00. The other three dining rooms had two dining times, 5:30 or 6:00 were the early times and 7:30 or 8:00 were the later dining times. So really, if you choose the "early" seating, it could be as early as 5:00 or as late as 7:30, thus the range. You will find out once you receive your keycard a check-in. Make sure you link your reservation with your friends' reservation if you would like to be seated with them at dinner.

[cbfb]

26 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

There are multiple dining rooms and the seating times in them are staggered. So if you choose the early dining time (5:00-7:30), you will be assigned the early dining time at whatever dining room you get assigned to. For example, when I was on the Meraviglia in April, there were four dining rooms. One of the dining rooms, Waves, actually had 3 dining times, 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00. The other three dining rooms had two dining times, 5:30 or 6:00 were the early times and 7:30 or 8:00 were the later dining times. So really, if you choose the "early" seating, it could be as early as 5:00 or as late as 7:30, thus the range. You will find out once you receive your keycard a check-in. Make sure you link your reservation with your friends' reservation if you would like to be seated with them at dinner.

Thank you for the clarification. I am being told conflicting things. Some say the 5:30-7:30 seating has an arrival of 5:30 and you are done at 7:30.  Others are stating you get a specific time within that time frame which is better as I am hoping for at least 6:00 at the earliest. 

[cbfb]

7 hours ago, emmas gran said:

If you are sailing out of Miami / Florida ports the ship will have lots of Americans onboard

Thank you! This is out of Port Canaveral. 

[Mark_T]

22 minutes ago, cbfb said:

Thank you for the clarification. I am being told conflicting things. Some say the 5:30-7:30 seating has an arrival of 5:30 and you are done at 7:30.  Others are stating you get a specific time within that time frame which is better as I am hoping for at least 6:00 at the earliest. 

Jamie has given you the best and most comprehensive answer so far, and as I mentioned earlier, you won't know exactly what the time is until you get on board, but all you know right now is that you are on the 'early' sitting, rather than the 'late' sitting, so if you are happy to eat late but unhappy to eat early you might want to change that, but otherwise once you get the time in your cabin you can still request a change...

[south-carolinagirl]

So, does the dining time show on your card or do you have to wait to get to your cabin to find out your dining time?  TIA

[JamieLogical]

52 minutes ago, south-carolinagirl said:

So, does the dining time show on your card or do you have to wait to get to your cabin to find out your dining time?  TIA

 

It will be printed on your keycard.

[Stockjock]

52 minutes ago, south-carolinagirl said:

So, does the dining time show on your card or do you have to wait to get to your cabin to find out your dining time?  TIA

It will show on your card and the table number will also show. But, of course, you’re gonna get the card just before you get to your cabin.

[Illbcruzn4life]

On 8/12/2023 at 11:17 AM, Mark_T said:

Jamie has given you the best and most comprehensive answer so far, and as I mentioned earlier, you won't know exactly what the time is until you get on board, but all you know right now is that you are on the 'early' sitting, rather than the 'late' sitting, so if you are happy to eat late but unhappy to eat early you might want to change that, but otherwise once you get the time in your cabin you can still request a change...

that doesn't guarantee you'll get what you want though.

[Mark_T]

5 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

that doesn't guarantee you'll get what you want though.

Hence using the word 'request' ...

 

If you need to have the freedom to pick when you eat then you get that with Aurea or Yacht Club, otherwise it is always going to be something of a lottery...

[ray98]

On 8/12/2023 at 10:49 AM, cbfb said:

Thank you for the clarification. I am being told conflicting things. Some say the 5:30-7:30 seating has an arrival of 5:30 and you are done at 7:30.  Others are stating you get a specific time within that time frame which is better as I am hoping for at least 6:00 at the earliest. 

That information is completely wrong.  Bella and Fantastica have assigned times.  There are 3 seatings, MSC considers the first 2 early and the other late.  If you request early they will attempt to assign you to either the 5:30 or 7:30 seating as they see fit but it is not guaranteed, you could still get late..  

 

We did the Seaside in May and got the earliest time, we had to arrive at the dining room at 5:15.  We attempted to change it as that is way to early for us but had no luck.  The problem with 3 seatings is the majority want the 7:30 slot.  Few want to be getting ready for dinner at 4pm and most have no interest in the 9:30 seating especially when the service time is close to 2 hours.

[Essiesmom]

Just boarded Seaside yesterday.  Dining times are for today…Monday 

 

 

[cbfb]

20 minutes ago, ray98 said:

That information is completely wrong.  Bella and Fantastica have assigned times.  There are 3 seatings, MSC considers the first 2 early and the other late.  If you request early they will attempt to assign you to either the 5:30 or 7:30 seating as they see fit but it is not guaranteed, you could still get late..  

 

We did the Seaside in May and got the earliest time, we had to arrive at the dining room at 5:15.  We attempted to change it as that is way to early for us but had no luck.  The problem with 3 seatings is the majority want the 7:30 slot.  Few want to be getting ready for dinner at 4pm and most have no interest in the 9:30 seating especially when the service time is close to 2 hours.

Yes it’s definitely a crap shoot and honestly a huge drawback in my opinion but it is what it is. It certainly won’t dictate my cruise. If the dining time doesn’t fit our schedule we will do specialty dining. I’m sure we will make it work. I appreciate all the information. I honestly would have been blindsided by this as I never would have thought your dining time wouldn’t be determined until boarding. 

[shipgeeks]

But not having a guarantee of dining time is not exclusive to MSC.  We always request a certain dining time on other lines (RC, HAL, Celebrity), but never know for sure until we board whether it is locked in. We chose early with our Bella bookings, found that we had 5:30, but were given a change to 7:30 when we requested that.  The late option was 9:30 or so, to accommodate the European and South American passengers.

[cbfb]

2 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

But not having a guarantee of dining time is not exclusive to MSC.  We always request a certain dining time on other lines (RC, HAL, Celebrity), but never know for sure until we board whether it is locked in. We chose early with our Bella bookings, found that we had 5:30, but were given a change to 7:30 when we requested that.  The late option was 9:30 or so, to accommodate the European and South American passengers.

We’ve always known our dining times with Celebrity when we booked. Plus,  Anytime Dining is available to everyone. Regardless, that is Celebrity and this is MSC and we were aware if this going in. I just think IMHO it is a flawed system making more work for the crew with all the change requests. 

[cbfb]

50 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Just boarded Seaside yesterday.  Dining times are for today…Monday 

 

 

Thank you this is very helpful. I noticed the specialty restaurants are open for Lunch. Is there a set price or alacarte? 

[JamieLogical]

52 minutes ago, cbfb said:

Thank you this is very helpful. I noticed the specialty restaurants are open for Lunch. Is there a set price or alacarte? 

 

Both. The specialty dining restaurants (except teppanyaki) have a la carte menus and a tasting menu. The tasting menu is a set price or you can use a specialty dining credit for it and you get one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert from a limited menu. Otherwise, there is a full a la carte menu and you can pay for individual items.

[M&A]

Most cruise lines let you bring one bottle of wine on board.   What are the MSC rules?

thanks

MIke

[cbfb]

2 hours ago, M&A said:

Most cruise lines let you bring one bottle of wine on board.   What are the MSC rules?

thanks

MIke

From what I have read you cannot. 

[cbfb]

Another question for all of you that were kind enough to reply earlier. We booked cabin 14198 on Seaside for this Sunday 9/3. I just realized this cabin has a hot tub in the deck and can accommodate 5 people. I don’t want to be next to a party room but I’m fine with some additional noise. Should I switch cabins? I am a seasoned cruiser, but not on MSC so I don’t know the demographics of passengers, are they crazy partners, etc.. I also realize I could switch and that cabin could be a sh**t show! Uggh!!! 

[JamieLogical]

12 minutes ago, cbfb said:

Another question for all of you that were kind enough to reply earlier. We booked cabin 14198 on Seaside for this Sunday 9/3. I just realized this cabin has a hot tub in the deck and can accommodate 5 people. I don’t want to be next to a party room but I’m fine with some additional noise. Should I switch cabins? I am a seasoned cruiser, but not on MSC so I don’t know the demographics of passengers, are they crazy partners, etc.. I also realize I could switch and that cabin could be a sh**t show! Uggh!!! 

 

You could have noisy neighbors on any cruise on any ship, so I don't think that should dissuade you. Also, it may be too late to switch cabins at this point anyway with your sailing in two days. I say to go with an open mind and home for the best. The hot tub itself shouldn't be too noisy.

 

My husband and I were in a whirlpool balcony suite on the Meraviglia in April and it was just the two of us and we were pretty quiet and never in the tub past dark, so you could get lucky and have neighbors like us!

[cbfb]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

You could have noisy neighbors on any cruise on any ship, so I don't think that should dissuade you. Also, it may be too late to switch cabins at this point anyway with your sailing in two days. I say to go with an open mind and home for the best. The hot tub itself shouldn't be too noisy.

 

My husband and I were in a whirlpool balcony suite on the Meraviglia in April and it was just the two of us and we were pretty quiet and never in the tub past dark, so you could get lucky and have neighbors like us!

Thank you! That’s what I’m thinking too. Just needed reassurance!! The first cruise we went on way back when we had a 5 month old baby next door that started crying at 5 am every morning and didn’t stop. I still think I have PTSD from that 🤣

[cbfb]

I just wanted to come back and say thank you to everyone that replied.
 

We are on the last day of the cruise and had a wonderful time. I am so happy we didn’t switch cabins. Apparently the hot tub was not working so we didn’t have anyone in that cabin!!!
 

We thought the food was on par, and sometimes better than Celebrity MDR.

Butcher Cut was amazing. We were lucky to have our Diamond status matched so our dinner there was one of the diamond member perks.

 

We wouldn’t hesitate to sail MSC again although I would be careful about sailing during a school vacation. There were not too many children on the ship but unfortunately the people at the table next to us at the MDR had 2 small children that they let run wild. I could see that this ship could be crazy during school vacation. 
 

we plan to try YC next time. Looking forward to that! 

[Essiesmom]

Thanks for coming back and telling us how it went.  EM