MSC 4th of July sale. What a joke!

[Illbcruzn4life]

 I see that MSC has joined the other cruise lines with their smoke and mirrors sales. They are offering free drink package and free wifi for the next couple of weeks as a 4th of July sale. They just raised the fares to cover the cost.

 

I have been following a cruise to Bermuda on Sept 29 and it has been consistently priced at $299 for the last month or so. Enter the 4th of July sale and the price is now $589 pp. I guess next they be doing what NCL does and charge gratuities to the free package.

 

With the amount of newbies they see sale and right away they have to book it. Good marketing but not a fan of deception.

[Até]

Perhaps the "sale" is the increased OBC.  On several sailings I've been watching the price of the Drinks & WiFi rate had not gone up but they added pretty generous OBC.  It was enough to make me book one Med sailing when I noticed it several days ago.

 

The September 8th Bermuda has had a much better deal on the inclusive rate and has not increased with the now included $50/$100 OBC.

[PTC DAWG]

Total the the door price is all that has ever mattered…

 

I will add that the grats on the NCL drink package, aka free at sea is a very good deal..it is also not mandatory. 

[GA Dave]

As a solo cruiser, I always look at the all-in price per night with drinks and wifi included for all my cruises. I checked out the noted "sale" prices last night for several cruises in March - May next year and the all-in pricing per night was actually higher than what I just saw last week. So, yes, a bit of smoke and mirrors. I will just continue to do my research and book when I am comfortable with the all-in cost for me.

[Christiem01]

The cruise we are taking in July is actually a little over $200 cheaper and includes the OBC.  I called yesterday to see if there was any way we could get an adjustment and they told me no that I would be charged a penalty since it is within three months of embarkment.  We have always gotten an adjustment with Celebrity.  

[JamieLogical]

18 minutes ago, Christiem01 said:

The cruise we are taking in July is actually a little over $200 cheaper and includes the OBC.  I called yesterday to see if there was any way we could get an adjustment and they told me no that I would be charged a penalty since it is within three months of embarkment.  We have always gotten an adjustment with Celebrity.  

 

Celebrity has a Best Price Guarantee. MSC does not. But Celebrity also has non-refundable deposits, so canceling and rebooking before final payment wouldn't be an option with them.

[80sGal]

Here is another example of Smoke and Mirrors that I experienced as a first timer on MSC (coming up this Fall). When I originally booked the cruise, it was over a year ago and sailing was actually for this current week.   Paid the $398 "refundable" deposit and clicked the option to include travel insurance (which can be added at any time) which at the time cost around 250.  My invoice showed the deposit was paid.  Then my work schedule changed not too long after booking and I thought I would have to cancel the cruise.  But when I called to cancel and asked for the refund I was told nope, we would only get back 148 because the rest of the money paid the insurance.  I pointed out I had paid ONLY the amount of the advertised refundable deposit.  I had not paid the extra 250.  They wouldn't budge on the issue.   On Carnival and RCL, when we accept insurance, then it becomes payable immediately in addition to the deposit (or whenever it's added), and I know that it's not refundable, but this MSC policy just seems shady as I didn't have to add insurance at booking,we weren't past final payment and I never paid the insurance premium.  (As I saw it, if 250 paid insurance, then my deposit wouldn't have been fully paid.  You can't have your cake and eat it too.) I also had to cancel a NCL booking that had added insurance and had no issue getting my full deposit back.  No haggling about having insurance on the booking. So long story ... we moved it to October and although I have found another later one I'd like to book, I no longer trust that they would refund the deposit if I needed it ... and now I know never to add MSC insurance until Final Payment if I do pull the trigger and book.  

   Lesson Learned and Buyer Beware.  (And later when I asked them to apply our status match discount, they increased the insurance rate to the current cost based on prevailing cruise rate so we didn't get the full value of the discount.   Rate went down, insurance went up.   So I'm already not impressed with their accounting practices).

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Celebrity has a Best Price Guarantee. MSC does not. But Celebrity also has non-refundable deposits, so canceling and rebooking before final payment wouldn't be an option with them.

 

 On Celebrity we have only been charged a $100 pp change fee to change a cruise.  We've never been penalized when taking advantage of a price drop on an existing cruise.  

 

[PTC DAWG]

36 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 On Celebrity we have only been charged a $100 pp change fee to change a cruise.  We've never been penalized when taking advantage of a price drop on an existing cruise.  

 

Was going to say this..my experience also..

[Bgwest]

MSC 4th of July sale. What a joke!

Unfortunately, aren't they all!

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 On Celebrity we have only been charged a $100 pp change fee to change a cruise.  We've never been penalized when taking advantage of a price drop on an existing cruise.  

 

 

I don't really think we are saying different things. Celebrity has non-refundable deposits (unless you pay extra for a refundable deposit) and you get charged if you change your booking. On MSC, your deposit is refundable up to the time of final payment (non-YC bookings) and there is no charge for changing your booking or canceling/rebooking.

 

Though, according to the poster above, on MSC there is some issue with not getting your deposit refunded if you book the insurance? I don't have any experience with that as I get travel insurance through my credit card.

[Christiem01]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Celebrity has a Best Price Guarantee. MSC does not. But Celebrity also has non-refundable deposits, so canceling and rebooking before final payment wouldn't be an option with them.

Back in summer of 2017 we took our honeymoon cruise on the Seaside and they adjusted the price until it was no longer available to book.  The rep said she would have to create a whole new booking and cancel the current one to do a price adjustment.  I’ve never had that response before. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

43 minutes ago, Christiem01 said:

Back in summer of 2017 we took our honeymoon cruise on the Seaside and they adjusted the price until it was no longer available to book.  The rep said she would have to create a whole new booking and cancel the current one to do a price adjustment.  I’ve never had that response before. 

they are still doing it that way

[perakcruiser]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Celebrity has a Best Price Guarantee

I thought so also. But they do not honor the best price guarantee outside the US. 

[JamieLogical]

10 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

I thought so also. But they do not honor the best price guarantee outside the US. 

Ah, I wasn't aware of that since I live in and sail from the US. The one time I had a major price adjustment to my sailing, they did only credit me the difference in OBC, so that's worth noting. I believe that is still the way their Best Price Guarantee works. So if it's a big price change, you will have to come up with a lot of stuff to spend OBC on unless you are a gambler, like me.

[Best Cat Mom]

7 hours ago, 80sGal said:

when I called to cancel and asked for the refund I was told nope, we would only get back 148 because the rest of the money paid the insurance.  I pointed out I had paid ONLY the amount of the advertised refundable deposit.  I had not paid the extra 250.  They wouldn't budge on the issue.

Though we don't require travel insurance (our American Express Platinum covers it), I recall seeing this mentioned several times on the Cruise Critic boards. Reading and researching are your friends! 🙂

[80sGal]

1 hour ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Though we don't require travel insurance (our American Express Platinum covers it), I recall seeing this mentioned several times on the Cruise Critic boards. Reading and researching are your friends! 🙂

So true!  After learning all the Carnival ropes, it's a new obstacle course over here! 

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I believe that is still the way their Best Price Guarantee works. So if it's a big price change, you will have to come up with a lot of stuff to spend OBC on unless you are a gambler, like me.

 

 We received discounts to our cruise fair when it was pre-final payment but after final payment the savings has always been in OBC.  The Casino and additional gratuities is where most of our OBC disappears to.