Mike at Sea

Thank you @twangster for the terrific report and all those great photos!  You made us very excited for our Meraviglia sailing this weekend (and keeping our fingers crossed that the tropical storm won't impact the cruise).

28 minutes ago, mrp4352 said:

 I had a similar experience with status match, but after emailing MSC Voyager Club about 2 weeks after submission, even though I didn't hear from them, I logged in and saw they had completed my status match. Hopefully you'll have a similar or better experience!

Thanks @mrp4352.  Will give that a try!

On 8/6/2021 at 8:27 AM, Mike at Sea said:

On 8/5/2021 at 10:09 PM, CruiseHabit Bill said:

 

Twangster ran into this as well.  So far my room has remained the same.  I did see someone on FB saying they the crew sealed off some rooms for embarkation tomorrow (so they can turn things around more quickly).  I can't independently verify that, but it did make me wonder about the room assignments.

I called twice and both times they assigned us a stateroom, only to have it removed within hours.  Too much effort to keep calling, so I'm going to wait and see.  Normally, room location is a big deal for me, but I just want to get back to cruising at this point 😀

Update:  We were finally assigned a room this morning for our Friday sailing.  Original room was on deck 8 and the email from MSC says we were "upgraded" to a Fantastica balcony on deck 11.  No complaint about that.  

On a separate note, the day we booked (7/23) I submitted a status match through the website and have gotten no response. Emailed both MSC Voyager Club and reservations last week and emails went unanswered.  It would be nice to get the benefits, but not holding out hope.  I've seen on some other boards that status match can be hit-or-miss for US residents.

@twangsterLovung all the pictures of Ocean Cay. Doesn’t look crowded. Did it feel that way?

Great to see all these pictures!

10 hours ago, CruiseHabit Bill said:

 

Twangster ran into this as well.  So far my room has remained the same.  I did see someone on FB saying they the crew sealed off some rooms for embarkation tomorrow (so they can turn things around more quickly).  I can't independently verify that, but it did make me wonder about the room assignments.

I called twice and both times they assigned us a stateroom, only to have it removed within hours.  Too much effort to keep calling, so I'm going to wait and see.  Normally, room location is a big deal for me, but I just want to get back to cruising at this point 😀

On 7/23/2021 at 12:47 PM, twangster said:

This trip report is all about new.  New for me that is.

• New user on the CruiseHabit message board. 
• New to MSC. 
• First revenue cruise of my new cruise restart.

 

For those that haven't heard MSC has some really attractive rates at the moment so with exactly 14 days until the sail date I decided to jump on board.  

MSC has a status match program that I exercised a few years ago.  My status match was expiring so this opportunity will also keep my MSC status alive and well.

It's always good to try new things and I'm looking forward to trying not only a new cruise lines but also a new class of ship, for me at least.  With many cruise lines operating at reduced capacity as they restart operations I see this as a great time to try new cruise experiences.

For this cruise I've booked a Fantastica balcony on deck 9.  I haven't fully discovered what Fantasica means but it was a small per cruise upgrade over the base rate so why not?  I've heard great things about Yacht Club but I'm going to save that for another occasion.  It's just 3 nights and I look forward to more of an apples to apples comparison with the balcony cruises I've done on other cruise lines.  

I've added a wifi streaming package and an excursion climbing the Ocean Cay lighthouse.  Other than that my plan is just to explore Ocean Cay, MSC's private destination and enjoy the salt air of a sea day on our way back to Miami.

Here is the cruise itinerary:

 

With that it's time to let the countdown commence...

Also brand new to the CruiseHabit board and we're also first-time MSC cruisers taking our first cruise since the pandemic on Meraviglia on August 13.  The price was certainly right, but we keep losing our stateroom assignment.  Excited to get back to cruising though, and looking forward to hearing about your experience.

--Mike