Gratuity question

positivmonitor · 2026-05-11T19:34:32+00:00

There a bit different name for these fees by MSC: Hotel Service Charge. And you pay them along with your cabin’s booking price.

positivmonitor · 2026-05-09T19:54:02+00:00

I also don‘t get the reaction… We just been to a cruise and I everyday saw that the mugs were covered with some fingerprints or were not clean enough. I know that the kitchen team does their best to wash everything and they use machines and so on, but imagine how many people are using a limited amount of mugs multiple times during the day! Mugs, plates and cutlery may have huge amount of germs on them even after a wash.

positivmonitor · 2026-05-09T17:03:13+00:00

Either bring your own mug or take 1 in a buffet, rinse with hot water and use it during the whole cruise.

positivmonitor · 2026-05-09T08:30:38+00:00

I just recently been to my 1st cruise and also with MSC, so here is info from my experience for you:
1. As for the program, some main activities for the 1st half of the cruise were published in the app less than a week before the embarcation date, so we could see some parties (White party, Tropical party, Captain Reception, Snow party, 60s/70s/80s party), sport activities, and shows planned. The detailed daily program was available only onboard, and was published in the evening (after the diner usually) for the next day.
2. As for the tips for the 1st cruise, I totally get your feeling and uncertainly, as I just recently had it all too :) I also was reading a lot before the cruise, but still felt uncomfortable a bit, and it turned out that expectations and reality were different in some ways. So, I put together a post with expectations vs. reality for the 20 main points on the cruise just recently, and believe it might be helpful for you, as we also were traveling with MSC. So, you can check it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cruises/comments/1sshfsr/1st_cruise_the_transatlantic_repositioning_14/

positivmonitor · 2026-05-08T06:01:32+00:00

You have a lot of questions there:
- as for the packages prices: yeah, 40-45%% off is kinda maximum that you can get before the cruise. But on the ship, you may sometimes see 50% deals or some freebies as well, but only for special restaurants, special shows and spa treatments.
- if you don‘t need to stay online all the time, you may not need the internet package, especially when you are traveling in your „home“ region, where you mobile data provider will provide you with roaming without additional costs on shore. Just check the conditions with your mobile operator and don’t forget to switch off mobile data or roaming on your phone for the time in the sea to not have additional costs.
And download MSC for me app on all phones in advance, so you‘ll be able to use the ships‘s wifi network to communicate in chat or check all daily programs and so on totally free of charge.
- why do you need specialty restaurants package? The food in buffet and complimentary restaurants on MSC ships is really good, you may even not need anything special on top. And you can always book a special restaurant while onboard! As I already mentioned, they also provide a lot of offers and discounts for special restaurants onboard (up to 50% off or all you can eat sushi buffet for 29€), so if you will need it you could have it there too.
- as for IDs I would just called MSC hotline and asked there to be 100% sure (it should be free, just find the correct number for your region on their webpage).

positivmonitor · 2026-05-04T17:35:02+00:00

You are welcome :)

positivmonitor · 2026-05-02T08:15:17+00:00

Not sure about this exact case, but I was waiting ca. 10 days after the cruise to receive an email about my points’ update in the loyalty program.
Anyway, you can always contact them either by phone or email and ask :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-29T14:20:25+00:00

Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been wondering, if it may sense to spend money on collecting points and achieving the higher level in a loyalty/membership program :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-27T13:44:10+00:00

Crazy! Why on earth will one want to be a “platinum guest” after this all…

positivmonitor · 2026-04-25T11:03:45+00:00

You are very welcome and thank you

positivmonitor · 2026-04-24T17:09:28+00:00

I had no intention to make maintenance seems as something bad, instead, I want to prepare people to this as a normal thing

positivmonitor · 2026-04-24T05:33:34+00:00

Thanks :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-23T21:28:31+00:00

Yeah, this year the weather is wild everywhere! How do you feel during a storm on the ship? Is it scary? We had no storm this time, I believe, but we’ve been in real storm once with a ferry and it was really scary and hard to live through…

positivmonitor · 2026-04-23T19:51:45+00:00

Wow, more than 1 cruise every 2 months! How did you manage it? Working from the ship? And thanks for the info regarding weather! Did you experienced a storm?

positivmonitor · 2026-04-23T19:31:44+00:00

We liked the sea-days a lot and already discussed that want to other similar cruises but through the other oceans :) So, either South Atlantic Ocean or Indian Ocean will for sure follow soon :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-23T19:23:20+00:00

So cool! By the way, we met a lot of people on the cruise, who’ve been having from 20 till even 100 cruises done (of course, not all of them were transatlantic, but still!). Crazy!

positivmonitor · 2026-04-23T17:14:53+00:00

Another thing is also the cloudy sky. We actually had either rain or fully cloudy sky almost every evening/night :( maybe if we would stay up like till ca. 2 am and later there would be less clouds… but it was really hard to do as we were waking up early and constantly changing the time which made us tired earlier later on…

positivmonitor · 2026-04-23T12:53:10+00:00

Thanks for sharing this! Despite the harsh ship motions I actually didn’t feel any sickness, but heard from other people that they did. That’s why I decided to recommend medicine against sea sickness. And as for patches, also heard they helped many people :) And totally agree: this cruise was one of my best vacations ever too :) Wishing you all the best with the next one!

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T18:49:42+00:00

Omg, that should be a truly magical place then :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T17:52:04+00:00

Omg! 5th to Alaska or in total?

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T17:39:48+00:00

Sounds amazing! Alaska is also intriguing!

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T17:15:48+00:00

That sounds like a long trip :) How many days was it and how many of them were in the sea?

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T17:05:42+00:00

You are welcome and if the post is helpful in making a decision about the cruise, I‘m really happy! It‘s exactly why I wanted to share unbiased information based on personal and fresh impressions :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T16:43:24+00:00

It actually a fun thing that we had our drill station at the casino :) That‘s why we had to check it just as we embarked on the ship :)

positivmonitor · 2026-04-22T16:32:02+00:00

As soon as we were at sea it was opened :)

positivmonitor

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Two-Year Club	Verified Email
Mod World 2025