MSC was not a cruise line I would ordinarily have considered, but the arrival of the new MSC Virtuosa was a temptation, especially with the added incentive of NHS discount, tips included, drinks package (for a host of reasons, I think in hindsight MSC will look back with regret on that one) and onboard credit.
The cruise - I loved it. It was a much needed holiday. And a cruise ...
This is my 9th cruise and I genuinely believe if it had been mt 1st it would definitely have been my last. Apart from my wife and I being alerted on the NHS track and trace app and are now subsequently been tested positive for Covid-19 I must stress this has no bearing on how dreadful the cruise was.
I believe the four main things that are most important about cruising are:-
Service, Food, ...
Experienced cruisers with 21 so far, we booked having done a 3 day Disney which was fabulous and safe. This cruise was anything but.
I should have known when we had to stand in a queue for an hour for a test, it wasn’t going to end well! Another hour and a half later we were in the ship.
The ship itself is stunning, glitzy, huge, although no spaces for entertainment apart from two ...
We chose to do a last minute U.K. cruise this summer rather than risk travelling abroad during covid. And MSc were offering a great deal for nhs workers. Ship was beautiful and cabins spacious. However major teething problems (I hope they are only teething problems and will be rectified, and hard to know how much is due to covid and how much is typically MSC).
We are a family of 5 (2 adults 3 ...
We wanted a break as birthday present. This was reported on TV as modified to meet the British Market and looked clean with modern fittings. Offers around British Isles only at time of booking due to Covid+19.
It was in fact too open plan with plenty of activities and spaces for children when open but only a Sky Lounge for adults. (Not open till 5pm and if it was embarkation day or drill ...
We first sailed with Disney before the pandemic and we did have two cruises booked with them that were cancelled. When the UK staycations were released I did go a bit crazy and booked 5. We used our 125% cruise credit from the cancelled sailings.
We did a B2B from Liverpool and the whole experience was great. We did miss the interaction with the characters as my son is disabled and does live ...
The new embarkation system due to COVID worked well (as described on the Liverpool Cruise terminal Website) and we moved on to the ship in about an hour. Perhaps too quickly as I timed our wait after the covid test was performed until we were sent to the shuttle coaches and it was exactly 20 minutes, rather than the 30 minutes normally advised by the NHS to get an accurate result for the lateral ...
This was our first Fred Olsen cruise and we were looking forward to being on what was the third cruise on the new to Fred Olsen ship Borealis, previously Holland America Rotterdam, age around 25 years.
Originally scheduled to visit Scotland , itinerary was changed to the Scilly Isles and Portsmouth setting off from Liverpool. Embarkation was from the Liverpool ACC centre where Covid testing ...
We have been on MSC before and always loved it. The entertainment has never been great but there has always been enough to keep us occupied.
This time we embarked at Liverpool, which was amazing, and the embarkation process was smooth. The cabin was fine and all the staff we met were wonderful. We had read that the food wasn’t good on previous staycation cruises but we found it to be more than ...
Check in Liverpool
We arrived at 10:30 for an 11:00 check in at the Liverpool exhibition centre , Lots of documents needed and verified for my party of 10 before we received our lateral flow test then coached to the cruise terminal and boarded the beautiful MSC Virtuosa.
We were welcomed aboard and directed towards the lifts to find our cabins.
We had an inside cabin, spacious yet ...