pozbaird Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 Just now, tongue_tied_danny said: You guys aren't exactly selling cruises to me. I don't really want to stuck on vessel with a bunch of wallopers. For every walloper we’ve met, there’s been hundreds of normal sane folk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Manhattan Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 4 minutes ago, tongue_tied_danny said: You guys aren't exactly selling cruises to me. I don't really want to be stuck on a vessel with a bunch of wallopers. 3 minutes ago, pozbaird said: For every walloper we’ve met, there’s been hundreds of normal sane folk. Aye, it's no different to anywhere else. If you can tolerate the wallopers in the pub and at the football you'll have absolutely no problem on a cruise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 Even if you do encounter a walloper, it’s worth it. You get to see views like this, and indeed discover interesting 30mph speed limit signs. These were from a fortnight ago, Norwegian Fjords cruise on the superb P&O Iona. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 On 07/07/2024 at 15:36, tongue_tied_danny said: You guys aren't exactly selling cruises to me. I don't really want to be stuck on a vessel with a bunch of wallopers. Thing that puts me off is you'll be surrounded by thousands of them every time you go ashore too, massive queues everywhere you go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energyzone Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 On 06/07/2024 at 18:21, pozbaird said: Did a short cruise on the Virtuosa last year from Southampton to Hamburg, Rotterdam, Bruges, and Le Harve. MSC come in for some criticism in online reviews for having tempting prices, but once onboard, they are overly aggressive at trying to sell you drinks packages, speciality dining packages, and spa packages etc. We never encountered any of that whatsoever. On embarkation, they had a banner stand graphic set up advertising the drinks packages with a staff member there. It was up to you if you wanted to find out more. We did, and ended up taking their ‘entry level’ drinks package for the five days. We enjoyed it. Perfectly reasonsble choice of beer and wines, OK the fancy cocktails weren’t included, but the MSC Heineken is a nice pint! The white & red wine choices were more than decent too…I had a few. More than a few to be fair. Just for research purposes you understand. We really liked the MSC Virtuosa. In the buffet, don’t miss their ‘black’ pizza. It’s a vegetable topped pizza, the crust is jet black… could eat it all day. Hope they still do it. The speciality Mexican restaurant ‘Hola’ was brilliant. I have seen some videos where, if the ship is at max’ capacity, there are queues for absolutely everything. I think that criticism is likely to be accurate. Hopefully your cruise isn’t rammed. We have been on Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, NCL, Royal Caribbean, and P&O… We rated MSC highly. Loved the ship, good food, had a great cruise. We did a 7 night cruise on the Virtuosa last summer from Southampton to France and Northern Spain. It was cheap and included a drinks package but unfortunately that meant lots of people in OF strips walking about. It was quite heavily advertised at the time and I ended up bumping into people I knew. Actually when we disembarked, the ship then left for a two week cruise around Spain - my sister went on this one and told me that people were getting assaulted and there were fights over sunbeds - again just symptomatic of there not being enough space for all the people they had squeezed on board. Fortunately I didn't see any of that on mine. It was at max capacity so at night there were hundreds of people walking about looking for a seat somewhere. If you stood up to go to the toilet you were immediately approached by people asking if they could have your seat. The ship itself was beautiful and modern but the facilities couldn't cope with the amount of people on board. It was a struggle to get served at any bar as they didn't have enough staff on. Sometimes you were waiting 15-20 mins to be served and during this time other people would ignore any sort of queuing and be served straight away, leading to quite a bit of aggro from people who had been waiting a while. People who I've spoken to who sailed on the ship before and after also reported similar problems. Hopefully they've sorted those problems but it put us off ever going back on an MSC ship. I did like the food, the buffet was crammed with people though and it was just an overall uncomfortable experience. But I got what I paid for ultimately. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 (edited) 31 minutes ago, energyzone said: We did a 7 night cruise on the Virtuosa last summer from Southampton to France and Northern Spain. It was cheap and included a drinks package but unfortunately that meant lots of people in OF strips walking about. It was quite heavily advertised at the time and I ended up bumping into people I knew. Actually when we disembarked, the ship then left for a two week cruise around Spain - my sister went on this one and told me that people were getting assaulted and there were fights over sunbeds - again just symptomatic of there not being enough space for all the people they had squeezed on board. Fortunately I didn't see any of that on mine. It was at max capacity so at night there were hundreds of people walking about looking for a seat somewhere. If you stood up to go to the toilet you were immediately approached by people asking if they could have your seat. The ship itself was beautiful and modern but the facilities couldn't cope with the amount of people on board. It was a struggle to get served at any bar as they didn't have enough staff on. Sometimes you were waiting 15-20 mins to be served and during this time other people would ignore any sort of queuing and be served straight away, leading to quite a bit of aggro from people who had been waiting a while. People who I've spoken to who sailed on the ship before and after also reported similar problems. Hopefully they've sorted those problems but it put us off ever going back on an MSC ship. I did like the food, the buffet was crammed with people though and it was just an overall uncomfortable experience. But I got what I paid for ultimately. Have read other online reviews where the Virtuosa was rammed at max capacity with similar tales of over crowding and queues. Way too many people. I’ve just read back my post and realised I never said our cruise was in the winter months. Was snowing as we cruised out of Hamburg. Absolutely freezing in Rotterdam. Not one single person was outdoors at the pools or sunbeds. Obviously nowhere near full capacity, and no sign of anyone just treating it as a cheap booze cruise either. Those factors (plenty space and no arseholes) clearly influence my positive review of the ship. I’m booked to go back on the Virtuosa in 2025, so will report back. Different time of year, different destinations, might be a nightmare. We were on the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas over American Thanksgiving last year, and it was absolutely rammed to max capacity. Tons of American families and kids, as for them, Thanksgiving is a huge holiday. We never felt the ship couldn’t cope. Really suffered no issues at all - bar so many kids running around the pool areas. Never once saw a fight over a sunbed or arguments about a towel…. Don’t want to open a big can of worms, but our experience of going to America since 1998 is that (in general terms), their attitude to alcohol and being pissed in public is way different to ours. They seem to be able to behave themselves far better…. Then they grab some weapons from a cupboard and go out mass murdering of a weekend. Not usually on a cruise ship mind. I guess the cruise lines cannot control who books a cruise, but they can control passenger numbers to space ratio on their ships. MSC clearly have issues in that regard. Edited August 1 by pozbaird 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB1994 Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 On 06/07/2024 at 21:16, tongue_tied_danny said: I quite like the look of these river cruises along the Rhine and Danube, but looking at the prices..... f**k that. My mum and dad did the Danube one last year and absolutely loved it. Loved it so much they set off on the Rhine river cruise today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeTillEhDeh Posted August 19 Share Posted August 19 On 07/07/2024 at 15:36, tongue_tied_danny said: You guys aren't exactly selling cruises to me. I don't really want to be stuck on a vessel with a bunch of wallopers. Tbqh happens on any holiday. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 (edited) We’re fast approaching our 21st cruise, so goes without saying we are fans. We recognise there are downsides, but it’s never been a huge problem for us. A bit of queuing and so on? Just get on with it. However, we’re not the kind of cruising uber-fans that anyone who has done a few cruises will recognise - go around the ship with custom made T Shirts saying stuff like ‘Donna and Harry on tour 2024 - our 100th cruise’ etc, above a cheesy print of whatever ship they are currently ‘on tour’ aboard. Walk past their cabin and the door is adorned with magnetic stickers and decorations like Mardi Gras in New Orleans…. Fcuk dat’. Anyway, we tried it in Miami yonks ago, decided the worst that could happen is we hated it, and would never do it again. Turned out we loved it… yes, there are some queues, but with 2,500 to 6,500 people all in the one place, and wanting off at ports, it needs to be organised and queues are absolutely necessary. No different to queuing at a place like Orlando or any theme park or big city attraction in New York or London etc. We think cruising is like visiting Las Vegas, in regard to you’ll likely either love it or hate it, but give it a try to decide, and choose your first cruise carefully, to allow you a fair view. Don’t start with a mad mental, height of summer one to the Canaries or Med’, in English school holiday season for example. Anyway, our experience is that the positives massively outweigh the negatives. Said it in a previous post, have met maybe three or four wallopers, but countless good guys, who just wanted to enjoy a holiday and were absolutely normal, sane folk. Just like us. Stop sniggering at the back. . However…. Saw this on today’s BBC website. This is our idea of hell. Three years on board that thing with the sort of people who have their cat looking like this? 16 days on a cruise is my max’. If I was put on that thing I’d murder everyone before it reached open seas…. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jl3720yw3o Edited August 29 by pozbaird 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just me 2 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 (edited) On 07/07/2024 at 15:36, tongue_tied_danny said: You guys aren't exactly selling cruises to me. I don't really want to be stuck on a vessel with a bunch of wallopers. The folk that they met don't seem much fun either Edited September 2 by just me 2 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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