Tag: princess-cruises

Review of our Greek island and other places cruise with MSC – Opera cruise ship & Holiday

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I have promised lots of our followers a review on how we found the holiday and the cruise…..

Those of you who know my husband will know that he is very rarely derogatory about anything…where as I am quite outspoken and say it how I see it…

So I will start with Johns review ….he decided to compare MSC to our preferred cruise line Princess……

Johns views:-

MSC Cruises v Princess Cruises

The end of MSC Opera’s seven-day cruise around the Greek Islands – and Bari in Italy – prompts me to look at a comparison between these two cruise brands.

Perhaps this particular MSC cruise destination and timing skews my perception, but it was soon obvious that there were two noticeable differences. The MSC demographic was noticeably younger. Whilst on Princess, English is the predominant language, the MSC profile was much more multi-lingual.

There are differences in the crews too. Let me say at the outset that the cheery outlook of all MSC is an absolute treat whereas, on occasions, the Princess personnel give the impression of pretence or forced smiling!! As to numbers, I dont have comparison figures, but there are far more staff in evidence across all the Princess activities compared to MSC. However the MSC staff are far more attentive, quicker service and more proactive in meeting their customers needs. On the evidence we saw, the theatre performers were not of the same quality as that of those on the Princess Cruises.

The food on board is different, too. On Princess the choice suits what I would describe as ‘the American palate’, whilst on MSC it is clearly more ‘Mediterranean’. The menu choice on Princess includes foods like lobster, steaks, duck , beef wellington etc. Where as on MSC this type of food is at an extra high charge.

That’s Johns review….mine is a copy of the response I gave to our travel agent when she said my response to their online customer satisfaction survey was very mixed …this is what I said…

The clientele on our cruise consisted mainly of large very loud Italian family groups – in the buffet they took huge platters of food of one type…all the fruit, all the bread rolls etc then they grouped up to 20 chairs and made their own family buffet..often not finishing the platters which they put down the middle of the tables…this left other passengers with no assorted fruit etc…no member of staff stopped them doing it by telling them to just get their own plate of food, and lots of these big family groups sat for several hours at every meal time taking up all the seating area In The buffet whilst still saving their sun loungers …so we never got a sunlounger the whole cruise and gave up trying to get a table in the buffet at breakfast, preferring to go to the main dinning room and wait for service…… we often went without lunch because on port days the ship doesn’t serve in the dinning room and we couldn’t get a seat in the buffet. Our evening meal was nice, we sat in the same nice area every night and had two great waiters. 

We saw one really good show in the theatre but the only other one we could find seats for was weak vocalists …… again huge blocks of seats were reserved by a couple of family members..some filled near the start of the show others never filled…..the shows we went to we had to get there over an hour in advance to get a seat. 

On the sea day we couldn’t get any loungers or a table, we eventually found two chairs which we sat on but it was like Butlins on water, the disco started at 10.30 am with everyone shouting, jumping up and down…horrendous……the excursions…..were ok apart from the scenic cruise of corfu coastline…sounds good but it was a nightmare…we had booked the English commentated one….alas after a few minutes the guide spoke virtually entirely in Italian. Even worse she started talking about “The Anglaise” …a young German, couple who were doctors, told us she was being very offensive to our race…all the Italians were laughing and shouting “viva Italy”….. we felt very intimidated. When a lot got off for a swim the lady came and asked if we were ok and I said we were not happy that the commentary was in Italian and that she had humiliated us with what she was saying about the English. She pretended not to understand saying her English wasn’t good and the majority of people were Italian . The German couple spoke to her in Italian and explained what we were saying she just shrugged and wandered off….on the way back after the swim she encouraged everyone to dance so we couldn’t even see the scenic coastline….This wasn’t sold as a party cruise it was sold as a scenic cruise……on top of this MSC had double charged us/double booked this excursion we realised prior to the excursion and they said it would be refunded to our cruise account and we could cash it out as Euros. We said we’d prefer it to be refunded to our credit card they said they couldn’t do that …so we lost out twice by paying a transaction fee on the card and on the exchange rate changing it back to £…… so this wasn’t good .. as for the end of cruise excursion…..this we had booked through our travel agent and not through MSC……it was pleasant enough…the limousine it advertised was actually a Mercedes’ taxi….we went to all the places described but unfortunately it was only 3 and a half hours not 4/5 hours …we could hardly ask him to just drive around for another hour so we again felt the excursion was mis-sold…so again disappointed as we spent hours at the airport unable to book our cases in until 2 hours before our flight…..not great

So you can see why the review was a mixed bag of frogs….the staff on the ship were very helpful and pleasant ( apart from one in the WiFi department who was obnoxious, luckily the manager intervened) the food in the restaurant was good but the rest of the experience was not good at all.

Our Travel Agent, Rosie Price – rosie.price@dialaflight.co.uk. – passed our views on to MSC. Very surprisingly …a pleasant surprise …… because when we’ve voiced issues to P&O, Princess and TUI/Marbella Cruise companies they’ve either not responded or the later gave a very abrupt and rude response asking what we wanted, I said “an apology for giving us two right angled twin beds when we had requested a double and informed them it was our honeymoon and they had refused to let us change cabins with an elderly couple who had requested single beds and had been given a double”….we never heard anything back from them even though we felt we had a valid reason to voice our displeasure…….I digress ……….. back to MSC response…which we asked our travel agent to thank them for……

Dear John and Jennifer Jackson,

Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback about your recent cruise with MSC. I genuinely appreciate your honesty and am truly sorry to hear about the negative experiences you had. Your comfort and satisfaction are our top priorities, and it’s disheartening to learn that we fell short during your trip. Let me address each of your concerns.

I’m sorry that you were unable to find sun loungers throughout your cruise and that finding a table was so challenging. It’s disappointing to hear that you had to compromise on your relaxation and dining experiences due to overcrowding and lack of available seating.

I regret that you had difficulty finding seats for the shows and that the quality of the entertainment varied. Reserving blocks of seats should not have been allowed, and it’s concerning that this disrupted your enjoyment. We strive to offer high-quality entertainment for all guests, and it’s clear that we need to improve in this area.

While I’m glad to hear that you found the staff mostly helpful and pleasant and enjoyed the food in the restaurant, it’s clear that the overall experience did not meet your expectations. The mixed experiences you had, from loud and disruptive environments to feeling unsafe and unwelcome, are far from the relaxing and enjoyable holiday we aim to provide.
As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer you a £130 cruise discount voucher. To accept this, just let me know and I will send this straight out to you. We understand that we cannot change what has happened, but we want to do what we can going forward, to put this right.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the distress and inconvenience you experienced. If there is anything else we can do to address your concerns or if you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Thank you again for bringing these matters to our attention. We hope to have the opportunity to restore your faith in MSC Cruises.

Kind regards,
Jack Murphy
Customer Service Executive

I am certain everyone reading this response will be amazed at its concerning manner…rarely do people apologise and I take my ‘hat off’ to Jack Murphy for his show of concern and the wording of his response…’Well done Sir!’. However, we will not be accepting the discount voucher because we do not intend to cruise with MSC again…we do accept the apology which was conveyed to us in a very congenial, honest way…Thank you Jack Murphy and thank you Rosie Price (rosie.price@dialaflight.co.uk) our disappointment has been somewhat appeased.

Bali, Indonesia – BEEN THERE GOT THE T-SHIRT

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Bali is one of 17,500 islands which form the country of Indonesia. It is a province and it is the westernmost of the group of islands known as the Lesser Sunda Islands. Situated east of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes not only the island of Bali but also a few smaller offshore islands, such as Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and a Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, situated on the Island of Bali is Denpasar. It is the biggest city by population in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is known as  Bali’s cultural centre.

Bali is a beautiful small island with breathtaking waterfalls like Sekumpul in the north and white sand beaches at Nyang Nyang in the south and lots of wonderfully stunning features in the middle. It has a magical blend of colourful culture, friendly people, stunning nature, countless activities, tropical weather, culinary delights, vibrant nightlife, and beautiful accommodation. Bali is rated regularly as one of the best travel destinations in the world. This however, causes tourists, especially backpackers, to flock to Bali to explore its natural awe and wonder. To try to stem over tourism and preserve the islands natural beauty the government has just ( February 2024) introduced a tourist tax. Foreign travellers visiting the island will now pay 150,000 rupiahs (around £7.50 or US$9.50) in addition to any other visa fees. 

We arrived in Bali by cruise ship. It was a particularly hot and sticky day. Our welcome to port consisted of a musical group of, what looked like school children, dancing, playing drums and xylophones in a very professional way….What a lovely welcome it was…full of warmth, colour and culture.

We were ushered to our coach as we headed of for our tour. We had done a lot of research into the tour we had opted to take. Many people would frown and call an Elephant riding Safari unethical. However, most people who know us are aware that we have a passion and love of wildlife and conservation, in particular we like to support the protection and enhancement of endangered species and promote animal welfare. Bali has a multi-award-winning park which is  dedicated as an elephant rescue facility it is  also home to Bali’s largest herd of critically-endangered Sumatran elephants, 6 of which were born at the sanctuary. So we decided to have a once in a lifetime experience and visit the sanctuary and take part in elephant trekking, interact with these majestic creatures by getting up close & personal with them. The park is fully committed to conservation and has set high standards in how to care for elephants in a purpose-built environment. Wow! Did we have a great, fun time. 

It took us a considerable time by bus to get to the sanctuary, the bus even stopped for a toilet break. On arriving at the sanctuary each group had an allocated entrance time. While we waited we looked around a small museum at the entrance to the park. This told us all about the Sumatran elephants plight for survival and how the sanctuary had come about.

When our allocated time came we were walked through some amazingly green and colourful  gardens. As we strolled down to where we could see some elephants you could witness that they are well cared for in a healthy and stimulating environment that caters to all their daily needs. We walked around a large lake in which some elephants were walking through whilst being ridden by their handler and tourists…..

Some of the elephants where doing what elephants do and squirting water from their trunks all over their backs and unsuspecting visitors, who squealed in delight or was it surprise. This made one particular elephant do it all the more !!!! The elephants quite obviously enjoyed this even if their passengers hadn’t expected to have an extra shower!! 

The elephants walk along side a raised platform, where you wait to get on to the seat.

To mount the seat you step out and sit down all at the same time, so as not to put your weight directly on to the elephants back. This was a tricky manoeuvre for the first person as you need to sit on the far side of the seat which is made for two. My long legged husband was summing up how to do this when he said ‘ladies first’….oh what a gentleman…. So off I stepped stretching my short, dumpy legs as far as possible….have I mentioned it was a hot and sticky day!!!…..thankfully I managed to reach the right part of the seat, however my trousers were not as fortunate, they were stuck to me and hadn’t enjoyed the stretch causing them to rip across the derrière (backside) …oh dear!!!!…

John mounted with the utmost of ease and our handler/driver set our majestic beast on its way. We wandered through the gardens stopping when ever our elephant wanted to browse or communicate with another elephant.

There was no harassing of the elephant. The only thing I didn’t like was seeing two elephants chained in two different areas. They had vegetarian and water around them.  Our handler/guide explained that they were both males on musth (periods of heightened testosterone levels)and this causes the elephants to have aggressive behaviour during this time. So for the safety of the workers, tourists and other elephants when the males enter a period of Musth they are segregated and chained. 

After about an hour  our elephant entered the lake and wandered around it. We would have welcomed a ‘trunk shower’ but that wasn’t on our mounts mind, although spraying water around our elephant was mindful to keep us dry.

We were returned to the dismounting area and we both disembarked without incident. Our elephant was then rewarded with fresh greenery and lots of cooing from us. 

We were provided with a pleasant lunch and wandered around the gift shop for a while. We were then invited back to meet some of the younger elephants who had a few tricks to show us… placing a garland around our necks and kissing our checks with its trunk in return for some food we had been given to reward it.

Getting in on the act!

WOW !!! What a wonderful experience we had had.

The cost of rescuing, researching, breeding these critically endangered species is such that without the tourism this conservation could never take place. Would we do it again? Probably not but we are pleased we did it and contributed towards the survival of this species.

Our tour continued to the art and craft market in Ubud. The first thing we did was purchase a batik wrap so I could cover my exposed derrière!! . We had a good look around and we were  fairly well hassled by the stall holders. We only bought a carved wooden chopstick holder. I really liked the blown glass bowls which sit on natural branches of trees…the glass is blown to the shape of the tree branch holder. There was however no way of getting something like that home. I am very fortunate to have a fantastic treasure of a friend who a month later went to an awful lot of trouble to import me one of these for my birthday. It now sits proudly on my windowsill, at home, with coloured lights adorning it’s interior. 

Our trip back from Ubud was a long one. The traffic was horrendous, but the sightseeing was great. Thankfully it was a Ships Tour we had taken because we were two hours late getting back to port. Being a Ships Tour the Ship waits for your return, otherwise we would have ‘missed the boat’, as the saying goes. We were not the last bus back and scurried aboard with other cruisers looking down from their balconies shaking their heads as if we were the cause of the ships departure being delayed….which of course we were but not of our own making….

What a wonderful day we had had…full of first time experiences. Our bus tour through the magnificent countryside had demonstrated why this Island is so popular, it is defiantly a place we would like to revisit.