Hi guys! We are Kevin and Katherine, and we go by The Seasoned Expats! We love to travel. We like going places, as well as reviewing the ways we get there! On our channel, you will find everything from hotel reviews to flight reviews, cruise reviews to food reviews, and attractions and city tours. We really just want to bring you every little bit of the trips we take. Check out our channel and make sure you drop a like and subscribe!
What I find disastrous, is not understanding the reservation system. Who waits till the last night of their cruise thinking they're going to walk into specialty dining. Instead of asking questions earlier on on your voyage.
Typical poor service, lack of responsibility and rude people one finds in Europe. I have seen flight attendants shout and scream at an elderly Asian man. They threatened to throw him off the flight. Service people act as they are the boss and the customers are their underlings. Boooo!
Hi. Great videos. In general, what were the staff and customer service like? I've always been under the impression that even though MSC have a few things they can do better, the customer service has always been excellent. However, I've watched a couple of videos now, specifically of the World Europa, where people say it has not been good at all. Would like to know your honest opinion.
Honestly, we think that overall MSC has good customer service for a European cruise line. Cruisers coming from North America are usually used to the over-the-top service, pleasantries, and smiles that you get on cruise lines like NCL, RC, and others. You are not going to get that on MSC, and we have grown accustomed to not getting that by living in Europe for the better part of 3 years. But we can say without a doubt that in our experience the service was not bad, and the staff were not rude or unfriendly. You just have to be prepared for a more direct and reserved form of service. It is not them being rude (though many Americans interpret it that way), it is just the form and standard of service that is most common in that part of the world. Hope that helps!
Please answer this🚨🚨🚨. My passport and lithuanian residence permit have been stolen recently, and i want to travel back to Lithuania from Italy by bus. Can i do it with a police report and a letter from the embassy of my country? Please guide me
We are not experts in this area, but your likely recourse is to go to your home country Embassy in Italy to get a new passport, and then you can try to go to the Lithuanian Embassy in Italy to get a new residence permit. Your home country embassy might know more on this, but we would not travel without some form of permit or visa showing that you can be there if you are asked to show your visa.
Nice review. I did business class on this flight in reverse, Dublin to Chicago. Just so you know business class isn't really a thing on inter European flights as the flight durations are so short. The best you'll get is a row with 3 seats with the middle seat blocked off.
Yes! You are absolutely right about business class in Europe. Although compared to the US, you generally get a meal in business class in Europe where you don't in the States (you are lucky to get a small "snack" for free), and the plane that we were scheduled to fly on had a really nice 2-2, 1-1 layout in business class, which was unheard of for other inter-European flights for us. Hence our disappointment...
Great video! I'm surprised about your bad experience in Marseille as we embarked from there three times already (once for MSC World Europa) and we liked it precisely because it wasn't as crowded as Genova (from our home both ports are less than 5 hours far by car), maybe we were just lucky (or you unlucky 🙂).
I've never had a problem using the perks on MSC. They ask you to make reservations as early as possible on your cruise. This couple doesn't seem to understand the reservation system. Who waits till the last night of their cruise expecting to walk into a specialty restaurant
Aer Lingus no longer uses Terminal 5 at O'Hare. They fly to terminal 3 now and I find it better because you don't have to take the airport transfer train from terminal 5 to terminal 3 to get the train to downtown Chicago.
I've traveled that route about 30 times over the years with Aer Lingus and they're generally pretty good. TIP: Get yourself a cheap Bluetooth transmitter, pair it first and then take it with you and plug that into the headphone jack of the aircraft and you'll connect with no issues. Buy the cheap one's because 7 times out of 10 you'll forget it when you're getting off the plane 🙂
Cruised with MSC World Europa last year and we really loved it. Some nice memories come up looking at your video. 🥰 Very nice videos and reviews, good job!
It really was not as disruptive as I expected. However, the flight crew did not do a very good job at enforcing the "Polaris only" rules there. It was supposed to be for Polaris, and there was a partition between premium economy and that Polaris bathroom.
That's shocking that they've designed a ship where the catering isn't good/big enough to serve everyone. Everyone paid good money to be on the ship. We're not talking about a basic $10 breakfast buffet here, so the fact that they need to close it and turn people away, is absolutely crazy. People need to start complaining with their wallet and stop booking such cruises. They've obviously sat down and designed this ship to sleep the maximum amount of people and everything else like the catering and spa were an afterthought. Prime example of this is the Yacht Club, where even their restaurant is struggling to keep up with the amount of people in the YC. Makes you wonder how it will go during an emergency when all those people need to get onto lifeboats. I bet that's something they've never had a real exercise for.
Thank you. loved all your videos for this cruise. It's a shame about the smoking, because even in Italy and most of Europe smoking inside public places are not allowed, so don't know why they allow it inside on the cruise ship. I used to smoke most of my life, but have stopped since 2020 so try to avoid any contact partly due to temptation 🙂
I'll be doing this cruise starting in Iceland and finishing in London at the end of the month. Did y'all find you needed any kind of heavy duty hiking trails or did you do ok in standard tennis/ walking shoes?
For what we did we were fine with tennis shoes. However, we know that there are some excursions that are actually hiking or wilderness excursions, so if you want to do any of those make sure you dress accordingly! Have a great time on your cruise!!
@@theseasonedexpats Also, did you have any need to exchange currency for the Iceland and Norway parts? I'm not as worried about mainland Europe and London. Thanks so much!
On the cruise that we went on, to be honest, it did not matter much. Many of the ports are more industrial, so there is not a lot to see while in those ports. For Riga, Stockholm, and Helsinki we sailed down rivers, bays, and inlets, so both sides of the ship got great views. Hope that helps! 😊
Good for you for avoiding excursions, they're so expensive. Next time you stop at the Naples having lived there for three years, two suggestions Herculaneum offers a brilliant view of ancient Rome with all the original friezes and artwork intact When you jump off the ship, the hydrofoil took Capri is right there next to the ship. The hydrofoil Capri and a day on the beach at Marina picolla is awesome.
Wow - you must be pretty spoiled after hearing your complaints. Aside from only one electrical outlet area, I think the rest of the critiques were pretty trivial.
Interesting take! The complaints for this cabin are based on all of the other ships we have been on, which generally have been much better equipped. Thanks for watching!
There are multiple bus lines that leave from Oriente. Rede are the blue one Flix are the green ones. They are cheap comfortable and more frequent then the trains.
Thanks for sharing. I was hoping they would stop with this surprise 2x2x2 seat setup since they caught me off guard with it in 2019. I was expecting to have one of the nice "Captain's Chairs" or "Thrones" on the right side, but surprise! At least I had the two seats to myself flying to Miami and back. One nice thing I noticed in your video is that they've added the privacy screen since 2019. Based on the seats United had in 2009 (which no longer exist), the privacy screen is a nice feature to have if you end up with an annoying person next to you. (I had a guy sitting next to me back in 2009 from Newark to Stuttgart who wouldn't stop talking, and got into a little "Discussion" with the flight attendant. The service was actually good, but..... You can't always pick who flies. 😀 ) Maybe I'll fly Aer Lingus again in the next year. 😀 It is going through US Customs in Dublin before getting on the plane to the US. 😀
Great video...she's a beautiful ship. However, reviews of MSC, in general, are fairly divisive. I've read and seen on RU-vid varying degrees of satisfaction and outright loathing of this cruise line. At the end of this video you that you look forward to sailing her sister ship and you did mention having sailed MSC previously. So, I'm assuming you like MSC (so far 😉). I've only been on four total cruises with NCL, Princess and Royal Caribbean. I am still trying other cruise lines like Celebrity and Carnival. Would you recommend MSC be in that mix? Thanks for the great content. 🙂
Well, we would say that MSC has its quirks, and we have had a wide array of experiences with the food and staff on MSC even from ship to ship. MSC does have beautiful ships, but on some of their older ships there is really not much to do. This ship was above and beyond anything we had experienced with MSC thus far. We will say that MSC beats all of the other cruise lines on price for the level of quality that you get. It is not up there with RC, Princess, or NCL on quality of food or service, but then again the price is sometimes half of what you pay for very similar cruises with those lines. Hope that helps!
For us they were not lost. We found out on our NEXT cruise with NCL. When we put our room card in the machine, the credits were sitting there in our account and ready to be put on the machine. However, if you never take another NCL cruise I am not sure how you would get those back... very shady indeed!
MSC Poesia has serious plumbing issues. My balcony cabin smelled like sewer. Many other areas on the ship smelled like public restroom. Mine wasn’t the only cabin with this problem. The crew apologized but the fact remained that it was an awful experience.
Thanks for the video. Well done! But honestly, I would probably still do 1st Class as it's nice not having to deal with a crowded car. Too bad you couldn't get video of what 2nd Class looked like. Still thankful of your video.
Regarding the quality of the ride, well that’s explained by more than 20 years of abandoment. When the last big modernization took place, and when they also got those AF trains. Refurbished some years ago to that interior and livery you experienced. Then also the entity responsible for the maintenance of the network been shifting and going around throughout the years. First it was one big company trains and infrastructures, then those were divided. Then it was incorporated into another one or something. And last change was when it was put together with Estradas de Portugal (the road network one). Not that this usually means much but in Portugal in does. It’s the typical push to the next guy coz I’m no feeling it. Now lately with several projects of national improvements colliding with EU projects for a seamless network around Europe, that they want to include Portugal in, it’s been a mess of overlapping projects. Plus Portugal doesn’t have a dedicated high speed line; and we use Iberian gauge. So all the slowdowns and stops are due to those improvement and maintenance works. Could be worst. It will take many years till Portugal has a train travel quality in par with rest of Europe. Also must say, what you described for the first class experience, I did experience also in other euro countries like Spain France and Germany. WiFi not working or useless at best in terms of speed. Similar offerings in terms of the “restaurant” car. But again pre, during and post pandemic experiences have been very different across the board so it depends on when one was travelling.
Hello there. First let me say I don’t mean to criticize in anyway, but I think you are a bit confused with where the Alfa Pendular departs. All Alfas that leave from Lisbon in direction North, all depart from Santa Apolonia. And then stop like 8-9 mins after in Oriente. So if you in downtown area and want to get on the Alfa, or any other for that matter, you can do it in Santa Apolonia. There are a couple of them that are inbound from Faro, and those only stop in Oriente, since Santa Apolonia is out of the way. But all Alfas starting journey from Lisbon to the north , do start from Santa Apolonia. Unless I completely missed what you were trying to say, coz it left a bit confused 😆
