DISASTROUS TRIP WITH MSC

Item: MSC Meraviglia
Rating: 1.3
Author: Yatish

MSC Meraviglia Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

Yatish

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 4

Overall rating:

1.3 out of 5

7 Night Florida & Bahamas (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 16, 2023

Ship: MSC Meraviglia

Cabin number: 5001

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 9 months ago

Review summary

Extremely disappointed with MSC and how they handled the cruise route change due to a storm. My 5 friends and I were supposed to go to the Bahamas for 7 days on the MSC Meriviglia. We got an email around 10pm the night before departure when we were driving from North Carolina to the NYC port and making an overnight stop in DC. 15mins away from our stop in DC we get the email saying the whole course has now been changed to go to Canada (1day), Boston (3days), and Portland (1day). The email said if we were not happy with this change we can call MSC to cancel. I called MSC and got on the phone with someone named Mitchel after a 20 minute wait (the wait however was understandble). She explained to me that if I wanted I could get back my full refund, I would first get my port fees and taxes back after which I'll get the rest of the amount in cruise credit and as soon as I get the cruise credit email to call MSC and ask for them to refund my cruise credit on my card. We told her we would call back and just needed a minute to think. When we finally decided that with a suitcase full of swimsuits and shorts we won't be able to make it through the cold weather as the cruise now had a cold weather route, we called again to cancel. On this call we were told that they just got orders from their supervisors that they can only give back the port fees and taxes and the cruise credit would not be refunded back to our card. We will get cruise credit that will be valid for 1 year. Now, we are all college students and had saved up for this trip, we don't have the flexibility to go again with the same people or at all back on this cruise. Therefore, after much discussion we decided to go on the cruise and buy some jackets on the way. At night we also realized that one of my friends is an indian citizen and she dosen't have the paperwork to go to Canada. She had everything she needed for the Bahamas but it was impossible to produce paperwork for Canada overnight so we tried calling them again from our stop in DC to check if she can maybe get on the cruise and not get off at Canada however by 12am the office was closed and no one picked up. The cruise was chcecking in at 11am in the morning. We woke up at 5am to start driving to NYC and called the office at 9am as soon as they opened to ask if she could board the cruise and not get off at canada. They told us that we won’t know if she can board the cruise until we actually go to the port and ask the port authorities there which is absolutely RIDICULOUS. This meant we would have to park in NYC (we had reseved and paid for our parking beforehand for the 7 days) then uber to the port ask them if we can get on and if they said no we would have to uber back, lose our parking money and drive all the way back home from NYC. That is exactly what ended up happening. They did not give us any information on whether she could board and after reaching, they told us she couldn't so we didn't have an option but for all 6 of us to not board the ship. When we told the port authroties what happened and how much we had to travel and suffer, they also tried to argue with the MSC employees there but no one listened. MSC decided to change course at the last minute, told us we would get our money back and then changed their minds at the last minute, after which they wouldn't even tell us if we can board the ship until we get to the port! After all this and losing so much money we called MSC asking for a full refund since we were willing to go however due to them not giving us time to prodcue the right paperwork and them not giving us any information till we reached the port, we had to drive 500+ miles and pay $200+ for parking. They refused to give us our money we spent over an hour on the phone and it was like talking to a wall, one of my friends started crying because of all the money we lost and the amount of trouble we had gone through at that point. After all this they still haven’t refunded a single penny and are asking us to wait for 1-2 billing cycles to get any money back! When we asked to speak to supervisors, they said its not possible but after persisting we were told we would get a call back in 24 hours and absolutely nothing came out of it. We still haven’t even received a confirmation email saying we are receiving the cruise credit or any refund back. This whole thing was absolutely traumatizing and has caused us so much mental distress.. will NEVER TRAVEL WITH MSC.