And baby, it looks like I struck gold again!
During the height of the power failure a few days ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, I used some of my precious data minutes on my phone to check my emails and, as expected, one of them was a booking confirmation from MSC regarding my upcoming cruise. I quickly opened it just to confirm that it looked okay and my eye was immediately drawn to a bit of a surprise.
I'd booked the trip for the cheapest price possible, a guarantee inside cabin. A guarantee, for the cruise uninitiated, means that you agree to let the cruise line choose whatever cabin they want to throw your way. You usually find out a day or two before sailing what they've assigned to you as your cabin number. This option is totally fine for me since I don't care if I'm forward or aft, high or low, since I don't have a preference as I have high tolerance, and actually an affinity for, the rocking and rolling of the ship.
The booking confirmation email stated that it already had my assigned cabin number 11171, category: Deluxe balcony.
A BALCONY! FOR $315! And, remember, I'm a solo traveler paying a 50% single supplement!
When I saw that, I immediately tried to use my phone to get on the Cruise Mapper website which has linked YouTube videos showing the interiors of the cabins. Be it either my inability to navigate the web with a freaking phone, or the limitations of using cellular data, or whatever, I just couldn't get it to work and with both my phone's power and data minutes dwindling fast, I had to give it up. I eventually, once the power failure was over and everything was back to normal with the command center, of course, did get on and see videos of similar cabins to what I'd been assigned and again, SMH, I can't believe I got this as an absolutely free and unrequested upgrade!
Like my magnet says above, I love MSC!
So embarkation is this upcoming Sunday. I'll be bringing my phone and I'll be sure to take video this time. From all indications this is a big, beautiful ship and I plan to explore every bit of her.
As you can see from the itinerary, we'll be stopping for a full day, overnight, and morning at MSC's Private Island Ocean Cay. I do plan on getting out there. I needs me a little beach time.
Nassau, probably not. Been there done that. As I've stated in other posts in the past, it's a good port to jump off the ship to get drunk and roll yourself back on the ship in time to pass out for less money than it would have cost on the ship. But I heard those port bars aren't so cheap anymore, and, as you know, I'm not so much a booze hound anymore either.
Will this be the cheapest cruise that I've ever been on? It may not meet that mark since, if you remember, there were a couple of those back in 2019 after the Cuba cruises were canceled that were downright almost free, but, I'll report back to you when it's all said and done next week to give you my impression if I got the most bang for my buck. And that, after all, is where fortune really favors the curious.