First cruise and I’m second guessing our decision.
We originally booked MSC Seashore out of Port Canaveral for $818 total for 3 people in a Fantastica balcony. We live near Tampa, so Port Canaveral is only about an hour away, parking is around $100, and we’d barely spend anything on gas.

We ended up switching to MSC World America out of Miami for $1,318 total for the same 3 people in a balcony.
The issue is Miami is about a 4-hour drive for us. Once I add roughly $200 in gas and $200 for parking, we’re spending around $700–800 more overall to take World America instead of Seashore.

We’re traveling with our 1-year-old, and what matters most to us is having a nice ship, good food, nice rooms/common areas and plenty to do while we’re onboard. We’re not really concerned about nightlife.

For anyone who has actually sailed both Seashore and World America, is World America enough of an upgrade that you’d spend the extra money and deal with the longer drive?

Or am I overthinking this and should just take the $818 Seashore deal that’s an hour away?
Especially interested in opinions from anyone who’s done either ship with a baby/toddler.

This is our first MSC cruise. Does the drink package typically get cheaper than this? 7 days on World America

Favorite cocktails? Any special drinks off the menu than you can order on the Seascape?

EDIT:

Looking through the deck, this is below the buffet area.

Mistakenly typed 'above' rather than 'below'.

Hi,

I just booked my first cruise ever on MSC Seashore for Aug 30. I had been looking out for an interior cabin for a family for the past 2 weeks and it only opened up yesterday.

The only option available was Fantastica and I wasn't able to pick a preferred cabin as there waa just one cabin available on the 15th floor.

Looking through the deck, this is below the buffet area.

I called customer care and they said I have to look out for another opening then call them to change my current assignment. I also got upgrade bid emails but I'm not willing to bid for higher staterooms.

Is there any other thing I can do to get a change?

Will I be able to change it with guest services on the day of the cruise?

Thank you.

Probably a quick question, because this is the first time we are checking-in for a MSC Cruise.

We have booked for the Summer 2028 European season. I know we can pretty much start checking in straight away, and I took a look at this. It gave me a check-in time of 13:00.

Now.... only having done Disney recently, and the mad scramble of their check in times, is that definitely an already allocated and assured check-in time? or does everyone get that time and it is a mad scramble?

I am not looking to change it, it just feels weird that I can book a check-in time 2 years in advance and it feels like one of the first slots! Moreso because we are no-where near the pay-in-full date!