kelleherdl

That’s okay. We get enough of you on this board. 😀

Our first MSC Cruise in 2019, we had Vishnu and Arthur and of course the ever Italian host Pepe! Together they hooked us on MSC Yacht Club. Arthur and Pepe have certainly advanced quite nicely within MSC. I keep in touch with both Pepe and Arthur. I always check in with them to see if they are on contract for our upcoming cruises. I still follow Vishnu on Facebook, and love seeing what’s going on in Mauritius.

Okay, this whole Cyrano think just hit me with a little Deja vu. Two nights ago I was thinking about how I came to be a reasonably accomplished public speaker 😀. (I was rehearsing my Mass readings for my son’s upcoming wedding.) Cyrano’s soliloquy was one of my grade school attempts at thespian immortality. Of course, my recollection was that I was outstanding. I also was just at The American Adventure at Disney World yesterday and Mark Twain’s humility almost matched mine.

I can assure you it does happen that zero count is held up looking for regular passenger disembarks AND back to backs that go ashore where the badging out is not recorded perfectly. Yes, there is an also a double check at CPB, but it is helpful to ship and shore staff to have an accurate accountability of back to backs who are going ashore in advance.

If you choose to go ashore for the day just let the officer at the gathering point for ‘back to back’ passengers know that you are going ashore for the day. They do that to account for folks going ashore so that they don’t have to search the ship to find you to ‘zero’ the count. You may disembark with the leaving passengers. Just make sure you have your passport (or birth certificates) with you.

You can sail Explora Journeys for roughly the same per person per day as MSC Yacht Club. Which is considerably cheaper than either NCL Haven or Celebrity Retreat for the same size cabin. EJ uses Starlink WiFi, so streaming is definitely an option for most of the Earth that EJ sails. BTW, MSC is moving over to Starlink as well. I’ve seen some comments on taking along your Firestick, or similar device, if you have one. Personally, I have no experience with streaming. The stateroom TV’s are very large.

The cruises in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados/Point a Pitre/Fort d’France, are done the same as Europe. Barbados is far easier to get to from the US, but the YC suites for Barbados embarkation seem to be ‘reserved’ for UK package bookings.

Divina and Preziosa are pretty much identical. dennis

The MSC version is better in my opinion to the other cruise lines I’ve done. The two day tour may seem strange, but it was really great. More time was able to be spent at each of the areas. More time in engineering and bridge were really nice, with plenty of time for questions. The officers were far more relaxed and interactive.

We’ve sailed Divina and Preziosa on at least two cruises each. Most of the Divina fans are in North America, most Preziosa Northern Europe. We like them both. We always sail YC so we appreciate the evening stroll to dinner. Crew seem to love the Preziosa and Divina as well as they do tend to get re-contracted (I know it’s not a word). The only annoyance for us Yacht Clubbers on the Fantasia class ships is the aft pool, mentioned above. Sometimes the ‘view’ of other cruises can be less than appealing, particularly those that linger into the dinner hour. 😀

When did you sail? On the Iceland to New York inaugural cruise the multi-language books were already in the stateroom. I am very certain that the diversity of books in the room would not have been left by prior guests given the diversity of titles and language, and they were most certainly NEW books. Those of us who sailed on early cruises know the books were already there. Dennis

The stateroom ‘libraries’ have been stocked since day one. The books are not lefts, they are provided by EJ.

As you can see my original post was in June of 2023. This was indeed before MSC US website was updated with the new itineraries. Dennis

Princess, Celebrity, and Holland America really OWN the Alaska market. We routinely sailed Alaska on Holland America in Neptune Suites. In my opinion, neither Holland American nor Princess, even with their most expensive cabins, provide the type of experience you are used to with MSC Yacht Club. A Celebrity ship with the Retreat may come close, but the price premium above MSC YC is sizable. Even Princess and Holland America at their prices are way above YC, with nothing near the same experience. When and if MSC add Alaska I will be one of the first to book. It will give me the reason to do Alaska again. So I think you are left with options among the other mainstream cruise lines with a lesser experience than the Yacht Club.

I found quite a few folks, like me, love the sun. With loungers on all sides of the ship it’s easy to find shade wherever the sun ISN’T. The great number of lounger locations for me is a strong design element. Now if you choose to stay in the same place all day long it can be an issue. The earth does rotate, so as we all know shade will move throughout the day. I’m willing to move with the sun and use the copious availability of towels to set up a fresh lounger.