MSC Preziosa Yacht Club: extremely disappointing

My wife and I booked the MSC Yacht Club for our honeymoon after reading and hearing exceptional reviews about the service, experience, and amenities. I have to say that our Yacht Club experience fell far short on the Preziosa out of Venice April 5-12th.

I believe most of these issues described below had to do with the fact that the number of Yacht Club guests exceeded the true capacity of the Yacht Club personnel, resources, supplies, and restaurant. Other Yacht Club members who had cruised Divina and Splendida confirmed this and said the Preziosa YC experience was embarrassingly substandard.

Embarkation took rather longer than most have experienced in other Yacht club reviews (1+hour), and we did not meet our butler until late in the evening; in fact, we rarely interacted with our butler for the entire trip. Our bags did not arrive until 4 hours after departure.

As another poster mentioned, the Preziosa recently repositioned from Brazil and the staff seem exhausted, low morale, sometimes short and rude---even in the Yacht Club areas.

There were serious supply chain issues and the ship was out of such silly things as coke zero, Stella, and Newcastle for most of the trip. There was a day where Yacht club members could not get mojitos because a certain component was depleted.

The food in the Yacht Club restaurant was substandard on many nights, and there were wait times of 1+ hour, even after putting your name in with the concierge. Service was substandard as resources got sucked into helping large parties who made ridiculous demands upon the staff. Room service was even worse and the sandwiches were miniscule and the menu limited. Delivery often took more than an hour.

One of the more annoying experiences was disembarkation and embarkation for excursions. While the Yacht Club had its own tent and butler service for the initial embarkation in Venice, I expected to have a dedicated line for Yacht Club excursions. This was not the case and oftentimes it took an hour to disembark. Even worse we observed some MSC staff personally escorting off some of the Yacht Club cruisers for excursions and bypassing the line---when we asked for similar service they said that MSC did not do that (on that note, there seemed to be a higher level of service in most other areas for certain Yacht Club members). In addition, the ship was often late into port and the excursion times were cut by a few hours sometimes.

Yacht club members could only get free drinks in Yacht club areas due to the fact that MSC wanting to cut down on YC members obtaining free drinks for non-YC cruisers. But with that logic, couldn't someone cruising regular fare with an unlimited drink package do the same? In the past, I am sure the number of YC members getting free drinks for non-YC members was miniscule and a non-issue. MSC needs to change this silly policy.

We complained early on to the Guests Relations Manager, and service did not improve.

On the final disembarkation in Venice, we had an early flight and repeatedly told staff that we needed to get off ASAP and demanded an escort by a butler. They informed us that Yacht Club would be the first off the ship. When we along with 10 YC members were escorted off by a single butler, we got lost in the chaos as the entire ship disembarked at the same time and it took us an hour to get off the ship and get to our bags. At the very least we were fed misinformation on Yacht Club priority (as a side note, this was typical of the YC experience: staff told us one thing, but reality was something completely different). Totally disorganized and chaotic disembarkation.

I hope one day MSC returns the Yacht Club to it's former glory (perhaps it never existed for the Preziosa?).....

-BD6

We did Yacht Club on the Divina in January and it was fantastic.

I thought the pool area and the cocktail lounge were way to big for such a small percentage of the ship to use ! Never crowded.

The restaurant was an adequite size and since we ate fairly early (6pm) we had no problems. Staff had great attitudes and the food was like being in a pay restaurant every night.

I have never heard of Stella or Newcastle so do not know what you are talking about. Perhaps that could be why they were out of the product as it was not something ordered regularly.

We knew before we sailed about the policy of only being able to order drinks (free) would only be in the yacht club area. However, they never stopped you from getting a 'drink to go' in that area and then going to another part of the ship.

We found the whole experience so incredible that we booked it again for next March. Hope it remains the same on the Divina as I am recommending it a lot.

Perhaps because they are trying to establish a ship in the U.S. they are trying harder here.

Hello Shippy,

At the same time many of our fellow cruisers were complaining about the Preziosa Yacht club......they were also saying great things about the Divina Yacht club experience, and how different the two were.

Preziosa was beautiful and brand new. The YC areas--Top Sail Lounge, One Pool--were incredible.

sorry you had such a bad experience, we are going the Prezsoia next month. Did you speak with the head butler about your concerns. did you make your early flight? sounds like the problem was your butler.

Hello Alexkrn46,

Yes, fortunately, we did make the flight.

When we met with the guest relations manager, the head butler became involved. But, again, I don't think it was any specific personnel issues---I think it largely had to do with capacity issues.

I think the problem was our butler was overworked, as there were some over-demanding yacht club members she had to attend to (as just one example, they made her iron their jeans everyday). As I mentioned, there certainly was a differential level of service for some YC cruisers.

I hope your experience on the Preziosa will be much better. Happy sailing.

We did Yacht Club on the Divina in January and it was fantastic.

I thought the pool area and the cocktail lounge were way to big for such a small percentage of the ship to use ! Never crowded.

The restaurant was an adequite size and since we ate fairly early (6pm) we had no problems. Staff had great attitudes and the food was like being in a pay restaurant every night.

I have never heard of Stella or Newcastle so do not know what you are talking about. Perhaps that could be why they were out of the product as it was not something ordered regularly.

We knew before we sailed about the policy of only being able to order drinks (free) would only be in the yacht club area. However, they never stopped you from getting a 'drink to go' in that area and then going to another part of the ship.

We found the whole experience so incredible that we booked it again for next March. Hope it remains the same on the Divina as I am recommending it a lot.

Perhaps because they are trying to establish a ship in the U.S. they are trying harder here.

Beer.

Stella is a Belgium beer and Newcastle (Newcastle Brown Ale) is an English beer.

Hello Alexkrn46,

 

Yes, fortunately, we did make the flight.

 

When we met with the guest relations manager, the head butler became involved. But, again, I don't think it was any specific personnel issues---I think it largely had to do with capacity issues.

 

I think the problem was our butler was overworked, as there were some over-demanding yacht club members she had to attend to (as just one example, they made her iron their jeans everyday). As I mentioned, there certainly was a differential level of service for some YC cruisers.

 

I hope your experience on the Preziosa will be much better. Happy sailing.

the butler should have given you equal time, I think they have the same amount of butlers for each ship. If your butler was busy another should have picked up the slack.I would feel the same way you felt. As far as the drinks the cruise line does state in the YC areas only.

Sounds like this cruiseline was not a good fit for you. sounds like if they had 10 butlers the demanding people would have sucked their time, that is where the head butler should have stepped in.

Just regarding your disembarkation in Venice, did you have any transfers organised, to get to the airport at all ?

Thanks

WA Girl: We had a water taxi reserved, but took a land taxi instead thinking it would be faster. FYI, it is a 5-15 minute hike from the Marco Polo water taxi landing to the terminal, and we may or may not have saved time with the land taxi pulling right up to the terminal.

alexkrn46: some other YC cruisers that had sailed YC Divina had mentioned the butler service was lacking on YC Preziosa and also lodged complaints. Others found the butler service wonderful.

My wife and I booked the MSC Yacht Club for our honeymoon after reading and hearing exceptional reviews about the service, experience, and amenities. I have to say that our Yacht Club experience fell far short on the Preziosa out of Venice April 5-12th.

 

I believe most of these issues described below had to do with the fact that the number of Yacht Club guests exceeded the true capacity of the Yacht Club personnel, resources, supplies, and restaurant. Other Yacht Club members who had cruised Divina and Splendida confirmed this and said the Preziosa YC experience was embarrassingly substandard.

 

Embarkation took rather longer than most have experienced in other Yacht club reviews (1+hour), and we did not meet our butler until late in the evening; in fact, we rarely interacted with our butler for the entire trip. Our bags did not arrive until 4 hours after departure.

 

As another poster mentioned, the Preziosa recently repositioned from Brazil and the staff seem exhausted, low morale, sometimes short and rude---even in the Yacht Club areas.

 

There were serious supply chain issues and the ship was out of such silly things as coke zero, Stella, and Newcastle for most of the trip. There was a day where Yacht club members could not get mojitos because a certain component was depleted.

 

The food in the Yacht Club restaurant was substandard on many nights, and there were wait times of 1+ hour, even after putting your name in with the concierge. Service was substandard as resources got sucked into helping large parties who made ridiculous demands upon the staff. Room service was even worse and the sandwiches were miniscule and the menu limited. Delivery often took more than an hour.

 

One of the more annoying experiences was disembarkation and embarkation for excursions. While the Yacht Club had its own tent and butler service for the initial embarkation in Venice, I expected to have a dedicated line for Yacht Club excursions. This was not the case and oftentimes it took an hour to disembark. Even worse we observed some MSC staff personally escorting off some of the Yacht Club cruisers for excursions and bypassing the line---when we asked for similar service they said that MSC did not do that (on that note, there seemed to be a higher level of service in most other areas for certain Yacht Club members). In addition, the ship was often late into port and the excursion times were cut by a few hours sometimes.

 

Yacht club members could only get free drinks in Yacht club areas due to the fact that MSC wanting to cut down on YC members obtaining free drinks for non-YC cruisers. But with that logic, couldn't someone cruising regular fare with an unlimited drink package do the same? In the past, I am sure the number of YC members getting free drinks for non-YC members was miniscule and a non-issue. MSC needs to change this silly policy.

 

We complained early on to the Guests Relations Manager, and service did not improve.

 

On the final disembarkation in Venice, we had an early flight and repeatedly told staff that we needed to get off ASAP and demanded an escort by a butler. They informed us that Yacht Club would be the first off the ship. When we along with 10 YC members were escorted off by a single butler, we got lost in the chaos as the entire ship disembarked at the same time and it took us an hour to get off the ship and get to our bags. At the very least we were fed misinformation on Yacht Club priority (as a side note, this was typical of the YC experience: staff told us one thing, but reality was something completely different). Totally disorganized and chaotic disembarkation.

 

I hope one day MSC returns the Yacht Club to it's former glory (perhaps it never existed for the Preziosa?).....

 

-BD6

Wow 3-rd unhappy person from same ship and never used CC before . What a small world :rolleyes:

"...never used before." I have definitely used cruise critic....used the forums to read reviews and comments about MSC yacht club. Is your comment supposed to undermine my credibility?

when you have been in the forums awhile you get jaded when the first post someone makes is a compliant, Sounds like you had a horrible butler, I understand you were on your honeymoon and did not want to spend your time complaining.

I am confused when you say issues, did your butler have a large assignment and where were the other butlers? what would have made you happy? and last was this your first cruise?

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough: as I wrote previously, we did complain, and talked to the Guests Relations Manager which then the head butler got involved. It's not an issue with our preferences, this seems to be a systemic issue on this ship as other passengers had similar issues. The issues do not necessarily stem from the talents of a given butler or the staff, but the capacity of the yacht club to handle the number of guests booked in yacht club for this particular cruise. When yacht club was a brand new product in the past, they probably didn't have as many bookings as now, and butlers, staff could handle the relatively small number of passengers. Again, I make this hypothesis based also on the comments of staff and other cruisers. The staff in the restaurant even told us that the capacity of the kitchen is too small to handle a full yacht club booking. Couple capacity issues with the fact that this was the first European cruise for the Preziosa after repositioning to Europe from Brazil and you also see corresponding supply chain issues (shortages, poor food at least initially). Our main complaint wasn't necessarily butler service: another complaint was the differential service levels (e.g. personal escorts for some passengers on and off for excursions) which we communicated to guests relations and head butler and saw no relief.

With that said, I must commend the staff, concierge, and butlers for doing their best to work through the capacity/bandwidth issues---they did the best they could. The matre d' of the restaurant did his best to get everyone seated when everyone and their mother showed up for dinner at 8pm (we then learned to go later).

Sorry to hear that the YC experience didn't live up to your expectations. We have done four cruises in YC and have booked a B2B out of Miami the coming summer and all four was wonderful in all aspects. Nothing to complain about and service as well as food top notch except for a luke warm dinner last year on the MSC Preziosa. We complained and the next evening the food was hot. Seems like they had some problems and shortcomings after the repositioning from South America and that caused the issues you raised. Hopefully everything is sorted out by now but that don't help you.

I have been in the YC twice both times 100+ occupancy! All rooms that could handle 3 or 4 passengers had them booked , never experienced any issues like you said.

so when you say the YC can not handle the load I find it baffling since it has been my experience it is always full. Also when you say the quality of the food how would that be effected by a full ship.

I never waited for a sun lounger or a space in the pool.Never found the top sail lounge crowed. Always had our room done after we left. had a quiet stress less environment.

it sounds from your experience I would not have been happy with a butler who ignored your needs. if you do not make a reservation one could expect to wait.

ok, MSC is not for you, thank you for sharing you thoughts.

Wow,we are on this sailing on the 12th July and was soooo looking forward to it but now after a few negative reports,I am getting worried.As we have spent so much on the Yacht Club,I hope they rectify these issues and quickly.Its not fair that we as paying passengers,do not get the service that we are paying and excepting to have.The reason we went with MSC was because of their reputation.I hope that we are not let down.

Wow,we are on this sailing on the 12th July and was soooo looking forward to it but now after a few negative reports,I am getting worried.As we have spent so much on the Yacht Club,I hope they rectify these issues and quickly.Its not fair that we as paying passengers,do not get the service that we are paying and excepting to have.The reason we went with MSC was because of their reputation.I hope that we are not let down.

I know what you are saying! We are on the cruise in Yacht Club the week before you.

However, there are a number of familiar posters who have had a much more positive experience, and if there are teething problems with the start of the season then there is plenty of time to work it out before July. I will be avoiding the ship excursions though. Not to mention not turning up too early.

Wow 3-rd unhappy person from same ship and never used CC before . What a small world :rolleyes:

If you can't make a useful contribution to a thread I, for one, would appreciate you keep your pointless (and, often, seemingly sarcastic) thoughts to yourself!

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough: as I wrote previously, we did complain, and talked to the Guests Relations Manager which then the head butler got involved. It's not an issue with our preferences, this seems to be a systemic issue on this ship as other passengers had similar issues. The issues do not necessarily stem from the talents of a given butler or the staff, but the capacity of the yacht club to handle the number of guests booked in yacht club for this particular cruise. When yacht club was a brand new product in the past, they probably didn't have as many bookings as now, and butlers, staff could handle the relatively small number of passengers. Again, I make this hypothesis based also on the comments of staff and other cruisers. The staff in the restaurant even told us that the capacity of the kitchen is too small to handle a full yacht club booking. Couple capacity issues with the fact that this was the first European cruise for the Preziosa after repositioning to Europe from Brazil and you also see corresponding supply chain issues (shortages, poor food at least initially). Our main complaint wasn't necessarily butler service: another complaint was the differential service levels (e.g. personal escorts for some passengers on and off for excursions) which we communicated to guests relations and head butler and saw no relief.

 

With that said, I must commend the staff, concierge, and butlers for doing their best to work through the capacity/bandwidth issues---they did the best they could. The matre d' of the restaurant did his best to get everyone seated when everyone and their mother showed up for dinner at 8pm (we then learned to go later).

Oh, we don't doubt that at all! ;)