Beamafar

My first ever cruise was on Carnival (2000). (Thought I’d never cruise again! Forward to 2011, MSC, cruise bug bit). I don’t recollect piano bar entertainment. My abiding memory was a Beatles tribute in one of the lounges; absolutely loved it, but it was sooo short. Same on NCL (in “The Cave” - you really had to get there way before the show to get a seat - way too small a venue for such a popular event ). Why can’t cruise lines see that a Beatles tribute is still a huge draw?? I know that MSC does a ‘tribute’ in the theatre, but a whole night in one of the lounges would be a real treat. Having said that, I wish that entertainers onboard wouldn’t make their own arrangements when doing Beatles ‘tributes’ (thinking of our experience on Seashore in the Med).

On Seascape there’s dual piano players in the Times Square lounge. (Nothing like ‘Duelling Pianos’ on NCL! )

Post #8.

You’ll automatically get 5% discount when you status match. Here’s the deal for Voyagers Club members

All cruises on the UK site are priced in GBP.

I wouldn’t be familiar with how kids are treated so that’s interesting (and helpful if the OP decides to book YC). 👍

On closed UK sailings from Southampton the onboard currency is Sterling (GB pounds). Some sailings out of Southampton also have embarkation ports in Northern Europe; currency is then Euros onboard.

The butlers are not supposed to pack/unpack without someone in attendance because they leave themselves exposed to being accused of stealing should someone claim that valuables have gone missing.

No charge for bracelets in YC.

As an FYI - you must be in the cabin if you require a butler to unpack/pack for you. YC butlers also offer a shoe-shine service.

… and here it comes again. 🙄 This thread should be locked!

On Poesia (her sister ship) there was a separate area in the MDR - with better spaces between tables and service - for Aurea guests. It’s likely to be the same case on Magnifica as there’s no way that just one of the MDRs could accommodate non-Aurea guests.

Never had a problem getting doubles. In fact, some of the barmen seem to be only capable of pouring doubles. 🙈😆

Buon viaggio. Looking forward to reading about your experience onboard.

Would anyone have copies of Christmas Eve/Day, New Year’s Eve/Day menus? (It’s unfortunate that the time of year wasn’t included in the thread title).

What categories of cabins have people booked and what were they upgraded to?

Absolutely! We’ve done several YC sailings - many in Europe. It’s a whole other level. Having said that, we’ve done many non-YC cruises and have some fantastic memories of those, also, but YC gets us the luxury experience that we sometimes opt for, depending on budget and other bookings we may have in the pipeline.

If YC is within your budget, then go for it! You will have butler escort off the ship at the ports (which is a real plus as you skip the long queues of other pax exiting); that’s just one of the many benefits of YC. Bear in mind that there will be safety drills at each embarkation port on the itinerary; another good reason to book YC, so you can enjoy the enclave (private pool deck/private lounge - known as the Top Sail Lounge) while the rest of the ship shuts down to facilitate the muster drills.

Thanks for doing this comparison, Fogfog. It’s both illuminating and enlightening (probably means the same thing - just sounded good - in my head, anyway 🤪)

Brings to mind a particular waiter we had once; Mr B enjoyed a mains so much that he asked for a second helping. Every night after, he got seconds whether he wanted it or not. One night I couldn’t decide which dessert I wanted, so he brought all three.

One of our best MSC cruises (if not the best out of 27) was on Sinfonia. It was a 24 night repo from Venice to Durban (B2B with a 4 night Durban return). We had been on her six weeks prior, a 7 night Adriatic cruise, so got to know the crew beforehand. Between the service and entertainment onboard, we had the most amazing time we’ve ever had.

One of my bugbears with MSC is that they will seat us with other Irish passengers. When we travel, we would prefer to meet people from other places - that’s the reason for travelling abroad in the first place. Slightly off-topic: On one particular repo (from Brazil) we were seated at a 6-top with 4 others from Australia (one couple and 2 sisters). We were the first to arrive at the table on the first night, followed by the couple. While we waited for our other table mates, the wife remarked “I hope the other couple speak Australian”. 🙈

Genuine question: Does the price differential warrant these ‘better’ items? From the little I’ve read about Haven, it seems to me that it doesn’t offer some of the inclusions that YC does. That being the case, YC base price appears to offer a lot more than Haven’s. For that reason we have never been tempted to consider Haven (never had any issues with beds in YC; bring our own toiletries, so not an issue - and MSC has mixology lounges on most of their ships that the included drinks package in YC covers - not that that’s a ‘thing’ for us as we rarely drink cocktails).

There was plenty of discussion on here at the time and it certainly appeared to be fleetwide once it was fully implemented (meaning that implementation was staggered across different dates due to repositioning ships, etc)

Waiters in the Aurea dining area/room have less tables to wait on, so service tends to be better.