RichYak

Answering my own question: I just found another Meraviglia technical sheet via google and it says 103 YC cabins. cc: @Two Wheels Only

Interesting, thanks. So does that mean that the Meraviglia YC cabin count is actually higher than 95 as well?

I suppose, but being new to MSC, I'm just now learning the different ship classes and wasn't even aware, until your post, that there might be sub-classes of each. You know, I got my numbers right off of Grandiosa's Technical Sheet. It didn't make much sense to me that the ship's total capacity was similar to Virtuosa's and Euribia's while the YC count was lower. Thanks for that.

My wife and I sailed Meraviglia last month after many cruises on Celebrity in The Retreat. With Retreat product declining a bit and prices skyrocketing, we found ourselves looking for another line to try and YC fit the bill. And since we live less than an hour from Brooklyn, it didn't take much effort to give it a shot. TLDR: we're very glad we did. I had posted somewhat live comments in an already existing thread on the Celebrity CC board. Per the suggestion of @DisneyJen I'm creating a standalone thread here and re-writing. Embarkation Embarkation was a breeze, not really any better or worse than any we've had in Retreat, though with the butler escort, it felt more like a Retreat Upper Suite embarkation. Once on board, the Top Sail lounge was a bit crowded, but we chatted with other couples and I made a Butcher's Cut reservation while we waited for our cabin to be ready prior to lunch. I did miss the ability to drop carry-ons in the cabin immediately upon boarding like on Celebrity, but not by much. YC Restaurant vs Luminae Embarkation day lunch in the YC Restaurant felt noticeably different than it does in Luminae on Celebrity. The Luminae staff always appears hair-on-fire-frenetic for the first meal service. YC was relaxed, friendly and efficient--a very good sign. After subsequent meals it became obvious that YC was both better staffed and managed than Luminae. Servers never felt rushed, food arrived hot and well prepared, ingredients were of high quality. I found the menu less adventurous than Luminae's, but not in a bad way. My big Luminae pet peeve: if you want a cocktail, servers need to fetch the Sommelier. In YC, I just ask whoever is in front of me and in a couple minutes, my drink arrives. Also, the 180 degree views off the bow are gorgeous. Lastly, the YC Restaurant is open on port days. Luminae just can't compete and falls way short. YC Lounge vs Retreat Lounge This just isn't a fair fight. On most of their ships, Celebrity just retrofitted an already existing venue and called it the Retreat Lounge. And on the new ships where the lounge was designed from scratch for the Retreat, there's no proper bar with seating. Their lounges are antiseptic and antisocial. Top Sail is so warm and inviting with comfortable seating and killer views. You can get a proper espresso in Top Sail, there are small bites all day long, and some form of entertainment every evening. Retreat Lounges have a pod-based coffee machine, occasional food items, and little in the way of entertainment. Our stateroom was so close to the lounge, it served as our de facto living room. You would need to stay in an Edge Villa on Celebrity for the same convenient lounge access. It's simply no contest. YC One Pool vs Retreat Sundeck This is also no-contest. The only Celebrity ships with a proper sundeck with pool and hot tub are the new Edge Class ships. The problem with Edge Class is there are sooooo many suites. For an area designed to be a "retreat" from the masses, there are simply too many people. I didn't feel that way on Mera's One Pool deck. There was plenty of space for everyone. Add to that a buffet for breakfast and lunch, something that Celebrity Retreat doesn't offer, and YC wins hands down. Butler Service Our butler was awesome... just fantastic. Just about everyone else we talked to also loved their butler, except one couple who were on a lower floor outside the YC enclave. Maybe that was the issue. We mentioned wine and cheese to him and every night there was wine and cheese in our stateroom. My wife mentioned that she liked the dates that they had in the lounge, the next day we found a whole box of them in our cabin. Stuff like that. On Celebrity, you need to stay in upper suites to get this kind of attention. Any time I stopped at the lounge for coffee to bring back to our cabin, whichever butler was there brought it back for us. YC Deluxe Balcony vs Retreat Sky Suite This is the only area where Retreat might be a winner. The toiletries are of higher quality in Retreat and the cabin just seems more luxurious. I love the robes too. The terrycloth ones in our YC cabin were cheap. There were no bedside power outlets and the room, while perfectly functional, was a bit smaller. In Retreat, the bed faces the balcony which is also nice. For us though, having chosen a location just steps from the lounge, location trumped all those little in-cabin flaws. If one is on a lower deck or less convenient location, Retreat could certainly win this battle. So that's my comparison. I'm sold on YC. Sorry to let the secret out 😂

As I was researching future potential cruises, another big Retreat vs YC difference came to mind, so I'm reviving this thread to share it. The nice thing about sailing in Celebrity's M- and S-class Retreat is the manageable number of suite cabins. Fewer Retreat guests equates to higher overall service. The downside is the retrofitted spaces sprinkled throughout the ship or carved out of the main dining area; no dedicated pool; and, on some ships, no outdoor space at all. Celebrity's E-class solves the dedicated space problems but at the cost of a massive number of Retreat cabins. I was one and done on Edge. Luminae was like a factory and the sundeck was too small--queue the chair hogs. I found myself missing the intimacy of the smaller Retreat on S- and M- class. As I research potential future YC sailings for me, I find that I don't have to make that frustrating Sophie's choice of ship class like with Celebrity. There are plenty of MSC ships that have 90-100 manageable YC cabins with seemingly sufficient space for everyone.

With the suggestion by @Até to look at each ship's Technical Sheets, I'm able to answer my own question. I now know to exclude Seashore, Seascape and World-class ships from my searches for future YC sailings. Name Class Year YC Cabins Divina Fantasia 2012 69 Preziosa Fantasia 2013 69 Fantasia Fantasia 2008 71 Splendida Fantasia 2009 71 Seaside Seaside 2017 86 Seaview Seaside 2018 86 Meraviglia Mera 2017 95 Bellissima Mera 2019 95 Grandiosa Mera 2019 95 Virtuosa Mera 2021 103 Euribia Mera 2023 103 Seashore Seaside 2021 131 Seascape Seaside 2022 131 World Europa World 2022 152

Very true. I’m not going to Europe to stay on a cruise ship on a port day. Thanks EM!

Someone mentioned that daily muster drill activity and announcements could get tiresome.

Awesome! That’s very helpful, thanks.

Thanks for your helpful post. I'm not sure how I feel about the "bus stop" sailings. There's certainly an advantage to embarking and disembarking at the port of your choice. But I can't get a real sense of how disruptive that might feel during the cruise.

Arthur is the best for sure.

Will do.

Thanks, these are helpful comments. I couldn't find any YC cabin counts on MSC's website aside from pulling up deck plans and counting--which is what I'm hopeful to avoid. I sort of did in real time, but on the Celebrity board, and in an existing thread with other comparisons. I'm happy to repackage my comments and post here as a standalone thread if people think it might be helpful. Here's a link to that thread. My comparison begins on page 6. The link should take you straight to that page.

We are generally Celebrity Retreat cruisers who just sailed in YC for the first time on Meraviglia. We are sold. YC appears to be a far better product in just about every way. While onboard, we had a conversation with Arthur, the Maitre 'd, which has spurred this question. He mentioned in passing that he loved Meraviglia because of the size of the Yacht Club. His last contract was on a ship that I can't recall, but he said YC was too big and he didn't feel like he could do as effective a job. As a Celebrity Retreat cruiser, this resonated with me. Their new Edge Class ships have nicer facilities, especially the Retreat Sundeck, but there's just too many Suite guests. The older ships have inferior facilities but fewer suite guests and it shows in service levels. It's very much a catch-22 choice and I think it's one of the things that set YC on Meraviglia apart from any Retreat experience I've had. I sacrificed nothing. So finally, my question. Is there a list posted somewhere of how many YC cabins there are on each MSC ship? Or more generally if it's easier, are there ships where YC is less intimate because it's too big, like whatever ship Arthur was referring to?

Top Sail Lounge is on Deck 16, not 14. I can confirm that there is a "secret door" on the starboard side. Not sure about port side. Yes

I think IV is a great cabin choice for an Alaskan cruise. I would stick with what you have.

Yes. This new procedure began about the same time Celebrity was Revolutionizing older ships. As I recall, the process was implemented first on new and revolutionized ships, then expanded to unrevolutionized ships. You pick up your seapass card from the mail slot outside your cabin--not in the terminal, drop your bags in the cabin, then move about the ship until rooms are ready.

No one is saying that making reservations can't be done in the cruise planner. What people are saying is that oftentimes MDR reservations are ignored by E-class ships, in your case, Apex. Just be advised that the work you did in making careful dinner reservations might be for naught.

I actually was comparing the cruise only versus "all included" rates for another type of cabin, Aqua. The difference on those was approximately double what the discount is for Zeniths. Understood. In reality, the difference should be greater for Retreat cruise only since they are removing premium beverage and premium wifi—not classic and regular.

It must be true. I read it in a Captain’s Club email. 🙄

This is too much stress. Just think about it this way: the classic package gives you a $10 discount ($17 discount with premium) on each beer/wine/cocktail you order. Worrying about what is or isn't "included" aka less than $10 is too much work. If you're going to be drinking mostly premium cocktails with top shelf liquor, or regularly ordering premium water, then it probably makes $ense get the premium beverage package. Otherwise, stick with the classic and drink whatever you want.

Isn't this true of any Celebrity cruise only rate? Why would it be different for the Retreat?

They've been discounting it for years via the move-up program. I would assume they've run the numbers to make this an easy decision: selling more suites at cruise-only rate to Zeniths probably results in more revenue than filling those same cabins with move-ups. Everybody wins, except those hoping for move-up luck.

"Demand has been increasing" can be a nebulous phrase. It could simply mean they have more bookings year over year. They also have more capacity to fill with new ships, so if bookings were the same as last year, that would be really bad, and more bookings would not necessarily be good unless it was a LOT more. I'm just not sure how RCG actually defines "demand".

Same bartender?