windlicht

Thanks for your thorough and informative review!

 

As for the Yacht Club, the percentage of space given to it is less than you think.

I was thinking about the same thing. The YC does not take up a third of the ship.

Cool!

Someone has recently sailed 18015 and shared a few pictures. Have you tried searching? I only know bc that’s our room in May and I was excited to see some pictures!

Perhaps I do the search wrong.......

did you try to book through the MSC website?

I think Port Fort Lauderdale is the only port in Florida that has global entry but I read somewhere that Miami is working on it.

Whens your cruise??? I will be staying in 18011 on the 3/24 cruise. I can share photo's of cabin when I return.....

in June.

Hey there.

Does anyone of you have photos of the aforementioned cabins?

Hahaha the comment about the free water as a perk cracked me up!

Thanks for the thorough review!

To respond to some of the recent hot button topics, in no particular order ...

 

But some context, first. We are late 50s, DH retired, me still working, cruise once or twice a year, typically NCL, Carnival, once on each of Princess, RCCL, HAL. We are not travel agents or in the travel industry

 

We consider ourselves foodies, love good wine, have travelled extensively and lived outside of the US. We are “glass half full” types and try to not let things on vacation bother us. We have never had a bad cruise. Of course, we weren’t on that one that ran out of power, had no plumbing etc. That would have been a bad cruise even for us.

 

1. We patrolled the trip trying to find sewer odor. We must have looked pretty funny, sniffing away. Found none, even where others have reported. A few times - and by that I mean about 3 - we got a whiff, but nothing that we have not regularly encountered on cruises.

 

2. Yes, the pizza is good. We’re New Yorkers. Enuf said.

 

3. It is a very full ship, spring break. To get a lounger, you will need to be a chair hog. By 9 a.m. There is no shame, so go with it. Probably a European thing.

 

4. If you can swing the Yacht Club, do so!! Truly an awesome experience. Gigantic lounge, top bow private pool, grill, hot tubs, bar, butlers, restaurant, it does in fact feel like a yacht!

 

5. If not, be aware the lounge decks are really packed, more so than the traditional US departing cruises. Unpleasantly so. Consider a spa pass, bought ahead of time, for some lovely private deck space and hot tub. Or go Aurea.

 

6. The coffee, pastry and gelato offerings are way above those same US departing cruises. Hey, it’s Italian!

 

7. The breakfast and lunch buffets are almost on par as US mainstream lines, but dinner buffet not so much. See other posts, they are working on this. But if you are a dinner buffet kind of cruiser, and variety/quality is really important, this will be a disappointment.

 

8. We are in YC so cannot comment personally on MDR but folks we have talked to think it is fine. Hot food hot, cold food cold, willing waitstaff. But if you want three rolls, take all three when first offered!

 

9. There can be a language barrier. You may get a wrong order or a look of confusion. But we did not find this ever to be more than a source of friendly amusement.

 

10. Yes, the pools are 6 foot or so deep, except for the kiddie pool. I would have designed differently. People were still having fun. There is a “beach” area so better than it sounds.

 

11. The kiddie waterworks area looks to be a blast. Another possible design defect, no real adult seating where to read or sit out of water’s way while supervising. Suggest swim goggles for kids, as lots of shooting water!!

 

12. There is delicious butter at all meals. Do try the salt free!

 

13. There seem to be plenty of American style coffee cups in the buffets. Blue with logo. And yes, there are the funny little white ones, those are for espressos.

 

14. YC reports have been of staff cut downs compared to Divina. We see no degradation in service. Butlers everywhere, always asking if you need something. They now call the cabin attendants junior butlers. Ours is doing a great job, but like all lines he seems to have way to many cabins. Works really hard, still manages great towel animals and to replenish the Scotch in the mini-bar!

 

15. Shade in YC for loungers remains a big problem for me. Staff (kiddos to wonderful Olin) will find you shade and move a lounger on request, but you are going to be in very odd spots and likely no two loungers together. However, there is PLENTY of shade if you don’t mind sitting at the many covered four top nice wood tables.

 

At the CC meet and greet, hotel director gave a pained look when I brought this up, promised they are working on a solution. BTW shade is an issue in steerage (joke!) as well, as it is generally in my experience with most ships.

 

16. For whoever commented that crew is not constantly wiping and cleaning like other ships, no idea where that came from. We see it constantly. Of course, not all the painting crews you also see elsewhere, because, well, the ship is frickin new. Our balcony glass was washed and our balcony deck swabbed the third day. Never had such a clean balcony.

 

17. The carpets are just fine. Early reports said they always looked dirty due to piling or shedding, that seems to have work itself out.

 

18. The YC balconies are twice the size of Divina’s, and the room larger and better laid out. Plenty of storage. Great shower.

 

19. Not a fan of the beige/brown decor scheme in the bedrooms, but not an issue affecting enjoyment.

 

20. Am a fan of the three shorter entertainment/shows. We like to eat around 8, as do many, and that never works with seeing a show mainstream lines. On MSC we’ve gone to the 7 pm show and then to dinner. Perfect as we no longer late nighters.

 

21. The entertainment is fun. Same performers working their hearts out. No, they are not native English speakers. There have been a few songs that we could not understand a word, but still enjoyable entertainment. At least we got to go to it, see 20.

 

22. The technology to reserve entertainment, navigate ship, etc is state of the art. Can they get the same guys to work on MSC website please?!

 

23. Love the bracelets that for most part replace the sign and sail cards. I recommend the purchase if it does not come free with your experience.

 

24. CC meet and greet was a highlight. Do sign up and go! Instead of being held in the morning with crappy coffee and pastries like other lines, held at proper cocktail time, very good hours d’oeuvres, booze flowing and every single member of senior leadership from the captain, hotel manager, etc in attendance, mingling, answering questions. Never seen anything like it.

 

25. And yes, obviously MSC takes the comments on CC seriously.

 

26. At that same meet and greet I mentioned to hotel director how happy we were to be reunited with our favorite waiter from Divina and he immediately picked up his phone and relayed that information to ... someone who presumably mattered in the chain of command.

 

27. I do not believe the food is as good as other main stream lines. That continued to be a disappointment. But pizza and pasta are the best, back to low carb next week!

 

28. The elevators were all working. Never waited at all, even after muster or shows. But I am fast on the break. Those poor people with their walkers never stood a chance.

 

29. YC boarding opens at about 10:30 a.m. We got there around 10;15 and there were about 6 other couples. The tent is pretty easy to spot and porters pointed it out as well. Our luggage arrived by early afternoon.

 

30. I am not going to go back and read everything I wrote but if I missed saying it, the crew are friendly, smiling and everything you would expect.

 

31. The spa is fabulous with various multi-sensory experiences. Best part, no hard sell! I often don’t book treatments on other lines because I hate that but had read on CC that MSC spa staff did not do that. Had a message and she half-heartedly waived a bottle of something and I smiled and shook my head and that was it.

 

32. I miss all the little food venues that Carnival has, Guys burgers, the wonderful deli, separate pizza station, burrito/taco bar. In addition to providing choice, these help lighten the load on the buffet. MSC please consider!

 

33. YC, good to see some diversity. Butler position I assume is better paying and has some status. Seeing a much more diverse group including women. Please continue this, your passengers notice!

 

Well, that is all I can think of top of head. Hope this helps given all the competing information. Obviously one person’s opinion. Happy to answer any questions.

 

 

 

 

 

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I LOVED this! Thank you!

Enjoy the remainder of your cruise!

I would hazard a guess you are wrong.

 

First of all, if there was a fire hazard it would exist equally while sleeping, and no cruise line would in any event let a fire hazard exist.

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I agree!

MSC Seaside

24thFebruary - 3rd March back-to-back with 3rd March – 10th March

- Yacht Club Royal Suite 16024

 

Past sailing with MSC have included Yacht Club sailing 3 times on theDivina including a 21 night cruise to Brazil for the World Cup.

 

We booked the ship in December of 2015, when the sailings became available for VoyageurMembers.

 

All I can say is WOW, especially the Yacht Club One Pool Area….

 

We arrived at Pier around 1230pm, and it was a little crazy – too manypeople arriving at Yacht Club tent all at once – and that is what we chalked itup as. Our friends arrived ½ hour priorand 1 hour later had a completly different experience.

 

All our friends were located in the Yacht Club – some cabins wereready when we boarded (ours was one of them), and others had to wait – but nolater that 2pm, but they could placetheir hand luggage in the cabin if their cabin was not available.

 

Our Butler and Assistant Butler introduced themselves and were alwaysavailable – very kind people. Wepreviously did up invitations for a sail away party in our suite, and they were promptly delivered. We arranged oursail away party for 630pm and at 615pm, they arrived with a tray of 4 differentdrinks (champagne, MSC Seaside Martini,Cosmos, Aperol Spritz) – they brought afull tray of goodies from the Top Sail Lounge along with small bowls, napkins –they did not miss anything – if someone wanted something else to drink,absolutely no problem. Sailed awaypromptly at 700pm as we played “Time to say Goodbye” from our Bose Speakers –

 

Cabin was truly amazing, but still missing a dining table on theBalcony, which was on the original sketches of the Suite – but this did notmatter to us too much. Our suite did squeakand make noises, but all ships do, we would not disturbed by this and put itout of our minds.. A lot of outlets andUSB ports...

 

Only complaint with cabin was in the closet/bathroom/bedroom corridor,there were too many doors (3doors and 1 slider) – we asked for door stops foreach to keep open, but only bad design was when the closet door was open, wecould not open the interior closet door without closing the main door.CruiseRuined…LOL!!!!

 

We did have some small issues with our Suite, including a small waterpatch on the carpet in front of one of the patio sliding doors (came from ahose in the electric room next door) – they cleaned up with machinery andplaced a utility fan in room while we were out the next day – all fixed –

The next day they advised they have credited our account $100.00 for thein convenience --- very nice touch….we didn’t even complain.

 

Later in the week, some side molding in the bedroom fell off and thebottom head board fell off – we didn’t care, just advised them and fixedpromptly.

 

I was in touch with Rick Sasso of MSC about the cabana issue for RoyalSuite Guests – the Mereviglia does offer a complimentary cabana for Royal Suiteguests, and I suggested they main stream their amenities across the fleet that does have cabanas, asto me this makes sense (ie. Book a Royal Suite on Mereviglia and get Cabana butbook Seaside not – he agreed this did not make sense), so we had a cabana for the 2 weeks, but noamenites… BTW, the cabanas were very well used for the 2 weeks we were on – notall of them, but I would say ½ of them…

 

The “MSC for Me” app worked wonderfully – and I personally loved theMSC watch worked well – did not take off the entire week and no tan lines –open the doors, shopping – worked great – it can even be used in the ThermalSpa change rooms as to lock your locker…. However you did need your cruise card to get towels in the Thermal Spa,get cash at the Casino and of course to exit/enter the ship. The watch was sometimes a little sensitive andmay have to tap 2-3 times, but was never locked me out of the Yacht Club, thankgoodness,,,LOL>>>>

 

The one thing I disagree with is calling the elevator with your Yacht Club Status – it is embarrassingand chose not to use it – I think simply if they made 1-2 elevator only for Yacht Club guests in thebank of 8 elevators, would work much better for all passengers….

 

Funny enough the 1st segment of the cruise was about 80% Europeanand the 2nd segment was about 70% American – the second week wasweirdly much more crowded in the Yacht Club One Pool area as well atdinner. On the 2nd week, wemight had to search for a place to each lunch by the Pool and in the evening we might had to wait 30 minutes for a table at dinner (we usually ate around845pm) – but on the 1st segment, this was not an issue what-so-ever –

 

We loved the breakfast/lunch in the pool area – we loved seeing thegrill and cooking fresh food, and eggs how you like, or steaks/lamb chops howyou like – speciality pasta each day – and the staff was over the top….For mepersonally, I did not like breakfast in the restaurant, one day waited 30minutes for a bowl of corn flakes, and politely said, I need to go – theirresponse was “no problem, I will tell your waiter”, this was a little weird –but again, no issue, just went up to the pool.

 

Luigi, Arthur, Alessandra, Erwin – all fantastic for the 2 weeks – the correctamount of professionalism and some fun as well –

 

Music in the Top sail in the evening was top notch….

 

Only 1 issue in Yacht Club dining Room – I try to make short ….

My partner and I went to the Kitchen Court Bar (where the 4 specialityrestaurants were – very well thought out area) – we found a great bottle ofwine we wanted to have for dinner – the wine steward advised that it needed tobreathe for 2 hours as it was 11 years old – we asked if we can have at dinnerin Yacht Club, and absolutely no issue – when we left, a waiter escorted us tothe Yacht Club Dining room and handed off the wine decanter to Luigi to store until we arrivedfor dinner….now the tricky part – when we ordered this bottle, the waiter inthe Kitchen Court Bar presented us a bill with a 30% discount of the bottle with our drink package. However there are no discounts to be had inthe Yacht Club Dining room wine list – small flaw that needs to be corrected….

 

We ordered a bottle of Ornellaia wine the first week in the Yacht Clubdining room and the wine steward was fantastic as well as the wine….

 

Another night we ordered the same bottle – this bottle was on the verge of going bad, and the wine steward did admit this on her second taste, in her defense she did offer to replace the bottle, but this was close to dessert and did not want to wait another ½ hour for the wine to breathe – she poured the wine knowing it was not up to snuff and spilt my glass, thank goodness just on table (this wasa $100.00 bottle of wine) – now, the not so good part – we never saw her again that night and had Arthur deliver a bill – she did not want to come back to our table and had the audacity to charge us for the bottle – Luigi took control and reversed the bill….it was the fact that she went hiding that was weird – but all was fine in the end and did not at all change our perspective of the yacht Club dining experience – but if you really want to know about wines and have some great recommendations, please visit the wine steward in the Kitchen Court Bar – they even make a Raspberry Mojito with fresh raspberries…

 

We did the Zip Line 6 times, free for Yacht Club – never saw open on sea days, but always listed - I just don’t think they ever open up the Zip Line on the Sea Days and we had perfect weather for 2 weeks…

 

A couple of points we thought:

- If they could take the Divina dining room andput on Seaside, as it is more elegant and intimate.

- Switch up the Champagne bar for a Martini Bar

- Switch the French Bistro and put a Pizzeria…

 

They also need to fix the Yacht Club service on back-to-back – we exitedthe ship in Miami and went shopping as we knew it would be about 90 minutes inthe lounge – when we came back to ship, we went to tent, and were advised to goover to the second door and w, but stood in the lines and tried to explain all the way back, that we were trying to get back to the lounge – my nephew did the same thing and returned later thanus and was surprised as well as the lack of caring at this point – a little oddI would say… also make sure on the Back-to-Back that your cruise card readsyour correct disembarkation date and not the date after the first week – also theinternet packages are a bit of a mess to reboot on the second week – need to activate either with alternate email or with partner's cruise card id number....

 

However, speaking of the internet packages, we purchased the 79.00package for each week entitling us to about 1800mb of usage each week, but when we logged on we were given 6000mb ofusage each week – very nice.

 

We bought laundry packages both weeks – they did a great, prompt job –and placed our laundry in our closets each night – they did lose 1 t-shirt onthe last night, but oh well – not muchlaundry to do….that was a bonus…

 

We Love MSC so much, have thesame suite booked for 2 weeks on December and on the Mereviglia next year….

 

In the Yacht Club – no complaints, at least not any to destroy ourholiday or sway us away from MSC

 

All future cruisers – Enjoy!!!!

 

Hope this helps…

thank you so much for your review! I am soooo looking forward to my own cruise.... a sail-away party sounds wonderful! Hm.. wouldn't work for us though since our friends are not in the YC.

Glad you enjoyed yourself!

I guess I will find out in a few months!

what riclop said - or some people use clear packing tape.

I had hope RCL was cleaning the chair hogs up. On both the Anthem and Rhapsody the pool attendants had small square post-its and when left your chair they put a post it on it indicating the time you left. Both times this occurred in the adults only solarium, maybe RCL isn't enforcing at other pools. Such a simple solution to a long term problem.

No, I am not talking about unoccupied but "reserved" chairs. I meant that every chair was occupied. You're right, reserving chairs and not coming back might be "European" (no such thing really).

Bear in mind that there'll be a light on outside your cabin door that alerts the steward that you're in the cabin, when you leave a card in the slot so that delays him/her making up your room. (Though on Seaside & Meraviglia there's now a switch near the door that you can press to request the room be attended to).

 

Keeping a card in the slot only affects the lights. The air-conditioning still functions without a card in.

I think the main concern is power to the outlets.

I am a nurse and since healthcare is patient satisfaction driven nowadays, we sometimes face similar issues - for example, multiple noisy family members in a semi-private room, staying or coming and going all hours of day and night.

Personally, when it gets out of hand or when it's approaching night time, I explain politely that in order to be considerate of other patients and in order to promote rest and healing, we ask for a quiet environment. Most people respond well to that. Sometimes, people are literally just not aware of how intrusive or loud they are and do not wish to bother others.

As for cruise ships - I can see that there may be a hesitation to offend passengers. But imo, it is possible to suggest that the parent go out with the kid or to come back at a later time in a polite and inoffensive manner. It literally is just a matter of not giving the receiving person the impression he or she is being judged. So... I think it's possible. And if it's concern for a customer review that stopped them from addressing the issue, I daresay they face more negative reviews from the other guests lol.

I have no experience in the service industry though... so it's just a thought.

umm... no, not getting a chair is not "maybe a European thing." I just returned from a RCI cruise where people who did not go and reserve loungers early, did not find one. One day we found a somewhat reclined chair (not a lounger) on the side of a lower deck, which was okay, as well. It happens.

Cool! Thanks!

Thanks for the info!

Here is 13067 an interior fantastica cabin. This interior is larger than a standard interior coming in at 172 sq

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Very nice cabin!

Our cruise is scheduled for May, but we are simply heading to Mr. Sanchos Beach Club break. We will not be using any ferries either.

That's what we've planned for July!

Ah thanks for your review! Very helpful!

I am so glad you enjoyed your vacation!

I have to admit - I am one of those annoying customers. I call them with the silliest questions and when I need something and it takes more than a few hours, I call back the next day. I'd actually call every day, stay pleasant - but persistent. I works!

As for #2: I'll be in YC for the first time this summer but according to reviews and YouTube it's always nice, even or some say especially on the older ships.

#3: As always, call MSC CS.