Best Cat Mom

I once wrote on the boards that 2 hours to Florida beat a 6 or 8 hour flight to Europe. A poster asked me what I meant. All I could think was that if they booked MSC they likely would not be pleased.

The names alone -- la Divina and World America -- seem to tell us what to expect. 😞

Yeah, but we don't need the cabin space for just the two of us so we've used the concierge restroom as our second ad needed. It has been the Italian aspect of MSC that has never caused us to look back.

Your assigned room butler may not always be the one who attends to your requests. It will depend on availability and their other duties. (For instance, some butlers may be assigned to the One Pool during the day and other butlers might bring stuff to you. Or during the overnight hours, the night butler might be the one to respond.) We tip at the end of our cruise. We choose the staff who we've inteacted with the most and tip them accordingly. To us, a little tip here and there seems more of an insult than a lump sum to recognize the wonderful service they provide.

For us, there are only 3 things that we found to be "better" in Haven vs. YC: - One full bathroom and one half bath (we only sailed the suites with 1.5 baths) - Two sinks in the full bath - One entire mattress for the bed Since there is just one bathroom on MSC, BCD will sometimes use the bathroom by the concierge desk. The other two items seem to not matter quite so much when we reflect on the overall holiday experience, especially the Italian aspect of food and service. And we're thankful to return home to our one bed mattress where a huge divot does NOT open up every time we use it. 😁

A two-top has the added advantage of dining on your time and not have others affect your timing. When we dined in an MDR on our first cruise, this is exactly why we chose NCL -- so we could dine alone and take our normal 2 hours.

I strongly recommend the use of a high-volume travel agent. We get at least 10% of our cruise fare back as OBC, which equates to 1 free cruise for every 10 purchased!

We are very careful to not allow "tailgaters" into the YC after us. And if we are ever the tailgaters, we are quick to show our card to the others, even if they don't ask. It's our world, let's preserve it! 🙂

I just remembered that BCD said one day at lunch a party of two wandered into Le Muse. They were looking around for a table when Mehmet (maitre' d) spoke to them quickly and then escorted them out. I totally missed this -- that's how quick it was. On Divina, we do frequently see people in the hallway outside of the entrance to Le Muse stop for a moment maybe thinking, "Hmm, what's this restaurant?" Then they see the YC signs and realize that it's not for them. The restaurant is near the adult pool restrooms, so it gets attention when people come inside. First time we ever saw someone try to enter though.

I would disagree with you here. The pool on Divina is mostly in the shade and there are more dining tables in the shade by the bar. We've been on Seaside and think that the YC One Pool deck has way more -- and too much -- sun for us. I guess it depends on your perspective of where you want your shade -- loungers or tables/pool.

The pergolas are not able to be reserved at the concierge desk? We did that on Seaside and did not have to awaken early to get our choice of spots.

Bummer! We're on Seascape in September and were hoping that Mustafa would still be there, especially after reading your opinions of him. 😞 Any idea when Ercan leaves?

Kind? Is that like nice? Not allowed, sir! 😁

I have posted 11 days of the YC Lunch menu from Divina in the Caribbean here:

I have posted 11 nights of the YC Dinner menu from Divina in the Caribbean here:

To reuse the words of a wise person -- because they are tooooooooo nice. 😁

Not just interlopers of the One Pool deck, but interlopers of a cabana? How could a butler not figure this one out?? I hope it is just a matter of time. (If they have been granted "special access" to the YC, that would also include the restaurant, no?)

Update on Divina YC staff: Tiziana Piccaluga - current YC Director Guiseppe (Pepe) Terminiello - now in Brazil Mehmet (Le Muse maitre d') - on board, leaving 13 May Simone (Head Concierge) - on board, leaving 10 May Hubert (TSL bartender) - left 18 Apr, will be on Bellisima beginning 4 Aug Susmita (Le Muse Assistant Server) - left 18 Apr Ismael (Le Must Assistant Server) - leaving 24 Apr Still on board as of 18 Apr: Rudy (Head Butler) Kaoutar (Concierge) Dwi (Butler) Elvin (Butler) Richard (Assistant Butler) Jehwell (Assistant Butler) Ashish (TSL Bartender) Astari (TSL Butler) Warsha (Le Muse Host) Glenn (Le Muse server) - leaving sometime in July Ryan (Le Muse Assistant Server) Kumar (Le Muse Server) Antonio (Le Muse Chef)

We saw this on Seaside last year, along with a "sunglass cleaning station" near the door to the elevator for when they were not circulating to provide the service:

Yes, someone else reminded me of that area yesterday. We don't frequent the One Pool deck often so I totally forgot about it!

Gelato is no longer "free" for any guests. However, I've heard some people say that in the afternoons the butlers sometimes bring cups of it to the One Pool deck. Also, there have been reports that sometimes guests can get free gelato at the counters as well. We only had it back in 2018 when it was still free. Haven't asked for it since then because we rarely have sweets.

We've been to Venice, Florence, Rome, Lucca, Bologna, Lake Garda, Genoa, Naples, Verona, Pordenone, Aviano, Sacile, Dardago and a whole bunch of small villages around the Dardago area. There are still so many other places we've yet to visit in Italy. Greece is on our list, but we don't want to be too near the Black Sea while Putin is still an ongoing threat. We're sticking to the Mediterranean side of Italy for now. If you give me your email address, we can chat more. 🙂 Did you happen to have Onel as your server on Euribia? He took great care of us on Divina last year and I've heard that he moved to Euribia.

My opinion is Divina has less, but that's from our YC perspective. The Seaside (and maybe other ships do as well) has a open area off TSL that encompasses the entire front of the ship and the starboard side of it is smoking. We find that much more offensive than the One Pool smoking area, mostly because we don't use the One Pool. The other consideration with Seaside is if your cabin is on the starboard side towards the front, the smoke can easily waft back and be detectable on your own balcony. The other places never touch us, since we can easily avoid them. And I agree totally with you -- one smoker (of any substance) is one too many!

We had the pleasure of her excellent service as well. Our gain is hopefully not at a cost to her.

It was great meeting you both! I hope you find another MSC YC cruise to enjoy -- and hope we happen to be onboard with you. 😉