holmes96

1 hour ago, zackarykeef said:

So we just embarked yesterday…I don’t know if it was because we are YC or not, but during check-in they didn’t even ask for our health questionnaires that we had filled out. When I asked them if they needed it, they told me not to worry about it 🤷🏼‍♂️

Hi zackarykeef, what was the YC embarkation process like in Miami?  I'm interested to know when/where the testing takes place for YC - is it in the same room as the YC check-in?  Thanks.

Hi, my sister and I are booked on the 11/28 Meraviglia sailing out of Miami, in the YC, and we are keeping our fingers crossed.  If sailings begin, we are getting on that ship.  :)  I just noticed today that excursions are now available.  Exactly 4 in each port...perhaps these are the limited excursion bubbles MSC is creating?!?  It gives me hope.

On 5/17/2020 at 5:18 PM, aprilF said:

Glad you got your refund.  I am unwilling to call weekly for months on end so I went the CC dispute route.  What were the circumstances of your refund request?  Cruise fare, add-ons, they cancelled you cancelled and when?

Hi, we received a cruise fare refund in late April via our travel insurance due to a family medical situation in late Feb (unrelated to COVID).  Our cruise was to depart on 3/1. Now we're seeking a refund from MSC directly on the prepaid items and it's been a very painful process.

Hi, for those of you still looking for a 'pre-paid' items refund, here's our experience so far.  It's a lot of detail to get to the latest status, just beware.  We cancelled our 3/1 Meraviglia cruise due to a medical issue with a family member on 2/28.  It was completely unrelated to Coronavirus and prior to MSC halting cruises.  We had purchased cruise insurance and was able to obtain a 'cruise fare' refund in late April.  I have been calling and emailing MSC directly since the 1st week of March to obtain a refund (or a status on) on our prepaid items (OBC, excursions, gratuities, internet, and show costs), which was around 2K.  We are also trying to get back the port fees/taxes.

I called on 3/8, then again on 3/9, and then emailed mscexistingreservations@msccruisesusa.com on 3/10 to request statuses.  On the first call (3/8), I apparently called 'Reservations', but needed to speak with 'Customer Service' which is only available M-F, thus the 3/9 call.  They asked to me to sum up everything in an email, which I did on 3/10.  I didn't receive any response to that email until I did a follow-up to the original email on 3/29.  On 3/29 I received a relatively generic response back saying it would take 60 days for refunds to be processed.  I also noticed they put a 13 digit SR # (service request, I guess) in the subject line of my email.

I sent another email follow-up on 5/5 to ask the refund status.  Calling MSC to get a status had not yielded any success, but much frustration, so I was trying the email route, but enough was enough so I called today, 5/13, to see what was up.  I hadn't received any response to my 5/5 email, BUT apparently someone looked at it and submitted my pre-paid refund request to 'Finance' on 5/8.  The representative I spoke with today said they would pay the port fees/taxes first and then the rest of the refund would be paid out in 60 days from 5/8 (truly 130 days from cancellation, though).  She acknowledged that my initial refund request was just dropped. Had I not emailed/called again, the refund would never have made it into the right hands, which I guess is finance.  So...my lesson learned, just because you have a SR #, or were told 60 days, that doesn't mean anything apparently.

I am an American for those that are interested how I booked.  Hopefully everyone has better luck than we did so far.  I am trying to be patient because these are unprecedented times.  It would help if I felt confident that MSC was doing what they actually said they were going to do, i.e. 60 day refunds, as opposed to requests just going into a black hole.  On the plus side, I was able to connect right away to a representative today so that was nice.  I haven't let this experience deter me as we have another MSC cruise booked for Nov, which we are eagerly awaiting.

35 minutes ago, cruisingnewtoit said:

If you didn't go on the cruise I don't understand why MSC would charge for gratuities since you didn't receive service. This worries me.

 

Are you cruising from a country where gratuities are built into the price of the cruise?

Hi, we are from the U.S. so I had called prior to the cruise and pre-paid the gratuities, internet, etc.  The gratuities were not part of the original fare.  It seems odd to me that we're having an issue getting our pre-paid items refunded.

Hi, unfortunately due to an emergency medical event with our son last week we were unable to board the Meraviglia on Sunday, 3/1.  Fortunately, he is doing better now and we had purchased travel insurance.  I submitted the trip cancellation claim through the insurance last week and hopefully that will be processed successfully.

I called MSC today to check on the status of our 'prepaids' refund, such as onboard credit (that we bought ourselves), gratuities, internet, tours in each port, and was told that insurance is responsible for that.  I don't think that is true and wanted to check in this forum if others had experience with getting refunds for their prepaid items directly from MSC.  Ultimately, at the end of today's call, I was told I would have to call back tomorrow and talk to 'Customer Service' to see whether a refund is possible.

What has been your experience and do you have any suggestions?  Thanks so much.

Misc Thoughts/Wrap-Up

1.      Internet: We both purchased the mid-tier Internet package.  It was $119 for the 9 night cruise.  Best pricing at sea by far!

2.      Photography: prior to the cruise I read online somewhere that some Koningsdam cruises had a $99 unlimited digital photo offer.  That wasn’t an option for our cruise, unfortunately, but I went to the photo area to check and found out it was $199.  I didn’t purchase it, although I thought the staff there was extremely friendly and patient.  In Club Orange, a photographer never came in to take dinner photos.  I LOVED THAT!

3.      Whenever I called HAL customer service, a human being picked up right away.  There was a never an automated menu with a wait time.  Nice!

4.      Gratuities: With HAL you cannot pre-pay the gratuities online, or even if you call customer service you cannot prepay.  The recommendation made to me by customer service was to purchase onboard credit to cover the gratuities cost so I did that.

5.      Service: Holland America clearly places significant emphasis on service and it was very apparent.

6.      Entertainment: I do wish there was additional varied entertainment during the day other than Bridge, Mass, Microsoft computer classes and Trivia.  Picky, I know, but something else would be nice.  It doesn’t have to be belly flop contests, just something geared towards a younger demographic.

7.      Club Orange: Would buy it again.

We loved our trip and would cruise HAL again for another Girls’ Cruise.  Happy sailing!

Ports/Tours

Our ports included Tortola, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Thomas and Half Moon Cay.  When looking for excursions, we always book through the ship and there are criteria I use that works for me: never more than 3-4 hours, begins in the AM, and the collective tours should be a mix of strenuous and not.  That way, we can come back to an empty ship, eat without crowds and get a nap in before evening festivities.  I thought the Shore Excursion employees were very active.  For example, there were a couple of tours where a shore excursion employee was included to assess the tour.  They were also always active on the pier directing people.  All tour companies, I felt, were well organized.  It is a huge turnoff for me if a tour company ‘doesn’t know where the shuttle bus is’ or ‘it’s late, etc, etc, etc.’  I didn’t have to worry about any of that with Holland America.

Tortola

We booked the ‘Virgin Gorda & the Baths’ excursion and we had a great time.  The scenery was amazing with perfect high 70s/low 80s weather.  It’s been awhile since we cruised in early January so I didn’t know if the temp would be low 70s, but it was just right.  There were A TON of people on this excursion, but split across multiple shuttle buses, and people just went at their own pace.  Word of advice, thank goodness I threw my sneakers and socks into my beach bag.  The hiking/walking is very rocky and flip flops won’t cut it.  The age demographic for the tour, like the ship, was 60+ and everyone was active.  We ate at an open air restaurant that was at the top of the hill, overlooking the water, where the buses were to return, that hit the spot.

Sint Maarten

We had the absolute pleasure of being on the ‘Airport Adventure & Snorkel Cruise.’  We definitely recommend this tour.  Big boat, not a lot of people and lots of amenities on the boat, such as an extensive bar and made to order lunches (all for a fee).  I had chicken quesadillas and my sister had a cheeseburger.  Once we were anchored by Maho beach to watch the planes come in and take off, there was snorkeling, or you could just swim with noodles, or sit out on the water deck that the boat lowered for your use.  The water was 10 ft deep and it was clear and we could see on the white sand on the bottom.  A nicely narrated tour.

Antigua and St. Thomas

For both of these ports we did land “Scenic” tours and they did not disappoint.  I’ve been to St. Thomas several times and have usually done water related tours so doing a land one was a good change.

Half Moon Cay

I love this private island, probably the most out of the cruise private islands.  It’s perfect – beautiful water and sand.  The last time I was there was 2 years ago with my husband and kids on a Carnival cruise and there was a confirmed shark attack in the water while we there. The victim in that case was transported to the ship first and then evacuated to Nassau for surgery.  Talk about a mass exodus from the water.  All was well this time around. We rented the pink cabana and enjoyed the buffet lunch.  For those interested, the stray chickens with babies and cats are still there. All seemed in good shape.  Also, there was another HAL ship tendered with us.  Between the two ships, I don’t think the beach areas were nearly as crowded as when we went on Carnival.  I’m wondering if it’s because there are not a lot of children on HAL.  We saw maybe 5 the whole time onboard.

Next Up: Misc Thoughts/Wrap Up

Club Orange/Dining

We were not in a suite so we paid $50/per day/per person for the Club Orange benefits. It’s steep, but we enjoyed the perks, such as Priority Check-in (used), Priority Disembarkation (sort of used), dedicated guest services line (used), access to concierge line (didn’t use), priority tendering (didn’t use) and access to the Club Orange restaurant (used every day) and an enhanced room service menu (used).  Guest Services did call us twice during the cruise to ask how everything was. Having breakfast and dinner in Club Orange, by itself, was worth it to us.  The food and service was DEVINE!  The restaurant is small, nicely decorated and the servers were so attentive.  After the first few days daily banter ensued. Above all, it was quiet and not chaotic, and we could walk in anytime during the designated hours.  No reservations needed.

The breakfast menu was extensive, but I stuck with my favorites of french toast, pancakes and waffles, with an egg breakfast in there somewhere.  I was sooo happy to learn that the french toast did not have raisins in it, like a lot of other cruise lines.  I also tried the Banana Bread french toast and it was tasty. There was a variety of egg benedict dishes, which were immensely popular, among many other dishes.  I liked how we were brought hot tea without asking and the delicious pastries that were brought around.  I don’t know what it is about those chocolate croissants, but I have to have them whenever I cruise.

It’s my understanding that the Club Orange dinner menu is the same as the dining room, except for 1-2 dinner specials.  I never compared, but I thought the menu was great and portions larger than the normal cruise portion.  It had the ‘every night’ selections, plus the rotating options.  Of the cruise lines I’ve been on, I liked Holland America’s food the best, with MSC a very close second.  I enjoyed watching the chefs prepare the food and plate it.  They really took pride in their work.

Lido: We went to the Lido buffet for lunch a couple of days and we enjoyed it. Those were my ‘salad’ meals. Couple of distinct differences from ALL the other lines: no self-serve food, except for desserts (good) and the waiters brings drinks (also good, but sometimes waited awhile).  I immensely liked the hard and soft ice cream with toppings area.

Dive-In: We ate at the Dive-In twice (once on deck and once for lunch room service).  Burgers, hot dogs and fries - I definitely recommend, but not as great as Guy’s Burgers on Carnival ships.  I thought it was AWESOME a person could order from the main dining room menu or the Dive In for room service. 

Pinnacle Grill: As part of our booking package we received a free dinner at the Pinnacle Grill.  I thought it was very odd that Holland America chose our reservation day/time.  Turns out the 5:30 PM time was perfect for us.  There is also a Restaurant Reservations desk that is open daily from 9 – 4 PM where you can make/change reservations if your date/times don’t work.  If the dinner is not part of a package you can make your own reservations to begin with.  We liked our meal here.  It was cool that they offered a lunch menu for a fee.

Exploration Café: My sister ordered hot chocolates from here, which were included in the Signature Beverage package.  The pastries and desserts were complementary and they were GOOD.   I wish this café was in a more central area, as opposed to being tucked away on deck 12 (I think).

Next Up: Ports/Tours and Misc Thoughts

Entertainment

This was a ‘relax my mind’ cruise as opposed to participating in everything the ship has to offer.  I’ve had the latter, but really needed the former this time so I stuck with Bingo, slots at the Casino, my Kindle and naps.  Did tours in each port, but will talk about that later.  Did not partake in any of the music activities or shows, although we did enjoy the violin/cello group when we walked by.  This was the first time I've seen a cruise ship offer Mass, and other religious ceremonies, on a daily basis. It was a little startling, but certainly good for people that like to attend.  I can't remember the Cruise Director's name, maybe Thomas, but remember him being professional, refined, and had a nice voice.  It was pleasant change to not have a Cruise Director who told silly, or over-the-top jokes, all.the.time.

Bingo – cheapest prices of all cruise lines I’ve been on.  $30 for the top package – sign me up!  Couple of differences with HAL bingo – play 4 games instead of the average 3 (good), know the prize total before the game starts as opposed to after (good), no joking by the casino host (a little boring, but still ok) and they give you clip boards to use (good).  HAL does it best, similar to MSC, where you can buy the bingo cards in the casino throughout the day, which prevents a long line at Bingo time.  You also get a free jackpot card when you advance purchase.  Bingo was held in the theater. Thumbs up!

Casino – I really only like the slots.  The Koningsdam casino is so small comparatively.  Initially I was disappointed, but then I found several machines I liked and that was all it took.  Charging money to your onboard account was easy and there were plenty of hosts around to help people set up pins, etc.  I like that any winnings/credit you have are just stored to your card, instead of paper slips, where you can easily access them the next time.  If you want to cash out, you just go to the cashier.  First time on any cruise where there was a casino smoke-free night.  I liked the concept, but it was much more crowded that night.  My sister participated in a slot tournament, which I think was $25.  She enjoyed it.  There were many poker tournaments with an automated poker table (I think).  The tourneys were popular.

Now that I think back on it, I ate, drank Amaretto Sours and gambled.  For those 9 nights, though, it was so good.  

Room Impressions

We were in a balcony cabin on Deck 5 Aft.  I liked the Aft part because it meant a lot of walking and I wanted to balance out the food that was to come.  There were rooms above and below us.  Noise was not an issue. This ship had the cleanest balcony I’ve ever seen…no dark residue, trash, or rust spots.  I like that HAL takes pride in their cleanliness.  Liked that there was a little table and an ottoman on the balcony, too. That’s not normally included in a regular balcony room on other lines. I’ve never stayed in a balcony room where the actual key to the balcony door stayed in the balcony door and you used that to lock and unlock.  Simple and effective and less complicated than some other cruise line locks. The glass shower was nice and I loved, loved, loved the motion sensor light that came on when the room was dark.  Genius.  About the bathroom, lol, there was a toilet paper holder on both sides of the toilet.  Double genius.  I wish there was a regular outlet in the bathroom, as opposed to just a shaver one.  Sometimes I wanted to blow-dry my hair in there while my sister was still sleeping, but no can-do.

Our room was an adjoining room so I don’t know if the inside door eliminated a closet, but we really had to work at finding enough space for our belongings.  It all worked out, though, and we liked the rest of our room and the room steward.  He was very attentive and on our last day pulled our suitcases out from under the beds without our asking.  I was not looking forward to pushing them out so this was a nice touch.  Our room steward seemed very much aware of our schedule and our room was always made-up and turned down at night when we were not there. So nice! The towel animals did not disappoint. I saved all (well, most of) the chocolate squares at turndown as a souvenir for my 17 yr old son.  He loves chocolate.  The truffles in the box (I don’t know if that’s a normal give-away for HAL) were yummy.

I took advantage of the $20/cloth bag laundry mid cruise.  I put it out one morning and it came back the next afternoon.  They did a good job and hung everything up in a garment bag, even though I said folded was OK.  They did lose my Philadelphia Eagles shirt, which I loved, but I didn’t pursue it. I’m sure someone became a new Eagles fan as they had just won the Eagles-Bears game. 

We had room service twice and both times were good and came within 30-40 minutes.  I wish there was a way to order via the TV, instead of having to call.  They were always very nice on the phone, though.

Loved the TV!  Best programming of all cruise lines by far, at least as it relates to movie selections.  We don’t normally watch movies while cruising, but it was very relaxing for the 2 that we did watch.  We also watched a couple of the NFL playoff games during wildcard weekend. The games were accessible on the cabin TV, some games played by the Lido pool and also some on the casino TV.

Coming Up: Ship Impressions, Club Orange, Entertainment and Dining

Embarkation Day

The hotel shuttle bus was great – big and on-time.  There were probably 15 people on the bus with us, either going to 2 HAL ships or a Celebrity one.  It was maybe a 10 minute ride. 

My sister and I both purchased Club Orange (more on this later), which includes Priority Check-in.  We were really, really hoping to avoid the very long line outside the terminal, but it was not to be.  Priority Check-in for Suite and Club Orange guests begins when you enter the terminal building and you are able to divert to a designated line that takes you to the beginning of the security line. Things progressed very quickly once we were in the building…security was fast and we went into a designated Suite/Club Orange check-in line. For comparison, priority check-in for MSC Yacht Club guests begins at the curb.  Check-in took about 5 minutes and they took our picture there (same as other cruise lines), but didn’t need to take our credit cards again that we listed in our online docs (liked that).  Went up the escalator, bypassed the two boarding photo stations and we were onboard!  Truth be told, the first thing that caught my attention upon boarding were the elaborate fresh flower arrangements everywhere. This is not really the case on the other cruise lines I mentioned so I was impressed and happy. I love flowers.

Embarkation Day Lunch

I don’t know what it is about cruising, but once we were on the ship, we had one-track minds to have lunch. “Must have food!” I had called HAL customer service previously about something or other and they mentioned we were invited to eat in the dining room for lunch on embarkation day due to the fact that we both previously cruised on Carnival and Princess.  It is interesting that nowhere on the Day 1 sheet did it mention the dining room was open for lunch, but we checked and it was open – YES!  To us, there is nothing better than sitting down to a relaxing lunch, as opposed to the buffet.  It was not crowded at all and our waiter soon came and took our order on a tablet (different than other lines).  I liked that because I had visions of our order zooming back to the kitchen to get started.   For lunch, the menu was small, but a good variety.  The cheeseburger, fries, chocolate chip ice cream combined with an Amaretto Sour to drink was delish.  Two interesting notes about the Amaretto Sours (at least for me)…it really is the only drink I like…don’t like beer, wine or other cocktails (at least I haven’t found any others) so I wanted to confirm that it was included in the Signature Drink Package.  I was charged for it on Day 1, so was very temporarily dismayed, but was not charged on subsequent days.  The 1^st charge was probably because we were still in the Fort Lauderdale port.  That has happened to me on other lines, too.  Liked that we didn’t have to sign for drinks.  Also, this drink traditionally comes with a cherry or a cherry and orange slice combo.  On the Koningsdam, a few times I felt like I was having sangria.  My drink would have two cherries, two oranges and a lemon slice all mixed in the drink. I found it very amusing and interesting.  It doesn’t take much for me, I guess.  

Next Up: Ship and Room Impressions

Background:

This was a Girls cruise with my twin sister. We are 46 and have been lucky to travel on several cruise lines, just the two of us, and with our respective families.  We’ve cruised several times each on Carnival, Royal Caribbean (Suite and non-Suite), Norwegian (Haven and non-Haven), Princess and Celebrity.  My sister has also cruised on Disney and I have cruised on MSC (Yacht Club – love it!).  This was our first experience on Holland America and our decision to try HAL was based on 1)price, 2)cruise duration of 9 nights as opposed to the normal 7 we cruise), 3)itinerary (fabulous) and 4)curiosity about the HAL experience.

Hotel Pre-Embarkation:

We both live outside of Philadelphia so we flew American Airlines from Philly to Fort Lauderdale and spent a night at the Four Points by Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port. It was a good choice for us. They offer a free shuttle to/from the airport, but the shuttle was taking a little too long so we took a cab to the hotel.  The shuttle run includes guests that were staying at a nearby Holiday Inn, too.  Check-in and the room were great, but having a restaurant and bar at the hotel was fantastic.  No need to venture out for dinner after a day of traveling and we had a full (not continental) breakfast the next morning. There is also a CVS right around the corner within walking distance that was convenient.  At check-in we signed up for a shuttle bus ride to the Port.  $8/each.  I believe the departures were in 30 minute increments and our time was 11:15 AM.

More to come shortly.

We were in the RS on the same sailing. LOVED the Seaside and the wonderful staff all over the ship. One question- where the heck was this gelato counter in the YC you mentioned? I never saw one in the YC. Oh and for those who enjoy "adult milkshakes" the Frozen Toblerone is AMAZING (made with Bailey's). So good.

 

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Passenger Demographics

Americans were definitely the minority, I'd guess less than 50% on the ship. This did not bother us at all. In fact, we met a very nice Australian couple while boarding and they asked if we were Canadian as they couldn't place our accent. I told them we are Americans and that it must be my Philly accent combined with my husband's New England accent that was confusing. :):) In regards to the crew, everyone that we encountered spoke English very well. Sometimes with heavy accents, but I understood everyone. My 76 year old mother, on the other hand, would probably not fair as well as she doesn't understand anyone with even the lightest of accents. :DAges ranged from families with young children to older people in their 70-80s. It was well balanced.

Also, I noticed that there were many more physically fit people on this ship than on any ship we've sailed before. I saw so many butt cheeks, it took me off guard the 1st day. It is the style in Europe to wear that type of bathing suit and lots of women rocked it.

Doors

I know, a weird topic, but the public doors really stood out to me. I'm used to the automated doors that just open when you get close. The Seaside did not have a lot of these doors. In the Yacht Club, only one was automatic and the rest were push or pull with door handles. While I'm not a germaphobe, I make a point not to touch door handles, railings or elevator buttons on cruise ships. It was not to be, though, and I didn't get sick.

Theater/Shows

We attended a show on the 2nd night. I forget the name, but it was a mix of singing, dancing, pole dancing and roller skating. We enjoyed it a lot. I felt they put in a lot of effort into their performers, i.e. training, costumes. The set was good, too. There were 20+ guests that were let in at the last minute who rushed to find seats, but it was already dark, and they had to sit in individual seats. You have to bring your key card or wrist band to sign in with a theater employee. I thought the theater size was good, loved the 35-40 minute show time. Double win!

Excursions

We booked all our excursions online through MSC pre-cruise. If I remember correctly there may have been a 10% discount going on when I booked the tours. We did the following:

Ocho Rios, Jamaica - Catamaran, Snorkel and Beach Tour; not the best or worst tour. The Catamaran, sailing and snorkeling were great. The beach experience was just yucky, it was so small and jammed with people that were lying all over the sidewalks and decks sunning themselves because there was no beach space left.

Cayman Island - Dolphin Swim with 7 Mile Beach Experience; loved everything about swimming with the dolphins. The facility for the dolphins was clean and you could tell that the handlers had a close relationships with the dolphins. They would swim right by us all during the tour, push us on a boogie board, pull us across the water and of course we had the obligatory kiss. They were so good. The 7 mile Beach experience was much better than the Jamaican one. There was a restaurant to eat in, but every table was filled. We found out soon enough you could order both drinks and anything on the menu on the beach. FYI chair rentals are $10 each. That fee, plus 2 beers, 2 cocktails, 2 cheeseburgers and fries came to over $100. I am so glad I put an extra $20 in my beach bag that morning. ;)

Conzumel - Fury Catamaran & Snorkel; Excellent

Costa Maya, Mexico - Off Road Jeep and Beach experience; this was pretty good, we had fun. The jeeps were manual, which was well explained ahead of time. 4 to a jeep and you could rotate drivers as long as you presented a valid driver's license. There were some items missing from our jeep, like a broken off driver's side mirror, the speedometer didn't work and you couldn't move the driver's seat at all. We did have some extras, though, such as a big crack down the middle of the front window and every conceivable dashboard light on. The jeep did it's job, though. The tour included a lunch and soft drink/water, which was chips and almost like a tomato soup to go with it. It was sooo good. I had a second helping of that. Also, makings for chicken fajitas. There was a beach and we swam a lot. It was warm and very clear. So relaxing.

Conclusion: the Seaside surpassed our expectations and the Yacht Club contributed a lot to that. I will be researching our next MSC cruise soon.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Did you have any noise issues from sun deck above your stateroom?

Hi floridian1, we heard scraping chairs every couple of days for a few minutes, but it was faint. We didn't hear any talking from inside our room or on the balcony from the upper deck. Interestingly enough one night while having dinner in the Yacht Club, the guests in our area by the windows heard big booms from the deck above us. Seriously loud booms. I asked the waiter what it was and he said at night-time they stack chairs or loungers together and move them. He was unfazed, but it only lasted a couple of minutes. I would reserve the same room again.

Great review--we just booked for Sept, after being on Divina last year in the YC.

We had a similar issue finding the tent on the pier, I know they are using a different pier, is the tent at the end of the pier, meaning that the taxi should pass most of the pier before dropping us off?

Is there a smoking area in YC outside pool area, as there was on the Divina.

On Divina it was just near the door leading to the pool deck, similar on Seaside.

we will be in room 18019-with a promotion from the casino---I am ready!!

Hi Markf,

You will have a great time on the Seaside! The Yacht Club white tent was at the beginning of the pier so the taxi should stop before the mass of disembarked people. :) I can tell you for sure that people smoked on the small outside seating area connected to the deck 16 Top Sail Lounge. I don't know if it's a designated smoking area but there were a few instances of different people smoking out there. We didn't see a lot of people out there in general, although it was a lovely area. Regarding the pool area, I was only out there for maybe 2 hours the whole cruise so I can't really comment. On another note, I really liked the proximity of our room (18022) to the restaurant, which was just down the hall, which will be the same for you. Then the staircase right down to the deck 16 lounge. I would absolutely stay on deck 18 again.

Venchi Chocolate Bar

I had gelato twice at the counter in the Yacht Club. One night after dinner we went to The Chocolate Bar to see about sundaes. You can order at their counter, plus there are servers that will take/deliver your order if you sit in the area seating, which I thought was pretty large. Venchi is not a place where you can just walk up and ask for a medium hot fudge sundae with mint chocolate chip ice cream, hold the cherry. While I’m sure you can customize your order with effort, the server really directed us to 4 sundae choices on the menu. It was a little difficult for me, language-wise, to understand what was in each sundae. I went with the 1st one listed, which just referenced chocolate. My husband chose the 2nd one, which mentioned caramel. OMG, they were so good! First, they were big, which gets a thumbs up from me. My sundae included 3 scoops of light, medium and dark chocolate gelato, covered in chocolate shavings,with real whip cream and more chocolate shavings on top. My husband’s sundae had caramel gelato with caramel topping, whip cream and peanuts.

There was a couple next to us that were drinking milk shakes. They looked good, too. My only regret is that I didn’t try the hot chocolate. Next time.

Stores

We did not shop a lot. We went to the Duty-Free shop and I can tell you 2 things about this store. We don’t smoke, but I noticed they were selling cigarette cartons for 2 for $50, which is great pricing. The duty free store is also the ‘pharmacy’ area and where you can get snacks. I didn’t go in any of the other stores, i.e. a clothes boutique, perfume/skincare store, MSC logo shop, jewelry store.

While the stores did have sales tables set up outside sometimes, it didn’t seem as frequent or crowded as on other cruise lines.

Internet

With our booking package, the ‘Surfer Package’ was included. I found it interesting/refreshing that our package included 3 GBs of data and that’s what they tracked, not minutes. The package allowed for 2 devices so I used my phone and my husband connected his tablet. With both of us surfing the internet daily, checking emails, loading pics to Facebook, and my husband playing a game that requires wifi, we still used only half the data. We registered for the Internet access through the MSC app and that’s where I strongly suggest you ‘start’ and ‘end’ your sessions. To register, you use the Internet code that is on your key card. When I registered, our package was already preset and it gave us an option to upgrade to the premium package (6 GBs, I think and 4 devices) for $139ish, but we passed. FYI there isn’t a login.com or logout.com feature as there is on NCL.

I thought the connection was fine, but my husband was less pleased because his connection dropped several times while playing his game.

Next Up: a little about Passenger demographics, doors, excursions and shows

It all sounds wonderful! Thank you for the detailed review. Did you happen to get a massage? Were the cabanas used much?

 

 

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It really was wonderful! I didn't get a massage, but we did take a short spa tour of the thermal area because it's included with the Yacht Club. They have thermal facilities I've never seen before on a cruise, such as aromatherapy showers, the Hawaiian salt room to open the pores and then the snow room next door to close the pores (according to our tour guide). They also had these geyser shower/water circles that you would stand on and the water gushes upwards around you. Also included were 'light' and 'dark' sauna rooms, depending upon your mood.

Regarding the cabanas, I only took notice of them on sea days. The 1st sea day some were left empty and on the last sea day all of them were in use. Warning about the cabanas, they only offer slight relief from the sun. There is still plenty of sunshine that comes through the ceiling and walls. The butlers paid close attention to the cabanas, bringing drinks and food. I did like that the cabanas face the water so there is privacy, but if you're a person that likes to people watch, not so good. The prices were $59 on port days and $99 on sea days. The cabanas were big enough for two loungers.

Misc Observations

Excursion Tickets

On other cruise lines, you typically receive all tour tickets on embarkation day. On MSC it’s run differently. We booked tours directly online with MSC prior to the cruise. They don’t show you the start times of the tours and the butler only give you the tickets at turn down service for the next day’s tour. So…it wasn’t until late in the day that you learned if your tour was in the AM or PM. After the 1st port, I called the concierge every day to find the time of our tour for the next day so we could plan appropriately. It was an easy, quick call.

Casino

I liked the casino, and LOVED the variety of slot machines – my favorites were the Quick Hit machines, Icy Wilds and Jungle ‘something’. Mostly 1 cent machines and a lot had multiple games you could choose from. There were also tables and an electronic roulette wheel. The casino was split into 3 areas, non-smoking, a circular bar in the middle, and a smoking section, which was big and smoky. On sea days I would play slots for about an hour and it was not crowded. At night, it would get more crowded, but you could always get a machine or sit at a table. They always had casino staff circulating and asking guests if they wanted to buy the daily lotto tickets. It didn’t bug me, but did bother my husband. He is less…social than I. J One item that did bug me was the placement of the slot machines in the smoking area. They were crammed in and the chairs sometimes went back to back so you couldn’t navigate well between machines. It was weird.

The casino also offers scratch-off tickets. Your room key was the ‘players’ key. Each time you use it you gain points. When you reach certain levels of points you can exchange the points for casino money, i.e. $10.00, or merchandise you can get at the cashier. I don’t know what the merchandise was.

Unused Onboard Credit

On Thursday, we noticed that we still had a lot of onboard credit (OBC). It was a nice problem to have. I talked to the concierge and she told me that we had to either spend it all or call Customer Service after the cruise ended to have it refunded. I didn’t like that idea so I just withdrew all the leftover onboard credit money via a slot machine, printed my voucher, and the casino cashier gave us cash. Another note about OBC, it doesn’t show up on your account in the MSC app. The app shows your charges, but not credits. I went to the concierge once to have a statement printed and it showed all charges and credits.

Bingo

I love playing Bingo on cruise ships, probably because of the monotony of it. It’s relaxing for me. Same with playing slots. Not so much outside of cruising,though. I was so looking forward to it, but alas, we had other things going during the scheduled times. This is what I can tell you. The first Bingo game was embarkation night at 10 PM, guaranteed $400 prize money. I thought it was an oddly late time. Bingo was held in either the Haven Lounge or the Theater, plus broadcast to one of the sun decks so people outside could play, too. Interesting concept. I did like that you could purchase the bingo cards in the casino (they set up a table) a full 24 hours before the game was held. For the last Bingo game of the cruise, and it was only a single game for a free cruise, the prices were: 1 square for $10, column of 3 squares for $20 and 9 squares for $40. If you purchased the cards before bingo day, you could purchase the 9 squares for $30 instead. I thought the prices were good, but less good once I found out it was for one game only. On other cruise lines, there are usually 3 Bingo games at a time. If the days/times worked out, I totally would have played, though.

Butcher’s Cut Specialty Restaurant

Our dinner was delicious and we enjoyed the atmosphere. It did not have the typical steakhouse décor like leather seats, white tablecloths, low lighting, etc. It was decorated in a western theme, wood tables with red placemats, and cool light fixtures. They had a $39.00 option that allowed you to choose items from 3 of 4 areas (appetizers, starters-salads/soups, entrees and desserts). It was a condensed menu. My husband ordered off the larger, regular menu. It ended up about $100 for both of us, even with drinks included. Butcher’s Cut was the only specialty restaurant we dined at and we would eat there again. My husband would have liked to eat at one of the Asian restaurants, but he was happy that there was Asian food sometimes on the Yacht Club restaurant menu.

Up Next: More Observations

Do you think you room would be larger enough for a family of 4? 2 adults and 2 kids 12, and 15? great review!

Definitely, the kids would each have their own bed...one would have the converted sofa and the other would have a bunk that comes down from the ceiling. That is how our room (18022) was configured. There were several families with kids in the Yacht Club. :)

Yes - my question too - YC has a gelato counter? If so, I think I will be in trouble!

 

 

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Oh yes, there is one inside the Yacht Club, and maybe 3 others around the ship. Heavenly. The gelato counters also have frozen pops, like chocolate covered vanilla gelato. That was something I haven't seen on any other cruise line. You can get the gelato in different size cups or in a big waffle cone. The bonus is it's included for Yacht Club guests.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I am glad you are enjoying the review. :):):)

Yacht Club Top Sail Lounge (deck 16)

We enjoyed the lounge area. It was big, spacious and had comfy seating, all surrounded by windows. There is an outdoor seating area that is an extension of the lounge that received the same service as inside. The outdoor seating turned colors at night, which was cool.

The bar itself is large, which you could directly sit at, but I didn’t notice people doing that. They had a HUGE selection of alcohol, hot tea, coffee products, water bottles, soft drinks, etc. There were always butlers on duty to take drink orders around the room. I ordered drinks directly from the bartender, too, and he was very friendly. My husband had a Budweiser bottle one time and the nutrition information on the back was in Arabic. Another interesting find. Speaking of beer, they only had 3 beers on tap, around the whole ship: Heineken, Heineken Light and a beer I can’t remember. My husband enjoys draft beers because he says they are less fizzy (or something like that) than bottles, but he very quickly changed over to bottles and enjoyed them. The beer selection is large.

There was a mini buffet much of the time in the Lounge. I didn’t notice what they had in the mornings, but in the afternoon, they had wrapped chocolates, chocolate pops, cookies (different kinds, all wonderful), dried fruits selection, sushi sometimes and little sandwiches. There were other options that I can’t recall right now.

The Lounge was also the meeting place for excursions and the butlers escorted you off the ship.

Yacht Club Top Sail Sun Deck/Grill (deck 19)

Everyone is accurate that there is no shade on the sun deck where the lounging occurs. Most of the eating areas, though, were in shade. I did not spend a lot of time out here, but when I was there, I did not see any circulating wait staff taking drink orders. Everything was comfortable, though, with clean, padded loungers with small tables. The pool was small, but for the size area, it was perfect. Also had life guards around the ship, a wise investment. We were docked next to a Royal Caribbean ship and they had life guards also.

The grill, and the bar next to the grill, were hopping places. In between these two was a gelato counter. Very convenient, at least for me. Of the 3 places, I only visited the gelato counter. J When I walked past the grill I saw you could get a steak, a STEAK, so it was much more than a hamburger/hot dog grill.

Next Up: Misc Observations about the Ship

The Yacht Club Restaurant

We enjoyed the restaurant immensely, a highlight of our trip. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, regardless of whether it is a sea or port day. There are plenty of tables for 2, 4 and bigger. We are not foodies and don’t prefer seafood, as a frame of reference. The menus are in 5 languages, I think. Once your waiter/hostess understands your language, they will turn the menu to the appropriate language before handing it to you.

The dinner dress was mainly resort casual, although there were a couple of nice shorts in there. On Elegant Nights, which were the 1st sea day and on Thursday night (port day), the dress was a mix of resort casual and dressier. Several men in suits and women in ‘dressy’ dresses (if that makes sense, not necessarily cocktail dresses or evening gowns).

We sat at a window table for 2 for both breakfast and dinner. We ate lunches mainly in port. Phillip was our head waiter and ‘President’ Lyndon was his assistant, both from the Philippines. They were FABULOUS and the perfect pair. Phillip was more reserved, sometimes giving baleful looks at Lyndon’s more showy displays, i.e. when he would elaborately open a bottle of water, bring a drink, or remove crumbs from the table. It was all very entertaining and you could tell they’ve worked together for a while. Don’t get me wrong, Phillip was very friendly and had a good sense of humor. This was the first time in many cruises that we tipped the wait staff extra in addition to the regular gratuities. All of our meals (service and food) were superb!

Breakfast

6:30 –9:30 AM daily, I believe. Everything was sit-down. If you’ve been in the NCL Haven, they have a mini buffet that guests can get fruit, pastries, juice, etc. That was not the case here, which was OK with us. Lyndon always came around 2+ times with the pastry tray, asked if we wanted water and/or juice. Sometimes there was confusion with hot tea and coffee because several wait staff would ask and they would presume that someone else was getting it so we had to ask again.

The breakfast menu was well rounded. We ate a lot of eggs with side items, all cooked to perfection. Funny about the toast. It always came out ahead of the entrée. I think they treated it like ‘bread’ that should be enjoyed beforehand. The pancakes were fresh, thin and delish! For anyone interested, the french toast has raisins in it. Also, I ordered a waffle one morning and Phillip looked at me so seriously and said ‘I do not recommend the waffles as they come out of a box. I suggest trying the pancakes.’ So that’s what I did. For all the great food that the restaurant served, we were surprised the waffles were not made fresh.

Dinner

5:45 PM to 9:15 (possibly 9:30 PM). We typically arrived between 5:45 – 6:00 PM and it was a perfect time as sometimes we caught the sail away from the port, the sunset around 7ish, and it was less crowded. For us, MSC had the best main restaurant food out of all lines we’ve sailed. We found the portions to be a good size, nicely decorated and delicious. The menus changed nightly (as did the lunch menus, I think), offered several dinner selections plus entrees that were available every night. I love Caesar salads and MSC did not disappoint…a robust salad with lots of dressing (with pepper already included), croutons and parmesan strips. So good! You could also get it with anchovies, shrimp, or chicken. My husband tried every salad and said all were excellent.

Desserts were the BEST and there was a rotating selection. Chocolate soufflés, lava cakes, caramel flan, tiramisu, peanut butter pie, cheesecake, apple crumble, sorbets/gelato,fruit/cheeses, etc. I liked that the pies and cheesecakes were not cut in triangles, they were cut in non-traditional shapes adding to the presentation. One night we each had a dessert and also shared a 3 tier tray of petit fours (available every night). They were great.

Phillip and Lyndon always offered either a red or white wine, but I prefer an Amaretto Sour cocktail with dinner and my husband a beer, sometimes wine. After the 1st night, they would automatically bring me a 2nd cocktail (one time a 3rd!) and put a 2nd beer in the ice bucket near our table. One night Lyndon told me the cocktail glasses were really small so he asked the bar tender to make 2 and put it in a bigger glass. Yes, please!

The restaurant (deck 18) looks out over the Top Sail Lounge (deck 16). A couple of nights there was a piano and violinist duo playing during dinner. It was devine!

Maitre d’

After the 1st dinner, I took an instant dislike to the maître d,' Guiseppe. He did not treat the wait staff well and it was very visible, ie. bumping into them repeatedly or snapping his fingers to get their attention. Asking loudly with a mean face why they were doing something. I found it distasteful. In my opinion, he knew the position responsibilities, but executed them poorly. One morning for breakfast he was walking us to a table with menus and then he just wandered off talking to one of the wait staff. We were left with 8 tables in front of us and didn’t know where to sit. So we chose a table and sat, while he had a whole conversation, while holding our menus. Bizarre. When speaking with guests, he would often make hand gestures to the wait staff behind their back. Not bad hand signals, but it demonstrated lack of full attention to his guests.

Aside from the rude Maitre d’, we loved everything about the Yacht Club Restaurant!! Up next, the Top Sail Lounge and Sun Deck/Grill