Royal Diamon tries MSC Yacht Club on MSC Preziosa and loved it

[Iluvcruising2]

Anyway, it was time to head over to our cabin, suite 16008. They called this the Royal Suite. I made a number of videos of the suite, but here is just two. They should show you what the suite is like.

 

The first video was made on the first day, I think the first time we entered the cabin. The butler told us that a bottle of champagne would be delivered later. I recall the cabin ready once we boarded, which was quite early, I think around 11am-ish. Anyway, even if the cabin wasn't ready, we wouldn't be too perturbed because there was a gorgeous Top Sail lounge to relax in, and the Suite restaurant would start her lunch service from noon.

 

Here is the first video.

[YOUTUBE]m4_A7O2N-ro[/YOUTUBE]

 

This second video, taken a few days into the cruise, shows you the same cabin but it has been "lived in" for a bit. This time, you can hear me give you a verbal run through.

[YOUTUBE]hzanL6cVCAM[/YOUTUBE]

 

Here are some stills. The living area as you walk in. The sofa will become a double bed for the kids.

 

The main bedroom. The butler had left 2 life jackets for kids in the room.

 

Later in the afternoon, a nice bottle of champagne was delivered, in an ice bucket.

 

This photo is from the corner of the main bedroom, looking out into the living room. This perspective gives you a good idea of the size of the suite. Of course, there is still the balcony plus the walk-in closet area and toilet.

 

If you watch the videos of the suite, you will see that the bathroom can be access directly from the living area, without the need to enter the main bedroom. There is another door to the main bedroom. This design is good. We enjoyed the stay in this suite very much.

[Donsyb]

Remember to print your boarding passes in advance. I don't think they print them for you and I'm sure what they do if you don't print your own boarding passes.

 

I think they charge you if you haven't printed them out in advance....:(

[Iluvcruising2]

Remember to print your boarding passes in advance. I don't think they print them for you and I'm sure what they do if you don't print your own boarding passes.

 

I think they charge you if you haven't printed them out in advance....:(

 

Yes, I think you are right. Their fares are very competitive though, if you book early enough. Certainly helps for family travel.

[Iluvcruising2]

It was time for lunch. The restaurant for YC guests was called La Palmeraie, located on Deck 15, at the aft of the ship. Now, this is definitely one bug bear for YC, which isn't going to change. All the YC facilities are located at the front of the ship, but the Suite restaurant is right at the aft.

 

Getting to the suite restaurant isn't that straightforward either. The concierge told us that a butler would bring us to the suite restaurant on the first evening (by that time we had already found our way there once for lunch). The route he took was to take the elevators down to Deck 7, then walk over to the aft via the public areas, and then take the elevator up again to Deck 15. Obviously, the process takes some time, as well as the wait for elevators, even though YC cards get priority on certain elevators (to the chagrin of many guests!)

 

My wife and kids called it the 'power of the YC card'. Basically, when you use your card to call the lift, (only at a certain lobby, towards the front), the lift comes to the floor that you call it from, overriding the other floors. The downside to this is that when the lift door opens, often you see a group of bewildered passengers, wondering why the lift went up to Deck 15 or 16 even though nobody pressed it. Worse, all their floor selection had been wiped out. Well, even though this gave us great fun to use sometimes, it could be awkward too. Imagine calling the lift from Deck 15, the door opens, and the lift is half full and all the numbers wiped out. You walk in and choose your floor. Every other pax in the lift will be looking at you with that deadly stare. Haha. Not very comfortable, in my opinion. So, after a while, unless we were in a huge hurry, we didn't use the card, or we just walked. Climbing stairs is a good way to exercise.

 

Coming back to how to get from the Yacht Club to the suite restaurant, ultimately, our preferred route would be to walk. We would go down 2 floors (from Deck 15 to Deck 13) and walk to the aft of the ship along the cabins, and then walk up the stairs to Deck 15 again when we reach the aft. The walk was good, at least it gave us more exercise.

 

This is the entrance to the restaurant.

 

This video shows you the menu for that lunch and the food we had. You could have as much or as little as you want. The main courses for today's lunch were Roasted Dover Sole Fillets (fish) and Filet Mignon with Porcini mushroom.

[YOUTUBE]INwLHnfuSwo[/YOUTUBE]

 

The food. Some salad.

 

My seafood soup.

 

The fish - dover fillets.

 

The filet mignon.

 

Check out the video for what else we had (I think desserts for sure). Also, note that even for lunch, most (if not all) the drinks that are available on the complimentary menu are available in the Suite restaurant. I will show you the menu for the complimentary YC drinks later.

 

First impressions? Very good. What I noticed was that the portion size (especially for the mains) seem to be significantly smaller than say on Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines we have been on.

 

The cooking style is also lighter,relying more on the ingredients and produce rather than heavy sauces. Personally, I prefer this style of cooking and the smaller portion sizes help control the food intake. If there is insufficient food, you can always order a double portion. That's what I did when I felt really greedy, like ordering 2 mains. Yeah, GO FOR IT!

[Iluvcruising2]

Just one floor below the La Palmaraie restaurant, was the Inca/Maya buffet area on Deck 14. After the lunch, I walked down to the buffet to check out for ourselves what was offered for lunch. This was the first time we have stepped into this restaurant. Overall, I think the food selection is decent, with an emphasis towards Italian (plenty of pizza and pasta). I wouldn't mind having my lunch here.

[YOUTUBE]XTNNERCn8Go[/YOUTUBE]

 

Some stills. A cool display of bread. I didn't know whether these were real bread and I certainly didn't want to spoil them by touching them.

 

The buffet restaurant wasn't very crowded when we got there. The time would have been around 1:30pm.

 

Some pictures of the food available.

 

More food.

 

Desserts

 

Passengers enjoying the buffet. The buffet area is rather large. Even though the ship has many passengers, there looked to be sufficient space for all.

 

Since we are on the topic of buffets, check out this video I made of the buffet offerings at breakfast. I can't remember which day this was, but I assume the buffet breakfast would be similar (if not the same) every day.

[YOUTUBE]IIMfGkDDH2w[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

We were quite full from lunch. It was time to take a walk to explore more of the ship. We walked around a bit, but I didn't take many photos. Maybe I was too full. But I guess we were just happy to be on board and knowing that there will be more time later, let me just relax for now. Taking all these videos and pictures is quite a lot of work, but I enjoy it.

 

And relax we did. We decided to get some drinks in the Top Sail. Earlier on, while we were shown around the Top Sail lounge, we didn't eat anything. So now's the time. I know this sounds snobby but stepping back into the Yacht Club area from the public areas of the ship somehow makes us feel 'special'. Haha. I had to educate my kids that this is a treat for the family and not to be taken as the norm. Thankfully, we can afford this luxury, if only for 7 Nights.

 

Here are two videos of our first experience in the Top Sail lounge. This video shows you the drinks menu.

[YOUTUBE]cvgEQmCuis0[/YOUTUBE]

 

This video shows you the food available in the Top Sail lounge, this was early afternoon.

[YOUTUBE]IYrj2GNgsB0[/YOUTUBE]

 

In case you are wondering which beers were available (included in the YC package), here they are. Screengrab from the video. Sorry, a bit blur, I didn't realise that the light was so dim that my camera couldn't focus clearly on the words. But should be able to figure out. Not all the brands were familiar to me though.

 

The lounge was very quiet at this time. Felt very exclusive.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Iluvcruising2

[cruiselife4me]

LOVING it!! I'd love to take my hubby on this sailing, then spend a few days around Italy.

 

Love your music in the video's....my favorite type of music. <3

 

Can't wait for more!

Mary from MI

[Iluvcruising2]

LOVING it!! I'd love to take my hubby on this sailing, then spend a few days around Italy.

 

Love your music in the video's....my favorite type of music. <3

 

Can't wait for more!

Mary from MI

 

Thank you for your kind words and I'm glad you are enjoying the review.

 

More of this review to come, that I can promise you. Have a blessed Christmas.

[Iluvcruising2]

THE ONE POOL

Alright, we have seen the Top Sail Lounge. What about the private pool? Let's go check it out. They call it, the ONE POOL. The name puzzled me a bit. Why call it the ONE pool? Anyway, the pool area for YC was contained within the YC itself. Access if via an internal elevator within the YC, or stairs from one side (I think left side) in Deck 16 on the MSC Preziosa. You can also enter the One Pool area from the public pool area, walking towards the front of the ship from Deck 15.

 

Well, it is true that they have only one swimming pool, which looks like this. It is not very large, the pool in Solarium is far larger, however, I guess you can't expect MSC to devote too much space for Yacht Club. I know the weather was a bit gloomy, but hey, this was in December and it was a cloudy day and it rained too. Other than the pool, there were two hot tubs, which were fairly popular during the cruise.

 

This is the bar and buffet area, looking from the pool.

 

Here is a video I took on this visit. It does look dark and gloomy. Don't worry, I will brighter photos and video footage from the One Pool later during this cruise.

[YOUTUBE]R6y3U-DTXOA[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

After our brief visit to the One Pool, it was time to explore other areas of the ship. The ship was new to us, so everything was pretty novel. This picture shows the piano at the atrium.

 

The atrium was a very lively place. Compared to other ships I have been on (especially those in the Royal Caribbean fleet), this atrium isn't very big. However, it is rather stylish. The ship's designers used plenty of Swarovski silver crystals on the staircases, giving the Atrium a very glittery silver feel.

 

Registration for the kids' club onboard MSC Preziosa. It turned out that my kids were not interested to join the kid's club, so we didn't force them. They entertained themselves in our suite.

 

A short video clip of the atrium. Lots of activity and people walking around.

[YOUTUBE]d53D5THnuA8[/YOUTUBE]

 

The cruise consultant's desk.

 

We knew that with the YC Suite restaurant, we would not be dining at the Main Dining Room. But I decided that I should try to take photos of their menus if I had the chance, for my own reference, and also to share here. So here is the dinner menu for the MDR on our first day.

 

Closer look at the mains

 

Apologies I only took the first page of the two page menu, so you can't see the desserts. Not sure what I was thinking, but at least I got one page quite clearly. For the mains, you had cod, veal, turkey escalope and a vegetarian option.

[Iluvcruising2]

Next, we walked into the Caffeteria Italiana. This place must be modelled after a traditional Italian cafe. I found it very pleasant. We had walked through this cafe earlier today, while boarding. This is a video I made, which includes a significant part of the menu. A cafe latte was priced at 2.2 Euro. A cupcake was 80 cents Euro. I thought the prices were ok, for a cruise ship. Definitely cheaper than a Cafe Latte in a typical Starbucks joint in Singapore.

[YOUTUBE]szu-wHRIem4[/YOUTUBE]

 

Here are some pictures. I am usually not a big fan of sweets and desserts but these look very pretty.

 

Seating area. This place gets lively in the evenings. There is also live music here.

 

Got this picture of the drinks packages. Useful reference. For example, COFFEE CUDDLE package for 23 Euros you get 15 coffees (including Cappucino and Cafe Latte). I think they slap on a 15% service charge. So, 26.45 Euros, divided by 15, that works out to be 1.76 Euros per coffee, service charge already included. Not bad a deal! From the picture, you can also see their packages for beers and cocktails. Overall, I don't think it is too expensive.

[Iluvcruising2]

We decided to walk to the buffet area again, as by this time it was after 3pm. The objective was to see what food they had, at this time of the day. It was called INCA, or MAYA.

 

True enough, the food offerings now were different from lunch. Afternoon snacks. A good crowd.

 

They had burgers and fries, neatly laid out. I thought this was a good idea. More hygienic. I believe that tongs in the buffet are one of the greatest sources of virus transmission onboard any cruise ship. They also had pizza and pasta.

 

This fake cactus is interesting

 

I made a video of some of the food at the buffet during this time (late afternoon). Well, there is plenty to eat, not doubt about that.

[YOUTUBE]iR_L9o5AkE4[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

There would be a compulsory lifeboat drill coming back so the plan was to head back to our cabin. Along the way, we passed the Solarium. Pretty busy!

 

A picture of the tables. This is the floor overlooking the Solarium.

 

See this video which gives you an idea how busy the hot tubs at the Solarium are. I guess this being winter, it is colder outside. So more people would flock to the indoor Solarium.

[YOUTUBE]v7PNYdGYvno[/YOUTUBE]

 

Back in the cabin to rest. I decided to make this video to show you more details of the balcony of 16008. And since MSC Fantasia was docked nearby, the ship made for a good backdrop. The balcony is long and narrow. Our cabin is on the front right side, facing an angle outwards (2 o'clock direction). Two deck chairs, two chairs, one table. Piece of trivia, the MSC Fantasia is slightly smaller than the MSC Preziosa. Enjoy.

 

Back in the cabin to rest, hanging up the legs, waiting for the life boat drill. Then the announcement comes on. This video contains the English announcement for the drill, if you are interested to hear it. I recall the announcement was repeated in several languages. That is the norm on MSC.

[YOUTUBE]SM7VwzBVCsY[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

Here are some stills of the MSC Daily on our embarkation day.

Welcome on board!

 

Front page continued

 

The show tonight was singing.

 

YC Daily Planner

 

Activities. Well, what do you think? Not many activities. This is going to be a trend. Compared to say RCI or NCL, there aren't many organized activities around the ship.

 

Bars and Lounges. Top Sail lounge operate from 7am to 2am.

[Iluvcruising2]

It was time for the drill and we made our way to our muster stations, with our life jackets. They scanned our cruise cards when we arrived, and this was the scene that greeted us.

 

I was quite surprised that almost all the passengers had started to put on their life jackets. The life jacket demonstration had not started, and in this picture you can see the crew relaxing by the covered grand piano.

 

Yet, almost every passenger that came in started to put on their life jacket on their own accord, like this family that came in shortly after we arrived. Straight away, they started to figure out how to put on their life jackets.

 

Here is a video of the drill. Almost all in life jackets.

[YOUTUBE]ZaWHy6P0nRw[/YOUTUBE]

 

This is the first time in many cruises that I actually tried to put on my life jacket. All the past cruises in the past 3 years, I don't think I have put on my life jacket. On reflection, I think this is a good practice. I never knew that the life jacket had a strap that was to go underneath my groin. My bad. Anyway,the drill was soon over and we all headed back to our cabins. Nowhere else to go since we had to go back to our cabins to deposit our life jackets!

[Iluvcruising2]

Greetings from Singapore on a Christmas Day. I am posting this in the afternoon (local time) of 25th Dec 2015, in Singapore. We thank God for all His blessings, including our wonderful travels to see the world, and enjoy the MSC cruise!

 

As a family, when cruising, we like to eat early. The suite restaurant is open for dinner from 1830 to 2145 hrs. We usually go at around 1830hrs, but that would mean missing the first show which starts at 1900hrs. If we wanted to catch the show, we would go for the second show.

 

Earlier today, we ate at the Suite restaurant for lunch. This evening, it would be the first time for dinner! This would be the start of seven wonderful dinners over the next 7 nights! I'm going to get cruise withdrawal symptoms doing this review. The theme for tonight was Mediterranean Flavours and Savours

 

I asked for a glass of red. There is a different red and different white wine every night . Makes for a very interesting dining experience.

 

This is the video I made of the food we had.

[YOUTUBE]F_Ebe63s4lA[/YOUTUBE]

 

This was my appetizer - a Japanese inspired dish. Beautiful presentation. Every night, there is a dish (either appetizer or main) that comes from one of the speciality restaurants, not necessarily on this ship but from some restaurant that is available onboard the MSC fleet. Very cool.

 

I tried the lamb shank. Big serving, definitely couldn't finish.

 

For dessert, I deliberately chose the cheese sampler because I wanted to see how it would look like. It was beautifully done, though way too much cheese for me. (I don't eat much cheese in the first place). This is one of my favourite dishes, from a presentation point of view!

 

Enjoy the food and have a blessed Christmas!

[Iluvcruising2]

After dinner, we wandered around the ship a bit. Went into the Sports Bar and managed to catch this family playing with the bowling alley. Quite cute. I think it costs 6 Euros a game. I should have more video footage of the Sports Bar later in the cruise.

[YOUTUBE]2hhhmqgm_78[/YOUTUBE]

 

Ah ha, I found this photo. Indeed, the cost was 6Euros per game, which wasn't too bad. After all, you get 10 frames (20 throws thereabouts, unless you keep striking!).

 

In case you were wondering, MSC does have drinks of the day too. The MSC Blue on Blue at Euro 5.90

 

And back in the Top Sail lounge, there was live music (a pianist) and here are the apertifs. Too much to eat! I don't think I had any, I was well and truly stuffed.

[YOUTUBE]-H7SrGxqIhg[/YOUTUBE]

 

Got back to our cabin and found these sweet treats waiting for us. So nice. We were too stuffed for this, so I kept them in the fridge.

 

So, this concludes our first day of our 7N cruise on the MSC Preziosa. Tomorrow, we will arrive in Citivavecchia, and the plan was to pick up our rental car and drive to some shopping mall outlet.

[Iluvcruising2]

Had a good sleep (the seas were very calm) and now we start Day 2 of our 7N cruise. The ship was scheduled to dock at Civitvecchia at 8pm and I think we were on time. Let me start with some stills of the Daily.

 

Second part of the front page.

 

The show tonight was some dancing and singing.

 

Note the dresscode for buffet and onboard restaurants, which is quite standard.

 

Today's drinks suggestion.

 

And the activities. Looks like more stuff going on compared to yesterday.

[Capricruiser]

Who is the current captain on the Preziosa, and the maitre d' in the YC restaurant? We board in a couple days and always hope to meet old friends.

[Iluvcruising2]

Who is the current captain on the Preziosa, and the maitre d' in the YC restaurant? We board in a couple days and always hope to meet old friends.

 

Captain Giuseppe Maresca was Master of the MSC Preziosa during our cruise. Sorry, I can't remember the name of the Maitre D in the YC restaurant.

 

Got a chance to speak with the Captain during the private party held for YC guests. He has been to Singapore and I think we were the only family from Singapore in the YC on that cruise. If you meet him, do let him know that I'm doing this review on cruise critic!

[Capricruiser]

Thanks for your quick response. We've sailed twice before under Giuseppe Maresca. He's a great guy - one of those masters who isn't afraid to stop and talk with the passengers when walking around the ship. I also saw in the welcome aboard bulletin you posted earlier that the hotel director was Antonio Russo - another great one. The maitre's name was probably either Giancarlo, Luigi, or Vincenzo. Any recollection?

[Iluvcruising2]

Part 2 of the activities page.

 

The plan was to wake up and have breakfast in the Suite restaurant, before getting off the ship for our day's activities. The restaurant would open for breakfast at 7am. When we got there, we found it almost empty. Subsequently, very few passengers turned up for breakfast. We wondered why but realised that most of the pax probably ate at Top Sail lounge or the One Pool that morning.

 

This morning would be our first breakfast at the suite restaurant. The video shows you our experience. The menu is the same everyday, which is fine since they had pretty much everything you needed. Over time, we learnt that we could customize our orders. Just order stuff in the combination that you like. e.g. my kids usually ask for pancakes and hash brown, or fried eggs and hash brown.

[YOUTUBE]MY0N5RmEsOY[/YOUTUBE]

 

I had the Eggs Benedict.

 

One of my kids had this.

 

All very good.

 

After breakfast, we still had some time and went to the Top Sail lounge. We found many more pax there, having their breakfast. Well, the lounge is much nearer all our cabins, so I can understand why. Here is a video of the breakfast items in the Top Sail lounge. The items they have for breakfast are adequate. If you wanted hot food, you had to go up to One Pool, there why also had breakfast! I guess that is why they did not provide a toaster here.

[YOUTUBE]1Rcln4Z_0s8[/YOUTUBE]

 

Some of the food available at continental breakfast in the Top Sail Lounge.

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks for your quick response. We've sailed twice before under Giuseppe Maresca. He's a great guy - one of those masters who isn't afraid to stop and talk with the passengers when walking around the ship. I also saw in the welcome aboard bulletin you posted earlier that the hotel director was Antonio Russo - another great one. The maitre's name was probably either Giancarlo, Luigi, or Vincenzo. Any recollection?

 

I can only recall that the Maitre D was rather large in built. I don't think I spoke much with him. He welcomed us the first day but subsequently, I don't have any recollection.

 

I saw the Asst Maitre D more often, though I can't remember his name. He is a taller guy and can be seen in this video, at around 1:03 minute mark.

[YOUTUBE]C57YEEtjEaU[/YOUTUBE]

 

Let me look through my other photos and videos to see if I took a picture/video of the Maitre D.

[plucasana]

still enjoying every picture and word you post [emoji3]thanks again!!!

 

Did you or your kids get a chance to look at the kid's menu?

[Iluvcruising2]

still enjoying every picture and word you post [emoji3]thanks again!!!

 

Did you or your kids get a chance to look at the kid's menu?

 

At the first dinner, the waiter gave my kids the kids' menu. They took one look and they told me it was 'too kiddy' and immediately asked for the adult menu. So I didn't get a chance to look at that menu. :)