Review - Seaside B2B 24Feb-10Mar Royal Suite Yacht Club

[marcoigna]

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…

Edited March 13, 2018 by marcoigna

[resstation]

We will be sailing in the Royal Suite (the other one) on April 7th. I'm curious, was the balcony large enough for a dining table or was there not a dining table due to space? Also, are they now offering a cabana to RS guests or do we need to contact someone as well? We generally, like you, take most issues in stride and thoroughly enjoy our YC cruises (2 previously on the Divina). We are looking forward to the Seaside.

[lcpagejr]

Thank you for the review....enjoyed reading your YC comparisons and experiences. We will be in YC on 3/24 sailing and everyone has been so helpful in sharing their experiences which will allow us to adjust so much quicker!!

[Two Wheels Only]

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.

This will be a big deal for us if it is not there (16037) by June.

Was the chaise lounger missing from the bedroom, too?

 

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…

That sounds like a plan.

I don't need any of the amenities but a cabana to use (like on Meraviglia) will be nice....if I ask the right person.

 

The one thing I disagree with is calling the elevator with your Yacht Club Status – it is embarrassingand chose not to use it.

Agree to disagree. ;p

I will be trying this feature just to see if it works.

 

We did the Zip Line 6 times, free for Yacht Club

Gotta try and beat 6.....challenge accepted.(y)

 

Thanks for the review.

[Fredric22]

We will be in 16037 next week and I am also curious to see whether or not we will have a cabana included. I really hope that it is now part of the standard Royal Suite amenities, but something tells me that is wishful thinking! I am also disappointed that there is still no dining table outside. I highly doubt that we will get better furniture in time for our cruise next week. Oh well.. we are still very very excited about a week in this suite!

[calgaryhhr]

I haven't really followed much of the details of the Yatch Club but what exactly are the amenities that are included with a cabana rental?

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your detailed review/report

 

Keith

[marcoigna]

We will be sailing in the Royal Suite (the other one) on April 7th. I'm curious, was the balcony large enough for a dining table or was there not a dining table due to space? Also, are they now offering a cabana to RS guests or do we need to contact someone as well? We generally, like you, take most issues in stride and thoroughly enjoy our YC cruises (2 previously on the Divina). We are looking forward to the Seaside.

 

good day - yes, there is 100% space for a dinette table - we moved the lounges next to the wall beside the jacuzzi and there would be where the dinette could be placed - I have full confidence that they will now be offering the Cabanas for Royal Suite Guests complimentary -

 

have a most wonderful cruise...

[marcoigna]

good day - Two Wheels Only -

 

I cannot forsee them adding the balcony furniture - nor the lounge in the bedroom - our friends were in 16037 and no difference at all

 

with regards to the elevator - it really does not work well unless you are on your own - if there are passengers in the elevator when u call it, it cancels their floor. when u enter the elevator, you must tap the scanner one more time. So if you press "16" and the other passengers then see it is working again, and they press "11" - then this cancels your 16 -it is just a battle back and forth and totally not streess to upset anyone - truly the elevators were very fast and no issues at all...

[marcoigna]

I haven't really followed much of the details of the Yatch Club but what exactly are the amenities that are included with a cabana rental?

 

i did not take 100% notice, but i did see attentive service, sushi being delivered, champagne bottle - non really mattered to us - there is enough food on the ships - the wait staff still came to our cabana frequently to offer drinks...so all was good....

[Captain-John]

Thanks very much for your review, a great insight. Odd behaviour regarding the wine issue!

[TrinaLC]

On Seaside this week peeked into one cabana and it was all prepared with towels, ice chest and a sign that said reserved for royal suite. We did not see any other cabana occupied, they might sell in summer but for now clearly over priced good to see offered for RS.

 

 

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[TrinaLC]

I don’t expect thy plan to add that table in the RS.

 

 

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[mafig]

good day - Two Wheels Only -

 

I cannot forsee them adding the balcony furniture - nor the lounge in the bedroom - our friends were in 16037 and no difference at all

 

with regards to the elevator - it really does not work well unless you are on your own - if there are passengers in the elevator when u call it, it cancels their floor. when u enter the elevator, you must tap the scanner one more time. So if you press "16" and the other passengers then see it is working again, and they press "11" - then this cancels your 16 -it is just a battle back and forth and totally not streess to upset anyone - truly the elevators were very fast and no issues at all...

 

 

You wouldn't really know if there were passengers in the elevator when you call it, would you?

[JAGR]

Thanks for your straightforward review! Since you were on for a fortnight, you know best about the clientele diversity. For us, we thought there were less Americans than 70 percent, at least judging by the languages heard in the dining room. Our primary server spoke more in Italian, French and Spanish than English. We actually rather enjoyed meeting a great mix of people, and that is one thing we noted as a very positive aspect of the cruise for us. If we have the same mix next year on our B2B, we will be very happy.

 

My only small complaint for our week was that I wish the Butler or Assistant Butler had checked in with us early on any special needs or concerns. I'm glad you two got that opportunity. Other than thay small lapse, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was great meeting the two of you and your friends. I especially enjoyed your hosting of The Yacht Club Euchre Tournament, and letting me play with your nephew as a partner! I only wish I had the chance to play with you as a partner one time. Hope to see you again.

 

We only ordered a special wine once so our experience with "D" was overall positive. We really thought she made and effort, and she and my DW hit it off well with their mutual appreciation of Malbecs. We pretty much stayed with Alessandra as our main server in the DR, and she was excellent. Isabella was an efficient and cheerful Assistant Maître d'. We actually enjoyed the servers and quality. Our favorite was Olin (guard/pool attendant) on the Top Deck. He was always smiling and willing to do any favor for a passenger.

 

Thanks again for your review and your most helpful pre-cruise advice for us. Buona fortuna per i tuoi viaggi futuri.

[windlicht]

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!

[marcoigna]

It was great meeting the two of you and your friends. I especially enjoyed your hosting of The Yacht Club Euchre Tournament, and letting me play with your nephew as a partner! I only wish I had the chance to play with you as a partner one time. Hope to see you.

 

 

Hopefully one day our paths will cross and i can be your awesome euchre partner. Very nice to meet you and your amazing wife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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