THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE YACHT CLUB

[morpheusofthesea]

44 minutes ago, def0715 said:

Lowering my expectations a bit now. It is disappointing to hear all this. I’m also a bit worried that if I see flagrant abuse that I won’t be able to keep quiet about it.

Chances are one will not 'see' a thing. After a couple of drinks you'll be dancing around the pool in a conga line to the tune Volare with your arms on their shoulders.

Edited March 2, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Bobbiegentry]

18 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

the YC Director had to 'bribe' them with a complimentary bottle of Champagne to get them to leave.

Rewarding bad behavior is never the answer. 
YC managers need to grow a pair and quit pandering to the interlopers. 

[mackfam]

36 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Don't know if corporate MSC really knows what is occurring on the ship.

Have you emailed Richard Sasso to inform corporate MSC what is going on?

[Bobbiegentry]

15 hours ago, mackfam said:

Have you emailed Richard Sasso to inform corporate MSC what is going on?

I hope that all of this spurs a letter writing barrage to MSC execs.

Let the fusillade begin!!

[morpheusofthesea]

28 minutes ago, Bobbiegentry said:

Rewarding bad behavior is never the answer. 
YC managers need to grow a pair and quit pandering to the interlopers. 

Maybe it is just coincidental, but we find the YC Directors keeping to the crew section of the ship and only come out 'to play' on certain occasions greeting YC guests. Or they are just hiding from us personally.

[morpheusofthesea]

27 minutes ago, mackfam said:

Have you emailed Richard Sasso to inform corporate MSC what is going on?

I thought about it....and then the words popped into my mind his response " Et tu, Brute ?"

Edited March 2, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Bobbiegentry]

From another thread (thanks @KSSS2013:

 

The CEO is Gianni Onorato, I would assume his email address is:

 

 gianni.onorato@msccruises.com

 

 I was able to find this which would be the US Contact..

 

 Chief Executive
Richard Sasso
Chairman, MSC Cruises USA
6750 N. Andrews Avenue
Suite 100
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309
richard.sasso@msccruisesusa.com

 

 

[Cruiser21]

Met Mr Sasso last year around this time on Seashore in the Yacht Club with his family. Really down to earth fella but not sure he is the one to contact as I witnessed him break the dining room rules. Up until that cruise it was forbidden for men to wear shorts to dinner accept for first night. Well Mr Sasso wore dress shorts every night and when I asked matre’d about no shorts rule he shrugged his shoulders. I guess rules are made to be broken, unfortunately.  

[styles27]

10 hours ago, Cruiser21 said:

Met Mr Sasso last year around this time on Seashore in the Yacht Club with his family. Really down to earth fella but not sure he is the one to contact as I witnessed him break the dining room rules. Up until that cruise it was forbidden for men to wear shorts to dinner accept for first night. Well Mr Sasso wore dress shorts every night and when I asked matre’d about no shorts rule he shrugged his shoulders. I guess rules are made to be broken, unfortunately.  

Our takeaway from 14 days on Divina was MSC seems to have a number of “policies” that they’re not enforcing.
Examples-adult aft pool one lifeguard was great at policing the chair hogs who put towels out and thought they could leave for 2 hrs and their towels would still be on their chairs when they returned. He took them off after 30 min. 
Same pool different lifeguard didn’t care and wouldn’t remove towels even when people pointed out chairs that were empty for hours. 
 

Main pool no policing of chair hogs at all 

Main pool hottubs on our first 10 days of the B2B absolutely no drinks in the hottubs. 
Second part of B2B youngins ordering drinks from the hottub before we even embarked. 
When waiter was questioned about that he shrugged his shoulders. 
 

MSC has a management problem. 
The guidance is in place but their management team isn’t always enforcing that guidance. 
 

That’s a problem outside of YC and it’s sadly made its way into the YC from what we’re reading on this thread. 

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by styles27

[hamrag]

12 hours ago, CruisingNole said:

So the problem is with MSC, not the guests that are being given access by the crew. I wouldn't turn down that offer from a crew member, nor would anyone in their right mind.

Possibly, but methinks the greater 'problem' on this thread is mots stirring the pot. As a reminder, the opening sentences from OP states as follows:

This is a problem. The staff in the Yacht Club are overwhelmed with all the NON Yacht Club class guests that are given "access" to the YC. Heard some of these "access" get up as early as 4 am and reserve for themselves the available cabanas (first come, first serve policy on the Seascape).

 

So, mots 'heard some of these... etc'. Now, I am not naieve enough to believe interloping does not happen but do not believe for one minute it is on the scale claimed on this thread.

 

To those whom mots has alarmed, do not fret....on 7 YC cruises we have NEVER been aware of anything like mots described. Once only, in the lounge area there were a couple we hadn't noticed before spoken to by the Head Waiter, quietly and discretely they disappeared never to be seen again...we assumed they were interlopers.

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by hamrag

[B_A_H]

12 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Don't know if corporate MSC really knows what is occurring on the ship.

Mark Zeller is the VP of Hotel Ops.  I e-mailed him and referenced this thread.   BTW, CEO's and President's have multiple e-mail addresses and minions parse the public ones. It's doubtful the e-mails you're sending will reach them personally.  They each probably receive 1K e-mails a day.    

 

Clearly MSC is taking advantage of demand and raising their prices.  The differential between YC and standard cabins is growing larger.  Some of the increase is probably to offset higher costs because food quality and service levels cost more in YC. That, and as the experience on the rest of the ship is economized, I'd guess more people would be willing to buy up to YC. 

 

If they want to charge more to protect the experience, that's swell.  But diluting the experience or allowing it to be diluted by onboard staff is not. 

[styles27]

56 minutes ago, hamrag said:

Possibly, but methinks the greater 'problem' on this thread is mots stirring the pot. As a reminder, the opening sentences from OP states as follows:

This is a problem. The staff in the Yacht Club are overwhelmed with all the NON Yacht Club class guests that are given "access" to the YC. Heard some of these "access" get up as early as 4 am and reserve for themselves the available cabanas (first come, first serve policy on the Seascape).

 

So, mots 'heard some of these... etc'. Now, I am not naieve enough to believe interloping does not happen but do not believe for one minute it is on the scale claimed on this thread.

 

To those whom mots has alarmed, do not fret....on 7 YC cruises we have NEVER been aware of anything like mots described. Once only, in the lounge area there were a couple we hadn't noticed before spoken to by the Head Waiter, quietly and discretely they disappeared never to be seen again...we assumed they were interlopers.

 

I’ve not known Morpheus to ever “stir the pot”, in fact just the opposite.  His posts always have a “glass half full” tone to them. 

 

Just curious, of your 7 YC cruises when was the last cruise you cruised in the YC from a US port?  

[morpheusofthesea]

13 hours ago, CruisingNole said:

So the problem is with MSC, not the guests that are being given access by the crew. I wouldn't turn down that offer from a crew member, nor would anyone in their right mind.

Sure thing, but not when the Yacht Club is filled to capacity. There should be a cap, a limit, on the number of non YC suite friends and family proportionate to the number of booked cabins in the YC. The fewer YC cabins occupied the more friends and family allowed "access".

[morpheusofthesea]

22 minutes ago, styles27 said:

I’ve not known Morpheus to ever “stir the pot”, in fact just the opposite.  His posts always have a “glass half full” tone to them.

Actually I love to think of my glass as overflowing. Being able to look forward to so many cruises, reading all your reports. Driving my travel agent crazy with all the changes because of your reports. Even hamrag's skepticism of my reporting is valid. I, too, was naive. DW and I have such a swell time in the Yacht Clubs of MSC that we spend too much money repeating the same itineraries, never getting off the ship (except beautiful Ocean Cay). We, personally, have never experienced a problem with service on any MSC ship within the Yacht Club. But we attribute this to our over tipping as well. But we "see" things and "hear" things and we ask questions (and we are sure we are lied to as well). Like the broken lock on the YC door that was broken when the ship left Italy and as of last cruise February 19,2023 it has been fixed cutting down on interlopers.

  The number of guests should never exceed the maximum number that the YC was designed for. So the number of "access" should be capped and not allowed to exceed this cap under any circumstances for the guests that do book the Yacht Club expecting the service and accommodations they are paying for as well as the health and well being of the limited, overworked, underpaid staff.

  Thank you for your kind support of my reporting.

[PTC DAWG]

2 hours ago, hamrag said:

Possibly, but methinks the greater 'problem' on this thread is mots stirring the pot. As a reminder, the opening sentences from OP states as follows:

This is a problem. The staff in the Yacht Club are overwhelmed with all the NON Yacht Club class guests that are given "access" to the YC. Heard some of these "access" get up as early as 4 am and reserve for themselves the available cabanas (first come, first serve policy on the Seascape).

 

So, mots 'heard some of these... etc'. Now, I am not naieve enough to believe interloping does not happen but do not believe for one minute it is on the scale claimed on this thread.

 

I’m thinking the exact same thing..he’s sitting somewhere proud of his work. I sincerely hope I’m wrong and this was a one off issue in the YC. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[PTC DAWG]

7 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

 

  The number of guests should never exceed the maximum number that the YC was designed for. So the number of "access" should be capped and not allowed to exceed this cap under any circumstances for the guests that do book the Yacht Club expecting the service and accommodations they are paying for as well as the health and well being of the limited, overworked, underpaid staff.

  Thank you for your kind support of my reporting.

I suppose that’s  fair, although I really don’t think they should allow it myself.

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

I’ve not known Morpheus to ever “stir the pot”, in fact just the opposite.  His posts always have a “glass half full” tone to them. 

 

Just curious, of your 7 YC cruises when was the last cruise you cruised in the YC from a US port?  

Because the world extends extensively west, east, north and south of the USofA we do not routinely sail from a US port and have never done so on an MSC ship. Our most recent was from NYC on Oceanias' Insignia.

 

Is that relevant, as only a small minority of MSC ships sail from US ports?

[morpheusofthesea]

14 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

he’s sitting somewhere proud of his work

They are 'masterpieces'.

[morpheusofthesea]

18 minutes ago, hamrag said:

we do not routinely sail from a US port and have never done so on an MSC ship.

At least you are honest about it.

[EMc&DrS]

We just got off of Seascape on Sunday as well--our 8th YC sailing since 2017. This was the first cruise we noticed non-YC guests around the pool. We did see the pool attendant question some teen boys on the first sea day. When they couldn't produce wrist bands or key cards of any kind, he told them they had to leave. (They had clearly been given access by a teen girl who was with her family in YC). Never saw them again. As the original poster mentioned, the seafood buffet at lunch on the last day was crazy. We've never seen so many people around or in the pool that afternoon, and the wait for your food was endless. Our friends finally gave up on their order because it just never came out. 

 

Despite this, we still had a great time and really appreciated the service we received throughout the YC. Our take on the situation is that the YC has just gotten too big. Having first tried YC on Divina, we miss the intimacy of that setting when you got to know so many of the YC staff and guests. Also, the YC director on this cruise was non-existent. He greeted us when we arrived at Ocean House the first day of the cruise, and then we didn't catch a glimpse of him again until the seafood buffet on the last afternoon--during which he made a quick pass through the area and disappeared. On our last Meraviglia cruise (her last cruise before she went into dry dock last April), the YC director was everywhere. We met him the moment we arrived in YC and saw him several times each day of the cruise. The buck stops with him (or her)--seems like all the director should have to do is call security.

[morpheusofthesea]

There are. so far, three types of guests not paying for the privilege, enjoying the services and accommodations of the Yacht Club on the Seascape. I can not talk about what I do not know on the other Yacht Clubs around the world.

#1 - Interlopers, those passengers that sneak in from outside the Yacht Club

#2 - Friends and family in cabins outside the YC that are allowed in by friends and family inside the YC

#3 - Friends and family of officers (which can exceed numbers beyond #1 and #2 combined on a cruise) Also called  "ACCESS"

Edited March 2, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[morpheusofthesea]

Dear Host/Monitor, Can I change the title of this post to THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE YACHT CLUB ON SEASCAPE?

 I do not want to be called an 'ultracrepidarian'.

https://psychology-spot.com/dunning-kruger-effect/

[hamrag]

3 hours ago, hamrag said:

....methinks the greater 'problem' on this thread is mots stirring the pot. As a reminder, the opening sentences from OP states as follows:

This is a problem. The staff in the Yacht Club are overwhelmed with all the NON Yacht Club class guests that are given "access" to the YC. Heard some of these "access" get up as early as 4 am and reserve for themselves the available cabanas...

 

 

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

I’m thinking the exact same thing..he’s sitting somewhere proud of his work. I sincerely hope I’m wrong and this was a one off issue in the YC. 

 

57 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

They are 'masterpieces'.

 

After 3 pages of discussion, the OP now announces the diatribe, as opposed to masterpiece, is not even only about US based MSC Yacht Clubs (as Styles appeared to suggest) but relates to one specific ship!! 🙄 

 

Wouldn't someone calling their work 'masterpieces' be expected to get the basics spot on, and make that clear in the thread title?? 

[morpheusofthesea]

This thread seems to be 'touching someone's nerve". Did I spell "Champagne" wrong again?

 

[morpheusofthesea]

15 minutes ago, hamrag said:

Wouldn't someone calling their work 'masterpieces' be expected to get the basics spot on, and make that clear in the thread title?? 

Are you applying for the job of proof-reading my masterpieces before I post them ?