How does MSC compare to Celebrity?

[Markanddonna]

On 5/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Miaminice said:

The #1 reason for me not to cruise with MSC is what I read on crew websites and forums. Many many complaints how they treat their staff. I was told the same on Celebrity by a former MSC waiter. So no thanks!

I was on a 17-day B2B on MSC this Jan. It was the first time a staff member complained to us (a server in the buffet in the evening.)  The crew was so overworked because they oversold the ship. We also witnessed several incidents of supervisors chastising the crew in public. That crew worked hard and didn't deserve the treatment. 

[sptrout]

We have sailed on MSC twice out of Miami, both times in the YC on two different ships. We felt at the time that the YC was great and certainly on par with Celebrity at least when booking their SS1 level. But, that was the good old days when the YC pricing was competitive with Celebrity's SS cabins. Then MSC jump their YC pricing up over the top of even Celebrity Beyond's SS cabins by a considerable amount so we switch back to Celebrity for a 7 day Beyond cruise this past January. Bottom line price was much less than MSC's YC. 

 

This coming January we are once again booked on Beyond for an 11 night cruise that is less than a 7 day MSC/YC price; much less. The pricing is really a crap shoot never knowing who is trying to be competitive, but for now Celebrity is much less for similar cabins and experiences. However, we got a real good price on our upcoming 11 night Beyond cruise; surprising good fare. Never know in this crazy pricing war. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

16 minutes ago, sptrout said:

This coming January we are once again booked on Beyond for an 11 night cruise that is less than a 7 day MSC/YC price; much less. The pricing is really a crap shoot never knowing who is trying to be competitive, but for now Celebrity is much less for similar cabins and experiences. However, we got a real good price on our upcoming 11 night Beyond cruise; surprising good fare. Never know in this crazy pricing war. 

Have to agree that MSC YC prices are creeping up.  And frankly, that's to be expected if they are to continue exceptional service they are offering.  Cost of fuel alone would be cause for increased fares.  However, I have yet to find a situation where MSC was more for a YC stateroom than Celebrity for a similar Retreat suite.  Here's a quick snapshot of what I pulled this morning.  The 11 night Beyond cruise is significantly more than MSC for  the least expensive Retreat currently available (Aqua Sky Suite).  Though this cruise is 3 nights longer than the MSC example shown, they both offer the same amenities plus access to the thermal suite (included in all YC categories).  Additionally, I pulled a 7 night comparison for a more apples to apples look at YCD1 vs SS1.  Celebrity is more.  Not trying to prove you wrong, more so just trying to see for myself if MSC is still the better value (in my mind).  Bottom line, people need to research cruise fares over time and also factor in any refundable OBC they may acquire from a TA as this can reduce the over all "big picture" fare as well.

[sptrout]

16 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Have to agree that MSC YC prices are creeping up.  And frankly, that's to be expected if they are to continue exceptional service they are offering.  Cost of fuel alone would be cause for increased fares.  However, I have yet to find a situation where MSC was more for a YC stateroom than Celebrity for a similar Retreat suite.  Here's a quick snapshot of what I pulled this morning.  The 11 night Beyond cruise is significantly more than MSC for  the least expensive Retreat currently available (Aqua Sky Suite).  Though this cruise is 3 nights longer than the MSC example shown, they both offer the same amenities plus access to the thermal suite (included in all YC categories).  Additionally, I pulled a 7 night comparison for a more apples to apples look at YCD1 vs SS1.  Celebrity is more.  Not trying to prove you wrong, more so just trying to see for myself if MSC is still the better value (in my mind).  Bottom line, people need to research cruise fares over time and also factor in any refundable OBC they may acquire from a TA as this can reduce the over all "big picture" fare as well.

I booked the 11 night Beyond cruise months ago. I know looking at current 11 night Beyond pricing is about the same as a trip to the moon. It has jumped so high that we could not book this cruise and like you mentioned, the standard Sky Suites are gone and have been for awhile. The current best choice for booking the 11 night Beyond cruise today is way more than twice what we paid. The Aqua Sky Suite that you show (which the last time I checked was the only Sky Suite available) is price more than double than our SS1 cabin. 

 

The price that you show for a 7 night YC cruise is just a little less p/p than our Beyond 11 night SS1 cabin. Not to mention that we have considerable refundable OBC, which drive the comparison even farther down.

 

Our Beyond pricing is so good that I hope that Celebrity does not figure away to cancel us since they could sell the cabin now for much, much more.

 

Pricing is weird/out of control. I hope suite pricing comes back to earth soon. Otherwise our Celebrity SS cruising will be over, and maybe cruising in general cannot see going back to non-suite cabins. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 minute ago, sptrout said:

Our Beyond pricing is so good that I hope that Celebrity does not figure away to cancel us since they could sell the cabin now for much, much more.

Totally agree.  You raise a good point in looking at the per person/per day rate.  This is something I usually do as well.  Your comment made me laugh because like you, we were looking for 2024 cruises to Alaska a few months ago and someone posted about a flash sale on the Edge for next year.  When I looked I couldn't believe the price for a Sky suite!  We jumped on it right away...I too, wonder if they are going to tell me they've made a mistake...hope not! 😊

[NCteacherlovescruising]

55 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Have to agree that MSC YC prices are creeping up.  And frankly, that's to be expected if they are to continue exceptional service they are offering.  Cost of fuel alone would be cause for increased fares.  However, I have yet to find a situation where MSC was more for a YC stateroom than Celebrity for a similar Retreat suite.  Here's a quick snapshot of what I pulled this morning.  The 11 night Beyond cruise is significantly more than MSC for  the least expensive Retreat currently available (Aqua Sky Suite).  Though this cruise is 3 nights longer than the MSC example shown, they both offer the same amenities plus access to the thermal suite (included in all YC categories).  Additionally, I pulled a 7 night comparison for a more apples to apples look at YCD1 vs SS1.  Celebrity is more.  Not trying to prove you wrong, more so just trying to see for myself if MSC is still the better value (in my mind).  Bottom line, people need to research cruise fares over time and also factor in any refundable OBC they may acquire from a TA as this can reduce the over all "big picture" fare as well.

I wish we could travel at those times. Being a teacher we always have to go during peak season. What we paid for our sky suite for June 2024 is substantially higher. And on a much older ship. 

[LizzGo]

I haven’t read all the previous comments so I hope I’m not being redundant. We sailed YC  in the Mediterranean. The stateroom and service was spectacular. The food was mostly good, but not as good as Celebrity. I think the wine was better with MSC. But Celebrity did not lose us and we probably would not sail MSC again. 

 

First of all, even the we had access to the entire ship, we ventured out once and the hordes of people and out of control children was overwhelming. and it was after 10 pm. As a fellow YC guest said” They’re animals out there!”. So we stayed in our separate area and it was a little too quiet and confining.

 

The entertainment in the main theatre bordered on embarrassing. I’ve seen better in high school auditoriums. ( Pretending to tap dance in ballet slippers with out of sync tap dancing audio being played!)

 

We also had the distinct impression the staff was overworked, especially in the main section of the ship. One server from Brazil said as much. She had signed a ninth month contract and she was counting the days and would not be renewing.

 

YC was supposed to have an exclusive elevator, but when there’s fifty people pushing to get on it’s pretty hard for just two people to turn them away. Luckily we found a way to avoid the elevators all together when going to the private YC dining room. 
 

There were smoking areas everywhere, even inside. 

 

So on the bright side, as I said at the beginning, the cabin and service was the best we had experienced. It was also nice to have a completely uncrowded pool area to yourself. We hung out with a fun group of people about of about a dozen representing eight different nationalities and that made the experience memorable!  

 

 

[C4HCG]

5 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

We booked the yacht club for next month and a sky suite on the Equinox for June 2024.  They will be our first time cruising in a suite with benefits. How would you say the yacht club experience will compare to Celebrity outside of the retreat?  We absolutely loved Celebrity!!  Our first time we were in Concierge class and last time was Aqua. We typically book verandas and always have a wonderful time. Never felt the need to spend the extra money on suite access. However, we booked the retreat for next summer to celebrate our 30th anniversary and the yacht club pricing for this June was comparable to what we typically spend for a veranda on Celebrity, and I’d read on here not to sail MSC outside of the yacht club. You think sailing in a sky suite will be that much better than the deluxe suite?  I’m just excited to be cruising and especially our first suite experience. I’m a lounge by the pool in the sun gal so the thought of having the suite pool on MSC is a major plus!  
 

 

I felt Celebrity’s weakness was entertainment so I’m happy to hear MSC is better in this area. 
 

 

I’m hoping our yacht club experience will be nice. I need to try a slice of this pizza everyone is raving about!  
 

I’m happy to hear you loved your yacht club experiences!  I think we will too. I’m really not that hard to please. While Celebrity and Royal Caribbean have been our favorite cruises, we always had a blast on Carnival and was pleased with their food and service, and also enjoyed NCL. I think a cruise is what you make of it.  I agree with you on Celebrity’s suite pricing being insane!  However, they don’t seem to have any trouble selling out. 

You kind of contradict yourself, not insane if they sell out! Good business I would say for them.

[cruise47]

How does MSC compare with Celebrity outside MSC Yacht Club level ? 

Edited May 20, 2023 by cruise47

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 hour ago, C4HCG said:

You kind of contradict yourself, not insane if they sell out! Good business I would say for them.

It still makes me sick knowing how much we paid for our suite. And we haven’t canceled the NCL cruise yet for the same summer. Both Mediterranean. In the back of my mind I wonder if at some point, before final payment, we’ll change our mind and go with the NCL cruise which is 6k less!  That would give us a lot of extra money to explore Italy pre or post cruise. At this time we’re still planning on sticking with Celebrity. 

[fstuff1]

On 5/14/2023 at 10:53 AM, NCteacherlovescruising said:

 Behavior issues, most parents are completely blind to how their child behaves when they aren’t around. And the clothes they send them to school in now, my dad wouldn’t have let me walk out of the house in!  I sometimes wonder if the parents think they wear something over those sports bras while they are in school. Most have an OPEN zip up hoodie on with them. Can’t dress code anymore or the parents throw a fit so we were told not to. 

I was born in the wrong era.

Would have loved seeing my female classmates wearing stripper clothes in junior high :p

 

[C4HCG]

22 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

It still makes me sick knowing how much we paid for our suite. And we haven’t canceled the NCL cruise yet for the same summer. Both Mediterranean. In the back of my mind I wonder if at some point, before final payment, we’ll change our mind and go with the NCL cruise which is 6k less!  That would give us a lot of extra money to explore Italy pre or post cruise. At this time we’re still planning on sticking with Celebrity. 

6k a lot of money, only you can judge if it’s worth it.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

6 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

6k a lot of money, only you can judge if it’s worth it.

It is!  But it’s not an apples to apples comparison. We booked a sunset sky suite with Celebrity and a veranda with NCL. We only booked the suite because we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary and wanted to make it special. Both are 9 days. Celebrity is Barcelona to Rome and NCL is Athens to Venice. At the end we would do Italy (top of my bucket list) by land.  

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

It is!  But it’s not an apples to apples comparison. We booked a sunset sky suite with Celebrity and a veranda with NCL. We only booked the suite because we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary and wanted to make it special. Both are 9 days. Celebrity is Barcelona to Rome and NCL is Athens to Venice. At the end we would do Italy (top of my bucket list) by land.  

If you are in the Med , you are usually off the ship and don’t have much time to enjoy the retreat  facilities.

Doing a transatlantic or Transpacific is were you would really enjoy the retreat 😉

[NCteacherlovescruising]

14 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

If you are in the Med , you are usually off the ship and don’t have much time to enjoy the retreat  facilities.

Doing a transatlantic or Transpacific is were you would really enjoy the retreat 😉

Right. We only have two sea days. We booked the NCL cruise with friends and backed out and switched to Celebrity because of the itinerary being in Italy. However, with the price difference we could add a nice land vacation in Italy after our cruise. Still thinking on it. 

[Oceansaway17]

On 5/20/2023 at 1:31 PM, cruise47 said:

How does MSC compare with Celebrity outside MSC Yacht Club level ? 

Well MSC ships are pretty inside and they have a private island that Celebrity does not have. Most folks will say Celebrity food is better.

I say try both then you will know

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

If you are in the Med , you are usually off the ship and don’t have much time to enjoy the retreat  facilities.

Doing a transatlantic or Transpacific is were you would really enjoy the retreat 😉

Upon further investigation, the difference isn’t as much as I thought. I think it’s more like $4500, but we have $1350 in OBC with Celebrity. I don’t think that’s enough to jump ship and give up the retreat. We also got a corner aft suite on Celebrity. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

18 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

Well MSC ships are pretty inside and they have a private island that Celebrity does not have. Most folks will say Celebrity food is better.

I say try both then you will know

We decided to. We have two days at the private island. I’m perfectly happy on a beach so I’m sure I will like it.  I would hope the yacht club food would be as good as the MDR with Celebrity. I’m not into all the fancy stuff. We will have filet or chicken on the menu as an option every night. That is perfect for me. 

[emmas gran]

On 5/20/2023 at 6:31 PM, cruise47 said:

How does MSC compare with Celebrity outside MSC Yacht Club level ? 

I have just completed my 6th YC cruise a week to Norway (the longest was 28 days and this 7 days the shortest)  I would not sail outside YC. Someone above called people animals that's about the way you feel sometimes depending on where the cruise is going it is worse in the Caribbean

[NCteacherlovescruising]

We absolutely loved the yacht club and booked another while onboard!  I don’t know why so many said the food was better on Celebrity. I quite enjoyed the food on MSC, but I’m not a foodie. Four of the 7 nights I had the filet, which was very tender and good. My husband is a more adventurous eater and he liked everything except their lasagna. The lobster was the largest we’ve ever been served on a cruise. 
 

We mostly stayed in the yacht club. We went to the theater most nights, and it was nice being escorted by a butler to our seats. They reserve seats for yacht clubs guests every night, not just on their gala night. I found their two biggest shows better than what we’ve seen on X. We also left our area to get gelato, shopping and I got my hair done 3 times. Beyond that, I felt no reason to leave the YC. We had access to the thermal spa but never used it. We made some friends on the ship and enjoyed chilling with them in the lounge. The pool deck was amazing!!  The pool was never crowded, there were plenty of loungers and service was excellent. We didn’t even have to leave for lunch because the YC grill was right there. Their private island, Ocean Cay was beautiful!  It made for two free port days too, because everything was included, including the YC restaurant and beach service. 
 

I mentioned we booked another YC cruise while onboard. That makes 3 Mediterranean cruises booked for next summer. We plan to cancel the Barcelona to Rome with Celebrity (sunset sky suite) and keep the other two. The first is NCL Athens to Rome with friends. We just have a standard balcony cabin, but it’s also 9 ports in 9 days!  It has an awesome itinerary!  Then round trip Naples in the yacht club. We’re getting both for about $2,500 more than just the X cruise!  We will have 5 days between cruises to explore by land. We will be in Europe most of next July. 
 

I almost forgot to mention their elevators. So awesome!  We just summoned an elevator with our wrist band and it took us directly to our floor, without stopping to let others on. A sweet yacht club perk. Someone else mentioned others getting in the elevator with them. It wouldn’t do them any good because there are no buttons inside the elevator so it would have taken them to our floor. As for announcements in multiple languages, while it wouldn’t have bothered us, we only heard them in English. Perhaps it depends on where you are. We sailed out of Port Canaveral with mostly Americans. We realize next summer in Europe it will be very different. 

[Stem to Stern]

Hi Tami,

Thank you for coming back to summarize your recent experiences in the Yacht Club.  We are looking forward to giving this a try later this year.  It sounds like you will have quite a busy July next year.  I definitely took note of NCL's 2024 port-intensive itineraries in the Med.  I do not have much interest in having a lot of sea days on a cruise around the Med.  

[retired dude]

On 5/14/2023 at 10:53 AM, NCteacherlovescruising said:

 

🤣

As a current educator I completely agree!  A child’s failing, many blame the teacher. Behavior issues, most parents are completely blind to how their child behaves when they aren’t around. And the clothes they send them to school in now, my dad wouldn’t have let me walk out of the house in!  I sometimes wonder if the parents think they wear something over those sports bras while they are in school. Most have an OPEN zip up hoodie on with them. Can’t dress code anymore or the parents throw a fit so we were told not to. 

blame the "entitled" parents for letting the little b------  do as they please, dress as they please and make life miserable for those of us that try to avoid all cruises that cater to families with kids.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 hour ago, Stem to Stern said:

Hi Tami,

Thank you for coming back to summarize your recent experiences in the Yacht Club.  We are looking forward to giving this a try later this year.  It sounds like you will have quite a busy July next year.  I definitely took note of NCL's 2024 port-intensive itineraries in the Med.  I do not have much interest in having a lot of sea days on a cruise around the Med.  

You’re welcome!  It’s amazing!!  I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t love it. Everyone we talked to onboard did, even those that typically sail in the haven, retreat or with Royal. And yes, NCL offers some amazing itineraries in the Mediterranean. We will only have 1 sea day between the two cruises!  

Edited July 4, 2023 by NCteacherlovescruising

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 minute ago, retired dude said:

blame the "entitled" parents for letting the little b------  do as they please, dress as they please and make life miserable for those of us that try to avoid all cruises that cater to families with kids.

We didn’t notice any ill behaved children on our cruise. It may have been different outside the yacht club. 

[KKB]

On 5/20/2023 at 7:58 AM, Markanddonna said:

I was on a 17-day B2B on MSC this Jan. It was the first time a staff member complained to us (a server in the buffet in the evening.)  The crew was so overworked because they oversold the ship. We also witnessed several incidents of supervisors chastising the crew in public. That crew worked hard and didn't deserve the treatment. 

Sadly I saw this on the Divina in Feb. 

I have NEVER seen this on any of our other 30 cruises on other lines--it was VERY uncomfortable.