Today is the day!!! 😁 Sailing on the Seaside

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you for your reports. All the best.

[perakcruiser]

On 6/27/2023 at 10:01 AM, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Instead, we are booking a round trip Naples-Naples on the Europa. 

And Naples is by far the best place to start and end a cruise in the (Western) Med. Completely umatched. Yes, I know, many will shout out "Barcelona" now, I don´t care 😄 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

9 hours ago, sbcs5390 said:

 

So glad you booked @NCteacherlovescruising

- it can be tiring and time consuming doing the bookings onboard but it is worth it. I do wish they had open bookings like X/RCL. I lost a day of vacation (between coordinating with others back home) and a set of AirPods while making four bookings during my April MSC cruise! I had a feeling you might cancel your X cruise when you started posting a few months ago. So happy for you!

 

 

 

 It didn’t take us long at all.  I printed out the cruise we wanted before leaving home and handed it to her in the YC yesterday before dinner. 
 

4 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Sounds like perfect use of OBC... I'm sure my wife will similarly solve the problem of how to spend all of our OBC 🙂

I thought so too!  

[miched]

9 hours ago, sbcs5390 said:

Can’t change it like that. Because you have $100pp deposit (I guess booked onboard?) the $100pp change fee is a wash: https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/CEL_2_23_23_FLY_Non-Refundable_FAQs_Trade.pdf

 

When I fell in love with MSC, I canceled several on X. We are keeping the Edge to Hawaii so I can roll FCCs from canceled NRDs onto that one as additional payment. 
 

So glad you booked @NCteacherlovescruising

- it can be tiring and time consuming doing the bookings onboard but it is worth it. I do wish they had open bookings like X/RCL. I lost a day of vacation (between coordinating with others back home) and a set of AirPods while making four bookings during my April MSC cruise! I had a feeling you might cancel your X cruise when you started posting a few months ago. So happy for you!

 

 

 

I think Celebrity has changed to that policy because so many are cancelling their cruises to book with others lines that have more appeal to them.     
 

For many of us losing $200 isn’t much compared to what the cruise would have cost and thinking about what we could have had for the same cost or less.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[sverigecruiser]

16 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

And Naples is by far the best place to start and end a cruise in the (Western) Med. Completely umatched. Yes, I know, many will shout out "Barcelona" now, I don´t care 😄 

 

I defenitely prefer Barcelona.

 

One bad thing with embarking in Naples is that MSC gets there in the afternoon, at least now and also when we went there a few years ago. I should hate to embark that late!

[P2l]

42 minutes ago, sverigecruiser said:

One bad thing with embarking in Naples is that MSC gets there in the afternoon, at least now and also when we went there a few years ago. I should hate to embark that late!

I hadn't considered that. We booked Barcelona because there are lots of relatively inexpensive flights to get there from the UK.

[sbcs5390]

On 6/28/2023 at 10:47 AM, miched said:

I think Celebrity has changed to that policy because so many are cancelling their cruises to book with others lines that have more appeal to them.     
 

For many of us losing $200 isn’t much compared to what the cruise would have cost and thinking about what we could have had for the same cost or less. 

For sure the onboard deposits were a great deal.  Unfortunately they also recently changed deposits for the Retreat to be 10% so lots of people have thousands tied up with X!

[NCteacherlovescruising]

Day 4 was our first sea day. I loved how quiet the pool area was and most loungers were open. However, all the shade loungers by the pool were used by the time we left. My husband opted for one of those and I was in the sun. Even the kids that were in the pool were very well behaved. We had pizza delivered to our room at noon. I didn’t see why people rave over it. It was ok, nothing special. 
 

I went to the salon for an updo, then got dh to take some pictures. We haven’t had a chance to see them yet. We both had lobster tail and filet for dinner. The lobster wasn’t very warm so I didn’t like it, however he was more than happy to eat them both. Lol He did say his was better than mine. We went to Moondance in the theater, which is a Michael Buble tribute. It was my favorite so far, but I understand the two best are yet to come. I planned on going to the silent disco, but we ended up talking to another couple at Top Sail Lounge over cocktails and stayed there until we were ready for bed. Speaking of which, this has been the friendliest group of passengers!  I’m thinking because you see the same people all the time since we’re all in the same area of the ship so much. Everyone we’ve spoken to agree that the service on this ship on top notch!  My husband has been completely converted and neither of us ever wants to sail any other way again, unless it’s due to itinerary (like our upcoming NCL cruise). 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

14 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

I defenitely prefer Barcelona.

 

One bad thing with embarking in Naples is that MSC gets there in the afternoon, at least now and also when we went there a few years ago. I should hate to embark that late!

I don’t mind because we will be staying in Rome prior to the cruise so we won’t be in a hurry to embark. 
 

2 hours ago, sbcs5390 said:

For sure the onboard deposits were a great deal.  Unfortunately they also recently changed deposits for the Retreat to be 10% so lots of people have thousands tied up with X!

Thank goodness ours was only $200!

[sverigecruiser]

9 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I don’t mind because we will be staying in Rome prior to the cruise so we won’t be in a hurry to embark. 

 

I always want to embark as soon as possible. The first hours on the ship are the best and I can't wait!

Edited June 30, 2023 by sverigecruiser

[Beachin2]

Glad to hear reports that everything is going well on board.  We have long time cruising friends aboard this week also (timing didn't work for us) and we talked them into trying MSC YC for the first time. Be interesting to hear their thoughts when they return.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

7 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

I always want to embark as soon as possible. The first hours on the ship are the best and I can't wait!

Me too, but we will be in Italy so this one is all about the ports!

 

50 minutes ago, Beachin2 said:

Glad to hear reports that everything is going well on board.  We have long time cruising friends aboard this week also (timing didn't work for us) and we talked them into trying MSC YC for the first time. Be interesting to hear their thoughts when they return.

Are they on the Seaside?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

Day 5. Desserts were fabulous and Peter Punk was amazing!  Still loving the yacht club!!

[sverigecruiser]

35 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Me too, but we will be in Italy so this one is all about the ports!

 

 

 

For me the ship is extra important when in Italy. I love their food but except for that I prefer to be on the ship and the italian food on MSC is rather good too!

[momofmab]

Have you noticed any issues with interlopers?

[Beachin2]

23 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Me too, but we will be in Italy so this one is all about the ports!

 

Are they on the Seaside?

Yes

[NCteacherlovescruising]

43 minutes ago, Beachin2 said:

Yes

What’s their names?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

3 hours ago, momofmab said:

Have you noticed any issues with interlopers?

No

[NCteacherlovescruising]

Day 6:  The taxi line in Cozumel was crazy long!  We’ve never had to wait like this there. We went to Nachi Cocom. Our favorite place when we are in this port. Our beach massages were wonderful!  
 

It was White Night. Most people in the yacht club wore white last night so I was happy we bought something to wear. They had a white party for us on the yacht club pool deck from 9-10:30. There was a guy singing, lots of snacks and several servers and the YC director. Turn out was pretty good but nobody was dancing. 

[Beachin2]

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

What’s their names?

Only if you tell me that there isn't an older couple misbehaving!

[NCteacherlovescruising]

2 minutes ago, Beachin2 said:

Only if you tell me that there isn't an older couple misbehaving!

Lol I haven’t seen anyone misbehaving!  

[Beachin2]

2 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Lol I haven’t seen anyone misbehaving!  

I'll take your word. Names are John & Laura.

[jules815]

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Day 6:  The taxi line in Cozumel was crazy long!  We’ve never had to wait like this there. We went to Nachi Cocom. Our favorite place when we are in this port. Our beach massages were wonderful!  
 

It was White Night. Most people in the yacht club wore white last night so I was happy we bought something to wear. They had a white party for us on the yacht club pool deck from 9-10:30. There was a guy singing, lots of snacks and several servers and the YC director. Turn out was pretty good but nobody was dancing. 

We love Nachi Cocom!  We always grab a taxi and head there whenever we're in Cozumel. For our upcoming cruise in September, we're doing something different and booked an excursion so we could tour a little bit of the town. Now I'm having second thoughts because we really do love Nachi.

 

In all of our YC cruises, I don't think we've ever gone up to the One Pool in the evening. Sounds like we'll have to start.  Is the bar open up there in the evenings, even if there's nothing going on?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

43 minutes ago, jules815 said:

We love Nachi Cocom!  We always grab a taxi and head there whenever we're in Cozumel. For our upcoming cruise in September, we're doing something different and booked an excursion so we could tour a little bit of the town. Now I'm having second thoughts because we really do love Nachi.

 

In all of our YC cruises, I don't think we've ever gone up to the One Pool in the evening. Sounds like we'll have to start.  Is the bar open up there in the evenings, even if there's nothing going on?

I don’t think it’s open at night. We usually head to Top Sail Lounge before and after dinner.  Arnold, our favorite server/butler, told us about the white party. It wasn’t well announced. We told the couples we had been hanging out with. Communication is an area they could improve. I do wish they would leave the pool and hot tub open up here later at night. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 hour ago, Beachin2 said:

I'll take your word. Names are John & Laura.

I don’t recall meeting a Laura and John. There are a few John’s in the YC though, including my husband. Speaking of dh, he’s currently eating the seafood pasta, which he says is very good. I’m not a huge seafood lover so from todays seafood buffet I had cod and salad. He also liked the seafood salad. 

Edited July 1, 2023 by NCteacherlovescruising