Seascape July 16-23 YC Review

[Aixia]

We just got off the beautiful MSC Seascape. Some background on us. We’re a mid-40’s Midwestern couple with no kids who has cruised on NCL (Sky, Pearl, Breakaway, Getaway, Escape), Royal (Allure), and MSC (Divina, Seashore). We both work in the entertainment industry. We were on Seashore last July in an aft balcony Aurea suite and absolutely adored it. Loved the ship, loved the cabin, and Ocean Cay is our favorite private island now. Sure, with MSC the product can be a little quirky, but we don’t mind rolling with the punches and we’re not particularly fussy or needy. We like the international flavor of MSC.

 

In terms of comparing the various lines we’ve cruised with, we prefer the food on MSC, the spa on NCL, and the entertainment on Royal and NCL. MSC has the best private island. The ships themselves are all great. Overall service onboard is great with all three. I have multiple food allergies, and while all lines have accommodated me well, I prefer MSC’s handling of dietary things and we both prefer their menu options over the others. We prefer larger ships with all the bells and whistles, so these three lines in particular work well for us. We also like new ships; we’ve been on five ships within their first year of sailing.

 

In looking for a summer vacation, we had one available week that worked with our schedules. I compared NCL, Royal, and MSC for the same week for a Caribbean cruise that left from a port we could drive to. (Didn’t want to fly, much cheaper to drive, and I had enough hotel points to cover all our stays on a multiple-day drive.) I did look at some other lines as well, but wasn’t impressed with the offerings. We weren’t picky on itinerary. For roughly the same price, we could get a spa balcony on NCL Escape, an oceanview balcony or junior suite on Royal’s Harmony of the Seas, or a Yacht Club Grand Suite on MSC Seascape. It was an easy decision. We were excited to try Yacht Club for the first time, having sailed Fantastica and Aurea before. We chose the Grand suite over the Deluxe because it was only a $40 difference total, so we figured we may as well get the extra closet space for the negligibly higher price.

 

We did get the upgrade offer emails, but skipped trying for an upgrade. The prices they were asking were astronomical, and we could have had a whole additional cruise in YC for the upgrade cost alone. No thanks. The only real benefit to the Royal and Owners Suites over what we already had would have been extra space in the cabin and a reserved cabana on the sun deck, and we didn’t think that was worth the price. Besides, doing dummy bookings showed YC as sold out anyway. We decided to skip the upgrade attempt, and use my superpower of waking up obscenely early for no reason to snag a cabana instead.

 

Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived, dropped off bags, got whisked past the crowds waiting to get in, and were zipped through security. A bit of a line at the actual check in room, but they brought in more agents right as we got there so it didn’t take terribly long. Got checked in and on the ship and our room was ready, so we dropped off our carry on bags and headed to the pool deck for lunch at the grill. Very tasty, and we couldn't believe how fast it all was. Disembarkation was equally quick. We met up at 7:30 in the lounge, hung out there for about 15 minutes, and were escorted right off. Even security wasn't that bad, and we found our suitcases quickly and got through the facial recognition speedily. We were in our car and driving away by 8! YC may be worth it solely for embarkation and disembarkation. 

 

The cabin is lovely! We were in 19011. Nice sized, and the walk-in closet meant our suitcases could be out of sight and out of traffic patterns. Plenty of space for hanging stuff, and lots of storage space outside the closet too. These rooms not only have the walk-in closet, but two regular closets within the room. No shortage of storage here! Nice sized bathroom. Larger balcony than the average balcony cabin, though not nearly the size of our fabulous aft wraparound balcony from Seashore last year. The curtains in front of the balcony are better than any other cabin on any other ship though. Talk about a total blackout!

 

One of my biggest complaints about the ship is that only half the doors are touchless. With about half of them, just wave your hand at the sensor to open, or they’re automatic. With the rest, you actually need to open them manuallly. As a germophobe, especially when on a ship, I don’t want to touch ANYTHING anyone else has touched, especially doorknobs. NCL does mostly touchless doors, and this ship should be the same.

 

I’ve noticed on more than a few reviews that many folks talk about how the butlers are ever-present and some don’t even let you walk to your cabin with a drink in your hand and want to carry it for you. Admittedly, I was pretty weirded out by that and it was a potential negative for us even doing YC. We’re just not those kind of people. We’re very self-sufficient and don’t need all that fawning. I’m happy to say that the butler team adjusts very quickly to the level of “neediness” from the guests. We were perfectly happy taking the stairs, wandering around without an escort, carrying things to our cabin, etc. and the butlers let us. But the instant we did need that escort or elevator override, reserved theatre seats, or extra care, the butlers were right there to give us a hand. If you’re like us and have the same fears, don’t sweat it. Our butler team of Arun and Abhishek were amazing!

 

As far as the entertainment goes, being in the industry- well, we both had a lot of notes. The tech team in the main theatre did the performers a great disservice a few times, leaving folks in the dark by sometimes being in the wrong cue and by having lights not working properly. The lighting design for a few shows was simply terrible. The sound was not balanced correctly in many instances. The choreography for the West Side Story bit of the movie show was not the original choreography when it should have been. Dreamscape and Imaginocean were particularly good shows in the main theatre. The cast of all of the main theatre shows were wonderful. The Dueling Pianos musicians were lovely musicians, but clearly didn't have the cultural reference for many of the songs they played. They ended up singing the harmony as the melody for a very popular 80's song, and we suspect it was simply because the singer simply wasn't familiar enough with the song to know the difference. (Neither singer was American.) We greatly enjoyed the performers in the Cabaret Rouge, and ended up there pretty much every night. We wished their sets were a little more varied, especially the band, but the acts they did were solid.

 

Now, as it happened, the first sea day, I did indeed go up to the pool deck early enough to get a cabana, but the folks who already had cabanas seemed to be fighting the wind pretty badly. It didn't seem like they were having much fun dealing with it. I got a lounger up by the very front of the ship near the hot tub with spectacular views of the ocean and was completely alone for hours. (Minus servers bringing me drinks of course!) Since there’s a wind break there, it wasn’t nearly as windy as everywhere else, and simply lovely. Highly recommend! We skipped even trying for cabanas after that and stuck with our awesome forward spot. I saw the review that mentioned people eating their Seafood Extravaganza lunch from their loungers as if that was a bad thing. Ha! That was us, and it was completely by choice. I didn't want to give up my view! 😄

 

My only real complaint about the YC food is that there isn’t a dedicated gluten-free galley in YC, so I can’t get the awesome pasta and fried calamari I had back in Aurea. Still, the dining room team took very good care of me and made sure I could eat something tasty at every meal. I didn’t have a bad meal the whole time. Not having pasta just meant I ate more risotto instead. No big loss!

 

So many folks say that once you go Yacht Club, you can never go back. Our experience in the Aurea suites was plenty great though, so I’d say that while yes, YC is a terrific product and the attention from the staff is top notch, the Aurea suites are also terrific and well worth doing, even after YC. We're definitely planning to sail MSC again, and when we do, we'll look at both Aurea and YC suites and be perfectly happy either way.

[Bgwest]

Thank you. Our next MSC sailing is on the Seascape. We've never sailed the Seascape yet so looking forward to it and trying to soak up everything we can. 

[morpheusofthesea]

3 hours ago, Aixia said:

The tech team in the main theatre did the performers a great disservice a few times, leaving folks in the dark by sometimes being in the wrong cue and by having lights not working properly. The lighting design for a few shows was simply terrible.

We are not experts like the two of you , but we did take issue and this 10 second video of the pulsing red light  which might trigger an epileptic seizure in some people. We usually get to the Chora Theatre early using our butler to get us in past the guards and closed fire doors to sit in the reserved YC section on the end of a certain row in case we need to make a quick exit. I went to the technician and she suggested I just move to another seat. I escalated the matter to the production manager saying I have seen this same show many times in these same seats and never has there been this pulsing red light been happening before the shows start. The manager was kind enough to have it stopped.

[morpheusofthesea]

3 hours ago, Aixia said:

We greatly enjoyed the performers in the Cabaret Rouge, and ended up there pretty much every night.

You must be the other two of us in Le Cabaret Rouge. This was not the first or second evening and was not even the first act. We left after his third piece. It was the third time we saw the same act. We are returning, hopefully on August 6, 2023 and I will be sure to video clips and try to post them while on board of these acts. Found that uploading has to wait til we get home as the streaming is not all that great on the Seascape. 

[Aixia]

I noticed some strobes on a few shows/venues and without a warning at the entrance of the theatre, that's a recipe for disaster. It's customary to place warnings for various things in live shows and strobes is one of those things that can be incredibly dangerous to folks if they don't know it's coming and can't get away. It's just plain irresponsible not to have warnings. This particular light was one of the ones we noticed was having issues throughout the week- it's highly unlikely that it's supposed to be pointed that direction in the first place, let alone spinning that gobo (pattern) in that color. Technically it's not a strobe effect, but when looking at it from the direction you did, yep, that's gonna have a strobe effect to a viewer. Bad lighting design if it's working as designed, and a broken fixture if it's not as designed. There were a couple times that that particular light was just spinning in place. They aren't supposed to do that. 

 

Your video didn't catch us I'm afraid, we usually got there around 10 PM or so and stayed until the end of the last set. We clearly crossed paths a few times though I'm sure!

 

[Two Wheels Only]

Thank you for the info on 19011 as far as the walk-in closet. I'm making a list of which Deluxe Grand Suites have a walk-in closet and which ones don't. Most of them do and nearly all on deck 19 do but some do not. 

[jules815]

Thank you for your review. We'll be sailing on Seascape for the first time in September and can't wait.