Live from the Meraviglia 2/18

[kh6275]

YC pool buffet

[kh6275]

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Hope you are enjoying YC. Do you know who the Maitre'd and Sommelier are presently? thanks. We are onboard in May (we know crew can change but still interested)

[kh6275]

[JAGR]

4 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Hope you are enjoying YC. Do you know who the Maitre'd and Sommelier are presently? thanks. We are onboard in May (we know crew can change but still interested)

I believe the famous Arthur Javier is Maitre'd. He came on board a few weeks ago.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

1 hour ago, JAGR said:

I believe the famous Arthur Javier is Maitre'd. He came on board a few weeks ago.

Thanks. If he is from Mexico City then I know who it is. Great.

[JAGR]

20 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Thanks. If he is from Mexico City then I know who it is. Great.

No.  Arthur Javier is Filipino.

[penutbutterjelly]

Question, was there a 70's party at all/Disco party?

[jcpc]

On 2/24/2024 at 10:31 AM, JAGR said:

I believe the famous Arthur Javier is Maitre'd. He came on board a few weeks ago.

Yes, Arthur is Maitre'd in Meraviglia YC Restaurant and he is wonderful.  I believe he said he was scheduled to go home in September but wanted to extend his contract through October so that he would be able to be home for Christmas.  He takes very good care of all YC patrons and I'm very happy that I had the pleasure of meeting him.

[Stelkp]

On 2/21/2024 at 6:14 PM, kh6275 said:

Onil and he’s excellent. We are having a great time.  My son now prefers YC and my daughter and I still prefer the Haven. If the Royal Suite had a second bedroom and bathroom it would be a closer call but in my opinion the food is significantly better in the Haven. 

We were on the same cruise in YC. Just got home. We had a large group of friends all haven experienced. Some prefer haven and others liked YC more. I prefer haven for the service. My butler was almost non existent but when we saw him he was nice. The Haven seems more refined, higher class service, staff gets to know you, the concerige in haven pulls strings to get you into restaurants or activities whereas YC has now power outside of having the YC lounge and restaurant.
even tho my wallet prefers the YC, I prefer the haven. lol  

[kh6275]

8 minutes ago, Stelkp said:

We were on the same cruise in YC. Just got home. We had a large group of friends all haven experienced. Some prefer haven and others liked YC more. I prefer haven for the service. My butler was almost non existent but when we saw him he was nice. The Haven seems more refined, higher class service, staff gets to know you, the concerige in haven pulls strings to get you into restaurants or activities whereas YC has now power outside of having the YC lounge and restaurant.
even tho my wallet prefers the YC, I prefer the haven. lol  

You hit the nail on the head!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

6 hours ago, JAGR said:

No.  Arthur Javier is Filipino.

Then we have not met him. Thanks.

[susanrobert]

Hi,

Thank you for the informative review!

 

Do you know the name of the Yacht Club Director? TIA

[jotjot]

Great review, thing about going on ship.

[Lupush]

Thank You for your review.  How was Butcher's Cut?  We will be on Seascape in a few weeks and wondering if it's worth trying the specialty restaurants or just eating in YC Restaurant.

[lsroc]

Thanks for posting the daily schedules/entertainment. They were helpful and exciting to read as I will be going on this ship on April 7th.

Great reviews and thanks so much for doing this 😃

[cruisebeachgirl703]

On 2/25/2024 at 9:19 AM, JAGR said:

No.  Arthur Javier is Filipino.

How was your cruise? Can you list some personnel, maitre'd, sommelier, yc director, concierges. Thanks

[JAGR]

1 hour ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

How was your cruise? Can you list some personnel, maitre'd, sommelier, yc director, concierges. Thanks

Cruise was okay. Couldn't do Ocean Cay due to winds, and it was a bit bumpy the first and last nights on the Atlantic seaboard crew was excellent in the YC! Maitre'd is the famous Arthur Javier (who is just starting a six-month assignment. He has a great hostess and two supervisors, which allows him to mingle and check on guests. No sommelier assigned, but Arthur knows his wines. Hugh Grant was YC director. Honestly, he is Scottish like Robbie Sheriff, but that is the only similarity. Unlike Robbie who is constantly visible and talking with guests, Hugh was only seen passing through the area, never talking with guests that I could see. Not a problem for me, just an observation, as the entire YC group works well as a team.  Head concierge is Vishnu, and he has a very good staff of three assistants.  Restaurant staff was great! I've never seen so many gold tie waiters (senior staff) before, and each appeared to only have one assistant and fewer tables than normal, where they have two assistants and more tables. Top Sail bartenders we obviously new and struggled to keep up on orders, but there were always a few butlers on hand to assist. The Lounge Butler is Caroline, and she is very good. I wasn't surprised at all when she said that she was trained by the incomparable Arnold Casto Jr.! One deck bartenders and servers are excellent, but I would note that here you begin to see their effectiveness limited by either poor planning or major cost-cutting by those who run supply chain.  Examples: They ran out of cranberry juice on day two (picked more up in Port Canaveral), had no Clamato juice, no Fever Tree tonic, and no Bombay Sapphire Gin and no Bailey's Irish Cream! Even though they have quite a few recipes with Bailey's, they are substituting Ryan's (which is cheaper for a reason!). They aren't deal breakers, but the lack of those drinks one likes is a disappointment at least.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

9 hours ago, JAGR said:

Cruise was okay. Couldn't do Ocean Cay due to winds, and it was a bit bumpy the first and last nights on the Atlantic seaboard crew was excellent in the YC! Maitre'd is the famous Arthur Javier (who is just starting a six-month assignment. He has a great hostess and two supervisors, which allows him to mingle and check on guests. No sommelier assigned, but Arthur knows his wines. Hugh Grant was YC director. Honestly, he is Scottish like Robbie Sheriff, but that is the only similarity. Unlike Robbie who is constantly visible and talking with guests, Hugh was only seen passing through the area, never talking with guests that I could see. Not a problem for me, just an observation, as the entire YC group works well as a team.  Head concierge is Vishnu, and he has a very good staff of three assistants.  Restaurant staff was great! I've never seen so many gold tie waiters (senior staff) before, and each appeared to only have one assistant and fewer tables than normal, where they have two assistants and more tables. Top Sail bartenders we obviously new and struggled to keep up on orders, but there were always a few butlers on hand to assist. The Lounge Butler is Caroline, and she is very good. I wasn't surprised at all when she said that she was trained by the incomparable Arnold Casto Jr.! One deck bartenders and servers are excellent, but I would note that here you begin to see their effectiveness limited by either poor planning or major cost-cutting by those who run supply chain.  Examples: They ran out of cranberry juice on day two (picked more up in Port Canaveral), had no Clamato juice, no Fever Tree tonic, and no Bombay Sapphire Gin and no Bailey's Irish Cream! Even though they have quite a few recipes with Bailey's, they are substituting Ryan's (which is cheaper for a reason!). They aren't deal breakers, but the lack of those drinks one likes is a disappointment at least.

That is great information. Thank you very much. We had Rudolph last July as sommelier and adored him. Looking forward to meeting Arthur. Were you able to switch to the suite you wanted? And your butler?

[JAGR]

16 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

That is great information. Thank you very much. We had Rudolph last July as sommelier and adored him. Looking forward to meeting Arthur. Were you able to switch to the suite you wanted? And your butler?

Unfortunately, yes and no!. Rooms on his floor and area were available. but they wanted $2300 to change to a balcony from an interior, and I wasn't willing to pay that much. Last year on Meravilgia, it cost $498 to upgrade total for two of us, and about the same seven months before that on Seashore. Since I was just traveling as a solo, I wasn't willing to pay that. My preferred butler still took care of me when out and about in the public areas, and my assigned butler was his friend and he took great care of me as my primary butler. All in all, it worked out great, and they were out able to help me with getting a ceremony together to put some of my wife's ashes to rest at sea.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

4 hours ago, JAGR said:

Unfortunately, yes and no!. Rooms on his floor and area were available. but they wanted $2300 to change to a balcony from an interior, and I wasn't willing to pay that much. Last year on Meravilgia, it cost $498 to upgrade total for two of us, and about the same seven months before that on Seashore. Since I was just traveling as a solo, I wasn't willing to pay that. My preferred butler still took care of me when out and about in the public areas, and my assigned butler was his friend and he took great care of me as my primary butler. All in all, it worked out great, and they were out able to help me with getting a ceremony together to put some of my wife's ashes to rest at sea.

Sorry for your loss. and finding the time to share your cruise with cruise critic. That is a very kind gesture they helped you with at sea. (I hope you don't find if I think of other questions later. )

[dexddd]

OP, were you port or starboard? We were port and jacuzzi had one jet that liked to blow water way onto deck.  I agree it would be nice if they had some rooms with second bath.

[dexddd]

Great that Arthur is on now.  We had the same Director.  Saw him once pass between desk and office over 11 days.

 

The young Vishnu also very good.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

9 hours ago, dexddd said:

Great that Arthur is on now.  We had the same Director.  Saw him once pass between desk and office over 11 days.

 

The young Vishnu also very good.

We are sailing end of April. You and JAGR speak highly of Arthur. Looking forward to meeting him.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:05 AM, JAGR said:

Cruise was okay. Couldn't do Ocean Cay due to winds, and it was a bit bumpy the first and last nights on the Atlantic seaboard crew was excellent in the YC! Maitre'd is the famous Arthur Javier (who is just starting a six-month assignment. He has a great hostess and two supervisors, which allows him to mingle and check on guests. No sommelier assigned, but Arthur knows his wines. Hugh Grant was YC director. Honestly, he is Scottish like Robbie Sheriff, but that is the only similarity. Unlike Robbie who is constantly visible and talking with guests, Hugh was only seen passing through the area, never talking with guests that I could see. Not a problem for me, just an observation, as the entire YC group works well as a team.  Head concierge is Vishnu, and he has a very good staff of three assistants.  Restaurant staff was great! I've never seen so many gold tie waiters (senior staff) before, and each appeared to only have one assistant and fewer tables than normal, where they have two assistants and more tables. Top Sail bartenders we obviously new and struggled to keep up on orders, but there were always a few butlers on hand to assist. The Lounge Butler is Caroline, and she is very good. I wasn't surprised at all when she said that she was trained by the incomparable Arnold Casto Jr.! One deck bartenders and servers are excellent, but I would note that here you begin to see their effectiveness limited by either poor planning or major cost-cutting by those who run supply chain.  Examples: They ran out of cranberry juice on day two (picked more up in Port Canaveral), had no Clamato juice, no Fever Tree tonic, and no Bombay Sapphire Gin and no Bailey's Irish Cream! Even though they have quite a few recipes with Bailey's, they are substituting Ryan's (which is cheaper for a reason!). They aren't deal breakers, but the lack of those drinks one likes is a disappointment at least.

If I counted correctly there are 117 YC suites on Meraviglia. Do you know how many each Butler/Junior Butler team are assigned? Do you know how often they rotate their sections? Looking forward to April. And meeting everyone you listed.