**LIVE** from the MSC Seascape: A Family's Experience in the Yacht Club – 7-Night Western Caribbean – March 23-30, 2024

[perakcruiser]

33 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

My kids said there were 59 kids in the Juniors Club on night 1.

Ouch, that is really too much. Way too much. But on the other hand not surprising in the week the US spring break collides with the European Easter Holiday. 

Well with kids there are no options, but I hope it will be not so much when we sail in the Med in two months during Pentecost Holiday. This at least is not followed in all European countries.

 

By the way I like your review a lot, especially your deep understanding of MSC reflected by this comment: 

 

13 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I had the tortellini stuffed with asparagus and Mascarpone cheese. I typically wouldn't pass up a steak for something like this but I've heard the Italian food on MSC is fantastic so I wanted to experience it for myself.

This is one of their signature dishes, I totally love it. 

[mnocket]

21 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

we showed up at 1:45pm for lunch as we were under the impression it was open for seating until 2pm but we learned there were people on a waiting list who have been waiting since 1:10pm and we were turned away.

Well this certainly seems to be an area where MSC could make improvements.  I'll venture to say that this happens often on embarkation days.  

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

I've decided I'm going to give first impression scores that I will update as I have further experiences since it's not fair or complete to give a score card on a single experience.

 

I will give a complete score at the completion of the cruise (or shortly thereafter).

 

I'm also doing the YC solo on the Seashore next week so if this goes well, I'll do a comparison on things on the Seashore next week as well.

 

Ciao!

[DisneyJen]

15 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I've decided I'm going to give first impression scores that I will update as I have further experiences since it's not fair or complete to give a score card on a single experience.

 

I will give a complete score at the completion of the cruise (or shortly thereafter).

 

I'm also doing the YC solo on the Seashore next week so if this goes well, I'll do a comparison on things on the Seashore next week as well.

 

Ciao!

 

That's great that you will be able to sail with your family and then solo.

 

It will certainly be interesting to read your comments about the two experiences.

 

Also will be interesting to hear about the B2B process in YC.

 

Enjoy!

[Essiesmom]

9 minutes ago, DisneyJen said:

 

That's great that you will be able to sail with your family and then solo.

 

It will certainly be interesting to read your comments about the two experiences.

 

Also will be interesting to hear about the B2B process in YC.

 

Enjoy!

I don’t believe it will be a B2B, as he is on Seascape from Miami this week, and Seashore from Port Canaveral next week.  EM

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Just now, Essiesmom said:

I don’t believe it will be a B2B, as he is on Seascape from Miami this week, and Seashore from Port Canaveral next week.  EM

Correct.

 

I have to be in Orlando the following week on business so I'm going out of Port Canaveral for the second week solo (trading it with the wife and she'll have a girl's trip later this year when I that the kids).

[DisneyJen]

5 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

I don’t believe it will be a B2B, as he is on Seascape from Miami this week, and Seashore from Port Canaveral next week.  EM

Thanks @EM!

I guess I missed that part 🤣

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

6 minutes ago, DisneyJen said:

Thanks @EM!

I guess I missed that part 🤣

Not a big deal, it's similar...I think they call this a side-to-side?

 

I'm going to spend a few afternoons/evenings in Disney while I'm in Orlando! We've been a few times, but looking forward to riding Tron for the first time!

[DisneyJen]

3 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Not a big deal, it's similar...I think they call this a side-to-side?

 

I'm going to spend a few afternoons/evenings in Disney while I'm in Orlando! We've been a few times, but looking forward to riding Tron for the first time!

 

Good job on maximizing your vacation and work schedules!

 

We haven't been to WDW post Covid. We've been Disney Vacation Club members since 1999. We bought at the BoardWalk when our daughter was your children's ages.

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

5 minutes ago, DisneyJen said:

 

Good job on maximizing your vacation and work schedules!

 

We haven't been to WDW post Covid. We've been Disney Vacation Club members since 1999. We bought at the BoardWalk when our daughter was your children's ages.

 

They grow up too fast!

 

That's a big reason we are so focused on travel, to make sure we capture these memories while they're still young!

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Spa/YC Concierge:

 

For those of you following along, the reason we arrived to the YC lunch yesterday at 1:45pm was because we had a few things to take care of, including booking a dinner and massage at the YC concierge that we paid for in advance.

 

We scheduled our couples massage for today at 9am and the person at the YC concierge desk said they would check to ensure the kids club was open when we had our massage scheduled and if it wasn't they would let us know.

 

Well this morning we learned the kids club did not open until 10am so the massage we had scheduled wasn't going to work.

 

We contacted the YC concierge about it this morning and unfortunately all that's available at this stage are port days (but we have excursions booked on every port day).

 

Again, not the end of the world, but this means we likely won't be able to get our couples massage as originally planned because everything is already booked during the sea days.

 

I feel like the YC Concierge desk should know the kids club hours for the week to prevent issues like this from happening, but we're not going to let it ruin our week.

 

I'm not going to score things at this stage as I'd like to see if the YC makes an effort to make things right before making a judgement.

[cruisebeachgirl703]

13 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Spa/YC Concierge:

 

For those of you following along, the reason we arrived to the YC lunch yesterday at 1:45pm was because we had a few things to take care of, including booking a dinner and massage at the YC concierge that we paid for in advance.

 

We scheduled our couples massage for today at 9am and the person at the YC concierge desk said they would check to ensure the kids club was open when we had our massage scheduled and if it wasn't they would let us know.

 

Well this morning we learned the kids club did not open until 10am so the massage we had scheduled wasn't going to work.

 

We contacted the YC concierge about it this morning and unfortunately all that's available at this stage are port days (but we have excursions booked on every port day).

 

Again, not the end of the world, but this means we likely won't be able to get our couples massage as originally planned because everything is already booked during the sea days.

 

I feel like the YC Concierge desk should know the kids club hours for the week to prevent issues like this from happening, but we're not going to let it ruin our week.

 

I'm not going to score things at this stage as I'd like to see if the YC makes an effort to make things right before making a judgement.

They may have spa services on ocean cay.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 minute ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

They may have spa services on ocean cay.

Would our kids be safe to play at Ocean Cay while we got a massage for an hour you think?

[cruisebeachgirl703]

3 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

They may have spa services on ocean cay. (if that is on the itinerary)

 

[tony s]

25 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Spa/YC Concierge:

 

For those of you following along, the reason we arrived to the YC lunch yesterday at 1:45pm was because we had a few things to take care of, including booking a dinner and massage at the YC concierge that we paid for in advance.

 

We scheduled our couples massage for today at 9am and the person at the YC concierge desk said they would check to ensure the kids club was open when we had our massage scheduled and if it wasn't they would let us know.

 

Well this morning we learned the kids club did not open until 10am so the massage we had scheduled wasn't going to work.

 

We contacted the YC concierge about it this morning and unfortunately all that's available at this stage are port days (but we have excursions booked on every port day).

 

Again, not the end of the world, but this means we likely won't be able to get our couples massage as originally planned because everything is already booked during the sea days.

 

I feel like the YC Concierge desk should know the kids club hours for the week to prevent issues like this from happening, but we're not going to let it ruin our week.

 

I'm not going to score things at this stage as I'd like to see if the YC makes an effort to make things right before making a judgement.

Time for a conversation. with the  YC Director. Concierge did not do something promised and this impacts your experience.YC director had every obligation to make it right.

Edited March 24 by tony s

[cruisebeachgirl703]

54 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Would our kids be safe to play at Ocean Cay while we got a massage for an hour you think?

Does the kids club carryover to ocean cay?

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

25 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Does the kids club carryover to ocean cay?

 

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking but if you can clarify I'm happy to ask for you!

 

 

25 minutes ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

 

 

[Essiesmom]

I haven’t seen any kids area at Ocean Cay…but I never got to Bimini Beach or the YC area.  I think kids are just expected to go swimming…. EM

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

7 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

I haven’t seen any kids area at Ocean Cay…but I never got to Bimini Beach or the YC area.  I think kids are just expected to go swimming…. EM

Yeah, I'm sure that's what we'll end up doing... We brought our snorkel gear!

[muttley]

I don't remember seeing life guards at Ocean Cay. What i did see is people leaving their half finished alcoholic drinks all over the place if that is a concern.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Pirates Cove AquaPark + Adventure Trail:

 

I'm not crazy about big crowds but my kids wanted to have fun, so how could I say no to that?

 

On our first day out at sea we made the trip to Pirates Cove to ride the slides and have fun at the AquaPark.

 

There are a total of 4 slides, 3 body slides and 1 tube slide (if you count the tiny slide for the tiny tots, I guess you could call it 5).

 

These were surprisingly fun and the lines weren't terrible considering it's a sold out, spring break cruise.

 

The tube slide is hands down the best of the 4. Not only is it fast, it is a covered slide that's lit up internally with different colored lights as you race down and playing music along the way.

 

At the bottom you enter a long straightaway where splash toward the end (parents definitely travel faster than kids).

 

The interior body slide is essentially a corkscrew that twists and turns without any straight stretches.

 

The other two body slides are setup to race each other, but the one on the right (from the top) is a good bit faster than the one on the left.

 

Overall, these were great. The longest line was for the tube slide (you mostly line up at the bottom of this slide so you can grab a tube from the person finishing and then carry it to the top), but even that wasn't more than 20 minutes.

 

The adventure trail part of the park was closed for maintenance of some sort. I don't know if that's going to be something for today only or if it will be closed the entire cruise. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a bummer (I feel like I'm saying that a lot in these posts).

 

I think it's always smart to go into cruises with a mindset that you're not expecting perfection and you'll make the most of whatever happens, but I feel like that's especially important with MSC.

 

The YC has been great overall, but the rest of the ship is a bit like a madhouse, so you just need to be mentally prepared for that from the beginning and you'll have an amazing time (as we are).

 

Initial Score: 4/5 (adventure trail is closed and lots of people, but still a lot of fun)

Edited March 24 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Jungle Pool:

 

After Pirates Cove, we ventured over to the Jungle Pool for a bit.

 

If it wasn't for the sake of sharing our experience (and making my kids happy), I would have never done this. We have a larger swimming pool in our backyard that isn't completely filled to the brim with bodies (and fluids other than pool water I fear).

 

Things to note:

 

- The main part of the pool is deeper than I would have expected for a pool for families. My kids are good swimmers so this wasn't an issue for us, but I could see this being a problem for others whose young kids jump in without realizing how deep it is. I am guessing it is around 6' deep.

 

- As we've all likely read in other posts across the Internet, the hot tubs aren't exactly hot... More like bathtub water.

 

- There's officially a limit of 8 people in each of the two hot tubs but they were almost always over capacity. To the credit of the crew, when more than 8 people would get in, they'd make their way over and kick out anybody who had been in the hot tub for longer than 15 minutes.

 

- To the surprise of absolutely nobody, every lounger and chair was taken (perhaps not occupied, but they had objects on them).

 

- The Jungle Pool has a retractable roof that is nice as when it started to rain for a bit they were able to close it and keep people sitting around the pool dry.

 

I'm not going to give this pool a great score, but I'm not sure many pools on a cruise ship would get a great score because of how completely full they are (I'm sure the YC pool will fare better once we make our way there).

 

Initial Score: 2/5 (way too many people... It just felt like chaos everywhere you looked)

[morpheusofthesea]

2 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

These were surprisingly fun and the lines weren't terrible considering it's a sold out, spring break cruise.

Now I really do not know how true this next statement may be and perhaps I read it wrong, but someone in the Yacht Club asked their personal butler to butt them to the head of a particularly long slide line ?  We do not spend much time outside the YC to witness these things.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

2 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Now I really do not know how true this next statement may be and perhaps I read it wrong, but someone in the Yacht Club asked their personal butler to butt them to the head of a particularly long slide line ?  We do not spend much time outside the YC to witness these things.

I could see somebody doing that, but that's not our style.

 

We enjoy great service, but I wouldn't want great service to cross over into the territory of entitled, and I think this would.

[Faulkh]

Thank you for sharing your experience and family with us. Love your writing style and attitude. We are exploring going to Greece on MSC so reading all I can. Thanks again and enjoy your cruise.