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Live from Meraviglia


Beamafar
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Aren't the MSC YC staff just the best!!!! Can you tell us which ones from Divina are now on the Meraviglia? Thanks for your reviews.

 

I was only on Divina when she was in the Med so wouldn't know which of the crew are ex-Miami except for Leonardo, the sommelier who is now in charge of the restaurants on deck 6. He was on Splendida & Preziosa at the times we sailed in YC on them so we know him very well at this stage and he looked after us on this cruise when we dined in Butcher's Cut.

 

The YC sommelier's name is Davide and the m'D is Luigi - a small, bald man who we know from our first YC experience ever on Splendida. He was an absolute sweetheart to us on this trip, as was Davide, who we'd never met before. He was dellighted to hear we were from Ireland as his daughter is heading to Dublin in a few weeks time to study so felt he had a connection to us as a result.

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I would recommend that you book as much as you can at embarkation. We had a problem which I intend to detail a little later which may have been prevented had we been more pro-active in booking early on. YC guests don't have priority with reservations - there is no facility on the screens to input that you're from YC so all passengers get the same access.

 

So everyone book on a screen? Isn't that a thing the concierge normally do after request from their guests?

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So everyone book on a screen? Isn't that a thing the concierge normally do after request from their guests?

 

There are 4 ways to make reservations: any of the screens dotted about the ship, on the TV in the cabin, at the venue at the designated times on the daily planner, or at the Concierge desk. This is where my problem began! (At this point I'll just add that I never switched the TV on once in the whole cruise.)

 

We had the Cirque du Soleil dinner & show package pre-booked. I didn't check it out on the day we embarked. We had lunch then went off to explore the ship. That afternoon we met Norwegian Cruiser at the pool and got chatting. We then spent some time unpacking and settling in.

 

The following day, while doing a tour of the Spa, we had a go at making a reservation for Butcher's Cut on the screen there. We had assistance from one of the Spa staff but the screen wouldn't co-operate so we decided we'd leave it 'til later. However, we spent the afternoon with our new-found friends from Norway and another couple from England who NC knew and, as it turned out, we had met briefly before on another cruise. We spent the afternoon at the pool with them and all plans for making reservations for anything were soon forgotten about.

 

It was the next day that I decided I'd better get a move on with our bookings as we had 2 speciality restaurant evenings as well as the show to plan. I was up very early that morning and spoke very briefly to the concierge who was on duty. I said that I needed to make the reservations soon and that we'd had some difficulty with the screens. She advised that I could come to the desk anytime and do it there as they were having problems generally with the new technology. Later that morning I went to the desk to make the reservations. The on-duty concierge advised that I do it from either my cabin or on one of the screens. I told her what her colleague had said that morning and she just said "No madam, you can do it on the screens or your TV"! I went away a bit miffed at that and decided I would go to the Carousel Lounge and book it there as I wanted to see if I could choose our seating. So we went down and walked the length of the ship at the designated time to make our booking. Well, there was a queue at the entrance doors which I was about to join when I said to DH "No! We're bloody well in YC - why should we stand in line here! I'm going back to get this sorted" and, at this stage, I was a little worked up. When we arrived back to the Concierge, the Discovery Channel was filming the area at the time.

 

We decided we'd wait 'til they finished as I was a point where I wanted to get this issue done and dusted, so we hung about. After a couple of minutes, an officer approached us and asked if he could assist us. I asked if we could move away to a quiet spot as I had a problem and didn't want to make a scene, especially with the TV crew milling about. Turns out Giuseppe, the officer, was none other than the ship's Cruise Director, no less. I explained all that had happened - I was getting a little upset at this stage. He was very apologetic and said that I should never have been told to go away and do it myself and that he would look after it. He then invited us to attend a preview of Sonor that evening. His assistant, Andrea, the YC director, came over and Giuseppe asked him to take over and look after us and issue us the invitations to the show. We were delighted as it was DH's birthday that day so we were getting to go to a show that we couldn't have booked on that night had we wanted to.

 

 

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We went along and enjoyed the show immensely.

 

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When we were leaving we asked one of the servers how other people who were at the show had got tickets. He told me they were Aurea, YC and Black Card guests. I knew that for the inaugural, YC guests had been given free tickets for the show but I was furious to hear that we had not received them for being both Black Card holders AND YC guests. So, I ended up being pretty miffed again. On the way back through the Galleria I met the Food & Beverages manager - a lovely man by the name of Llewellyn but goes by his second name, Charles, as many people find his name unpronounceable (though we don't!). I outlined our story and told him I was unimpressed to say the least that the Hotel Director could be so disengenuous as to issue us free passes under the terms we received them, when, in my estimation, we should have received them anyway and couldn't understand why they had not been issued to us on the grounds that they were to others. He completely understood my point and said he would speak with Giuseppe on the matter.

 

The next morning we were in the Top Sail Lounge. Andrea, the YC director, asked us how we enjoyed the show. I told him what I had said to Llewellyn the night before. He tried to pan me off with saying that the Hotel Director just wanted to personally present the tickets to us. I began to feel really offended at this point as we should have received our free invitations much earlier in the day than late in the afternoon when we were making a complaint. I pointed it out to Andrea that Giuseppe had made it appear we were in receipt of the tickets as a way of saying sorry. Anyway, Andrea told us to go to the concierge at any time for assistance, that that is what it is there for, that it is their job to make reservations, to assist in any way and that YC guests should never have to do anything, as that's what YC service is about!

 

Later that day, we were at the concierge desk and Andrea was there (he was always on hand!). He immediately came to us and asked to assist us (this was the case for the rest of the cruise!). We told him we were there to finally book the show

 

 

 

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Edited by Beamafar
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(Contd)....................

 

Andrea brought us over to the screen and we discovered (to our horror) that Viaggio was not showing 'til the Friday & Saturday night of that week. We were disembarking on Friday. I could see on his face that he was trying to find a way around this - we even laughed about finding a magic marker and writing "Thursday" on the screen and selecting it. There was no way of resolving this for us, now, and he was flummoxed. He asked "What about Sonor?" I said, "We've already seen that one last night!". He looked really put out that he couldn't find a solution to something that didn't have one. I was so upset for him that I said it really didn't matter at this stage as we'd at least had the pleasure of getting to a show (and it hadn't cost us anything.) I then asked if he could ensure that there would be no charge on our account due to the pre-booking. He went to check ................... the booking wasn't in the system! I showed him a printed copy of the pre-booking; he took a photo and said he would send it to HQ. He was truly dismayed that this situation lurched from one cock-up to another.

 

Anyway, this is how we came to receive the lovely gifts we did and the extra special attention for the best part of the cruise.

 

Two morals to the story here: Get your reservations in early and bring a printout of everything!

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Bea, I was wondering which internet package you purchased and how well you thought it worked for posting and uploading pictures. How much of the package's data allowance did you use during the week? Thanks for taking the time to provide us with great information.

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Now to the excursions we did, both with MSC. From Naples we went to Pompeii and paid €55 pp and from Messina to Mount Etna and Taormina we paid €69 pp.

 

Naples port - Pompeii:

This was a half-day tour - 4 hours.

We were given a time to go to the Concierge, then waited in the Top Sail for a butler to escort us to the bus at 1.30pm. When we got down to the exit there was quite a queue and it was a little awkward trying to get through. We got to the bus and noticed there weren't any 'reserved' seats. I was glad of this as I never felt it was fair that YC guests got the front seats on excursions. They don't pay any more for their tickets than non-YC so why get special treatment?

 

We had a very nice guide, though he tended to repeat himself at times. The visit itself was well worth it and we enjoyed it thoroughly. We were given radio headphones but I didn't use them as the sound was a bit distorted so I just stuck close to the guide for the tour. It was all in English which I was grateful for, having been on other tours where they were 2 languages used. There was no wifi on the bus. We arrived at Pompeii at 2.15pm. We paid a visit to a shop for a limoncello tasting and then another place where they make cameos. I didn't note what time we returned to the ship at, but the guide did say there was a little time to take a quick walk into Naples before getting back onboard. We chose to give it a miss.

 

Messina port - Mount Etna & Taormina.

This was a 7 hour tour.

I would have no hesitation in recommending this tour. Again, we went to Concierge to be checked off the list, waited in Top Sail for a butler; there were no queues at the exit this time. However, there were seats reserved. Ours were in the second row. As the bus pulled out, one of the reserved seats in the front was vacant so we popped into it - the tour guide explained that the missing people had been moved to a bus for Italian speakers. Again, our tour was English-speaking, only.

 

We left at 8.40am and arrived at Mt Etna at 10.40am. If you do this tour I would recommend you bring a jacket as it is cool up at that height and runners/trainers due to the surface being gritty and dusty. I would also recommend you have something to eat here rather than use up the time having lunch in Taormina which leaves you less time to explore the town. We left Mt Etna at 12pm and arrived in Taormina at 1.15pm.

 

Our guide, a lovely woman named Lilly, gave a short tour which we left half-way as we had an errant to run. She also recommended a place called Christina's for lunch that the locals frequent and it's where she eats, too. We decided to give it a try. I really recommend you go there if you want authentic Italian food. Directions: When you enter the town through the first gate you come into a plaza with a statue in the middle with the symbol for Taormina at the top. Just before the statue, there is a laneway to the right. You can't miss the sign for Christina's. Go down that alley, pass the first entrance to C's and continue to where the tables are, outside. You'll see another entrance there and that is where they make the food. They also have a counter stacked with all the various offerings. How I wish I could have tried some of them!

 

We got there after 2pm and all the seats were taken. As we were pondering what to do, a whole group chose that moment to get up to leave - Yay! We grabbed a, now vacant, table for 2 and I sent DH in to choose what he wanted. When he came out, I went in and asked for a panino. The woman proceeded to show me a lovely looking pastry which, she told me, contained mozzarella and prosciutto. I had to say "Non mangio formaggio" to which she went "Ahhhh......" and looked about her as if to say "Crikey, everything here has cheese in it!" So she went across to the display case on the right-hand side of the counter, took up a bread roll and asked "Tomato & prosciutto?" to which I delightedly replied, "Yes!". Well, it was very tasty. The prosciutto was more like speck (similar to our processed ham that we would put in sandwiches) and the cherry tomatoes were sweet and juicy and she had added a sprinkle of salt, pepper and olive oil to the sandwich. I had a glass of red wine, too, and my bill came to €6.50. DH had a slice of what looked like pizza with a focaccia base and some beer to go with it for €5. I don't know why, but I didn't take any photos.

 

There is a amphitheatre in Taormina which we didn't get to see because of the errand I wanted to run (more on that in another post, later) which is why I've said to have something to eat at Mt Etna so as to have more time there. IIRC, the guide said there's an entrance fee of €10 pp.

 

So, we left Taormina at 3.30pm - leaving 2 people behind. We'd been asked to be back to the meeting place by 3.15pm and the guide allowed an extra 15 minutes before checking with a supervisor on the phone as to what she should do. We had been warned in advance that the bus would depart without us if we were late back. We arrived back to the ship at 4pm.

 

Valletta port:

 

We just went ashore for an hour in the afternoon as DH's foot was giving a bit of trouble from the previous 2 days excursions. To get to the lift, if you keep your back to the ship, head right. We headed in the wrong direction because, when we went thru' the terminal, we were facing the ship from the exit and I'd always read that you go right, so we did!

 

We didn't do much else for this cruise as we have 2 more Med cruises booked for later in the year and will be re-visiting most of the ports at least once again if not twice.

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Thanks for your long post about your "booking experience". Now we know what to expect and it sounds like Andrea is the person to talk to, right?

 

Also very good to get information about how the excursions works. Since we booked our excursions from Sweden we might be placed on a bus with more than one language so I will tell them that we prefer only English if that's available.

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Bea, I was wondering which internet package you purchased and how well you thought it worked for posting and uploading pictures. How much of the package's data allowance did you use during the week? Thanks for taking the time to provide us with great information.

 

I bought the one where you get 1500mb and you can log-in on 4 devices. I got a Voyagers Club discount of 15% so it cost me €59.42. The following photos (in the next post - I have to go onto my phone, now LOL) show what I had left. I did use my mobile data on occasion in port when the wifi wasn't so good on the ship but it was only 69mb out of my 2gb allowance which includes what I used when I was ashore, too. I bought the package only because I had planned to do this 'Live' report and had no idea how much I'd need. Before now, I've only ever used any free wifi I'd get ashore. In future, I'll only use my mobile data - as it was only introduced on June 15 that you get a roaming allowance within the EU I didn't trust my provider not to charge me. We have issues with the company as it is, since they've changed our agreement just before this came into force.

 

I had problems now and then with internet access which made posting to the forum a bit of a chore on occasion. I would have some time early in the morning to check and see what questions were being asked but as I couldn't get access I would miss quite a few. Then, when I did have access, I didn't have time to respond! clear.png?emoji-mad-1709

Edited by Beamafar
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This one shows what I had left:

 

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................ and this one shows what was used on my phone ("Edge") but not on my iPad!

 

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I used 2 devices on the package: my Samsung Edge and my iPad. DH didn't use it at all and we don't do social media so my usage was only for posting to the forum, checking and replying to emails and reading news sites.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

Edited by Beamafar
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I'd like to share a story which relates, in part, to our visit to Taormina and is about the 'errand' I mentioned earlier.

 

Sicily is famous for (among other things which I won't mention!) ............... cannoli. The Italians love cannoli!! I asked our guide where was the best place in Taormina to get them as I wanted to treat 4 Italian members of the crew to some. She told me that a man, who was on one of her tours once, asked her where Roberto's was as he'd heard it was the place to go to, but she had not heard of it at the time. Apparently, Roberto has business cards from all over the world from people who come to his shop. Anyway, I got the directions which the guide had since learned and headed off to find it.

 

It's on one of the side streets, a little out of the way, but, with assistance from some of the lovely locals, we found it easily enough. We went in and explained what we were looking for. Roberto asked when did I think the cannoli would be eaten and I told him I reckoned very late that night when the crews' shift had ended. He explained that, if he filled the biscuit rolls (similar to brandy snaps, only bigger) they would become soft after a time and said it would be better to buy the rolls and the ricotta separately and fill them later. He told me that the cheese would last for 52 hours in the box he was showing me. I said OK, so he gathered together 12 cases, filled a styrofoam container to the brim with ricotta, got 4 gold-coloured trays, 4 sheets of waxed paper, 4 sheets of wrapping paper and filled a plastic bag with crushed pistachios which would be used to coat the ricotta at either end of each roll and advised me to put the cheese into the fridge for at least 2 hours before filling the cases.

 

In the meantime, an American came in to buy a cannolo. He had been before and Roberto welcomed him warmly. I allowed him to go ahead and get served. He left and then Roberto returned to preparing my purchases and we left, with Roberto following us out the door to talk to the American who was sitting outside, enjoying his treat. As we headed off, Roberto said to the guy "That's a first!" in reference to my order LOL.

 

When we got back to the ship, I immediately put the ricotta into the mini-bar fridge for later, then began regretting my foolish gift idea. How was I going to assemble these things? How was I going to wrap them? When would the recipients get a chance to eat them? I decided not to go ahead and would worry the next day about what to do with the ingredients.

 

So, we freshened up and went to dinner. We then returned to the room and I said "To heck with it, we'll get some sellotape from reception and just do it!" Four plates of three cannoli each later and we headed out to distribute our gifts. One for Luigi, the m'D, one for Davide, the sommelier, one for Leonardo, deck 6 sommelier and one for Gianluca, the head waiter from Eataly who we also knew from previous cruises. Well, to say they were surprised is an understatement. They were all delighted.

 

Next morning, at breakfast, Luigi said he'd eaten 2 the night before and patted his stomach! (Crikey, I could just about manage a half of one - these things were big and are very filling!) He gave the other one to one of his officer friends. He told me he'd shared a picture on his Facebook page and told everyone they were a gift from his Irish guests.

 

All four couldn't thank us enough. You'd swear we'd plucked the moon from the sky and handed it to them. I was so glad, afterward, that I had done it. Boy, do the Italians love their cannoli and I knew that they get very little opportunity to get some, themselves.

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I'd like to share a story which relates, in part, to our visit to Taormina and is about the 'errand' I mentioned earlier.

All four couldn't thank us enough. You'd swear we'd plucked the moon from the sky and handed it to them. I was so glad, afterward, that I had done it. Boy, do the Italians love their cannoli and I knew that they get very little opportunity to get some, themselves.

What you did was exceptional! Nice job and a great thread. Bob
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What you did was exceptional! Nice job and a great thread. Bob

 

Thank you so much, Bob.

 

After our last meal when we were saying goodbye, Luigi said he would never forget it. For those of you travelling in YC in the next few months, don't misjudge this man as I did the first time we met him on Splendida years ago. Back then, I thought he was a distant man who always appeared to strut around the restaurant and avoid talking to you. This time, when we arrived into the restaurant on our first day, Davide was there to greet us newcomers and said "Come and meet the m'D" when out came Luigi. We were delighted to see a face we knew and it showed and he responded in kind. He was wonderfully warm and attentive and he, along with the other 3 we got the cannoli for, were so good to us that I wanted to show our appreciation.

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Hi

We on the Meraviglia in September in Yacht club and looking at you tube posts the sofa in the Yacht club suite looks smaller than on the fantasia class am I right

 

It didn't strike me that it was smaller. Either the camera angles are deceptive on the videos or I'm not terribly observant. There's a good chance it's the latter! The decor is dark which also could account for it looking smaller?

 

The balcony cabin itself is great - much better and more spacious than on Fantasia class. The rain shower in the bathroom is terrific and the enclosure is lovely and spacious.

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Hi Bea, apologies if you've already mentioned this, my memory isn't so great at times!! With the YC experience, were the drinks elsewhere on the ship the 'premium' range? We've just booked our first YC cruise

Tim

 

Hi Tim. No problem. I saw your thread title but didn't realise you meant Meraviglia. Good for you - the Yacht Club was fantastic!!

 

I can confirm that YC guests do get the premium package. However, if you look thru' the bar menus, you'll notice a few items that were included in what's now known as the 'Deluxe' package now carry 2 asterisks which means they are outside of any inclusive packages.

 

Also, for some reason, the items in Jean-Philippe have one asterisk against them - including the coffees, etc - despite the fact that NOTHING in J-P is included in any package.

 

I already outlined earlier the difficulties I had in getting correct information. There are food items served in the Brass Anchor. When we boarded, these items had an asterisk added to them by hand, which means that the menus were printed without asterisks. We ordered a portion each of fish and chips at €4 pp and had a charge of €11.50 on our account for food we ordered there, despite the fact that we were told at the time of ordering (and going by the 'one asterisk' rule) that there would be no charge. We didn't sign for the charge, either. When I queried it with the concierge, she said that food in BA was definitely not included for YC. She got out the receipt to check what we'd ordered. As I was so caught up in explaining why we should not be charged, I missed the fact that she had read out that we had ordered a cheeseburger, which we didn't!!! Our bill should have only shown a charge of €8!! (I copped that later, but at that stage the charge had been removed). I don't know where they got €11.50 from???

 

I have a photo of the food items with the hand-written ONE asterisk. Later in the cruise, another asterisk was added, of which I have another photo.

 

I spent quite a bit of the cruise bringing things like this to the attention of the officers in charge - from the assistant managers to the senior ones. In fairness, to a man, they were all approachable, friendly and willing to hear what we had to say so that they could rectify as much as possible of the misinformation floating about (pardon the pun!).

 

In all the cruises I've taken, I've never seen the crew be so candid about how things were onboard. The level of complaints, though I didn't witness any, was apparently extraordinarily high. Even in the Yacht Club, I was reliably informed.

Edited by Beamafar
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Thanks Bea, our YC experience will be on Fantasia, but handy to know the rest as we will take the premium package on Meraviglia in November.

 

I can imagine it was frustrating to get the right info!!

 

I noticed the drinks menus changed on the second leg of our b2b - Andy had just got a taste for Zaccappa rum and it's now not included, and I did enjoy Beluga vodka

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Thanks Bea, our YC experience will be on Fantasia, but handy to know the rest as we will take the premium package on Meraviglia in November.

 

I can imagine it was frustrating to get the right info!!

 

I noticed the drinks menus changed on the second leg of our b2b - Andy had just got a taste for Zaccappa rum and it's now not included, and I did enjoy Beluga vodka

 

Sorry about misreading your plans. I'm not following any threads at the moment.

 

Have you seen the list of champagnes I've posted from the Champagne bar menu? There's a choice of bubbly for premium package/YC. I've just remembered - I think I have a better photo that I must post. This will be the perfect time to add it, I think............I didn't try them - I had rotten heartburn for a lot of the trip so sometimes I avoided anything that would cause it to flare.

 

Leonardo (deck 6 sommelier) was tied up with a large table of guests in another restaurant on our second visit to Butcher's Cut. He called in to BC for a quick check around, spied us in the corner, popped open a bottle of the Laurent-Perrier (which is included too for deluxe/YC) and served us a glass each, despite being too busy to linger for a chat. I didn't have the heart to refuse it, so I drank it and suffered in silence. Having said that, I enjoyed it, nonetheless. It's quite nice and is also available in the Champagne bar.

Edited by Beamafar
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Thank you so much for the Spa pics, it looks amazing in there & we can't wait to try it.

I'm pleased the MSC excursions turned out well - I may go for the Taormina on your own tour as you can see Etna from there so you get to spend more time in Taormina itself which I really like [emoji4]

 

 

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There are 4 ways to make reservations: any of the screens dotted about the ship, on the TV in the cabin, at the venue at the designated times on the daily planner, or at the Concierge desk. This is where my problem began! (At this point I'll just add that I never switched the TV on once in the whole cruise.)

 

We had the Cirque du Soleil dinner & show package pre-booked. I didn't check it out on the day we embarked. We had lunch then went off to explore the ship. That afternoon we met Norwegian Cruiser at the pool and got chatting. We then spent some time unpacking and settling in.

 

The following day, while doing a tour of the Spa, we had a go at making a reservation for Butcher's Cut on the screen there. We had assistance from one of the Spa staff but the screen wouldn't co-operate so we decided we'd leave it 'til later. However, we spent the afternoon with our new-found friends from Norway and another couple from England who NC knew and, as it turned out, we had met briefly before on another cruise. We spent the afternoon at the pool with them and all plans for making reservations for anything were soon forgotten about.

 

It was the next day that I decided I'd better get a move on with our bookings as we had 2 speciality restaurant evenings as well as the show to plan. I was up very early that morning and spoke very briefly to the concierge who was on duty. I said that I needed to make the reservations soon and that we'd had some difficulty with the screens. She advised that I could come to the desk anytime and do it there as they were having problems generally with the new technology. Later that morning I went to the desk to make the reservations. The on-duty concierge advised that I do it from either my cabin or on one of the screens. I told her what her colleague had said that morning and she just said "No madam, you can do it on the screens or your TV"! I went away a bit miffed at that and decided I would go to the Carousel Lounge and book it there as I wanted to see if I could choose our seating. So we went down and walked the length of the ship at the designated time to make our booking. Well, there was a queue at the entrance doors which I was about to join when I said to DH "No! We're bloody well in YC - why should we stand in line here! I'm going back to get this sorted" and, at this stage, I was a little worked up. When we arrived back to the Concierge, the Discovery Channel was filming the area at the time.

 

We decided we'd wait 'til they finished as I was a point where I wanted to get this issue done and dusted, so we hung about. After a couple of minutes, an officer approached us and asked if he could assist us. I asked if we could move away to a quiet spot as I had a problem and didn't want to make a scene, especially with the TV crew milling about. Turns out Giuseppe, the officer, was none other than the ship's Cruise Director, no less. I explained all that had happened - I was getting a little upset at this stage. He was very apologetic and said that I should never have been told to go away and do it myself and that he would look after it. He then invited us to attend a preview of Sonor that evening. His assistant, Andrea, the YC director, came over and Giuseppe asked him to take over and look after us and issue us the invitations to the show. We were delighted as it was DH's birthday that day so we were getting to go to a show that we couldn't have booked on that night had we wanted to.

 

 

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We went along and enjoyed the show immensely.

 

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When we were leaving we asked one of the servers how other people who were at the show had got tickets. He told me they were Aurea, YC and Black Card guests. I knew that for the inaugural, YC guests had been given free tickets for the show but I was furious to hear that we had not received them for being both Black Card holders AND YC guests. So, I ended up being pretty miffed again. On the way back through the Galleria I met the Food & Beverages manager - a lovely man by the name of Llewellyn but goes by his second name, Charles, as many people find his name unpronounceable (though we don't!). I outlined our story and told him I was unimpressed to say the least that the Hotel Director could be so disengenuous as to issue us free passes under the terms we received them, when, in my estimation, we should have received them anyway and couldn't understand why they had not been issued to us on the grounds that they were to others. He completely understood my point and said he would speak with Giuseppe on the matter.

 

The next morning we were in the Top Sail Lounge. Andrea, the YC director, asked us how we enjoyed the show. I told him what I had said to Llewellyn the night before. He tried to pan me off with saying that the Hotel Director just wanted to personally present the tickets to us. I began to feel really offended at this point as we should have received our free invitations much earlier in the day than late in the afternoon when we were making a complaint. I pointed it out to Andrea that Giuseppe had made it appear we were in receipt of the tickets as a way of saying sorry. Anyway, Andrea told us to go to the concierge at any time for assistance, that that is what it is there for, that it is their job to make reservations, to assist in any way and that YC guests should never have to do anything, as that's what YC service is about!

 

Later that day, we were at the concierge desk and Andrea was there (he was always on hand!). He immediately came to us and asked to assist us (this was the case for the rest of the cruise!). We told him we were there to finally book the show

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

 

This may help people wanting to catch the Cirque du Soleil shows.

I was just able to reserve both late shows on day 3 and day 7 at 10PM for our cruise by calling my MSC agent directly on the phone. After reading this I was concerned so I called to check and it worked. Hope it helps...

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