kernow

Good morning, we were woken up a few minutes ago by the fog horn as we approach Haugesund, the captain had told us there would be a lovely sail in from 7 but we can't see a thing.😲. Yesterday was lovely and sunny with clear blue skies. The air was a bit chilly but in a secluded spot in the sun it felt quite warm so we along with many others spent a few hours outside. I even went and changed into shorts. In the morning we had asked the concierge about the Spa thermal area which YC (and Aurea) have access to. She said we have to book one hour slots so we went at 2pm. It is now fully open and there is a good choice of different areas, a couple of bubbling pools, various steams, saunas, showers ice showers and different beds. It was nice but for me personally I don't think It would be worth paying for a pass especially as you can't just go on the spur of the moment. It was elegant night (the only one on this cruise), we dressed up but I'd say only around 50 per cent of people around the ship dressed up, more in YC. We went to the theatre for 'Italiano', for some reason I could really feel movement (although it wasn't rough) so I went back to the cabin. Mark stayed to the end of the show and really enjoyed it. I didn't feel great so we ended up missing the silent disco. 😭 I feel fine this morning so no idea what happened as I don't normally get seasick unless the seas are really rough. Fog is just clearing a bit, think we are just docking so off to breakfast. This was delivered to the room yesterday afternoon, lemon meringue pie, delicious.

Fantastic deal, we've paid a bit more than that for 7 nights in YC!

Carole, I know you had a similar JS to us on Anthem last Oct. I think the YC balcony feels like a similar size to that although the balcony on here is not as deep.

Your suite sounds lovely. If you compare the Aurea suite to a YC balcony do you have a preference or are they both good in different ways? Funnily enough we were talking to another couple in YC about this earlier. Of course the YC royal suite would be the answer but unfortunately that is out of our price bracket😂.

Yes, I've seen quite a few comments about things unavailable. We were chatting to Robbie about it this morning, he admitted that MSC along with all the other lines are having supply problems at the moment, he said that they ordered so many pallets of some things and only half are being delivered. I've seen similar posts on the RCL board so I think it's a worldwide problem at the moment. Luckily for us we like a wide variety of drinks so if it happens I'm sure we will find something we like.

Some random food pics from last night's dinner. We've only eaten in YC so far and food has been fab. We got up at 4.30 am yesterday so after dinner we were flagging. We had coffee in the Top Sail lounge and listened to the pianist/singer there for a while before going to bed at 10. Clocks went forward an hour so it was really 11😁. Hope to do better tonight!

Thank you. The cocktails in the picture were a Purple Rain and an Aviation Martini, both delicious. Something we love to do on a cruise is try out all the different cocktails. A few days in I'm usually 'alcoholed out' so I do have some of the non alcoholic ones too. We've done a couple of cruises since the re start but this one does seem more like the old days, no compulsory masks for passengers, no mention of social distancing and more of the party type events. According to the planner the silent disco is back tonight, really looking forward to that. 🕺

We used Lloyd's pharmacy, purchased them online and uploaded the results. It was very easy in the end.

The weather was beautiful this afternoon and we had a lovely sailaway with music on the YC deck. We passed RCL Anthem on the way out. Now enjoying some pre dinner cocktails.

We are in the cabin now, the couple who were escorted on with us were able to go straight to their cabin, ours took around another 15 minutes to be ready. We're going for a wander around the ship and then off for lunch.

We've just boarded, sitting in Top Sail lounge with a glass of 🍾. We arrived at the car park at 10.20 and were onboard by 10.40. Luggage drop off for YC is right outside the terminal and from there a butler escorts you straight through. Once up the escalator there is a separate seated area for YC where they check you in. We were greeted by a familiar face, the YC director Robbie Sheriffs who we met onboard last year as a fellow passenger. He had told us he was now working for MSC but had no idea he was now on Virtuosa so a nice surprise. The queue for general boarding was not very long and seemed to be moving quickly. I did mean to look if there were Aurea/Diamond lines but we were through so quickly I didn't have chance. I think they must have been upstairs after security.

Typical of MSC I think to give different answers, keep trying and you might get an answer you like.

We sail tomorrow and both were in the last week. Not sure if they booked direct with UK office or with a TA but both said they had been allowed to change and pay any difference in price.

We'll look out for you. It's about a three and a half hour drive for us but working today so couldn't stay overnight this time. Having an early start tomorrow.

I'm wondering about how busy it will be myself, there were less than 1000 when we were on last June so it will certainly be a lot busier than that! I've seen pics from the current cruise where they are back to having parties on the Esplanade so certainly looking forward to having a bit of atmosphere again. I've never seen anyone ask about a butane hotbrush and have no real idea but would guess no. Maybe someone else will have a definite answer, if not I will try and find out onboard.

We had 2 negative antigen tests yesterday so I think I can finally start this.😀 We will be driving to Southampton tomorrow morning to board Virtuosa. We had originally booked Magnifica for a week in Feb but when omicron hit and some of those cruises were cancelled we decided to move the booking to this one on Virtuosa. We'd been on this ship last June and loved it and we've never done the Fjords before so very excited. After our upgrade to YC last year we've booked it again, originally a YIN but our bid was accepted and we now have a balcony. Our ports are Haugesund, Hellesylt/Geiranger, Flaam and Stavanger plus 2 days at sea. We've booked the train independently for Flaam but will play the rest by ear. Finishing off the packing today as we didn't want to do it before the tests and tempt fate. Also double checking that all the paperwork is printed off, am I the only one who finds all the pre cruise stuff so stressful now? Then it's counting down the hours until tomorrow.

I had it 3 and a half weeks ago, tested positive for 10 days. We are due to board Virtuosa tomorrow and I tested negative yesterday. I don't think your wife will be able to board. A couple of people on our FB group have tested positive over the last week and have been able to switch their cruises to a later date.

Not sure if they would actually pay but have you tried calling to see what they say.

You get sent an email with an offer to bid, they are randomly sent, not everyone gets one. You need to make sure you have ticked the box in your profile to receive offers.

Outside of YC you get the premium drinks package not the Easy plus.

I would try phoning them, UK number on website is 0203 8895414, also 0203 4263010 which is listed as UK direct guests. Messaging them on FB also sometimes works. They are notoriously bad at giving an accurate answer to anyone.

When are you looking at going? The YC prices for our cruise have increased although there is still quite a few cabins available.

Not sure which cruise you are looking at but we are going next week and YC balcony was around £1,500pp, interior was around £1,100 when we booked. At that price it was worth it for us but wouldn't pay over £2000.

We did Indochine with our voucher last year, enjoyed it but not enough to go again hence trying BC this time. We didn't think it was worth paying extra for steak when they did a very nice one in YC. I know we can't use the voucher there but may try the teppanyaki too, have you ever been to that one?

Please let us know how it is, that's where we're planning to use ours.