Beardface

12 hours ago, Swells1 said:

https://www.cruisehive.com/former-norwegian-cruise-line-ships-arrive-for-scrapping/89076

 

The Dream was my first ship. I kinda' want to cry.

Same, except she was still the Dreamward when I went on her.  I had heard earlier in the year she was scheduled for scrap, but its definitely sad to see when it actually happens.

59 minutes ago, Até said:

How many Yacht Club booking have you made at $5500 per week for a Deluxe in the off season?

I paid less than that for my YC Deluxe booking on the Seaside out of Miami on Feb 29th, 2020.  And I paid that before COVID was a 'thing'

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

The Seaside class ships were designed that way on purpose. The intent was to maximize outdoor space and enjoy the sunshine. I wasn't sure based on your post if you knew that or not. That said, you are correct that you need to get a cabana to get lots of shade.

Oh I know

At the same time, its one thing to hear that this is the case.  Its a completely different thing to actually experience it.

Pros - its a true all inclusive experience you rarely get on cruise ships nowadays.  The food in the YC restaurant is so good and diverse over the course of the week that you won't feel the draw to go to a specialty dining unless you have a particular desire for it.  The space is quiet, much moreso than the rest of the ship.  Its a nice oasis from the hustle and bustle of a modern ship.

Cons - On Seaside class, shade is scarce up on deck.  Outside of sitting at the bar, you essentially have to rent a cabana to get any serious shade during the week.  The hot tubs are also located on the windiest part of the ship, and that entire area turns into a wind tunnel while under sail.  We sailed in March and it was too cold to use them based on the wind alone unless we were at port.

5 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

But if it is amended, HOW will they manage the new mask rules? That was my question.  

If you don't think they will tag people's cruise card or on board profile/account with vaccine identifiers, I don't know what to tell ya

12 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

So you passed security after "the waiting area"? We passed security when entering the terminal and after "the waiting area" we just boarded.

Good question.

As I said, we cruised right before everything shut down because of COVID.  You are right, we went through typical security before we got to this room, but there were a couple COVID health checks that we needed to pas through after the waiting room before we were allowed on the ship.

I have no idea if similar policies are going to still be standard during restart, but that's specifically what I meant.  We did a health/temp check prior to scanning our cards before we got on the gangway.

Don't get too wrapped up in this room.  When we went (which is still the last full week cruise that the Seaside had out of Miami) they kept people moving quickly.  We were in there for maybe 5 mins before a butler took us all through security.  Barely had a sip of champagne before we moved on.

As for curbside, look for the white MSC tent all the way on the right.  Let them know who you are and they will escort you to the waiting room.  They'll also set your bags to the side to ensure it gets YC fast tracked to your room.

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

Even worse, people can't seem to distinguish between understanding someone's opinion and agreeing with it. I can see the position Gov DeSantis has on vaccine passports, but as soon as I say that, I have people shouting "how can you defend him???!!!!!"  It's just not worth it anymore. People don't want to listen. (I'm not talking about Cruise Critic here, BTW, I'm talking about life in the non-virtual world)

I understand why he's doing it, but at a certain point, he's only doing this for the theatre of it all, and not because its the best thing to do for the people and businesses of Florida.  If a privately owned (not government owned) company does not feel comfortable, and their clientele do not feel comfortable opening up without needing proof of vaccine, as was something that was required back during the time of the 1918 Influenza outbreak, then let them.  If the government is telling an industry that they are unsafe to operate with unvaccinated people, it doesn't make sense for another governmental mandate to prevent them from actioning on that guidance.

2 hours ago, Paphillyguy said:

I really do not want to start a war of words here.  I am honestly questioning and not making this political.  I just look at it from a common sense perspective.  I just do not understand why the governor of Florida is being so stubborn on this matter.  It is really only going to be required for a few months and it will get an industry moving and bringing back a lot of jobs to Florida.  It gives the people that want to cruise the ability to do so if vaccinated and if there are so many people against this requirement the cruise lines will see that in a lack of bookings and pivot to join in the fight with the governor.  But it seems it is at this point hurting both the cruise lines and the Florida economy.  

Its impossible to answer your question without getting political, as the only reason he's doing this is politics, and not really caring about the fallout from it.

On 5/15/2021 at 12:43 PM, Beaver1975 said:

You couldn't just say downtown?

 

I'm sorry I gave you a link to the exact coordinates that the Seaside docked in what ended up being the last full week sailing prior to the COVID lockdown.  As far as I know, its the last MSC ship that docked in the city, but there may have been one ot 2 more ships after us.

How awful of me. 🙄

Looks like the MSC Seashore is going to debut a new infinity hot tub design

This is where we docked:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cruise+Ship+Terminal/@20.5076306,-86.9564632,17.25z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x8f4e57491a71c81d:0x6933058e58e0ee3d!2sCarnival+Cruiselines+Pier%2FDock%2FPort!8m2!3d20.4754962!4d-86.9755136!3m4!1s0x0:0x68b45730273fd699!8m2!3d20.5087595!4d-86.9564663

1 hour ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

What I read in one of today's articles stated the differentiation between allowing vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated Americans into EU is that hospital ICU's won't be overrun by vaccinated Americans in event of outbreak.  Can't quantify it until it happens, but it makes sense and both American and European scientists and doctors generally agree.

The bold has always been the point of this whole thing.

Its not to eradicate COVID, its to make it so that the global healthcare system isn't completely swamped by the outbreak.  Yes, you can still get COVID with the vaccine, and you might still be able to pass it on.  But they are all more than 99.9% effective at keeping you out of the hospital if and when you get it (which, lets be honest, they're all effective enough to keep at least 8 out of 10 people from catching it, which drastically reduces the exposure the virus has, which, in turn, also helps drive down hospitalizations).

Anyone who tries to push that we need to maintain all these measures until its impossible to catch the disease is not arguing in good faith.

On 4/18/2021 at 3:43 AM, travellerin1984 said:

Thank you. Very good information. How were the wines in Premium Plus? 

We just stuck with the house wines most nights, but their staff was pretty good at suggesting pairings for the food we had.

With P+, you can have any by the glass wine, but I think for the most expensive ones, you need to buy the bottle.  I'm really not certain on this, as we didn't really explore the options too much when it came to wine.

Put it this way, much like when we were in Italy on our honeymoon, the average house wine is better than what we generally experience with a 'step above house' around home.

3 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

The fact that only vaccinated individuals were allowed on the ships had nothing to do with the CDC, and everything to do with the fact that St Lucia and Barbados would only accept vaccinated individuals.

 

The headline posted is VERY misleading. If you read the entire US Embassy memo to their staff it had one line referring to the CDC concerns of LEISURE cruise ship travel, then went into great detail of how one should secure their spot on the ship.

Show me where they specify leisure.  Their warning is a blanket statement about travel on cruise ships.

(In case the image doesn't load above)

1 hour ago, JAGR said:

 I'm inclined to hold them to the terms of my booking confirmation:

I had the same thing happen for my Seaside sailing last year.

I still called to get PP+ added, and I got that added to my account.  I then called about excursions a week or two later to get some booked (which, ironically, we never actually used because we were delayed being able to leave the ship by 8 hours in Jamaica due to COVID) and the rep we spoke with about that called us back later that day to basically tell me "I looked into your account, and because you are in the YC, you don't actually need the PP+ plan, you already have it."  He then took it off our booking and refunded the money.

Except, he never actually took it off our account, our booking still showed PP+ when we sailed, and it opened everything for us, despite not having to pay (the value was still there, we absolutely would have paid for it).

It is confusing, but these kind of glitches do happen, and they just don't catch it.  Whatever your booking says is what goes, so if yours says unlimited drinks, that's most likely what you'll get.

We were in the Seaside YC in March of last year (literally the last full week cruise the Seaside had before the lockdown).  It was wonderful.  We did opt for the $17pppd upgrade to Premium Plus, and it was absolutely worth it.  A glass of JW Blue for me and a Martell XO for my wife every evening before bed absolutely paid for itself.

And that specific plan really does open the ship to you on whatever you want to drink.  Gelato was included as well for us on that plan.  Before we sailed, we thought we were going to try out the specialty restaurants, but the regular YC dining room was nice enough itself that we never bothered.  The Top Sail Lounge is one of our favorite rooms on any ship we have been on.

2 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

 

I know the USCG has mandates to inspect vessels, but also have mandates not to "impede the commerce" of the vessel, in other words, don't unduly delay the vessel.  This may have been inserted by the CDC's legal office as part of a similar mandate.  If the 12 hour limit is no longer listed, and only that the two operations (embarking and disembarking) do not use the same equipment or spaces, "as much as practicable", I don't see much difference.  As I've said, I don't see splitting terminals into separate "routes" and using different routes onto/off of the ship as a major stumbling block, so I don't thing the "12 hour" thing would ever have come up.

The 12 hour rule was actually listed.  There was no ambiguity about it, it was specifically called out.  And now, after lawsuits have been filed and public pressure is mounting, its suddenly not there, and instead left with something very generic that removed specificity over a requirement that previously had it.

To argue this is a bunch of nothing and somehow shows the CDC is doing anything but backtracking is.... well, its comical, to be honest.

5 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

I don't have a copy of the original instructions, to see whether it has changed, and the youtube link doesn't work (and we can't do youtube on the ship's internet), but if is a cruise "influencer", I would take it with several grains of salt, unless he shows visual proof of the change.  But, I would say that anything is having a lessening effect on the CDC is way premature.

It has before and after screen shots of the CDC's site regarding their verbiage of I want to say Section 7 of their guidelines, showing the 12 hour rule is no longer called out, and instead left with, as DCGuy said, "as much as practicable".

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

Ha! 

I love it how people are so quick to dismiss the lawsuit as useless or futile. Apparently, if this is true, it IS having an effect. DeSantis: 1, CDC 0.

Oh its definitely true

The CDC has stealthy removed verbiage regarding 12 hour delay between disembarkation and boarding to language on its website to now saying "whenever practical", so we're apparently already seeing this kind of political pressure pay off.

This was always going to be the follow-up to NCL's rebuttal earlier in the week.  Now the CDC is going to have to argue in court on why they are setting a different standard for the cruise industry than they are for the airline industry, for example.  And they're going to have to come with facts.

Would not be surprised to either see the CDC settle this out of court and open cruising based on the NCL guidelines, or the lawsuit fasttracked through Florida courts.

Is the CDC willing to relax some of its ridiculous requirements that have already been proven to not be necessary given what MSC and others are already doing overseas?  Did they eliminate the prohibitive mandatory 12 hour wait between using gangways between a completed disembarkation and the start of embarking that is comical when compared to a complete lack of gangway restrictions in airline travel?

No?  Just a 'do as I say or no soup for you' over a rules they are continually moving the goalposts on?

While this looks good on the surface this is just the CDC once again kicking the can down the road with statements broad and generic enough to keep enforcing that November 1st return to sail date they set last year.  Because anything else would actually require them to work with the cruise lines and, as we all know, thats the last thing they want to do right now.

Some people seem to only come on this forum to trash MSC and take every opportunity to remind us how they will never sail on them again.

Which... fine by me, keeps a room open for us, and I won't have to deal with your grumpy attitude for a week.

At this point, I think we were still on the most recent Seaside cruise from March (sadly).

Deluxe Suite is very nice.  Yes, its the smallest balcony in the YC.  Who cares, the room itself is very large, and the balcony is easily twice the size you'll find on a non-YC.  And the bathroom is legitimately nice.  Not just cruise ship nice, but upscale hotel nice.

The TSL is legitimately nice.  2 story wall to wall windows overlooking the front of the ship, and a seating area directly in front of it.  Wonderful spot for viewing when the ship is entering or leaving port.  The restaurant is wonderful as well, overlooking the lounge, which makes heading up for meals a breeze.

We did a cabana rental on our sailing.  Booked the first day on the cruise, and it was very easy.  Nice and shaded, though, it was a bit cold due to the time of year.  Definitely worth keeping in mind if you are sailing during non-peak season.

Ocean Cay is a true gem in the Caribbean and the YC area is very nice.  Though, surprisingly, it doesn't actually have the best view, which I would give to the beach right behind it (forget its name).  With the colors in the water, it is truly a beautiful sight.  Though, that's nothing against the YC area.  Keep in mind, the beach is not netted off, and when we were there, a couple sharks did get a little close.  And they haven't quite removed all the coral from the beach, so its worth investing in water shoes.  And after 2pm, there are no food options in or around the YC area on the island.