Stem to Stern

Looking forward to it. Great pics of Bonaire this morning. Love that stop.

We just booked our first MSC Yacht Club. Looking forward to their private island and pampering.

Pre-Covid we found Cellar Masters was a great venue choice on Equinox. Ours was scheduled before the venue opened for business. It is nice that it isn’t so open to the atrium-like area of the ship like the martini bar is. The Captain was gracious enough to make an appearance. She was a welcome addition to our conversation.

Well that is certainly a whole lot of pork on that plate. All I can offer is my observation that Celebrity doesn’t seem to be scaling back on the portion size on this one.🤣

Time for Celebrity to up the prices on the Sunset (real) Verandahs again.

Thanks. The link took me from registration page directly to webinar. Playing it now. Does LLP play the guitar?

Kinda like your preference sheet when one charters a yacht. Hee hee. Totally understand especially when allergies are involved. And the 20-minute butler's monologue is totally uncalled for.

Too bad. That is what calculated the loyalty discount.

Sorry for the thread hijack, but would you mind terribly giving a crash course in Cookies 101. I would love to stop receiving all of those "Complete Your Booking" emails I receive from MSC and Celebrity after all of my dummy bookings. Thanks.

X is my cruiseline, too. But it is good to have options. I would take the advice of @LadyShivaand check out the ship you are considering in great length via YouTube and study the deck plans. That is what I did when I began looking at other lines because of Celebrity's rising prices. However, YouTube may not give you much of an indication about the clientele and vibe on board which may or may not impact your on board experience. What have you discovered about MSC Yacht Club on board MSC Seascape? This is the option we have decided to have a go at. It will be the first time on MSC Cruises for us. MSC Seascape is brand new and access to their thermal suite is included with the Yacht Club experience. I have now decided to set a maximum per person per day spend on a suite experience cruise and there are very few Celebrity sailings that fall below this pricing threshold. Whatever you decide I am sure you will have a fantastic time. You will be on a cruise.

I guess I am a visual person. This pic really shows what HappyCruiser said about the first and third verandahs being so much larger than the second and fourth ones.

Hey there @GenerationXWe booked it!!! Yay!!! We are trying MSC Cruises for the first time after your inspiration. We will be sailing out of Miami in a Yacht Club suite on the brand new MSC Seascape for 7-nights side-by-side with our 5-night that we previously booked on Celebrity Summit in The Retreat. Based on recommendations that I read over on the MSC boards, I used my Azamara Discoverer status rather than my Celebrity Elite status to submit my MSC Voyagers Status Match enrollment. They matched me to their highest Diamond level. Elite reportedly only matches to Gold on MSC. Submitting the status match form on MSC’ s website was pretty painless and the response came back in a day or two. After receiving my MSC Voyagers number in an email from MSC, I passed it on to our travel agent and received the 5% plus 5% discount on the booking. It was also nice to only be required to place a deposit of $199 per person. Neither one of us have ever been on such a populous ship, but it will be fun to try something new. And with the huge Yacht Club facilities for only 130 suites, we have a comfortable refuge from the “GenPop” that we can retreat to (no pun intended) if needed. Thanks again for your report!👍

In 2019 we went late-Sept into early Oct. In 2022 we went during the same timeframe. Weather was glorious both times. Crisp mornings with high temps in the mid to upper 70s. There were still crowds, but maybe not quite like summer.

This statement concerns me. Particularly on the pool deck. I presume there is a designated alcove for the smokers and they are not allowed to smoke on the entire One Pool deck. I am particularly interested in any intel regarding designated smoking areas within the Yacht Club on board MSC Seascape.

@Gray LadyIf I may add the following.... What @styles27has noted above is spot on. Italy is AMAZING. My 2019 Med cruise barely gave me a taste of Italy with only one day each in Florence, Rome, and Naples. I returned to Europe for the second time last year starting off in Venice for five nights before boarding a ten-night round trip Greek Isles and Turkey cruise out of Ravenna. Venice was magical! There so much wandering and exploration to be done. After disembarking the ship in Ravenna we spent two nights in Bologna before returning home. I still feel like I have not scratched the surface in Italy with so many more places to explore. I would definitely consider cruising out of Rome because there is so much history and culture to witness there. You could maybe even consider some day trips from Rome into Tuscany or Umbria. From Naples we took an excursion to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast and found this area captivating.

Hi Gray Lady, I love cruising and highly recommend it. My first trip to Europe in 2019 involved a cruise. We flew into Barcelona and spent two nights there before boarding Celebrity Reflection for a 12-night round trip that stopped at nine different ports throughout Spain, Gibraltar, France, and Italy. We spent another night in Barcelona after the cruise before flying home. It was one of the best trips of my life. The ship could be considered a floating hotel in this circumstance since you would most likely want to spend all day off the ship exploring all of the new places you have never been. Keep in mind all of those excursions require some thoughtful planning and additional funds, but it is so worth it. As was suggested upthread, a 5,000+ passenger mega-ship may not be the best choice for your first cruise especially in the Med where you will rather spend as much time ashore soaking up the limitless culture. Except on sea days there won't be time to partake in the endless list of on board activities. Whatever you decide I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.

Agree 100%. Any angled verandah is way larger than a normal verandah. I go for these when Sunset Verandahs are not available.

Whoopsie! (Again.)

Hee hee. In total agreement on this one. Our Equinox cruise had a super loud lady with her husband on board that took every meal in Luminae. As you know Luminae is not that big, so with her being at the table in the middle of the room closest to the maitre d desk for mobility reasons, she was only a couple table aways from every other table and every word could be heard. Sometimes the "back room" of Luminae is less crowded. Sadly, we sat adjacent to another couple at the banquette on the wall behind the maitre d desk on the second to the last night of the cruise. One of our dinner neighbors contracted covid. On the last evening of the cruise, we were contract traced and quarantined. Not a great way to end a cruise, but we were fed, hydrated, and compensated. A great crew in The Retreat help us overlook this minor cruise snafu.

That name does not sound familiar. I seem to remember her being well-tenured with Celebrity. This encounter was on Celebrity Equinox in 2021. I need to keep better notes because my memory is obviously not serving me.

Great way to start a cruise. Lunch while you are still coming down from the initial high of boarding.

Luminae ~ If she is still on board, the female waitress from Mauritius is incredibly kind and sweet. I wish I could remember her name.

Park n go on Ellet’s drive is the best. Book in advance on their website for best price.

Thanks. I just read over that on their website. Really looking forward to the tasting menu after your description.

Same situation here. Did you get a $50 OBC for each of you? Oooo. Looking forward to Butchers Cut for sure.