Stem to Stern

Do have any intel as to which vodka and gin are poured during Elite HH?

Enjoying your report. I hope you are doing okay after the fall.

Yacht Club Interior Suite bathroom pics. Plenty of space for us. I did not get a pic of weird, trapezoidal shaped sink. Small Med by MSC mildly fig-scented toiletries, hand soap, and wash clothes. Yacht Club crest embroidered on bath towel. Shower has a glass door and two grab bars. Choice of rain shower head or hose. Second longer grab bar shown at left. Large Med by MSC toiletries. My own loofa and Bulgari shower gel. Same squarish on-trend faucet shapes as revolutionized Summit Sky Suite bathroom. Careful with the hot setting. It is very hot. Rust. Professional measurement of trapezoidal shower footprint. I did not bring a tape measure. The shower was small, but not a problem for either of us. Plenty of headroom for my 6’2” stature under the rain shower head. No drainage issues. There are huge open showers in the thermal area of the MSC Aurea Spa. I presume there was at least one shower in the men’s changing room, but I did not take close enough note of the facilities. If one were to consider showering in the spa, then a journey into the Gen Pop and an elevator ride down to Deck 8 would be required and rather inconvenient.

There is a final wrap up post coming. In the meantime let’s discuss some of the valid suggestions posted recently. The notion that we may have had a closer to stellar experience had our booking been in a YC on board a smaller, older, more seasoned MSC ship such as Divina does give me pause. It was from Divina that GenX first wrote of her inaugural whirlwind romance with YC. According to a fellow Yacht Clubber on our sailing in her recent review on the MSC boards, our YC Director did acknowledge to her that he does glance at the CC boards. So, maybe crew were instructed to shower GenX with healthy doses of 6-star service knowing she had a live blog in progress. I would be curious to learn actual YC booking numbers garnered by MSC Cruises from her influence. The other notion was that we may have had a more enjoyable time in a larger YC suite other than our 226 square foot interior. This is the number on msccruisesusa.com but I did not take any measurements. There is some validity to the notion that an interior stateroom negates the idea of luxury. After all, on land isn’t an oceanview room the optimal choice? Personally I was not bothered by the interior other than the whooshing noises in the middle of the night. I slept and showered there. That’s it. The room had all my necessities and a continuous supply of swag. Sure it would have been nice to fling the curtains and sliding door open every morning and let the sun and salty air pour in, but for another $2K I can pay for a large part of another vacation. I can rationalize just about anything, but $2K for a balcony on a 7-night cruise on a new-to-us line not so much. DH on the other hand tends to linger in the room slightly longer. He also suffers slight anxiety from the closed in feeling of the interior. Neither of us spend much time in there reading or watching tv or taking meals. If your mindset is more like mine, then you may appreciate these pics of the interior suite. I will put the bathroom pics in a separate post. Coffee machine as found blocking all of the outlets. There was an additional bedside USB outlet. Phone, shelves with tea bags and coffee pods. One drawer stowed stemware and other barware. Sturdy chair and very bright overhead lighting. DND button pushed. Outside the door the corresponding light illuminated for the crew’s awareness. Make up room button pushed. Room card inserted in slot inside door. This is how power is restored to stateroom including lights and power outlets. Don’t try to charge your phone if one of you doesn’t leave their card in the slot. Light switch. Easy to feel in the dark.😂 Thermostat. Sadly, no numbers so bring a thermometer with you if you care to know the actual room temperature. This was not an issue for us. Do any ships actually show the temp? Fancy leatherette tv remote case. I impress easily.😂 Non-hanging side of closet. Safe. Closet drawer. Outlets hidden behind coffee machine. We brought a multi-outlet cord and moved the coffee machine out of the way. Chrome wall hooks just inside door of suite. Daily newspaper of your choosing. We already subscribe digitally to Washington Post. Bottom of newspaper was cut off so bottom line of crossword was missing. I improvised. More a figment of my amusement than a first world problem. Another suite’s complimentary newspaper left behind in Top Sail Lounge. I was shocked at the thickness of the newspaper which translated as excessively indulgent and wasteful in my mind. Our hallway. Framed black-and-white photography at end of hallway. Second obligatory pic of fancy remote holder on gray and green toned bed runner.

Good to know. We have 699 days to educate ourselves on the Elite HH inclusions. We can hold out until 5:00pm if I can have Smirnoff cosmos and DH can have Tanqueray martinis. Then, we will be good. I will take a hard pass on the HH wines unless Columbia Crest Merlot is being poured. That is one on the Classic Package that I do enjoy.☺️

I do have an interest in art and design. Thank you for the recommendation. Would this tour be something available on Beyond? Free or for a fee?

The pleasure was all mine. Enjoy your time in the YC. Oh, and the tiramisu tasted as amazing as it looked.😊

We are booked cruise only. Had to in order to stay on budget. This will be our first booking without a bev pkg since our first cruise together on 2014. We will carry my wine on board, take full advantage of Elite happy hour, and pay for DH’s martinis. We shall see if the reduction in alcohol consumption results in less weight gain. Of course, I have 699 days to cave and add the bev pkg on a flash sale.😉

Yes!! And while we are at it, let’s make sure we ask about a tour of the bridge.😜

Thank you! I will pass your very kind words along to the chef in the morning. He did not make it to midnight. This was our dessert on Christmas Day. His 88 year old mother made the request and he was happy to oblige. Happy New Year!!!

This is what we are hoping for. We are booked in Sunset Verandahs for our first two E-class bookings coming up in 2024 and 2025. It took us long enough. We are looking forward to trying out the various public spaces and the four main dining rooms. We most likely will not invest in any specialty dining other than one meal in Eden.

Excellent point and I am in total agreement with you. Not having been in The Retreat on board an E-class ship I can only go by the many unfavorable reviews of the larger, impersonal, more bustling, culinarily deficient E-class Luminae. These adjectives also accurately describe Yacht Club Restaurant. Luminae on Summit was never crowded and usually quiet and peaceful depending on who was in there. Yacht Club Restaurant at dinner was much the opposite. Lunch wasn’t as bad. We are eager to try E-class next year and again in 2025, but we won’t be in Luminae unless we submit a successful Move up bid. We can’t justify the current high prices and reduced perks in The Retreat. Thanks for reading.

I had the opportunity to browse through my camera roll, chat with DH, and reflect on our twelve nights side-by-side on two different vessels. MSC Seascape’s Yacht Club and Celebrity Summit’s The Retreat are two very different experiences. MSC excelled at creating a Yacht Club on board its Sea ships that is a true ship-within-a-ship experience. We enjoyed a spacious, fully-encapsulated, indoor/outdoor resort enclave. Our major beef (pun intended) in YC was the Yacht Club Restaurant falling short of our culinary expectations. Personally I found it easier to overlook the food having been a pushover for the new experience; the fantastic, almost all-inclusive cruise fare; the YC pampering; and all of the MSC Voyagers Club swag. DH, on the other hand, is the cook in our household. This Irish bloke conjures up a mean bolognese and a to-die-for tiramisu. So, it is safe to say he had high hopes for this Italian cruise line’s dining experiences. DH’s tiramisu. MSC has a very hard-working crew. However some bar and wait servers we encountered lacked confidence, experience, professionalism, and showmanship. There were a few shining stars in the YC including our butler Renuka, our stateroom attendant Ainul, TSL waitperson Kimberly, and grill waiter Chandan. I was really starting to get settled into the day-to-day life of MSC Yacht Club by the time Day 7 rolled around despite the three or four shortfalls mentioned throughout this thread. MSC designed the YC on Seascape in such a way that I did not feel like I ever had to leave. The expansive One Pool sundeck and plush Top Sail Lounge provided the necessary living spaces to either mingle and socialize or nest alone. MSC Grill and Bar was adjacent to the One Pool and provided an adequate Al fresco spread during breakfast, lunch, and tea hours. DH was not nearly as enamored with the YC experience as I was. He was fairly impressed by the initial impressions with the white welcome tent with the rolled-out YC blue carpet, the wristbands, the butlers, and the splashy ship decor. But uninspired food and a few poorly crafted cocktails slightly soured his glee. So, time will tell whether I will convince him to return to MSC Yacht Club. MSC Yacht Club’s deficiencies were emphasized even more so when we moved over to The Retreat where we were blown away by nearly everything we tasted and most of the crew. From the moment we stepped into the suites waiting room of the Celebrity terminal prior to embarking Summit and saw the fabulous spread of eats and drinks, we knew we just arrived home. By the way there was no spread to speak of in the MSC terminal that I am aware of. Although it was nice to experience a new line and a new suite experience, returning to The Retreat did not disappoint.👍👍 The whole change in Celebrity's butler situation did not have a tremendous negative effect on us. We are the type that enjoy the walk to the cafe every morning to fetch our own coffees. We have never dined in suite unless we were quarantined. And I would never allow someone else to unpack my belongings or worse yet draw my bath. Good grief.😫 But it was nice to be looked after by our own personal butler in the Yacht Club. YC set a tone of pampering with the butler, the stateroom attendant, the daily in-suite treats and surprises, and the concierge desk. If they could now just seek to impress in the Yacht Club Restaurant. The tone in the restaurant remains more main dining room and less specialty restaurant. On board Summit Luminae’s food, staff, and atmosphere read specialty restaurant full stop. Did we feel pampered in The Retreat? Well, I would prefer to call it “low-key attentiveness.” I am not even sure who The Retreat manager was. I think we may have met him in passing, but I am not positive. If that was him, he seemed a bit shy and failed to introduce himself. The Retreat Concierges were available if needed, but not overflowing with congeniality. Personally I found the true faces and shining stars of The Retreat to be Luminae Maitre D Serdar, Luminae waitpersons Andy and Anna, and The Retreat Lounge bartender Karla. The Retreat spaces are beautiful, but on Millennium-class ships they are retrofitted from existing Pre-Retreat spaces scattered throughout the ship. I will clarify that The Retreat Lounge is not nearly as beautiful as Luminae and lacks functional, adult-sized furniture. This is not breaking news.😂 Walking from The Retreat Lounge to Luminae involves a walk through the casino, Martini Bar, and Rendezvous Lounge. This was not an issue for us because we enjoy the walk and the lively atmosphere of these spaces. In contrast YC Restaurant was directly upstairs from Top Sail Lounge. Although we witnessed several fellow Yacht Clubbers requiring assistance up the stairs by crew. The elevator (and the nearest rest room) was an inconvenient long walk down the hall from TSL and then a long walk back to YCR. I have not discussed The Retreat Sundeck at great length since we spent barely a few minutes enjoying it. The gale force winds were just too much for us. The space is pretty simple in design. I found the bottles of sunscreen to be a nice touch. I only took a few pics.😢 Comparing the deck plans of the two ships reveals The One Pool sundeck trumps The Retreat Sundeck multi-fold. Although with almost triple the residents it should be larger. Pics of The One Pool sundeck on Deck 20. Liquor secured after hours. Larger forward YC jacuzzi with plastic fish sculpture. Other similar plastic sculptures were found throughout YC.🤪 The other YC jacuzzi. Food porn alert.😉 Pics of breakfast buffet at MSC Yacht Club Grill and Bar.😋

Thank you for remembering Chandan’s name. He was a very good waitperson at the grill. He hustled, took drink orders as soon as we sat down, and delivered them promptly and with a smile.😊

Seascape Side Note: Before disembarking Seascape on the morning of December 16th, we returned to our suite 18029 to retrieve our bags and our butler Renuka for our escort. The door to Handicapped MSC Yacht Club Deluxe Suite 18035 was propped open. Renuka said I could have a look. The suite was very spacious. It featured a sofa, two chairs, and a coffee table indoors. The gorgeous curved, forward-facing balcony housed two padded loungers like the ones on the YC Sundeck. All of the Yacht Club suite doors were adorned with identical holiday wreaths.

Two videos shot from Summit Sky Suite 6120 on Saturday, December 16th during sailaway. IMG_0827.mov First one sailing beside MSC Seascape. IMG_0832.mov Second one sailing by the new MSC Terminal currently under construction.

If it is the drink package you are referring to, then yes drinks can be ordered at any bar outside the Yacht Club and on Ocean Cay.

Four minutes of the incredible Miami skyline filmed at 4am on turnaround day Saturday, December 16th from my quiet corner of the Yacht Club Sundeck on Deck 20 facing aft. Uploading from iPhone camera roll to Cruise Critic at home on Comcast Blast WiFi just now took just a few minutes. IMG_0717.mov

Tomorrow's weather forecast here in SWFL is calling for cloudy conditions and a high temperature of 65 degrees, so my plans to catch up on my yard chores that I have been ignoring all this month will likely be preempted once my nose gets to cold. Therefore, I might get to some catch up posts and finally a wrap up summary and comparison of the two experiences.

Sorry, Rosie. I never got to your question about other menus in YC Restaurant. I was either having too much fun on board or I got caught in reading about New England crab cakes and lobster rolls in this thread. I never took the opportunity to inquire as to whether or not we had the option of ordering from any other menus other than the YC Restaurant menu. The ordering atmosphere sometimes felt a bit rushed and impersonal. This may have contributed to the reasons why we just stuck to the YCR menu. There always seemed to be items listed that looked appealing in print. They just were not always executed to the point of excitement and delight. I believe YCR has its own kitchen adjacent, but I really do not know how the whole food prep operation is facilitated. Hopefully, someone else with prior YC experience that is reading this can chime in about additional menus and special requests. Once we joined you on our second leg on Summit, I had to chuckle to myself when Andy would bring the stack of Luminae, Blu, and MDR menus every night. But the reality of the situation is that among the four of us I would take a wild guess that nearly half of all of our selections probably came from the Blu and MDR menus. Not that I ever had a night that I could not find anything on the Luminae menu, but having all of those additional choices was nice. I don't think one could tell a quality difference comparing a MDR selection with one from the Luminae menu. I also do not believe any of us ever felt the pace of the Luminae meals was either too fast or too slow. It was juuuust right.

Revisiting your original question which I do not believe was addressed. Inside the Yacht Club on Seascape there was rarely a moment when we experienced any kind of queue. A couple of times when we turned up at the Maitre D desk at YC Restaurant there were two maybe three couples in line ahead of us, but everyone was seated within a couple minutes. The YC Concierge desk always had at least two people behind the counter, so I never saw a line there either.

I would love to have that recipe.

Not being a smoker I am unable to identify all of the smoking areas on this ship. In YC there only seemed to be a handful of smokers. After sailing on MSC one of the things DH pointed out about the Summit pool deck is that the smokers are confined to a very small shaded corner of the pool deck. There are other areas on Summit, but the pool deck alcove is tiny considering how large the pool deck is. In contrast the smoking area on the YC Sundeck was quite a large area of tables and chairs equivalent in size to the area of non-smoking tables and chairs on the opposite side of the Sundeck dedicated to the Al fresco buffet dining area. Of course there is always one or two fellow passengers that intentionally or unintentional failed to recognize the intended designated boundaries of the smoking area. Since the smoking area included very few if any loungers, a few smokers and vapers strayed into adjacent non-smoking areas some of which were too near the forward jacuzzi I liked to enjoy. The other outdoor smoking area in YC is half of the terrace of the Top Sail Lounge. Smoking is not allowed in any interior YC spaces. I understand, anyone please confirm, smokers have been banished from the casino. To compensate a room adjacent to the sports bar has been designated as a smoking allowed gaming room which appeared to just have slots.

Sorry George. I am just now rereading and noticing some of the questions I have not responded to. I guess I was having fun. I did not even get a pic of a wine list. We are not wine snobs, but I can’t help but give side eye to a sommelier when I see them coming toward me with a $10 open bottle of rose when I ordered a glass of Whispering Angel. True story from YC Restaurant.😫 Not being wine connoisseurs we went with the flow in YC. Dinner sometime followed copious quantities of pre-dinner cocktails which could have had a slight effect on my dinner wine palate.🤪 Maybe your question on the eve of our Summit embarkation was a foreshadowing to my Luminae wine upcharge debacle.🤣 I am not sure what quantity of any wine is allowed to be carried on board an MSC ship.