RichYak

As I was researching future potential cruises, another big Retreat vs YC difference came to mind, so I'm reviving this thread to share it. The nice thing about sailing in Celebrity's M- and S-class Retreat is the manageable number of suite cabins. Fewer Retreat guests equates to higher overall service. The downside is the retrofitted spaces sprinkled throughout the ship or carved out of the main dining area; no dedicated pool; and, on some ships, no outdoor space at all. Celebrity's E-class solves the dedicated space problems but at the cost of a massive number of Retreat cabins. I was one and done on Edge. Luminae was like a factory and the sundeck was too small--queue the chair hogs. I found myself missing the intimacy of the smaller Retreat on S- and M- class. As I research potential future YC sailings for me, I find that I don't have to make that frustrating Sophie's choice of ship class like with Celebrity. There are plenty of MSC ships that have 90-100 manageable YC cabins with seemingly sufficient space for everyone.

With the suggestion by @Até to look at each ship's Technical Sheets, I'm able to answer my own question. I now know to exclude Seashore, Seascape and World-class ships from my searches for future YC sailings. Name Class Year YC Cabins Divina Fantasia 2012 69 Preziosa Fantasia 2013 69 Fantasia Fantasia 2008 71 Splendida Fantasia 2009 71 Seaside Seaside 2017 86 Seaview Seaside 2018 86 Meraviglia Mera 2017 95 Bellissima Mera 2019 95 Grandiosa Mera 2019 95 Virtuosa Mera 2021 103 Euribia Mera 2023 103 Seashore Seaside 2021 131 Seascape Seaside 2022 131 World Europa World 2022 152

Very true. I’m not going to Europe to stay on a cruise ship on a port day. Thanks EM!

Someone mentioned that daily muster drill activity and announcements could get tiresome.

Awesome! That’s very helpful, thanks.

Thanks for your helpful post. I'm not sure how I feel about the "bus stop" sailings. There's certainly an advantage to embarking and disembarking at the port of your choice. But I can't get a real sense of how disruptive that might feel during the cruise.

Arthur is the best for sure.

Will do.

Thanks, these are helpful comments. I couldn't find any YC cabin counts on MSC's website aside from pulling up deck plans and counting--which is what I'm hopeful to avoid. I sort of did in real time, but on the Celebrity board, and in an existing thread with other comparisons. I'm happy to repackage my comments and post here as a standalone thread if people think it might be helpful. Here's a link to that thread. My comparison begins on page 6. The link should take you straight to that page.

We are generally Celebrity Retreat cruisers who just sailed in YC for the first time on Meraviglia. We are sold. YC appears to be a far better product in just about every way. While onboard, we had a conversation with Arthur, the Maitre 'd, which has spurred this question. He mentioned in passing that he loved Meraviglia because of the size of the Yacht Club. His last contract was on a ship that I can't recall, but he said YC was too big and he didn't feel like he could do as effective a job. As a Celebrity Retreat cruiser, this resonated with me. Their new Edge Class ships have nicer facilities, especially the Retreat Sundeck, but there's just too many Suite guests. The older ships have inferior facilities but fewer suite guests and it shows in service levels. It's very much a catch-22 choice and I think it's one of the things that set YC on Meraviglia apart from any Retreat experience I've had. I sacrificed nothing. So finally, my question. Is there a list posted somewhere of how many YC cabins there are on each MSC ship? Or more generally if it's easier, are there ships where YC is less intimate because it's too big, like whatever ship Arthur was referring to?

Top Sail Lounge is on Deck 16, not 14. I can confirm that there is a "secret door" on the starboard side. Not sure about port side. Yes

I think IV is a great cabin choice for an Alaskan cruise. I would stick with what you have.

Yes. This new procedure began about the same time Celebrity was Revolutionizing older ships. As I recall, the process was implemented first on new and revolutionized ships, then expanded to unrevolutionized ships. You pick up your seapass card from the mail slot outside your cabin--not in the terminal, drop your bags in the cabin, then move about the ship until rooms are ready.

No one is saying that making reservations can't be done in the cruise planner. What people are saying is that oftentimes MDR reservations are ignored by E-class ships, in your case, Apex. Just be advised that the work you did in making careful dinner reservations might be for naught.

I actually was comparing the cruise only versus "all included" rates for another type of cabin, Aqua. The difference on those was approximately double what the discount is for Zeniths. Understood. In reality, the difference should be greater for Retreat cruise only since they are removing premium beverage and premium wifi—not classic and regular.

It must be true. I read it in a Captain’s Club email. 🙄

This is too much stress. Just think about it this way: the classic package gives you a $10 discount ($17 discount with premium) on each beer/wine/cocktail you order. Worrying about what is or isn't "included" aka less than $10 is too much work. If you're going to be drinking mostly premium cocktails with top shelf liquor, or regularly ordering premium water, then it probably makes $ense get the premium beverage package. Otherwise, stick with the classic and drink whatever you want.

Isn't this true of any Celebrity cruise only rate? Why would it be different for the Retreat?

They've been discounting it for years via the move-up program. I would assume they've run the numbers to make this an easy decision: selling more suites at cruise-only rate to Zeniths probably results in more revenue than filling those same cabins with move-ups. Everybody wins, except those hoping for move-up luck.

"Demand has been increasing" can be a nebulous phrase. It could simply mean they have more bookings year over year. They also have more capacity to fill with new ships, so if bookings were the same as last year, that would be really bad, and more bookings would not necessarily be good unless it was a LOT more. I'm just not sure how RCG actually defines "demand".

Same bartender?

All I can say is, WOW! What an incredible response from Mustafa. This was very well handled IMO.

No doubt. And nothing I wrote was meant to imply that you couldn't have memorable times on a cruise outside a bar. If it came across that way, it was not my intent.

We feel the same about productions shows, and karaoke, and casinos, and bingo... the list goes on. A bar is a gathering spot, a natural conversation starter. It's a way to meet people. If you walk into a lounge and there's only one person in there sitting on the right, you naturally sit way on the left so you don't invade their personal space. If you walk into a bar, you start a conversation with that one person. It's natural. The 3 most fun evenings I can recall on any cruise ship were at the Sunset Bar on Edge, at the Martini Bar on Millennium, and standing at the no-seats bar in Summit's Retreat Lounge. There were 6 or 7 couples congregating at that small bar along with the best and most entertaining bartender ever. We were all whooping it up and having a great time. All these great memories were started with meeting other couples at the bar.

You see, and I was going to say that's a long list of "cons" for a cruise that exceeded expectations and was amazing but I refrained. Oh oops, I just wrote it didn't I 😂