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I am now on board and have a precise answer to my specific question for the history books. In 2020, on the NCL Star in the Garden villa it is very easy to attach your laptop to the TV. You just need an HDMI cable. The remote control for the TV in the main room is not hobbled/limited and you can simply press "source" on it to switch the signal to the HDMI cable. I hope this helps future travelers. 

12 hours ago, MisterBubba said:

This is the relevant part for the specialty dining package question. If only three people want mains from a specialty restaurant and all others want mains from the MDR then only three credits will be charged. 
 

We found the easiest way to get organized was to write down your order and from which restaurant it should come from so it could just be handed to the butler. All in all we probably only ate three or four meals not in our room when we stayed in the Star GV and the sailing was 14 days. 

I just love the sound of this! You make me so excited for this trip. The fact we can write down our order will make things so much easier than trying to do it over the phone. 

On 2/6/2020 at 7:39 PM, ggTexasGal said:

Greenpea2, that is what I was thinking as well.  But, then DH and I have never ordered meals to our (any) staterooms.

(Not even when we've been in Owner's Suites.)

If it were my desire to do as OP stated, I'd call the Pre-Cruise Concierge and ask some VERY SPECIFIC questions before investing in the Meal Packages as mentioned above.   But, it may be possible that some "rules" are overlooked for Garden Villas, especially if/when children are involved.

I don't want to break any rules! Don't worry. I know that for example I can't order 14-night package between and try and try and split the credits between two people. What I was hoping to do though is to be able to alternate which two of us (Mom and Dad vs Twins) is ordering from the speciality restaurant. Otherwise we will end up with far too much food!  Of course if that twin is the person ordering that will be their meal (not mine). The twins love steak so I thought it might be nice for them.  I can't guarantee I won't have a taste though occasionally 🙂

I think though you are right though that I will just check with the Butler on board about whether they feel comfortable with just 2 people ordering from speciality, and the other 2 ordering from room service before buying the two kids meal packages. 

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been so helpful on this thread. It is very much appreciated! 

1) I will download a universal remote control app.

2) I will ask my butler in case there is a secret remote. 

3) I will cross my fingers!

29 minutes ago, Greenpea2 said:

There might not be a problem since you will be in the GV, but I don't think you could count on it being allowed in a regular cabin or suite. I could be wrong--but some of what I have read indicates they can be strict on this...

 

So just to understand they don't allow generally for two people to order from a speciality dining for room service, and the other two people in the cabin to order from the regular room service menu at the same time? That is good to know. 

2 hours ago, ggTexasGal said:

Unless I am totally misunderstanding what you posted here, I want to warn you about this plan.

Purchasing a "10-night" dining plan CANNOT be split 2 x 5.  Each plan is only good for the person for whom it is purchased (or assigned, if part of Room Perks).

My plan was to purchase 2x10 night dining plans for my 12-year old twins. My rough idea was that would give us 2 nights where we could dine as a family (in Teppanyaki or Moderno) and use 4 credits for each meal. Then we would have left over 3x2 and 7x2 room service credits and we would use those to order room service. I must admit that I was thinking that on a few of those nights I was planning to  use credits for two people, and then the others order from regular room service, as it is a lot of food otherwise! 

Do you see a problem with this? I am not sure how they could enforce for in-room dining the idea that we couldn't sample from each other plates. 

28 minutes ago, laurabegorrah said:

The biggest thing to keep in mind with in room dinning is the wait time.  Especially if you are ordering from multiple different restaurants.  We went crazy one night and ordered from 4 different places for out party of 7 in the Gem GV).  It took over 2 hours for everything to get pulled together lol.  It wasn't an issue b/c weren't in a hurry...but with kids that might get cranky if meal time is late, you might want to warn your butler and order as early as possible!

 

The experience of in room dinning is wonderful though - your butler will serve you one course at a time.  It's not like hotel room service where they jsut wheel a cart in and leave.  It's more like a normal restaurant experience -  having a waiter serve you - just in your room

Thank you for the warning! We will focus our order each night from just one speciality restaurant then. This is a stupid question but were you able to get food from Moderno's delivered to the villa? I mean is there a way of saying bring me some "grilled pineapple, grilled pork, and grilled beef and rice" and then it happening. Probably not but I thought I would ask! 

1 hour ago, mdsgu said:

From what I can gather, it would not be a problem to have dinner in your suite.  Just set it up with your butler.  However, with that being said, I would encourage you to take your children to the MDR (or specialty restaurtants) for dinner.  It's a good experience for them.  We have been taking our children to the MDR, Le Bistro, and Moderno since the oldest was only 7 months old (he actually sat -- or lay, actually -- in his carrier at 7 months for 2 hours, quietly, while we had dinner in Le Bistro).  They are now 10 and 9.

Good on you! I have always liked the Norwegian MDR but on our most recent sailing on the NCL Gem we fell in a pattern of eating at the buffet with 3 of the kids, and then sometimes going "out" for a meal as a couple (with a baby) afterwards - and taking turns in jiggling the baby if he got impatient. Having said that some of my favorite experiences on cruises have us all being eating together as a family - but that was more on DCL rather than NCL where the service is a more kid-orientated.

This is very helpful. A long time ago on the dawn I got them to bring out a secret remote control to switch the inputs on our TV but that was just after the refurbishment and when they had removed the DVD players, and I got them to fix up a DVD player. 

We are very excited to be in a Garden Villa on the Star next week for a 14-night cruise. This is our first time in a villa. We are a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids). 

I am busy wondering whether it might be advisable to try and eat in our suite for dinner most of the time. I think I understand from the postings on this board that we can use our dining plan credits to get a meal from Cagney's delivered to the villa. Does anyone see any drawbacks of trying to get food from le bistro, cuchina and cagneys delivered to the villa rather than eating in the dining room. I am assuming that you can't get Moderno food delivered. 

We have eaten at these restaurants on the ncl dawn so I assume it will be similar as an experience. The pros to me of dining in the villa is that I won't have to worry about my 1-year old jumping around and disturbing people. The main con I can see is that it may feel like less of a "experience". 

Thank you for your responses. If it looks like a good idea, I will get a 10-night dining plan for my two older daughters, on top of our already included 5-night dining plan (for the parents). 

3 hours ago, zqvol said:

Generally those ports are blocked.

Thank you. I was looking at this image trying to see whether there was obvious sign of blocking and got hopeful.

I would like to link my laptop to the TV in my cabin on the NCL star. I know that usually they restrict the ability to select an av input on the TVs so people have to buy the  movies. However I got them to override the system in a suite on the dawn to add a DVD player back in 2015. Has anyblone had recent success?. I am imagining I would try and use an  HDMI cable. We are staying in the garden villa so get free movies so they won't lose money on this! 

This has been a very interesting discussion to read. My observation was for booking a 2021 cruise in YC in Feb from Rio. 

Thank you for the warning about the status match program potentially ending soon. I am going to try and see if I can get my Daughter's status on DCL matched before it does!

My husband just got matched to being a diamond on MSC. This used to be what was called black I believe. Interestingly he got matched to that from being platinum on DCL (you get this after 10 DCL cruises) which I suspect means we have cruised less than most people who get matched to diamond.

Anyway, I am a gold on MSC. Further we have two cabins booked because we have four kids with an adult allocated to each cabin. I understand he gets a tasting menu free. However,

I think reading the very long FAQ

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Assets/VC-Terms-102019.pdf

that I am not allowed to attend his dinner with him as I am not in the stateroom. However, I wondered in  practice whether that is enforced. 

8 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my cruise, I cruise for the ports anyway, I will use MSC again but it will not be my first choice.

 

The main reasons were the entertainment and dining, for me those are the most important areas on a cruise.

 

The dining was disappointing primarily as the MDR is a Buffet for breakfast and lunch where they really don't want to serve you and would rather you got your own food, when the food finally arrived after a long wait (I don't do buffet in MDR) it was poor quality as it had been hanging around, often cold. 

Dinner was much better as we had a dedicated waiter and nobody was trying to avoid servicing you but, the food choices were also very limited, breakfast worst but alone at lunch and dinner, Goulash, Irish stew and curry were the weeks highlights. 

 

For entertainment, I never miss a show, and I found them very disappointing, every night had a theme but the format was pretty much to belt out songs in an operatic style. All the songs were in english language, for instance they has a Queen tribute night and a 60s/70s/80s night.

Around the ship the entertainment was almost non existent, the activities they did have were almost exclusively based around the pool or at an extra cost like bingo.

 

I did a detailed overview here:

 

Thank you for the most excellent review - I had read it before (there aren't that many reviews) and it is incredibly useful. 

We said we would never cruise MSC again after our 2018 cruise, but I am back again because I am so excited by the itinerary! We had some specific service issues which freaked us out but the more minor (but generally applicable issues for us) for us were:

- Buffet was a fight club. 

- Food for dinner not that good.  The waiters kept on offering us HP sauce. 

- Trivia offerings were poor to non-existent.

- I thought the best show was the opera show. The other shows struck us as rather dated and rather sexist.  

- Pools were very salty. 

- Kids Counselors were irritated at having to deal with English-speaking kids. 

However, as I am envisaging that this boat will be party Caipirinha-land  most of the moans should  not be an issue. And we can eat at boring family-friendly times to avoid too many crowds in the buffet. 

Like you we tend to go NCL. And they would definitely win over MSC for us, but they are not offering anything like this for this itinerary so we are back! 

2 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

 

Edit:

My cruise was far from the best but in no way due to any of the other guests onboard.

Are you able to say a little more? I am sorry it was not all great.

I was wondering if anyone has taken one of the MSC cruises along the Brazilian coast. I have tried to read the reviews and I get this impression or perhaps caricature:

1)  Lining up (queuing) will not work in the way that is customary to North Americans

2) There will be lots of late night partying around the pool. 

3) 99% of the people will be Brazilian and speak Portuguese. English will be very rarely spoken. 

I am optimistically interpreting this to simply mean there will be lots of Caipirinhas and happiness. 

How accurate is this and what other things might be different from  your typical North American cruise?  

The reason we are taking this cruise is that it is scheduled to take place over Carnival and heading up to Salvador for Fat Tuesday itself in 2021. So I imagine all of the above may be intensified! 

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

I believe you are in the minority. Usually the complainers on anything seem to be the majority on posting. This doesn't seem to be true concerning the YC. I've sailed the YC on the Divina and loved it, but would no longer consider the YC since they cheapened the product, so in essense, raised the price. I've sailed in Aurea, and enjoyed that, and am booked Fantatica on the Meraviglia, and expect to enjoy that too.

How did they cheapen the product? Are you thinking of adding interiors to the yacht club room roster? 

17 hours ago, Fogfog said:

YC prices have gone up

They don't restrict kids... (adults only) Wish is was adults only

They have made cutbacks on the premium package as well as the minibar in the room 

Food and service can be spotty

Some rave about it. Some gripe

Prices on many lines have skyrocketed 

 

The poor reviews of Havens dining room (small, waiting for tables etc) turned us away

 

 

I am not a fan of the YC (despite being on the board), and happy to pay a 40% premium to be on NCL or DCL as a family. And indeed have done so since our last two experiences of YC. 

But it strikes me that for many people's needs and wants the YC may be preferable to the NCL haven as well as being substantially cheaper.

I guess there are three theories:

1) There are more people like us who would probably have need a 40% discount relative to NCL or their cruiseline of choice to think about doing MSC/YC if their favored line offered the same itinerary. I generally think of myself in the minority as not being an MSC/YC fan but perhaps I am not.  

2)  They are still building up brand loyalty. 

3) They are not very good with pricing. 

47 minutes ago, Linda the Book Lover said:

B2B prices in the YC are terrific in comparison to the Haven.

2 hours ago, Formula280SS said:

 

Our MSC Yacht Club price history (for two) on cruises completed 2017-2018-2019 (image) and upcoming 2020 is $8,856 for Meraviglia B2B for two also; $2,214 PP per week.

 

They do seem to be holding very steady to me. Unlike any other cruise line we contemplate! 

3 hours ago, dexddd said:

NCL has pretty much a lock on the Boston to Bermuda route for years and can charge what they want, especially for suites.  I know Gamblinrose goes every year in a suite and bikeratsea has snagged several last minute deals for $299 on shoulder season.  NCL made change to Gem to shake things up a bit for that route imo.

If MSC does read these boards, then it would seem to me a good idea to get inspired to check out the Boston market. Lots of people, who are willing to pay a lot of money, without much choice! And I am sure they would love the YC. Having said that NCL is also expensive out of NYC (though on newer ships). 

I have always just booked a suite at NCL directly without bidding. We have mainly sailed on NCL out of Boston to Bermuda. And on those cruises all the suites do tend to sell out during the summer months even at the "sucker rates". So typically you are paying around $12-14k for a 7 night cruise in a 2-bedroom suite. And that would be on the Gem which is an old ship.

Though that seems high it often seem a better value than DCL. On DCL for a 7-night cruise in two oceanview rooms we are paying around $13k on the Fantasy. 

I don't mean to suggest that YC is cheap in an absolute sense. Just that its pricing is cheap or apparently good-value compared to other lines for us even though we are getting two cabins. So it must seem great value relatively if you are a couple.  And I had thought that their plan must be to bring the pricing up into line with the other lines at some point. But they don't seem to have done that yet. 

We booked on MSC for two cruises in the Western Med in 2018 on the Fantasia and Merigavalia. We did so because the YC seemed amazing value relative to the NCL Haven. It was around $7k relative to $10k for our party of 6.  What was remarkable too is that it was so cheap given that we had to book two cabins in YC rather than all sharing a suite as we do on NCL. For a couple it must seem a huge bargain relative to a haven suite on NCL. It was also remarkable because if you made the same booking for YC from the UK MSC website it was around $13k, so it seemed clear they had big discounts for the USA. 

Now we didn't love MSC (though the ports were amazing) and I personally vowed to not go on it again, but I think we are tempted to do so in 2021 for their Brazilian itinerary which looks superb. I was expecting that the prices for US folks would have risen in the last 3 years. But I just made a booking and it still seemed remarkably cheap relative to NCL haven/suites. Just really an observational post. But I am surprised that they haven't raised prices for YC now they are more established in the US market and because (as is clear on this forum) the YC has generated so much positive buzz in the US.

 (It is also far cheaper than regular oceanview cabins on DCL and  sky/star class on RCI but that is less surprising to me given how established their brands are)

Even when we were in the Mediterranean they didn't like to set up high tea in the YC and we had to battle for it! So I am not sure if it is just Brazil. Well done on getting it. It was by far our favorite thing about the YC and MSC.  Did they have a tea trolley that allowed you to select your particular brand of tea? 

Key advise is to rent your own car in each destination where possible. It just makes things a lot easier and gives you more flexibility.