eagletwo

Butchers Cut is hit or miss. Our last cruise on Seashore in July, food and service were excellent.

We have been fortunate to sail in the YC four times. Never understood why MSC placed Ocean House on the worst beach on Ocean Cay. 

The Catch by Rudi on the Sky Princess, Nov. 2023 was way better than eating in the Steak house. Just my 2 cents.

3 hours ago, SirWolf said:

 

YC Staterooms not being occupied could have various reasons:

- Last minute cancellation by the guest

- Upgrade of guests from Deluxe to RS

- Left intentionally vacant for maintenance

- Reserved for MSC Management Staff and they changed their plans

🤷🏻‍♂️ .. only MSC knows ..

Good point. But the cabins remained empty. Your four points are good, but not the case on this cruise. I even checked with the concierge desk and they confirmed the empty cabins.  

5 hours ago, Mike C said:

In the past, we have been able to upgrade on board from a YC interior to Deluxe Balcony through the concierge for about $75 per day.  I just read a post on FB that there is a new policy in place that you must pay the difference between the fare you paid and the going rate for the balcony.  Has anyone experienced this?  Thanks

We sailed on the Seashore in July in a YC interior. Asked the Concierge about upgrading the morning we boarded. After sail away, we received a call and was told the upgrade was available for $1900 to a Deluxe Balcony. With the price of the interior plus $1900, this would have been the same price we could have paid at the time of booking. We declined. Our Butler told us that they had 4 Deluxe Balcony's empty the entire week. As others have observed, maybe MSC is trying to be fair to those who paid full price?

In Oct of 2022, we sailed on the Meraviglia out of Port Canaveral. We had booked a Fantasica Balcony and put in a bid for a YC Deluxe Balcony using the on-line bidding system. Two days before departure, we received an email that our bid had been accepted. We ended up getting the YC Deluxe Balcony for the price of a YC interior cabin. Great deal!

Been following Walter for a while. He has great content. My wife and I will sail on the Islander on December 13th. We hope to have a great time. 

We have sailed on the Meraviglia twice, both times in the YC. Wonderful ship. Not sure where the negative reviews come from. We have also sailed on the Davina and Seashore in the YC. We thought the layout on the Meraviglia with the central promenade was wonderful. Meraviglia has a smaller YC bar area, but it is still nice.

Deck 14 will be below the buffet and some of the pools, so it is a short climb on the stairs to access these locations.  Not sure of your location, possible noise from deck chairs being put out in the early am? I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

We sailed on the Seashore July 21 in the YC. Arrived at the terminal at 11:00 am, dropped off luggage at the YC tent, went through security and was at the YC lounge/check-in area by 11:10 am. Escorted to the Top Sail lounge by 11:30 am. We used a parking service shuttle and traffic was slow getting into the port.

10 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

I did this last fall on a different line (CCL), sounds very similar  - steep stairs and all.

Do you mind telling us what you paid and where did you sign up?

We pre-booked on-line for one tour $46 (laundry and kitchen) as the other tour did not let you know what day it would take place. Once on board, we went to the YC concierge desk and added to second tour and paid the difference. I think it was $100 total pp.

9 hours ago, mushroom said:

I want to do this onboard experience - visiting behind the scenes - but the tour description lists the activity level as "strenuous".  If you've done this tour can you explain a bit more about what amount of physical activity is involved?  I sure would appreciate it.  

We did the behind the scenes tour on Seashore last week. There are two separate ones or a combined bridge, engineering, laundry and kitchens done on two separate days. We did the combined tour. First tour was on a sea day, second tour was the second morning at Ocean Cay. There were a lot of steep steps going down to the laundry area which for some folks might be a challenge, you have to go both ways. We did enjoy the tours and thought it was well worth the money.

Really gives you a good look at what it takes to run a large ship and how hard the folks work you never see. The ship bakes all of its own bread and makes all of the pasta. The dry and cold stores are huge. Never seen so many sacks of rice and flour. You are given a list of what the ship uses in one week for food and beverage, amazing. I was amazed that the sheets used on the ship are replaced every two months due to the constant washing. The sheet drying machine that folds the sheets was cool. Towels are also auto folded. Small hand towels are folded by hand, 5-8 men at a station spend a lot of time folding your wash clothes and face towels, discarding the stained towels which go to the cleaning staff and engine room to use. As a side note, it can be hard to understand each of the officers/department heads explaining how everything works in each area. English is not their first language and it was hard to understand some of the descriptions on how everything worked, especially in the noisy areas of the laundry and kitchen. Every department head/officer were great and you could tell they were proud of their areas. Every area we visited was super clean!!

10 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

How do you book an accessible room by mistake?  It's clearly shown on deck plans.

That being said, the $1900 sounds SUPER HIGH once onboard, though I do understand that giving up a YIN-HC on the day of the sailing doesn't do anything for anyone - it's not like they are going to ask around - hey, does anyone who needed an accessible room but didn't get it want to switch?  

It's called not paying attention when you hit the book the cabin, my bad.

We just got off the Seashore this morning. The announcement was made at 7:53 am to remind all passengers to be out of their cabins by 8:00 am. Depending on the deck location and what category of room you booked, walk offs were leaving the ship at 7:30 am, airport shuttle passengers at 8:00 am, Yacht Club guests about the same (we were escorted off the ship, got our bags, cleared Customs and boarded our parking shuttle by 8:17 am.) Some passengers on deck 5 had a disembarkation time of 10:30 am. 

We just got home after a great cruise on the Seashore, Interior cabin. We booked a handicap cabin by mistake, 18037. Our butler, Emanuel, met us as soon as we got to the cabin. He covered everything the Yacht Club offered and what his services included. He was outstanding all week. Whatever we needed he took care of it. Nice to be escorted to dinner at the specialty restaurants and off the ship on port days.
 

Day one, upon arrival at deck 16, we stopped by the concierge desk to let them know we did not need the handicap cabin and would be happy to upgrade to a balcony cabin if the price was reasonable.  At 9 pm on boarding day, we received a call about the upgrade…$1900 for the balcony. I offered $1000 and MSC declined. Balcony stateroom remained empty the entire cruise, confirmed by the butler staff. 
 

18037 was a lot larger than we expected and the bathroom was huge to accommodate a wheelchair. We did enjoy the cabin. This is our 4th YC cruise and first interior YC cabin. 

3 hours ago, Captain Zippyjet said:

I'm cruising on the Seascape in a couple months. I have two questions please:

1. Bidding for upgraded cabin: 

    I'm on MSC's E-Mail page so I get all the promotional announcements. I bid for a balcony cabin their minimum USD amount. When will I find out if my bid was accepted? This will be my third MSC cruise and I was able to get balcony's on my first two sailings. As of now I'm in for a guaranteed cabin interior. (Cheapest/Easiest) also cruising solo. 

 

2. Not as big a deal but, I'm doing Duolingo Spanish and am on a serious streak. When I cruise, I don't get Internet. Ask my loved ones and friends, when not on vacation I live online. My cruise is seven nights. Did I mention I'm doing the FREE Duolingo Spanish program. Any ideas so I don't lose my streak? I've looked online but the information pertains to paid Duolingo. Please and thank you. I'm hoping one of y'all has a cruise hack for Duolingo.

 Voy a hacer un Crucero MSC

 

 

 

 

 

We found out our bid was accepted two days before departure. 

42 minutes ago, Rfoderaro said:

The MSC website is terrible. The app isn't much better, and MSC know about it. It's really hard, if not impossible to sign into the website with your Voyagers Club membership. However, if you have already booked, you can sign into "Manage your Trip" using your cruise booking number.

I get logged out of the app as well. But when it works, it still doesn't seem as useful or functional as other Cruiseline  apps, like Celebrity.

Personally, I don't understand how a huge company like MSC, with gorgeous ships, can have such crappy IT.

I feel the same way about IT on Princess. Both lines could do so much better with their apps.

Having cruised Carnival, MSC and Princess, the pizza in Alfredo’s has always been good. MSC pizza was also good. Carnival…never could get to the pizza station to get pizza, lines were too long and I didn’t want to pay extra to have it delivered. Who has the best pizza at sea? Well, from someone who lives in SC and has limited options for pizza, I am not the best to judge. We do have a few places that say they serve NY style pizza and they are good. All I ask on a ship is for fresh, hot thin crust pizza with good cheese and toppings. MSC Seashore in 10 days, we will check out the pizza. 

We bought a Yacht Club “Themos/water bottle” on Meraviglia in 2022. I wish MSC offered more YC merchandise. We sail on the Seashore July 21st in the YC, I would love to buy a YC towel. Don’t really care about the color. 

7 minutes ago, The Dad said:

Regarding the YC wifi, I was able to work using the YC wifi without any issues.

Same with our previous YC cruises. I needed to be able to work and send private aircraft charter quotes using our online system. Never had an issue. 

I have been surprised that our drink package worked on Princess Cay when on a Princess ship. When on a Carnival ship, we had to pay for the drinks, even with the package. You could see the staff bringing the booze from the ship that we already paid for. 

We sail in the Yacht Club on Seashore in 19 days. With 3 previous YC cruises, not having enough available shade is not great. Meraviglia and Davinia had plenty of shade. 

When we were on the Sky Princess, we were disappointed that Ocean Terrace was not open for lunch. 

We have been underwhelmed ordering full dining meals to our owners suite on Princess. Food was good, but you had to make sure you ordered everything you might need other than a knife and fork. Butter, salt and pepper, steak sauce, dressing for the salad and anything thing else that might be included in your dining room experience. We did this once after a long day in port. We have since gone to the MDR for most of our meals at night. 

We sail on our 4th MSC cruise in July. On our last cruise on the Meraviglia in 2022, we put in a bid for the Yacht Club from a Fantastica balcony to a Deluxe Suite. We were notified two days before sailing that our bid was accepted.  This time, we booked an interior cabin in the Yacht Club on MSC Seashore. When we received the offer to bid, the starting bid for a Deluxe Suite was $1105 per person. We passed on the bid. As of today, the Seashore has 6 Deluxe Suites and 4 Grand Deluxe Suites available. 29 days from departure. Will keep looking. 

6 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

For $6 a day more, I’ll leave my car right at the port, 1 level up in case of heavy rains. Definitely walkable

We have parked off site with no issues. Last cruise we parked at the port. Well worth the extra money, in our car by 8:30 am on the way home.

We were on our 9th Princess cruise last November on the Sky out of Ft. Lauderdale. She had just arrived from a transatlantic from England. Our mini-suite had a kettle. First time I had every seen one in the US market. Nice touch if you love tea.