Best Cat Mom

For us, there are only 3 things that we found to be "better" in Haven vs. YC: - One full bathroom and one half bath (we only sailed the suites with 1.5 baths) - Two sinks in the full bath - One entire mattress for the bed Since there is just one bathroom on MSC, BCD will sometimes use the bathroom by the concierge desk. The other two items seem to not matter quite so much when we reflect on the overall holiday experience, especially the Italian aspect of food and service. And we're thankful to return home to our one bed mattress where a huge divot does NOT open up every time we use it. 😁

A two-top has the added advantage of dining on your time and not have others affect your timing. When we dined in an MDR on our first cruise, this is exactly why we chose NCL -- so we could dine alone and take our normal 2 hours.

I strongly recommend the use of a high-volume travel agent. We get at least 10% of our cruise fare back as OBC, which equates to 1 free cruise for every 10 purchased!

We are very careful to not allow "tailgaters" into the YC after us. And if we are ever the tailgaters, we are quick to show our card to the others, even if they don't ask. It's our world, let's preserve it! 🙂

I just remembered that BCD said one day at lunch a party of two wandered into Le Muse. They were looking around for a table when Mehmet (maitre' d) spoke to them quickly and then escorted them out. I totally missed this -- that's how quick it was. On Divina, we do frequently see people in the hallway outside of the entrance to Le Muse stop for a moment maybe thinking, "Hmm, what's this restaurant?" Then they see the YC signs and realize that it's not for them. The restaurant is near the adult pool restrooms, so it gets attention when people come inside. First time we ever saw someone try to enter though.

I would disagree with you here. The pool on Divina is mostly in the shade and there are more dining tables in the shade by the bar. We've been on Seaside and think that the YC One Pool deck has way more -- and too much -- sun for us. I guess it depends on your perspective of where you want your shade -- loungers or tables/pool.

The pergolas are not able to be reserved at the concierge desk? We did that on Seaside and did not have to awaken early to get our choice of spots.

Bummer! We're on Seascape in September and were hoping that Mustafa would still be there, especially after reading your opinions of him. 😞 Any idea when Ercan leaves?

Kind? Is that like nice? Not allowed, sir! 😁

I have posted 11 days of the YC Lunch menu from Divina in the Caribbean here:

I have posted 11 nights of the YC Dinner menu from Divina in the Caribbean here:

To reuse the words of a wise person -- because they are tooooooooo nice. 😁

Not just interlopers of the One Pool deck, but interlopers of a cabana? How could a butler not figure this one out?? I hope it is just a matter of time. (If they have been granted "special access" to the YC, that would also include the restaurant, no?)

Update on Divina YC staff: Tiziana Piccaluga - current YC Director Guiseppe (Pepe) Terminiello - now in Brazil Mehmet (Le Muse maitre d') - on board, leaving 13 May Simone (Head Concierge) - on board, leaving 10 May Hubert (TSL bartender) - left 18 Apr, will be on Bellisima beginning 4 Aug Susmita (Le Muse Assistant Server) - left 18 Apr Ismael (Le Must Assistant Server) - leaving 24 Apr Still on board as of 18 Apr: Rudy (Head Butler) Kaoutar (Concierge) Dwi (Butler) Elvin (Butler) Richard (Assistant Butler) Jehwell (Assistant Butler) Ashish (TSL Bartender) Astari (TSL Butler) Warsha (Le Muse Host) Glenn (Le Muse server) - leaving sometime in July Ryan (Le Muse Assistant Server) Kumar (Le Muse Server) Antonio (Le Muse Chef)

We saw this on Seaside last year, along with a "sunglass cleaning station" near the door to the elevator for when they were not circulating to provide the service:

Yes, someone else reminded me of that area yesterday. We don't frequent the One Pool deck often so I totally forgot about it!

Gelato is no longer "free" for any guests. However, I've heard some people say that in the afternoons the butlers sometimes bring cups of it to the One Pool deck. Also, there have been reports that sometimes guests can get free gelato at the counters as well. We only had it back in 2018 when it was still free. Haven't asked for it since then because we rarely have sweets.

We've been to Venice, Florence, Rome, Lucca, Bologna, Lake Garda, Genoa, Naples, Verona, Pordenone, Aviano, Sacile, Dardago and a whole bunch of small villages around the Dardago area. There are still so many other places we've yet to visit in Italy. Greece is on our list, but we don't want to be too near the Black Sea while Putin is still an ongoing threat. We're sticking to the Mediterranean side of Italy for now. If you give me your email address, we can chat more. 🙂 Did you happen to have Onel as your server on Euribia? He took great care of us on Divina last year and I've heard that he moved to Euribia.

My opinion is Divina has less, but that's from our YC perspective. The Seaside (and maybe other ships do as well) has a open area off TSL that encompasses the entire front of the ship and the starboard side of it is smoking. We find that much more offensive than the One Pool smoking area, mostly because we don't use the One Pool. The other consideration with Seaside is if your cabin is on the starboard side towards the front, the smoke can easily waft back and be detectable on your own balcony. The other places never touch us, since we can easily avoid them. And I agree totally with you -- one smoker (of any substance) is one too many!

We had the pleasure of her excellent service as well. Our gain is hopefully not at a cost to her.

It was great meeting you both! I hope you find another MSC YC cruise to enjoy -- and hope we happen to be onboard with you. 😉

So are we. 😞 Unfortunately, our boys left for college already so they are not living with us right now. (That's our euphemism, it doesn't hurt as much.)

You are absolutely correct. I totally forgot about that area. It's right where you come out of the YC elevator that takes you up to the One Pool deck. They even had a pop up YC tent to cover the first tables there this past sailing. We just walk right past it because the bar and buffet are on the other side past the pool and hot tubs. Thanks for the correction!

Some overall thoughts about this cruise and MSC... We counted 5 languages used in the announcements on this cruise: English Italian Spanish French German This is the same as we encounter on an international flight so one way or the other, we're going to hear multiple languages. Not an issue for us at all. More practice for us. Others may find this annoying. I guess those people don't like it in Europe either. Also, most announcements are only in the public areas of the ship. Only important ones -- muster, safety issues, the captain's announcement of our propulsion issue -- are piped into the cabin. And there are not a lot of annoying extra announcements -- about bingo or trivia or art auctions or whatever -- like we had on NCL. Divina does not have wristbands, just cruise cards. For elevators, the cruise cards can be used on some elevators for YC override. We mostly used the override when possible. It was really nice during busy times to not have a "local" elevator that stopped on a bunch of floors. Once we got on and there was an elderly couple already on who looked concerned. We told them that we wouldn't use the override and they seemed relieved. MSC beds have been an issue for us, as have most hotel room beds in Italy. When I wind up with my elbow, arm, or other body part in the "hole," it's quite annoying. Richard did a great job of tying the mattresses together for us. The gap was minimal and I never woke up because I was stuck and couldn't turn over. Our experience with the beds and the junior butler's handling of them varies on each cruise, but so many other good things about MSC out weigh this not-so-good thing. Besides, going home to our own bed makes disembarkation not quite so end-of-the-world for us. Divina has tub-shower combo units in regular YC rooms (at least, all of ours have been that way). We always hear people complaining about the half shower partition and how the whole bathroom gets wet. Welcome to Italy! We've had this plenty of times in various Italian cities. We don't stay at Ritz or Four Seasons type hotels, so maybe those don't have the same set up. But when you see a drain in the bathroom floor in a hotel, you can bet that water is expected to go everywhere. We just laugh and say that the dolphin was in our bathroom again. We received 2 newspapers each day: the Wall Street Journal I requested and also a USA Today. Not sure why. I only read WSJ and tossed the USA Today when BCD did not pick it up. We had 2 kids in YC this cruise. At least I think there were 2. I never really looked at them, just heard them. When they are outside our cabin making too much noise, we usually just talk to each other really loudly using adult language. That gets the parents to all of a sudden realize where they are and hurry their kids away from our cabin door. 🙂 We had been booked on Divina's transatlantic back from Europe to Miami that was scheduled for November of this year. Just a few days before we sailed this cruise, we heard that it had been cancelled. During the first few days of this cruise, our travel agent worked with MSC to get us rebooked on Seaside's transatlantic instead. The new cruise is 1 night longer and one month earlier. It was also priced over $5K more on the website. She got it for us at the same price as our cancelled cruise. And we still have over $1K of OBC from her for the cruise. I highly recommend using an experienced MSC travel agent to book your cruises with MSC. We were onboard so it would have been tough to work out the details on our own and would have taken time out of our holiday. Instead a few emails back and forth was all it took. (Thanks @Georgia_Peaches for the referral to your great agent!) As I posted the Daily Programs for each day, I noticed that every day (except one, can't recall which) there was a note about YC at the top of the front page clearly saying to stay out if you're not a YC guest: Interesting that this statement includes barring entrance to suites as well. We did have one time at either a breakfast or a lunch that a couple tried to enter Le Muse. They were promptly escorted out. We were not up in the One Pool area enough to ever notice any interlopers. We met some great people on this cruise. Thanks for the great chats, especially about music, to @Cathy in Boston and her spouse! Thanks also to T and J for collecting supplies for BCD. Sorry that I cannot find your CC name "in NM." Hope you're enjoying your next cruise now! We also saw a few casino "guests of the ship" who were not very respectful to the staff and to other guests. Nothing that another round of drinks couldn't fix for us, though. The social media site roll call was organized by a great couple who were fun late-night at TSL, though I don't think they're on CC. Lots of YC people booked future cruises while on board, which is a good indicator of how much they enjoyed this sailing. Finally, a garage update: BCD gave out 9 cars this cruise. Five were the same design as last cruise, which he called Gen (Generation 2). On the last cruise, he had a Gen 1 design that he scrapped and replaced with Gen 2. On this cruise, he made some Gen 2 and then developed a Gen 3 model. He gave out 4 of the Gen 3 models on this cruise. Gen 2 used 10 cork muzzles, while Gen 3 uses 16. gen 3 takes longer for production but, as I understand it, the significant aerodynamic advantages are worth it. 😁 The Gen 3 is the bottom left in this image from the ones we have at home: Yes, BCD has continued to work at home with the extra supplies from when we're on board. 🙂 Thanks again for following along. If anyone has more questions, I'm happy to answer. Ciao, ciao!

Day 12 -- Disembarkation Disembarkation information left in cabin: As we left TSL early this morning, we asked the night concierge if Le Muse might be open an extra 30 minutes since we were delayed getting into Miami. He speculated that maybe it would be, but could not be certain -- and at 2am, there was no one to call. We figured we'd get there at 8:29am just in case. Coffee and Baileys arrived after our short nap LOL and we proceeded to get ready for the day. As we prepared to leave the cabin to go to Le Muse, we checked the time and it was already 8:30am. We checked the concierge desk, they called Le Muse and verified that it was already closed. 😞 The concierge held our carry on luggage near the desk while we had some breakfast snacks of cold cuts, cheese and fruit in TSL along with 2 rounds of mimosas to await disembarkation. We also had 2 more tip envelopes and 2 cars to distribute. Missions accomplished! Here is Elvin with his car: Our flight was at 1:30pm so we were not in a huge hurry. And this was just as well since Dwi told us it was quite crazy in the line to exit the ship. She said that many people had decided to self-carry their luggage and walk off because of the delay and that there were all these families in line with 4 or more suitcases, baby strollers, etc. We chose to leave just at 11am and were escorted to the front of the line. Tiziana and Elvin took us down, with Tiziana holding back the regular line for us, looking like a police officer on crowd control. Simone was standing just past security giving out hugs to YC passengers before they took the ramp to shore. As I hugged him, BCD said that I'd better hurry because people were getting angry. Yikes! When we arrived to the luggage claim area, we grabbed our bags and entered the customs line at ~11:20am. A half an hour later, we'd made it to the doorway to the customs lanes. We asked the gentleman there who was directing people to specific lanes about facial recognition. He said that at today's "morning meeting" they were told that they would not be using facial recognition today so they removed all the equipment that had been in place for it. He never said why or if it was just our terminal C or the whole port. But he said that the machines had been there ready for us. I know that there is a lot of speculation about ships that have stopped at Cartagena and ours did stop there. He did make it clear that someone made the decision to not use facial recognition, and the machines were not "down." We took a shuttle bus to the Miami airport that was offered to us at the rate of 2 people for $15 instead of taking Uber as we usually do. We were on board at 12:58pm enjoying a round of PDBs: By 10:30pm, we arrived home and began the countdown for our next cruise -- 149 days until a 14-day B2B on Seascape out of Miami. Thanks to all of you who've followed us on our sailing. I hope that it has been helpful and maybe a bit entertaining. I know that I have learned so incredibly much from CC over the years and have been pleased to try to pay it back here. I have some overall comments that I'll post next to close the thread...