Best Cat Mom

I really like the Boston one that has the chairs all facing the runways. That is a great place to burn a few hours watching the planes.

This is our fifth sailing in the Caribbean in August/September. We've only had one cancellation due to weather and it was because a hurricane hit our embarkation port causing our ship to not be able to port on the day we were scheduled to board. If you're on a ship during bad weather, they'll simply sail to other ports to avoid really bad stuff. It is much better than a hotel in that the hotel can't move out of the path of bad weather LOL. We did miss Ocean Cay once, but that was due to wind and not rain (though I really don't recall what month it was). In our experience, the pool buffet will remain open in rain. I recall us dashing from the elevator doors to the buffet a few times in the rain. There is shelter over the bar and bar seats and a few tables. You may find it crowded but I believe it will remain open and you will not have to subject yourselves to the regular buffet.

Now that it's Sunday and I'm finally getting back to posting some details, I feel like I've done a bait-and-switch on all of you by calling this a "Live" thread. My goal as we sit in TSL is to get this thread caught up. Goals are good, but we'll see if I achieve this one... Pre-embarkation: We had finished packing around 7:30pm and then it was dinnertime. We eat at home late, just like on the ship, so for us we were on schedule. Headed to bed around 11pm with a 5am wake up alarm. We ordered an Uber XL since we had 4 bags instead of usual 3 for a Caribbean cruise. BCD wanted an extra bag for his car supplies and a few already completed cars to not be squished. We arrived to the Delta lounge at 8am and promptly ordered 2 champagnes and 2 coffee with Baileys. We helped ourselves to the buffet there. We each had a mini-omelet with some sides. Delta does a pretty good job at labeling for food allergies. They use both words and symbols with distinct colors that makes it pretty easy for a Gluten Free (GF) person like me to navigate the choices. At some point they announced that the bathrooms were closed due to a water leakage issue. At ~8:34am they announced all was good -- but who was counting how long it was, yeah right. And then they quickly canceled again, not removing the barriers to entry. Then they said the restrooms were again ready to be opened at 8:44am. We (finally) freshened up then and headed out for our flight. The day continues next...

You can usually find us in TSL. I'm typing and BCD is working on cars. Will trade a car for liquor -- if you're interested. 🙂 And no, we did not change rooms. We are happily ensconced in 16010.

A quick update for right now... We were checked in at 10:50am and on board in TSL by 11:08am YC Director for the cruise is Dani. He circulated and introduced himself to us at 11:20am. Our cabins were ready at 11:25am. We're finishing our first drinks (champagne and coconut rum/orange juice) now.

So sorry! Mi dispiace! We are enjoying breakfast now after yesterday's travels. We crashed last night around 9pm and slept a full 10 hours. I shall recount the day's adventures later. Uber to the port right now is $20. I see Seascape docked in Terminal D. Plan to head over in about an hour. We'll see how much higher it is by then.

Packing complete! On to dinner, but sadly not in the Top Sail restaurant and no separate chef available. But give us two more days and that will change! Alarm set for 5am tomorrow for our relatively early flight out of CVG. 🙂

Rest assured, everything that happens on Seascape won't be reported. None of my previous 'live threads' dished about other passengers... unless they piped in on my thread themselves.

Noooo, I couldn't. Well, maybe I could. Sir, you are being way too nice. 😁

Just funny seeing Dallas called "America's team." No harm, no foul.

I find this comment quite interesting, since Texas only became part of the US in 1845 as the 28th state. It was past the half-way point of our current 50 states and before that was its own nation, after becoming independent from Mexico. Most Texans I know are fiercely defensive about their independence, preferring the time that they were not part of the US. I know Texas is a huge state, so perhaps my limited amount of acquaintances are not representative of the state (oh, so many will hate that I call it a state LOL). Regardless, I have enjoyed many a Cowboys football game myself. 🙂

On our first MSC YC sailing, we bought the 3-dinner package for the specialty restaurants. We'd previously sailed NCL Haven in the smaller ships that only had a Haven-exclusive breakfast and lunch and then dinner in the Main Dining Room. We were never impressed with any of the meals that came included in Haven and had tried to dine in their specialty venues as many nights as possible, and that's why we bought the 3-dinner package on MSC. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised with MSC's YC restaurant! It was so much better than anything on NCL -- for all three meals -- and we really felt that we missed out by "having" to go to 3 dinners at the MSC specialty restaurants. The YC restaurant has a different menu every day for lunch and dinner, plus you can ask for specially prepared items. The more advance notice you give them, the better your chance that they can make whatever you desire (as long as the ingredients are on board, of course). We now use our 1 Diamond specialty meal at lunch so we don't miss a single dinner in YC. If you've looked at the menus posted here in CC and like the type of food that MSC serves, you'll likely not want to miss YC dinners either. (My signature has a link to my most recent cruise and I included menus each day, if you want to see examples of what to expect.)

Hope to be on a cruise with you someday! If enough of us CCers sail on enough cruises, we all have to coincide eventually. LOL

Happy to help you in your planning! We are in a "regular" YC1 Deluxe Suite on Deck 16 (cabin 16010). We like the Starboard side for the views of Ocean Cay when we sail in the Caribbean. For transatlantic sailings, we try to book Port side staterooms.

For this cruise, we are on the Seascape for a Caribbean cruise in the YC (Yacht Club). This is our first time on Seascape, though we had previously enjoyed another Sea-class ship, Seaside, which was our very first MSC cruise, back in 2018. She was still rather new back then, just a few months old, and very glittering and glamorous as we had expected from any true Italian donna. We have only ever sailed in YC on MSC, having tried it after two NCL Haven experiences -- and we liked it so much that we have never looked back. We've spent over 150 nights in Italy on land-based holidays and love Italy. We're not so much cruisers; we're more people who desire an upscale Italian holiday -- and MSC YC is exactly that! We're excited to try a different Sea-class ship this time. Previous reviews by @morpheusofthesea of Seascape helped us think that this ship would not disappoint. Here's the itinerary for our 14-night voyage, which is made up of two 7-night voyages back to back: This afternoon and evening we're prepping and packing. Tomorrow we fly to Miami, where we'll overnight and then we board on Saturday. @morpheusofthesea will join us for our first week and @DaKahuna will be with us for our second week (and the first week of their B2B). I'm happy to share our experiences for others since we've gleaned so much information from here over the years. Please let me know if you have any questions and we'll do our best to answer. Also, you can check out our two previous 'live' reviews that are listed in my signature. Those were both on Divina, an older Fantasia-class ship. Now, back to the packing…

Buon viaggio, Morph! I hope you and Mrs. Morph have a great cruise. As you know, I have an ulterior motive for wishing you well. We'll be on the same cruise as you for our first 7 nights, albeit in "regular" YC cabin. 🙂 We're just finishing our last load of preparatory laundry and then we shall pack. Our flight is tomorrow morning. I'll probably start our live thread tomorrow, but it could be later today if I manage my time well. Safe travels on the road to Miami!

I used my Marriott Titanium Elite and matched to Diamond. You should each use your highest status overall, not just cruise line status.

The Ocean House restaurant does have sit-down table service, with food served course-by-course by the usual YC servers and assistant servers. Most tables are in the shade and there are also 3 in the air conditioned building. If it is a hot day, it can be uncomfortable even in the shade with the breezes off the ocean. We have always braved the weather for a surf and turf combo of burger and lobster roll as our entree. The calamari salad is my favorite starter. It is unfortunate that the Ocean House menu is unavailable elsewhere, unless the visit to Ocean Key is cancelled after they've already prepped all the food. Then they serve it in the Top Sail Restaurant -- with air conditioning for all! We were pleased the day we missed docking at Ocean Key due to the high winds since we had the food in the better TS restaurant location. But the non-YC guests were ready to stage a mutiny. It was quite ugly outside of the YC that day. 😞

Yes, that is the usual process. The YC staff are mostly all at Ocean House to serve guests. I believe @morpheusoftheseawas hoping the specialty restaurants would go back to staying open on the ship for lunch.

We love the Oxygen pillow and always ask for it by name. I guess they could run out though, if many people ask for it. Wait -- no, I must be incorrect. Oxygen is the absolute worst pillow they have! Do NOT ask for it. You will be SOOOO disappointed!! 😁

Kinda "nice" that you've keep this thread open so we can discuss miscellaneous-type topics. Here's one... BCD read on a well-known social media site that Mustafa is no longer with MSC. Not sure if this is just a rumor or if any confirmation has been provided. We have never had the pleasure of a sailing with him, but had expected we would eventually. Now, alas, perhaps not. 😞

Glad that you enjoyed your holiday. We sail in 6 days and you helped us struggle through the last week by showing what is coming our way. Thanks!

They will alter the menu each day to accommodate availability of ingredients. When you see them at the computer that is usually what they are doing. After they have finalized the menu, they'll print all the copies in all the languages and then start stuffing them into the YC holders.

We're also on Seascape for the 14 September sailing. No email has been received by us yet. However, it is possible it went into the Spam folder and we did not notice it before it was automatically deleted. I know that we've received the email for a few cruises but I have no idea if it was for every cruise. We always tell our butler of our pillow choices and newspaper/bottle selection when we have that first introductory meeting on board. We have been asked our choices whilst waiting to board, though I think that was in Europe.

We have the butler bring it in the morning so it doesn't tempt us all night in the room. 🙂