Best Cat Mom

We've never NOT had a top sheet, even in Mediterranean 7-day itineraries or our transatlantic that originated in Europe. I also wondered if they did that just for us because we're from the US. And we've always had washcloths/facecloths without asking (from wherever). No complaining here!

Most of the crew can speak English and Italian, regardless of their home country. We try to learn a bit of the language of the staff we deal with directly each day, but we will speak Italian as our first "try" with everyone. It's not the same as a land holiday in Italy, but it surely comes close. 🙂

We like to dine very leisurely, something we learned from our holidays in Europe. I know there are a lot of complaints about how long dinner can take on MSC. We generally spend 2 to 2.5 hours on dinner -- and we don't usually have dessert. You may be right about choosing the buffet for your own dining option.

Keep in mind that MSC is an Italian cruise line, so food may not be what an American expects. You might want to consider this when thinking about their food. We love the Italian aspect of everything on MSC -- food, service, language, etc. -- but the less-than-stellar reviews are sometimes because of a lack of understanding of the differences between Italy and other parts of the world.

Thanks for sharing @alserrod. You've helped us to remember some wonderful times in great places. We're heading to Rome in October before our transatlantic. We've been there a few times previously but there is always more to do there. And more to eat there! 🙂 I know you and your family will enjoy your next time in Roma. Who wouldn't?

This is the tactic we employ -- always friendly and generally happy to be there. We've never tipped in advance but liberally hand out words like "please" and "thank you." It seems to have worked well for us so far.

We wish you a Buon Viaggio as always, Morph! Please leave us the best of the best for our sailing in September.

When we were in YC in April, my spouse was celebrating a birthday. I shared this info with our butler. He had a celebration in Butcher's Cut for lunch, another one in Le Muse for our dinner and a third one in TSL after dinner. You can make it as big -- or little -- as you want. Enjoy however you prefer!

Is that a hint? 🙂

Definitely on our mind. But not until Putin is deceased.

Please keep in mind that LT is a Baltic nation and not now usually considered part of Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, the area of my family is part of is the Sulwalki Corridor, which is the next "land bridge" that Putin wants to consolidate the former USSR. I've visited before and I'll wait until he's gone for my next visit. Luckily, there are plenty of other places to visit in the meantime. And if those places are in Italy, I'll somehow deal with it. 🙂

Near the Black sea or Lithuania. We're keeping to the west side of Italy these days. My people are from southeastern Lithuania near the current day border with Belarus, which is currently being intensively fortified by Lithuania, since the ruler of Belarus is closely aligned with Putin. Keep in mind that Lithuania is about the size of West Virginia so everything is quite close. And Putin is not my family's friend.

I am of Lithuanian heritage and our relatives there tell us that now is not the time to visit -- even the ones in the travel industry. Once Putin is no longer a threat (and how many years have I been saying that!), we will travel once again to the land of my ancestors.

I've read your posts for several years, including when we were considering trying Oceania for their menus. How are you with the current tensions in the area around the Black Sea? We've hesitated to sail -- or enjoy a land holiday -- east of the Mediterranean until the war is over. I do agree about with you about transpacific wholeheartedly.

Happens when I reserve hotels and restaurants in Italy. É vero.

Divina has direct access via the YC elevator to a private entrance to the spa. I would imagine that the other 3 Fantasia-class ships have the same. I know that Seaside does not.

Thanks to you, we have an excellent travel agent! 🙂 I was looking to book a February or March 2025 cruise over the weekend. The various sailings with YC availability were around $10K and there was $1.2K OBC offered on each. That is a nice "rebate" when we cash it out in the casino.

Some of the butlers service the One Pool area during the day. We've found ours up there several times when we've been out and about after breakfast. Now we know to expect to find them either in TSL or at One Pool after the butler has finished helping the junior butler with the morning cabin housekeeping. (We've also seen the butler helping change sheets in the cabins in the morning. They seem to be doing a little bit of everything all the time!)

Every day after returning to our cabin from breakfast in the restaurant, we'd stop by the cabin to pick up our paper. If the cabin was made up but there was no paper, we'd stop by the concierge desk to ask for it. They would usually then bring it to us in TSL within a few minutes. I know at least one time our paper was sitting right on the counter with our room number on it, as if they were waiting for our butler or junior butler to pick it up and drop it off in our cabin.

I wholeheartedly recommend using a travel agent. Not only will you have someone to advocate on your behalf for any concerns or changes, the high volume agencies will regularly save you 10 to 15% off MSC published fares.

If your spouse looks at the descriptions of each option, she'll see what ingredients the kitchen has available. I do a similar thing when I'm trying to figure out how I can adapt things to be gluten free for myself if I really want some of the ingredients. Keep in mind that some items come to the kitchen already prepared, but most are made right there. YC is so accommodating and your server can be your best friend when you're wanting to deviate from the menu.

I've seen on these boards that you can order something from the main restaurant to be served in the YC restaurant. I know as a gluten free person that on some ships my GF meals would come from the GF section of the main restaurant and not from YC -- if I ordered off the main restaurant GF menu. Instead, I would usually would order items off the YC menu that could be altered to be GF or were GF already. For you, I would say to order it as a "special preparation" in YC. Maybe they couldn't serve it to you until the next day, but you'd know it was made in the YC kitchen with the better YC ingredients.

When we were on Divina with Maurizio as Le Muse's manager (we had 2 sailings with him on Divina), he would special order lamb for me -- because I could not have the "regular" pistachio-crusted lamb as it was not gluten free -- from Butcher's Cut. Each time, our server made sure that we knew that Maurizio ordered extra and that he and our server would have the leftovers after service ended that night. Gotta order extra just in case, right? And wouldn't want it to go to waste, right? I think I had lamb 4 times on each of those sailings. 😉 Sorry, I digress. The special order lamb -- and filet a few times -- was always from Butcher's Cut according to our server. So if one is better than the other, I would guess it might be who picked it / ordered it from BC's inventory.

Wow! We were on the 4-night second leg of a B2B. There was 1 other couple also B2B. We reserved the pergola the morning of the second leg, before the new guests boarded and all was free. I wonder if that might have been why? Raj was the Head Concierge, Rizwan was the Head Butler and Maria Lucca was the YC Director. They knew us pretty well after the first week. Maybe that was a factor also? I know that the other B2B couple were doing several B2Bs, for quite a long time, more than a month, so they were very well known to the YC staff as well.

We're mildly interested in knowing how the casino program works so I'm trying to follow this thread pretty closely. Question: if the points listed are for the cruise you are currently sailing, where is USA sailings over 8 nights? We regularly sail 11-night Caribbean itineraries when we can and that isn't even on the list posted by @BirdTravels.