Best Cat Mom

43 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

Stayed in our little cabin area or by the one pool.

Sounds like you were in Yacht Club -- correct? We're used to YC where there is typically more personal space than the rest of the ship so just wanted to clarify. (We cruise this weekend for a 12-day and we're hoping to avoid infection.)

1 hour ago, Oldsweets said:

I have no idea who the head Butler was on our trip but thanks to the lady who clarified the room steward as the assistant Butler

I think you meant me LOL.

Each time we boarded, the maitre d' in the YC restaurant wanted an approximate time of our preferred dining so that they could make sure they wouldn't have every YC cabin show up at the same time. If you traveled during Covid, maybe that was not an issue? Also, the maitre d' was the one who did the fresh cooked pasta for each meal (well, lunches and dinners). Did they not do that at all on your cruises either? We did eat every meal in the YC restaurant except maybe 2 or 3 at the One Pool grill and the one complementary Diamond dinner in Butchers Cut so we saw the maitre d' at least once per day every day.

We never knew who was our head butler either sailing, btw. I guess we were fortunate that we did not need to that individual.

I do think that the maitre d' was especially present at breakfast each day so that might be your best time to catch him/her. We were typically the last ones seated for breakfast; keep that in mind as well as you try to make contact with them.

I hope your next cruise is more in line with all that you're reading on the boards. Our cruises have been so wonderful in YC that we don't think we'll ever sail in NCL Haven again. We even sold all our CruiseNext certificates on eBay (we had 6).

Ours had expired prior to us booking our 29 September cruise (which became a 9 October cruise due to Hurricane Ian). The cruise concierge from MSC sent me instructions as to how to re-instate our Diamond status via email. It was processed in less than 48 hours and we are now Diamond once again. The cruise concierge said that even though statuses had expired due to Covid, they are re-instating people. I never asked what the threshold was -- sorry! It had been nearly 3 years since we cruised last.

PS: Has anyone else tried the new Cruise Concierge program? Access it via the "Call Me" pop up on the MSC web site. I had a dedicated Cruise Concierge for our sailing and he called me back within 15 minutes every time I had a question or needed assistance. Much better than calling in to the "regular" number!

3 hours ago, BklynBorn47 said:

The menus for the non YC restaurants are all online days in advance so how hard can it be to provide them for YC?

We have special dietary needs. To accommodate them, we were always given the YC menus a day in advance so we could choose our meals and give the kitchen time to make any alterations. This occurred both on the Seaside YC in the Caribbean and on Fantasia YC in the Med. They cover the procedure when you first board and meet with the maitre d. We saw everyone in YC have a quick meeting that first day, even if no special needs existed. This is typically the time they ask you about what you'd like for your table in YC, what approximate time you think you want to dine, etc.

32 minutes ago, phissy said:

This is so helpful as DH asked if Baileys was one of the choices of liquor.

I'm happy that this helped! Gotta have Bailey's in the morning coffee else why bother? LOL

See you in the Top Sail Lounge and safe travels to both of you as well!

J and A

9 minutes ago, Oldsweets said:

 Once aboard the service was good and our Butler was. Visible everyday.  Never saw or knew if we had an assist butler and the room steward did a great job.

Oldsweets -- I believe that MSC uses the title 'assistant butler' for room steward. We did not realize that our first time in the YC as well. We were looking for this third person until we figured it out. I hope now that you know more about what to expect and request in YC, your next cruise will be even better. I know that each of our cruises get better and better. And we're always so thankful for all that service that we can't consider anything other than booking in YC again!

13 hours ago, phissy said:

We embark on our cruise in a week on the Divina.

 

Just received email from MSC.

 

It appears they are starting a pre cruise concierge type service

Phissy, we are on that same sailing with you and I received my email today requesting my Yacht Club selections. I recall that type of pre-boarding preparation when we sailed Haven on NCL as well. We would request Bailey's Irish Cream for one of our 3 in-suite bottles so we'd have it accessible each morning to add to our coffee. When last on MSC's YC, we asked our butler for same. He said that they did not have it available in "nip" size but instead put 2 glasses of it (covered with plastic wrap) in the fridge every evening. A bottle might be more convenient at times, but knowing that you can get any alcohol at any time when you're in YC makes the bottle selection nearly unnecessary to us. I guess it helps the butlers, though, since they don't have to bring as many drinks to each cabin. It is a nice new touch to add to the many good reasons to book YC. 🙂

My TA is on a cruise out of Port Canaveral and also is getting extra days due to the hurricane. He told me that once the storm is away from the port, part of the work to be done to allow ships to dock is a sonar check underwater to look for any sunken objects. I'm not sure how long that would take in addition to all the visible clean up needed (in case they don't mention this to any of you on board and waiting).

5 hours ago, hamrag said:

Sounds fab....so, you get the additional days free gratis?

I'm curious if they will charge you the daily service gratuities for the extra days. Did they say if they would? If not, could you report back after you get your final bill? Thanks!

16 minutes ago, cellfree said:

Husband and I have been talking and wondering about cruisers who have all their plans set. Hope you are told shortly. And perhaps Officer I visited with didn’t know what he was talking about. 

As you said, I hope we are informed soon. At a minimum, I will want to change our flights and move our hotel to the "new" night before the cruise. I've already checked availability so that does not seem like it will be an issue. I'm poised and ready and waiting for MSC. Thanks for sharing what you heard -- that is what allows me to be in this good position. 🙂

We have a 10-night cruise, which combines the 3-night (29 Sep to 2 Oct) with the following 7-night (2 Oct to 9 Oct). We've not had any notification of changes to our boarding on the 29th -- yet.

We always use American Express as our credit card for the MSC on board charges. The kiosk has never failed to accept it. Another advantage of using Amex is that there are no foreign transaction fees if you're Platinum. One reason to carry another brand of credit card is that not all vendors will accept Amex outside of the US (not sure of your itinerary, that's why I'm mentioning other uses besides the kiosk).

Russia has been on the US State Department's Travel Advisory list at the highest level -- Level 4: Do Not Travel -- since 19 Jul 2022.

Link to the US State Department advisory:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/russia-travel-advisory.html

Each of us will make our own decisions. I share this in case it helps someone who is making travel plans.

If you don't want to engage your butler, you can also bring food from the YC pool deck back to your room. We had great made-to-order burgers there several times and one time brought them to the room to enjoy on our balcony for lunch.

12 hours ago, MmmmJason said:

I sailed on MSC Seashore July 23 - 30, 2022, and despite asking, no the staff would not deliver any restaurant meals to the room, even in Yacht Club.  I was told "only if the guests is ill" which I hesitated to lie about lest I be quarantined or interrogated.  This was disappointing because despite having "anytime" dining, the real dining time is only a 2 hour window for breakfast and again for lunch, and only in the dining room, meaning no private dining in your room.  Don't ask for it to go in the restaurant either; that's a no-go.  I had friends in the non-YC areas of the ship, and this policy meant separating ourselves on every meal.

Did you think of bringing food from the YC pool deck back to your room? We had great made-to-order burgers there several times and one time brought them to the room to enjoy on our balcony.

I think it is going to vary based on how you sleep. I sleep pretty soundly and I've never had an issue. (I was on a flight once where someone in the row behind me was in medical distress. He was pulled out of his seat and laid out in the aisle next to me. I was told that they asked over the address system if there was a doctor on board. I slept through the whole thing.) But these boards have many people saying that it wakes them up. You'll need to keep that in mind as you read people's comments.

18 minutes ago, eagletwo said:

I am in the private air charter business here in the US. One of my long time clients asked for a price to pick up a relative in Aruba that is very ill, not cruise related, just on holiday. He is in hospital in Aruba with just US insurance that does not cover outside the US and can’t fly home on a commercial flight. A medical flight to bring him back to Columbia, SC is $45,000.  The family has started a gomefund to help get him home and pay for his daily hospital bills in Aruba.

 

I always buy trip insurance with medical and evacuation. 

This was very enlightening. Thank you eagletwo.

I checked Amex Platinum's benefits for travel and was pleased to see that medical evacuation coverage is covered up to $100K: 

I (finally) booked our first cruise post-pandemic and I'm in sync with you on most of your thinking. I used my frequent flyer miles for our flights so those are fully refundable. I'm using my Marriott lifetime status and Bonvoy points for the hotel stays so that makes those fully refundable. I booked the cruise on my Amex Platinum which includes travel insurance. I'm thinking that we are completely covered with all of these.

I'm looking forward to hearing other opinions of what risks may have been overlooked with this strategy.

We are scheduled for the March 21st cruise out of Miami on Riviera and still planning to go. We have no underlying health issues currently and are not over 60 so I don't feel that we are 'disobeying' any specific warnings.

(But I am watching the news and these boards very closely!)

Sometimes they will offer price discounts when you are on board -- we've saved considerable amounts that way in booking massages. You are taking a chance if you wait but it could be to your advantage. Wanted to let you know that it is possible -- but you cannot count on it so be aware that you are taking a chance. 🙂 

duplicate, sorry

7 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

The only "deal"  is 1/2price  deposit......   your going to get charged  for any of those 3 choices.   The wine/beer deal is a joke   you get a choice of about  20 average to good, none excellent wines....  at lunch and dinner you will be lucky to get 2 glasses per meal !!!  It is not "bar service or room service"   Beer starts at $7 and liquors $9 USD ( 14 aud with tip included)   If  you take the liquor option and pay $20 pp per day more then you get unlimited liquor  from any venue all day and as long as they are serving in bars at night.  It does not include premimum wines

Sorry to maybe go off topic here...

You're lucky to get 2 glasses per meal? When we dine, we expect to have cocktails while we peruse the menu and then a new glass with each course. Is that going to be difficult? Is that because the servers are not very attentive? Sometimes we want different wines with each course and ordering a bottle does not make as much sense as separate glasses (especially if we order items at each course where we each want different grapes).

12 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I can’t tell if you are being serious. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the cruise lines are “Cheating” or “stealing” dsc, it seems obvious that the companies are doing something other than returning 100% immediately to crew.  Like I stated above, at one time ncl published that they spend some of the collected fees for things like crew parties, crew flights, and staff bonuses. Shell game so-to-speak. If it was as simple as putting xxxx toward cabin stewards and xxxx toward dining staff (Continued until the full $15 pppd is accounted for), the cruise lines would publish exactly how the money is distributed. Without full disclosure, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume cruise lines are using (at least a portion)  of the dsc to apply toward general staff expenses.

Totally being serious here. I'm not talking about the DSC -- I'm talking about us saying "Give a $100 bonus to John Smith, our butler, for the wonderful service this week on our cruise and please charge it to our cabin" at guest services. If I did this at a hotel, I would not expect that they would redirect the funds anywhere else so why would that not apply here as well?

I really thought all the threads on the boards regarding 'where does the money go' were about the DSC, not any extra monies that we choose to distribute.

23 hours ago, HeavySeaman said:

Because you can't be sure they get it unless you hand it to them. The thought is that the company cheats them and keeps part of it.

Wow... that is really hard to believe!

1 hour ago, Nashna said:

Depends on the cruise line.  We were on a line where we tipped our waiter extra and he asked us if we had kept the service charge on our account.  When I asked if it made a difference, he told us that there was a list on file of those who had removed the charge, if we had removed the charge, he would have to give the amount we tipped back into the pool.  We went on three different cruise lines that year and I can't remember which one it was.  

I was referring an extra tip given with not even touching the Daily Service Charge. Why give a crew member cash instead of a charge to our on board account targeted to each crew member? I really don't like carrying cash. I never have more than $20 on my person at home since plastic is so much more secure. I don't like carrying a few hundred dollars onto a cruise ship just to tip. And, if I charge it to my on board account, I get points from my credit card company. Double win for me -- no chance of theft and helps to finance the airfare for my next cruise. 🙂