GenerationX

Hola from hot, sunny Puerto Plata! We got back from our excursion a couple of hours ago (report to come) and had a late lunch at the one pool (the carved to order leg of lamb is excellent BTW) and then cooled off sitting sipping an aperol spritz and watching Gen Z play in the pool with one of her new buddies. When we came back onboard, we went by the room to freshen up and put on swimsuits and as soon as we came out, Charles popped out of the crew passage to greet us and ask how our excursion was. He escorted us up to the pool and and got us our first round of drinks while we made our plates from the buffet. He also talked to one of the pool attendants and came back and let us know that there’d be a couple vacating a cabana shortly and he’d made arrangements for the pool attendant to set it up for us once it was free. Not a bad welcome back! Before I share about our day in the DR, a back in time report on our evening after dinner last night. It turned out to be one of those “best made plans of mice and moms” kind of nights. The original plan was for Gen Z to go to kids club for an hour and then we were going to go to the late show together. However when I went to pick her up, I discovered I had been trumped by a super hero party and she asked me to just pick her up when the club closed at 11pm instead. With 2 hours to myself to kill I decided to go check out more of the ship. Much of what I saw kind of reinforced for me that sailing MSC not in yacht club, especially on these big ships, may not be a fit for me as a smaller, laid back cruise ship person. There were sooo many people and kids everywhere and elevators took a long time. As in even with my YC VIP override, it would take 5-6 minutes for an elevator to come (which was still a vast improvement over the 10-15 minute waits for non-priority). I nearly slipped and fell a couple of times where people had spilled drinks on the marble floors. I passed one of the main dining rooms where I briefly glanced diners clapping in unison and waving their napkins while the waiters were singing and doing some kind of dance. Nothing wrong with that if folks enjoy it, but just not my personal cruising forte. Just when I was about to evacuate back to the peace of the Top Sail, I stumbled upon something I’d forgotten was a thing on MSC: the champagne bar. Those who know me already know where this story is headed… When I sat down I intended to order something nice just by the glass. But then the sommelier Dennis told me that with YC he could give me 20% off a bottle purchase and that they could pressure seal and cold store the bottle for me to finish the next night. Sold. I ended up having 2 glasses of my Moet rose and then the bartender, Angela, asked me if I’d like to try a champagne cocktail recipe she’s been working on, included in the YC drink package. Those who know me also know what my answer to that question was. It was loud from the band so tough to hear exactly what she said was in it but I think she said champagne, St. Germaine, and a little passion fruit and lemon juice. Angela just started her contract, so if you’re sailing Seascape in the next 9 months and you like a nice refreshing bubbly cocktail, go see her! I ended up spending my remaining free time until kids club pick up at said champagne bar with Dennis and Angela (aka my new best friends). On our walk back to our room for bed, Charles met us in the hallway and apologized for how late our room cleaning had been. He explained that he has a new assistant who just started his contact when we boarded on Sunday and is still getting up to speed. Perfectly understandable. I know zero people who are experts at their job in the first 48 hours. We’re currently sitting in the Top Sail while I enjoy tea service and Mini Me has a Lego play date with her royal suite friend. Shortly we’ll go get ready for dinner in the YC restaurant. Tonight’s show is a comedian and Gen Z has little interest, so she’ll probably go to kids club with her new friends and I’ll probably hit the champagne bar to see mine. More to come later tonight!

This was precisely our procedure as well. It was the everyone going to get their cards scanned at once that caused the crowding and traffic jams. I suppose it is more realistic of a scenario for an emergency than the “watch on an app and go get your card scanned at your leisure” celebrity approach. But at least on this ship it also really highlighted what a hot mess it would be if everyone really did need to get to their muster stations at the same time immediately without use of the elevators/lifts and with the extra spice of panic added in. I’m by no means an expert in such things but maybe they need to spread the muster stations out more or something to reduce the traffic. I will say, we hung out in the theatre for about 10 minutes after getting our cards scanned to help Gen Z decompress and by the time we headed back to our room they were letting us use the elevators/lifts to get back up. Perhaps your civil disobedience made a difference for those of us who came behind you!

It’s Gala (or in Celebrity terms “evening chic”) Night on Seascape! I’m a bad mom, work was too crazy last month to get us an appointment at my usual formal dress boutique for new matching evening gowns so I had to dry clean the ones from our spring break Solstice cruise. Gen Z’s just barely still fit and now it’s a little too short when she’s in small heels…are they supposed to grow up this fast? Celebrity really should start sourcing their lobster from wherever MSC is getting theirs. If MSC is playing the cutback game at all, they’re definitely not doing it here. This tail was massive (but also sweet, tender and juicy). The mushroom pasta was also good, but the lobster wins the meal for me! Gen Z was not left out of the extravaganza either. Our server told her the chef had something special for her and when entrees arrived she was presented with a big plate of salmon, steak medallions, chicken tenders AND fries. And the YC bartender even made her a fancy iced chocolate milk in a wine glass.

I got to see a little more of the ship this afternoon because pick up from morning kids club was held in the cabaret rouge at the far aft of the ship. I wasn’t planing to do any of the shows there because from what I’ve read/seen online it sounds a lot like the shows the production cast puts on in Eden and the Club on Celebrity for free, but cabaret rouge is an additional charge. I am considering it now though because the space looks so cool. I also have a mystery $60 credit that’s popped up on my account from excursions. I did prebook 2 excursions for Gen Z and I, but as far as I and the concierge can tell, neither has canceled, so I’m not sure what’s up. She’s going to look into it further and let me know, but I told her not to trouble herself to look too hard into a gift horse’s mouth. Gen Z wanted to swim so we had lunch back up at the one pool. That lunch buffet really is no joke. Gen Z found a salad, hot dog and French fries and I indulged in poolside lamb chops and seafood pasta. There was also a dessert display, but the only labels on the items was a sign that said “assorted desserts” so I couldn’t possibly tell what might have nuts in it. I was telling Gen Z she’d have to pass on it when an officer behind the bar saw Gen Z’s plight and said “no no ma’am I’ll find out for her right now” and got on his phone and called down to the chef to find out which desserts were ok for her to eat. In the meantime, a pool server came around and offered her some of the best vanilla ice cream I’ve had in a while. The end result was that my child had a 3 dessert lunch, but that’s what vacation is for. We headed back to the room about 3pm and were surprised to find that it still hadn’t been cleaned for the day. I just noticed this afternoon that there’s a button on the wall you can push in to request room cleaning service. Tomorrow when we head out for our morning excursion I may try pushing that before we leave to make sure we have a clean room to take an afternoon nap when we get back. Gen Z is working on one of her Lego sets she brought along from home while I have some champagne and tea sandwiches in the lounge then I think we’ll go check out the shops for a little bit and hopefully the room will be done in time for us to catch a quick rest before we have to get ready for formal night tonight.

Thank you! Yes, this was in Miami. I was a little surprised by embarkation too because like yours my embarkation on Divina in Miami January was so smooth and luxurious. I was boarding much earlier then (about 9:45 because I had just come off another ship at the time) and we were at a different terminal (I believe it was F that time), so I wonder if that may have played into it as well. Personally I’m not really bothered by the multiple languages because it’s actually helping me practice my Italian and Spanish for my Europe trip in fall. I think for Mini Me it’s a little rougher with her sensory condition just because she perceives the speaker volume louder than most would and something about the sound wave frequency of ship PA systems sometimes hurts her ears and the sound goes on for longer when the message is repeated multiple times. We travel with sensory earphones for her that she has with her today which I think is helping a lot with that.

I would say if you’re a big pre planner like me (I think from knowing you via CC, you are 😁) spending a little time in advance looking at deck plans wouldn’t hurt. I haven’t gotten around the whole ship yet, but thus far it reminds me a lot of a bigger version of the layout of E class on Celebrity where you have to figure out the handful of decks where it’s easiest to get from forward to aft and vice versa and plan your route accordingly. One nice thing about this ship is that there are these big interactive touch screens everywhere that allow you to find specific venues on a ship map and get directions from your current location. If you have the little wristband on, you can even tap it next to the screen and it will show you how to get to your specific cabin from where you are and you can even book reservations for specialty restaurants, etc. right there too. There’s also a decent ship map in the MSC app (but I don’t think it worked for me until I was onboard on ship wifi) that can help you in a pinch if you have your phone on you.

This is the best kind of Monday…a Monday at sea… This morning we slept in a bit and and then headed to the Al fresco breakfast at the YC pool which goes till 10:30. In addition to the buffet (that includes lots of hot options as well as a very nice cured fish and charcuterie spread) there are eggs, pancakes, French toast and waffles cooked to order. Gen Z found donuts, her favorite cereal and a raspberry yogurt that she had two cups of. As soon as we sat at a poolside table one the pool bartenders asked if he could offer me a mimosa or Bloody Mary and make me a coffee. Ah, now this is the yacht club that sold me on shopping my loyalty. If there were one thing I could add to Retreat on Celebrity it would be this ease of getting an excellent latte served in china poolside first thing in the morning. We were about through breakfast when one of Gen Z’s new girlfriends arrived on deck and joined us for a round of apple juice (the girls) and mimosas (the moms). I have to hand it to Gen Z, at least she knows how to make the right friends because this little girls parents apparently have one of the super fancy suites (which I was invited to bid on an upgrade to for the bargain minimum bid of $4K) that comes with a reserved cabana on the YC pool deck. She invited Gen Z to come hang out in the VIP until their date with their other new cruise gal pals in the kids club when it opened at 10am. Speaking of kids club, when I went to register Gen Z yesterday, I was a bit apprehensive. There are so many kids on this ship and the reservation event was extremely crowded and hectic. I was nervous this might be a complete zoo and that the staff might not be as capable with a special needs child as they are on the much lower volume kids club on Celebrity. Gen Z was sooo adamant about wanting to try though, I pulled one of the staff aside and explained about Gen Z’s needs and asked if there might be a club director I could talk to briefly. The club director came out in a flash and was very friendly and understanding about my concerns. She assured me that all staff do receive regular training in food allergy awareness and working with neurodiverse children. Without me even asking, she also volunteered that just like Celebrity, I would be issued a bat phone for when Gen Z is in club in case she has a sensory episode and the crew needs my help to manage it. She also invited us to come back to the club later that night around 9pm so that Gen Z and I could see the space for her age group without a million parents and kids who actually belonged in older/younger groups crowding it up. When we went, Gen Z got even more excited for today. She is a huge Lego fan and the 7-11 year old club on MSC is Lego themed. They have several building centers (including a track to build and race Lego cars). They also have Nintendo Switch, PS5 AND X-box, including Gen Z’s favorite: Minecraft. While Gen Z is having her fun, I’ve just taken a dip in the perfect temperature One Pool, and am soaking up some sun with a pirates of the Caribbean strength rum punch. After another round, I may see if I can tolerate the casino smoke enough to play some slots before it’s time to pick her up for lunch. No one in the Generation household is unhappy this morning. I guess except maybe Jeremy who I saw on the driveway security camera leaving for work a few hours ago.

Good evening friends. I’m writing to you from in bed with a massive glass of Cabernet that our butler, Charles, brought me while Gen Z is already snoring off her evening. Just as we were heading out the door to dinner, Charles stopped by to introduce himself. He asked about my newspaper preference and what complimentary bottle of alcohol I’d like for the room. Like Kevin before him, he let me know that there’s probably no need to open said bottle while still on the ship because he and the yacht club lounge will always be steps away and ready to meet my cocktail needs. He also let us know that even though it says in the app and daily that reservations are required for the main theater shows, YC doesn’t need them. He said he’d check in with us each day on whether we plan to go to the show and what time and he’d escort us down and into the reserved YC seating area. We decided to do the 7:30 show tonight so we went for an earlier dinner at 6. Our assistant server surprised Mini Me when we sat down with a little napkin friend. The restaurant wasn’t busy at all at that time and service was very quick. This was the same menu from my first night on Divina and I decided to order the same dishes that had been so good. The vegetable dumplings were just as delicious as I remembered. The veal was very different from the veal I had on Divina, but still good. The scallops though were a bit disappointing. Instead of the massive and super flavorful scallops I got on Divina, these were Celebrity post-COVID sized and kind of bland. They were trying so hard to be the Retreat chic night scallops but they didn’t make it by a mile. Gen Z had grilled salmon and cleaned her plate. If we hadn’t had a show to get to I think she would’ve ordered a second helping. After dinner we met Charles at the concierge desk (where I checked in briefly to put some cash on my onboard account) and he took us to the theater for the musical production show, which from a plot perspective seemed to be trying to come as close as possible to being The Little Mermaid without drawing a cease and desist from Disney. This was my first time seeing a show on MSC and I honestly don’t think it’s even fair for me to review it since it had to follow the 12 out of 10 points shows on Beyond (with the talent caliber that made me think Celebrity just hung out outside callbacks for whatever Lin Manuel-Miranda is working on right now and starting giving out contracts). Gen Z (who didn’t spend the first half of the year on a grand tour of E-class entertainment, again, don’t judge me) was very entertained though. I will also say that you could totally tell the performers were singing and dancing their hearts out for us and they even all came out after the show to meet the kids onboard and let them take photos. Besides, I kind of feel like sailing MSC for the shows is a bit like going to a top notch steakhouse and ordering the veggie lasagna. After the show, we went to the arcade for a bit, where Gen Z spent about $25 in game play to win enough tickets to redeem for a what can’t be more than a $3 My Little Pony key chain. I’m so glad I bought the Fun Pass pre-cruise ($70 for $140 in credits to use for the arcade, 4D movie theater and virtual reality simulators). At the end of the day though she was so proud of herself and had fun. It was pretty quiet in the arcade when we first arrived but around 9pm it started to fill with the roving bands of teens and quite a few over sugared and undersuprvised running, screaming younger kids, so we double timed it out with the rubber horse that was almost as bad an investment as owning a real one. We headed to the Marina Bar by the main pool to get some ice cream for Gen Z then brought it back to the Top Sail lounge so mommy could get her own late evening treat (aka a cosmopolitan). When we got our ice cream I heard a few teens in front of us saying there was a charge for the ice cream. When we got to the front and the attendant scooped some for Gen Z I started reaching around for my key card but he looked at my wristband and said “oh miss no charge for yacht club”. Just what I need: my kid knowing she can get free ice cream until 11pm at night. 😂 When we got to Top Sail we bumped into another little girl Gen Z met earlier listening to the live pianist with her family. A little later I went up to the bar to get a refill and by the time I made it back to my table there were 2 more little girls sitting there (one in MY seat) and Gen Z had an agenda and social calendar set for 70% of the day tomorrow. Who even raised this little social butterfly??? No clue where it comes from. I can feel my eyelids starting to get heavy so I think it’s time to join Mini Me in slumberland. Good night from Seascape!

I’m starting to think that booking this cruise may have been a terrible mistake…after lunch, we did some light exploring and while Gen Z is doing her sweet little best to play it cool, I’m already starting to get a little concerned that she may never want to settle for a Celebrity ship again. She was so excited to see the arcade, water slides and waterpark. When we got to our stateroom, she also had a personalized welcome treat of a plate of chocolate chip cookies with her name written on it in chocolate! That said, there have already been a couple of times when we were outside of YC where she’s shown signs of being slightly overwhelmed by the crowds, noise of other kids screaming and having meltdowns and the volume of announcements (being made in 3 languages on this ship rather than just English on Divina). Time will tell how it plays out over the week. We just finished doing the MSC muster drill the “old fashioned way”, which resulted in multiple shoulder to shoulder, dead stop traffic jams on the stairs down to our station and it didn’t exactly instill a ton of confidence in me that this massive ship could be evacuated quickly in the unlikely event of an emergency. As we were stuck in the gridlock Gen Z actually turned and said to me “this is WAY easier on Celebrity”. For lunch, Gen Z and I split the pakora main dish as an appetizer and then Gen Z had the burger off the adult menu and I had the pansoti pasta. One thing I learned from my Divina sailing is that the Indian food on MSC tends to be pretty good and the pakora kept that track record. My pasta was ok but it could’ve been really good if it was served hot. Instead it came to the table barely warm and the cream sauce had started to thicken and get a little grainy. On our way out of lunch we bumped into Z, my amazing server in the YC on Divina, who just joined the ship yesterday! Sharing some pics from our first few hours onboard. Well we’re all dressed and ready to head off to dinner and a show. More to come later tonight!

Hello from onboard Seascape! Right from the jump I completely understood what the MSC experts said about the Sea-class ship yacht club experience vs. Divina. When our Uber dropped us off just across from the white tent at about 11:15am, the tent was already surrounded 10 cases deep with yacht club luggage and only one poor porter trying to get it tagged and loaded on carts. There was no one sitting at the desk under the tent and I saw quite a few yacht club guests just give up waiting and go ahead through the general boarding entrance and security. After about 10 minutes standing around in the heat I wondered if maybe I missed something and went up to a general port worker and asked how yacht club embarkation was working today if we were supposed to wait at the white tent for an escort (like I got on Divina) or just go through with everyone else and and he seemed shocked no one was at the YC desk and got on a radio and seconds later someone came and escorted Gen Z and I through past the security line and to a room for YC checkin. Unlike Divina, this time the YC check in room was really small, like maybe meant to hold 15-20 people max and there were no snacks or drinks (probably because there wouldn’t have been room for them). There were also at least 30 passengers in said small room trying to check in. On the plus side, we were very quickly approached by a friendly, smiling butler who helped us put on our smart wristbands (not a thing on Divina) and told us it would be about 10 minutes before they were ready to board us. Once we started boarding, one of the butlers helped Gen Z with her luggage and walked us with about 10 other YC passengers past all the general boarding lines, which were stopped so we could go through and onto the ship. When we got on the ship, just to the left there was a mass of parent and child humanity mobbed around a small table. The butler found a place for the YC parents to stand out of the way but still in view and took Gen Z and two other YC kid passengers in our group to the front of the fray and got our kids registered and into their muster wristbands. Then he escorted us all through the ship (making sure to point out the extra charge, fancy chocolate shop to my kid, thanks dude 😂) and up to the Top Sail lounge. Overall not as relaxed and luxurious of an embarkation as on Divina, but still I think as efficiently run as you can get for a ship that has many more yacht club cabins doing boarding out of what seemed like a much smaller cruise terminal space. All told we went from curb to lounge in a little under a half hour, which is almost double the time it took to get on Beyond in April but looked like it was much expedited compared to the general boarding lines when we arrived. I suspect once MSC’s new terminal in Miami is finished, the process for these bigger ships will flow much more smoothly (and if it’s anything like what Celebrity did for T25 in Fort Lauderdale for retreat boarding, the Yacht Club experience will be much improved as well). This Top Sail lounge seems like it’s twice the size of the one on Divina, and a little bigger than the Retreat Lounge on Celebrity Beyond, and compared to both much more open and airy. I was also pleased to see that the schmaltzy decor has been WAY toned down from Divina. Definitely still much more “character” than the E-class stylings on Celebrity, and some interesting artwork choices, but this time I also don’t feel like I’m in Vegas 30 years ago. Gen Z is enthralled with the Swarovski stairs leading up from the lounge to the restaurant and managed to make a cute little friend while closely inspecting them and trying to count the crystals. Said friend’s parents were at the couch next to us in the lounge and seemed to mostly only speak French. It was a rough go taking myself back to high school classes but I managed to introduce myself and eek through some basic small talk. When it was time to head up to lunch and I collected Gen Z from chatting with her buddy, to my shock, my child who has only ever had Spanish classes said “goodbye! See you soon!” in French! As a woman clumsily stumbling through learning Italian for our October cruise far later in life than I learned Spanish and French, I am amazed and jealous at how quickly children pick up new languages. Speaking of lunch, a report on that and our stateroom to come after Gen Z and I do some ship exploring!

You know if I could just stop having these extravagant avocado toast breakfasts (with Cuban mimosas featuring a passion fruit liqueur), I could probably afford to sail Silversea. lol We are all dressed and on our way to port!

Here we are! After 6 months of waiting it’s finally Seascape embarkation day! Last night my very well dressed dinner dates and I tried a restaurant I hadn’t been to before for dinner called The Rusty Pelican. A few cruises back I met a really nice Miami-based AA flight attendant on my trip and she mentioned how much she enjoys brunches there and suggested checking it out. The restaurant is in a marina on Key Biscayne so it’s a short but a little more pricey (thanks to the toll charges the drivers incur) drive from Brickell. The views of the ocean and Miami alone are totally worth it though. From certain areas of the restaurant there’s also a great view of the Miami cruise port. I kind of wished we’d reserved our dinner a little earlier so we could’ve sat on the patio and watched the cruise ships sail off while we ate. You’re also definitely paying a location tax on the menu prices, but they do give you your money’s worth on the portions. Gen Z had a kids salmon plate (which I missed getting pic of as she dove into devouring it before the server had even set it on the table good) and I had lobster and shrimp risotto with a “side” broccoli and broccolini plate. Sometimes with seafood risottos they skimp you on the actual seafood meat, but this one came with a whole lobster tail and several very juicy and flavorful jumbo shrimp. For dessert, Gen Z had cookies and cream ice cream and I had the chef’s special dessert of the night: an absurdly rich and decadent bread pudding which turned out to be the size of Gen Z’s head, topped with caramel ice cream and smothered in a warm brandy caramel sauce. By about bite #7 I knew I’d be having no trouble sleeping. Service was great when we started our meal a little before 7, but as the restaurant filled for the main dinner rush our server was clearly overextended and just getting our from placing our dessert order to getting the check took over an hour. Next time I’ll definitely plan for early dinner there. I just checked the port of Miami schedule and it looks like Seascape is at Terminal C today. There are only 2 other ships scheduled but both are on the bigger side (Carnival Celebration and NCL Escape) so I can see potential for the port to be busy. In a little bit we’ll pull ourselves out of these comfy beds (hey it’s Sunday and we’re on vacation) dress and head to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast, then we’ll get all packed up and get ready to head to port.

Jeremy’s response when I floated this idea on our goodnight call last night…”YOU and YOUR mother trying to go and do ANYTHING with low expectations??? Yeah good luck with that, Norwegian. Count me out for that cruise!” 🤣

We made it to Miami after a smooth, on time flight! For some reason, every single cruise transfer rep for the Disney Magic in baggage claim approached Gen Z and I and asked if we were going with them…can’t imagine why they would think we’re sailing Disney. 🤔😂 Anyway, we just checked into our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell. This is my go to hotel for pre-cruise when sailing out of Miami. It’s not really budget but way cheaper than south beach and still in a cool neighborhood. Rooms are clean, beds good, great rooftop pool and the restaurant onsite makes surprisingly good Cuban food and cocktails. Pro tip on booking Hyatt properties in Miami: be sure to recheck prices regularly. I reserved our room a few weeks before final payment on our cruise was due and when I checked just after final payment, the rate had dropped $75. Then I checked again on Wednesday (a day before the free cancellation deadline for my rate) and it had dropped another $60. I promptly canceled and rebooked again at the lower rate. We’ll be spending a night here post cruise as well. I got a little nervous after that whole fiasco in the port a few weeks ago and I’ve heard MSC can have occasional disembarkation delays anyway. Since I had a Hyatt award night to burn and Gen Z doesn’t have to rush back for school, I decided to book us a night post cruise so we don’t have to end vacation stressing about making a flight. I also saved over $400 on airfare booking a Monday late morning return flight rather than a Sunday afternoon one. I paid $50 when booking for guaranteed 11am early check in and had no trouble getting in our room at 10am. I’m going to check in with Jeremy and send a couple of emails then we’re going to head up to the pool for a couple of hours before hitting the restaurant for lunch. I’m really hoping my child will agree to nap time before our dinner reservation tonight, but she’s already asking about what sightseeing we can do this afternoon. I’m going to try and really wear her out in the pool then stuff her with empanadas at lunch…that ought to drum up some doziness!

Aloha! Funny you should ask. My mother is terrified of being on open water but has said she’d be willing to put her fear aside and try a cruise if we were to go to Alaska or Hawaii. What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise? I’ve always thought of it as more of a land trip, but if it gets my mom out to sea that’s a big plus in my book. Any thoughts on which cruise lines do it well? The reviews I’ve read about NCL’s Hawaii cruises have not been the best.

We are at the STL airport bright and early and our flight is boarding on time! While waiting in the gate area, I noticed that my travel journaling has started to rub off on the next generation. Hopefully all stays going smoothly and 3 hours from now we’ll be in Miami!

Thank you! I will be stealing this motto for the agonizing stretch from July till my next cruise in October! I’m hoping that many people have late summer and early fall cruises planned that they’ll be reporting on…preferably with gratuitous food and cocktail pics.

Sigh…you would think that after I’ve lost track of how many cruises, I might have become more concise in my packing. And yet, here we are with 5 suitcases of clothes, handbags and shoes for 1.5 ladies. Apparently all I’ve actually learned is that packing is a lot easier and faster when I travel solo and tonight I briefly considered cutting my husband and child out of my future cruising plans entirely for the sake of both cost and time efficiency. I blame this third glass of packing Chianti for my selfish thoughts. Cheers to being all ready for our early morning flight to Miami!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself and share that I’ll be doing a live review of my upcoming cruise on Seascape in case anyone is interested in following along. A bit about me and my travel companion: I’m Charla, 40 years old and from the US midwest (St. Louis, MO area). My cruising addiction is funded via my day job as an advertising and entertainment law attorney. I enjoy writing as a hobby (sadly contract drafting doesn’t leave much room for self-expression) and I’ve kept a travel journal since I was a kid so that I can read back and remember my vacation experiences in detail decades later. (You should see some of the stuff I wrote on my England and Ireland trip when I was 17, boy did I think I was grown and knew it all back then. 🤦🏾‍♀️) When I discovered cruise critic years back while planning a cruise, I got so much good information from the live reviews others were doing and reading along virtually was a huge help to pass the time till it was my time to sail. So since I knew I’d be writing and taking pics anyway, I decided to pay it forward and also start live reviewing my trips. Celebrity has been my go to cruise line (enough to have hit elite plus status), and while I’ve sailed in almost every category, I tend to sail their aqua and suite classes most. This will be only my second MSC cruise, booked (sitting in the yacht club lounge with a warm scone and espresso martini in hand) while onboard a quick but excellent 4 night solo sailing on Divina earlier this year. I typically either sail solo, with my husband Jeremy or with our 10 year old daughter who I’ll refer to as Gen Z or Mini Me. Jeremy (who coincidentally isn’t the one who has to make our annual cruising budget) is struggling to consider breaking his firm allegiance to Celebrity. Gen Z on the other hand, was onboard to try something new from the moment I said “Lego kids club” and sent her a video from Ocean Cay of a sea turtle swimming in the channel. Plus, I’m not ashamed to admit that I did engage in some minor bribery via some well chosen selections from the Divina gift shop upon my return. This little lady loves animals, art, and music theatre and is currently going through a growth spurt feeding frenzy that may put the chefs onboard Seascape through their paces. Gen Z is neurodiverse and can quickly become overstimulated, so we’ve avoided the massive ships with whole theme parks, character parades and lots of loud music/announcements. I’m thinking that perhaps Seascape in yacht club will give us a good balance of a ship with more kid activities (not that Gen Z has ever been bored or unhappy on Celebrity) but also still having our accommodations in a less crowded, more elevated and peaceful service area that we can retreat (sorry Celebrity) to when we need a break. I’m going into this cruise with an open mind to new things but also with somewhat tempered expectations. On Divina, I had a particularly amazing butler and, according to what MSC regulars that I met onboard told me, I happened to be on one of the last sailings with one of the best yacht club managers and best yacht club concierges before they went home to rest before new contracts. I was also warned repeatedly that Divina is generally one of the best yacht clubs in the fleet in terms of service and that the newer ships aren’t as good because the yacht club is bigger and service isn’t as personalized as a result. I guess the next week will tell how things shake out in comparison! If anyone has any questions or tips for us while we’re onboard, please feel free to jump in and ask/share. Looking forward to taking you along!

Hi CC! Long time no see! I think I may be about to medal in tardy completion of a cruise review. I am so so sorry I’m just now coming back to finish this one up. It turns out, when you put all of non-urgent work and life on hold while you go on a 3 month cruising binge, when said binge ends the real world hits long and hard and with vengeance. Fortunately, I’ve now gotten myself caught up on things just in time to start prepping for another, long awaited cruise…but more about that in a minute. First, for anyone still around and interested, I know I still owe a hefty bill in the form of the tale of how Cozumel got the better of me. So here we go: The Salsa y Sala excursion was sold as a “small group” tour which I’ve found can be a somewhat relative term with Celebrity. This time I felt like it delivered on the promise as we were a group of about 7 couples plus me as a solo. The description indicated we would start the excursion with a trip to a local market to buy ingredients for our cooking class later. This was slight false advertising as when we got to the market we all just stood and watched while our guide bought like 2 avocados and a tomato from the first vendor stall (nowhere near enough supplies for all our participants). But after he finished paying for the small bag of produce he took us on a full walking tour of the market and shared some info on how different meat and vegetables are grown and sourced in Mexico. It was clear that this was a real, local, working market and not a tourist spot. In spite of the oversell of the “shopping for ingredients”, it was very cool to get a glimpse of day to day local life in Cozumel in a location I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable just wandering around exploring solo. After the market tour we got back on the bus and had a short drive to Playa Mia park for our cooking and dance class. The class was held outside under a pavilion with fans. It wasn’t a super hot day so I was fine but I could see the excursion being uncomfortable in heat of later summer. The chef talked us through how to make authentic salsa, guacamole and pico de gallo with our own set of ingredients (pre set out so again clearly not from our “shopping trip”) and utensils at each of our places. While we cooked, servers came around liberally to bring cold bottled water, beer, margaritas, mojitos and tequila shots…good tequila shots…smooth tequila shots…too darn smooth tequila shots. With a smaller group, the chef really had time to go around and observe everyones techniques and answer questions. As we finished making our dips, we were each delivered a small tray of more Mexican snacks to enjoy with our chips and dips as well as, you guessed it, even more delicious margaritas and tequila shots. Right about the time I started feeling like I could dance a lead in Chicago (the kind of false confidence only tequila can deliver) it was time to start the salsa and merengue dance class. Wouldn’t you know it, the young, attractive private chef who led our cooking class was also our dance instructor and since I was solo, I was designated to be his partner/assistant in demonstrating the steps…my life is so hard sometimes. After about 20 minutes of dance (which was about as much as we could all take outdoors on stomachs full of Mexican food and cocktails) the class wrapped up and we we had about an hour and a half of free time to enjoy all the other amenities of playa mia at no additional charge. There were pools and a kids water park as well as a complimentary buffet lunch restaurant and loungers with umbrellas on the beach. Towels weren’t provided so I was glad I brought one from the ship. I decided to get in some ocean time so I found a lounger under shade of a palm tree and took a sip in the sea. When I got back to my chair to relax an in seat drink server arrived and I ordered just a bottle of water to try and dry up a bit. By then it was a hot day and these guys were trudging around with very heavy looking full trays of free drinks, so I tipped him well when he came back quickly with my water. In fact, I think I tipped a little too well because about 10 minutes later he was back at my side holding a big margarita and saying “I thought you might need some Mexican water too, senorita!” Not wanting to be rude, I quickly drank the margarita before it had time to melt and get watery…and did the same with the 2 additional unordered margaritas that appeared when my cup would get down under half full. I think my total margarita consumption for the day was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10, but I don’t go on vacation to do math. By the time we had to back up and head back to our bus to the pier, I was contemplating crawling through the sand rather than walking. When I got back to to my suite and got on wifi I vaguely remember FaceTiming Jeremy just to say hello and tell him all about my wonderful day. He says it was one of the more amusing calls he’s gotten from me because “you were giggling and speaking Spanish half the time and trying to show me your salsa moves even though the camera only shows you from the chest up”. Sharing some pics from all the Mexico fun as well as a few with the crew who took such good care of me all week below. Ok, so yes, about future cruise plans! First, in just 48 hours my Mini Me and I will be flying to Miami to board MSC Seascape for a 7 night sailing in their yacht club club! I’ll be starting a live review on the MSC board most likely tomorrow if anyone is interested in coming along on a different cruise line. I’m actually a little nervous about writing on a new board with lots of strangers. This will also be only my second MSC cruise, and first with a child in tow, so I won’t be able to share anywhere near as many pro tips as I can when I’m on Celebrity. After we return, I’ll be staying on land until Fall to prep for a big bucket list cruise…In mid October, Jeremy and I will take our first trip to Italy to do a 10-night sailing on Beyond to Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Croatia! We’re also considering spending Christmas or New Years this year at sea, but it will likely be a last minute booking depending on just how much money we end up spending in the homeland of Versace, Gucci and Super Tuscans. Thanks as always to everyone who read along on my last solo cruise of the year and for anyone who won’t be coming along on Seascape, talk to you guys in October when it’s time to reunite with Beyond across the pond!

Sigh, all I regretfully write to you this morning from a much less pleasant place than where I last left you… Yes, my 3 month marathon of bi-weekly cruising has officially come to an end.😭 I can’t believe I actually have to wait months, MONTHS before I sail again (I know, your sympathy for me is minimal). This morning as I was sulking on my veranda I saw the walkoff disembarks start at around 7:15. I was in no rush to catch my flight so after saying final goodbyes and thank you’s to my butler and stateroom attendant and giving them their envelopes, I went to one last breakfast in Luminae then headed down to the gangway. I didn’t think a Retreat concierge escort would be necessary leaving later in the morning and I was right. There was almost no line to get off at 8:45. I didn’t get an offer of luggage valet service, even though I have a later flight, and no one else I spoke to last night did either, so I don’t think it was available yet. It would’ve been nice since according to my husband I allegedly travel with my entire summer wardrobe in tow. Instead when I got to the terminal, I found a porter to assist with my cargo and was through facial recognition customs in less than 5 minutes. There were 4 ships in port this morning including Odyssey of the Seas so I wasn’t surprised to see Uber on surge pricing. When I checked my bags for the flight, the AA agent checked to see if there were any earlier flights to STL I could jump on since I made it to the airport so early. There was also an 11am flight through LGA that I could have booked, but I try to avoid booking flights that leave before noon on disembarkation day. Especially if I’m going over to MIA from port Everglades. You never know what disembarkation and traffic will be like. A few weeks ago my social media blew up about a disembarkation for MSC in Miami that was delayed almost 3 hours with no passengers even allowed off the ship till almost 11am. Unfortunately today the ticket agent said that everything going to or through STL is completely sold out. He said domestic departures have been particularly busy the past few days thanks to to rebooks from the 4 day FLL closure. Oh well, at least I’ll have a nonstop and I’ve got the bartenders at the D30 Admirals club (who at this point recognize me, remembered my name, and asked where I cruised to THIS time, yikes 😬) to keep me company till my flight boards at 2pm. In the meantime, let’s also take a step back and talk about my second dinner in Eden last night, which was every bit as good as the first. For my starters I had the crab cake and risotto. That crab cake is my kinda crab cake. 100% blue crab meat with just a little layer of crispy panko on top for crunch, with a slightly spicy chipotle Mayo and pickled peppers and onions on the side. The risotto was also just as good as I remembered from Red and I’s November cruise. Cheese and mushroom lovers, this is your dish. This time for the main I had the lobster casserole. For my southerners and midwesterners following “casserole” is a total misnomer for this dish. You’re actually getting a whole, fresh Canadian lobster (I’ve been told they’re brought on the ship live) served over a delicious sweet corn sauce with little chunks of thick pancetta and like 4 baby potatoes in it. Far better than any casserole I’ve ever made! The couple at the table next to me saw mine come to the table next to me saw it come to the table and commented how they should’ve waited for Eden to have lobster because they’d ordered it in the main dining room the night before and what they got was “a piece of lobster slightly bigger than my husband’s thumb”. For dessert I also switched it up and had a deceptively rich lemon tart and Adrian the sommelier poured me a complimentary glass of 20 year tawny port to drink with it as I watched Beyond leave my week of Caribbean fun behind. I’m going to head to the bar for a back to reality Bloody Mary, then will work on my catch up posts on my Cozumel excursion and specialty lunches onboard and a final thoughts post. If there’s anything else I’m forgetting or questions folks have about things I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to jump in!

Quick suggestion for a best life ending to your cruise day when sailing Retreat on E class: If you dine in Eden, after you order your dessert course they give you a little tower of sweet canapés and chocolates that, if you’re like me, is just too much to really appreciate right then after a full meal with your actual dessert coming too. Instead of letting it go to waste, ask your server to wrap the sweet canapés tower to go. Then you can enjoy them a little later on in a nice bubble bath (my go to is a French lavender foam) with a good book and a glass of wine before bed. Not only will you feel like Marie Antoinette (pre-Revolution of course) during said bath, but you’ll also sleep like a baby after.

Awe thank you! I mean I would cheerfully empty our savings account and blow 5 figures on an inside stateroom just to see that particular performance of Defying Gravity. 😂

Ugh…the bags are packed and put out. The tip envelopes are made. While I sit here salty drinking a passion fruit martini, sharing some info from my room on general and retreat disembarkation. You may need to zoom in on the pics to read it properly but wanted to make sure I got the whole thing in one shot. Interesting that they don’t have the suites/zenith luggage tags and are just doing suites in the first set of tag numbers. I guess it doesn’t really matter much. Also sharing some info from the theatre last night about the principal cast of Celebrity’s entertainment team. It’s no wonder the shows have been so good. These folks have some impressive resumes. At least to a woman whose greatest personal theatrical achievement was being cast as a tree in my ballet school’s production of Swan Lake. After dinner I think I’ll make one last attempt to force the casino to pay off (yes, I’m familiar with the definition of insanity, thank you, now isn’t the time to try me, trust me) then perhaps see the last Eden show and take one last in suite bubble bath before bed. More to come later from my last night on Beyond!

Well there’s good news and there’s bad news… The good news is after a good lunch and a much needed second nap I am back in cruise fighting shape. The bad news is, after lunch I could tell that the last thing my body was going to tolerate yet was the taste and smell of more alcohol, so I skipped the premium wine tasting event. I also regret to report that Captain D seems quite adamant about continuing to make knotts back towards port Everglades and kicking me off the ship tomorrow. I’m recovered enough to have one more seaside margarita, my last for quite a few months, before I head down to make tipping envelopes and pack. When Herbert brought me my drink he mentioned that tomorrow’s cruise is expected to be a sell out full capacity. He and several other crew members who we’re supposed to head home at the end of this cruise have been asked to stay one more week to help with the workload. Which reminds me, an interesting note on the crew to share: Most crew members I’ve talked to are scheduled to either go home in the next few cruises or end their contracts sometime in June/July. Counting back the months that makes sense as the hundreds of brand new crew members who joined the ship with my early November sailing would have their 9 month contracts wrapping up sometime in July. To me this suggests if you’re planning to sail Beyond in late summer/early fall, you may want to pack patience and somewhat adjusted expectations for service levels, as many of the crew may be new to the ship, replacing this well seasoned crew that is heading home. While I’m enjoying my last few hours of paradise (yay!) and checking in for my flight home (boo hiss!) sharing about the rest of my night last night. So before I started behaving like I’m half my age, I started the evening with a pre-dinner rye old fashioned at world class bar, then headed to the theatre for the last production show, Stage Door. This one is a performance of numbers from popular Broadway musicals both new and classic, and I kind of went into it hesitantly. But it turned out to be so much better than just another corny Broadway revue. Celebrity definitely took it above and beyond (ha!) To start, the musical accompaniment for the show was done by the London Palladium orchestra. The music track was recorded live especially for this Celebrity show and the video of the orchestra playing for the score recording plays behind the singers and dancers on the big screen at many points (if you look close in the video, on some of the musicians music stands, you can actually see the cover of the music sheet that says Celebrity Cruises on it, kinda cool). But wait, there’s more. In between numbers, there are interview videos that play of members of the Broadway cast for the shows the next song comes from talking about why they feel the show and their character is special. The music theatre nerd in me had tears in my eyes. I don’t want to spoil one of the best parts of the show for anyone but I’ll also just drop the hint that the show includes one of the coolest duet performances I’ve ever seen. After seeing all the performances, I’m thinking that another place where Beyond beats out S and M class (and even to some extent her older E class sisters) for me is the production shows. I am DYING to see how they plan to top these acts on Ascent. I mean are they going to like resurrect Siegfried and Roy (rest their souls) and fly in Idina Menzel to sing while a white tiger does an aerial act? Then again, to afford something like that they’d have to start charging non-Retreat guests to use the aft elevators or something. (Let me hush, I don’t want to give them any ideas.) After the great show I headed to Luminae for dinner. If you’ll be in Luminae on Beyond and are lucky enough to have Adash as your server, his ordering recommendations are on point. I was thinking of a different order, but then I remembered what my stepdad always taught me: “A big part of being an intelligent person is being smart enough to know when someone else probably knows better than you.” Adash KNOWS the Luminae menu and takes the time to get to know your personal dietary needs and preferences. I trusted the man and he did not steer me wrong. I had an excellent Tuscan kale and sausage soup followed by a surf and turf of those (tiny but delicious) Celebrity micro scallops and the herb crusted lamb chops. I’m normally a more rare lamb person but Adash suggested these have more flavor at chefs suggested medium and I had no complaints. The only thing underwhelming on the plate was the olive oil mashed potatoes which were underseasoned and a little dry. But I’ve had more than enough yummy carbs in my life this week so skipping one scoop of potatoes didn’t bother me too much. For dessert I had the good but very rich chocolate bars which were served with an even richer peanut butter gelato. Needless to say I plan to be generous in Adash’s thank you envelope. Well, looks like it’s about time for me to go down and accept the reality of my impending departure. At least I’ll have Elaine’s afternoon delivery to cheer me up while I pack. Then it’ll be time to get ready for one last decadent dinner in Eden!