jimmypackedcorn

Has anyone stayed here before heading to Port C? Has anyone tried the onsite restaurant?

Does that change for YC?

20 minutes ago, stp_mmh5 said:

The biggest difference in price is generally the 15% auto gratuity isn't applied for online bookings, but will be for onboard. Otherwise, the prices are about the same. 

 

The comment about flubbing up the reservation is more of a jab at MSC. The running theme in these boards is that their IT department leaves a lot to be desired and things have been known to not properly transfer. We experienced it ourselves for the first time with our upgrade bid from a balcony to the YC. It wasn't a serious issue in the end as the concierge made sure it was corrected in the first 24 hours. As long as you have any pre-purchased items (spa/drinks/dining/excursions) in the boarding documents pdf that becomes available about 10 days prior to the cruise, you should be good to go.

 

As far as capacity during our cruise, I don't believe we were at capacity, at least, it never felt like it. I never got a solid number for the whole ship, but it was gathered from multiple sources that the YC was about 190 guests out of a capacity of 270. There are times that the ship felt fuller, but it is the usual hot times of boarding/debarking/end of show/lunch in the buffet.

Got it. So if we cant select our day/time for spa services online (which we cant) there's no point in booking those in advance? Sounds like cost is about the same. I don't want to book those if we cant get the massages/spa services on our sea days, which seems to be the case since we cant do anything in advance online other than pay.

4 minutes ago, stp_mmh5 said:

Essentially your account gets a credit for the service you book. Once onboard, you go to the Spa desk (or YC concierge if you're in the YC) and then reserve the actual day/time you want.

 

Pros to this are: 

1. Leaving less chance for MSC's IT to flub up the reservation

2. You can get a better idea of what dinner/lunch/daily plans to schedule around.

 

Con is that you may lose out on a preferred/prime time if you are not one of the first down to the desk.

 

While we didn't pre-book anything for our cruise last week, it didn't seem like any of the services were fully booked out at any time. Even asking for a day of hot stones massage on the last sea day, I had multiple options to choose from. 

Thank you! Is it really cheaper to book in advance versus on the ship? Secondly, was your cruise at full capacity?

Im a little confused about what you mean when you say leaving them to chance to flub up the reservation. Are you saying if we book online they might? In other words, we could book it online to try to get our credit, yet they might not even realize we did it?

Hey all - so how do spa bookings actually work?

It's super easy for me to find the service that we want, but there's no choice of day or time or ANYTHING. It's just select and pay.

The day and time is a decision making criteria for us. As in, we won't book if we can't secure at least a window of what we're looking for.

Are we proverbially S.O.L.?

Thanks!

Hi All, 

We are looking for your recommendations on hotels for one night prior to our cruise.  Our desired criteria:

• Higher end hotel. Hilton/Marriott/Hyatt class at a minimum, open to anything and everything above that.
• Very good on-site or extremely nearby restaurant.
• Overall, the more premium, the better.
• Ideally within 30 min of the port, but farther is OK for something worthwhile.

This is a special trip for us, so we're willing to spend extra. Also totally fine if it's a small/independent hotel or awesome short term rental.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

23 hours ago, stp_mmh5 said:

It was amazing. We had a great time and this was honestly the best of the three Seaside class ships and trips we have done. The only minor negative I think we had was that the service was mostly great. What I mean by that is that there were very few standout individuals who we felt like went above and beyond. But at no time did we ever feel like that anything was subpar.

 

I am sure you'll have a great time on your upcoming trip.

Awesome. Glad you enjoyed and thanks for taking the time to provide the feedback!

On 6/15/2023 at 4:35 PM, stp_mmh5 said:

For us on the current sailing, we arrived at Port Canaveral right around 10, were checking into the YC tent by 10:30 and around 10:50 they had started the boarding process. The 15 or so minutes in the waiting lounge we finished the actual check-in and sat in airport terminal seats enjoying drinks, snacks and some conversation with fellow cruisers, so the time went by very quickly.

 

What usually holds up boarding is inspections or getting the zero count from the cruise prior. With the trip prior to ours being a three day, most people left the ship pretty promptly, so it's possible that you could experience the same time frame. Any arrival time after 11 should let you zip right through to the lounge.

How was your trip???

Thanks for taking the time, we appreciate it.

Based on your post history - you know what you're doing, so I'll ask it this way:

If you were us, and you wanted to board as early as possible without also standing in line/waiting on your feet for the shortest period of time possible, what time would you show up?

BTW - I really appreciate your time providing this guidance. We have never been on MSC before and were really worried about booking it based on the reviews we've read. Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you so much for responding. We live about an hour and a half away and our preference is to be among the first to board. In your experience, what time can we show up? 11:00AM?

Hi All,

We just booked a Yacht Club suite on Seaside. When I signed in on my MSC portal, it prominently displays our "Embarkation time: 3:00PM" and the departure time for the ship is 6:00PM.

I thought one of the benefits of the Yacht Club was an early embarkation? This doesn't seem like a great value for me. Based on your previous experiences, can we board earlier? Has anyone had any experience with Yacht Club embarkation and the times?

Thank you!!!