KittyCruz

The sommelier is Christopher, a youngish ginger lad from Texas. We found him incredibly entertaining and loved watching him work the room. As fellow Texans he made a couple of restaurant recommendations for dry land

We've never been nicked for an overweight bag from MSC, the airlines yes but not MSC.

Have a great trip! Will be following to soak up all the tips as the Divinia is our next cruise

Looking forward to following along, we're on the Divinia in YC about a year out - happy sailings to you

My review finally got approved, here is a link to the review https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=710584 also sadly i think the video might of killed my camera, because I had IT (husband) look at it and of course its dead.

I always pack a small Pair of fiskars that fold up - they get through airport security and msc

For those not super familiar with Galveston When planning your cruise look to see what is happening on the island, because it can effect ones ability to get a room the night before. example the first weekend in December is Dickens on the Strand and most decent hotels/VRBO type offerings start getting booked in July. For those flying the best airport to fly into is Houston Hobby Food - there are lots of awesome places to eat in Galveston: Star Drug (does a great breakfast, but is a local fave and gets busy so plan on getting there early) besides that our faves are Black Pearl, Katie's Seafood, Mosquito Cafe, Gaido's and Cajun Greek Drinks - Daquiri Time Out will get you ready for vacation and that drink package Besides the seawall there is lots to see/do in Galveston https://www.visitgalveston.com/plan-your-trip/maps-neighborhoods/seawall-district/ Moody Gardens https://www.moodygardens.com/ Bishop's Palace https://www.galvestonhistory.org/sites/1892-bishops-palace Railroad Museum https://galvestonrrmuseum.org/ Ocean Star Museum https://www.energyeducation.org/ Galveston Naval Museum https://www.galvestonnavalmuseum.com/ Bolivar Ferry https://www.galveston.com/trip-planning/transport/galvestonferry/

Well... Dang it. It sounds like my troglodyte ways struck again

Still waiting on CC to approve my review, so in the meantime I thought I would add some photos we took and hopefully (fingers crossed the video of our room) DSCF4775.AVI

We were on Seascape this past november/december and its a beauty! I'm hoping they also have some short 3-4 day cruises added since those make for a nice need to get away trip

I also realized that with this Port I could aspire to @morpheusofthesea dear wife and bring along 12-14 pieces of luggage...

I just received the email from MSC about this today. As a Texan this makes me happy because I can quite possibly talk my husband into more cruises, since we won't need to book additional flights or hotels to/in Miami. https://www.msccruisesusa.com/Search Result?embkPort=GLS

Our last MSC cruise we pre paid for gratuities upfront at time of booking, so having something show up later while we were at sea was odd. Either way it was money well spent as well as the last evening issuance of the green. We really did enjoy the YC.

we didn't get a bad butler by any means, both he and our jr butler were pretty awesome with the service and it was determined our first, but not last YC cruise. I employed many of the tips I've learned from reading your poop deck reports and they worked like a charm.

I concur to all of this! Our second night we noticed a charge added to our bill, it was not clear what it was so we asked the butler and he explained it was the gratuity, we thanked him for the explanation and shut the door. We had already planned and budgeted for additional tips, but seeing that amount really gave heed to the situation. Although after reading this, I now know that ones butler needs to be asking us the night before about our plans...

we loved our wine sommelier... he worked the dinner crowd like a vegas pro

@xcell not sure if you meant "tipping" on excursions or tips for excursions, so i will offer both. We tipped both our guide and driver on our excursion. I have no idea if this is normal behavoir but its something i picked up years ago and just continue to do so. As for tips for excursions. Our choice is to always book through the cruise, for that piece of mind of not being left behind. We didn't do as many this trip- mostly because what was offered was not our cup of tea. I have noticed in a post covid world they pack way to much into an excursion and its not always worth it because one feels rushed or too worked over. If you are mobile Puerto Rico is defintely walkable and there was loads to do/see in old San Juan.

@MsTabbyKats with the exception of gala night I would say the bulk were dressed 'smart casual' for dinner.

Oh my... I will clip our swim suits to the back of the chairs in the evening but I've never to that degree

We returned from a week at sea and after a week to settle back into the 9-5 routine I wanted to provide some thoughts about our recent cruise. 1. Interlopers - interesting enough I walked behind a family that had managed to break through and were attempting dinner in the YC restaurant only to be turned away because they showed up an hour early to dine. (I caught this because we might have also showed up early, but we had the option of going downstairs to have a pre-dinner cocktail, the interlopers were shown the door) We also saw people try unsuccessfully to access the doors to YC and we like most others just ignored them. 2. The pool area was not packed, and this was pretty great! We only had 270 on this cruise. Smokers tended to stay in the correct areas, and one felt they had ample space to lay out, read, talk, relax, etc... we tended to stay towards the bow so service wasn't great, but I didn't have a problem getting up to grab myself a beverage, besides when I did, they would always ask where I was and bring it out. 3. Food -In general food was excellent and I wanted, asked for and received shrimp cocktail each evening as my appetizer, one lunch the choices were for lack of better words, frou frou so we chose that day to order a pizza. If I wanted to have gone up a pants size, I would have ordered at least one of everything on Italian night, the lasagna was a thing of beauty- the pasta melted in your mouth. Sadly, there was no seafood buffet but one day for lunch the buffet had scallops (I might have eaten what in the states would equate to $100 worth of scallops) on that same day the dining room had shrimp, but it was a sunny sea day, and I needed my vitamin d. Service wise things were good, we had a decent head waiter/jr waiter there were a few hiccups in order that were odd but we just went with it. Dinner shined, breakfast was always a little odd and lunch was slow so we usually just did the buffet. I learned a YC perk which was to go downstairs pre breakfast and order a cappuccino - this gave me the caffeine needed to be able to order breakfast like a real human being. 4. Dress - the first day there were some casual outfits in the YC restaurant, but after that it really only seemed like one table that didn't get the memo for dinner. We enjoyed dressing up and seeing everyone else's attempts. Although next time I'm tempted to channel my inner dude and come to breakfast in my pjs, robe and YC slippers with sunglasses 5.Service - with the exception of high tea, which we did not get good service at, service was across the board excellent. Our Butler/Jr. Butler knocked it out of the park. (I worried a bit because we are not high maintenance but did want to be treated like YC folks) I used the tip from @morpheusoftheseaand had a list for our butler. We got a few bits that showed up throughout the trip bowl of fruit, chocolates and we would get a small glass box of treats each night. This of course led us to the Chocolatier and why we are still enjoying fine Italian chocolates. In the TPL and pretty much everywhere on the ship, we experienced great service. In gen pop for Gala Night I hit the champagne bar the staff were filling it so there was a moment of which fine champagne do you get and trying to find it, and I stopped them to say the processco would do nicely and they obliged. 6. Entertainment - we didn't do much entertainment outside of TSL -shows either didn't interest us or were too late for our lifestyle. 7. Tips - we tipped extra (butler, jr. butler, waiter, jr waiter, bartenders, tpl wait staff, outside YC bar tenders, excursions) I had a great vacation that was made possible by a slew of people who kept smiles on their faces and calm composure 24/7. I will get around to posting a real review, uploading photos and of course adding to the unofficial, official room directory kept by @Two Wheels Only for suite 19010

Yes, in the Games Arcade it listed the price and that you could use. While we had a fun pass we did not attempt robotron fun.

We opened up the curtains to our room and saw the ship! After 20 minutes of check in and queue we're two of those 270

@momofmab we spent the day traveling to Miami, so out of the loop except for @morpheusofthesea notes that we can't wear our flip flops to dinner (thank God overalls weren't on that list but I say give it time) we sail tomorrow so I guess we'll find out. Nothing in our app or in email about our sailing

Thank you! I will do our best (tip of the green) to ensure we have the same waiter each night. our last RC cruise our head waiter did quite well in the tip arena when on day 3 he started bringing extra shrimp cocktails or other shrimp appetizers "just in case"