no1talks

4 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

"I keep a file called 'YC requests' . . . "

You too?! Here's mine.

14 hours ago, ginger123snaps said:

"Oh and first day on arrival our toilet was dirty from previous passengers...ewwwww."

Far, far less acceptable than just the absent butler. If I ever encounter that, it will be straight to the hotel director.

11 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

The just raised AGAIN to 12 EUR/14 USD.

For YC service, that's low. Only one or two lines are lower. The rest charge more or include the service fee in the fare, which just raises the cost of the cruise, anyway.

14 hours ago, ginger123snaps said:

" . . . didn't even acknowledge us...we had to call him to meet him on the second day."

If I don't meet/hear from the butler by embarkation dinner, I won't meet that butler at all.

I'll be meeting the replacement butler.

On 1/21/2023 at 12:59 PM, zalusky said:

"One time I wanted a daiquiri and was told only the pool bar has the ingredients for it and it is not open in the evening."

It seems the bartender was disinterested in making a frozen drink, rather than actually lacking the components. If you wanted the daiquiri on the rocks, the scenario is even more bizarre. 

I'm assuming you wanted a traditional lime daiquiri, as opposed to a banana daiquiri, or other variant. A basic daiquiri requires:
White rum.
Lime juice.
Simple syrup.

All three ingredients are used in a multitude of drinks and any bar would have all of them. However, in fairness, if O directs their bartenders to use fancy-schmancy Demerara sugar to make the simple syrup for the "tropical" drinks or rim the glasses, the bartender could have been stymied for a moment, due to unavailability. Said bartender should have then offered to make the drink with standard simple syrup and rim the glass with white sugar.

Really, I think this was just a matter of subpar bartending, which is troubling by itself.

1 hour ago, Morgsmom said:

"Just to note that they ARE pouring Moet as the standard Champagne in the YC on Divina now . . . "

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Maybe some Moët Mimosas are in my near future. 😋

(Can't go wrong with M&Ms at breakfast!)

As mentioned elsewhere, the only way to mostly get away from cruise drunks is to book a pricier cruise line. No hordes of hooligans on Silverseas. (I used the word "mostly" because even a Seabourn or Regent cruise can have a millionaire who is a sloppy drunk. 😵)

Affordable cruise lines make money on the inclusion and sale of drink packages. Successful businesses (and businesses with pandemic or ship-building debt) usually don't leave revenue sitting on the table.

Regarding the emptiness of Ocean Cay, it is that way by design. The island is host to a marine reserve program and Disney-ing the place up wouldn't be conducive to that cause.

3 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Actually, mainstream lines drinks packages are a relatively recent sort of thing.

I don't know why you are actually-ing me. I posted a link to a news story from the period during which these packages originated, being familiar with the timeline of the topic. When I wrote, "Here is a story on the topic, from 'long ago' cruising," the quotes around "long ago" were not literalist quotation marks. They were sarcastic quotation marks.
 

3 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

If the yahoos remain set to threaten the whole cruise community and to impose additional reputational risks on the cruise lines, you can be sure that the drinks packages, or at least the unlimited version of them will have their days counted on the affordable lines.

If I carried around that much hyperbole, I wouldn't have to go to the gym. 😉 
While I cannot speak to the percentage of EU residents who pay attention to the reputations of cruise lines, I can say the majority of Americans are not emotionally invested in the scuttlebutt of cruising. In 2019, there were about 14.2 million cruise passengers embarking from the US. The population of the US that year was nearly 330 million. Clearly, the typical American didn't just disembark from one cruise and isn't picking which pair of deck shoes to wear on the next.

Drink packages are on the affordable lines to help keep those lines affordable. The packages make money, not lose it. The over-consumers are highly visible, but over-consumption isn't the only reason the packages are purchased. Convenience is a huge draw. Variety of beverage choice is another.
 

4 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Meanwhile: From some time MSC has sold all their tickets from where I live with at least the Easy drinks package included. From mid December onward they restarted the classic tickets with no drinks promotional and cruises less than 6 nights are all of them classic ticket with no drinks at all.

Eliminating the inclusion of a drink package is all well and fine, but it is in no way the same thing as doing away with drink packages entirely. So long as MSC's add-on Easy & Easy-Plus packages are attractively priced for Carnival passengers, those passengers will buy a cheap MSC fare and slap that drink package on with nary a thought, regardless of wanting the package for convenience, beverage variety, or continual drunkenness. 
 

4 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Sure, but if a particular business model adds more risks than the actual value, they'll to change it for a better one. There are no miracles!...

I think the actual risk history (in serving copious amounts of alcohol) indicates no such change is coming. If one were to do an Internet search of alcohol-related litigation, from the time of drink packages entering the cruise industry, one would find lawsuits running the gamut from minor boo-boos while tipsy, to multiple wrongful death suits. I'm talking about deaths ranging from the multiple and expected drunk-man-overboard, to grisly bleed out due to an arterial cut on broken glass while under the influence.

If years of intermittent incidents/litigation involving injury and death, connected to over-serving cruisers, hasn't already killed drink packages, a stampede of Carnies over to MSC won't. MSC, however, will do three things:
1) Count the money the Carnival transplants spend on board.
2) Respectfully suggest the appalled Bella, Fantastica, and Aurea cruisers take refuge in Yacht Club.
3) Respectfully suggest the appalled Yacht Club cruisers to take refuge on Explora.
🤣
That's my prediction.

1 hour ago, styles27 said:

"Not to date myself but we’ve been cruising since the early 1980’s . . ."

Lot's differences since then. Fewer (if any) ice sculptures on mainstream cruises, for example. You don't see monstrous midnight buffets anymore, either.

It's about money. For the relatively few hard-chargers who wring every drop from a package, there are loads of cruisers who cannot drink enough to break even and the house wins. Cruise lines didn't invent packages to lose money

Here is a story on the topic, from "long ago" cruising. 
https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/norwegian-cruise-line-adds-drink-option-carnival-celebrity/story?id=17726352


 

4 hours ago, styles27 said:

" 'Europeans don’t want to wait in line' which I don’t buy…we never saw that anywhere we’ve travelled in Europe." 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

"Honestly, it’s been a few years since we’ve been on Carnival but I don’t remember the party crowd on Carnival being this bad."

Our one non-YC MSC Caribbean cruise (in Bella) was rife with European line-jumpers. My wife, who is European, overheard two instances in particular of such people, in their own language, owning up to their shitty behavior to people in their group. "Don't care. On holiday. Pretend I don't know English."

Plenty of people behave better in their homeland than they do on an overseas vacation. 

As far as Carnival is concerned, they have issues with (alcohol assisted?) brawling and have had to increase security presence and raise the price of in-room bottle service. A plain ol' bottle of Bacardi White is $135. You can bet there will be plenty of "Carnies" who will show an interest in the cheaper consumption costs of MSC.

Will MSC's changes in drink package sales make a difference? Maybe, but not until all those pending drinks-included reservations are cleared from the ledger.

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

I’d like to see the drink packages go away completely.

1. It would weed out the jerks who drink one after another because it’s unlimited. 

2. Drink quality was a lot better before the packages came into effect. One great cocktail is better than 3 bad ones anyway. 

As cruisers know, there are cruise lines without drink packages. The drinks are included and the fares reflect it. The high cost of climbing aboard keeps the yahoos out. Now, if what you really want to see is an affordable cruise line without drink packages, well, I think there is almost zero chance of that ever happening. 

As someone with an extensive work history in the hospitality business, I know for a fact there is no such thing as an objectively great cocktail. A particular cocktail, made by a particular bartender, using particular components, may taste great to a particular individual. Plenty of other consumers will just look at that one drink quizzically. Loads of people will much more enjoy three assorted drinks of debatable quality because people love choices: Drink one thing now, a different thing later, and yet a different thing after that.

MSC knows this. Additionally, a crystal-laden staircase doesn't pay for itself. So, something has to give and bar service is a great place to squeeze money out of the overall revenue.

1 hour ago, Td6462 said:

We made it up to 18.3 knots for a while over night.

Thanks in no small part to the auxiliary thrusters. 🤣

28 minutes ago, Td6462 said:

"Buy the fun pass before boarding. It's $80 and you get $140 to spend in the Hall of games, pool hall and robotron. The 'rides' range from $6 to $12. Most are $10 & $12 per experience for a 3 to 5 minute 'ride'."

Aaaand this is why kids cruise free on MSC.

13 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

"Being very active in my local area board gaming group for the past 11 years and with my own collection in the hundreds of games, I make sure to bring some of my own for my wife & I to play 2 player."

That is quite the collection. We have a good many board games, but far fewer than your multitude. I'd probably be more of a board game collector, were it not for my affinity towards TTRPGs. 

On 1/18/2023 at 5:41 PM, AMHuntFerry said:

"Also check the game room."

Wait, Oceania ships have game rooms?

I know about the libraries and card rooms, but I had not heard about game rooms. (Of course, if card rooms ARE the game rooms, I apologize for my misunderstanding.)

All ships, or just some?

Many different games?

Board games in good shape?

Thank you, in advance, for any information you can share about Oceania game rooms.

2 hours ago, Fla Mike said:

"I still stand by an earlier statement that MSC farms out the customer service to a third party."

Wait, has there historically been controversy regarding this observation?

Since I started following this MSC board, I've thought the only explanation for the call center performance is lowest-cost outsourcing. Clearly, MSC trims expenses where they can, so as to be extravagant in other areas. Why would a call center be an exception?

We are of the same mind on this one, FM.

1 hour ago, LTCruzer said:

"Continuing to expect things to return to the way they were is just asking for disappointment."

On 1/8/2023 at 2:55 AM, Robjame said:

"Not impressed."

There is a silver lining. For those with the Prestige Package, the morning delays allow for another Mimosa before leaving the ship. 🥂

7 hours ago, dexddd said:

"Ahh, a Carnival ship."

You are being cattivo,  dexd³.

4 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"Because of your posts we have already begun to make changes in our bookings."

First change?

All bookings for deck cabanas are being switched out for the  little-know, but very private, Cabana Alta® 

25 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"Brings to mind a circus and how many 'clowns' can fit in a VW."

Yet another reason clowns should choose a designated driver . . . 

1 hour ago, Aloha 1 said:

"Smelled and tasted like high octane aviation fuel."

Like LHT28's DH, you, too, were likely served cognac that was on the shelf too long.

Many people think the alcohol content keeps liquor "fresh" indefinitely. The alcohol in liquor keeps pathogens from taking up residence, but the taste and aroma can and will deteriorate. Six months, out to a couple years is about it for an opened bottle, depending on the spirit.

The wheels come off the bus even faster with liqueurs. Be more careful with those.

4 minutes ago, lcpagejr said:

"The YC ist much better than the rest off the ship, service, food and so on."

Nikita4's use of "ist" is actually an "is," not an "isn't." 😃

Ist das nicht so, @Nikita4 ?

Since the significant tightening of point rewards in the casino will free up some cash, mayhaps I will continue the Morpheus agency's bounty program, to thwart YC interlopers.

It would be in my best interests, really. My wife has already made it clear she will have words with anyone she finds to be lacking YC bona fides. She takes very seriously MSC's top bullet point, promoting YC on their website:

• Dedicated, private area of the ship accessible only to MSC Yacht Club guests

She is six feet of Teutonic temerity when her dander is up and if a crew member walks-out the intruder before the missus finds out, the tip/bounty will be money well spent. Plus, I will have earned a Morpheus' Yacht Club Detective Agency decoder pin.

B E S U R E T O B O O K I N Y A C H T C L U B 

1 hour ago, cobber1967 said:

"I'm sure you could sneak your friends in if you really wanted.  Who cares if they didn't actually pay for the service they are getting!!"

Of course, there may be YCers on the cruise, like @morpheusofthesea, who tip the YC staff to discover the trespassers. 🕵️‍♂️