no1talks

24 minutes ago, psmarkle said:

"I just got a Free Cruise offer in my e-mail today..."

Free cruise e-mails are up, it would seem. I have seen some posts on the Carnival board regarding unexpected freebies.

I guess cruise lines are hoping to get the rooms occupied at a slight loss, in hopes of profitable onboard spending.

6 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Your posts are the best satire I have read in a while.  

 

At least I hope they are satire....

If I were on a butler-equipped cruise and having a bath drawn was an option, I'd only accept if I could smoke a cigar. Then, the bubble bath becomes muy macho.

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

(It did take me several days before I found where the in-room safe was hidden.)

Those are, in actuality, the safest kind of safes.

Stay safe, my friends.

54 minutes ago, kidless said:

We have cruised Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and MSC since the restart. Royal and Celebrity seem to have 80% and higher capacity but they are having lots of covid issues. 

Royal and Celebrity also have shareholders to placate.

MSC (the cruise line) is, in essence, only indebted to itself. Their COVID shutdown financial assistance came from MSC (the freight shipping company).

On 5/27/2022 at 3:31 PM, gingersvp said:

"My daughter is incredibly picky..."

Don't forget: The YC dining room is happy to prepare meal requests with a day's notice. If the ingredients are on the ship, they'll make it. My wife and I had delicious off-menu paella on our recent Meraviglia cruise.

Sometimes the requests suffer due to differences in culinary culture between Europe and America. I read an account from a cruiser who requested a sausage pizza for the kids. The pizza had cut-up breakfast sausage added.

@rkacruiserwe availed ourselves of all these amenities as well. (So much dropped-off chocolate!) I should add, however, only one of the tea services was the posh, loose-leaf preparation. Also worth mentioning to others: Access to the Aurea "Thermal Suite" is included, should a YCer wish to stroll over to the spa. (We didn't go. Hopefully next time.)

We were denied one request, however. on embarkation day, I asked the maître d' if we might have the YC chef prepare and old-school multicourse dinner for my wife and I on the actual formal night. (I say "actual" because every night is formal night for me. 😊) It would have been Chef's choice for individual small courses; I just requested number and type. The maître d' respectfully declined, but we were surprised when every one of our dinners began with an amuse-bouche and included a shrimp cocktail course.

So, clearly there are limits to what accommodations can be made for YC guests. I suppose, for example, if one's YC cabin had a bathtub, one would be rebuffed upon asking the butler to draw a bath. (As I understand it, this is a task one cruise line in particular offers, keeping scented oils and bath beads on hand.)

I really do suspect the added expense of other lines' ship-within-a-ship experiences would be examples of the law of diminishing returns. Pay increased fares of 40%, 70%, even more, but do not receive a commensurate ROI.

There's no need to look elsewhere anytime soon.

Thanks again for the information. There are aspects to this process which have me quite curious. For example...

Is each discount voucher good for a cruising couple or must each adult occupant earn a discount?
Does the casino award the discount during short cruises, assuming the same 1200 point benchmark is hit?
Is there a maximum value for the 30% or a limit on cruise length?
Can the discount be applied to a cruise that consists of B2B segments booked as one?

It seems to me, absent any limitations in the T&Cs, a couple could save a tidy sum on a long and more expensive cruise among MSC's offerings. They need only pop onto a 3-day excursion nine months earlier and ring up those 1200 points with acceptable risk of coming out behind, assuming an average mix of wins/losses.

Obviously, if both need the award, the risk-reward equation is quite different.
 

20 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

The difference between a Pinnacle or Neptune Suite on HAL and a suite on MSC YC is stark.  The HAL experience is different than the MSC experience.  

 

 

 

 

Perhaps you could share some observations regarding the differences, if it's not an imposition? I thank you.

On 5/14/2022 at 5:24 PM, markham said:

"I always cruise with dinner jackets and sometimes both black and white depending on how far south and north we sail."

Yes indeed!

I was recently explaining to a co-worker why I take three formal wear suites on a cruise. When I mentioned the noth/south latitude formal wear customs, she looked at me like I had a third eye in my forehead.

3 minutes ago, psmarkle said:

"...we do sail on 30% discount Casino rates..."

My wife is going to try to rack up enough "action" to receive one of those 30% discount vouchers.

As I understand it, the discount is not applicable to the top two YC room categories. Other than that, do you have any procedural tips to share? 

Thank you, kindly, in advance.

4 hours ago, WirelessRoute said:

"...other beach short walk from Ocean House that are in my option better but they did not have service, umbrellas or chairs setup. It baffles me that they did not setup at one of these beaches instead."

Ocean Cay is only a few years old and we were not in YC on our prior visit, when the place was really new.

However, unless I'm incorrectly recalling other posts from YCers who have been on the island since the beginning, the sand was washed out by storms.

The past few years have been rough for the sand business and thus the delay in remediation.

3 hours ago, WirelessRoute said:

(Though they do not bring all wines, beers and liquors off).

I'd bet a week's pay that if the items are on the ship anyway and you give a solid day's notice to the Yacht Club concierge (and your butler), you can have the ingredients for your favorite beach drink brought to Ocean House with the morning supplies. 

YC staff are very accommodating, which is why I'm happy to tip beyond the included service fee.

3 hours ago, JAGR said:

Christina... Margaret... Brian... John.

I wonder if this is how Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice got started?




Stay swingy my friends.

From Freightwaves.com (American Shipper) on the subject of the freight parent "floating" the cruise kid...

 "MSC Cruises reported a net loss of $1.1 billion (935.1 million euros) for 2021. It lost $1.07 billion in 2020. The parent began funneling support to its cruise company in December 2020, after the container sector started to rev up, continuing into this year. The parent has now provided $2.13 billion in equity and debt funding to MSC Cruises, plus a pledge for a further $226 million. Total support is on par with the combined 2020-21 net loss of $2.17 billion."

Here is something I don't think you've experienced in NCL's Haven...

The Yacht Club dining room (Le Muse) on Divina is nearly all the way aft on Deck 15. Yacht Club proper is situated nearly all the way forward, on decks 15 and up. Accordingly, you'll have a bit of a jaunt to take for your YC meals. Some folks like the "meal walk" and other YCers prefer the layout on newer ships, with the YC dining room included in the Yacht Club enclave.

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Finally docked at 1:30. All aboard at 7:30. Only  food trucks will be open for dining.

In a similar situation, we'd likely remain on the ship. I hope the ship's YC amenities are to remain available, seeing as a half-hearted Ocean Cay scenario isn't a fair trade.

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Well it's 10 am last day and the captain has made 3 attempts to enter the narrows into Ocean Cay. Will keep us informed.

MSC should have devised a more reliable approach. Cruisers on Carnival and HAL must also roll the dice for their Half Moon Cay, because it is tendered. But, supposedly, a deep-water dock is to be constructed soon.

Once that is built, I think that will leave only MSC at the mercy of winds/chop, among the various lines' private islands.

On 5/18/2022 at 6:57 PM, rkacruiser said:

"You had a drink package?  I never buy these things.  For me, there is no value in them."

A drink package is indispensable for me.

One of the best things a cruise affords a passenger is the chance to try unfamiliar dishes at no extra cost. "Well, I've never had osso buco... Oh, why the hell not! Bring it on."

In the same spirit (pun intended) one can try unfamiliar adult beverages under the auspices of the ever-so-handy drink package. I try new cocktails and wines often and I've no compunction about drinking just ⅓ to ½ of a trial beverage, since there's no further cost incurred than the package price.

We've done the math. If we paid full fare for all our drinks, we would be paying a fair bit more than the cost of his-and-hers packages. Plus, we would be inclined to consume more of the individual drinks.

Our wallet (and our livers) are glad we get the package.

44 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Just spent the last hour looking with binoculars over the railing of our balcony for someone overboard. Captain made announcement if all could be on lookout. Stopped in water for about an hour 4 to 5 pm. Terrible if true....Just one announcement asking for two people report to guest services or call.

And on the heels of a woman going overboard from Celebrity Solstice during the early morning of the 17th... 

I was going to offer a witticism to you and @JAGR regarding the possibility we three will be on the same sailing of Seascape in March. It seems in poor jest, now, given your tragic news.

Nonetheless, our cruise is scheduled for March 12th-19th.

36 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"We went to the concierge station to ask for tip envelopes."

Say, do you have a picture of MSC's tip envelops? I've been bringing my own from home.

40 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"...we are booked for December..."

We shall be "Seascaping" in March. I very much look forward to your cruise comments for that ship.

39 minutes ago, hamrag said:

"...there is a limited spirits & champagne menu from which you select one bottle of your choice per cruise..."

Since YC covered drinks all over the ship, we didn't want to bother with a full bottle of liquor. Instead, we made a souvenir of ours and collected signatures like a HS yearbook.

1 hour ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

Guess I got to call them and try to snag that extra 5%. It's not a lot but if I'm entitled, I want it.

Good Luck! Let us know how it goes. 👍

Meh.

We have '23 booked and '24 planned. We were really hoping to score a 5%+15% for '24, since we'll have airfare to Europe as an added expense. When the time comes to pick a European cruise, maybe we go with another Euro-centric company if MSC isn't such a deal.

But, if we're talking about cruising out of the U.S., we'll tolerate some lost value with MSC, because my European wife likes the European vibe. If MSC gets too Americanized, or if the Yacht Club gets too pricey, Silversea's rates on their U.S. port-to-port selections aren't much more expensive than YC. Too bad Silversea seems to offer the P2P price on only a few cruises.

22 minutes ago, baelor said:

Off-white?  I am so confused.   We must differ in our definitions of tuxedos/dinner jackets.

What styles of black jacket do you prefer?

True, depending on different factors, words/phrases under the category of men's formal wear can have overlapping meanings. For off-white dinner jacket, I'm referring to this...


For black jacket or "regular" tuxedos, I'll have on hand one traditional style and one fashion-forward style. As an example from our most recent cruise, my wife had me buy this one for the modern looking outfit...

(That's not me, of course. We didn't get a picture of me on the one evening I wore it.)

Here's my more traditional tuxedo...


I change things up by bringing extra ties, vests, and pocket silks. 

Cheers!