MonsterJoe

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZVFk3dZr1RnS9UXF7

all the way zoomed in they're more clear than I'm comfortable having people see me. 😉

39 minutes ago, thesnoopster2 said:

 

Don't need poster sized, but looking for 8x10s and smaller.  Would love to do scrapbook of the cruise.  Plus its my gf's first flight and cruise and we are taking are 20 month old baby with us so these will also go in a baby scrapbook too.

 

This link is what has me worried.  Especially the comment "Resolution is ~1000x~2000px but jpeg compression is very high with visible compression artifacts on color gradient backgrounds."

 

I know this link is 3 years old and I'm sure things have been upgraded since then, just worried.

 

I don't know - they look pretty good to me. I'm a hobby photographer, but I focus on food and plating.  I think it depends on what your expectations are but I'd say they are print-worthy for a memento, not an art gallery.

Some of them vary in quality from photographer to photographer...but not too much. I've gone through most of them, and they are all 2500x3500 and range from 850KB to 1.8MB.  The largest files are the ones taken on the stairs and the lowest are those taken facing the Promenade exiting the stairs.

 My wife plans to scrapbook them also, and she hasn't said anything negative.
 

We got the digital packages. We have 44 photos, which sounds to me about right for what I remember them taking.  I think you basically get everything the photographers deemed fit to upload.

I haven't printed any yet - but they look good on my PC.

The sizes are around 1 - 1.5MB and 2500X3500px - You're not going to make movie posters, but  4X6, 5X7 should look nice.

My pre-school teacher used to tell me and MSC's land-side mantra seems to be, "You get what you get and you don't get upset!"

Many many people have been reassigned to G0000.  Some people have had luck getting their original booked room back, many have not.

When I called to "fix" mine - I was basically told to pound sand "Maybe they'll give you a refund if you don't like it" is what the CS drone told me.

I forgot to mention - any time we ordered Room Service (not often) it was our Butler who delivered it - so they'd probably bring your Room Service coffees, too

I originally booked a balcony through the free balcony upgrade promotion, then bid 500pp for the upgrade.

On our sailing, the balcony cost 1100 all in, and we were going to pay another 1000 for the drinks and internet packages anyway, so I went ahead and bid 500pp for the upgrade, even though the minimum was 350 or so. 

We got it and I didn't have to wonder if I should have bid more and this saved about 800 versus booking YIC straight out.

The drink packages (all of them) extend to Ocean Kay

16 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

OH, heavens!  Such varied experiences. We are going on our first YC experience for our Anniversary.  I'd love for some silly recognition cuz, well, if I have to be married to DH then I should get something 🙂  Hoping our Butler will be fabulous.

 

Question- can I call Room Service for Cappucinos? or the Butler? or send DH out to Topsail to get?  Which would be 1) allowed and 2) more efficent ?

Yes you can order Capps from Room Service - you can order pretty much anything except dinner from the Restaurant.

Yes, you can also send DH.  I was DH on our sailing, and that's precisely what I did.  Our room was exactly underneath Topsail, so it was literally a 4 minute round-trip, including waiting for the beverage(s).

Personally - I preferred to get it myself because I don't sit still well...but they will probably remind him that you can just order it from Room Service anyway.

I don't know.  I've eaten at Le Bernadin several times.  I've eaten at Alinea and Per se. I've met Lidia Bastianich at a Fall Dinner Event at her Del Posto.  I have super high expectations of food in the venues where I expect them to be super high.

I also enjoy tasty food.

I am flummoxed I suppose at what people expect at an "included" buffet....because I found it all perfectly tasty.

 

We made a couple friends who we've kept in contact with and I agree - they really seem to need things, especially now when they're not allowed off the ship to take care of themselves.

They can have stuff shipped to them, but they have to pay a handling charge to MSC to get it on the ship. 😒

I wish I had known about Mega in Cozumel at the time, I would have filled a suitcase.

I think you're right - in normal times, cash is king...but now is different.

I agree that a couple of the pasta dishes from the buffet lacked wow factor - but I still ate them.  The pasta itself was good.

All the pasta I had from restaurants was really good.

I start reading food reviews like this and get bummed out - because I enjoyed it a lot - but then I remember how completely subjective food is to people.

For the drinks - I'm not complicated.  My wife is a former bartender, so I'm spoiled and when I go out, I order whatever bourbon cocktails they have.  What I did most often on my sailing was order doubles on the rocks of whatever stuff I don't usually buy at home because it was all included.

I agree about the smoking section.  I smoked for 25 years and quit (for good) 5 years ago...it really bothers me.

I'm glad you had a good time, overall. 🙂

I was a first-time cruiser on 9/25.  I never wanted to cruise (NOROVIRUS!!!!) but my wife really wanted to, so acquiesced and it turns out, I really love cruising now.

6 hours ago, CampNCruise74 said:

They did change my room, Bella class room to Bella class room.  I booked in February for a recent fall sailing.  SEE THE DIFFERENCE!?  Not cool.  The Solution; pay $210 to upgrade to Fantastica on the boat to get a room where I can see out my balcony in the aft area. They re-booked my old  room to someone else right after I paid in full in June.  Grrrrr.   Still love MSC though. 

 

That's fair play, though, right?  Because in Bella you don't pick your cabin anyway?

(Hey, it's only half obstructed, ya? :))

I'm not needling you - I'm just wondering if I understand things correctly.

1 hour ago, waterbabyfish said:

The only news channel was CNN (yuck) hgtv,tcm,cartoon channel and can't remember the couple others...not many for sure!

All I watch at home, other than sports, is Food Network - and they had that, so I was good. 🙂

2 minutes ago, jules815 said:

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up. I was going to be doing some Snaps for our adult daughters who wish they were cruising with us. I'll be sure not to do the gangway.

 

I think just before/at security is the issue.  I've seen countless vlogs from the gangway, getting on/off the ships.

12 hours ago, Susan in Maine said:

Thanks everyone for your responses.

 

What restaurants do I like? My favorites are locally owned with the chef/owner in the house. Olive Garden is definitely NOT Italian food! One of my favorite things about cruising is the opportunity to try new food!

 

My concern about our cabin being changed comes from snagging one with an extended balcony! And while I know many of you don't spend much time in your cabin, I enjoy the quiet of my own space, and reading out on the balcony. I run a convenience store, so have to interact with a lot of people everyday. One of my favorite things about cruising is that you can be social. Or not. (especially the not)

 

I love new experiences - that's one of the reasons I love to cruise. This will be my 16th. I really am "it's vacation! Don't sweat the small stuff and almost everything is small stuff" kind of person. However, it will probably be at least 2 years after this before I can cruise again, so I want to be very sure of my choices.

 

Again, thanks for all your help.

I lost my extended cabin on 9/25 too.  Granted, I didn't stick around the see if they would rebook us in one, because we decided to upgrade to YC.

Speaking of that - while this doesn't apply to your question, I thought it was interesting what you wrote about the food you like because I explained the YC restaurant food/menu quality to my friends as "Well regarded local suburban chef owned restaurant"

We ended up spending the first part of our Friday night drinking bottomless champagne there after one of the Sky Lounge servers we befriended relayed a miscommunication we had earlier in the week to its manager. 

We tried to politely decline, because we weren't complaining at all, but he wasn't having it.

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/health-and-safety-measures/caribbean-cruises

8 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

Hi there

OK- You can't "get in " YC IF you have not paid to be in YC

It is like Suites class on Celebrity-- you don't just walk into Luminae right? You don't walk into the suites bar and expect to be ale to stay

 

YC is clearly marked and has locked glass doors and locked deck gates that only YC wristbands will open

 

When someone who is not YC is caught (by other YC pax or butlers/staff) they are ceremoniously removed from YC.

Believe me--I am the first to report non YC pax to butlers/staff if someone sneaks in.

People may try to go in behind a YC pax at the doors-- but get removed.

You don't want to be "that" person. Same for reserved seating in the shows-- Butlers do remove people who "sneak" in. Its crazy they say they didn't know it was YC only when its written in English and they speak english.

YC costs $$$$ per week-- and really if you want YC, pay for it. 

Just saying

 

MSC is not like Royal or Celebrity

--which it appears you are most familiar with--

 

MSC has a distinctively european flair to menu items and it seems folks either love it or hate it.

The Pizza is excellent (according to Italians and those of us who have lived in Italy for any length of time)

Announcements are in Italian, German, Spanish, Portugese, English and French. 

We are english speakers first and have decent Italian from living in Italy and minimal french and spanish. We did fine speaking with other pax who were patient with us in their language as we were with theirs

 

Ships have a lot of entertainmment options like bowling, Formula One, basketball/sports court etc

 

Shows are a mixture of music, drama, interpretive etc... they are playing to an audience that may have a dozen languages represented. I read here

 where many complain about the shows. We liked them all. We also liked the opera/ballet show which was charming, as were the two Cirque chows. It IS a ship and those who drone on about Vegas--can have Vegas.

 

Gym and spa have great options. 

 

IDK what it will all look like post "apocalypse" - and can say on our B2B we just loved MSC.

 

We are very high pts/loyalty members of Celebrity and prefer to sail them in Aqua class if that helps. We like Regent for itineraries that require a small ship access. We We have sailed NCL and found that with the prem bev package and specialty restaurants we managed just fine.

 

Lets face it-- cruising is great and there are many lines to meet the many tastes.

Just don't into MSC expecting RCCL--- folks who are big RCCL fans and sail them often are disappointed with MSC not being RCCL

 

Happy sailing

 

 

 

When I was there on the 9/25, the YC door on 15 was broke, so it would stay open.  I spent a lot of time manually closing it all week.  Pay to play!

1 minute ago, Fogfog said:

Depends on where ya live I guess. I live in a free state

I don't care about your politics, I was just trying to be helpful.

It's common practice to wear your mask as you enter and while you  navigate through an establishment.

..togo

Their information is wrong and they're probably going to ruin a lot of people's vacations!

What's interesting is that they have 1 Divina sailing that says it's required - the rest are different.

4 hours ago, cdel71 said:

Day 2

 

Forgot to mention yesterday, while you CAN upgrade your WiFi package to stream and browse, you can FaceTime without any issues with just the browse included in YC package.   Just sit close to a white puck that you’ll find on ceilings or walls (WiFi extender) and you should be fine.   Granted if you want to actually stream Disney+ or Netflix you’ll need to upgrade.  VPN trick does work, I was able to stream YouTube but didn’t test for very long.    
 

Last night we went to the Rock Show (8 out of 10) and visited many bars.  The Sky Lounge was great with 4 guests total and my wife and I were 2 of them.   Ryan (bartender) talked with us for hours while keeping our drinks and snacks tended to.  Eery experience, it felt like a private party at the same time. Hard to explain.   
 

Dinner was amazing.  YC staff were talkative, yet quick, but at no time were we rushed.   Food was well prepared.  Seasoned and tasty.  Holy gelato (delish)!!!

The “upgrade hounds” as I call them were all on deck 6 (grand entrance area).  If you didn’t walk past that area you wouldn’t see them, however some did make their way to the bars close by too

Ocean Cay today - will post more later. 

 

Oh one last thing - My butler is Rakesh.   I also had Mark Anthony for a bit too as they help YC guests board and get acclimated.   They made my wife’s birthday special yesterday !!
 

 Ryan was great - the whole crew there were some of our favorites.  Sam is such a sweetheart!

delete!

34 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

Hey...I like those restaurants 🙂

 

j/k...very funny statement and I agree 100%.

 

I will add that many seem to require salt and pepper on their food. Personally, I thought the food was seasoned perfectly, but I sailed with a few who needed that.

 

 

I brought my own salt and pepper because people insisted that the food was consistently underseasoned.

I didn't use them once.

Food is so subjective - it's almost useless asking for or offering opinions.

I'm not a chain restaurant diner. I loathe them, actually. We eat out a few times per year, because we enjoy fine dining - Michelin star dining.  Other than that - I am a passionate home cook and cook from scratch at least twice a day, every day.  We love food.

We found the food to be Good, most often Very Good, and occasionally Excellent.

We were YC, but intentionally ate all over the ship.
 

Hello. You seem new here. Welcome to the Internet.

Yep - didn't ask for them because we realized we could get them anywhere - but I think night 3 we got a tray of macarons at turndown and night 5 we also got a tray of fancy chocolates. 🙂

also - I'm embarrassed by the typos and grammar gaffes...I was still hungover from the trip and CC doesn't let you edit your reviews. 🙂