peder

Not sure if related, but only 2,200 passengers boarded the inaugural Seascape cruise. Could be a bit different since they will pick up additional passengers before heading to NYC, no? And maybe for the inaugural they don't want an entirely full ship anyhow.

It's pretty clear that OP meant forced masking of crew. So it's not telling crew what to do; making masks optional is actually dictating less. But I suspect the recent posters already knew this and so are not arguing honestly.

Seascape YC uses pullman beds for the 5th guest

@raino144 did you have concerns about the safety of the balcony with the little ones? We have two cruises planned, one on the Seascape this February at the front of the ship with the higher glass, but then traveling again on the Seashore next Summer in a Royal Suite. We'll be traveling with kids 7, 5, and 4 and to realistically understand how safe the balconies are with kids that like to climb.

I had missed that: the Meraviglia class ships do have a couple of connecting YC rooms, looks like 14014-14016, 14015-14019, 16009-16011, and16024-16026

Yes, this is accurate. Also suites 18018 and 18019. 16020, 16027, 18018, and 18019 do not have a walk-in closet, but they have large amount of space around the bed and couch. 18018 and 18019 also sleep 5 with a pullman bed above the couch. 19025 and 19028 are not only wider but also longer and also have the walk-in closet. Annoyingly, though, these two suites do not sleep 5.

Just to add: we are trying MSC for the first time with two cruises, one on the Seascape and one on her sister ship Seashore. We're trying a 2-bedroom Aurea suite for the first and a Royal Suite + a nanny/auntie/grandparent suite (not connecting) on the next, since the Royal Suite will not allow us to fit all 5 of us, so we've invited family along for another deluxe suite and we'll split our family up between the two suites. I think the 2-bedroom will work better for our family, but we're trying both to see how it works. The hassle of not having connecting rooms seems worth it for us compared to the high prices of the NCL Haven (though I will say that some of the 3-bedroom NCL Haven suites are relatively inexpensive when traveling with a large group).

This is correct, Divina-era ships have 2 connecting YC suites and otherwise HA are the only options. Seaside class does have some YC rooms that sleep 5, if that helps.

Sounds like the delivery of the Explora 1 was delayed, which could also have an impact on the routes that MSC is choosing. I'm assuming that MSC and Explora treat their demand pool as a combined one, meaning that MSC will not try to cannibalize one line over the other and will always try to make the two complementary. Of course, the reasons for these itinerary changes could have nothing to do with Explora.

Is there any chance MSC canceled their order of the Euribia? Or expecting any construction delays? Or just moving the fleet around to routes they expect to perform better?

+1 to this, at least generally. Makes me wonder if a lot of changes are about to be announced. MSC is already heavily shifting toward North America, and maybe the Euribia will be caught up in downstream changes as a result.

I had added to this thread with similar questions: Most likely I think it's a bug or misconfiguration by MSC, but there could also be legitimate business reasons why it's difficult to book the later Euribia cruises.

There could be regional differences in the booking process as well--maybe some regions are allowed to book and others not. Maybe due to significant changes in currencies recently? I've noticed that a lot of the Euribia cruises have holes in their stateroom availability.