kelleherdl

There is a possible alternative view. We booked three EJ cruises early on. We avoided the absolute first cruises because of possible last-minute ship delays (did happen) and possibly teething pains (may be happening). Our first cruise is Sept 9, second Nov. We will be paying truly fabulous fares for those two, less than equivalent Yacht Club YC2’s with far less interesting itineraries. We are absolutely looking forward to these cruises, even if we will need to ‘endure’ some hiccups.

If you are in Yacht Club do not show up at 3:30. Show up as early as you comfortably can. Firstly, you are throwing away 1/2 of your embarkation day. Secondly, most of the shoreside Yacht Club butlers are starting to re-board; and the YC checkin area may be standing down. We arrived a little late one cruise (not by choice) and the shore side YC experience was definitely winding down.

I chuckle when folks scoff at Canadian Club and other presumed ‘lessor’ liquors. What liquors were the base for the great COCKTAILS served worldwide today? They were the wonderful liquors from Canada and Europe that survived their arduous journeys to America during our failed attempt to mandate sobriety.

I’m sure they were very happy to get the connecting staterooms back in the inventory.

When we jumped from HAL Neptune Suites to MSC Yacht Club I thought I would miss them. Nope! Too many other reasons to love the Yacht Club. I doubt we will ever sail HAL again.

Yes you can. Just walk up to the podium and ask for a reservation. Let them know if you are a Diamond Voyager Club member. They will know you are Yacht Club when you give them your stateroom number. While most often its more convenient to use the YC Concierge, you don’t need to.

The pictures on here and on social media are convincing me that ‘jumping on board’ early with some bookings during the inaugural season with the spectacular early price incentives was a pretty good decision. September 9 and November 3 here we come. But of course all of us are still sympathetic to those who were not able to sail the earlier cancelled cruises.

Personally, I would consider this to be one of those instances in which ‘another passengers behavior’ is negatively impacting my cruise experience as mentioned in the acceptance of carriage agreement we all must sign to sail. I will report and expect action by the crew.

They do literally everything. In addition to providing all sorts of Concierge services for your shipboard experience, they are an extension of Guest Services. So the can do it all. They can even will arrange for small amounts of currency if arranged in advance.

Ocean Cay is in the Bahamas. Those folks could find themselves in a very unpleasant Bahamian jail if the Bahamas police choose that day to do an enforcement action. MSC controls the island security force not the police. In either case the ship’s Master could take action. When we’ve checked in at Port Canaveral we have often walked through areas with the aromatic evidence of banned substance consumption. Folks getting in that last minute one before boarding.

I’m looking forward to our arrival in New York on September 25. That better be full-on or I will be big time disappointed. I sincerely hopes she doesn’t sneak in in the early hours of the morning.

Another point. When you check in at the Terminal do not expect that the agents at the desk can do anything further. There job is to get you on the ship. In my experience either the Yacht Club Director or the Head Butler will be in the Yacht Club area of the terminal. If everything has not been resolved before hand you can begin speaking with them. They can even call the Concierge Desk to alert them that there may need to be some cabin adjustments. I can assure you they will do everything they can to make your voyage as wonderful as you hoped.

I’m willing to bet that the inventory is pretty close. I understand that YC (at least for US sailings) is sailing completely full for all cruises. If you used a travel advisor they may be able to confirm.

An very trivial interesting observation. Cruise Mapper labels Explora I as MSC Explora I, Marine Traffic labels it as Explora I. Explora Journeys has never used MSC Explora I so I would think Cruise Mapper need to change. Good news is she is underway in the Adriatic.

Totally refreshing. Very straightforward answers. Don’t know why I didn’t Google this before. https://explorajourneys.com/us/en/faq an example of the unambiguous answers I’ve found there. Should I tip onboard? Gratuities are included in your journey fare; however, should you wish to recognise one of our hosts for service beyond your expectations then this is at your discretion.

That’s new. Thanks for sharing.

There are lockers in the shops area of Ocean Cay, adjacent to the docks for excursions. But nothing on North Island (YC area). We have never used them, so I have no details.

It’s a good thing they found out about this issue. There is a minor volcano eruption in the Reykjavik Iceland region. We are scheduled to embark on 9 September. 😀

We did find one advantage of speaking with the future cruise consultant on board. We had a weird situation on a future cruise we already had booked of having to book a back-to-back Baltic/Norway cruise, as the YC allocation in the US for the 14-day collector option was used up. The consultant was able to go directly back-office and get us rebooked, and added additional OBC and slightly reduced fare for the collector option; and still transferred all that to our US agent. Now I know that may have been a one off. We did book another cruise with her. I perish the thought of trying to pull that off by speaking with an MSC US customer service agent.

From what I recall the signs are fairly large, at least at Port Canaveral and Miami. To be honest it sounds like the agent was doing roughly the right thing. Without a ‘gatekeeper’ at the head of the line that special checkin line would soon not be very special. I personally am okay that I need to ask and present my eTicket. I do know early after the COVID restart they were not there, but I’m sure that had more to do with the COVID procedures and those infernal vaccine card lines.

I don’t know if that can be true. I have actually gained weight since the chocolate ships disappeared. I attribute that to the anxiety of not knowing what my Diamond gift will be that cruise. It was so comforting I could rely on receiving two chocolate ships in my stateroom. 😀

Keel hauled!!!! 😀😀😀😀

There is some kind of sale on right now for new bookings on Explora 1. I just saw a post on a ‘social media’ page. I went to explorajourneys.com and there wasn’t anything there. I didn’t try a test booking to see if there are any deals. I’m booked out so I won’t be adding anything. 😀

As one would expect, no one told MSC Cruises USA website. Ocean Cay remains on the itineraries for April and May 2024.

In America that dessert is called a Baked Alaska.