psmarkle

I LOVE your selfie! How fun-looking and shows you are truly enjoying your YC experience!! I usually order 2 lobster rolls and a salad. Then I scoop the lobster meat out and put it on my salad and voila'! I just find the actual rolls to be too much bread going on. I do wish they would freshen up the Ocean House menu, but that is definitely a "first world problem" as my kids would tell me LOL

I have not sailed any of the Oasis class ships yet, but I do enjoy a Royal cruise when it fits our agenda. Meaning, activities. Royal wins hands down if we have kids traveling with us. However, now that we're nearing empty nester status, we are devout MSC cruisers and we've sailed the Seaside 2X, both in the Yacht Club. Still plenty to do onboard, just hard to beat Royal if you're looking to keep occupied. If you can spring a few extra $$, I'd recommend at least getting the Aurea experience as it comes with the thermal spa pass (awesome!) and the private Top 19 sun deck lounge/bar so you don't have to fight the pool deck chair hogs and you have your private bar! On Ocean Cay, the wave runner excursion is well worth it and a good value for the amount of time. Bottom line: We enjoy Royal and MSC, don't think you'll be disappointed. It's just two different experiences to me.

Last April on the Mera, I checked w/ the YC Concierge to request Cabana #5. He had us written down for Cabana #2 at the end farthest from the Ocean House. I said, "OK, we'll make it work, no worries." Day of arrival, we check in at the Ocean House to be escorted to our Cabana and the attendant informs us we are in Cabana #5 and the Butler will escort us there! I love the pampering in the YC.

Hurry up and post about today LOL!!!!! I'm sitting here dreaming about the YC and all that you are about to enjoy. Of course, I'm also trying to avoid thinking about work tomorrow, so this is my escape mechanism...keep telling myself, just 2 more years. Then DW and I can cruise whatever time of year we want! 😛 So excited for you and your Mom.

I highly recommend Hayhu Beach Club in Mahahual...it's an eco-friendly place run by a Peruvian couple. Food is amazing! Quiet, off the beaten path. We reserved one of the 2 balconies that comes with a $300 food credit and couldn't use it all despite our team's best efforts!! A hidden gem!

Pirate, we have sailed the Seaside 2x and there are just a couple of quirks as she was the first of her class/a prototype. 1. When you exit the YC on Deck 16, you run into the specialty restaurants. So you have to go down to deck 15 or up to deck 18 to go towards the back of the ship for anything outside of the YC. On later ships, like the Seashore we've sailed, they moved the sepcialty restaurants down to deck 8? to remedy this issue. 2. Not a lot of shade to be had in the YC pool area 3. The Aurea Top 19 sun deck area is on the same deck as the YC pool deck, so it reduces the area of the YC pool deck vs the later ships where they relocated the Aurea sun deck one deck lower and expanded the YC pool deck down the sides which allows for more available shade. Very minor things about the Seaside, as I mentioned, we've enjoyed her so much we've sailed her 2x and almost a third until COVID hit!

That's him all right!

Concur with what others have posted and just booked starboard on the Divina for April. Just wanted to add in some fun facts if you're into this sort of thing...on the Seashore, we went into the channel and turned around, then docked. Last April on the Meraviglia, the Captain turned the ship around outside of the channel and backed us all the way in. I thought it was pretty exciting to watch! I'm a geek, I know 🙃

I am so excited for you and your first Yacht Club experience...be prepared to be swept away! It starts with spotting that white YC embarkation tent and avoiding all the lines! Then being escorted past the security lines, then to the YC waiting area with sparkling wine and appetizers...ahhhhh. And this is all before you even get on the ship! Just finsihed booking yet another YC trip on the Divina this time. Thought about doing the Magnifica which does not have a YC and the wife just gave me the RCA dog head tilt 🤣

If I recall from last April '22, I believe they went to 70lbs. However, I was more impressed that they had barbells and a rack! First I've ever seen on a cruise ship. I did have to swipe some of the 45lb plates from the becnh press rack when doing deadlifts, oh well, they should gotten there first! (I did share with some guys between sets LOL). I did put some yoga mats underneath to keep from making too much noise. The ceiling was just barely high enough for me to also do clean and jerks, and I'm 6'2". One of the best at-sea gyms I've been in! And, yes, I'm one of those cruisers who are there at 0659 waiting for them to open the doors...it's a problem I have.

I always pack the standard 1 pair of khakis and 7 polo shirts for dining in the YC!

We have sailed the Seaside twice, both times in the YC...you're going to love it! Only odd thing was having to go up or down 1 deck to go to the back of the ship due to the location of the specialty restaurants. This was changed on the later versions of this class of ships like the Seascape. But we loved it overall. Hard to find shade at the YC pool, but plenty of chairs so no need to be a chair hog at 6am in the morning! LOL

The place is called Hayhu, it's an eco-friendly beach club that is definitely away from any tourist spots! hayhubeach.com For your group, I'd recommend the VIP deck that comes with a $300 food/beverage credit for up to six people, then you pay for each extra person that also comes with their own food/beverage credit. There were 4 of us and we couldn't spend our $300 despite our best beer drinking efforts! The transportation there and back is included with your price. It's a very laid back vibe with really great service and great food...def try the homemade guac! You'll want to purchase extra chips. On our VIP deck, the water was not running to the toilet (again, this is an eco-friendly, back-to-basics kind of place), so I took the trash can, filled it up in the shower, then poured it into the toilet tank as needed to be able to flush 🙂 They have massages avail on the beach, 1 kayak, and the kite surfing school which we had booked, but the instructor cancelled on us the day before. Bring lots of sun screen and poss some bug spray. The mosquitoes were non-existent while on the beach due to the breeze, but were swarming all around us as we walked to our cab for the ride back!

Looks like our summer plans are changing and we won't be doing the Greek Isles this year on Divina. Sooo, looks like the Mera out of NYC! For me, a perfect cruise would be 7 days out at sea without getting off the ship, and this cruise goes down the east coast w/ a brief stop at Port Canaveral (we have relatives living nearby the port), Ocean Cay (hello again YC Cabana!), and Nassau (not getting off the ship). It's pretty close to 5 full days on the ship, so, yay!

At the tables, you just toss your cabin card on the table and tell the Pit Boss how much you want. It gets charged to your room with no fee (at least in regards to my personal experience). The charges go against your obc first before showing up as a charge on your account. Easiest casino procedures in all my cruises!

We started disembarkation around 7:45-8am. If you're worried about return flight times out of Orlando, should be OK with anything after 11am if you do self-walk off with your luggage as they are the first group.

I get so much research from these threads that it's the least I can do to give back! Glad you enjoyed. I love the cruise life, and appreciate the folks here on Cruise Critic!

The ones behind the lounge chairs are called Oceanfront while the ones by the rocks are Oceanview. If you're wanting to spend time in the water, I'd go with the Oceanfront. There are 6 of them with #1 being the farthest from the Ocean House restaurant and #6 being the closest but also by the accessway with lots of foot traffic. We had Cabana #5 which was a good location. We had good butler service on both sides.

I'd recommend using a TA for this. Plus, they may kick back some additional obc. Our TA agency has a standard 10% of the cruise fare as obc...it can cover your gratuities and maybe a little bit more, depending on your fare.

The whole family was using spf 70 and applying frequently just to be sure!

I don't have any pics of our final sea day. We spent the whole day at the YC pool where you've got to try the burgers at least once. Soo good and fresh made patties, not frozen. I like mine medium rare, but I learned I needed to order them medium to get it just right. Medium rare was more of a steak tartare! Once you order, go back to your chair and a butler will bring your order to you. Again, just that extra service in the YC. For disembarkation, we opted to do walk off with our own luggage, so we avoided the whole packing the night before and getting your luggage put out before going to bed. For breakfast, we ate at the YC restaurant at 6am when they opened. Great job on the eggs benedict. From there, we collected our bags and made our way to the Topsail Lounge to wait for a butler to escort down to the main deck to leave the ship. Well, true to our luck, DW had to hit the bathroom, so of course the butler comes and takes a group while she was away! No problem, we're pretty independent, so we head to the elevators on our own, being told to go down to deck 7. Well, not exactly, we needed to go to deck 6 where there was a mass sea of people and suitcases. As we were going down the stairs with our luggage, we saw the butler with the YC guests making their past several of the lines, but they were to far away for us to catch up to them, so we just picked a regular line. It moved at a pretty steady pace, maybe 15 mins in line. Just be prepared for lots of people! Customs was easy with facial recognition and no declaration forms to fill out. Loaded up the beast and were on our way by 8:15am for the Orlando airport. So there you have it folks! I hope there were some useful nuggets in this thread to help you out. Just wanted to give back to this board as I do learn a lot from everyone else's reports. If you have questions, fire away! Glad to answer, if I can.

Almost forgot to post Jayson singing to us. He did this several nights...just another great service touch in the YC!

And desserts to share, including one Ms Latoya brought us that wasn't on the menu...

The dinner pics...

Next day, Cozumel! Now, several of the staff were excited that we were going to be docking by the Mega store...a super Wal-Mart store...so they could walk to the store, stock up on supplies. Since the cruise ship did not offer an individual 4-wheeler excursion, we privately booked an ATV excursion which I thought we'd meet our guide at the shopping area across the street. Wrong-o. We docked at the Punta Langosta pier vs the bigger International Cruise terminal. No problem, we grabbed a taxi and it took about 10 mins once we got a cab big enough for 5 of us. The cab boss wanted to put us in basically a Toyota Corolla...umm, not happening! So waited for an available van. Once we got to the correct shopping center, we went to an open courtyard area and waited for the right guide to show up. There were multiple tours meeting up in this area, so we'd go up and ask which tour it was. Finally, our guide comes walking up with a homemade sign listing our tour. We then hopped on pour ATVs and took off for the Jade Hole where you can make an approx 20' jump into the water. Was fun! The only complaint, during our jet ski excursion at Ocean Cay, the guides would periodically change the order to put the faster people in front and the slower people in back (DD and I were #2, just sayin'). However, our guides would not let us change order and were got stuck behind 2 parents and their kids who drove very slow and cautiously. The middle guide would go up and tell them to go faster, but no luck. Both of them ran off the trail and into trees, damaging one of the ATVs (everyone was OK, btw). So, we didn't get the chance to really open up the throttles like the front of the group. Dinner that night was prime rib. I correctly guessed that the prime rib may be fatty, so I ordered my filet mignon but asked Jayson to put the au jus from the prime rib on it...bingo! The Crab Cake was excellent! Lots of real crab meat and crispy on the outside. The pumpkin risotto was very good, too! The raviolis were freshly made, but you might want to order 2 if you're hungry or plan on sharing with the table. A side note, I enjoy the Robert Mondavi Reserve Chardonnay which is served in the Topsail Lounge, but not avail in the YC restaurant. No problem, once I let the maitre d' know my preference, he ensured it was table side the rest of the nights. They really do want to please in the YC, just let them know what you prefer.