Tom-n-Cheryl

I prefer my fries a bit on the "limp" side - but, when in Rome, I guess I can manage others... with MUSTARD !!! Tom

Thinking of the song "Dirty Laundry", with a lawyerly twist. Tom

Third time's the charm ! Tom

Of late, my favorite fries onboard have been at Shaq's - hopefully, on the Celebration in 10 days (not that I'm counting or anything), they'll live up to my memory ! Tom

The Horror! The Horror!

As long as Guy continues to get his cut, I'd wager he couldn't care less 😉 Tom

Thanks. The main reason I asked is that some of them had already planned to carpool with each other and their times differ in some cases by over an hour. I want to advise them as best as possible, and don't want to see somebody have to stand outside of building for an hour or more. Tom

We were able to grab an 11-11:30 arrival time (earliest offered for this sailing, for whatever reason) for the 5/20 Celebration sailing. Some of my office staff have 12, 1, etc... We always have early boarding, so I can't recall the last time I sailed from Miami, but.... for those with various/later times - do they have lines outside where you que up and wait to enter once your time is up, or do they let everyone in the building and have ample seating while they wait? Tom

Anything that really stood out to you, as a "don't miss"? Tom

It's going to take an admin to come in and fix this. I've seen it a few times before. My best guess is that it's the odd signature in the first post on this page. Tom

My best advice, if you're not ordering a drink in the YC, is to order another one waaaaay before you normally would. You have to wonder if this isn't part of the MSC master plan - give most people some type of drink package, then make sure guests can't maximize the drink package. Having said that, I'll rarely drink more than a few/several drinks in a day. I've probably never hit double digits. Second MSC newbie advice (funny, again alcohol related 😉 ) don't expect that they'll have their full selection of drinks available... or food in the sports bar (as they advertise). Tom

Safe travels --- today in fact !! Tom

Any chance that some inspectors are simply more apt to give lower (or higher) scores? How many people make up an inspection team? Tom

Well, if they weren't "dim" to begin with, one shallow dive might do the trick... Tom

If Carnival is running their ships on a skeleton crew, then MSC has ghost ships !! Tom

Eventually, corporate policies (management structure/style) and/or being too short staffed will catch up with you... Agreed though... UGH !!! What does a failure mean (from a guest and crew standpoint), and I assume they'll be fast tracked for a follow-up? Tom

There was a group of 3 (4?) guys ~25ish in age we came upon on the island. One guy was climbing a palm tree to knock down coconuts. Well, a short while later, while going through security to get back onto the ship, guess who was slowing down the line because he had TWO LARGE COCONUTS in his backpack.... yep... Tom

Cheryl and I both observed/commented on the amount of backside skin on parade. Then again, this was a 3-night sailing I suppose! Tom

Yes - that seems to be more the case than we've seen on Celebrity or NCL. The two experiences are further apart on MSC. There were a few "angry elves" onboard (reference to the movie Elf) 🙂 Tom

We, no doubt, crossed paths once or twice! I only went up to the YC top deck 2-3 times (once to explore, twice to grab a bite). I never saw the cabanas being used. Did you have one which came with your cabin, or one of the others? It looks like on the Seashore next year we'll have one - but I'm not sure how much use it will get, as our RS balcony appears to have more reasons to hang out there than our last balcony. Tom

That's good to hear. I've done two (traditional) B2B's, and the only hassle is having to ding off the ship, head to the terminal, and wait to get back on. Tom

Generally, yes, the more you play - the more they'll offer. Though how far down the road you'll see those offers is unknown - same with how much more play it would take, and what they'll offer up. What happens behind their curtain is a bit of a mystery. Tom

I know that I use to utilize our Royal Diamond tier to, annually, switch my MGM card to Platinum. I think they changed the terms on that a few years ago though - so it now only matches to the next tier down - and thus losing the best perk of Platinum MGM: special line for taxis... Having said that, it's easily been 10 years since I ventured out to Sin City. Tom

Actually, I matched initially to Gold with MSC owing to our Diamond tier with Carnival - seems like that should have matched to their top tier, but that's another discussion! Shortly after that I learned of a "workaround" where I could use our Celebrity Elite+ creds to get a Discovery/er? tier of some kind with Azamara (reciprocity), which I've never sailed on. Once I had that, I went back and re-submitted with MSC, though that's something which everyone, and MSC itself, said can't be done (only 1 "match" allowed in their program). Let's just say, that rule is not cast in stone... 😉 In the end, I did get some kind of credit (50% off) in Butcher's Cut - apparently owing to the Diamond/Black card status. It used to be only known as "Black" with MSC, so at this point - I guess both terms apply to their top tier. Tom

Use of the band "summons" an elevator just for you (it always arrived empty). The only other people who might be assigned to that elevator would be other YC guests at that same bank of elevators - going in the same direction. I recall at least one time where I got on (to go to 16) and others got on and selected 18. We went straight up, stopping at 16 first, obviously. I could see where someone (a YC guest) coming from, lets say, a lower floor might be on the elevator when it arrives for you to get on - again, if you're both heading in the same direction. There's nothing stopping someone else from jumping onto the elevator (without a band), but they'll have no choice as to their destination floor. I know on NCL that the concierge and butlers in The Haven have a card they can use at an elevator to switch it into "Priority" mode. The MSC approach puts that "power" in your hands though. Tom