BeeeJay

17 hours ago, MissiCruzs said:

Went to the casino earlier. Good news is it's spread out and not cramped. Bad news is it's 90% full of old machines. I'm just playing small amounts and when I look at what others are betting they're doing the same. 

not everyone 😉 and just after we were debating if the machines were rigged cause no one had gotten a 4 of a kind.  Guess not.  Completely agree casino kinda empty and older machines.  However I do kind like it! 😂

17 hours ago, MissiCruzs said:

Haven't heard a word... Captain is booking it at 21 knots to make up time. 

can ya tell him to floor it? 😂

Great report and totally appreciated---spent 5 weeks on Seascape 10/15-11/18, 2 in yacht club, 3 in gen pop. Now on Emerald Princess---a super old ship and the food, service, and overall experience, while certainly dated, is comparable quality to my MSC yacht club experience.  

I absolutely LOVE MSC Seascape, ship and staff are amazing, but its incredibly obvious the company puts their people in a bad position to deliver, especially at the top end.  It just reeks of corporate cost controls.  The liquor selection is absolute trash.  The food is just bad.  Yacht club restaurant dinner service is a travesty.   BUT it IS super cheap for what it is.  And that's a niche.  

I think you just need to go into MSC YC with proper expectations and do some CC research so you have the proper knowledge of a few tricks to improve your experience.

Yeah I would do both, I accidently left my phone off airplane mode leaving port and it offered me the package.  Another time I didn't notice for a few hours and got some charges, luckily the wifi data picked up that I only had a few international texts (charge per text because I declined the package).  I think next time I will buy both.  If you don't do the cruise package you won't get non-iphone texts.  

8 hours ago, blueslily said:

 

Oh, I read this again. If she doesnt know because she usually leaves by the 2nd week of December, that makes me think that by the second week, they still have not put them up, right? Because if they were up by then, she would have seen them. Interesting. That's kind of late to not have any lights up yet. 

 

Thank you. 

my friend currently on seashore said she helped them decorate the tree they were putting up in the last day or two

23 hours ago, go.without.you said:

Ok, thanks for validating my experience. I don't want to come off as a Negative Nancy.

not at all coming off that way and your experiences are eerily similar to mine on seascape.  Notes for events AFTER, everything stocked late.  Got my liquor bottle maybe day 5?  Just brought it home.  Pillow requests and newspapers midway thru.  They did stock drinks and ice nicely.

My conclusion was I had to take my vacation enjoyment into my own hands by taking drastic measures lol.  
 

Lower expectations, over tip and demand better service, skip yacht club restaurant completely, it’s a train wreck.  That restaurant was complete trash.  I ate breakfast and lunch at YC buffet and did specialty dining for dinners.  When too many kids at YC pool went to Adult-only infinity pool on deck 8 aft.  Overtipped servers there.  
 

once I tipped up front I got amazing service everywhere.  Shouldn’t have to do it.  Don’t care.  It’s what got me the treatment I wanted.  Shouldn’t have to pay for specialty in YC but I thought they were fantastic.  
 

probably the biggest problem in YC is kids with awful parents.  It’s rampant.  
 

Regardless of the missteps I think with the right attitude and measures to insure a good trip YC is a great value.  
 

sounds like you are figuring things out nicely and it’s getting better!

25 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Don't plan to jet over to NCL for hash browns as those are apparently gone.

I saw the good crispy hash browns a grand total of ONCE on the main buffet in 5 weeks.  They had them in the kid buffet once that I noticed.  Yacht club had them on 20 every morning 

On 11/13/2023 at 6:31 AM, FreeCasinoCruiser said:

For context, I’m in school right now so I have a lot of external costs and no income, unfortunately. I got the land offer through credit cards and matching statuses, so I was thrilled to have a great trip for minimal cost (about ~1.5k for getting to New York, staying in New York, and then the cruise deposit)
 

3k is a lot of money. Especially when looking at it over an 8 day period. Almost $400 a day could presumably be spent in many other ways. Is YC really so superior that it can’t be compensated by a portion of that money spent outside?

 

as I said I’m ok with spending some money, I just don’t know if 3k is the amount that makes sense for me. Especially for the situation described above.

 

i also worry since we are so close to the departure date that something will get messed up with MSC’s customer service and I will pay 3k and not have it register onboard.

 

at any rate, I would be thrilled with just a balcony in non-YC— it seems there are many available. I was hoping people would have some data points for comped cruises specifically. 
 

I wish I had the money where I could see 3k and have it not make my stomach drop, but it is what it is. 

My experience was min bid on YC interior $775 * 2 rec'd upgrade from Bella Balcony to YC Deluxe so ended up getting double upgrade for $1,550 for 14 nights cruise, total cost just under $5,000 for 2 weeks yacht club w/balcony on Seascape. 

While I found that an incredible value, I still canceled my subsequent Yacht Club upgrade bids.  I had more fun in Gen Pop using that extra money for specialty dining, excursions, and I also found I got excellent drink service from the floor bar staff once I started giving some strategic tips.  Still spent way way less than the yacht club upgrade and I could argue I ate better and had more fun. 

I won't argue that I wasn't way more annoyed by crowds in the main ship, but I definitely liked the adult-only infinity pool on deck 8 aft better than the yacht club pool the week there were 50 kids in Yacht club.

Booking a casino comp for upcoming cruises using the certificates I earned is proving to be borderline brutally difficult.  I literally have the certificates in hand (thank god I insisted on getting them rather than waiting for the emails that never came) and I am still unable to book after multiple emails and calls.

1st call last week I was told to email msccasino and ask them to "locate and load" my offers.  I did so and received an email back asking to provide my preferred cruise and they would book.  So I both emailed AND called, and they still don't have the ability to book me after 3 rounds of calls and 3 rounds of emails.  One offer is loaded but has no details, the other still isn't appearing.  They are talking about having to reach back out to the casino host who gave them, he just left the ship (presumably for 2 months like everyone else) when I got off the last cruise.  Both the cruises I'm trying to book have limited availability for my room type.  Already booked flights and hotels thinking it was a done deal.   Mildly frustrating.   I guess I'll just book another cruise line if they can't get it together.

56 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Sorry, not a big tv watcher. Have noticed that many faces are gone. The Captain is new, new YC maitre d . new pastry chef but most importantly the service is still outstanding. Today was a seaday and experienced no overcrowding on OnePool deck. Must have gotten ‘interloper’ situation under better control?

I didn't notice any interlopers so I guess so.  Mr. "Buh Bye" went home a few weeks ago.  Casino host Floyd went home the 18th.  I found the service exceptional throughout the ship.  

3 weeks ago at breakfast on MSC Seascape they were rotating each day between:

French Toast

Waffles

Pancakes

Donuts

I saw a crazy scene during the week with bad weather, I think it was 10/29-11/4 where this guy went OFF on a manager at the buffet regarding the lack of French Toast and threatened to fly home from Cozumel.  I offered to take the medical helicopter over to NCL for some French Toast Sticks and that manager and I joked about it every week thereafter. 

Sometime mid-week of the 11/11-11/18 cruise that same manager let me know they were serving all 4 of those items daily, and for the last few days of the cruise they did indeed have all on offer.

While I firmly attest the food quality and selection are a notch below NCL & Royal (my only other recent experiences) I do agree they are making efforts to improve.  They need fried chicken tenders on the main buffet, and they need all stations open more often when its busy.

5 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Had lunch today at the Hola Taco specialty Restaurant. All one can eat for $18.(Ocean Cay Day). . The quesadillas were not as salty even with cheese as last month. Food is so subjective and we find it differing every time we cruise always having our same favorites.

  It was such a beautiful day on Ocean Cay that we knew it would be over crowded at Ocean House. With 330 YC guests and seating for 168, there would be inconveniences. There are a couple of big groups in the Yacht Club and they are very demanding. For example, they demanded sitting together in the YC restaurant, no tables for 18, so had to push together 4 tops. That is fine. But what isn't fine is they wanted these tables reserved whether their party was all together present or not. This is akin to 'chair hogging' on the pool deck, depriving other YC guests of a table in an overcrowded sailing. 

Did your Hola Tacos waiter look a little bit like Lloyd, the assistant from TV Show Entourage?  330 YC guests vs under 250 we had one week seems like it would be a noticeable difference and potentially have a material impact on crowding and service.

9 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Every cruise is unique. Getting to the port of Miami was different as well. There was a fatality of a tow truck operator aiding a stranded motorist on I95 south bound at 62nd street that forced the closure of all lanes going south to the airport and sea port of Miami. The only traffic allowed unimpeded were the two toll express lanes going south. Our port of Miami porter at Terminal C told us that if an accident occurs in these express lanes the traffic will be halted on non express lanes so the express traffic can be rerouted. Those paying for express are catered to just like those in Yacht Club or suite class.

  There are 5300 passengers this Thanksgiving cruise, 1000 are children. 330 in the YC, 65 children. Terminal opened at 10:15 am, boarding began at 11:30 am. 

65 children in yacht club YIKES, looking forward to the report! 

10 hours ago, Valpacino said:

Hi BeeJay, I double checked & yes, we had a Grand Suite in YC.  Very nice room & great layout.  There was a ton of storage in addition to the walk in closet.  Nicely decorated with dark tones which made it feel cozy & kept the room dark in the morning which we liked.  A better cabin overall than the Sky Suites in our opinion.  Sky Suits Bathroom is probably a little more spacious but we didn't like the 'tub' you had to climb in to, to shower.  Our bahtroom in the Grand Suite was perfectly good enough with plenty of counter space for your personal stuff.  Water pressure in the shower was excellent also.

The water pressure in the shower in the Bella Balcony is very weak compared to the YC Deluxe.  That bathroom was fantastic.  I agree the color scheme is really good.  My friend had the Grand Suite and that walk in closet it a really nice upgrade from the YC Deluxe.  

On 11/7/2023 at 11:08 PM, DaKahuna said:

 

And i salute you for doing so. Do assume the blame for my cause of concern.  My cause for concern is not exclusively based on your comments, which are open and honest as they should be, but comments from others as well.  They have been a number of glowing reviews as well but as I said, it just goes to show that like so many other cruise lines inconsistency can happen. 

 

The YC restaurant wasn't great from 10/15-10/29 either.  Seems like each meal there was either one item forgotten or something else incorrect on the order.   Drinks took a while.  Portion size was small.  I wasn't impressed with the food.  Not bad, just not outstanding.  Most days I just ended up eating a big breakfast and by the time the tea snacks were done I was pretty full and either skipped dinner, ran into gen pop for pizza, or ordered room service.  I also heard similar reviews from others on that and subsequent cruises.  Saw quite a few YC people who were doing specialty restaurants.  

30 minutes ago, Keys Kathy said:

Wow! How soon did you ask? People don't realize this kind of thing can happen and don't ask. I am glad some got to use it! No wonder they got our luggage to the Lobby so fast.

 

I missed meeting nice people!

I asked when I found out the reason for the delay in leaving port.  I was aware there was a fall and someone had to be evacuated, but I never knew yacht club vs gen pop until seeing your post here.    The first two weeks I was on the ship I got an upgrade from Bella Balcony to Yacht Club Deluxe based on a $775 * 2 = $1,550 bid (minimum plus $50) on a Yacht Club Interior.  Effectively a double upgrade.  I cancelled my upgrade bids for subsequent weeks because of the possibility of getting the Yacht Club Interior or something on 19 under the pool deck.  I've  been very happy with the Bella Balcony, but obviously the Yacht Club Deluxe was fantastic, so i went the route of waiting to ask for that specific opening because then you have control of saying yes or no to a specific room.

On 11/5/2023 at 5:11 PM, Mark_T said:

Perhaps the main take-away from your experience is that there is a lot of variability across the fleet and perhaps from cruise to cruise...

 

Our experience on Divina earlier this year was that the YC dining was above Luminae and the steak served there exceeded that served in Butcher's Cut.

 

No issues with speed of service or temperature of food either.

 

I guess we will have a 2nd data point when we return to Divina in February.

 

Thanks for your observations though.

Had 4 yacht club steaks and 2 butcher's cut steaks on Seascape.  Yacht club steaks were all 4 decent filet.  Butcher's cut filet was similar.  Butcher's cut ribeye (upcharge) was far superior.  I heard from others the sirloin and strip steaks in BC were very poor.

Similar to the original poster, I found the Yacht Club restaurant uninspiring, but the Pool Deck breakfast, lunch, and tea time buffet outstanding.    

I was there the week with 50 kids in yacht club (the week before the bad weather week OP was there) and the pool was a major splash zone that week.  The lifeguard tries to manage it but if there are that many kids they are going to rule the seas so to speak. 

On 11/3/2023 at 10:04 AM, morpheusofthesea said:

Interesting. Why on every cruise we have been on the pool guard would not allow any drinks in glass bottle or any thing glass near or in the pool ? Only difference in your cruise and ours is we always docked at Ocean Cay. Where your server reported  the Meraviglia was unable to stop 2-3 days ago. So why antagonize the guests further with enforcing safety rules like glass near the pool ? Would be interesting if any glass drinks are also being allowed as well at the Marina Pool? Or just the YC ?

No drinks in either YC or Marina/Infinity pools, quickly enforced in gen pop, slower/spottier enforcement in YC.

On 11/3/2023 at 6:23 AM, Keys Kathy said:

It is nice for me to hear the weather was lousy. I fell Sunday going from our cabin to the YC dining room for lunch. My shoulder is broken so they had us get off the ship. We were still in port. I hope someone got upgraded to our cabin.

 

I have contacted customer service about resuming our trip another time. Hopefully, they will co-operate.

Yes they gave it out, I went to ask about it and it was already gone.  Sorry about your fall and hope you are doing well.  Also you missed nothing, that entire 6-day cruise was a complete wash out.

On 11/2/2023 at 8:44 AM, Valpacino said:

 The walk in closet is very spacious and an excellent design addition to the cabin.    Overall we feel the Deluxe suits on MSC are definitely superior to the Sky Suites on Celebrity & a step up in quality.

Aren't you in a Grand Suite in Yacht Club if you have a walk-in closet?  Deluxe Suite in YC has balcony, but not walk in closet.

On 5/29/2022 at 5:45 PM, psmarkle said:

Disclaimer: this post is only based on my personal observations from earning the 30% Casino discount on my past 2 MSC cruises; it's not official MSC guidance or whatever!

 

OK, we've sailed the MSC Seaside twice and had a third cruise booked until...well, covid-agedden which disrupted everyone's lives, sadly. And we just sailed the Seashore in April, and booking the Meraviglia in Nov using the 30% discount from the Casino. We're not big fish players to earn a free cruise, although I have sat at the tables with those who have earned them (or maybe "pre-paid" for the "free" cruise with their playing! 😬).

 

The big question up front:  I bring $1,500 cash onboard with me as our casino budget...and have yet to even come close to using it all.  DW and DSIL play the penny slots on roughly $200 for the week each. They play together all night after the shows until the casino kicks them out at 4:30/5:00am! As they come back to the room, I'm usually getting up to have coffee in the YC Topsail Lounge and then wait outside the fitness center doors eagerly waiting for them to open at 6am...yes, I am one of THOSE people! I have issues, I know....

 

So, back to the lucrative Casino 30% discount. Prior to discovering the cost and service advantages of MSC's Yacht Club, we were big NCL Haven sailors, using casino free inside room offers to pay the difference to upgrade to the Haven.  I say this, because I stumbled across MSC YC while comparing cruise prices, and our first Seaside YC cruise was around $3,000 cheaper than the comparable NCL sailing...say what?! 😲 And this was before we had earned a 30% discount.

 

So, we have our usual cruise routine of dinner, catch the show(s), then DW and DSIL "go to work" on the penny slots in the Casino while Dad (Me) and DD hang out, head to comedy shows/white dance parties/etc, then I drop her off at the cabin around 11/11:30 (she's 16, btw, so no child services calls, please!). She then orders YC room service pizza which is different than regular room service pizza...yum-o! and watches a movie before dozing off. I'll get to the Casino around midnight and check in on DW and DSIL to see if I need to take out a home equity loan yet, then head over to the 3-card poker table to buy in.  I play 3-card poker as MSC ships do not have my preferred game of choice, Craps. Craps is a predominately American market game and MSC is an Italian-based cruise line catering more to Europeans. So I learned 3-card poker, instead.  My first buy-in is $500. Just slide the cash and your room card over to the dealer and they then log you in and start tracking your play.  With slots, you put your room card in the machine and it automatically starts tracking DW and DSIL's play.

 

My average bet is $10 on the Ante and $15 on the Play spot. There is also the "pairs plus" bet that would be an additional $10, but I learned a good lesson from the Pit Boss this last cruise about not playing that bet. On our first MSC Seaside cruise, a Casino hostess found my DW and DSIL on the second night of playing and had them fill out a casino rewards registration. MY DW later told me that she filled out mine as well since the Hostess had it readily available.

 

Then, on the last night of the cruise, our Butler placed the 30% "Willie Wonka Golden Tickets" on all 3 of our beds! They are actually letters in envelopes, but you get the idea of the excitement we felt when we saw them! This is consistent with our last 2 cruises on MSC, on about the second night, the Hostess comes finds you based on where you're logged in, has you fill out the registration, and assuming you play every night like we do, then the magical envelopes show up on the last night on your pillow so you fall asleep dreaming of 30% future cruises! One key caveat, the discount is only valid from 9 months from the month you sailed, so it forces you into 2 cruises'ish a year if you're chasing this offer...oh darn, throw me in that brier patch! Oh yeah, the Casino Dept also sends you a box of Venchi chocolates to your room for free, sweet!

 

So, MSC awards X# of points based on your time and level of play. The key number is to hit 1,200 points in their system to trigger the 30% threshold. I cannot tell you how many bets DW and DSIL make per hour, but they are playing penny slots. For this past April's cruise, I played from 11pm-1/1:30am betting $25 on the Ante and $25 Play bets, no Pairs Plus this cruise as I l studied my statistics. The Pit Boss and I chatted about that. In his broken English he said betting Pairs Plus made it about 70 to 30% in the house's favor, but just betting the Ante and Play bets made it almost 50/50. Smart playing he said! Based on my stated play, I hit my 1,200 points on my fourth night. Finished the cruise $100 ahead AND got the coveted 30% discount letter that is worth $2-3K when booking 4 people in the YC!

 

Also, I have found MSC's Casino Reps to be SOOOOOO much better and knowledgeable that their regular customer service reps. No long hold times, but they're only avail M-F, 9-6pm EST at 1-844-MSC-PLAY.

 

Again, this is just my experience, but glad to answer any questions y'all may have.  Out of 43 cruises so far, I have found MSC's Casino Dept to be the best. I'm glad to answer any questions...fire away!

 

Agree with that analysis 100%, Pairs Plus is prob 10%-12% house advantage on MSC, not as bad as 30%, but the variance is high too.  That said sometimes 3 card poker DOES pay for Yacht Club if you stop in Vegas on the way to Miami. 😉

The primary confiscated items are hairdryers and irons and booze.  I’m on a golf trip and my clubs getting confiscated “sometimes” as dangerous blunt objects.  When I got to retrieve them I see the other stuff. 

Currently in YC on Seascape based on min YC interior bid upgrade from Bella Balcony to YC Deluxe balcony.  It’s the best deal ever.

Did overhear someone at concierge complaining of upgrade from non-YC balcony to YC interior and now they don’t have a balcony.  
 

YC is amazing for service, embark, disembark.  And the YC Deluxe room is spacious and nice.  Nightly snacks, room refresh multiple times per day.  Bathroom is really nice.  YC buffet at pool for breakfast/lunch/snack is fantastic.  Room service is nice (menu isn’t great though).  The priority port disembark is HUGE, the re-embark doesn’t really work, heard people complaining about that too.

Pool area is a bit of a problem.  Yacht club is an odd mix of older people and families with younger kids and a lot of comped casino players.  Last week was an older crowd not much action.  This week is a TON OF KIDS.  The pool is unusable.  Also overheard a back-to-backer complaining of non-stop noise from kids next door.  Same kids from pool.

Point of my post is Yacht club can be very hit and miss and you are greatly impacted by the mix of other guests.  I would highly consider the type of trip you want before spending rack rate on YC.   It’s a no brainer for low bid upgrade.  
 

The biggest issue with MSC in general is the billing.  It’s cashless and you pre-auth a card for up to $500.  Once you spend that down they put thru addl pre-auth as you spend money.  If you do spa treatments, shop, casino, etc they build up additional preauthorizations but don’t seem to actually push through those charges until the cruise ends or you ask.  Once they push through the charges it hits as a charge from Geneva, Switzerland.  I had notified various cards I would be traveling in Caribbean. Not surprisingly, a couple times during the cruise I had fraud alert declines on cards that had been pre-auth for small amounts when a much larger amount from an unexpected destination was pushed through.   As we are at sea these alerts came thru much later at next port so I could not approve in real time and had to use different cards.  Additionally I’ve had charges go through and the pre-auth still shows, so MSC put through that amount (random shopping charge with cents I can easily identify) as a new charge rather than using the pre-auth token so now I have both the charge and the outstanding authorization.  The upshot is you could have a pretty outsized hit to available credit vs actual charges so you have to be mindful of that.  
 

35 minutes ago, JAGR said:

YW!  I'm jealous!  I'm a few years away from being able to have the time off to do five weeks in a row!  I'm sure MSC will be willing to take some money from you!

I suspect as much as well.   This portion is a drop in the bucket of the overall trip.   I’m doing a Princess southern itin after the 3 B-2-B on MSC, so 8 weeks (less a day) on the seas.  There is also a week in Vegas before and a winter in Scottsdale after with side trips to Vegas and Augusta.  Made possible by remote/seasonal work.    

7 hours ago, JAGR said:

Not, Morpheus here, but the good thing is you are already YC for the first two weeks.  If your bids don't go through, early in week one approach the concierge desk and ask about getting on a list for upgrades (don't do it on the first night!  Give them time to settle pressing issues on embarkation days!).  They probably won't give them right away, but will put you on the upgrade lists for each subsequent week.  You'll be on the top of the list, ahead of those who are boarding afterwards and are looking to upgrade. We did this on a smaller scale.  In YC on week one of a two week trip.  On day two, went to the concierge and asked about upgrading.  Again, they couldn't guarantee it, but about noon on the next embarkation, it went through (cost was about a total of $540 or so for us for the room upgrade).  Best thing was, we didn't even have to change rooms!

 

It's not a guarantee, but gives you the best shot if your bids don't work.

Thanks so much for this advice, that makes a lot of sense, and I will follow that plan if my bids aren't accepted!  It does appear now there is much more availability than I was seeing previously so I'm hopeful they will take more of my money! 🙂

@Morpheous maybe you know the answer to this question, I am doing multiple B-2-B, and I can see YC availability for all but one leg.  Specifically I have already received upgrade for weeks 1 & 2, I have max bid in on weeks 3 thru 6.  If I search for rooms by week I see YC availability on weeks 3, 5, 6 but week 4 doesn't show any YC rooms at all.  My question is if it is possible to upgrade 1 leg of a 2 week cruise?  My bookings are done 3 two-week cruises, weeks 1-2, 3-4, 5-6.