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Okay, come on now!!!!! I'm not smart enough to know anything about weather, cruise ship entry/exit channels, etc. etc. But I do know this: MSC Corporate made the decision, based on the information they had at the time, to not sail to Bermuda but rather to go to Bahamas. I do not believe that the Captain of the ship solely makes this decision.....but rather corporate offices makes the decision. Below explanation was cut and pasted from a FB group I belong to: Hi all, I’m a degreed meteorologist, and I’ve seen all the displeasure (understandable) about the sudden switch from a Bermuda to a Bahamas cruise, so I wanted to explain what’s going on weather wise. In the end, it’s probably for the best; however, you’re still going to get into unsettled weather down in the Bahamas. As seen here, a low pressure system will effect both days in Port Carnaveral and Nassau with rain, elevated seas of 4-8 ft, and gusts of 20-30 mph (worst of the weather looks to be Wednesday night as you head to Nassau). Meanwhile, dry weather is likely in Bermuda during this period, which is unfortunate. The main worry is that the system down in the Bahamas will track northeastward on Friday, leading to high waves, wind and rain in the western Atlantic. You’ll be on the backside of this system coming back, so the wave action (5-10 ft), wind and rain will not be as bad compared to what it would have been traveling back from Bermuda (10-20 ft waves, gusts of 30-50 mph and more rain). I can’t speak for MSC, but they definitely decided to err on the side of caution and not have you guys deal with the higher waves and wind going from Bermuda to NYC. Unfortunately, they are putting you into crappy weather in the Bahamas, so I guess it’s a pick your poison type of scenario. Did MSC make the correct call? Who know? But bottom line is: it is what it is. And, yes, I have been on a cruise that was re-routed due to potential bad seas and I know that each cruise line is well within their right to change itineraries. When you cruise, you kind of have to go with the flow!

Celebrity Apex docked in Bermuda from their transatlantic crossing so they entered Bermuda from the SE whereas Meraviglia would have entered Bermuda from a totally different direction. This may explain why one ship chose to go to Bermuda and one did not. I’m no meteorologist but I do know earlier this week there was some strong system in the Atlantic north of Bermuda.

@DisneyJen Sorry, but I have no idea if you pay the difference only or if you have to pay full price if you order a glass of "higher-priced" wine and/or a cocktail as nobody in our group did that. I do know, however, that the sommelier did hold a bottle of unfinished wine for the table next to us, presumably to serve the following night. There were 5 of us at the table and we always had a variety of cocktails and wines served. There was no appreciable wait for the cocktails (they go down to the Top Sail Lounge on Deck 16 for the cocktails). Our assistant waiter usually got the cocktails and he was excellent.

@DisneyJen I've attached a link to the Yacht Club Bar List on Meraviglia from earlier this year. While I cannot guarantee that all these wines will be the ones onboard when you sail, this list may give you an idea of what types of wines they have. I will say that all the scotch whiskeys listed were readily available in the Top Sail Lounge! Hope this helps! Yacht Club Bar List.pdf

I'm thinking that it all depends upon what ports you are visiting. But don't worry.....if you need assistance the folks at MSC will assist in any way they can.

Don’t stress about this. You will be allowed to use the lift during the muster drill. We sailed Meraviglia last month and I use a rollator and was allowed to use the lift.

Yes, burgers in both YC restaurant and YC Buffet on the Pool Deck on Meraviglia are cooked to order!

An onion ring was on the plate on the first day lunch. I would imagine you could get as many onion rings as your heart desires!!

@DisneyJenI think the champagne (or wine or alcohol) that is served in YC may be ship dependent based on what the supplier in a specific geographical area is able to acquire. For example, the supplier stocking a ship in NY may provide different brands than a supplier in Miami can provide. That said, one of the guys in our group drank champagne in both Top Sail and the YC restaurant. I’ll ask him what champagne was served and report back.

@DaKahuna This was our experience on Meraviglia. Your experience on Divina may be different. Regarding the waitstaff making wine recommendations. This definitely was not the case with the waitstaff we had on Meraviglia. You could definitely tell that they knew nothing about wine and actually very little about basic cocktails too! I'm guessing that if we had a question about wine, they would have called the sommelier or restaurant manager over to the table. Lucikly, the five of us pretty much knew exactly what we wanted to drink each evening.

I had my travel agent prepay the daily service charge when she made the booking for me. So I’m sure your agent will have no problem adding the pre-paid service charges to your reservation. One thing I will note about gratuities. I was informed on this board that if you tip the main bartender in Top Sail at the end of your sailing he will distribute the money to all the outstanding folks working in Top Sail. When I sailed Meraviglia last month I asked the bartender and one of the wonderful servers in Top Sail if this was the case. I was told that they do not share the cash gratuities that they receive directly from guests. So I made sure to tip each one directly on the last day of the cruise. The same holds true in the dining room. I was used to Luminae where most of the time the cash gratuities were shared (I say most of the time because on both Beyond and Edge I was explicitly told they do not share cash tips). I asked the Restaurant Manager in YC dining room and was told they do not share cash gratuities. It was easy for us because we had the same waitstaff each night so we tipped those two guys. There was no need to tip sommelier because our wine and cocktails were served by our waitstaff. It appeared to me that the sommelier only served guests who purchased wine by the bottle.

I sailed Meraviglia last month in YC and there was a coffee/cappuccino maker in my room with coffee pods. The butler will provide milk that you can leave in your mini bar. I believe (but am not 100% sure) that the coffee service began in Top Sail at 6 am.

Jamie Last month I did my Diamond Specialty Dining in Butcher's cut. (It was my first MSC cruise, but I was Diamond due to the status match!) It was excellent. Enjoy your cruise.

@DisneyJen and all others "jumping ship" to try MSC YC. Below is a small review that I posted on my personal FB page for all my "Celebrity pals" to read. You may (or may not) find some of my thoughts interesting. I will admit that I like the overall ambience of a Celebrity ship rather than the atmosphere of the non-YC areas on Meraviglia. But easy solution......stick to YC enclave until you want to venture out for shows or specialty dining. Our sailing on MSC Meraviglia was not at full capacity. I would estimate there were 5000 passengers onboard (ship holds 5600 passengers). Prior to sailing I had read that there is a very large travel agency in NYC that caters to Asian clientele and they book groups on this ship. I believe we probably had close to 2000 Asian passengers onboard. Whenever you have a large amount of any one demographic on any ship it somewhat skews the vibe of the ship. This was definitely the case on our sailing. Of note: in my opinion the pier in Brooklyn leaves a little bit to be desired. The Yacht Club waiting room we were in prior to boarding the ship reminded me of the prison visiting room in Orange is the New Black. Plus in bad weather, be prepared for you and all your belongings to get soaking wet as there is very little overhead covering outside. I stayed in the Yacht Club (YC) section of this ship. The YC concept is a “ship within a ship” concept. All passengers staying in YC suites have their own dedicated butler service, restaurant, cocktail lounge, and sundeck. Service and food quality in the YC venue was outstanding. I sailed with 4 friends who, like me, are loyal Celebrity Retreat (Suite) passengers. I definitely felt (as they also did) that the MSC YC experience far exceeded the Celebrity Retreat experience…on all levels. Our service was the best I have ever experienced in any of my cruises. The Top Sail Lounge (the cocktail lounge) had nightly entertainment ranging from a piano player, a guitar player, a singer, etc. The lounge also had “finger food” available from 7 am until 1 am - basically all day and night. You could “make a meal” on the snacks that they offered. The YC restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner on all days of the cruise (except closed for lunch the day the ship is in Ocean Cay, the MSC private island). The Pool Deck was gorgeous (however with very, very limited shade) with a large buffet and grill available for breakfast and lunch. It is a “semi-buffet”.....you can order your eggs to your liking and they deliver them freshly cooked and piping hot to your table……same for burgers, etc. at lunch. For my fellow Celebrity Retreat friends I think you definitely will find MSC Yacht Club to your liking. We did venture into the “non-YC section” of the ship each evening to attend the nightly production shows in the Broadway Theater. We were escorted to the Theater by our butler and were seated in a section of the Theater reserved for Yacht Club passengers. Non YC passengers need to make reservations to see the shows. Our butler bypassed the crowd and lines waiting to enter the theater and brought us directly to our reserved seats. The shows were, in my opinion, typical cruise ship entertainment. The production shows were very good. They also had a comedian and a magic type show if that type of entertainment is to your liking. One of the best parts of the shows was watching the pushing, shoving, shouting, trying to “sneak into the YC seating” of the non-YC passengers on the ship. The behavior was unlike anything I’ve seen on any cruise before. We also attended two “pay-for” shows in the Carousel Lounge. Again, having dedicated butler escort and reserved seating. These two shows were excellent and well worth the charge ($18 if you purchase ticket onboard, $12 if you purchase prior to sailing). The casino was packed every night. There is a lot of smoking in the casino and the smell of smoke was, to me, very prevalent no matter what part of the casino you were in. On September 8, (just 2 days prior to our sailing) MSC opened a “non-smoking” part of the casino with a pretty large size bank of slot machines outside of the casino proper (adjacent to the Champagne Bar). There was no smell of smoke in this section. However, if you like table games you need to be able to tolerate smoke. There were no video poker slot machines onboard. Each evening from 10:15 pm to 11:00 pm in the “inside promenade” on Decks 6 and 7, they conducted a 45 minute “dance party”. When exiting the Broadway Theater after the 9:30 pm show you were smack dab in the “dance party”. It was like a mosh pit with 3000 people. Not my thing…..but I’m old. So maybe some of you young folks would love to dance, sing and scream in the promenade for 45 minutes with 3000 people! We popped into the Sky Lounge one evening for a drink. For me…..it was a “one and done”. We did get excellent service in the Lounge, but we tipped generously. No need to be in the Sky Lounge when we had the Top Sail Lounge in the YC enclave. We did do Specialty Dining one evening in Butcher’s Cut (steakhouse). The food and service was excellent. I would not hesitate to eat in Butcher’s Club on our next sailing. Full disclosure: this was a complimentary tasting menu meal due to my Diamond status with MSC (I did the status match prior to booking my cruise......Celebrity Zenith matched to MSC DIamond). On a port day, I stopped into the Marketplace Buffet area just to see what it was all about. To me, it reminded me of a huge cafeteria. The food offerings looked pretty decent but I could only imagine the chaos of the place on a sea day. The pizza onboard the ship was pretty good. Passenger mix: What can I say?? To me, it was a classless, rude bunch. I won’t even get into how a lot of passengers were dressed in the evening. Again, classless is the only word I can use to describe it. We all re-booked MSC Yacht Club for 2024. For me, I would NEVER sail on MSC unless I was in the Yacht Club. The main part of the ship is just too frenetic, crowded and chaotic for me.

@Beamafar I have to disagree regarding food offerings. Every single solitary time I have sailed on Celebrity I request no sodium, or at a minimum low sodium meals for health reasons. By day 3 my feet, ankles and legs are extremely swollen due to the high salt/preservatives used in the food. On MSC I spoke to the restaurant manager regarding my low sodium request and was told to not worry as the chef does not cook with excessive salt. I thought to myself, “yeah, sure, I’ve heard that before” and mentally prepared myself to expect swollen feet, etc. Well, this restaurant manager knew what he was talking about. I did not have to pre-order meals in the restaurant but the Maitre’d reviewed my meal choices with me. This is the first cruise in a very long time where I experienced no swollen ankles. I thought the food tasted great (actually many offerings tasted better to me than anything I’ve recently eaten in Luminae). And Luminae is, in my opinion, very “seafood heavy” whereas YC Restaurant was not.

@DisneyJen Give it a try. I think you'll be extremely satisfied with YC on MSC. With the increased pricing and decreased service on Celebrity Retreat, we all thought it was time to look elsewhere.

We sailed on Meraviglia and had two Deluxe Suites on Deck 18 and one Duplex Suite with Whirlpool on Deck 12 (Deck 12 is out of the YC Enclave but these Duplex Suites are part of YC). On Meraviglia the suite categories (listed top to bottom) are: Royal, Duplex, Deluxe, Inside. Other ships may have more suite classifications, but I can only speak to Meraviglia. We honestly saw no difference in the service level between the Duplex Suite and the Deluxe Suite. And actually we all thought that the butler assigned to the two Deluxe Suites on Deck 18 was far more accommodating and proactive than the butler assigned to my friends in the more expensive Duplex Suite (mind you, they wanted for nothing in the Duplex, but our butler just went that extra step.) I know on Celebrity you usually receive "better" service if you are staying in Iconic, Penthouse, Edge Villa, Royal as opposed to Celebrity Suite or Sky Suite. (Of course, that's also ship/staff dependent - I've had less than stellar service sometimes staying in PH suites). But I did not experience this "class distinction" on Meraviglia. All five of us sailing (note two Zenith and three Elite Plus Captain's Club members) agreed that MSC totally blows Celebrity out of the water when it comes to service in the suite categories. We've all re-booked MSC for a couple of 2024 sailings. I can honestly say the only thing I missed about not sailing on Celebrity was the Martini Bar (LOL) and the staff and crew, many of whom I've known for years.

I sailed last month in Yacht Club on Meraviglia. Those items are readily available in Yacht Club dining room. Just let them know in advance what you want and they will accommodate. At dinner on the first night one member of our group requested shrimp cocktail every night and that was no problem whatsoever. In YC, they aim to please. I, too, always sailed in upper suites on Celebrity. After 95+ Celebrity cruises I decided to try MSC. I was blown away by the level of service we received in YC….it far surpassed anything I’ve recently experienced on Celebrity. Enjoy!

I sailed from Brooklyn last month. The time you are allowed to board is actually dependent on how quickly they have cleared the ship of previous guests. We were allowed to board around 10 am. We were escorted to Top Sail Lounge where we had drinks and light snacks. As your suite is ready you will be escorted from Top Sail to your cabin. It was all very professionally done.

Our limo driver drove past the main entrance on the right and dropped us off right at the YC tent. Porter immediately took our luggage. I stressed about it unnecessarily because it was all very easy!

Thanks. We are 3 women traveling together so I'll be sure to let the other ladies know that we need to get "dressed up" somewhat for this gathering...which won't be a problem. From what I'm seeing on a FB group I belong to the dress code on Meraviglia tends to be VERY casual and we tend to "dress up nicely" in the evening. During the summer month sailings it looked like the mode of dress in the evening was shorts, t-shirt and flip flops and that is DEFINITELY not us! We usually sail Celebrity and very rarely do a summer sailing (due to families, kids, etc.) but whenever we do embark on a summer sailing we've noticed even on Celebrity the dress code is very casual in the summer months.

@Mycykfamilytime Quick question regarding the Captain's Reception at Top Sail at 10:45 am. Since it's a late morning gathering am I correct in assuming that the dress code is casual (i.e., shorts and tops, long caftan-type cover-up etc.). Thanks.

Thanks for all the pictures and posts. I'm excited to be following along. I think you and your mom will have a blast!!!

Hi Jim, Looking forward to following along and getting your take on Ponant. Ponant looks like a very interesting cruise line (although I believe a tad out of my budget). I, like you, have been sailing almost exclusively on Celebrity since 1990 (33 years), with the odd Royal or Holland America cruise thrown into the mix. I got bitten by the "suite bug" around 12 years ago and have been sailing in suites (mostly Royal Suites) since then. However, due to the recent changes to Zenith and Suite category benefits (and the overall decline on Celebrity ships in general) I have finally decided to have a serious look at different cruise lines. First on my list to investigate is MSC. I'm sailing next week on MSC Meraviglia in Yacht Club. Enjoy your Ponant sailing and I'll be following closely.

Looking forward to following along. I board Meraviglia YC on the day you disembark. My first MSC YC Cruise......so I'm excited to be reading your "live from" thread. Enjoy your cruise.