dgparent

I'd snag the YC Balcony in a NY minute

4 minutes ago, lottsomom said:

We are at a hotel right now looking at the seaside and wondering why it's still docked. We are heading out on the Meraviglia tomorrow. Is it due to extra screening of passengers?

I think it sails at 7 PM out of Miami, our cruise does anyway

13 minutes ago, Beardface said:

Also in the YC on the Seaside

 

Was told 300+ people from Italy were not permitted to board today due to new restrictions in place

 

That would totally suck feel bad for them

On 2/25/2020 at 10:14 AM, BoundForSea said:

However, I’m very nervous guys, that what happened to my wife and I at NCL Haven is going to happen here. We used to sail in Haven from NY and FL for 5-6k$ for 2-4 of us from 2014-2017 early 2018. Then NCL realized they drummed up enough demand and now you can measure fares in NY in 5 digits (in some cases over 13000$) and in Miami at or over 7k$ (occasionally you can score 5-6k$ for 7ni but rare). We moved to YC and we honestly love the product better than Haven and will never go back there. My concern, that at some point MSC will do the same and the value will be gone.. 

My wife and I used to sail only X, the price for a Sky Suite - the lowest level - used to be around 5K give or take for both of us. I was looking at 2021 cruises and saw it was now 7K+ (Yes they now give you free WiFI, the Premium Package and prepaid grats. none of which we use except the grats, that's 1K a day to stay in a cabin about the size of my living room) that is why we booked the YC instead and saved 2K. I was so concerned I started a thread asking about food etc. because the deal seemed to be too good to be true 🙂 Hopefully they keep the prices down to a reasonable level.

11 hours ago, psmarkle said:

We've sailed Seaside YC 2x in a row and are about 1 month out from 3x.  I can say I truly enjoyed the food on both cruises, so far.  We did not eat outside of the YC except for our complimentary Black Card dinner.  For me, if I did not see anything on the menu I desired, I just ordered the every day Filet Mignon which I found exceptional all 3 times I ordered it!

 

Try the YC restaurant for lunch as well, very nice selection.  For breakfast, we pretty much ate at the poolside buffet and they nailed my eggs benedict every morning!

Thanks for this, I love Filet Mignon, has to be something pretty special on the menu for me not to order it. And thanks to everyone for the responses makes me feel better about my choice to sail MSC over X we almost did a couple of years ago but at that time the free drinks were only in the YC area I think and also the YC was sold out when we tried booking.

37 minutes ago, jules815 said:

We've sailed on Seaside in YC once, and are going again in April.  We've done suite class on X several times and loved it.  I'd say the food in YC isn't quite as good as Luminae, but there were some things we liked very much and we certainly never went hungry.  The YC pool and bar/grill area is wonderful, and you'll enjoy the YC lounge too.  As far as smoking goes, not a smoker, but there were definitely smoking areas on one side of the pool deck, the shaded area with tables.  There's also a smoking area outside at the front of the YC lounge.  Half of that seating area is for smokers.  

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Thank  you we are looking forward to it !

19 minutes ago, diesel1973 said:

Don't know why you state that MSC has improved unless you are talking about your own experience. According to the reviews it sounds like things are getting worse. The Seaside rating has dropped 1/2 star and the Meraviglia isn't doing much better. But I guess after my experience on a early cruise on the Seaside, things must have been better, doubt if they could have been any worse!!! Just saying.

 

Were you in the YC ? Most of the reviews I read that were bad were from people not in the YC.

We are actually going to cancel the cruise we booked, 7K for a sky suite seemed a little over the top. We booked the YC on MSC for 5K, same dates pretty much same ports.

We only drink beers mostly so having the premium package does nothing for us, hardly use the internet on a cruise so that really does not affect us the 4GB you get on MSC is more than enough, $300 vs $200 OBC is almost a wash, the only thing X offers is prepaid grats and that is not worth 2K IMO. Even if the food is not quite up to Luminae's standards that won't really bother us as long as I can have a good steak for dinner I am happy, hell we can dine every night at a specialty restaurant and still come out ahead. We shall see if this was a wise decision or not !!

Thanks I am not a "foodie" I just need a good burger for lunch and a good steak for dinner, my wife is the foodie she loves italian food so this may hit her sweet pot. Mostly we just enjoy sitting outside near a bar where we can have a few drinks and I don't have to travel 900 miles for a smoke. And the casino at night.

Do they have specialty dinner packages? The only ones listed for our cruise are chef tables, we just want a 3 night package of some sort. It might be because our sailing is a year out ?

I booked a cruise on X the other day in a Sky Suite on the new Apex (really the only sailing that fit our schedule in March 2021). We have sailed X in suites a couple of times and love it, they recently changed the pricing to include a few things so the cruise was over 7K. Yesterday while doing more research I saw the YC on Seaside for the same dates was only 5K so I booked it. While reading reviews (I know they are subjective) about Seaside out of Miami there were a boat load of complaints mostly about the food. It can't be that bad is it? We will only eat in the YC or in specialty restaurants.

There were 2 reasons we switched, one was price and the other was X's new ships only seem to allow smoking on deck 16, not ideal when you are in the casino with your wife drinking on deck 5 and just want a quick puff. I noticed MSC has more smoking areas is this still true? Thanks for your replies in advance.

We just booked a suite  on the Apex and it includes all 4 - $300 onboard credit, which is already on my account, Prem Bev Package and free wifi/prepaid grats AND I have the military discount. I was looking at these sailings a few weeks ago and suites were much cheaper, they raised the prices quite a bit to cover the new benefits. I think on this cruise it was about 500 PP more than it was a few weeks ago. 

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I think you will like it.   M-Ships have fewer passengers and also only have Qsine and Tuscan for Specialty dining.    You should really enjoy her especially after her Revolution. 

Sort of wish they would replace Quisine with Murano's after the revolution, we are sailing on her next March.

8 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

Smoking only on Deck 16 next to the Sunset Bar on starboard side and there is a smoking deck slightly above the main pool area on starboard side. Casino is on Deck 4. So your closest option to smoke is to go from Deck 4 all the way up to Deck 14 to the pool area.

Pretty much rules out the Edge for me lol 

I just went to the website , never got an email, and bid on our x-mas Reflection cruise. About a week later we were upgraded to a Sky Suite, we saved around 1.5 K over what they were asking when you consider they were asking 5.2K for the suite with 0 benefits. So it worked for us, we get Michaels/Luminae and we saved some $$, when we 1st booked the prices for sky suites were crazy probably because it is over X-Mas.

We were upgraded 29 days before sailing, we leave on Dec 21st.

1.The end of the muster drill, then I am finally on vacation and no-one is telling me what to do.

2. turning off my cell after muster drill, I don't want email etc on my vacation, and dumping it in a drawer.

3. getting up to the sunset bar and enjoying a few, sometimes more, beverages with the package and not worrying about a huge bill

4. casinoing 

5. luminae and speciality dining

6. using the bev. package a lot

1 minute ago, jagoffee said:

Dgparent, you seem to be turning your good fortune into a negative.  Enjoy your Sky Lounge based on the good deal with your bid.

 

Unless something has changed very recently with the Move Up bid process.  This statement is very clear on the terms of the bid:

 

”Please remember that each offer on a stateroom is considered its own offer and is considered independently of one another. Only one of your offers will be accepted based on stateroom availability and whether the bid you submitted is the winning bid.”

 

I also know the terms clearly state that the perks associated with your previous bid would carry over, but you do not receive additional booking perks.  I am not really sure why Celebrity would tell you that you have the drink package on your original cabin, but do not on you upgraded cabin.  Perhaps a misunderstanding?  I would call back and ask again.

 

I am fairly confident that your TA is not in any way associated with thes process and will not receive any additional commission or consideration.  This is an addition transaction between you and Celebrity.

 

Enjoy your Suite experience with a bigger cabin, Michael’s Club, and Luminae.

 

No not turning it into a negative, pretty happy with it actually. The rep online said the bev package was gone but the moveup people say it is still there and they added the OBC back in like 3 mins. They responded very quickly to my email .  I did not see that blurb in the FAQs before I asked the question and upon reflection am glad that the bid they accepted was for a Sky Suite, all we really wanted was Luminae and Michaels club anyway, we do not spend enough time in the cabin to really enjoy the extra room for the $$ it costs.

9 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

Ask about the RS....it really is a wonderful experience if you can get it at a good price.

Yes it would of been nice, the price is 8K per person on the website, pretty crazy. 

This program seems like quite the debacle, the online agent said she would get our OBC re-added but we needed to go through the moveup program to get our beverage package back or our TA. Also no explanation why they expired our bids on other suites that are still available for booking, and you can't put in a new bid. 

7 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

I believe I've read this before, you need to call.  You shouldn't need to but if you want your OBC you should call.

Thanks I will give them a call tomorrow.

Hopefully someone can answer this after we moved up it looks like they took off our OBC ?  Do I need to call ?

It looks like they expire your other offers, seems weird to me, they left a Royal Suite open and I thought I bid a pretty good amount for it.

I bid on a move up for sky suite, x suite and royal suite, my sky suite was accepted today, we saved around 1K from what X wants on the website. However on the website there is still at least 1 Royal left, can you get moved up twice ? Just wondering, just being on a suite over x-mas will be nice for Luminae and Michaels Club, don't want to be too greedy but thought I would ask 🙂

8 minutes ago, Texed said:

 

The LCG is not open for lunch on embarkation day.  The Porch is normally open.  🙂

Thanks, don't really want to spend $30 for lunch though, I don't even do that with OPM when I travel for work.

Anyone know ? If not how about the Porch ? 

Great price for 14 nights, with the new suite program does the CS come with anything extra ? Not that it matters, but it might be even a better deal if it does.