Cashsmoney

Does anyone know if you are booked in an ocean view (not a balcony). Could you place a bid for a Retreat suite? Or is it capped at a balcony?

What are the lunch options other than the buffet on port days for the beyond? I’m getting conflicting answers if Luminae is open for lunch on port days. We are staying in the retreat.

Hello, I noticed on the website, Celebrity is offering the ultimate dinning package for my Beyond sailing in January. However it will only let me book to for the first 2 guests not my kids 9 and 10 years old. Can they not do the ultimate dinning package?

We have also sailed Haven on NCL, the suites on RC, and trying the Celebrity Retreat next month. This is my second MSC YC, they have been consistently the lowest in food, service and entertainment quality. However they normally are significantly cheaper. So if you cruise often and don’t need to “check all the boxes” on every cruise then sure MSC is fine. However if the price is similar to another line I would cancel and book on that. MSC is very inconsistent. Why risk getting a bad cruise from them.

I’m not a “buffet” person by any means. I normally avoid them opting for a sit down meals. (Person preference). I would say the YC pool buffet has been the most consistent, and decent quality food yet. Nothing super fancy, but perfect pool side food.

I’m on this sailing also, and feel similar experience (other than the sick kiddo). Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated incident, or just one distracted/overworked Buttler. This is a constant theme on the ship. I think almost everyone spoke with and asked how their cruise was going I get the say reply, “never again on MSC” Dinners are slow. The first night we go to Yacht Club for dinner around 7:30 told there would be a wait with no way of giving an estimate. After about 45 minutes of waiting I walk up ask very politely if they have any updates, now half the tables are empty but dirty. “Oh yes we are just preparing your table now Sir” I guess it took them 30 minutes to “prepare” my table. then dinner took a long time. Orders were wrong, cold, overcooked. However today sitting around the YC pool things started kinda the same, a couple bar tenders working, no one taking drink orders just have to walk up to the bar and order drinks, then they say they will bring them to you. But someone most have made the right complaint to the right person. Next thing I know they have 2 people in officer uniforms walking around then the staff almost tripled. I even noticed a couple people wearing the spa uniforms serving drinks. So they pulled people in from other departments.

My boarding pass say 1pm but I’m YC they board whenever right? Also do they have wheelchairs there just to get from the terminal onto the ship ?

We will see you on board

I sailed on one of the first cruises on the Joy after they finished that project. Funny it didn’t sail in Asia long either.

Hi, So I’m looking to book a spring break cruise. On either the Epic or Escape in the Haven. The Epic is about 2k cheaper than the Escape. I have sailed on the Escape back in 2017 ish, but never the Epic. I have read some mixed reviews on the Epic. Has anyone done both? Is the Escape that much better? What do people not like about the Epic.

Really you think so? In what way? What other lines have you sailed? I hear others saying it’s better yet i haven’t seen anyone give explanations. Other than Buttler is “the best” or something like that. The physical space of the YC pool deck is one of my favorites. The rest I think is below the others. Food in the YC restaurant is better than MDR, still not as good as either NCL haven or RC coastal kitchen. On the Haven well the menu is fixed (same men items the whole cruise) it’s fantastic, Lobster tails, filet mignon, steak tartare. Costal kitchen I feel has a better menu but that’s highly subjective. They do have a lobster night, something not offered on MSC. In order to contact the Buttler I have to go through the concierge, other lines I could just pick up any phone and call them directly, and if my personal Buttler is off the phone is forwarded to whoever is covering at that time. Yes the pizza is good. However I’m not going on a cruise for pizza.

Well you know that they say when you “assume”……. Yes I have been on the YC, I actually sail mostly premium products on cruises. We have done YC on MSC, Haven, Suites in RC, Mega Rockstar on Virgin, Disney, and booked our first for January Celebrity Reflection. and yes it’s a value, my personal experience was that the service was good was still below what other lines offer. I keep hearing how the YC is great, yet no real explanations. We are trying YC again in a couple weeks. The last YC experience was post covid and we were on the Seashore, leading up to our spring break cruise they where only sailing with 500-700 people then that sailing jumped to over 3000, but still well under the max for that ship. It was a disaster. Some things I could chalk up to them being overwhelmed others I can’t. Their “up notch” service, in order for my to contact my Buttler I had to call the concierge, then they would relay that message to my Buttler and it may or may not happen. One time I wanted to order pizza to the YC pool, I think maybe the buffet was closed. I was told no, no way. On NCL I was swimming in the Haven kids wanted chicken wings from the sports bar. I called my Buttler directly 20 minutes later we had wings, plus a bunch of fries and other things I didn’t order. The food in the YC restaurant well better than the MDR was below its competitors. Oh another annoying thing was pool towels. I don’t know if this is fleet wide or just on that ship. They don’t have towel stations conveniently located on the pool decks, like every other cruise line. For regular rooms they placed them in the room. YC they had it one towel station in the YC area. But wait I’m on in the downstairs aft pool, and need a towel. Go up 10 decks and completely on the other side of the ship. Yeah that’s top notch service. It with all that being said. It still wasn’t horrible, but it’s cheaper for a reason.

Yeah it would work. Especially if price is a big factor. The ships themselves are beautiful. But like others said if seeing nature is a top priority that itinerary doesn’t sound like a good fit. However ocean cay is one of the better private islands.

But the Top Tier on MSC doesn’t come close to the benefits of of cruiselines top tier programs. The discount is nice, but that doesn’t take away from others that earned it. Last time I was in Miami I didn’t even see a priority boarding for VC members.

Let’s just say MSC is cheap for a reason. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. We have sailed with several different lines. And MSC is never the line I search for first but they do come in cheap. Some complain about the food quality, also how inconsistent everything this. Service can be slow employees are not as friendly. The shows are very poor in production value, just someone singing to a playback track not live music. It’s almost like a Pro-Am karaoke . Honestly I can’t think of one thing they do better than any other line.

Yeah I think the speciality dining packages are a joke, because you have to order off the “dinning experience” menu, that looks more like menu items from the MDR. The other option is to order ala carte off the speciality restaurants menu that is way over priced. Also there loyalty program, don’t give you much even at top tier. They only thing it really does is give you you a free dinner for 2, for the top tier. The other lines the higher tiers have perks that have some value.

Glad she is getting time off, however we are sailing Beyond on January 2nd and my daughter was excited to see her.

Yeah I never seen any glass allowed or given on any pool deck of any cruise. However the last MSC cruise they didn’t let a drink in any container get close to a pool. I couldn’t even sit on the wet deck area of the pool with a drink.

I noticed a lot of inconsistency on MSC.

Hello, I just booked my first Celebrity cruise on in a sky suite on the Beyond. Over the past few years we have sailed on Royal’s Suite Class, The Haven on NCL, YC on MSC, MegaRockstar on Virgin Voyages, and just got off The Disney Wish so we are no strangers to cruising. How does it compare to any of those? I keep seeing people compare The Retreat to the Yacht Club and some saying the YC is a better experience now that has me worried because YC was my least favorite experience. However that cruise might have been a one off, it was during Covid and up to our sailing the ship only had like 500-700 guest on board but then our sailing was spring break and it jumped to over 3,000 and they were not prepared. So I’m giving it another go this Thanksgiving. How is Celebrity for kids? I have a 9 and 11 year old and normally we have sailed the mega ships with all the kid friendly activities, but we have done enough water slides I think we can try something new. Also can you have a drink near a hot tub or pool? It drove me crazy MSC did not allow this. Also what’s the best way to book dinning on the edge? The dinner on the magic carpet.

Have you noticed, are they allowing drinks around pools and hot tubs? I was on the YC a couple years ago and you couldn’t place a drink at the edge of the pool. I made a comment about that then others commented saying the just off the ship and they where allowed and had photos of people around hot tubs with drinks in hand.

I think someone failed when placing the YC area on the Ocean Cay. Most of the island’s beaches are beautiful, and then they put the YC area the farthest away at the worst beach. Then don’t provide enough transportation. They could have put that area almost anywhere else and it would have been better.

What’s the VIP function?

Yeah unfortunately I don’t have any old phones. I would have just got them iPod touch’s but they don’t make them anymore.

I know it’s not everyone loves Indian. However I said they same thing multiple times, it would be a nice change from just the Asian and Mexican food. Plus so many of restaurant staff is Indian, they would make it just like back home! I know it’s normal on the buffet but it would be great to have it as a specialty restaurant.