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?

On 11/23/2023 at 11:48 PM, ashleyriley said:

We are also fans of the Retreat on Celebrity and the Haven on NCL. We are booked to try MSC YC on the Seashore and now I am not so sure that's a good idea...Thank you for this review. I really hope the service and experience gets better for you. 

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. 

2 minutes ago, go.without.you said:

I tried sitting in the sun today and lasted about 10 minutes before I got too hot and went back to the bar seats where we had breakfast. The lunch buffet was open at that time and even though I wasn't hungry I grabbed a plate. I had a massage booked at 1:45 and figured the buffet would be closed when I got back. The selection was pretty good and I enjoyed the lamb with broiled veggies. 

The massage was good and we left the spa very relaxed. 

We wanted afternoon tea and went to the lounge at 3 and were told it doesn't start until 3:30. So at 3:40 we requested it again and were told they only do that on the last sea day so just had the snacks available. 

The dinner menu tonight (on the app) looks good with a lot of great options. 

   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. 

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

I think at this point you may want to have a talk with the concierge about your room and butler situation.  Not confrontational.  Just explain what's been going on and although your first time, you are experiencing not what you expected and read about.  Have you actually spoken to your butler and asked for the items?  I mean we have all had a random room attendant here and there not often who just misses the mark.  Also I wouldn't tip anymore.  What are you tipping for?  

  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 ?

2 hours ago, go.without.you said:

I have long been a lurker but this is my first liveish review so bear with me. 

 

My friend Janelle and I sail on the Seashore Monday for 6 nights with stops to the private island, Costa Maya and Cozumel. The weather is clearing up after the past couple of wet days and the ship had to move their stops around this weekend due to weather conditions.

 

A little background, I have been a Celebrity loyalist for over 15 years with the last 6 or so cruises in the Retreat. I have reached Elite Plus status and I will probably never hit Zenith (the highest level) unless I hit the lottery. Their recent changes and price increases had me shopping around and after reading reviews from GenX and JamieLogical I was definitely down to try MSC.

 

This will be my 30th cruise with past cruises on NCL, Carnival, RCCL, Celebrity, Viking River and Uniworld so cruising is like my part time job now. (One that costs money instead of making it but oh well). At this point in my life I work to support my cruise addiction.  This will be Janelle's 3rd cruise since March 2022 on Edge and Nov 22 Reflection, both in Retreat.

 

I’m about a 3 hour drive away from Port Canaveral (plus traffic) and if you’ve ever driven around the Orlando area then you know it is not fun. Especially the week of Thanksgiving. Nope. Not doing it, so I decided to book Amtrak. Roundtrip from Tampa was only $30 and free parking at the train station so that's a win/win. The down side is the almost 1 hour Uber ride from Orlando to Port Canaveral but it still beats driving by myself in unfamiliar lands. Also, I used their move-up program and was awarded a roomette which includes a full dinner on the train.

 

Since the train arrives in Orlando after 7pm I decided to spend an extra night in Cocoa Beach giving me all of Sunday to bum around. Janelle is a flight attendant from Baltimore and will meet me at the train station. It will be a 1st visit to Cocoa Beach for both of us.

 

I use packing cubes in my luggage and after watching a video that Jamielogical posted I will be bundling some of my clothes to save space and wrinkles. I’ll let you know how that pans out. 

 

My liveish review will start tomorrow after I board the train.

 

We will see you on board 

On 10/16/2023 at 11:23 AM, Two Wheels Only said:

 

NCL already dropped an extra $50,000,000 on Joy when bringing the ship from the Asian market to North America. Adding what you suggest would cost even more. 

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.

6 hours ago, joeyancho said:

Their Yacht Club is much better than other lines premium experience.   Pizza is the best at sea.  

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. 

6 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

Obviously you haven't stayed in Yacht Club..... Best value at Sea with top notch service

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. 

25 minutes ago, PatandStu said:

Thanks for the honest reply.  In fairness, we aren’t looking for glamour, although decent food would be nice. It’s more a nice getaway for mom & daughter after what has been a challenging year. 

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. 
 

6 hours ago, Tierun said:

The status match seriously devalues the VC program. Many are at the top tier level without ever having been on an MSC ship. I will say that priority embarkation, the 5+5 discount are nice perks to go with the free meal. Hard to compare with other lines with it requires more than 100 nights to even think of reaching the top.

  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. 

On 10/21/2023 at 12:29 PM, Stockjock said:

I always appreciate honesty by the staff.  When they say, "Everything's good", you know they're either lying, or simply don't know.

I've mentioned this before, but my first MSC cruise was on Divina in 2015 or 2016.  I read over and over again about how there was pretty much no food in the buffet other hotdogs and hamburgers, and they'd then go on to show pictures of them.  I got on Divina and that was 100% false.  There was so much food, but one had to take a walk to see what was available.

I also think the MSC Specialty Dining packages are a good deal, relative to the competition.  For example, we did one last year for $70 per person for 3 specialty restaurants, which I thought was a great value.

This NYE, we'll be on World Europa, and while the price went up a bit, we're getting 3 specialty restaurants for $100 each.  Throw in our free Diamond level specialty restaurant freebie, that's 4 specialty restaurants out of 7 nights for $200 total (not per person).  I'd like to see anyone beat that.  And for those who note that one specialty night is "free" due to Diamond status, I'd also note that achieving that status on MSC is much easier than achieving an upper tier status on other cruise lines.

Anyway, good job on the video.  I found it to be well-done and objective.

   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.

10 hours ago, Valpacino said:

Just to clarify the drinks around the pool observation. Everything we saw was served in plasticwear tumblers or wine glasses. No glassware or glass bottles were observed in or on lip of pool.

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. 

4 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

It depends on who is working that particular ship on that particular day. I've been told "...no drinks near the pool..." but on the same cruise, I've had butlers deliver drinks to me while I was IN the pool....MSC inconsistency.

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.

On 10/24/2023 at 12:11 PM, StonePayload said:

We rejoin our intrepid Caribbean explorers as they awake bright and early, ready to take on the adventures that await at Ocean Cay. 

 

Not. 

 

We rolled out of bed around 9 am or so, after having slept in later than we thought we would.  Not having a 5 year old kid as an alarm clock does wonders for your sleep.  I also blame the time difference.  

 

This was the view off our balcony this morning:

 

We got up and got dressed for some breakfast at the buffet on the top deck.  Here is yet another example of us not being able to miss an omelet bar. (Omelet not pictured.  It was gone too fast)

 

 

We were treated to an excellent view of Ocean Cay from our seats on deck 20.

 

We went back to our room, and changed into swimsuits for the day, and headed out of the ship.  We did not get the butler escort off the ship, as we were late enough departing that there wasn’t a crowd at all. 

 

I love standing on the pier next to these giant ships.  The scale is always so amazing to me.

 

 

We found the white tent that would have allowed us to catch a cart to the yacht club section of the islands and also found a line of others waiting for the cart to arrive.  It was early in the day, and not too hot yet, so we decided just to walk to the beach instead.  It was a nice and easy walk for us over relatively flat terrain.  Couple pictures that we took along the way:

 

 

 

 

We got very lucky and say a family leaving just as we were arriving, and managed to snag a couple of loungers that were under a group of umbrellas.  Good shade for me!

 

While hanging on the beach, a couple of people kayaking by decided they were going to attempt to beach themselves.  The lifeguard quickly shoed them away.  I guess people are trying all kinds of different ways to get into the yacht club areas!

 

After sitting for a while, Kelly decided she wanted to give the full face snorkels that we purchased a try, and off she went!

 

 

i joined her shortly after.  Word of warning here - beach shoes or swim shoes are an absolute must for this beach.  Sand has been pulled away from the beach, and left a large number of rocks.  I think only 1 or 2 people that attempted to walk across these rocks without swim shoes made it.  

 

Snorkeling was nice.  We saw a couple fish.  After a little bit we took the snorkels off, and just hung out in the water for a while.  It was very pleasant.  After a little while I remembered that I left my wallet in my pocket.  Now everything was very soaked through.  Especially the AirTag that i keep in my wallet.  Electronics and sea water are a great mix.  I am sure that can only go well!

 

About 12:45 or so we headed up to lunch.  Being the elite blogger/reviewer that I am, I was absolutely sure to leave my phone (and therefore, camera) in the bag on the lounger.  Oops.  Hopefully Kelly will be willing to share the pictures of the food with you.  I have none.

 

We didn’t order any of the appetizers, and instead decided to split three entrees between the two of us.  We ordered the lobster roll, burger, and carne asada.  I thought the flavor of the lobster roll was good, but would have loved to have the roll stuffed just a little bit more.  Neither of us are huge fans of roast meet being served cold, so the carne asada was just ok.  The burger however, was amazing.  I really enjoyed the sauce they put on there.  Next time, I might try what others have suggested, and order the burger with the lobster roll topping on it.  That sounds excellent.  

 

After lunch, we went back to our chairs for a bit, and then decided to head back to the ship.  It was about 1:45 when we walked up to the area where the cart picks up for the ride back to the ship, and this was also the lone sore spot for our day at Ocean Cay.  They had one, very small, cart running people back to the ship.  Round trip took about 20 minutes.  There was no line organization at the pickup point, just a lot of very grumpy yacht club people waiting for a ride.  Every time a cart arrived, a lot of the people would just rush the cart and leap into the seats.  After about 45 minutes, I broke down and we did the same.  As I was sliding over to get allow Kelly into the cart as well, another lady misjudged her landing zone and ended up sitting in my lap.  She jumped out, and was able to sit next to the driver. 

 

MSC - you need to figure this one out.  More carts on the island, with designated routes.  And a better organized waiting area.  I was fully expecting this chaos to happen, and it was still very disappointing.

 

We made it back pretty uneventfully, and headed up to our room to change into regular clothes.  It was now that we discovered that Ram had decorated our room for my birthday!  This was an amazing touch, and definitely made the day more special.  

 

We went to Top Sail to hang out for a while (it was deserted…), and watch the happenings on the island from the starboard side.  

 

 

After we departed around 5:00, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Along the way, i stopped and snapped a quick picture of the menu in the yacht club restaurant for the night:

 

 

 

This time, getting ready was eventful.  I must have jinxed myself yesterday when I mentioned it.  While I was in the shower, suddenly the lights go out.  Pressure in the shower is still going, so I didn’t think the whole ship lost power.  Kelly had her hair dryer stop working, and she scrambled to look through the door peephole to see if there was power out there.  Turns out there was.  I finished up my shower in the dark.  After finishing, I discovered that Kelly’s key card was not seated properly in the room key card detector thing, and the room assumed that nobody was in the room, so turned all the lights off.  We replaced her card with mine, and everything came back on.  

 

We finished getting ready, and then headed for dinner.

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.

On 10/25/2023 at 11:35 AM, paddy1112 said:

This week even the VIP function for the elevators does work for us.

Last week it didn‘t.

What’s the VIP function?

9 hours ago, WorkingForOBC said:

We're considering giving our son an old phone to use on a ship for exactly this purpose. We haven't done it yet... But we figure we'll delete as many apps as possible, and only connect to the ship's WiFi (in airplane mode). The phone will go away again as soon as we're off the ship. We might have to practice texting beforehand, and come up with some simple codewords to simplify communication.

We haven't finalized our plan yet, but this is our current thought process.

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.