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"Fair and Balanced" Seaside Review Jan 13th-20th YC with family


golfusaofcs
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My family and I just got back from the Seaside yesterday!! We had a very nice experience despite the weather. I will start with a bit of background that will set the tone for this review. Please keep in mind I have hundreds of pictures, but my intention is do detail most of our experience rather than show pictures of things you have all seen at this point.

 

A bit about me and my family. My wife and I are both in our mid 30's, I work in the automotive field and my wife is a stay at home Mom for our 5 year old and 10 month old son, who all came with us on the Seaside. As a hobby I am an outside travel agent just for the perks and to help out friends and family. I also border on the obsessive when it comes to Cruise Ships as I have been into them ever since I was a little kid and my parents used to take me. I have also created quite the cruise critic with my 5 years old as this was now is 6th cruise, well 7th if you count the one he was in my wife's belly.

 

Here we go!! It all started about 2 years ago when I saw the Meraviglia and Seaside concept! I knew we had to book!! So literally after we got off the Koningsdam I called MSC and booked the Seaside. Originally we booked Jan 6th, but more abut that later. I booked cabin 11003 which was originally billed as a 2 bdr 2bath suite. This was intriguing to me as I felt we could have some separation in the cabin with my 5 year old having his own bedroom. Later as you all know, we discovered this wasn't the case which was not acknowledged by MSC USA until later in the year despite numerous comments from Europe and on Cruise Critic. Anyway we rolled on because MSC solution was either to refund us or put us in joining cabins which we didn't want to do. I truly could'nt believe the value for the dollar MSC was offering with this cabin, from the All Inclusive drinks, free massages, and onboard credit, so canceling was not an option. So for the year, I have been obsessed with the Seaside, from daily searches on You Tube for videos to staring at the deck plan. I had more anticipation to this ship then any other. As the count down came closer we grow more and more excited, especially as the finished product started to surface and the ship appeared absolutely beautiful!!

 

Here is were it went downhill!!! Christmas Eve my 5 year old had a 102 degree fever. He got to spend his Christmas break sick. With a week to go we made a DR appointment for him for Wed the 2nd just to get an antibiotic to take with us. We then were faced with our 10 month old getting sick and not sleeping at all, which kept my wife up all night. Now with both kids sick and knowing my wife, I was extremely nervous this cruise wasn't happening. We were able to get a double appointment for our kids for that Wednesday, at this point our 5 year old was all better. The morning of the DR appointment I get a call from my Wife that she doesn't feel good. Uh Oh, this is not good. I decided to look at my phone to see if there was anything available for the following week as it appeared there was no way we were going Saturday. To my surprise there was one thing available!! Yacht Club Deluxe Suite!! It was $1000 more, but that point it was a relief!! Plus, I would have wanting YC to begin with if it wasn't for that 2br I originally thought I was getting. The only unknown, would MSC let us change the reservation without penalty? The short answer was yes!! I won't go into detail about USA customer service, as we all know the shortcomings. I even spent some time on the phone with a supervisor, and they are completely self aware and know they need to work out there problems. I am extremely grateful however that they were able to change it, as once my family was at the DR office I got a frantic call from my Mother in Law that my wife is not good and I need to pick her up. BTW the 10 month old now diagnosed with a double ear infection!! Anyway, I picked my wife up and she was not good. almost 104 degree fever. I did my best nurse impersonation and took care of her and the kids that night. She really needed a good nights rest and tons of fluids, but she woke up the next morning better, however I was now sick!! Will we be better for the following weeks cruise? I cannot tell you the feeling I had all week as we were all sick!! Hoping to get better! But as you see! We made it! So now to the review!

 

TBC

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Did I mention I studied this ship? I felt so ready to sail as we approached our new January 13th said date! This was the first time traveling with two children and it truly was a feat of engineering to fit all of our stuff into our SUV. So with a slight couch but no FLU we made our way to POM. As we approached the YC check in tent, I felt it was finally happening!! I dropped our bags and parked the car at the nearby garage. We were whisked past security and on to the YC check in area in no time. We received our MSC bands and we escorted to the ship. I couldn't believe we were finally onboard. We were late arrivals so at that point we just went to our cabin, our bags were already there which is really nice! We checked out Top Sail lounge which is really beautiful as you all know, with an amazing view out the bow of the ship. We missed muster, and never had to make it up? Anyway, at this point, I will change directions and tell you my impressions of several key aspects of the Seaside.

 

The Ship:

 

What can I say? It really is beautiful! A very interesting mix of modern, contemporary, and futuristic. I can also say that the Maroon Carpets and walls in the Elevator lobbies do work!! I really loved that deck 5,6,7,and 8 all had a different look. Our favorite area became deck 6 by the Venchi Bar, which btw the chocolate wall was off the entire week which was a bit of a bummer. There were definitely a few flow and design issues such as no way to get to the South Beach Pool without going through the Disco or Haven Lounge, also the upper decks were a bit chopped with deck 16 affecting us the most. No way to get to the pool or buffet from our cabin on 16 without going up or down a floor. Ah Ha, the benefits of studying the ship came in handy. I hope I don't get flamed for this but occasionally I would use the crew door that separates the Biscayne Buffet and Asian Marketplace to go back and forth. The host was aware and we would always joke about it. I would never do that during peak times for the restaurant as I didn't want to disturb anyway eating. One area I didn't care for however was the Miami Beach pool, it just didn't seem very inviting to me! The great news however is there are plenty of other pools on the ship, unfortunately the weather didn't permit last week other then the covered pool which was really nice but slightly muggy! The Waterpark was really nice and I enjoyed the Slide Boarding. One thing to mention, Even to this day the description of the slides shows that there is a family flume slide where two can ride an inner tube, I was looking forward to this with my son, but is is obviously an error. The Zipline was great as I got to ride for free I really didn't notice a lot of people riding, maybe because of the new charge? Free for YC Hooray!!

 

My family and I really enjoyed the Bowling, which is really interesting on a moving ship in 10-12 foot seas and a 30-40 MPH wind against the bow! I loved the F1 simulator which had some people frustrated with how hard it actually was! Not a video game! Was surprised at the limited amount of video games however. We purchased a discount game package which came in handy, as we wore out the bowling and F1 sim.

 

One comment about the elevators, there were several not working. I did use my wristband to "Call" them and the ones that were working came right away. I did notice that the Panoramic Elevators in the lobby were out of commission the entire week, Dissapointing to my 5 year old who loves those! The lobby however was really open and had lots of light entering. With regards to the shops, I really like the merchandising on the ship with items placed in displays all over including high end items in the YC area. Oh and one last thing the smell. I know there are a lot of comments regarding sewer smell. I can tell you that I even heard people talking about it throughout the ship. I can say however that the only time I smelled it and let me tell you, it was really really bad was the stars to the slides and zip lines. All other times, I only smelled the piped in MSC Med perfume that is pumped into the ship. My wife also noticed some paint and varnish smells as well. The Casino had only a slight smoke smell, but never was smokey.

 

TBC

Edited by golfusaofcs
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Were you looking at all the other pools because of your children?

How was the pool in the YC?

How was your suite in the YC?

 

:D

Do you mind if I interrupt you like this? Or would you rather I "hold my questions" till the end.

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The Crew:

 

I will break this up in two categories. I will say as a whole, the staff seem very happy and attentive. I did pass by the guest services area however and it always seemed packed. We never had a issue the entire week and if we did we could have spoke with YC guest services. There was a slight miscue I will bring up and it had to do with the Brunch that is supposed to be served in Butchers Cut on sea days Once onboard, I went to the restaurant and made reservations for Butchers Cut for Brunch, Teppanyaki, and Asian Market Place. When we arrived at Butcher Cut Sunday at noon, we were the only ones there. Another observation is that they don't really have a host/hostess, just a person sitting at the bar with a lap top. As we ordered from the brunch menu the waiter looked confused? He went to check with the chef and we could hear the chef say we don't have brunch! Anyway we got up and left. We went to speak to the Manager and she was really confused. After it all we found out that on previous sailings no one attending so they stopped serving it. Must of became out of sight out of mind to the staff. What a shame menu looked awesome!! Our issue at the time was we never had breakfast and obviously at noon there wasn't any to be had. I don't want to say that the ship was understaffed as there were areas that seemed to have amazing service such as the main buffet on deck 8 that always had crew walking around for drink orders. That is something that is often lacking on other lines. One thing I will note that is mentioned in other posts is that lack of the crews ability to be flexible in certain things. I will go into some examples later. It is really a easy fix that would involve a bit more empowerment.

 

TBC

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Were you looking at all the other pools because of your children?

How was the pool in the YC? Really Nice!! Just to cold,rainy, and windy!

How was your suite in the YC? Nice, clean, spacious, amazing bed!! I will go into more detail later!

 

:D

Do you mind if I interrupt you like this? Or would you rather I "hold my questions" till the end.

No Worries!!
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Loving this review so far! Thank you. I know others have mentioned this on other threads but why can't you go across Deck 16? What blocks it exactly? I can't tell from the deck plans. And is YC area on Deck 16 cut off from the specialty restaurant area? Just wondering about noise because we are staying on Deck 16 too.

 

 

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Did you go to Teppanaki? How was it?

I saw a video of it and it appeared that people were standing.....do you stand or is there seating.

 

Also, does the One Pool area buffet have lobster, giant prawns and shrimp for lunch? If so, wouldn't this be, in a way, similar to Teppanaki.? It would for me, and I would probably be inclined to choose another specialty.

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Entertainment:

 

My family and I went to 4 shows. I will say I have mixed feelings about the Metropolitan Theater as a venue and here is why. I do like that the theater was full for all shows, which is nice and creates a lovely atmosphere. On the other hand, you really have to arrive early to get a seat with a reservation. Due to the design of the theater often people walking by the spot lights would cast a shadow. Other then that the theater is nice and comfortable. The shows we saw were all very entertaining but very similar with just a different theme. We started with The Wizard, Fly which my 5 year old did not like, Timeless, and finally Peter Punk. My son was eagerly anticipating Peter Punk due to the random dinosaur on stage. The singers, dancers, and aerialists were all very talented! You can really tell that the effort is there to make the entertainment appeal to different audiences. We felt that MSC is trying very hard to be sustained in the US market. They even sang the star spangled banner at the end of Timeless. At the end of Peter Punk, Captain Scala and Andre the cruise director made a really good speech!. We did attend Win a Cruise Bingo. One thing to note, the Bingo instructions were announced in 5 different languages! Anyway we came within 1 number of winning out second Free Cruise! In 2016 we won a free cruise while playing on the Koningsdam!

 

When reading about the entertainment on the ship, it was noted that they would show movies in the theater during the day. This would have been great since the weather outside wasn't so great. I never saw that they had this at all during our sailing. One thing my family has really enjoyed on previous sailings is movies under the stars. Our best experience was on the Koningsdam, due to the beauty of the outdoor area and food available. I will say that on the Seaside the design just doesn't allow for it to be that successful due to the design of a huge stage/Heli Pad right in front of the screen. We passed by several times and just noticed a few random people sitting on the steps. There are plenty of other things to do on this ship, so I won't draw to much attention to it. Daily activities were pretty standard. My wife commented that they were kept to more of a minimum more like Celebrity, or Hal, not as much as RCCL or Carnival. One activity we participated in was the cruise scavenger hunt, the other participants didn't stand a chance due to my prior Seaside Knowledge! We won with plenty of time to spare. Once again if the weather was better, we feel we would have had more to do during the day.

 

TBC

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The yacht club is from the forward elevators to the front. The speciality restaurants are just aft of the forward elevators. You can either go to the right for butchers cut and ocean cay or left Asian market place. The restaurants are separated by a large bar.

 

Yacht club is very quite there are yacht club sliding glass doors to access your cabin activated by your MSC band or cruise card. You also have doors to enter the main part of the yacht club

 

Loving this review so far! Thank you. I know others have mentioned this on other threads but why can't you go across Deck 16? What blocks it exactly? I can't tell from the deck plans. And is YC area on Deck 16 cut off from the specialty restaurant area? Just wondering about noise because we are staying on Deck 16 too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stay tuned!

 

Did you go to Teppanaki? How was it?

I saw a video of it and it appeared that people were standing.....do you stand or is there seating.

 

Also, does the One Pool area buffet have lobster, giant prawns and shrimp for lunch? If so, wouldn't this be, in a way, similar to Teppanaki.? It would for me, and I would probably be inclined to choose another specialty.

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Food/Food Venues:

 

Food is always a very subjective thing. I have seen reviews that have claimed completely inedible. Now I will say that couldn't be farther from the truth. I would say there are some areas of opportunity, however its not with the quality or taste but just the variety. We ate in the Marketplace Buffet, Biscayne Bay Buffet, Venchi Creparie, Teppanyaki, Asian Kitchen, and of course YC Buffet, Top Sail Lounge, and YC Restaurant. We also ordered pizza's to our cabin which were amazing and even better then the stuff at the buffets.

 

Marketplace Buffet:

 

Based off the size of the buffet, I expected to have a bit more variety based off some pictures and videos I have seen on the Divina. Everything we had was good! Every day there was Pizza, Burgers, Hot Dogs, and Fries. There was chicken or beef tacos, a pasta, a roast, and a salad. The overall comments I heard from the passengers was the overwhelming lack of daily change. I would be happy to go into more detail about this, so if you have any questions please ask away. I would just leave it as for the size of the buffet, I would have expected a bit more.

 

One of the most surprising things about this new build is the use of the Marketplace Buffet as a restaurant at night. I am surprised that they ship wasn't designed with enough space for all passengers to eat in the MDR. I have a friend on the ship that ate in the buffet at night and thought the venue was really nice and the service was quick. I did walk through one night and can tell you that it does work as a restaurant and they DO NOT have people eating at the high tops. The biggest issue I see with the buffet closing at night is really an issue if you enjoy skipping the MDR once in a while for dinner to have a more causal option. Since we had kids we have enjoyed having a casual meal by the pool a few nights during the cruise. Your options now become limited as I will describe below.

 

Biscayne Bay Buffet:

 

It was nice having a quick buffet close to our cabin even though I had to use a crew door to access it. The Challenge here is due to the main buffet closing for dinner and times during the day, the Biscayne Buffet is way way to small for the ship to serve as a main buffet. In addition the food choices are rather limited, although there were several varieties of fries! The offerings at night were really limited to junk foods and some sandwiches. Once again, the quality was good! other then the chicken nuggets! There were a few adult options just not typical of a cruise ship buffet.

 

Venchi Creparie and Chocalate Bar: We really enjoyed the coffee and chocolate based drinks as well as the Gelato. We didn't gorge ourselves though now I wish I had a bit more. The Crepes on Deck 7 Aft were awesome as well.

 

Teppanyaki:

 

I enjoyed the Teppanyaki, however my wife didn't enjoy as much. There are 4 different "packages" to get My wife ordered the one that includes chicken and mahi, I had the one that include butterfish, lobster, and wagyu beef. Here is where the inflexibility came. My son really doesn't like rice and would have preferred noodles. The noodles only come with the vegetarian package. We asked if we could substitute the rice with the noodles and was told we would have had to order the entire kids meal and the vegetarian meal just to get the noodles. With some empowerment that could have easily been solved. Anyway my meal along with others should have came with the choice of desserts but they didn't offer. When I asked I was told they were out of the chocolate dessert so we all had a grilled pineapple. The interesting part of running out of the dessert was that we were the first seating of three seatings for the night. It was also only the 3rd night of the cruise.

 

Asian Market:

 

I have to say I was looking forward to this the most! We ordered the Lobster Pot Stickers, Fried Calamari, and Pork Buns to start. All were really good with the Pot Stickers being the stand outs. Surprisingly they were all out of noodles!! Slightly disappointing since the noodle dishes really looked good. It was only 6:30 btw and we were the only ones eating there. I will give them a pass on this since they are still working out logistics. My wife ordered the Kalbi Steak and I had the Macadamia nut crusted fish. Both were good! My wife ordered the chocolate melting cake which was cold and I have the pineapple upside down cake really good! My wife did mention that she didn't feel food ever came out that hot even in the YC.

 

TBC

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We were in the YC on Divina and hardly left there at all (casino and shows).

 

You seem to be the opposite and go to the other restaurants. We walked through the buffet on Divina and I don't believe we had one single item.

 

How did you find LeMuse? How about the buffet at the One Pool?

 

Enjoying your review very much and appreciate the time it takes to put one together. Thank you.

 

Seats at Teppanaki?

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Did you go to Teppanaki? How was it?

I saw a video of it and it appeared that people were standing.....do you stand or is there seating.

 

Also, does the One Pool area buffet have lobster, giant prawns and shrimp for lunch? If so, wouldn't this be, in a way, similar to Teppanaki.? It would for me, and I would probably be inclined to choose another specialty.

 

One Pool Buffet....

YES.YES and YES !

I could not believe it. All you can eat lobster tails every other day and they were big. Also a carving station, hot soup, salad bar, grilled steaks, chicken, etc. They will also grill you a hamburger if you ask.

I would say that this area is at least twice the size of the one on Divina, maybe more.

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Yacht Club:

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Yacht Club. We have some previous experience in the Haven on NCL. There are a few similarities but also many differences between the two. First off is value. No one can touch the value that the YC offers. For the price of 4 in the YC we can barely get a Balcony Cabin on an Oasis class ship. We loved being escorted on and off the ship by a butler, absolutely loved not having to show our card or MSC band for any drinks while in the YC area. The room was really nice, the bed was amazing!! The quality of the linens and bath towels were top notch and brand new! One thing we did notice is the extreme shedding of the carpets. I took a picture and can understand how others can perceive them as dirty. A few years back we bought a new area rug and it shed for months. The only concern was when our infant would crawl and pick up the shedding and try to put in his mouth. Our cabin Steward Krishna was the best! Hands down not even close to anyone we have ever had! Also our butler Flores was great as well. Our cabin location was perfect. Right off the elevator banks and close to the reception area. We really felt our butler and cabin steward went out of there way for us! We also enjoyed the snacks and high tea in the top sail lounge! We would have loved to spend more time at the One Pool but weather just never permitted. The afternoon buffet was great and I freaked out my son by eating one of the heads on prawns. We asked for a Hamburger one day and while it wasn't on the menu they went out of the way to make it. Even made it special with some onion and bacon!! We loved having our evening chocolates as well as our mini bar stocked with what we like!! I must have drank about 100 bottles of aqua panna water!

 

Dining YC: I will say this wasn't as great as an experience as I would have hoped. I won't say the food was bad, it was that nothing I ate stood out. Also dining was a very long process even when we asked to speed things up due to our children getting slightly impatient. It was ok to wear nice shorts and a few nights I did!! No dirty looks. We did dress up on formal night however. I did encounter a few issues with service in the restaurant which was slightly surprising. On the first night the water was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Just never good service and we are easy people. Never offered wine as I had to ask. When the food came he would literally just throw/place on random parts of the table. It was a weird experience. Also we asked for chicken nuggets for my son and they said they couldn't do it that night but made sure they had available all other nights. The next day we asked to sit on the other side of the dining room and had a much better experience. We sat there the duration of the cruise.

 

One morning I went for Breakfast by myself, I was met by a waiter that almost seemed annoyed that I was ordering food, very strange. Overall I don't feel the experience we had in the YC dining matched the rest of the YC experience. We did meet very nice people at dinner and enjoyed the conversation and company. They were also very nice and understanding with our well behaved children.

 

The facility itself is really beautiful and reminded me of a upscale boutique hotel.

 

TBC Random thoughts and ratings next.

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