A Tale of Two Cruises

Hi, my wife Stephanie and I (Bob) booked our January 13th cruise over two years ago (January 6, 2016) when I saw that the new MSC Seaside had interior cabins in the Yacht Club for not a whole lot more than some balcony cabins. We have never had an inside cabin having been upgraded to a balcony cabin on the Celebrity Century about a century go (Well it feels like that!) and felt that we couldn't go back. We talked to a couple of friends (And they told two friend, etc.) and when they booked all of the interiors were taken so they each booked a Yacht Club Deluxe Balcony cabin and the six of us were set. I should mention that this is when I first learned about the wonderful MSC website. When I first tried to book, I couldn't. The next day it worked perfectly. BTW my bookings have come and gone many times over the two years. I told my friends, "Don't worry, it's just the Italian way". Having two years to think about this cruise we decided to add another week either before or after this one. I looked at different ships and decide that the logistics were best if we just stayed on the Seaside. We had done a B2B on the Divina and had changed cabins and it was easy. So we all booked Fantastica cabins on deck 15, port side for the January 6th cruise. I saw that there were cabins with the bed by the closet and those with bed by the balcony but there was no way of knowing which was which. So we spent the first week with one experience and the second week with a different one (More about this later). The one consistency was the ship which often confused us, sometimes aggravated us and usually delighted us. Although we were on the Seaside for two weeks I am still learning things that I didn't discover by reading other people's reviews. I will split this review up by sections and compare my two experiences (Your mileage may vary).

Eagerly following!

OK, lets start with embarkation. Actually I'll start with the drive down. We decide to leave a day early (Two days before the cruise) due to a freak snowstorm that even had closed part of I-95 the day before we left. Traffic was terrible but we got to our first stop at Brunswick, GA and the only drove to Melbourne, FL the second day. One of our friends waited a day and said that he had no traffic and met us in Melbourne for dinner. I had heard that traffic could be a nightmare around 11 AM - 11:30 AM so that is exactly when we arrived. I quickly got into the left lane going by terminals D and E and then moved to the right before terminal F. Dropped off my wife and bags and promised to return. The parking garage has no signage and is very confusing but I kept going up until I found a spot on level four. Grabbed my carry-on and camera and bounded down the stairs (I'm not waiting for an elevator) and met my wife upstairs in the terminal. With many stations open we managed to get checked in fairly quickly and yes, they did take my photo again saying "Your eyes were blurry in the photo I submitted" my wife's photo was "OK." We had boarding numer 12 and expected a long wait with a crowd of people but when we got there they called number 10 and the terminal was not crowded at all. The new terminal was very nice. They called number 11 soon after and then said everyone could board. I didn't even need my number 12. Here was my biggest problem. When I checked to make sure I had everything I couldn't find my Passport card. I told one of the agents who said that I couldn't board the ship and helped me look. They referred me to a supervisor who asked if I could have someone at home fax me a copy of my birth certificate. I said no! They said I could not get on the ship! I said I have a photo copy of my Passport. They said "No!!" must be Birth Certificate. So I resumed checking everywhere I had been and my wife and I both checked my backpack again. Finally while I was frantically looking around a nice young man who told me that mentioning his name wouldn't get him a promotion said "Do you have your cruise card?" I said yes and he proceeded to tell me that is all I need to board and report the lost passport card once the ship is underway if I don't find it in my luggage. Whew, crisis averted. But what about next week? To make a very long story a little shorter when I was able to get to my cabin I dumped everything out of my backpack and found the card stuck in a seam. Many things disappeared and reappeared in my backpack all week. Maybe I shouldn't have bought it at the "Harry Potter Experience". Now for the Yacht Club. I did notice that they had a separate drop off area for your luggage that was away from all the traffic and had a butler sitting there with a jug of lemon water for the weary traveler. While I was inside the terminal I did see their separate lounge with comfy seating and free massages (OK, I made that part up). I did not see them enter the ship as I guess they have a separate elevator. Bob

Entering the ship: We walked up and up and entered into the atrium area that was stunning. People were everywhere trying to connect their credit card with their cruise card at the terminals that didn't always work. We decided to wait until later and my wife connected a credit card to her name and then wondered why all the charges were showing up under her name. I kind of liked it! Guest services was already full. One of the couples we were with tried many times to get his status match on board even though I told him it wouldn't work. (It didn't). We went to the deck 8 buffet and found a table for 6 and that our "Free drinks with Lunch and Dinner" package worked well. There is only one choice for red and one for white wine but they were OK. The free beer was Heineken that I like. You can also get soda. Later we went up to check the deck 16 buffet and there were many tables open. I usually had a slice or two of pizza and a couple of beers for lunch. No I am not a foodie. I should mention that although our cabins were not ready until about 2 PM (Maybe later) we were able to leave our carry-on bags in the cabin. I need to mention that I was recovering from surgery and didn't explore the ship nearly as much as I usually do. I just realized that I never even walked the "Bridge of Sighs" and I didn't ride the waterslides (Too cold) and didn't try the zipline (Next Time).

Being on a B2B means that you meet someplace with other B2Bers and walk off the ship, through customs and back on the ship. On our Divina B2B this process took less that a half hour. Due to some passengers who were very late to leave the ship, our procedure took two hours. I should mention here that communication was lacking throughout the week. I never received any information as to the B2B procedure although others did. They even received a B2B pass that nobody ever looked at.

Back to the Yacht Club: Now we boarded the ship a second time. There was a butler waiting there and I asked what the procedure was for entering the Yacht Club. She immediately grabbed two of the wheeling carry-on bags and said "Please follow me and I will take you there". She used her pass to make one of the elevators an express to deck 16 and led us into the YC area. The concierge welcomed us and said that she would make us new YC cards and the officer in charge actually did that for us. He told us to go to the lounge and have a drink and snack and he would find us with our new cards, which he did. More about the Yacht club areas later.

Following along and looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

 

Many things disappeared and reappeared in my backpack all week. Maybe I shouldn't have bought it at the "Harry Potter Experience".

 

:D

Following as well.....

Thanks for your upcoming review.:D

Following. Thanks Bob!

 

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Really looking forward to this, Bob. It'll be an unusual review, being from one person with experience of both a Fantastica balcony, and a YC inside, cabin, comparing and contrasting the 2 experiences.

Cabins: We had a Fantastica Balcony cabin on deck 15 (Cabin 15115) that had the bed by the closet. Our friends had similar cabins (Cabins 15131 and 15141) but their bed was by the balcony (What I wanted). Our cabin was under Butcher's Cut and theirs was under the deck 16 buffet. Don't know why (Probably because I was exhausted and asleep by 11 PM) but I didn't hear the furniture being moved upstairs until night 4 around 11:30 PM for approximately 5 minutes. My friends didn't tell me if the noise from the buffet bothered them. One couple was usually in the Casino until after 1 AM anyway. Back to the cabins.. When my friends entered my cabin they immediately said "Your cabin is bigger than ours!". I said that wasn't possible as the front and back walls were the same. I didn't find out until the cabin crawl that their cabins had a bigger bathroom with a tub while we only had a shower (A very small shower). However we had more counter space that was nice. So our cabin area was actually bigger. We did a cabin crawl each week and it was enlightening to see the differences in the cabins. BTW one of our friends had trouble with their toilet but it was fixed in a few hours. Many people complained that their toilets didn't work.

Yacht Club: We had an inside in the Yacht Club (Both firsts for us) that was very similar to our Fantastica balcony. In fact the bathroom was the exact same size with slightly (Only slightly) upgraded materials. No marble but it did have a rain shower head that I like. If the bed had been put against the side wall and a curtain was put at the end I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. I should mention that the buttons for "Do Not Disturb" and "Please Make Up the Room" work very well. Also when you take your card out of the slot a light turns from red to green to tell your steward you are not there. If you want to have some fun, take out the card and wait in the dark for your steward to open the door and yell "BOO!". Anyway we did not miss the balcony (Both weeks were cold and wet) and would book an inside again for the right price. Bob

Just a quick note about the inside cabin: Since we were in the Yacht Club there was never a problem getting the elevator to the pool deck where there were always plenty of loungers. I probably would not want to do that outside the Yacht Club as I do not like having to look for a spot in the sun. Oh well, just got a call from church that a toilet is running and since I'm on the Vestry I have to run too. More later. Bob

CT Bob, could you share with us your thoughts on the storage space/capacity for a couple in the YIN?

I heard that the hanging closet has 2 bars, one longer than the other, but very limited drawers. Was it sufficient for you?

CT Bob, could you share with us your thoughts on the storage space/capacity for a couple in the YIN?

I heard that the hanging closet has 2 bars, one longer than the other, but very limited drawers. Was it sufficient for you?

Short answer Yes. I lived out of my suitcase on the floor in the Fantastica balcony cabin and then hung everything up so I could wear it again the second week even though I still had some new clothes left. When the week was over I realized that I could have hung everything at the beginning of the week and used the one drawer my wife left me. If you are going for one week there should be enough space unless you like to over pack. There is room for 4 large suitcases under the bed, more space than other ships that have some storage under the bed. One way they save space is by not having life jackets in the cabin. They will be given to you in an emergency. I hope we don't have to test that theory. BTW the bar can be removed if you want all long storage. Bob

thanks in advance for sharing. following along....

Bob ... Interesting so far, hope you had chance to read mine.

This is excellent. I sailed fantastica and yc with two months of each other but back to back will give an even better comparison:)

 

 

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The ship: When I am on a cruise I like to know that I am someplace special and you know that from the moment you enter the atrium, wow! I really miss the atriums that span the entire height of the ship like those on Royal Caribbean's Brilliance class with elevators overlooking the atrium for many floors. While this seems to be a thing of the past, at least the mirrors on the ceiling make it seem larger. There were many activities held here all week long and I often found myself here by accident. The layout is confusing and I was at a distinct disadvantage due to thinking that our cabin was on the starboard side when in reality it was on the port side. The specialty restaurants are hard to get to because they are behind the deck 16 buffet (Actually in front of it) and when I was trying to find them a nice crew member (And there were many) took me through a crew only door to get there. The next couple of times I knew to use the front elevators. While I'm talking about elevators let me explain a problem. I really don't think that there are enough elevators on the ship for the "Normally busy" times. For example when everyone exits the theater or comes back from being ashore or is going to the dining room, etc. And then three of the aft elevators were out of service almost all week. Then there is the issue of there being a set of 4 elevators on both the port and Starboard sides both at the front and the rear. And they all look alike! So when you get off, good luck in knowing which way to turn. And they are all mirrored. Once I almost ran into the doors when the elevator behind me opened and I tried to enter the one in front of me. And sometimes a person from the Yacht Club would call an elevator and didn't know how to use their band and we would all just sit there until someone figured it out. Also the elevators say 21 persons max but that's not possible. A couple of times the elevator said "Will the last person to get on please exit the elevator" and that was embarrassing. After a while I learned that it was always easier to use the front elevators and then walk back as they are not that far apart. By day 2 of the second week I hardly ever got lost. My wife says that I should note that the public restrooms often didn't work and there was not enough staff to keep up with the problems. All the activities were on decks 6, 7 and 8 and I eventually figured that out. Back to the mirrors! There was a spot outside the Seaview Lounge that almost caught many people. A woman in our group said "Excuse me" to herself. SItting there once my wife yelled "Mirror!" to a woman who was on her phone and almost walked right into it. The ship is spotless, they were even repainting outside areas all week and the ship is brand new. There were a number of problems with door handles falling off. Either the design was bad or they weren't installed properly.

Yacht Club: The Yacht Club area is larger than I expected. It is more subdued than the rest of the ship but there are still pleanty of mirrors and a Swarovski staircase. The lounge and restaurant are on two decks at the front of the ship with all glass and the views are great. Of course much of the time you could only see water. The sun deck was large and there were always plenty of open loungers. Even on the couple of days we had some sun many loungers were available. The pool was almost always empty and only one person of our group of six got in the pool one day. Again weather problems meant that it was almost empty. There was an elevator in the Yacht Club that only served decks 16, 18 and 19. There is no deck 17 as that number is bad luck in Italy. I don't know why. Only once the entire week did I see someone else in the elevator. As a matter of fact the lounge was almost always empty, even when the pianiast and violinist were playing. The restaurant did fill up at night, but we were always seated promptly at table 116 which became our table for the 2.5 hours we were there. By now you have probably figured out that I was not an author but was a professor of mathematics so please excuse my writing style (If it is a style). Bob

Edited January 23, 2018 by CTBob

Your style is fine! Keep going! Thank you for taking the time to review.

 

 

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I love the mirrors, I remember the mirrors on Divina, I once tried to walk around myself trying to use a mirror to get to the opposite side of the ship.

Entertainment: One of the reasons we like MSC is for the entertainment. You can almost always find something to do. We especially enjoy the trivia sessions. Since there are only so many math questions we always try and find friendly smart fellow cruisers to fill out our team. The first week it was Al and Marilyn and we really enjoyed their company and their knowledge. We won a couple of times mostly thanks to their answers. The second week it was Matt and Marsha who we also won with. We became good friends and they will visit us when they are in our area this summer. We often lost to Austen and Charmaigne (Sorry about the spelling) from the U.K. who we enjoyed meeting. My wife also likes the Arts and Crafts, Scattegories, Scavenger Hunt and many other games. We had such a good time with the Animation Team on the Divina that we were excited to be back on MSC and were not disappointed. We loved Sasha from Serbia, Laura from Portugal, Chantay from South Africa and Didi from the Dominican Republic. And we love the evening shows in the Theater even if they are repetitive. The fact that there are a dozen dancers and 5 singers is a plus and the sets and costumes are amazing. And do not miss the Timeless show. The Michael Jackson impersonator is fabulous. There are many acts performing around the ship. I loved the jazz trio Silk who performed in the Seaview lounge. A solo guitarist and singer drew a large crowd at Piazza Grande. And the band in the Haven Lounge kept the younger crowd dancing. There were special shows in the Atrium most nights with the Cruise crew leading the dancing. I should mention that we also loved Cruise Director Andre (And we seldom like Cruise Directors). If you can't find something to do on the Seaside you just aren't trying. Yacht Club: They often have a pianist playing and a violinist who play beautiful music but the real action is out and about. I met a couple on day 6 on the Norwegian Breakaway who were staying in the Haven. After we had some laughs the woman said to her husband "I told you we should get out of there some of the time!" So while we loved our time in the Yacht Club we always went out to where the action was. Bob

Bob,

17 is unlucky in Italy because

 

 

l7 in Roman numerals is :-XVII

 

If you anagram it you get the Latin word :- VIXI; which means "I have lived"(perfect tense of the verb VIVERE; to live), which by implication means "I'm Dead".

 

hence the convoluted reason for the superstition

 

PS

 

Perfect tense

 

(The word perfect literally means "made complete" or "completely done.") They are formed by the appropriate tense of the verb to have plus the past participle of the verb. (Present tense of to have plus participle. Action is completed with respect to the present)

Edited January 23, 2018 by Skier52

I was really looking forward for your review Bob, i'm really enjoying your point of view. Thanks for sharing !!!

Thanks for the review, Bob. Looking forward to more. Nice to hear about some YC interior cabin details as we have booked those for B2b in both May of 2018 and June of 2019.

 

~Brian

I love the mirrors, I remember the mirrors on Divina, I once tried to walk around myself trying to use a mirror to get to the opposite side of the ship.

On the Divina, I kept seeing a lady wearing the same shirt as I was!! DUH! Mirrors!

Bob, you mentioned the lunch and dinner drink package....it does not seem to be available any longer? Is it a YC thing or did they just discontinue it without telling us??