My take on Star Class

[ccj83]

8 minutes ago, BNBR said:

I priced out star class for the 2 of us next year.  $19000.  Oceanview $2800.  I just can't make the value proposition work in my head to justify $16000 extra for a genie to walk me off the ship (maybe saving 5 min) and sitting 1 row closer at show.  The room has little value to me as well, we don't spend much time there. 

 

But for some people it's well worth the extra cost and that's good.  It's priced based on what people are willing to pay and they certainly fill them up. 

I agree with you, we would not have been able to justify the cost at $19,000 if it was only my immediate family (husband and 6yr old). There were 9 of us sharing the 4 bed (5 adults and 4 children 6-12yrs) which made the cost much more reasonable. There were a few unexpected perks too, for example my son was very keen to go to one of the kids club activities. We arrived 10minutes late to find that it had already finished (held up queuing to get back on the ship). I emailed the genie and she surprised my son by having a member of staff come to our room to do the activity as part of his birthday surprise 🙂 He also got a big bag of sweets and cookies from the sugar shack and a 3D puzzle which I thought was very thoughtful of them. I also wanted a picture with the cast of the show and our genie managed to organise it. For what we paid, I feel it was definitely worth the extra money but only because we spread the cost amongst 3 families. 

 

 

[RFerrington]

I have never sailed in The Haven and not yet sailed in the MSC Yacht Club (but do have one reserved for Christmas 2019) but have sailed in Star Class (SC) many times.  As Tony said (above), many think that SC is just an over-priced suite with an ultimate dining package and the deluxe drink package but it is much more, in reality.  Even if you did not have the Genie, it would be much more.  For instance, your SC dining package is REALLY all-inclusive.  You can dine anywhere at any time (assuming the restaurant is open, of course), as often as you want - breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, you name it.  You can order any "add-on" extras such as the upcharge lobster and steak at Chops or extra meat options at Izumi hibachi. You can have any specialty restaurant food delivered to your suite (or elsewhere, in special cases), which regular suites cannot do.  You can have as MUCH specialty restaurant food delivered to your suite as you want, meaning that you can have large parties in your suite, catered by Chops, Izumi, Jaimie's...and invite whomever you wish.  We've hosted CC Cabin Crawls with upwards of 60 people and the Genie orders all of the food for you from whichever specialty restaurant(s) you wish.  Housekeeping sets everything up and comes and takes it all away.

 

Your drinks "package" includes water, beer and soda stocked daily in your room.  If you want wine, you can purchase it. 
Mixed drinks with liquor can be individually ordered and brought to your suite but bottles of liquor are not routinely allowed.  You can do it but it's expensive and they don't like to do it.

 

You have unlimited laundry service.  You can send your laundry out every day if you wish.

 

SC cruisers have special access to the thermal spa.  This one has evolved over time but so far, we have never been denied as much access to the thermal spa area as we request.  I have heard of others being limited on how many times they can go but we have never been denied complimentary access to the thermal spa area.

 

SC cruisers have special access to certain recreational activities such as flow rider, zip line, north star, bumper cars etc.  These are generally in the form of special hours where SC have priority access.  The specifics on these amenities vary from ship-to-ship.

 

Then of course, there is the special reserved seating at any event and the personal escort services on and off the ship which are pretty nice.

 

To some people, these extras are unimportant and so the cost of the SC program does not seem to be a value.  If you want extras and are willing to pay for them, they are worth the money.

Edited October 25, 2018 by RFerrington

[BNBR]

I love the extras, I just haven't seen a star class booking with a price that makes the extra a reasonable value.  I don't need them cheap, but these extras are not worth $10,000 - $16,000 to me.

[ccj83]

@RFerrington if you don't mind me asking, which MSC ship will you be going on? We have only cruised 3 times (once with P&O, twice with RC) so have very limited experience. The travel agent we used advised against MSC, without giving specifics, so we opted with RC.

[RFerrington]

We will be on Seaside.

 

There are 2 reasons for us to try MSC.  #1, our status match to “Black” status with MSC will expire next year if we do not sail with MSC and #2, we want to see how the YC compares to Star Class.  I have heard mixed reviews of MSC in general, and YC specifically, but we’re going to give it a fair shot.

[John&LaLa]

30 minutes ago, BNBR said:

I love the extras, I just haven't seen a star class booking with a price that makes the extra a reasonable value.  I don't need them cheap, but these extras are not worth $10,000 - $16,000 to me.

 

When Oasis spring TA was announced I saw the 2 bedroom Aqua Suite for $9,000. 2 person rate. 😱

[BNBR]

Under $10,000 doesn't seem too bad.  I may end up keeping an eye out more closely for Star suites and see if anything pops up for a decent price.

[TonyL128]

The secret to getting great Star Class prices is to book early. We book all our sailings 2 years ahead. We will be sailing in Star Class in Feb 2019 for under $9,000 in a Star Loft for the two of us. 

[BNBR]

8 minutes ago, TonyL128 said:

The secret to getting great Star Class prices is to book early. We book all our sailings 2 years ahead. We will be sailing in Star Class in Feb 2019 for under $9,000 in a Star Loft for the two of us. 

 

That's not bad at all.  I priced out a Star Loft on a Nov 2019 cruise and it's $18,000 for the two of us.  I just went with an ocean view for $2800 or so.  None of those benefits are worth $15,000 to me!

[LorraineP]

1 hour ago, RFerrington said:

We will be on Seaside.

 

There are 2 reasons for us to try MSC.  #1, our status match to “Black” status with MSC will expire next year if we do not sail with MSC and #2, we want to see how the YC compares to Star Class.  I have heard mixed reviews of MSC in general, and YC specifically, but we’re going to give it a fair shot.

Just got off the MSC Seaside in YC last week, there is absolutely no comparison, MSC YC wins. The YC lounge was huge with long bar serving whatever you want, piano & violin players in lounge every night, YC restaurant looks down onto lounge with two story windows, lounges outside from this lounge, YC pool & spa area is large with its own grill & bar, never a problem getting a lounge chair, pool attendants ready to bring towels to cover padded lounge chairs, butlers can’t do enough for you. I could go on & on how wonderful a cruise we had. Booked YC balcony again for next year when we get off the President/50th Cruise. That’s what we did President Cruise 9/29/18 then MSC Seaside YC 10/6/18 this year. Picture looking down from YC restaurant onto YC lounge & YC outdoor sitting   

Edited October 25, 2018 by LorraineP

[ownedbypets]

We got a star loft suite for our next cruise and it was less than $8000 for 4 of us.  We can cruise at off times, book early and constantly look for price drops.

[mom2tcdx2]

I dream of the idea of the Star Class, but alas the money is outside of anything I could ever afford.  I think when I checked my cruise for 2020 they were insane.  The cost of the Star Loft for 2 is $18,410.00.  While I have a boardwalk balcony for $2100, even with adding the drink packages, dining packages, I am not anywhere near the cost of that suite.  Sadly I don't have the income anywhere near what would be needed to sail in a suite.  But if I can do three cruises a year under $2500, then that really is more of what I stick to doing.  Our upcoming cruise next week cost me $2400, which included the deluxe dining, drink package, internet and gratuity.  Guess I will be sticking to the cheap seats LOL.  

[TonyL128]

To each his/her own, live and let live. 😃

[flyguyjake]

Seems like the star class suite prices have gone through the roof. We booked the A1 on Harmony with 4 people it was $12.4K in 2017.

 

Things I love about Star Class:

1) Starbucks delivered every morning on time to our Suite.

2) Front row for any show

3) No lines on/off ship

4) Cocktails in Suite everyday if you choose

5) Unlimited Drinks of any kind, any time, any place.

6) Last minute specialty dining reservations

7) Specialty dining in Suite from any restaurant with minimal notice.

8) All menu food items included, even items that are otherwise upcharged

 

As far as tipping, we tipped $600 for the week each to the Genie & Room attendant.

 

 

[JBC11]

Plus free wifi

John

 

[ccj83]

Wow, a lot of interesting opinions 🙂 Agree with the all the positive reviews, and now know to book at least 2 years in advance. Many thanks for the tips. Can I ask, do you book directly with RC in order to track price changes? How do you know if the price decreases if there is only 1 of that class of room, eg there is only 1 villa suite, 1 Royal suite on each ship.

 

@LorraineP, just wondering have you travelled Star Class before? How would you compare the two, other than the lounge being much better? Would the butler reserve seats/book specialty dining etc? I found having the Genie very helpful, especially on Symphony as the queues for shows was mad - it would extend from the theatre snaking all the way down into the casino, so with 4 kids, not having to wait was a big deal. It was also the small things, such as being given a body sponge /shower cap when requested, that made life a lot simpler. Having only stayed in balcony rooms previously, the service we received this time felt much more luxurious. 

[Dizneydreamer_PA]

I can absolutely second the book early sentiment- and also check the different ships.

 

We are sailing SC for the first time this upcoming Thanksgiving- 5 of us in an A1 suite (2BR ATS) on Oasis for $15000. Yes, it's pricy, but we are taking the inlaws to help them see that the disappointing 50th anniversary cruise they had on NCL was not the norm. We booked this cruise onboard last year- so just over 1 year out. The price for that cruise has only gone up

 

Next Thanksgiving (2019) we booked a Grand Loft Suite on Anthem in May- we originally booked at $11000 for 3 of us (8 night cruise). The price has dropped twice, and it is now down to $10000. Considering we did a Crown Loft on Oasis last Thanksgiving for $8000, I thought this was a great price (plus we can drive to NJ, so we put airfare money into the room).

 

Obviously we are paying a premium to travel over Thanksgiving, but with my son in high school, it's important to us that he miss as little class as possible. And we love to travel- and to travel nicely. We are looking forward to all the perks that come with SC and think they are totally worth it.

[RFerrington]

Whether or not to use a travel agent to book a SC room is no different from booking any other category.  If you have a good TA that is available very quickly to react on your behalf then I say let them deal with the RC agents.  If you have an agent that does not respond promptly when you find a price reduction or suspect that there may be a price reduction, book the reservation yourself.  The 2 pieces of advice that I can offer those who want to book in SC is [as others have mentioned] book early and check prices often.  Despite the high prices on SC rooms, they do book up quickly - particularly on the O class ships.  If one drops onto the market unexpectedly, it will not be there long.  I am sure that it must happen sometimes, but I have never personally seen a SC room go down in price unless there is a special pricing event (BOGO60, KSF, etc.).  As a rule, over time, those rooms just go up and up.

 

As someone above mentioned, the prices on the SC rooms have skyrocketed in the past year.  They are now more than double what I paid for my first SC A1 in Feb 2017.  Depending upon the sail date, it can be more than 3 times what they used to be.  The prices will just continue to go up as long as someone will pay it !

[A&L_Ont]

We have just spent the last week in a CLS and typically sail Star Class. As many have said, book early and watch for price drops. We have taken advantage of some, but prices have increasingly gone up even with booking early. 

 

We currently have 4 Star Classs bookings.  We will keep them, but going forward we might just do a CLS when it is only the 2 of us and Star when it is 3 of us. 

[TonyL128]

We’ve noticed that Star Class Holiday sailing prices have been going through the roof the last 2 years. For example, Christmas 2018 Star Loft on Symphony was quoted at $35,000 for 2! We held that suite from Day 1 hoping for a price drop. We cancelled that booking several months ago because we are expecting our second grandchild and the price immediately went up to $85,000!!

[A&L_Ont]

11 minutes ago, TonyL128 said:

We’ve noticed that Star Class Holiday sailing prices have been going through the roof the last 2 years. For example, Christmas 2018 Star Loft on Symphony was quoted at $35,000 for 2! We held that suite from Day 1 hoping for a price drop. We cancelled that booking several months ago because we are expecting our second grandchild and the price immediately went up to $85,000!!

 

The prices for the RLS and RFS make me laugh, yet someone books them. 

[BNBR]

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

The prices for the RLS and RFS make me laugh, yet someone books them. 

 

I can only guess it's the type of people that might have considered a private yacht charter.  Where the Star Class ends up feeling like a bargain even at the high prices.

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, BNBR said:

 

I can only guess it's the type of people that might have considered a private yacht charter.  Where the Star Class ends up feeling like a bargain even at the high prices.

 

I'd think the affluent patriarch of a large family cruise.  

[BNBR]

8 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I'd think the affluent patriarch of a large family cruise.  

 

That makes sense too. With all the ship within a ship stuff coming, I still can't help but think lines are going after the yacht charter types.  Butlers, genies, private pools and courtyards, etc. 

[jgoodm]

8 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

The prices for the RLS and RFS make me laugh, yet someone books them. 

 

Hedge-fund managers like to take family vacations too.  ;-)