Pebble's Rad Grad Trip

[dexddd]

 

 

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[dexddd]

 

More YC pics plus another quirk on MSC- gotta love bendy straws!

 

 

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[dexddd]

I wish all cruiselines would have bendy straws - reminds me of being a kid - er or being in a hospital or nursing home.

 

One thing different was ketchup - I don't think MSC had any ketchup bottles like I'm used to on NCL - it was either packets or they would spoon it out to you at the sit down restaurants (that is the same on NCL). Not saying good or bad, just an observation. I'm thinking DCL was packets only too but I'm not 100% sure on that.

[dexddd]

 

Frequent sign throughout the ship. Note the passenger who was using the back pool and the bathroom by Le Muse was exempt from hand washing. Maybe he is the one who left the beer bottle earlier.

 

 

YC public restrooms have nice towels to dry hands.

 

 

Here is an example of one of the sinks that makes you do magic.

 

 

After a couple days of the one bowling alley they put up a formal sign. The TV with the ! also indicates that it isn't working.

 

 

This is by YC bar area starboard under canopy looking to the YC pool.

 

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Edited August 31, 2017 by dexddd

[jvsnana]

Hey Dex...just found your review!

Loving all the photos and can't wait to see the cabin pics.

Hope you had a wonderful time with the family :)

[dexddd]

Hey Dex...just found your review!

Loving all the photos and can't wait to see the cabin pics.

Hope you had a wonderful time with the family :)

 

Hi JVS - hope all is going well for you and your DH.

 

We did have a GREAT time as well as our first time on MSC. The YC really treated people well.

 

I'll post a few room pics - I don't think I have a ton though. We had one of the two largest rooms plus one of the "square" rooms. Our balcony was bigger than the impression I got from pictures but overall the rooms for being suites were on the small side compared to NCL or DCL.

[dexddd]

 

 

 

Here are some from our room.

 

 

 

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[Lou2204]

What a fabulous cabin you had!! I'm getting very homesick for the cruise, being back at work at the grindstone ... :(

 

But, on the bright side, we are looking to book another cruise in the Med for august 2018 - nothing better to cure the post holiday blues than ... booking a new one ;-)

 

Have you been on a cruise in the Med? Any good tips ...?

[dexddd]

What a fabulous cabin you had!! I'm getting very homesick for the cruise, being back at work at the grindstone ... :(

 

But, on the bright side, we are looking to book another cruise in the Med for august 2018 - nothing better to cure the post holiday blues than ... booking a new one ;-)

 

Have you been on a cruise in the Med? Any good tips ...?

 

Glad you made it home safely. Yes that terrible grindstone. We too miss the ship. Several lines are cancelling their 9/9 trips or others around that date. Guessing MSC will announce that today. The trip this week got altered route, going to Miami 2 days early then back to sea. Glad we had no weather problems.

 

We have done the Med back in 2008 on NCL Gem. It was a great trip with large family group. I don't have much advice other than don't go with large family group :D.

 

The ports were great and to see so many historic sites was great.

[Lou2204]

We were very lucky with the weather. We are following all news about Irma very closely - hope and pray that everyone is safe!!

 

thanks for your advice, I think we'll try NCL this time around. As we want to depart from Venice, there is no Yacht Club available (only on the larger ships, or so we understood today) - not sure we'll survive, but we'll give it a go ;-)))))

[jvsnana]

Thanks for the cabin pics. Very nice!

[dexddd]

We were very lucky with the weather. We are following all news about Irma very closely - hope and pray that everyone is safe!!

 

thanks for your advice, I think we'll try NCL this time around. As we want to depart from Venice, there is no Yacht Club available (only on the larger ships, or so we understood today) - not sure we'll survive, but we'll give it a go ;-)))))

 

Out of Venice, would that be the NCL Spirit? NCL does have Haven on larger ships and suites on the smaller ships but their prices are like double YC.

 

If Spirit we sailed Spirit twice as has jvs who posted above.

[dexddd]

Thanks for the cabin pics. Very nice!

 

No problem. I'll see if I can find any of the boys' room.

[Arzeena]

Hi dexdd!

Returned from the Divina cruise.....Aiyyyyy caramba!!!!!!!! not my cup of tea.;)

[jvsnana]

No problem. I'll see if I can find any of the boys' room.

So Dex, I am interested in your NCL Haven vs MSC Yacht Club side by side comparison. It's fun for me to get your first hand info :D

You did the status match to Black, right? How was that compared to Platinum or the new Platinum Plus?

Did the Yacht Club have Butler and Concierge service?

We just got off the Star Venice cruise and had a wonderful time in an Owners Suite. We toyed with taking the MSC Musica, but it does not have the Yacht Club.

We also did the Getaway 16 day transatlantic in a Haven Penthouse and I have to say, we enjoyed the Haven Restaurant very much.

I am sure we will try the Divinia in the future...in the aftermath of Irma it may not be very soon though.

Looking forward to your comparisons ;)

[dexddd]

Hi dexdd!

Returned from the Divina cruise.....Aiyyyyy caramba!!!!!!!! not my cup of tea.;)

 

You were on the 8/19 sailing I think? What did you not like - it would be interesting to hear. Were you in YC?

 

Hope you got home safe after the trip.

[Arzeena]

You were on the 8/19 sailing I think? What did you not like - it would be interesting to hear. Were you in YC?

 

Hope you got home safe after the trip.

 

 

Yes thank you, I got home safely after both cruises. After the Divina cruise (8/19) we went on the Oasis 8/27 (kind of B2B).

 

 

No I was not in YC unfortunately. I had a very decent cabin on deck 10, which I have no complaints about.

 

Ship was gorgeous. Best Crusie Critic party ever. Shows fantastic.

 

I am not a fan of how they run things. Total chaos. Their disorganized land based customer service followed me on board....all reservations for dinner, for other things etc, what I had on paper were completely different or not existing in the on board "system". Tried communicating with guest services and related personnel, but they themselves did not know what they were doing. Every question was answered "we will call head office to ask and you can come back and ask us then".

 

This was not the only thing but I thought it was so funny so I am mentioning this..... .when I asked for a bar of soap, the room guy said that he will have to request it from his supervisor who has to get authorization from head office. Okayyyy:rolleyes: for a bar of soap the super needs authorization from the HO?? I could not help laughing at that! Related this to GS and they very seriously told me the same thing!!! Oh man what a bunch of doozies these people are!;p They must be taking permission from HO to even pee!

 

Got tired of standing in endless lines at GS everyday, to resolve issues and just gave up! Tried to make the best of the situation and enjoyed the ports and other things on the ship.

Perhaps next time I will have a far better experience and hopefully they will iron out their kinks. It's not my cup of tea but I never give up on anyone totally! ;)

Edited September 8, 2017 by Arzeena

[dexddd]

Yes thank you, I got home safely after both cruises. After the Divina cruise (8/19) we went on the Oasis 8/27 (kind of B2B).

 

 

No I was not in YC unfortunately. I had a very decent cabin on deck 10, which I have no complaints about.

 

Ship was gorgeous. Best Crusie Critic party ever. Shows fantastic.

 

I am not a fan of how they run things. Total chaos. Their disorganized land based customer service followed me on board....all reservations for dinner, for other things etc, what I had on paper were completely different or not existing in the on board "system". Tried communicating with guest services and related personnel, but they themselves did not know what they were doing. Every question was answered "we will call head office to ask and you can come back and ask us then".

 

This was not the only thing but I thought it was so funny so I am mentioning this..... .when I asked for a bar of soap, the room guy said that he will have to request it from his supervisor who has to get authorization from head office. Okayyyy:rolleyes: for a bar of soap the super needs authorization from the HO?? I could not help laughing at that! Related this to GS and they very seriously told me the same thing!!! Oh man what a bunch of doozies these people are!;p They must be taking permission from HO to even pee!

 

Got tired of standing in endless lines at GS everyday, to resolve issues and just gave up! Tried to make the best of the situation and enjoyed the ports and other things on the ship.

Perhaps next time I will have a far better experience and hopefully they will iron out their kinks. It's not my cup of tea but I never give up on anyone totally! ;)

 

That would be frustrating. Hopefully your OTS trip was better.

[dexddd]

So Dex, I am interested in your NCL Haven vs MSC Yacht Club side by side comparison. It's fun for me to get your first hand info :D

You did the status match to Black, right? How was that compared to Platinum or the new Platinum Plus?

Did the Yacht Club have Butler and Concierge service?

We just got off the Star Venice cruise and had a wonderful time in an Owners Suite. We toyed with taking the MSC Musica, but it does not have the Yacht Club.

We also did the Getaway 16 day transatlantic in a Haven Penthouse and I have to say, we enjoyed the Haven Restaurant very much.

I am sure we will try the Divinia in the future...in the aftermath of Irma it may not be very soon though.

Looking forward to your comparisons ;)

 

Yes, DW and I both got matched to Black. That was nice. They give you quite a few things similar to NCL as Platinum or higher except the free laundry. There is a list floating around here for the complete list or you can go to the MSC site. The NICE thing is they give you 5% off your trip.

 

The Yacht Club does have butler and concierge service and it is FAR better than anything we've ever had on NCL. It starts when you arrive to drop off your luggage they had a tent with 2 butlers there to initially check you in. Then a butler escorts you upstairs to the check-in area which is similar to NCL. Then next door is a seating area with snacks like NCL at some ports but they also had Champagne.

 

When ready to board a butler takes you onboard to the lounge. The lounge is similar to what you'd see on the older NCL ships like the Star/Dawn used to have or like the Jewel class have in the front for their front observation lounges but just not as deep towards the aft but the whole span of the front from port to starboard side. Behind the lounge is the concierge desk where they stand (the people rotate shifts so I'm not sure how many concierges there actually are).

 

The lounge has a bar for about 10-12 people to sit plus all of the soft chairs and tables looking out the front of the ship. There is also the food/snack area by the bar. It is similar to DCL Concierge lounge on Dream/Fantasy only much larger and also with the front views. Plus the bar is open all?? the time vs. DCL only had happy hour for a couple hours each night.

 

I mentioned earlier that it seemed this one ship had more butlers than the whole NCL fleet and I was only 1/2 joking. Plus the NCL butlers always seem overworked. MSC had a whole bunch of butlers and their duties are a bit different than on NCL. They rotate serving in the main lounge and up by the pool. They also have some room duties it appeared such as I would see them vacuuming rooms. I'm not sure who brought the treats and such. There were regular room stewards we also saw cleaning rooms but they are very discreet in doing so and we never had any idea who was for our room.

 

If you wanted to order pizzas you would tell the concierge which we did 3 times and we had a pizza party in our room with the kids. The first time we ordered 2 and we got 3. They are large pizzas like 14" or a bit more and they are FABULOUS and no charge in YC.

 

I try to listen for DW's tidbits about what she likes and she really like the butlers not being intrusive on MSC or the other way around, she said on NCL it seems like they are always knocking on your door. On MSC they were very "invisible" in carrying out their functions. She also liked the very few announcements on MSC compared to NCL. She did miss the coffee machine in the room but she agreed it wasn't a big deal to walk about 60 feet to the lounge to get a fancy coffee.

 

The butlers also escorted you the first night to dinner, they walked you off the ship at a port, and on the excursion we had we met by the lounge and they walked us off the ship to the excursion meeting area so we didn't have to go the meeting place on the ship first thus saving time.

 

Speaking of which, one thing that I wasn't clear on was seating at the main shows. They did have reserved seating and you entered port side on the upper entrance. I had read they didn't wan't drinks in the show so the first night we didn't take any but we saw many people with drinks and I don't ever remember seeing anything to say you couldn't. The shows were only about 1/2 full which seemed odd to me. Most of the ship other than the main pools or by the atrium seemed pretty empty and I was wondering where everyone was. I'm guessing at the buffet as that place was a mad house with no seating at times.

 

As far as the YC, there weren't a ton of people around there either. Not many people in the halls, the lounge was maybe at 20% full once or twice, the pool area maybe 25% full at times. I think everyone must have been at the buffet as well.

 

The rooms themselves for the most part are like NCL mini-suites in size and layout including the bathroom. We had one of the two largest rooms and it was more like a NCL PH size and the bathroom was the same as the smaller room we had. The amenities in the bathroom were not impressive like NCL has with Bulgari. The towels were great though.

 

While the rooms were smaller the price was also about 1/2 of what we'd have to pay to go with a NCL suite. Plus the decor was kind of dark to me for being a fairly new ship.

 

The dedicated b/l/d restaurant is Le Muse. We only had one lunch there which was similar to NCL. Only one in our group went for breakfast and he said it was pretty empty and he had 5 waiters taking care of him. Dinner was FANTASTIC there and the service we got from Robert the maitre-d, Arthur our server, and Giovanni the head chef was also FANTASTIC.

 

I posted a few dinner pics above and I'll try to post a few more. Our bills at the end had nothing more than the DSC which on MSC is only $12.50 even for suites.

 

We definitely will sail MSC again but the small rooms are a bit of a drawback but the lounge is a nice plus. We spent many evenings there after dinner playing cards and games with the kids. I may have got this wrong earlier, but they are either coming out with 9 ships in 11 years or 11 in 9 so we should see a few in the States doing some new routes.

 

I've forgotten about the Star and where she is all going as this year has been quite a bit of different areas. We had one of the OS on Dawn and they are one of our favorite rooms.

 

Did you also have the Bliss booked? We are booked on the Escape for Bermuda next year but based on NCL pricing we will be doing less sailing on them.

 

I forgot to mention at Grand Cayman which is a tender port. They have a butler out there who will take you to the front of the tender line so you don't have to wait in the line. At the other ports they had butlers out on the dock and they would escort you onto the ship.

[Lou2204]

Nice review, am getting homesick again.. my thoughts are with the Divina people and crew, I hear they are waiting the storm out in Cozumel.

[jvsnana]

Wonderful information about the comparisons...you are so nice to post that for me:)

Sounds like the Butler situation was a great experience.

5% off the cruise fare is a great perk too!

We will definitely be booking MSC YC now. It is nice to have an alternative to NCL Haven at a lower cost.

So glad you and your family were able to enjoy the YC!

We have the Bliss Pacific Coastal booked for 9/2018 (in a Spa Balcony for now), but no other cruises booked...YET:D

We may book the whole family (13 of us now) on the Star Mexican Riviera so no one has to fly, but of course NCL is not offering 3rd and 4th free for the MR cruises:rolleyes: They do discount those passengers though, so I will probably be booking soon.

Thanks for updating your signature too!! I need to update mine and add it back on.

[dexddd]

Nice review, am getting homesick again.. my thoughts are with the Divina people and crew, I hear they are waiting the storm out in Cozumel.

 

Yes, I hear you about being homesick.

 

We've seen the pics of devastation to the Eastern ports and it is horrible.

[dexddd]

Wonderful information about the comparisons...you are so nice to post that for me:)

Sounds like the Butler situation was a great experience.

5% off the cruise fare is a great perk too!

We will definitely be booking MSC YC now. It is nice to have an alternative to NCL Haven at a lower cost.

So glad you and your family were able to enjoy the YC!

We have the Bliss Pacific Coastal booked for 9/2018 (in a Spa Balcony for now), but no other cruises booked...YET:D

We may book the whole family (13 of us now) on the Star Mexican Riviera so no one has to fly, but of course NCL is not offering 3rd and 4th free for the MR cruises:rolleyes: They do discount those passengers though, so I will probably be booking soon.

Thanks for updating your signature too!! I need to update mine and add it back on.

 

I'm sure a few more thoughts will come to me but our MSC trip felt much more like the "old" days of cruising which we really didn't mind although you did have some flexibility to move your dinner around.

 

The shows were entertaining but NCL shows are better but MSC has to try to appeal to a diverse group. Several of the staff we spoke to knew 5-6 languages which is impressive.

 

We like to do the Pacific Coast cruises but we've only got 2 in over the years as they seem to conflict with work.

 

So you'll be doing 2 GV's on the Star for your whole family?

[jvsnana]

 

So you'll be doing 2 GV's on the Star for your whole family?

I wish :D It would be $41,000 :eek:

I am thinking the SJ Family Suites will work for the kids. One has a family of 6 and one has a family of 5. With such little ones it would be nice to not have a balcony.

Not sure what I will book for DH and I yet...maybe the SG so we can have a balcony and be near the kiddos.

[hulksmash]

Was the sofa bed comfortable?

 

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