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Yacht Club Drink Package Explanation from MSC (after the recent package changes)


kevinrobedm
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I asked MSC to clarify what the drink package is for Yacht Club passengers with all the changes to the packages after the last few months.  I got an official response and thought I would share with everyone as the more information we all have, the better.  We are in a YC suite on the Splendida in March and wanted to be clear on what we could expect.

 

Some of the wording I am not 100% sure of and have asked for some clarifications.  I will post them when I get it but at least this is a start and is from MSC directly since there has been a lot of third party discussions.

 

Thanks.

 

From MSC:

 

Yacht Club Bars

COMPLIMENTARY:

Full selection of spirits, liquers and cordials including Premium brands 

Full cocktail selection including Premium cocktails

Wide Range of wines; 1 sparkling, 1 white, 1 rosé and 1 red Wide range of wines (1 champagne, at least 7 whites, 1 rosé, at least 7 reds) Draft beer + full selection of bottled beers Draft beer + full selection of bottled beers Full selection of fruit juice and soft drink including Premium brands Full selection of fruit juice and soft drink including Premium brands Premium mineral water in glass bottles Premium mineral water in glass bottles Full selection of hot drinks Full selection of hot drinks

ON PAYMENT: Champagne and superior wine selection Champagne and superior wine selection Super premium spirits Super premium spirits Cigars

Yacht Club Restaurant

COMPLIMENTARY: REMAINS UNCHANGED Complimentary wines in daily rotation Premium mineral water Bottled beers Soft drink Selection of after-dinner drinks All other drinks from YC Complimentary Bar List on request ON PAYMENT: Champagne and superior wine selection Super premium spirits COMPLIMENTARY: Same selection as regular cabins except the water, which is Premium brand Pillow chocolates Welcome bottle of sparkling wine Free pizza delivery Free room service menu ON PAYMENT: Romantic moments selection COMPLIMENTARY: Full selection of spirits,  ligueurs and cordials, including Premium brands Full cocktail selection, including Premium cocktails Wide range of wines (1 champagne, at least 7 whites, 1 rosé, at least 7 reds) Draft beer + full selection of bottled beers Full selection of fruit juice and soft drink including Premium brands Mineral water Full selection of hot drinks REMAINS UNCHNAGED REMAINS UNCHANGED YACHT CLUB BARS BEFORE NOW OUT OF YACHT CLUB AREA ALL DRINKS ARE ON PAYMENT MINI BARS / CABINS YACHT CLUB RESTAURANT

 

PACKAGE RECOGNITION / SERVICE MODALITIES WITHIN YACHT CLUB AREA

 • Drink menus have been updated and all drinks included in the upgraded beverage package are specified on the menu

 • For the drinks included in complimentary treatment, the guests are not being asked to present their cruise card and they are not signing for the consumptions; the card and signature is being requested only for the drinks on payment

 

PACKAGE RECOGNITION / SERVICE MODALITIES OUT OF YACHT CLUB AREA

 • Yacht Club guests are entitled to consume, at zero charge, all drinks from the above specification. 

 • Out of Yacht Club area, the guests have to be identified and they will be asked to present their cruise card for every beverage orders. 

 • Printing of package code on Yacht Club cruise cards is not foreseen; the cards themselves are easily recognizable because they have different layout and YC logo

 

 

 

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Thanks so much.  I am more confident we will have the same experience as our last cruise. Just wish a small daily selection of gelato would be added to Top Sail or pool grill.

   

We are pretty typical American drinkers so a not so wide selection of champagnes is not a deal breaker. Martinis. an excellent  blended Canadian whiskey sour prepared to taste, an occasional Jameson,  and Hendrick's and tonic and we are good to go.  As long as we continue to get a better quality house pour (not the red or white the servers are pushing that night) red blend and a nice Sauvignon Blanc for dinner.

 

if the YC Director wants to throw in a special Whisky tasting we wouldn't pass it up. 😁

 

Dennis

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"Thanks so much.  I am more confident we will have the same experience as our last cruise. Just wish a small daily selection of gelato would be added to Top Sail or pool grill."

 

FYI - - Although not mentioned on the menus, gelato is available for dessert in the YC. They usually have three flavors in my experience; vanilla, chocolate, and a third flavor that seemed to vary.

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24 minutes ago, mnocket said:

Sounds like Venchi is excluded in its entirety. It's also interesting that they don't equate the YC package to any of the other offered packages.

 

It was included in the old deluxe package, and continues to be honoured if you booked that package pre the package changes oct/nov 2018 which means that the new premium package excludes such.

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1 hour ago, sptrout said:

"Thanks so much.  I am more confident we will have the same experience as our last cruise. Just wish a small daily selection of gelato would be added to Top Sail or pool grill."

 

FYI - - Although not mentioned on the menus, gelato is available for dessert in the YC. They usually have three flavors in my experience; vanilla, chocolate, and a third flavor that seemed to vary.

 

 

I forgot about this.  Yes it is.  If you order ice cream, it's definitely gelato.  I often ordered vanilla "ice cream" topped with fresh strawberries.  🙂  

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14 minutes ago, jules815 said:

 

 

I forgot about this.  Yes it is.  If you order ice cream, it's definitely gelato.  I often ordered vanilla "ice cream" topped with fresh strawberries.  🙂  

Sorry I did know about gelato on the restaurant menu, but I was just thinking about the anytime availability. My bad on possible confusion.

 

Dennis

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13 minutes ago, kevinrobedm said:

When we had it on the Seaview, Venchi was much better than the YC so I would say no but it could have been just us.

Thanks...and that makes sense because the Venchi gelato was removed from the YC inclusive stuff. If it was the same, why remove it? :)

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1 hour ago, kevinrobedm said:

The did tell me that the YC package outside of the YC area is not a specific package but somewhere between Premium and Premium Plus.  Not sure how they can't know for sure.

 

That is absolutely the case, and it also includes minibar.....all of it, drinks/snacks.

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6 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

 

We are pretty typical American drinkers ... Hendrick's and tonic and we are good to go. 

Dennis

 

Hendricks is now in the "Connoisseurs Selection" so may not be available without charge in YC as it's now only included in PremiumPlus.  I'll be checking that out in August!  (Not happy that yet another favourite has been removed from the old Deluxe package, which we have for our next 2 cruises).

 

Sounds to me that the included package in YC is Premium, which is very similar to the old Deluxe package, except for the loss of gelato, room service items and mini-bar (the latter 2 referring to non-YC cabins).

 

The gelato that's served in the MDRs isn't the same quality as what's served at the gelato bar - hence the charge for "the good stuff".

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3 hours ago, kevinrobedm said:

When we had it on the Seaview, Venchi was much better than the YC so I would say no but it could have been just us.

 

I am not convinced that the YC Resturant offers gelato without a passenger asking for gelato specifically. The dinner menus only list "ice cream" (also sorbet if I remember correctly) not gelato. Seems to me that if they were offering gelato then the menus would say so and not ice cream. I would guess that you had ice cream in the YC and gelato at Venchi which is why you noticed the difference.

 

On the other hand, I am not sure why they (MSC) would make both ice cream and gelato. The difference (ingredients, etc.) between the two is minimal and it would seem to me to be more difficult to make both and distribute each throughout the ship than just make one or the other. On other lines, such as Celebrity, gelato is only available at one location and ice cream at all other places on the ship.

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1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

 

Hendricks is now in the "Connoisseurs Selection" so may not be available without charge in YC as it's now only included in PremiumPlus.  I'll be checking that out in August!  (Not happy that yet another favourite has been removed from the old Deluxe package

 

No, Joe, say it ain't so..... 😁   sorry for a very American sports allusion.  I found nothing more over the top than the pool deck bar keeping the Hendrick's in the fridge so as not to melt the ice in my gin and tonic too quickly.

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

 

No, Joe, say it ain't so..... 😁   sorry for a very American sports allusion.  I found nothing more over the top than the pool deck bar keeping the Hendrick's in the fridge so as not to melt the ice in my gin and tonic too quickly.

 

Dennis

 

What tonic do they use?  [Please say 'Fevertree' :classic_wink:]

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At least there seems to be some clarity finally for YC passengers, I think it is significant that there is now no confirmed link of the YC offering to any regular package, least not an exact match.

With all this now becoming clearer, slooooowly I will add! ....The now old Deluxe is the diamond in the Crown. 

I have it on my next sailing next month, but I wish I'd booked more sailings before the amnestis!!

That Deluxe platform is worth black market trading!! lol

Bea... After beer, cider, wine and cocktails I enjoy gin too (though not always with tonic!) ...just remind me what I'll get under Deluxe with regards to the GIN as I thought Hendricks was in?

 

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3 hours ago, citizenfrank said:

Bea... After beer, cider, wine and cocktails I enjoy gin too (though not always with tonic!) ...just remind me what I'll get under Deluxe with regards to the GIN as I thought Hendricks was in?

 

 

Frank ... in 2017 we did 2 cruises where we only had the basic drinks package due to the constant removal of top brands from the old Premium/Deluxe and upgrading drinks from the basic package into the Deluxe one.  To us, it wasn't worth the increased prices for lower-end products.  I went from being able to get Remy Martin XO, to then only getting Janneau XO, 'til that, too, was put into the 2 asterisk range.

 

Now MSC has done the same with Hendricks.  The gins included under the "Premium" heading on the bar menu were Bombay Sapphire East, Tanqueray Nº TEN and Plymouth.  Aviation and Hendricks are the 2 being offered in the "Connoisseurs Selection" which would be included in the PremiumPlus package (for now, anyway.  Who knows how long Aviation will last, 'til it's removed and Bombay Sapphire East replaces it!  I guess it may depend on how many people actually upgrade to Prem+.  I never looked into upgrading our Deluxe on Armonia, so don't know what the cost would be).

 

SC ... I posted elsewhere about my experience re Champagne on Armonia.  I had no problems with ordering NF other than it wasn't available in one of the bars and they substituted it with Cordon Rouge.

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I am just confirming with MSC but what we were told is that we get whatever package was in place when you booked the cruise.  Others on Cruise Critic have said the same thing. We booked this cruise in September of 2017.  The package that was in place for YC guests wash the All Inclusive Deluxe Drink Package. Since MSC has now re-done their packages it is hard to know what was in one vs the other unless you have the comparison guide.  I am posting comparison guide that was in place prior to the drink package changes.  For those of you that booked prior to the package change (roughly in September/October 2018), if you are in the YC, you should be receiving the All Inclusive Deluxe Package.  The attached .pdf shows what was in the packages prior to the changes.  Hopefully I will get official confirmation from MSC today and I will let everyone know what they tell me.

 

The same should apply to anyone that is not YC, it should be the package that was in place when you made the booking.

 

Again the more everyone knows, the better off we all are.

 

For us the point of all this is that we work hard for the money we get paid. When we book an experience like the YC it is a hefty amount of money that you spend based on a certain experience MSC presents. We understand times change and packages change (and this is totally within MSC's choice to do this) but as a customer you are entitled to get what you paid for, not a substitution.  That is our belief anyway.

 

Thanks.

MSC 2018 Drink Package Comparison Guide.pdf

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Not sure what you're trying to say in that post.  If MSC removes items from the included list for a particular drinks package, it's irrelevant what was included when you booked.  I've booked many cruises where MSC changed what was included in the packages before we sailed.  They never 'grandfathered' the inclusions (it would be impossible to do this).  Same thing happened with the reduction in benefit for a couple who were both Black Card members from each getting a complimentary meal for 2 in the speciality restaurants to only one person of the 2 getting the benefit ... despite the fact that people had booked before the change, they still experienced the loss of benefit.

 

The change in the drinks packages is a different matter, altogether!

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