My View: 14 Days of Chasing the Sun on Seaside

[travelbug!17]

On 6/1/2019 at 3:36 PM, APDMOM said:

Timeline:

 

9:20 Left hotel in Fort Lauderdale

10:10  Arrived at the port and parked in Garage G

10:20 Waiting for security to open

10:33-ish Security started scanning and letting us through

11:00 Sitting and sipping pineapple juice in the boarding area

11:30 Boarded and looking for Marketplace Buffet

 

Tip:

We always take a picture of our luggage in case something gets lost.

 

Driving to port and a first glimpse of our ship:

 

Through the tunnel!  (I am like a kid that way...)

 

 

 

Tip:

Black Card: When you get to the boarding area, you do not need a number.  You can do priority boarding.

 

 

Status Match:

We applied for the status match online, as we are all diamond on Royal.  Mine went through without a glitch, and I got the black card. For some reason, my husband, who is also diamond on Royal, got matched as “gold card”... Not sure what that is about. We will try to figure it out onboard.

 

how do you get the "Black Card"?

[travelbug!17]

On 6/2/2019 at 11:25 PM, APDMOM said:

Drink of the Day:

During the afternoon, we tried the drink of the day:  Frozen Toblerone (Good, but too sweet for my taste):

 

After lunch, we were welcomed to our room with free “champagne”, chocolate covered strawberries, and our chocolate ship awaiting us.

 

 

 

I visited the Thermal Spa for the first time today, as I have the pass. I purchased this cruise pass in advance after seeing a vlog about it.  The verdict is still out on whether I will find it worthwhile, as it is quite a learning curve to figure out all the different steam rooms, saunas, showers, salt room, snow room, etc. I will report back with my view on this area at the end of our cruise.

 

Dinner:

Tonight was Elegant night.  We decided not to dress up this cruise, so we just ate at the Marketplace buffet.  Again, there were great options, including very good roasted chicken and delicious lobster bisque soup.

Do you pay by the day for the Spa pass or it the price for the whole duration of the cruise?

[George C]

Thanks for another of your great reviews , we sail on her end of November but in yacht club, hope we run into you and your family again on another cruise. Will recommend this review to our roll call. 

[APDMOM]

7 hours ago, travelbug!17 said:

how do you get the "Black Card"?

@travelbug!17 There are two ways:  One is to cruise with MSC until you build up enough points to earn the black card status.  The other is to status match with your current status on another cruise line.  We are diamond on Royal Caribbean and therefore did the status match.  We get to keep the black card status as long as we sail at least once every three years on MSC.  We already have 5 more weeks booked on MSC 🙂

[APDMOM]

6 hours ago, travelbug!17 said:

Do you pay by the day for the Spa pass or it the price for the whole duration of the cruise?

You can pay per day if you want to only use it once or twice.  However, for our cruise it was worth buying the spa pass in advance - then you can use it as much as you want to.  

[APDMOM]

5 hours ago, George C said:

Thanks for another of your great reviews , we sail on her end of November but in yacht club, hope we run into you and your family again on another cruise. Will recommend this review to our roll call. 

Hi, George!  Thanks for sharing the review.  We are now also booked in December on Meraviglia!  Looking forward to seeing how Meraviglia compares with Seaside.  Also looking forward to seeing how Ocean Cay turns out.  (Although I guess it will be a work-in-progress).  Hope we share a wake-view again too!  That was still one of our favorite cruises with the best of the best CC members 🙂 Enjoy planning your Seaside experience!  

[jdvmd]

This is possibly one of the best reviews I have ever read on Cruise Critic! Thanks so much!

Question: On the Divina two years ago, they had a wine blending event where you could blend your own wine and then order bottles of it while you were onboard and those were delivered to your room. You could enjoy in the dining room, anywhere onboard without a corkage fee. Do you remember if you saw anything like this offered?

[APDMOM]

On 8/28/2019 at 5:40 PM, jdvmd said:

This is possibly one of the best reviews I have ever read on Cruise Critic! Thanks so much!

Question: On the Divina two years ago, they had a wine blending event where you could blend your own wine and then order bottles of it while you were onboard and those were delivered to your room. You could enjoy in the dining room, anywhere onboard without a corkage fee. Do you remember if you saw anything like this offered?

Thank you for reading along! 🙂

 

I do not remember anything like the wine blending, but it sounds interesting!

 

 

[jdvmd]

10 minutes ago, APDMOM said:

Thank you for reading along! 🙂

 

I do not remember anything like the wine blending, but it sounds interesting!

 

 

Thanks for the update. It was a really cool program - you paid $35 a person to blend your own wine, tasting each varietal, and that got you a bottle of wine to drink. You could also order additional bottles at a discounted rate.

[mitsugirly]

On 6/3/2019 at 8:47 PM, APDMOM said:

  DH and DS enjoyed a few of the slides with very short lines.  By the way, if you want to use the slides, you need to sign a waiver.  The best time to do this is right after you embark, or at least within a few hours after you embark.  That way you can get your wrist band for the week.  DS is showing the slide wrist band, as well as the wrist band that stands in for your key card:

 

 

 

So you have to wear a wristband all week in order to ride the water slides?

 

 

On 6/2/2019 at 11:20 PM, APDMOM said:

Activating your Cruise Card (Associating your Credit Card):

This was new to us.  On MSC, you associate a credit card with your account only after you board.  You have 48 hours to do this, and there are these handy kiosks around the atrium to walk you through the process.  It is very easy - just follow the onscreen directions.  You can even associate accounts from other cabins with your credit card by using the kiosk.

 

Tip:  There is no need to stand in line for this process.  There were 3 kiosks available when we did it today, while it was quite busy yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is very odd to me. Is there a way to associate your card with your account maybe online with your booking prior to arrival?

 

What happens if you don't make it or remember to do this after 48 hours? Does it become a cash account? Or does your card just not work for charges or something?

 

On 6/3/2019 at 9:18 PM, APDMOM said:

Something we LOVE: Tip:

We found out last night that iMessage works on the ship with the free wifi.  So, if you have iPhones on the ship, you can communicate with each other using messenger.  I don’t know if it works for other phones.  We only have the two iPhones.  It was nice to be able to communicate with DH while we went our separate ways during the day.

 

 

 

Do you have to buy an internet package to get this iMessage and free wifi? When you say you used messenger, are you talking about text or like fb messenger?

 

On 6/4/2019 at 10:09 AM, APDMOM said:

Show: My Life in Music - Excellent!

So, MSC Seaside is where all the singing talent has been hiding out all this time.  33 cruises, and we found the best singing talent on this ship!  The show tonight was absolutely incredible.  The trio of male singers was phenomenal.  The two ladies are good too, but just not in the same category as the men.  I could elaborate, but realize I grew up with a music background and would totally bore this CC audience with technicalities.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was amazed that you had pictures of every show you attended. Do they allow pictures during shows? I have never been on a ship that allowed this before.

 

 

On 6/6/2019 at 10:03 PM, APDMOM said:

Jungle Pool Lounge:

This is really the only pool we have used this week.  We love that it has plenty of shade for those of us who try to avoid the sun. It has a retracting roof, which is usually open during the day.  It also has a variety of seating options, from loungers, to chairs, to these jungle themed seats.  The table tennis is enclosed here, so you can’t blame the wind for the ball flying out of bounds (bummer!). There is also a couple of foosball tables.

 

Pool with roof closed:

 

 

 

 

 

I have read there are 4 pools on the ship. Are all of them family friendly or are some adult only pools?

 

 

On 6/6/2019 at 10:13 PM, APDMOM said:

Bowling alley and Arcade:

 

 

 

 

 

I assume you have to pay extra for bowling but could not read what your pictures said as far as price. Do you happen to know the pricing? Is it per game or per person?

 

On 6/7/2019 at 7:55 AM, JoeFo44 said:

You have to do the status match on their website.  You can only do it once.

 

 

Can you tell me more about this status matching? Do they match from any other cruise line or just with RC?

 

On 6/8/2019 at 12:59 PM, APDMOM said:

Zipline:

 DS was still not convinced, but Abel took it a step further to offer us a “buy one, get one free” pass.  He gave DS the free pass right away, trusting that we would purchase another pass. 

 

 

 

 

So you have to pay for the zip line??? If so, how does this work? You pay per zip or a pass for all week?

 

 

On 6/12/2019 at 1:05 PM, APDMOM said:

It is all one lens on the superzoom Nikon Coolpix P900.  That is what I LOVE about the camera - no exchange of lenses needed, as it is not a DSLR.  It has 83x optical zoom.  4.3-357 mm 😮  I am buying the exact camera again and giving this one (with a few nicks) to my sister in a week! Best Buy has it on sale for $100 off at the moment. 

 

 

That Coolpix P900 takes some amazing zoom pictures...especially of the moon. WOW! I have always used my Olympus Tough camera for my reviews and it does an amazing job but the zoom is the only drawback. If you zoom, the pictures become blurred and it's just easier to take a picture and crop if you want a close up. I'd love to have one that you can actually zoom....especially to the moon!  Is it waterproof?

 

 

On 6/16/2019 at 2:26 PM, APDMOM said:

The App - MSC for Me:

 

Tip:  Book Shows Early!  As soon as you can connect to the ship wifi.  You can even do it while you wait to board.  Otherwise, you may be disappointed to see this message:

 

 

So you pretty much HAVE to book the shows if you don't want to wait until 5 minutes early to get in and hope to get a seat?

 

 

Do you also HAVE to book dining? Or do they have a "my time" dining area like other ships as well? Are you assigned one time or the other only?

 

 

On 6/16/2019 at 2:33 PM, APDMOM said:

Marketplace Buffet Drinks:  Self -serve, self-pay (or free if you have certain drink packages):

 

Pay with your card or wrist band at this electronic pad:

 

Free drinks (available 24 hours):

 

 

 

Is the top picture pop/soda? Can you buy just a soda package for the week? Do you know the costs? Do you know if they allow you to bring cans onboard with you?

 

What drinks do they have for free?

 

 

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We have sailed with NCL, RC and Carnival. I have never thought about branching out to another cruiseline, but MSC and this ship has caught my attention. It looks absolutely beautiful and I'm just starting to research it now and came across your review.

 

I appreciate any thoughts/help you might have for me.

 

I absolutely LOVED your review and the pictures! It was a great read and awesome pictures. I'm going to check out the Coolpix and see if it might be a good match for me.

 

Thanks so much!

[shipgeeks]

OP, every time I read your posts I get even more excited about out upcoming cruises on Seaside in January!

[APDMOM]

1 hour ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

So you have to wear a wristband all week in order to ride the water slides?

 

You can either wear it all week, or sign the waver again and get a new one every day you want to use the slides.

 

 

This is very odd to me. Is there a way to associate your card with your account maybe online with your booking prior to arrival?

It is certainly new to any of us who cruise from the USA, yes.  If you don’t associate your credit card, you will be summoned to guest services.  It is actually super easy on the ship.  There was no way for us to do it before we embarked or during online check in.

 

What happens if you don't make it or remember to do this after 48 hours? Does it become a cash account? Or does your card just not work for charges or something?

I am not sure if your card will work, but you will be summoned to guest services. 🙂

 

Do you have to buy an internet package to get this iMessage and free wifi? When you say you used messenger, are you talking about text or like fb messenger?

 

No internet package needed for this.  If you have an iPhone, you just connect to the free wifi (similar to the limited free wifi on RCL), and then you can message from iPhone to iPhone with the messages app (not Facebook).

 

Quote

 

I was amazed that you had pictures of every show you attended. Do they allow pictures during shows? I have never been on a ship that allowed this before.

 

Yes.  They even allow you to take video and flash photography.  I don’t agree with the flash photography as it can interfere with the pleasure of other passengers.  Even iPhone photography can be disruptive.  I use the Nikon with the LCD screen closed, and use the viewfinder to take pictures.... By the way, you are usually allowed to take pictures in most shows on other cruise lines too.  If you listen carefully to the announcements prior to shows, they specify you can not take video or “flash” photography.  You can usually take regular photos without a flash.  🙂Occasionally, they specify that NO photography is allowed.  I always listen carefully to see what they specify.

 

Quote

 

I have read there are 4 pools on the ship. Are all of them family friendly or are some adult only pools?

The pool on deck 7 (aft) is adult only. (South Beach Pool)

 

I assume you have to pay extra for bowling but could not read what your pictures said as far as price. Do you happen to know the pricing? Is it per game or per person?

I will look back and see.  Yes, you pay for a certain amount of time.  I will see if I can find that detail.

 

 

Can you tell me more about this status matching? Do they match from any other cruise line or just with RC?

Any cruise line.  Choose the one with your highest status and go to the website to fill out the status match form.  I sent screen shots of our status on our RCL login, as well as our most recent seapass card with “diamond” noted on it.

 

 

So you have to pay for the zip line??? If so, how does this work? You pay per zip or a pass for all week?

 

You buy a token for the zipline. You go to the same place at the end of the slide where you sign the waiver for the slides, and buy the token from the same activities attendant.  It was cheaper to zipline at the start of the week.  The price went up at the end of the week.

 

 

That Coolpix P900 takes some amazing zoom pictures...especially of the moon. WOW! I have always used my Olympus Tough camera for my reviews and it does an amazing job but the zoom is the only drawback. If you zoom, the pictures become blurred and it's just easier to take a picture and crop if you want a close up. I'd love to have one that you can actually zoom....especially to the moon!  Is it waterproof?

 

Thank you!  I love my camera!  No, the P900 is not waterproof, and more bulky than most cameras.  It is much lighter to travel with than an SLR though! 🙂

 

Quote

 

So you pretty much HAVE to book the shows if you don't want to wait until 5 minutes early to get in and hope to get a seat?

For the Michael Jackson show, you definitely need reservations.  It filled up completely.  For the others, you can wait, but know that there is not a guarantee you will get a seat.  I actually like this aspect about MSC.  The theater is smaller, and they run the show 3 or 4 times per night.  The shows are also shorter, and I hardly ever saw people walk out of the shows (except the opera show).

 

Do you also HAVE to book dining? Or do they have a "my time" dining area like other ships as well? Are you assigned one time or the other only?

I am not sure about this, as we got assigned dining.  I do know that dining requests are handled by your booking level.  So, if you book the lowly Bella level (like we did), you don’t get priority.  Fortunately, we got early dining, which is what we love.

 

Is the top picture pop/soda? Can you buy just a soda package for the week? Do you know the costs? Do you know if they allow you to bring cans onboard with you?

You can bring no drinks onboard - not even a bottle of wine like other cruise lines allow.  You can buy drinks packages, yes.  Prices vary by sailing and ship. I will look up what our upcoming two cruises list them as, and get back to you.

 

What drinks do they have for free?

 

Juice (breakfast), coffee, many kinds of tea, milk, chocolate milk, lemonade, water (just ask for the free water at dinner). 

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We have sailed with NCL, RC and Carnival. I have never thought about branching out to another cruiseline, but MSC and this ship has caught my attention. It looks absolutely beautiful and I'm just starting to research it now and came across your review.

 

I appreciate any thoughts/help you might have for me.

 

I absolutely LOVED your review and the pictures! It was a great read and awesome pictures. I'm going to check out the Coolpix and see if it might be a good match for me.

 

Thanks so much!

Thank you for reading along!  I have always enjoyed your reviews and pictures too!  Hope this helps you.  Just go with a different mindset, knowing that MSC is similar in many ways, but unique in other ways... kind of European 🙂  There are add on costs, for sure, but the price was cheaper than most of our prior cruises.  So, the little bit extra for the zipline did not bother us at all!  We still came out way ahead!

Edited September 1, 2019 by APDMOM
clarify

[APDMOM]

Meraviglia Packages for December: (7- night cruise)

 

I do recall people stating that the gratuity is charged per drink on the ship, not in advance like on RCL.  We had the Easy package as part of our booking special and we never had to pay a gratuity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Packages for 14 nights on Seaside (June 2020):

 

 

 

 

For certain activities, you can purchase the fun pass in advance for some savings:

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

@mitsugirly

 

Bowling is $30 for 30 minutes and $45 for one hour for a lane.  You pay an additional $2 per person for shoe rental.  So, you pay to use the lane for a specific amount of time, regardless of the number of players. 🙂

[jdvmd]

4 minutes ago, APDMOM said:

@mitsugirly

 

Bowling is $30 for 30 minutes and $45 for one hour for a lane.  You pay an additional $2 per person for shoe rental.  So, you pay to use the lane for a specific amount of time, regardless of the number of players. 🙂

Wow. That is expensive. On the Divina, less than two years ago, it was $5 a person, per game. That $100 package doesn't sound that bad now.

Question: Can you only get the wristband/key thing at Guest Services? I'm assuming you cannot get ahead of time and then activate on the ship, right? Those are $5?

[mitsugirly]

2 hours ago, APDMOM said:

 

 

 

Thank you for reading along!  I have always enjoyed your reviews and pictures too!  Hope this helps you.  Just go with a different mindset, knowing that MSC is similar in many ways, but unique in other ways... kind of European 🙂  There are add on costs, for sure, but the price was cheaper than most of our prior cruises.  So, the little bit extra for the zipline did not bother us at all!  We still came out way ahead!

 

 

Thanks for answering all of my questions.

 

So far, for the dates I have looked at, they are pretty much in line with the other cruise ships that we sailed during those dates. So, not sure if all these add on's (that are normally included with other cruiselines) would make it worth it. I'll have to keep checking.

 

 

2 hours ago, APDMOM said:

@mitsugirly

 

Bowling is $30 for 30 minutes and $45 for one hour for a lane.  You pay an additional $2 per person for shoe rental.  So, you pay to use the lane for a specific amount of time, regardless of the number of players. 🙂

 

That is pretty expensive! We just played on the Breakaway (although it had the mini bowling) and it was $6.19 a game pp (or something like that). The only other ship we've been on that had a full sized bowling alley was the NCL Pearl (I think) and it was $5 a game pp back then (but could have changed by now). But, at least you weren't limited to a time and would be able to finish your game.

 

2 hours ago, jdvmd said:

Wow. That is expensive. On the Divina, less than two years ago, it was $5 a person, per game. That $100 package doesn't sound that bad now.

Question: Can you only get the wristband/key thing at Guest Services? I'm assuming you cannot get ahead of time and then activate on the ship, right? Those are $5?

 

I agree, pretty expensive for a game and having a time limit. :( 

 

The $100 package doesn't sound bad to me either.

 

One thing I'm not understanding is it says it can only be associated to one passenger, but it can be used by all members of the family. So that would mean only 1 family member could use it at once? That means you wouldn't be able to ride (for instance the zip line) together or see a movie together (if this ship has it) and so on. That wouldn't work out too good.

[jdvmd]

3 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

Thanks for answering all of my questions.

 

So far, for the dates I have looked at, they are pretty much in line with the other cruise ships that we sailed during those dates. So, not sure if all these add on's (that are normally included with other cruiselines) would make it worth it. I'll have to keep checking.

 

 

 

That is pretty expensive! We just played on the Breakaway (although it had the mini bowling) and it was $6.19 a game pp (or something like that). The only other ship we've been on that had a full sized bowling alley was the NCL Pearl (I think) and it was $5 a game pp back then (but could have changed by now). But, at least you weren't limited to a time and would be able to finish your game.

 

 

I agree, pretty expensive for a game and having a time limit. 😞

 

The $100 package doesn't sound bad to me either.

 

One thing I'm not understanding is it says it can only be associated to one passenger, but it can be used by all members of the family. So that would mean only 1 family member could use it at once? That means you wouldn't be able to ride (for instance the zip line) together or see a movie together (if this ship has it) and so on. That wouldn't work out too good.

The way I took that means you buy the $100 package and it is good for that person, you cannot share. And that other line means that others traveling together can also get the pass and everyone uses their own pass.

Wonder if the $30 or $45 for bowling is the total cost for the lane and not per person other than adding the cost of the shoes. Do you have to rent shoes?

[APDMOM]

2 hours ago, jdvmd said:

Wow. That is expensive. On the Divina, less than two years ago, it was $5 a person, per game. That $100 package doesn't sound that bad now.

Question: Can you only get the wristband/key thing at Guest Services? I'm assuming you cannot get ahead of time and then activate on the ship, right? Those are $5?

Yes, you can only get it at guest services.  We are going to take ours on Meraviglia to see if we can re-use them... Not sure, since Seaside is printed on them and I don’t even know if Meraviglia uses the same system. 🙂  

 

They were $5 each, and we all agreed they are worth every penny.  None of us like wearing a lanyard and it just makes carrying your “key” around so much easier!

[APDMOM]

43 minutes ago, jdvmd said:

The way I took that means you buy the $100 package and it is good for that person, you cannot share. And that other line means that others traveling together can also get the pass and everyone uses their own pass.

Wonder if the $30 or $45 for bowling is the total cost for the lane and not per person other than adding the cost of the shoes. Do you have to rent shoes?

Yes, the $30 is for the lane, not per person.  Also, I just saw a Facebook post that it is $25 for 30 minutes.  So, this varies per sailing/per day too.  One of the workers did tell me to do the zipline early in the week, as it goes up by a dollar or two later in the week.

[china1095]

If you are on a B2B, can you keep the same wristband or require to buy another one when you get back on board 

[APDMOM]

1 minute ago, china1095 said:

If you are on a B2B, can you keep the same wristband or require to buy another one when you get back on board 

We were able to keep the same one for both weeks. 🙂

[jdvmd]

1 minute ago, APDMOM said:

Yes, the $30 is for the lane, not per person.  Also, I just saw a Facebook post that it is $25 for 30 minutes.  So, this varies per sailing/per day too.  One of the workers did tell me to do the zipline early in the week, as it goes up by a dollar or two later in the week.

Thanks. That is better and more doable if you have a group. We have five going on Oct. 12 and may have to do this.

Can you bowl without getting the bowling shoes?

[APDMOM]

1 minute ago, jdvmd said:

Thanks. That is better and more doable if you have a group. We have five going on Oct. 12 and may have to do this.

Can you bowl without getting the bowling shoes?

I don’t know if they make you rent the bowling shoes.  Maybe someone else will comment. 🙂

[Hey Tina]

2 hours ago, APDMOM said:

[...] We are going to take ours on Meraviglia to see if we can re-use them... Not sure, since Seaside is printed on them and I don’t even know if Meraviglia uses the same system.

Please let us know if this is possible. I have mine from Meraviglia and intend to take it on Seaside as well. The way I envisioned it was going to guest services and exchanging it, especially because the muster station is printed on it. AFAIK Royal Caribbean allows you to keep and re-use the band doing just that (exchanging it).