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Celebrity cruiser tries MSC Yacht Club for first time

WonderMan3

By WonderMan3,
in Celebrity Cruises

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WonderMan3

WonderMan3

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Hello all. I know that many of you have enjoyed following my LIVE FROM threads on Celebrity. Just wanted to give a heads up to those who are interested that I am doing a LIVE FROM thread for two MSC cruises over the next couple weeks over in the MSC forum (link below). This will be my first time sailing with MSC and in their Yacht Club and I am eager to see how it compares with Celebrity. Hope you can follow along!

 

 

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WonderMan3

WonderMan3

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2 hours ago, George C said:

Looking forward to your comparison, on celebrity do you book suites? We sail 11/30 on seaside YC

Yes, I have only ever done suites with Celebrity. Started out with Sky Suite but have done Royal and Penthouse a couple times each.

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George C

George C

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1 hour ago, WonderMan3 said:

Yes, I have only ever done suites with Celebrity. Started out with Sky Suite but have done Royal and Penthouse a couple times each.

Thanks we have only done a few celebrity cruises , sky suites and one celebrity suite but have a royal booked , really never that impressed with suites but totally loved luminae and Micheals. Looking forward to your comparison. 

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vulcan1971

vulcan1971

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Adam - thanks for the notification on the X board about your MSC thread. Have enjoyed your past blogs and looking forward to following this one as I am also looking to try out the Yacht Club and see if I would prefer it over the Haven on NCL. Not sure if you have Haven experience, but if you do, please feel free to remark on any comparisons and contrasts.

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WonderMan3

WonderMan3

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Just now, vulcan1971 said:

Adam - thanks for the notification on the X board about your MSC thread. Have enjoyed your past blogs and looking forward to following this one as I am also looking to try out the Yacht Club and see if I would prefer it over the Haven on NCL. Not sure if you have Haven experience, but if you do, please feel free to remark on any comparisons and contrasts.

 

Yes, I stayed in the Haven on Getaway last year so I can definitely compare and contrast.

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Georgia_Peaches "Live from...." Rare

Georgia_Peaches

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Also have my first YC booked in March after spending lots of time in Celebrity’s Suite life and NCL’s Haven. Like Hcat, I had no real interest in switching but between Celebrity’s massive price hikes (and continued cutbacks) and NCL’s abysmal customer service...well, you know the saying...never say never. Will be following on MSC with great interest. 

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willma

willma

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Also will follow with interest. We experienced 21 nights in YC on Preziosa for less than the price of 14 nights in a standard balcony on X (on some trips). 

We were mostly very impressed, but then, we are not used to the suite life on X, which may make a difference.

i have also sailed ‘in the back’ on MSC, and would hesitate to do so again.

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

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We have actually done it in place of a normal Celebrity cruise.  For many years we have booked a Celebrity Caribbean cruise (up to 3 weeks long) between the US Thanksgiving and Xmas.  But 3 years ago we started to get fed-up with all the cut-backs on X, so decided to book a 21 day Yacht Club cruise on the Divina....instead of going on Celebrity.  We did this last Nov-Dec.  Suffice it to say that before we finished our 21 days on the Divina we had booked another Divina cruise as well as a Seaside cruise.  To put it mildly, we were blown away by our Yacht Club experience and are looking forward to the future cruises.  We do a lot of other cruising (were recently on the Summit) but MSC has replaced Celebrity for our future Caribbean cruises.  

 

That being said, we would be a little more reluctant to book MSC in Europe (even in the Yacht Club) since it is somewhat of a different product.  MSC European cruises are more like ferries in that they embark/disembark passengers at nearly every port.  You will also get a very high percentage of Europeans, many more smokers, and lots of passengers who do not speak English.  Even in the Caribbean a majority of our YC shipmates were Europeans,  but we really enjoyed these folks...most of whom spoke some English or were fluent.  

 

We are very "high" on MSC's Yacht Club and see it as a terrific alternative to the typical US-based cruise lines (we have been on just about all those lines).  MSC's Yacht Club has proven so popular that the company is in the process of building 4 new smaller vessels (about 65,000 tons) which will be entirely Yacht Club quality.  The first of these vessels should be sailing in 2023 and we suspect it will be comparable to lines like Viking and Seabourn.

 

Hank

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WonderMan3

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8 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have actually done it in place of a normal Celebrity cruise.  For many years we have booked a Celebrity Caribbean cruise (up to 3 weeks long) between the US Thanksgiving and Xmas.  But 3 years ago we started to get fed-up with all the cut-backs on X, so decided to book a 21 day Yacht Club cruise on the Divina....instead of going on Celebrity.  We did this last Nov-Dec.  Suffice it to say that before we finished our 21 days on the Divina we had booked another Divina cruise as well as a Seaside cruise.  To put it mildly, we were blown away by our Yacht Club experience and are looking forward to the future cruises.  We do a lot of other cruising (were recently on the Summit) but MSC has replaced Celebrity for our future Caribbean cruises.  

 

That being said, we would be a little more reluctant to book MSC in Europe (even in the Yacht Club) since it is somewhat of a different product.  MSC European cruises are more like ferries in that they embark/disembark passengers at nearly every port.  You will also get a very high percentage of Europeans, many more smokers, and lots of passengers who do not speak English.  Even in the Caribbean a majority of our YC shipmates were Europeans,  but we really enjoyed these folks...most of whom spoke some English or were fluent.  

 

We are very "high" on MSC's Yacht Club and see it as a terrific alternative to the typical US-based cruise lines (we have been on just about all those lines).  MSC's Yacht Club has proven so popular that the company is in the process of building 4 new smaller vessels (about 65,000 tons) which will be entirely Yacht Club quality.  The first of these vessels should be sailing in 2023 and we suspect it will be comparable to lines like Viking and Seabourn.

 

Hank

 

We’re kind of the same. Since 2013 we have been doing a Celebrity Caribbean cruise each January but 2020 will be the first time we’re not doing one. We had a Celebrity Suite booked on Equinox for two 7 night cruises back-to-back but we wound up cancelling as we just could not rationalize the cost even with discounts from Blue Chip. I mean, we are sailing for 14 days in Europe in MSC Yacht Club cheaper than one week in that Celebrity Suite on Equinox in the Caribbean. 

 

I do have expectations set appropriately for these European cruises. When the two of us are not traveling with family or friends we tend to keep to ourselves anyway, so the “culture clash” probably won’t faze us. We did decide to try out MSC Caribbean though. Just booked Seaside for a 7 nighter in May the other day. Will be interesting to compare the two MSC experiences.

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Vita-Sea

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20 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Hello all. I know that many of you have enjoyed following my LIVE FROM threads on Celebrity. Just wanted to give a heads up to those who are interested that I am doing a LIVE FROM thread for two MSC cruises over the next couple weeks over in the MSC forum (link below). This will be my first time sailing with MSC and in their Yacht Club and I am eager to see how it compares with Celebrity. Hope you can follow along!

 

My first post on CC, and it's just to tell you i'm heading over to the MCS forum to follow your journey hahaha.  Done MSC twice and loved it, albeit not in suites. We do however have our first suite with X in April on Apex. looking forward to reading your posts. 

 

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

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6 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

We’re kind of the same. Since 2013 we have been doing a Celebrity Caribbean cruise each January but 2020 will be the first time we’re not doing one. We had a Celebrity Suite booked on Equinox for two 7 night cruises back-to-back but we wound up cancelling as we just could not rationalize the cost even with discounts from Blue Chip. I mean, we are sailing for 14 days in Europe in MSC Yacht Club cheaper than one week in that Celebrity Suite on Equinox in the Caribbean. 

 

I do have expectations set appropriately for these European cruises. When the two of us are not traveling with family or friends we tend to keep to ourselves anyway, so the “culture clash” probably won’t faze us. We did decide to try out MSC Caribbean though. Just booked Seaside for a 7 nighter in May the other day. Will be interesting to compare the two MSC experiences.

We look forward to hearing about your cruise :).  The YC is a completely difference experience then we have ever had on any cruise line or ship (and we have been on more then 75 ships of 16 cruise lines).   It is truly a ship within a ship.  Inside the YC we felt like Royalty and it was difficult to find any fault other then the cuisine (which could be improved).  But step out of the YC enclave (it is protected from the remainder of the ship by electronic doors only opened if you have a YC card) and you are in an atmosphere somewhere between RCI and Carnival.  As soon as you tire of all that hubbub you simply walk back to the YC and its entering a different world.   Unlike the suite experience on most lines the YC has its own private sun deck, pool, expansive lounge (with nightly entertainment), restaurant, pool area buffet, bar, etc.  Service on the Divina was amazing (inside the YC).  Whenever we went into the special lounge a waiter would follow us to our seat so he could quickly take our drink order.  About the only thing missing is caviar (you have to go on Seabourn for that).

 

Hank

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wendychloecruiser

wendychloecruiser

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28 minutes ago, hulamoon said:

I am looking forward to the comparisons. Is there smoking indoors or in the Yacht Club?

 

There is smoking permitted on one side of the pool deck and in the casino on Preziosa.  I don’t know about YC.  

 

My preziosa review is on the RCI forum.

Edited by wendychloecruiser
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