Meraviglia New York-Canada-Miami Oct/Nov '19

[Beamafar]

1 hour ago, hamrag said:

It's got to be the 'Irish' influence onboard! 🤣

 

I very much doubt that ... DH and I appear to be the only Irish in the YC, and we've never excerted any influence anywhere, ever. 🙄 😁

[Beamafar]

2 hours ago, marcoigna said:

 

Hi Bea -  would u happen to know where Arthur is working on ship - I understood he was promoted to head waiter.  Would love to say high to him for sure.  Met him on seaside on our 2 week cruise last year.  Super funny , but also super professional 

Arthur is stationed in Waves at dinnertime.  Other times he could be anywhere.

[cruisingnewtoit]

2 hours ago, Beamafar said:

I managed to upgrade before sailing.  I emailed bookingmanagement@msccruises.co.uk.   At first, I was quoted a price that was the cost to go from the 'Easy' package to Prem+.  I replied saying that wasn't right as the cost should be from Premium, which is the YC package, to the Plus one.  It was another MSC rep that responded with a lecture on how there is no dedicated drinks package in YC blah blah blah (I've discussed this in my "What drinks package IS included in YC?").

 

Anyway ... after all that, I was quoted a price of €14 pppd to upgrade.

 

It was very shortly after that that people began to report on here that MSC UK was not facilitating the upgrade.

I'm from the US. I'll try & report back what happens.

 

[jimbri]

3 hours ago, marcoigna said:

 

Hi Bea -  would u happen to know where Arthur is working on ship - I understood he was promoted to head waiter.  Would love to say high to him for sure.  Met him on seaside on our 2 week cruise last year.  Super funny , but also super professional 

Good morning.  Hope you don't mind me answering.  Arthur was in Waves at dinnertime last week.  We also saw him during lunch one day at the Panorama.  

[jimbri]

3 hours ago, marcoigna said:

 

Hi Bea -  would u happen to know where Arthur is working on ship - I understood he was promoted to head waiter.  Would love to say high to him for sure.  Met him on seaside on our 2 week cruise last year.  Super funny , but also super professional 

Good morning.  Hope you don't mind me answering.  Arthur was in Waves at dinnertime last week.  We also saw him during lunch one day at the Panorama.   

 

Sorry posted twice for some reason.

Edited October 24, 2019 by jimbri

[marcoigna]

1 hour ago, cruisingnewtoit said:

I'm from the US. I'll try & report back what happens.

 

 

its is very easy for the U.S. - that is where we did it from  17.00/day/person...no issue...as long as you get the correct agent that is...

[Beamafar]

So ... we are now one week onboard and I can honestly say that we would have no hesitation in booking a YIN again!

 

Today's lunch menu 

 

 

 

[Mattnvick]

26 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

So ... we are now one week onboard and I can honestly say that we would have no hesitation in booking a YIN again!

 

Today's lunch menu 

 

 

 

Not sure i'd be enticed by"grey" shallots........😏  shame as the rest of that dish sounded pretty good. 

[Beamafar]

🤣🤣  I didn't see that!

My plate

 

 

DH's plate

 

 

 

[LMM01]

3 hours ago, marcoigna said:

 

its is very easy for the U.S. - that is where we did it from  17.00/day/person...no issue...as long as you get the correct agent that is...

Who did you contact, marcoigna?  We are Aurea, so Easy drink package included and interested in Premium so we could have more beer choices.  We are from the US.  Thanks!

Edited October 24, 2019 by LMM01

[marcoigna]

2 minutes ago, LMM01 said:

Who did you contact, marcoigna?  We are Aurea, so Easy drink package included and interested in Premium so we could have more beer choices.  We are from the US.  Thanks!

good day.If you booked with the travel agent you will need to contact the travel agent to contact MSC directly. If you book directly with MSC you can certainly just give MSC Cruises USA a call and ask either for excursions or through reservations and they should be able to upgrade the package for you and pay for it directly.  The upgrade showed immediately on my MSC for Me app and also when I got a new set of eTicket sent to me there was a voucher there for the upgrade as well.  Hope this helps 

[LMM01]

Just now, marcoigna said:

good day.If you booked with the travel agent you will need to contact the travel agent to contact MSC directly. If you book directly with MSC you can certainly just give MSC Cruises USA a call and ask either for excursions or through reservations and they should be able to upgrade the package for you and pay for it directly.  The upgrade showed immediately on my MSC for Me app and also when I got a new set of eTicket sent to me there was a voucher there for the upgrade as well.  Hope this helps 

Thank you!  I did book with a TA, so I will ask her to find out from MSC.  

[Mattnvick]

1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

🤣🤣  I didn't see that!

My plate

 

 

DH's plate

 

 

 

 

Curried chicken with pineapple, raisins and mixed greens.

 

Hey what's  a purple leaf between friends. Looks great and im sure tasted even better.

 

 Also was that really Ranch cause here in Canada ours would be white in colour and that colour would be French. Ordering a starter is like a mine field with translation. 😱

 

However that aside i still love MSC and their food. I miss Seaside and am looking fwd to May. 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Mattnvick

[Beamafar]

Tonight is Elegant night, the one I call Captain's night, where he spends the evening meeting guests onboard.

 

Tonight's menu

 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Beamafar

[Beamafar]

Sorry ... didn't get a chance to upload the rest of our lunch choices earlier

 

 

 

This last one was as bad as it looks.

[hamrag]

17 hours ago, Beamafar said:

So ... we are now one week onboard and I can honestly say that we would have no hesitation in booking a YIN again!

 

 

 

So pleased to read that, reflects my own opinion certainly for Mera! 😂

[Beamafar]

Before I share what I had for dinner last night, I have to explain how it came about.

A couple of days after we embarked I had a chance to check out the MDR lunch menu (unfortunately they don't post them outside the MDRs which is why I haven't managed to photo them and post them for non-YCers - sorry).

Anyway  ... I saw that fishn'chips was on, one of my very favourite lunch items, so we headed back to the YC restaurant to see if it was on there and, if not, we'd go back down to have it in the MDR.

 

Well, it wasn't on, but Luis (YC manager) said he would get it for us - which he did.  He them told me to give him one day's notice if I ever want anything specific, including the fishn'chips.

 

We came back from an excursion one day to find that we had missed it as it was on the YC menu that day.

 

Then, yesterday morning, Luis asked me at breakfast why was I not ordering fishn'chips 🙄  then said "I can have it for you for tonight".  So ... I was getting it (for Elegant night dinner lol) whether I wanted it or not.  🤣  Fine by me ... I often have to go off-menu on Elegant night anyway.  Well the chef used the best, freshest fish and it was to die for! 😁

 

Of course, as per usual, there were no appetizers I would eat; I spied that there was stir-fried veg included in the Vegetarian option, so I asked if rice was an always available item.  I was told Yes so I ordered stir-fried veg & rice.  Turns out it wasn't so we had quite a wait for my starter as they had to source the rice elsewhere.  It was worth waiting for (and we weren't in any hurry as we had no plans for the evening).  Now you will inderstand some of the following 

 

 

 

DH had the following and had a second helping of the mussels marinara

 

 

 

The cheesecake had more of a texture of mousse, but was delicious, nonetheless.  Luis assured me that it was, in fact, cheescake

 

 

[Captain-John]

Glad the fish n' chips were good, Bea. You didn't like the look of ours when we posted a photo from Mera so glad the standard has been restored! 😛

 

I noticed a few MDR dishes that looked better than YC offerings at times, but I talked myself out of ordering them because of the belief I was paying for a higher quality in the YC so why should I save MSC money by ordering a 'cheaper' dish! Silly I know as I probably would have enjoyed the particular MDR dish more.

 

Seems all is going well, and glad it is for you & DH - especially after your Seaview cruise.

[Beamafar]

Thanks so much, Cap'n.  We're having an amazing time.  Never experienced such a friendly atmosphere in YC before.  All along the line of 2-top tables at the window at all mealtimes you can see people talking to those next to them.

 

There is more of a gap between the tables than on Seaview (where you might as well be sharing a table, they're so close together🙄).

 

I finally got to meet Lifeasme and her lovely family yesterday and we're planning to dine together tonight in one of the Speciality Restaurants.

 

There certainly are some issues around spotty service - especially with regards to wine being topped up, extra water being provided and it can niggle a bit.  But, overall, the crew are doing their best and Luis is definitely one of the best YC restaurant managers/asst m'Ds we've ever had.

[hamrag]

2 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

.....Never experienced such a friendly atmosphere in YC before.....

It's the Irish influence! 😉

[LMM01]

On 10/21/2019 at 3:09 PM, CruisingFox27 said:

 

Clothes for the Caribbean are still in one case under the bed and I've used magnetic hooks to hang dresses in front of the tv. We've found it very manageable.

 

Do you recall what size hooks you have?  Anyone who uses magnetic hooks, what size/weight do you recommend? 25lbs, 55lbs, more?  I am going to order some from Amazon, next day delivery since we leave Monday! Haha!  I am feeling a bit behind...

[marcoigna]

Officially on Vacation 😘😘😘😘

 

 

[Zephyr173]

4 hours ago, LMM01 said:

 

Do you recall what size hooks you have?  Anyone who uses magnetic hooks, what size/weight do you recommend? 25lbs, 55lbs, more?  I am going to order some from Amazon, next day delivery since we leave Monday! Haha!  I am feeling a bit behind...

55 lbs?  Are you planning on hunting down some wildlife and curing meat quarters in your cabin?

 

Magnetic hooks cannot hold as much weight as sticky ones.  Command Hooks are stick-ons that are easily removable.  You can also use them as a handle on some cabinets (e.g. Fantastica closet doors on MSC Sinfonia, or Aurea on MSC Divina).  I have also found that few cabin walls are magnetic in cabins 16023 on MSC Divina or MSC Presioza (YC1 suites), so that makes sticky hooks our favourite for clothes.

 

If you want to hang some clothes and entertain any hope of drying, at most 5 lbs hooks - and that's if you plan on stretching a string between them and hanging lots of clothes, will more than suffice.  Hanging clothes on 2x 5lbs hooks, you are talking about a capacity for 10-15 feet of clothesline (but then, I'm not an engineer).  Where would you place that?

 

You can't get much air moving around your clothes using Command Hooks, as they are short and close to the wall.  I have installed some in corners ( of the shower, for example) but can't really get more than 3-5 feet of hanging length.  With that span, I use 2 pound hooks (2x 2lbs carries easily a 5 foot line of clothes).

 

I also line up a few hooks 2 by 2 for clothes with  shoulder straps, such as bras or cycling bibs. 2x2, then 3 or 4 high in the bathroom.  Leave the door open when possible for air to move.  For this, I use the small 1/2 lb hooks.  You can jam the door open with the bathroom carpet and explain to your attendant the reason for doing so.

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Zephyr173

[marcoigna]

Luggage ready to go - for the 2 of us. 
Kudos to the wheel-aboard people 😘😘

 

 

[Beamafar]

Apparently what I'd posted weren't Voyagers Club gifts at all.  Here's what was provided (confirmed this time by other Black card members onboard)😱