Why choose MSC Yacht Club? Is it worth it?

[zackarykeef]

On 9/5/2022 at 8:49 PM, Kevinbuffalo said:

I sailed YC in may on divina and drank whatever I wanted in the YC top sail lounge and restaurant and never got an additional charge. I was drinking whole bottles of reserve wines (vintage stags leap merlot 2010) and drank Johnny walker blue on the rocks in a pint glass.  All I did was ask for it. 

 

So there is hope 😆 This past May, correct? That's after the beverage package change, so it's nice to hear that they were still allowing that, even though it wasn't technically included!

 

Our first YC, we had the unlimited package where everything was included, and we and some other YC guests drank the ship out of Veuve lol was so disappointed that with that change, NF is the best included (although it's still pretty good).

[disneywackerdh]

On 8/1/2022 at 1:12 PM, 2cruiseluvrs said:

 

BAC513 - Thanks for this comment. As a matter of fact, just this past week I called MSC Customer Service to bring up this very issue. Basically their YC web page "inclusions" section says you get Premium Internet, unlimited for 2 devices. But then you look through the rest of the general website and the only two internet packages offered for sale are "Browse" and the better "Browse and Stream." I asked Customer Service, "So of those two choices, which would you consider to be the PREMIUM -- wouldn't it be the better of the two?" And the gal contacted management to inquire. She got back on the line and told me to print out the screen shots. She told me that the premium was indeed the better "browse and stream" -- and I asked her to send that to me in writing, and she refused, citing a lack of ability to email me. So I asked for names and took these notes, which I will take on my trip along with the printed screenshots.

 

I called and spoke to Casey D., Customer Service on July 27th at 10:30 a.m. and she says her colleagues confirm that the "Premium Package" is the same as the "Browse and Stream Cruise Package", per Jennifer B. in management.

 

I also sent an email to our previous YC Director and encouraged him to pass it along to the powers that be... to help clear up confusion for guests. 

 

THIS IS WHAT THE YACHT CLUB PAGE SHOWS AS A BENEFIT:

 

 

AND THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO INTERNET PACKAGES FOR SALE TO PASSENGERS:

 

 

So, what YC calls Premium and Unlimited in their marketing, should be the better of the two available packages, right?

My description of YC benefits says "Premium Internet package (Browse -2 devices)."  So I believe they have clarified what "Premium" means, and it is just "browse" not "browse and stream".  I'll manage...

Edited September 29, 2022 by disneywackerdh

[BklynBorn47]

We are onthe Meraviglia right now, our 1st MSC.

Thank you for this thread which I will read in detail during our many TA Sea days

We booked this cruise after the 3rd leg of our Windstar trip was canceled  (Black Sea)

Wow, couldn't believe how inexpensive it was!

We have a balcony cabin.(deck 13) with no extra packages beyond basic Internet which works very well.

We are very low maintenance, self reliant, veteran cruisers and wanted the basic experience of this " new to us" cruise line as well as a relaxing way to get home.

So far so good.

 

[2cruiseluvrs]

On 9/29/2022 at 8:32 AM, BklynBorn47 said:

We are onthe Meraviglia right now, our 1st MSC.

Thank you for this thread which I will read in detail during our many TA Sea days

We booked this cruise after the 3rd leg of our Windstar trip was canceled  (Black Sea)

Wow, couldn't believe how inexpensive it was!

We have a balcony cabin.(deck 13) with no extra packages beyond basic Internet which works very well.

We are very low maintenance, self reliant, veteran cruisers and wanted the basic experience of this " new to us" cruise line as well as a relaxing way to get home.

So far so good.

 

 

BklynBorn47 — Having a balcony room is wonderful. You certainly cannot get a balcony in Yacht Club for as reasonable of a price! And since you didn't buy a drink package or Thermal Suite access, it would really be hard to justify the added expense of Yacht Club. Unless of course you have money to burn, in which case, I'd be happy to be your guest next time!!! 🙂 Have a wonderful trip on Meraviglia! 

[nlclhc]

I have a question, I know that a wifi package 'browse 2 devices' is included but is that per person or per cabin? Put it in other words, I am traveling with my wife and two kids, would each of us get a package for 2 devices, only the adults or just one package and we will have to fight to see who gets internet? 😜

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, nlclhc said:

I have a question, I know that a wifi package 'browse 2 devices' is included but is that per person or per cabin? Put it in other words, I am traveling with my wife and two kids, would each of us get a package for 2 devices, only the adults or just one package and we will have to fight to see who gets internet? 😜

Since you are posting in a Yacht club thread, I assume you are in Yacht club.

Each adult gets 2 devices. So a total of 4 for your cabin.

[frank808]

2 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Since you are posting in a Yacht club thread, I assume you are in Yacht club.

Each adult gets 2 devices. So a total of 4 for your cabin.

On Seashore YC this past June/July each person, including my son, got 2 devices each week. Maybe different on other ships?

[nlclhc]

2 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Since you are posting in a Yacht club thread, I assume you are in Yacht club.

Each adult gets 2 devices. So a total of 4 for your cabin.

 

Yes, sorry, I did not specify. We are traveling in YC.

[Seadweller001]

Never realized we had two devices each since we only have an iPad each.  Nice to know if we ever buy a cell phone.

[phissy]

We embark on our cruise in a week on the Divina.

 

Just received email from MSC.

 

It appears they are starting a pre cruise concierge type service .

First time we have received this. Must have been started 2022.

Our last YC cruise was November 2021.

 

You have made an excellent choice in booking a MSC Yacht Club suite, 

and I can’t wait to welcome you on board. 

 

Luxurious accommodation and exclusive services are only the beginning to what awaits you. No request is too great and no detail too small to make your experience a memorable one, starting now.

Please submit attached form with your preferences during your cruise.

mini bar bottle of liquor choice from list

pillow menu

newspaper choice delivered daily.

 

The form only allowed one name and selections .

can I assume we will get another for the other guest in the cabin? 
After all…

We don’t like the same pillows🙄, or……

liquor.😁

 

Customize your experience by choosing your daily newspaper sin. 

Ensure sweet dreams by selecting the perfect pillow to meet your needs for a restful night of sleep. 

Let us know your preferred drink of choice and get ready to say bon voyage!

 

Please let us know your preferences by completing the form below* two days before your departure. 

Edited October 2, 2022 by phissy

[phissy]

Well this morning the second email came with YC preferences for second guest in cabin.

It seems we will end up with 2 bottles of liquor.

I like No1talks suggestion that they had staff sign bottle as their souvenir.

 

[no1talks]

4 minutes ago, phissy said:

I like No1talks suggestion that they had staff sign bottle as their souvenir

Thank you for that, Phissy! Made my day.

[spinnaker2]

From my recent (last 2 weeks) experience onboard, I can tell you we filled out the questionnaire only to get on board and have our butler tell us that it doesn’t work.

We told him our choices. You get a bottle of liquor pp., its the 750 ml size. My husband chose gin, I chose a bottle of wine. It took two days to get the gin. 

One toblerone, one jar of nuts and one tiny can of pringles per week.

After that you will be charged for the minibar snack items.

(not the juices or sodas)

 

i can tell you as well that our butler was virtually and physically absent most of the time. 

The junior butler/room steward did all the work. He was a gem.

We could often hear our butler in the hallways loudly yelling for our room steward! 

 

 

[no1talks]

1 hour ago, spinnaker2 said:

"I can tell you as well that our butler was virtually and physically absent most of the time."

I wouldn't sit still for that.

 

We don't need the butler 24/7 and fully understand our butler is shared, but we do have some requests and expectations.

 

A dodgy butler will necessitate a discrete conversation with YC leadership.

[Oldsweets]

Please don’t take my remarks as an actual complaint just our recent (first time) experience in Yacht Club Seashore.  We arrived at our boarding time of 1030 and had about a 45 minute wait before boarding.  Pleasant and expected experience.  Once aboard the service was good and our Butler was. Visible everyday.  Never saw or knew if we had an assist butler and the room steward did a great job.  The newspaper was not available for a few days as they were having some sort of printing issue and discovered that when I went out to the desk in the afternoon to inquire when we should expect to see the paper.  We order coffee in our cabin almost daily which was fresh, hot, & timely.  In actuality was the only service we successfully utilized our Butler for.    We didn’t attend shows with a Butler escort & the 3 times we attempted to use the escorting off  the ship for Port Stops they had too many yacht club members for the elevators which left us behind so we used the stairs.  We finally joined the escorts on the debarkation floor but found that this was simply not well ran.  We found the same for debarkation on the last morning and for us  process was clearly disappointing.  We have cruised numerous other lines with expedited processes for getting off the ship and all of them including Carnivals were much better operated.  We found that the use your wrist band for expedited elevators didn’t  work at all for us all week nor for any of the Butlers which probably contributed to the debarkation frustrations.  At no point we’re the Butlers able to capture an empty elevator for the 20 or so folks they were attempting to take off the ship and were forced to feed in small numbers of yacht club guests with instructions of what to watch for and do once they got to deck 2.  We ate most of our Breakfast and Lunches on the Yacht club pool deck and found the food here to be very good with plenty of choices.  We also found especially at breakfast that the crew responsible for taking orders for eggs or to cut the mornings meat to be disengaged.  They often kept there backs turned or managed to look right through you.  We often would walk around the line verbally requesting acknowledgement.  At lunch time we didn’t find the same experience and believe the difference was the Person in charge was possibly different at the lunch then at breakfast.  We only ate one dinner meal in the yacht club dining room s we found the menu was too limited in selections for my husbands taste buds and we asked the Butler on numerous occasions for the dinner menu’s and while promised they never materialized.  On the 5th day we asked who the maitre di was as we had  read such good things and hadn’t observed him.  We told our butler we were assuming the maitre de was in quarantine and told no he isn’t and was surprised we hadn’t had an introduction.  That same day at lunch the person cooking a special sample meal on the pool deck stopped us in line and introduced himself with an apology saying that he was the maitre de and he was sorry that he had failed to introduce himself much earlier in the trip.  At no time did anyone attempt to inquire or resolve my husbands concerns about the menu for dinner and we simply elected to eat elsewhere.  Once home we attempted to complete a survey sent to us by MSC but sadly the survey wouldn’t work so we gave up after attempting to complete in on numerous occasions  
I started my comments with as complaint although admittedly they certainly read that way.  We believe part of the problem belongs to us as we are not demanding folks when we cruise and the process just seemed foreign.  We have booked a 2nd yacht club cruise for January and now that we have a better understanding of what to expect we are hopeful that things will improve.  We recognize that in order to maximize our benefit of yacht club we will need to be more aggressive in what we like and don’t like.  

[Best Cat Mom]

13 hours ago, phissy said:

We embark on our cruise in a week on the Divina.

 

Just received email from MSC.

 

It appears they are starting a pre cruise concierge type service

Phissy, we are on that same sailing with you and I received my email today requesting my Yacht Club selections. I recall that type of pre-boarding preparation when we sailed Haven on NCL as well. We would request Bailey's Irish Cream for one of our 3 in-suite bottles so we'd have it accessible each morning to add to our coffee. When last on MSC's YC, we asked our butler for same. He said that they did not have it available in "nip" size but instead put 2 glasses of it (covered with plastic wrap) in the fridge every evening. A bottle might be more convenient at times, but knowing that you can get any alcohol at any time when you're in YC makes the bottle selection nearly unnecessary to us. I guess it helps the butlers, though, since they don't have to bring as many drinks to each cabin. It is a nice new touch to add to the many good reasons to book YC. 🙂

[Best Cat Mom]

9 minutes ago, Oldsweets said:

 Once aboard the service was good and our Butler was. Visible everyday.  Never saw or knew if we had an assist butler and the room steward did a great job.

Oldsweets -- I believe that MSC uses the title 'assistant butler' for room steward. We did not realize that our first time in the YC as well. We were looking for this third person until we figured it out. I hope now that you know more about what to expect and request in YC, your next cruise will be even better. I know that each of our cruises get better and better. And we're always so thankful for all that service that we can't consider anything other than booking in YC again!

[phissy]

28 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

Phissy, we are on that same sailing with you and I received my email today requesting my Yacht Club selections. I recall that type of pre-boarding preparation when we sailed Haven on NCL as well. We would request Bailey's Irish Cream for one of our 3 in-suite bottles so we'd have it accessible each morning to add to our coffee. When last on MSC's YC, we asked our butler for same. He said that they did not have it available in "nip" size but instead put 2 glasses of it (covered with plastic wrap) in the fridge every evening. A bottle might be more convenient at times, but knowing that you can get any alcohol at any time when you're in YC makes the bottle selection nearly unnecessary to us. I guess it helps the butlers, though, since they don't have to bring as many drinks to each cabin. It is a nice new touch to add to the many good reasons to book YC. 🙂

Thanks so much for posting.

This is so helpful as DH asked if Baileys was one of the choices of liquor.

He was so disappointed but, now I have a solution, thanks to you.

We are looking forward to this cruise and will look to se you onboard.

Safe Travels,

Pat

[Best Cat Mom]

32 minutes ago, phissy said:

This is so helpful as DH asked if Baileys was one of the choices of liquor.

I'm happy that this helped! Gotta have Bailey's in the morning coffee else why bother? LOL

 

See you in the Top Sail Lounge and safe travels to both of you as well!

 

J and A

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, Best Cat Mom said:

I believe that MSC uses the title 'assistant butler' for room steward.

 

That is correct.  I like the idea of pre-ordering some of the amenities of YC.  What is being requested is what I remember being asked to do on embarkation day.  One less thing to do on that busy day.  If, the new process works.  

[no1talks]

14 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

"If, the new process works."

This new system will certainly save MSC time, allowing staff to add the specifics for the next YC guests to the list of between-cruise room prep.

 

A potential unintended consequence is "disengaged" butlers becoming even more invisible at the start of a cruise, since the guest checklist is already covered.

[Shippy]

6 hours ago, Best Cat Mom said:

I'm happy that this helped! Gotta have Bailey's in the morning coffee else why bother? LOL

 

See you in the Top Sail Lounge and safe travels to both of you as well!

 

J and A

    I am a total insomniac & always have a drink in the middle of the night. I know this sounds odd but I  tried it on a tour of the Tortuga Rum Factory in the Cayman Islands & was hooked.

Flavored rum & milk....Have a glass of milk delivered with my morning coffee & leave it in the fridge.

At the beginning of the trip, I went to the Yacht Club lounge & asked for a glass full of Malibu Rum, no ice just a big glass of the rum !

Put it in the cupboard for the duration of the trip       :O)

 

[mscdivina2016]

24 minutes ago, Shippy said:

    I am a total insomniac & always have a drink in the middle of the night. I know this sounds odd but I  tried it on a tour of the Tortuga Rum Factory in the Cayman Islands & was hooked.

Flavored rum & milk....Have a glass of milk delivered with my morning coffee & leave it in the fridge.

At the beginning of the trip, I went to the Yacht Club lounge & asked for a glass full of Malibu Rum, no ice just a big glass of the rum !

Put it in the cupboard for the duration of the trip       :O)

 

Us too. We actually call the butler at 2am or later as it's 24 hour service. Yeah right.

[Two Wheels Only]

9 hours ago, Oldsweets said:

We found that the use your wrist band for expedited elevators didn’t  work at all for us all week nor for any of the Butlers which probably contributed to the debarkation frustrations.

 

When I was on Seashore, the Priority Elevator feature wasn't active. I've used it on other ships but it didn't happen on Seashore. Even when it works, it isn't always better than standard elevator service (Meraviglia). On Seaside, certain elevators worked better than others. 

 

Consistent inconsistency....MSC. 😉 

[BklynBorn47]

14 hours ago, Oldsweets said:

Please don’t take my remarks as an actual complaint just our recent (first time) experience in Yacht Club Seashore.  We arrived at our boarding time of 1030 and had about a 45 minute wait before boarding.  Pleasant and expected experience.  Once aboard the service was good and our Butler was. Visible everyday.  Never saw or knew if we had an assist butler and the room steward did a great job.  The newspaper was not available for a few days as they were having some sort of printing issue and discovered that when I went out to the desk in the afternoon to inquire when we should expect to see the paper.  We order coffee in our cabin almost daily which was fresh, hot, & timely.  In actuality was the only service we successfully utilized our Butler for.    We didn’t attend shows with a Butler escort & the 3 times we attempted to use the escorting off  the ship for Port Stops they had too many yacht club members for the elevators which left us behind so we used the stairs.  We finally joined the escorts on the debarkation floor but found that this was simply not well ran.  We found the same for debarkation on the last morning and for us  process was clearly disappointing.  We have cruised numerous other lines with expedited processes for getting off the ship and all of them including Carnivals were much better operated.  We found that the use your wrist band for expedited elevators didn’t  work at all for us all week nor for any of the Butlers which probably contributed to the debarkation frustrations.  At no point we’re the Butlers able to capture an empty elevator for the 20 or so folks they were attempting to take off the ship and were forced to feed in small numbers of yacht club guests with instructions of what to watch for and do once they got to deck 2.  We ate most of our Breakfast and Lunches on the Yacht club pool deck and found the food here to be very good with plenty of choices.  We also found especially at breakfast that the crew responsible for taking orders for eggs or to cut the mornings meat to be disengaged.  They often kept there backs turned or managed to look right through you.  We often would walk around the line verbally requesting acknowledgement.  At lunch time we didn’t find the same experience and believe the difference was the Person in charge was possibly different at the lunch then at breakfast.  We only ate one dinner meal in the yacht club dining room s we found the menu was too limited in selections for my husbands taste buds and we asked the Butler on numerous occasions for the dinner menu’s and while promised they never materialized.  On the 5th day we asked who the maitre di was as we had  read such good things and hadn’t observed him.  We told our butler we were assuming the maitre de was in quarantine and told no he isn’t and was surprised we hadn’t had an introduction.  That same day at lunch the person cooking a special sample meal on the pool deck stopped us in line and introduced himself with an apology saying that he was the maitre de and he was sorry that he had failed to introduce himself much earlier in the trip.  At no time did anyone attempt to inquire or resolve my husbands concerns about the menu for dinner and we simply elected to eat elsewhere.  Once home we attempted to complete a survey sent to us by MSC but sadly the survey wouldn’t work so we gave up after attempting to complete in on numerous occasions  
I started my comments with as complaint although admittedly they certainly read that way.  We believe part of the problem belongs to us as we are not demanding folks when we cruise and the process just seemed foreign.  We have booked a 2nd yacht club cruise for January and now that we have a better understanding of what to expect we are hopeful that things will improve.  We recognize that in order to maximize our benefit of yacht club we will need to be more aggressive in what we like and don’t like.  

Thank you for your observations. We are on the Meraviglia now TA with just basic service, but a balcony room.. Perhaps it's the low numbers aboard but the staff is exceptionally friendly, helpful and interacting with us in all venues. The menus for the non YC restaurants are all online days in advance so how hard can it be to provide them for YC?

We have sailed NCL Haven which I assume is similar to YC but being non demanding folks didn't use the Butler much beyond bringing us coffee and pastry at 6am.

I imagine we would benefit a lot from 'ship within a ship' on either line if and when passenger load is high.