Observations From the Poop Deck Seashore October

[morpheusofthesea]

47 minutes ago, zackarykeef said:

OoOoOoh well that’s nice. Do you scan your card at all the elevators, or just the front YC elevators?

All

[AviationInScale]

On 10/9/2022 at 6:18 PM, morpheusofthesea said:

Crew still masking.

Glad you posted. Hoping you would. We think that your and our recommendation to MSC helped butler Annalisa get her transfer to Seascape. We have her now and gave her a copy of our letter requesting her services on their beautiful new Seascape for our December and January sailings in the YC. She was told of her acceptance recently. MSC is listening to us all.

Why? Masking requirements have been dropped.

[phissy]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:08 PM, morpheusofthesea said:

Yannis is Hotel Director and Ronnie Sherrif is YC. YC perks are really only one, but was told in confidence so let us just say it will be appreciated by YCers.

Robbie Sherrif is YC Director. He is from Scotland and a very pleasant fellow.  Most call  him.Mr. . Robbie ( Robert Sherrif) He was our YC Director on Meraviglia last November.
We are currently in Divina, YC. Not at the same level of service or quality as Meraviglia, last year. 

[no1talks]

26 minutes ago, phissy said:

He was our YC Director on Meraviglia last November.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, Phissy, but didn't you have some issues on that cruise, resulting in a comped specialty dinner from R. Sherrif, only to be charged for the dinner anyway?
😲

[morpheusofthesea]

13 hours ago, AviationInScale said:

Why? Masking requirements have been dropped.

Inquired. MSC has dropped crew masking in Europe and will for Brazil. Keeping crew masking for US market, though no masks for crew on Ocean Cay.

[phissy]

11 hours ago, no1talks said:

Perhaps I'm misremembering, Phissy, but didn't you have some issues on that cruise, resulting in a comped specialty dinner from R. Sherrif, only to be charged for the dinner anyway?
😲

You are absolutely correct.
The issue we had was with B2B process.

They held us for 3 hours and then spent 1 1/2 hours taking us around terminal, long hallways and up and down long flights of stairs. I had to assist several older passengers who could not do stairs . I asked if elevator or escalators were available for handicapped passengers. We were told No. “ If you want to get back on ship, you need to take the stairs.”

We passed  same MSC poster several times.
Finally, I questioned the 2 staff if they knew where we were going and finally received acknowledgement that they were lost and did I not know how to get us back on ship.
several older passengers  needed to sit and recoup. I told them to find out where we should go and then come back and take the group. . 

This is why we went to YC Director. This was completely unacceptable.

He agreed and had heard about it . He looked into it.
His claim that staff was unfamiliar with this terminal. Still made the treatment of the elderly passengers terrible. My husband had to use knee brace after this.

I found the fact that he had to get permission from corporate just to offer us the comped meal, pretty sad.

Being charged for comped meal is just so MSC, luckily we did not order much .🫤

 

[buckeyefrank]

On 10/7/2022 at 4:11 PM, morpheusofthesea said:

Yes, but we try not to 'invite' them in. We no longer fly. We drive to the port ourselves and park. We skip self serve buffets. We stopped eating dinner with others. With what little time we have left we are spending like there will be no tomorrow on cruises and high end suites, until we no longer can.

Sounds to me like you're spending "what little time you have left" worrying about getting sick, cleaning, sanitizing, making preparations to not get sick, etc instead of living life.

[travelwide]

@buckeyefrankHarsh words to express your disapproval of someone's lifestyle. They are in the YC at least once a month.. Sounds like a pretty good lifestyle to me.

🥂

[morpheusofthesea]

40 minutes ago, buckeyefrank said:

Sounds to me like you're spending "what little time you have left" worrying about getting sick, cleaning, sanitizing, making preparations to not get sick, etc instead of living life.

Your point is very well taken. However in our life this is nothing new. DW has always been 'this way'. I am just getting too old to fight her with sound judgement. I have resigned myself to destiny. However here is the good part of all this on board the MSC Seashore. Whatever occurred last cruise does not carry over to the next cruise. This staff does a great job. Let the party roll on ! Back to people watching and all their bad habits in the buffet lines.

[morpheusofthesea]

37 minutes ago, travelwide said:

@buckeyefrankHarsh words to express your disapproval of someone's lifestyle. They are in the YC at least once a month.. Sounds like a pretty good lifestyle to me.

🥂

Thanks. Buck has a good point. One I have expressed to DW for 50 years (to no avail). The Elevator perk is back on the Seashore with new improvements. Swipe key card beneath the elevator key pad, press deck desired, elevator letter appears on key pad with NO fanfare and NO lighted elevator. Stand in front of unlit elevator which opens and whisks one directly to designated deck with no stops. Works on all elevator banks forward and aft and the two at the stern.

Edited October 11, 2022 by morpheusofthesea

[morpheusofthesea]

Here is something to consider when choosing this itinerary. While I am lounging in our fully toweled pergola at the One Pool deck enjoying beautiful weather in the shade. We anchor at Grand Cayman at 9am. Now this will not affect those in the YC, but the thousands outside the YC enclave have to consider the wait to get on a tender to shore. We have about 4400 passengers of which 250 in the YC this cruise. The tenders are 5 that are hired from shore which can handle 100 passengers 'comfortably'. It is 11:30 am and the PA system just called the tender ticket 49 to go ashore and these were just the tours. Now is open tendering for the rest of the ship (independents).

P.S. The Disney Fantasy pulls up and anchors a close distance away and also tenders.

[morpheusofthesea]

Last night just as our dinner was placed in front of us (Chicken Kiev) our maitre 'd Ercan (pronounced Er sjon)  brought out our new YC executive chef to introduce to us, Rhum. He is coming from the MSC Seaview. He will be transferring also in what the crew call the "second wave" of transfers onto the Seascape. From what we gather he will be rotating with Chef Lisa in the YC Restaurant on the Seascape. He stated to DW that YC director Robbie Sheriff is already on board the Seascape.

[no1talks]

11 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"P.S. The Disney Fantasy pulls up and anchors a close distance away and also tenders."

Yes, but Disney tenders are much better.

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Keeping crew masking for US market,

What's the rationale for the US market, I wonder?

[mafig]

2 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

. We have about 4400 passengers of which 250 in the YC this cruise. 

 

This may be too soon to inquire but.....any way you can find out if the October 29 itinerary is fully booked ????  It's a 8 dayer vs. 7.  Just wondering.  We'll be in the YC.

 

 

[SirWolf]

7 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Inquired. MSC has dropped crew masking in Europe and will for Brazil. Keeping crew masking for US market, though no masks for crew on Ocean Cay.

I am currently on MSC Grandiosa..

7-Night Mediterranean.

All crew members are wearing mask..

except singers & performers in shows.

[morpheusofthesea]

35 minutes ago, SirWolf said:

I am currently on MSC Grandiosa..

7-Night Mediterranean.

All crew members are wearing mask..

except singers & performers in shows.

"Winston Churchill once said if you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three opinions. It’s a clever way of saying economics is an inexact science, and economists are known for equivocating." It appears we are in a similar 'boat".

[Match Game 72]

Just encouraging you to keep posting and ignore the negative comments in this thread. I enjoy reading about all your adventures.

[morpheusofthesea]

Tonight’s performance in the Madison Theater was “Mystic Forest”. No steampunks nor Mr. Potatohead. Sometimes one should not tamper with success.

[no1talks]

6 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"No steampunks nor Mr. Potatohead."

Punky, we hardly knew ye!

[morpheusofthesea]

 Between shows tonight we decided to see what was playing in the Uptown Lounge since the Jazz Trio had not started in the Brooklyn Cafe. A group called Fusion Groove with a female vocalist was on stage with chairs and tables surrounding the dance floor. We took two vacant chairs off to one side of the dance floor up against the wall. There were these rotating bright lights and very frequently one in particular kept blasting its very strong light into my eyes. Just as I was about to look for another couple of vacant chairs a technician popped onto the dance floor and shut this one rotating light off. I was so impressed I brought the incident to my DW's attention. Was this a coincidence, or a known recurring rogue light fixture, or a very attentive staffer who witnessed my cringing every time the light shown into my eyes?

[morpheusofthesea]

9 hours ago, no1talks said:

Punky, we hardly knew ye!

In other words, "Mystic Forest" is no longer anything of interest to 'write home about.'

[kwokpot]

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

In other words, "Mystic Forest" is no longer anything of interest to 'write home about.'

Having read your previous review I was looking forward to see this particular character but he was already missing on the Seashore's 9/24 sailing. 

[morpheusofthesea]

Ran into Head butler Larysa yesterday morning as she was 'ministering' a  newly promoted butler on how to respond properly to a guest request. It would appear I made a faux pas in an earlier post.  I would surmise that the presence of the head butler and YC director Hugh Gibb were needed more on the ship behind the scenes than their usual presence greeting newly arrived guests in the terminal on embarkation day. Mr. Gibb was dressed rather smartly in his dress blues last evening before the Madison Theatre production of “Mystic Forest”. We were just being seated by Annalisa when he stopped by to see how everything was. We said everything is just splendid, that is why we keep coming back on board.  

   DW reported back that she ran into a familiar crew member who was dressed as a butler for this cruise. Last cruise he was a One Pool deckhand who toweled our pergola. Our present butler told us the the last cruise we were on she had to take care of 19 cabins ( including both Royal Suites). How she managed 38+ prima donnas is beyond comprehension. This is putting much pressure on the department heads who are spending much more time ‘grooming’ these new recruits on a daily basis. So we can just imagine reports on social media of butlers MIA or ‘coarse’ or unhelpful is true and those with ‘problems’ should bring these problems to the head butlers attention immediately. This would help the service of all future guests and might even get one a new seasoned butler for the remainder of the cruise.

[morpheusofthesea]

Bad behavior does not go unnoticed. This morning at the end of the breakfast buffet 4 ‘gentlemen’ came late as the time for breakfast had passed and the crew was cleaning up. They expected the wait staff to provide them with a full service breakfast. Apologies were extended. The 4 began grabbing whatever was not removed yet from the trays with their hands (no tongs) and verbally threatening never to come again. Thank goodness they were not Americans.