Just back from the inaugural December 11, 2022 MSC Seascape voyage in YC Deluxe Suite: the good the bad and the very ugly

[Av8tor]

4 hours ago, alexirina said:

Thank you and agree with your point. I have heard similar comments from fellow guests. Unfortunately, on Seascape they have not fine tuned the algorithm and car would stop on just about every floor. Especially noticable on the long rides. I feel silly complaining about such a small thing over and over again, but it is a significant enough annoyance that would make me consider picking a stateroom on lower deck so that we could use stairs... Next time I'm picking deck 17 on MSC 😉

I wonder if many folks are entering the desired deck on the outside selection panel, but if the car doesn't arrive fast enough, they then leave & take the stairs.  When the ordered car finally arrives, does it know those folks didn't get on so it stops at "their" deck anyway??  

 

Also, could something similar be happening like when kids used to get on the elevator and press every floor button just fir kicks?

 

 

[alexirina]

1 minute ago, Av8tor said:

I wonder if many folks are entering the desired deck on the outside selection panel, but if the car doesn't arrive fast enough, they then leave & take the stairs.  When the ordered car finally arrives, does it know those folks didn't get on so it stops at "their" deck anyway??  

 

Also, could something similar be happening like when kids used to get on the elevator and press every floor button just fir kicks?

 

 

Very possibly! Every time we were in the elevator one of the fellow guests would break the ice by commenting on the system. As a final note on this technology, elevators seem to have RFID readers for YC bracelets (maybe to expedite disembarkation by providing a dedicated car?) but those readers were not yet operational. We will have to wait for a technology that teleports us from deck to deck, until then, our engineering minds will keep wondering.

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, alexirina said:

As a final note on this technology, elevators seem to have RFID readers for YC bracelets (maybe to expedite disembarkation by providing a dedicated car?) but those readers were not yet operational. We will have to wait for a technology that teleports us from deck to deck, until then, our engineering minds will keep wondering.

 

Priority access on the elevators for Yacht Club guests is common on MSC. The system wasn't activated when I was on Seashore and I suspect that Seascape is the same. On Seaside, the system worked fine (if you knew which elevators were more responsive to it) and hopefully, MSC will fully activate the feature once people are more accustomed to the new elevator system. For the entire week on Seaside, I hijacked the elevator when needed. Meraviglia also had the system but Seaside's worked better. 

 

I had no problem with the "request" system but I also knew about it before I boarded. Non-CC guests might be taken by surprise and may get onto the wrong elevator which will lead to frustration. 

[journeymore]

On 12/22/2022 at 4:36 PM, alexirina said:

Thank you so much for your kind thoughts! Just to let you know, our videos are not sponsored or monetized, so either way we appreciate your input!

I enjoyed the videos. Thank you. 

[alexirina]

1 hour ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Priority access on the elevators for Yacht Club guests is common on MSC. The system wasn't activated when I was on Seashore and I suspect that Seascape is the same. On Seaside, the system worked fine (if you knew which elevators were more responsive to it) and hopefully, MSC will fully activate the feature once people are more accustomed to the new elevator system. For the entire week on Seaside, I hijacked the elevator when needed. Meraviglia also had the system but Seaside's worked better. 

 

I had no problem with the "request" system but I also knew about it before I boarded. Non-CC guests might be taken by surprise and may get onto the wrong elevator which will lead to frustration. 

Very good to know! And thanks again for the info, will certainly be handy for future cruisers!

It is certainly a worthwhile feature to use when in a hurry (for those of us, including truly yours, who fail at planning the next onboard activity while on vacation). Now, you almost talked me into giving MSC another chance! 🙂 Cheers!

[alexirina]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! To those of us who woke un in a frozen tundra yesterday morning (including truly yours in North Texas) a short video from the Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve to warm up everyone for the season. Cheers, happy cruising!

 

 

[RC Dancers]

Sorry to hear that Seascape did not meet your expectations.

 

We were parked next door to you in Nassau, having a wonderful cruise on Divina (our favorite ship.)

 

Interesting to me that you are comparing to Wonder of the Seas. Our Wonder cruise a month or two ago was the first cruise that I have ever taken where I was glad that the cruise had finally come to an end. We have talked to others who have recently been on RCCL and they agreed with us that their ships are very crowded and that they did not enjoy their cruises for that reason.

 

Opinions will always vary, but thank you for sharing your thoughts.

[alexirina]

6 minutes ago, RC Dancers said:

Sorry to hear that Seascape did not meet your expectations.

 

We were parked next door to you in Nassau, having a wonderful cruise on Divina (our favorite ship.)

 

Interesting to me that you are comparing to Wonder of the Seas. Our Wonder cruise a month or two ago was the first cruise that I have ever taken where I was glad that the cruise had finally come to an end. We have talked to others who have recently been on RCCL and they agreed with us that their ships are very crowded and that they did not enjoy their cruises for that reason.

 

Opinions will always vary, but thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Thank you for sharing your experienc and thoughts on RC! So sorry it did not work out for you. We have no brand loyalty in cruise world, but for us Royal and Celebrity worked out best. Before and after the pandemic. To us it was very appealing that Royal just had their act together in practically every aspect. 

And as for Nassau: it must have been you guys who kept banging on the balcony railings with hammers on the aft starboard side 😉 that was loud! Jokes aside, they must have been renovating aft cabins... 

Thanks again for your comments, you and other fellow cruisers almost talked us into giving MSC another chance 😉

 

Cheers, Merry Christmas y'all!

[sabres431]

12 hours ago, alexirina said:

Thank you for sharing your experienc and thoughts on RC! So sorry it did not work out for you. We have no brand loyalty in cruise world, but for us Royal and Celebrity worked out best. Before and after the pandemic. To us it was very appealing that Royal just had their act together in practically every aspect. 

And as for Nassau: it must have been you guys who kept banging on the balcony railings with hammers on the aft starboard side 😉 that was loud! Jokes aside, they must have been renovating aft cabins... 

Thanks again for your comments, you and other fellow cruisers almost talked us into giving MSC another chance 😉

 

Cheers, Merry Christmas y'all!

  Don't give up on MSC after one cruise, especially an inaugural one.  Our first cruise with them was a 12 day on Divina in Yacht Club in 2018.  It was fantastic.  I rarely have a problem with food anywhere(unless it is cold) because my philosophy any food that I don't have to cook myself is good food. 🙂

  Do you have a Yacht Club only video coming?  We will be on Seascape at the end of March in 19003.  We're looking forward to it.  Watching as many videos as we can find.  I tend to take reviews with a grain of salt as they are very based on each person's tastes.  While they provide some value, I'm looking for details on the ship(like the elevators) so I know what I'm doing when I board.

 

Merry Christmas!!

Edited December 25, 2022 by sabres431

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, sabres431 said:

We will be on Seascape at the end of March in 19003.  We're looking forward to it.  Watching as many videos as we can find.

 

 

The video is Seashore but if you flip everything from left to right, your 19003 will look like this. 

 

[chefchick]

Currently on the Seascape in YC. (We disembark tomorrow in Miami).  I haven’t watched the video, so I’m not sure what particular problems you might have experienced other than the Nespresso machine? (Ours has worked perfectly)  but I will agree the elevators are frustrating to use.  Since this week was a Christmas cruise it was at capacity and with more children and multi generational families than perhaps is ideal for the relaxing cruise I was imagining, but the crew have been working very hard to make it lovely.  Yes, the pool deck was over run at times, and unfortunately many families tend to treat the ship as their personal yacht and allow children to be unruly and adults treating the crew badly can make the overall experience not excellent, but I’m not sure what you could have experienced to make a statement like no one on board cares about your cruise?  Since many come here to garner Information for upcoming trips, could  you be more specific?

 

And if I can, I will answer anyone’s questions in regards to the YC from my perspective (we have experienced very little outside the YC enclave as we were looking for a relaxing vacation, but I will do my best.  

[alexirina]

24 minutes ago, chefchick said:

Currently on the Seascape in YC. (We disembark tomorrow in Miami).  I haven’t watched the video, so I’m not sure what particular problems you might have experienced other than the Nespresso machine? (Ours has worked perfectly)  but I will agree the elevators are frustrating to use.  Since this week was a Christmas cruise it was at capacity and with more children and multi generational families than perhaps is ideal for the relaxing cruise I was imagining, but the crew have been working very hard to make it lovely.  Yes, the pool deck was over run at times, and unfortunately many families tend to treat the ship as their personal yacht and allow children to be unruly and adults treating the crew badly can make the overall experience not excellent, but I’m not sure what you could have experienced to make a statement like no one on board cares about your cruise?  Since many come here to garner Information for upcoming trips, could  you be more specific?

 

And if I can, I will answer anyone’s questions in regards to the YC from my perspective (we have experienced very little outside the YC enclave as we were looking for a relaxing vacation, but I will do my best.  

Very glad to hear that your experience was better than ours! As to some specific issues we had, I mentioned a few in comments above, but here is a quick summary:

1. Service on Deck 20 was slow/non-existent. To the point that we had to stop asking for breakfast items there and simply went to the main buffet (which is super slow/busy as well). We are not fancy, nor we expected a 5 star service, but waiting for scrambled eggs for over 30 minutes (and still not getting them) is not exactly great

2. We never got a single thing accomplished by the Concierge. We asked for restaurant reservations, had a few simple questions on wi-fi, things of this nature.

3. Shows (I know that's not YC) were all very poorly done. To the point where no matter how much we wanted to enjoy them we walked away. So did quite a few fellow guests. We have never seen production shows on any of our ~15 sailings with different cruise lines on the level that was frankly simply amateur.

4. Food at YC restaurant was unacceptable. We are not picky at all, but we finally started going to the Skyline restaurant where food and service was substantially better than at YC and at the level we are used to on Royal Caribbean

5. We tried to politely talk to YC officers to make them aware of what we were experienced and they never reached back to us or tried to mitigate any of the issues. 

 

Again, glad that others are having better time than we did!

 

Cheers!

 

 

[alexirina]

And to get into a more positive side of things: we did have an awesome day in the Nassau, Bahamas. We simply stayed onboard and had a great time in the YC private deck just chilling in a cabana, enjoying the beautiful weather and great views. Couple days later we had even better day in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We love San Juan, so we just walked the town as we always do, checked out all those beautiful streets, took a few pictures, had a Mojito or two and overall had a great time: 

 

[Eaglestrike]

On 12/21/2022 at 8:14 PM, alexirina said:

We just came back from the inaugural voyage with the Yacht Club "experience" and wanted to share our honest impressions.

(For the reference: this is our 12-th overall cruise and 1-st (and last) with MSC. Our previous experiences included Princess, Virgin, NCL, Royal and Celebrity in Caribbean, Europe and Asia) 

We have heard so many good things about MSC that we finally decided to check this line out. We all know that a maiden voyage can be rocky, yet we were (and still are) so impressed with the inaugural cruise on the Wonder of the Seas (which was absolutely immaculate!) that we decided to go with "double or nothing" Here we are...

• Good news: we connected with so many good friends (and that is a huge part of cruising for us).
• Bad news: we could have just went to any fast food place down the road for dinner and had better food and service. Almost not kidding...
• Ugly news... Our personal impression: MSC really and wholeheartedly doesn't care how cruise works out for us.

 

All that said, here is the first quick walk through the ship with our initial impressions. We have a tour of our cabin coming up very shortly as well as a very detailed review of the cruise.

 

 

Cheers! 

Call me extremely skeptical as to the writers agenda and intent regarding there YC experience.

 

My wife and I just finished a spectacular 17 day Grand Voyage on the MSC Seaside (November 18 to December 4th). 

This was our 5th Yacht Club cruise which have all been without exception terrific experiences!.

 

I have a really hard time taking serious the writers critique on the food in the Yacht Club being the same as the fast food joint down the street?. Really can anyone seriously say that the Yacht Club food which I have always found to be extremely good was like a greasy spoon fast food joint for 7 days? No way I do not buy it.

 

I also have a really hard time believing that the service in the Yacht Club dining room was anything short of Excellent as these people are doing everything to make folks happy so that they can get good reviews and tips. 

5 Yacht Club cruises we have never experienced bad service. Don't forget that the staff are human beings subject to a bad moment or momentary lapse. Everything was always fantastic and when a mistake was made comparative to the entire experience it becomes a non event. 

 

The writer loves the room etc., but complains about the disembarkation  process because the line was long and the butler brought her to the front?. Well this is what he is supposed to do. You are in the Yacht club and that is the service that many people love. Your paying for this.

 

And what does it mean when a statement like "MSC does not care about our experience" or how the cruise worked out for them? 

MSC is a huge company with thousands of people and yet the writer boldly assumes that absolutely no one cared about her? I assume they do there best to make everyone happy. 

 

I don't know what the writers agenda is however there is an agenda because after all no one goes through the trouble of a big video along with hard hitting negative phrases to elicit responses without an agenda? I mean 7 straight days or more of terrible food (breakfast, lunch, dinner and awful service)??

 

Happy Sailing

[alexirina]

1 hour ago, Eaglestrike said:

Call me extremely skeptical as to the writers agenda and intent regarding there YC experience.

 

My wife and I just finished a spectacular 17 day Grand Voyage on the MSC Seaside (November 18 to December 4th). 

This was our 5th Yacht Club cruise which have all been without exception terrific experiences!.

 

I have a really hard time taking serious the writers critique on the food in the Yacht Club being the same as the fast food joint down the street?. Really can anyone seriously say that the Yacht Club food which I have always found to be extremely good was like a greasy spoon fast food joint for 7 days? No way I do not buy it.

 

I also have a really hard time believing that the service in the Yacht Club dining room was anything short of Excellent as these people are doing everything to make folks happy so that they can get good reviews and tips. 

5 Yacht Club cruises we have never experienced bad service. Don't forget that the staff are human beings subject to a bad moment or momentary lapse. Everything was always fantastic and when a mistake was made comparative to the entire experience it becomes a non event. 

 

The writer loves the room etc., but complains about the disembarkation  process because the line was long and the butler brought her to the front?. Well this is what he is supposed to do. You are in the Yacht club and that is the service that many people love. Your paying for this.

 

And what does it mean when a statement like "MSC does not care about our experience" or how the cruise worked out for them? 

MSC is a huge company with thousands of people and yet the writer boldly assumes that absolutely no one cared about her? I assume they do there best to make everyone happy. 

 

I don't know what the writers agenda is however there is an agenda because after all no one goes through the trouble of a big video along with hard hitting negative phrases to elicit responses without an agenda? I mean 7 straight days or more of terrible food (breakfast, lunch, dinner and awful service)??

 

Happy Sailing

Thank you kindly for sharing your experience just like we shared ours.

 

Sorry that you were disappointed that our honest opinion of a really poor overall experience are not aligning with you, but for someone who paid fair price for this cruise, I feel that we can state our opinion, as long as it is not personally offensive.

 

I personally think it is good to share opinions. Good, bad or otherwise. Especially when the cruise line could not care less to listen to ours while we were still on a ship through YC Concierge or Officers.

 

When looking for a hidden agenda, I would kindly suggest to check how many subscribers we have (very few!) and how we are monetized/get sponsored (we don't).

 

We gave plenty of examples of what we mean by poorly prepared and served food above (two medium rare filets ordered in YC: one came out raw, another burned to crisp; seafood is beyond mystery meat quality/substance, Prime rib... I would have taken picture of it, but that is considered a crime in many jurisdictions). 

 

To each his/her own, this experience was simply not for us for many reasons mentioned here and above.

 

Cheers!

[luv2cruisekc]

On 12/23/2022 at 9:19 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

we certainly did!

Thanks for the video!

I booked Seascape for next November, but in steerage class. 🙂 Will also bring our parents with us - my poor dad has mobility problems and will have to "enjoy" the elevators...

I don’t know how anyone in a wheelchair or with a stroller can even get on an elevator. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

27 minutes ago, luv2cruisekc said:

I don’t know how anyone in a wheelchair or with a stroller can even get on an elevator. 

he isn't in one yet, and I hope he won't be by next November, but he cannot negotiate the stairs for sure. 

[alexirina]

9 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

he isn't in one yet, and I hope he won't be by next November, but he cannot negotiate the stairs for sure. 

From what we have heard in the comments above on Seashore, MSC will (hopefully) chase some gremlins out of the elevator system by next November! From what we have personally experienced, one side of elevators works better than other (seemed to be consistently "right"/starboard side at the front for us, but I'm sure it will get rebalanced with time). Patience and taking it easy is the name of the game. Despite of my harsh comments here, we would always crack a friendly joke in the elevator and most certainly try to make room for everyone. Cheers and happy cruising!

[lcpagejr]

17 hours ago, Eaglestrike said:

Call me extremely skeptical as to the writers agenda and intent regarding there YC experience.

 

My wife and I just finished a spectacular 17 day Grand Voyage on the MSC Seaside (November 18 to December 4th). 

This was our 5th Yacht Club cruise which have all been without exception terrific experiences!.

 

I have a really hard time taking serious the writers critique on the food in the Yacht Club being the same as the fast food joint down the street?. Really can anyone seriously say that the Yacht Club food which I have always found to be extremely good was like a greasy spoon fast food joint for 7 days? No way I do not buy it.

 

I also have a really hard time believing that the service in the Yacht Club dining room was anything short of Excellent as these people are doing everything to make folks happy so that they can get good reviews and tips. 

5 Yacht Club cruises we have never experienced bad service. Don't forget that the staff are human beings subject to a bad moment or momentary lapse. Everything was always fantastic and when a mistake was made comparative to the entire experience it becomes a non event. 

 

The writer loves the room etc., but complains about the disembarkation  process because the line was long and the butler brought her to the front?. Well this is what he is supposed to do. You are in the Yacht club and that is the service that many people love. Your paying for this.

 

And what does it mean when a statement like "MSC does not care about our experience" or how the cruise worked out for them? 

MSC is a huge company with thousands of people and yet the writer boldly assumes that absolutely no one cared about her? I assume they do there best to make everyone happy. 

 

I don't know what the writers agenda is however there is an agenda because after all no one goes through the trouble of a big video along with hard hitting negative phrases to elicit responses without an agenda? I mean 7 straight days or more of terrible food (breakfast, lunch, dinner and awful service)??

 

Happy Sailing

I tend to agree with your summarization. When I booked my fist MSC cruise in 2018 on Seaside (Yacht Club).... I was so excited and intrigued by the Ship in a ship concept and a riduclously attractive price. I then started reading reviews...many from Europeans, as they tore apart MSC (lol) and the wonderful sewage scent on the ship I was scheduled to sail in several months. 

 

As an experienced cruiser, 20+ cruises, I just chuckled at the reviews and comments and just used the comments on how I should navigate the ship. Experiences can change from cruise to cruise and is not a common (weekly) occurence....else how could the line remain in business??

 

Happy to say my 1st MSC cruise in YC blew away any and all expectations I had! So impressed, we cruised on Seaside in YC a year later...same wonderful experience. Was it 100% perfect?? of course not. But I was not going to critique every experiece good/bad.Sure we had some "off" entries in dining room...but overall we found food above average and wonderful and friendly service. The perks of YC, such as on islands where tendering is involved where you have a seperate line and dont have to wait 1/2 hour in hot sun to return to ship has value, concierge asssistance and not having to wait in enormous guest service line has value, Butlers taking you to shows and escorting you off ship has value, Having your own dedicated deck , bar/lounge, and dining areas has much value. We also travel during Holiday periods due to our work (only time we both can travel) and I will admit I do not think I would cruise on MSC outside of YC during these busy travel periods.Maybe Aurea due to dedicated deck area...but families and kids literally everywhere in common areas....just nice to have your own retreat and choose when to walk and enjoy other areas of ship (such as Sports Bar!!)

 

We are booked on Seascape (again in YC) for Thanksgiving 2023 and are so looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with MSC.

 

And to the initial poster of this thread...We cruised Odyssey of Seas this past Thanksgiving and had a wonderful cruise ....Probably our best Royal Carribean cruise ever....but I did miss the YC experience although the Solarium was a nice area to get away from the deck crowds!!

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by lcpagejr

[alexirina]

10 minutes ago, lcpagejr said:

I tend to agree with your summarization. When I booked my fist MSC cruise in 2018 on Seaside (Yacht Club).... I was so excited and intrigued by the Ship in a ship concept and a riduclously attractive price. I then started reading reviews...many from Europeans, as they tore apart MSC (lol) and the wonderful sewage scent on the ship I was scheduled to sail in several months. 

 

As an experienced cruiser, 20+ cruises, I just chuckled at the reviews and comments and just used the comments on how I should navigate the ship. Experiences can change from cruise to cruise and is not a common (weekly) occurence....else how could the line remain in business??

 

Happy to say my 1st MSC cruise in YC blew away any and all expectations I had! So impressed, we cruised on Seaside in YC a year later...same wonderful experience. Was it 100% perfect?? of course not. But I was not going to critique every experiece good/bad.Sure we had some "off" entries in dining room...but overall we found food above average and wonderful and friendly service. The perks of YC, such as on islands where tendering is involved where you have a seperate line and dont have to wait 1/2 hour in hot sun to return to ship has value, concierge asssistance and not having to wait in enormous guest service line has value, Butlers taking you to shows and escorting you off ship has value, Having your own dedicated deck , bar/lounge, and dining areas has much value. We also travel during Holiday periods due to our work (only time we both can travel) and I will admit I do not think I would cruise on MSC outside of YC during these busy travel periods.Maybe Aurea due to dedicated deck area...but families and kids literally everywhere in common areas....just nice to have your own retreat and choose when to walk and enjoy other areas of ship (such as Sports Bar!!)

 

We are booked on Seascape (again in YC) for Thanksgiving 2023 and are so looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with MSC.

 

And to the initial poster of this thread...We cruised Odyssey of Seas this past Thanksgiving and had a wonderful cruise ....Probably our best Royal Carribean cruise ever....but I did miss the YC experience although the Solarium was a nice area to get away from the deck crowds!!

 

Sincere thanks for sharing your experience, lcpagejr! I wholeheartedly believe that all comments we hear on this board and all other platforms help all of us with picking our next adventure. 

 

I tried to clarify some of the points I made in several responses above, but maybe it is worthwhile for me to take another stab at this as the experience is still fresh in our minds.

 We absolutely appreciated a few things YC offered:

 - Disembarkation where our butler walked us to the very from of the line was awesome, as we had a super early flight for personal reasons

 - And our butler Amol was great: very attentive, very professional, we appreciated all the beautiful details he provided

 - Room itself, Grand Suite (not a Deluxe suite, as someone rightfully corrected me on YouTube) was awesome. Loved everything about it, the décor, the layout and just the right amount of extra space.

 - YC Lounge and service there was very nice. I agree, it is awesome to have that experience with an extra elbow room! 

 - Overall YC sundeck 20 was enjoyable: we would almost always find a spot in the shade we wanted to, or room in a pool or a few hot tubs. Spending a day at a thermal spa was quite nice as well

 

Yet again, very unfortunately many other things that I mentioned above felt very short of our expectations both in YC and on the ship overall. That is what prompted us to be extra grinchy this season.

 

As I have mentioned above, for the reference, we are European expats (no joke, Sherlock!) who lived and cruised out of the US (primarily) for the past 20 or so years on just about as many cruises with 5-6 major lines. 

 

Cheers, sincerely wish each and everyone a very happy holiday season! Keep the blue side up! 

[nednrom]

On 12/24/2022 at 12:54 PM, Av8tor said:

I wonder if many folks are entering the desired deck on the outside selection panel, but if the car doesn't arrive fast enough, they then leave & take the stairs.  When the ordered car finally arrives, does it know those folks didn't get on so it stops at "their" deck anyway??  

 

Also, could something similar be happening like when kids used to get on the elevator and press every floor button just fir kicks?

 

 

Both scenarios do occur - I have pressed the button, waited and sarted walking up. It's not only the kids but adults also getting impatient and pressing the outsid button continously,

[nednrom]

On 12/26/2022 at 11:32 AM, lcpagejr said:

I tend to agree with your summarization. When I booked my fist MSC cruise in 2018 on Seaside (Yacht Club).... I was so excited and intrigued by the Ship in a ship concept and a riduclously attractive price. I then started reading reviews...many from Europeans, as they tore apart MSC (lol) and the wonderful sewage scent on the ship I was scheduled to sail in several months. 

 

As an experienced cruiser, 20+ cruises, I just chuckled at the reviews and comments and just used the comments on how I should navigate the ship. Experiences can change from cruise to cruise and is not a common (weekly) occurence....else how could the line remain in business??

 

Happy to say my 1st MSC cruise in YC blew away any and all expectations I had! So impressed, we cruised on Seaside in YC a year later...same wonderful experience. Was it 100% perfect?? of course not. But I was not going to critique every experiece good/bad.Sure we had some "off" entries in dining room...but overall we found food above average and wonderful and friendly service. The perks of YC, such as on islands where tendering is involved where you have a seperate line and dont have to wait 1/2 hour in hot sun to return to ship has value, concierge asssistance and not having to wait in enormous guest service line has value, Butlers taking you to shows and escorting you off ship has value, Having your own dedicated deck , bar/lounge, and dining areas has much value. We also travel during Holiday periods due to our work (only time we both can travel) and I will admit I do not think I would cruise on MSC outside of YC during these busy travel periods.Maybe Aurea due to dedicated deck area...but families and kids literally everywhere in common areas....just nice to have your own retreat and choose when to walk and enjoy other areas of ship (such as Sports Bar!!)

 

We are booked on Seascape (again in YC) for Thanksgiving 2023 and are so looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with MSC.

 

And to the initial poster of this thread...We cruised Odyssey of Seas this past Thanksgiving and had a wonderful cruise ....Probably our best Royal Carribean cruise ever....but I did miss the YC experience although the Solarium was a nice area to get away from the deck crowds!!

 

We returned from the Seascape last week.  We were in an Aurea cabin for the first time and really missed the YC experience so we booked Seascape during Thanksgiving 2023 in the YC.  I am looking forward to that. I would not do MSC outside of the YC again, Seascape needs to get her sea legs under her to be ready to handle 5600+ passengersand need to tweak some things.

[hamrag]

On 12/25/2022 at 10:55 PM, Eaglestrike said:

Call me extremely skeptical as to the writers agenda and intent regarding there YC experience....

 

....I don't know what the writers agenda is however there is an agenda because after all no one goes through the trouble of a big video along with hard hitting negative phrases to elicit responses without an agenda? I mean 7 straight days or more of terrible food (breakfast, lunch, dinner and awful service)??

 

Indeed, and much of the narrative is inconsistent or has  changed as the thread has progressed! 🙄

[alexirina]

Happy New Year y'all!

Below is a more detailed video review that we eluded to in the initial post. To save you trouble of re-reading a few comments from above: 

 - This is our experience, videos are not sponsored or monetized

 - On this cruise we did not get anywhere near what we paid for. This is our most expensive yet least favorable cruise to date (we cruised with NCL, Princess, Celebrity, Royal, Virgin all in outside/premium/suite balcony categories. Most of the lines several times. All was great/well until MSC)

 - We are super happy if this cruise line worked out for you. Last time we checked, we are all free to share our opinions in the Western world and on this board as long as we stay respectful. This is not an attempt to change your opinion, but rather share our impressions with those who want to try MSC for the first time

- If we knew what we are sharing in the video below (or in the comments above), we would have never consider cruising with this line

- One thing we did not mention in the video: we loved (as always) making new friends on the ship. This is always a huge part of the cruise experience!