Considering sept 2nd MSC Virtuosa Norway cruise sailing from Southampton-likelihood of packed ship?

[mackfam]

 I want to avoid a packed ship if possible and was wondering if anyone can speak to the likelihood of this still being a popular week. I've checked and schools start up again this week but maybe parents don't worry about their kids missing the first week of school. Currently plenty of availability but obviously we're still months out. My main concern stems from the fact that we're looking at sailing in non YC for the first time, as no YINs left, and the price for the YC1 is almost 3x that of a regular cabin. I read some reviews from last year that the ship was packed and inside spaces congested and too small for the number of passengers.

 

YC has spoiled us as we have only cruised in gen. pop'n on all other cruise lines with no problems or complaints, but the many reviews that state 'only go in YC' have us scared!

 

 

[kernow]

As you say most English schools go back that week so probably will not be too bad although there will always be some who will take kids out of school. 

We are on Virtuosa next Friday 12th and our cruise and the following one has been deeply discounted by a couple of big cruise agents in the UK for the last few weeks so expecting a fairly busy ship. Imagine they will offer discounts all year if they have lots of availability. We are in YC and I have noticed several people in the FB group saying their upgrade bids for YC have been accepted today so imagine even that will be fairly full.

From what I've read in the group it seems to be only the short cruises and the ones in peak school holidays that get the real complaints though.

[mackfam]

If I was willing to pay the current price for YC (around  $4000 Cdn pp when I checked earlier) I wouldn’t worry as I’d know I could always escape back to the serenity of the YC enclave, but that’s considerably higher than last time I looked so just can’t bring myself to spend that much. From what I’ve noticed, the deep discounts are on every category except YC. I was originally looking at the Euribia YC for 2024 but those rates just went up by 50% too. 
Lesson learned, if you snooze you lose!

 

Please report back on the ship and ports and enjoy your cruise!

[1trainer1]

23 hours ago, kernow said:

As you say most English schools go back that week so probably will not be too bad although there will always be some who will take kids out of school. 

We are on Virtuosa next Friday 12th and our cruise and the following one has been deeply discounted by a couple of big cruise agents in the UK for the last few weeks so expecting a fairly busy ship. Imagine they will offer discounts all year if they have lots of availability. We are in YC and I have noticed several people in the FB group saying their upgrade bids for YC have been accepted today so imagine even that will be fairly full.

From what I've read in the group it seems to be only the short cruises and the ones in peak school holidays that get the real complaints though.

 We are on that one on the 19th May, not happy it is getting discounted so much as we got a great deal but hoping its not too busy as its just before the school holidays

[kernow]

20 hours ago, mackfam said:

If I was willing to pay the current price for YC (around  $4000 Cdn pp when I checked earlier) I wouldn’t worry as I’d know I could always escape back to the serenity of the YC enclave, but that’s considerably higher than last time I looked so just can’t bring myself to spend that much. From what I’ve noticed, the deep discounts are on every category except YC. I was originally looking at the Euribia YC for 2024 but those rates just went up by 50% too. 
Lesson learned, if you snooze you lose!

 

Please report back on the ship and ports and enjoy your cruise!

I'll probably post when we are onboard, I usually do.

 

We booked last summer and the YC prices only seem to have increased since then, from what I've seen even those who bid for upgrades have still ended up paying similar to what we did originally.