MSC after Celebrity

[Miss SeaBee]

I am a dedicated Celebrity cruiser, but a recent thread about Carnival after Celebrity segued into an MSC discussion, and it piqued my interest in exploring MSC. I looked at the site to investigate.  Searched April 2025, just for comparison, we are booked on Reflection April 2024. Yacht club would be more than I want to spend, starting at $3200 per person for a 7 day Caribbean, MSC World out of Miami. However, a junior suite, midship deck 9 ( their lowest level suite) with drinks and Wi-Fi included, would be $3558 total for 2 people, which is less than what we are paying for a concierge hump cabin deck 10 on Reflection. Also, the deposit was only $398, and is refundable! I’d love to hear from those of you who have cruised both, who did a lower level suite with MSC. I kind of doubt I’ll ever jump ship from my beloved Celebrity, but this does sound like a good deal.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Miss SeaBee
Updated to include ship and port, and corrected price

[Miss SeaBee]

I’ve just realized that the OP for the topic I mentioned, posted an update topic for MSC/Celebrity comparison. The responses are mostly for Yacht Club. I’m interested in non-Yacht Club suite opinions.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Though I’ve not priced that ship, I’ve never seen YC at 6k pp unless in the highest suite. The only other category I’d consider is Aurea. 
 

Edit to say MSC will match your status with Celebrity. 
 

Honest opinion is I would not leave the serenity of Celebrity (entire ship) unless I was going to the serenity of the YC. 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Georgia_Peaches

[Miss SeaBee]

Just now, Georgia_Peaches said:

Though I’ve not priced that ship, I’ve never seen YC at 6k pp unless in the highest suite. The only other category I’d consider is Aurea. 
 

 

My dummy booking was Aurea. Maybe I looked at it wrong, and Yacht Club was $6,000 total for 2 of us. I’ll have to check again.

[Miss SeaBee]

2 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Though I’ve not priced that ship, I’ve never seen YC at 6k pp unless in the highest suite. The only other category I’d consider is Aurea. 
 

 

Ah! My bad. I rechecked, and yes, I was looking at total price for YC for 2 starts at $6400 total, I think that’s still more than I would want to spend for MSC. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

5 minutes ago, Miss SeaBee said:

Ah! My bad. I rechecked, and yes, I was looking at total price for YC for 2 starts at $6400 total, I think that’s still more than I would want to spend for MSC. 

Yes, I just looked as well. World America is pricey bc it will be a brand new ship by the time 2025 rolls around. I would wait for the other ships to show up in one of the Florida ports. Our first MSC was on the Seashore last year. A beautiful ship and the YC was $2100 pp for deluxe balcony. We have a YC interior booked on Seaside for August at $1800 pp. both 7 nights. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

9 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Yes, I just looked as well. World America is pricey bc it will be a brand new ship by the time 2025 rolls around. I would wait for the other ships to show up in one of the Florida ports. Our first MSC was on the Seashore last year. A beautiful ship and the YC was $2100 pp for deluxe balcony. We have a YC interior booked on Seaside for August at $1800 pp. both 7 nights. 

We are looking at a deluxe balcony YC on the Seaside. Do you know how it compares to the Seashore?  

[NCteacherlovescruising]

32 minutes ago, Miss SeaBee said:

I’ve just realized that the OP for the topic I mentioned, posted an update topic for MSC/Celebrity comparison. The responses are mostly for Yacht Club. I’m interested in non-Yacht Club suite opinions.

Yes. After further searching, we have eliminated both Celebrity and Royal and are looking at either Carnival Horizon with a Havana room or the MSC Seaside in the YC. MSC is over the budget we set, and we like the Carnival itinerary better. However, I think the YC experience would be worth the extra money. 
 

[Georgia_Peaches]

15 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

We are looking at a deluxe balcony YC on the Seaside. Do you know how it compares to the Seashore?  

Seaside and Seashore are sister ships so as far as the ship goes, it will be almost an exact copy.  Seashore is newer so may have some slight differences.  One thing I liked on Seashore is the abundance of pergola structures available to everyone.  As I haven't been on Seaside yet, I'm not sure if they have many of those on their pool deck.  It's worth noting that we also enjoyed many areas outside the YC...specialty restaurant area with it's own lounge/bar in the outer area, the wine cellar with self-serve wine dispensers (for fee), the atrium for live music and people watching, the chocolate bar and surrounding areas, the casino was OK....and the thermal suite was great as well!  Basically, anything on the inside of the ship we found very enjoyable.  The outer decks were masses of humanity.  Interesting to watch but not how I would spend a sea day.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Georgia_Peaches

[Georgia_Peaches]

7 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

However, I think the YC experience would be worth the extra money. 

I'm always hesitant to give "worth" to other people's money and how they should spend it but in this case, I will 100% do so.  the YC experience is worth the extra money.  DH is convinced that it is his favorite category in which to cruise and we've cruised them all.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Georgia_Peaches