Seascape - 10 Sep 2023 - First Time MSC - Yacht Club Review

[BeeeJay]

40 minutes ago, ajusaf said:

 

 

HUGE---thanks so much  took me 2 minutes I had no idea I could get that back---first free drink in Yacht Club bar is on me! 🙂

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by BeeeJay

[ajusaf]

28 minutes ago, BeeeJay said:

 

HUGE---thanks so much  took me 2 minutes I had no idea I could get that back---first free drink in Yacht Club bar is on me! 🙂

 

LOL, since its free I'll get u a drink also lol.  BTW how many drinks do we get for free a day I'm not much of an alcohol drinker, but I am curious lol 

[BeeeJay]

5 minutes ago, ajusaf said:

LOL, since its free I'll get u a drink also lol.  BTW how many drinks do we get for free a day I'm not much of an alcohol drinker, but I am curious lol 

 

unlimited.  I'm gonna try to keep it reasonable since I'm on a bunch of back to backs and don't have time for a liver transplant in Miami between sailings lol

[ajusaf]

5 minutes ago, BeeeJay said:

 

unlimited.  I'm gonna try to keep it reasonable since I'm on a bunch of back to backs and don't have time for a liver transplant in Miami between sailings lol

LOL, MSC will save alot with me since I rarely drink, but I will have some wine here and there with some fine dining.  Are you doing any excursions?   I'm still deciding one a couple but I don't always do them since i've been out on most ports already except for PR and Puerto plata

[Fighterone]

11 minutes ago, ajusaf said:

LOL, MSC will save alot with me since I rarely drink,.  Are you doing any excursions?   I'm still deciding one a couple but I don't always do them since i've been out on most ports already except for PR and Puerto plata

I'm sure we'll make up for it the DH and I as we will be celebrating. Yes to the wines also! 

 

No excursions for us, I stay on board but the DH likes to visit old ports and will get another look at Puerto Plata which he did not get to enjoy the last time we were there. 

 

How many in your party? 

[ajusaf]

6 minutes ago, Fighterone said:

I'm sure we'll make up for it the DH and I as we will be celebrating. Yes to the wines also! 

 

No excursions for us, I stay on board but the DH likes to visit old ports and will get another look at Puerto Plata which he did not get to enjoy the last time we were there. 

 

How many in your party? 

What does DH stand for? Two me in party since others couldn't make it due to work schedule. i have a couple of friends going to the same spots on the same days but with RC.

[BeeeJay]

25 minutes ago, ajusaf said:

LOL, MSC will save alot with me since I rarely drink, but I will have some wine here and there with some fine dining.  Are you doing any excursions?   I'm still deciding one a couple but I don't always do them since i've been out on most ports already except for PR and Puerto plata

 

Going solo, their quarterly earnings will likely be impacted by my drink consumption, short the stock. 😉

 

I've booked some Coconut Cove Beach Breakin DR on 10/17 and golf at Ocean Club in bahamas on 10/20 and at North Sound in Cayman on 10/26.  Might try to see if I can add some add'l golf via the Yacht Club concierge.    I'm planning to stay onboard for some of the ports I've been to many times.

 

DH is either Designated Hitter or Dear Husband, depending on how you swing your bat. 🙂

[Hutcha]

On 9/22/2023 at 3:59 PM, awatt said:

Am confused re cabanas. On Meraviglia you rented them. Not so on Seascape?

 

On 9/22/2023 at 4:28 PM, Best Cat Mom said:

Is this different on Seascape from Seaside? On Seaside, you reserve the "extra" cabanas with the YC concierge for the entire day. Only one cabin gets each cabana each day and a sign is put on the cabana stating "Reserved."

The only cabanas that had reserved signs on them were the 4 immediately around the pool. I confirmed with the pool attendant that the others were FCFS.

[Fighterone]

17 minutes ago, ajusaf said:

What does DH stand for? Two me in party since others couldn't make it due to work schedule. i have a couple of friends going to the same spots on the same days but with RC.

DH+ dear husband 

[Best Cat Mom]

40 minutes ago, Hutcha said:

I confirmed with the pool attendant that the others were FCFS.

On Seaside, we had a B2B and reserved a cabana for one day of our first cruise. Then we reserved one each day of the second cruise before the new passengers boarded since we knew that we would not be leaving the ship at the ports (except for lunch on Ocean Cay). There were only 2 YC cabins doing a B2B and the concierge encouraged us to reserve for all days, just like the other B2B cabin had already done.

 

FCFS seems especially tough for the butlers. Our butler would see us each morning when we had a cabana reserved and let us know that he had set it up with towels and our preferred beverages. If FCFS leads to multiple people in a cabana each day, the butlers would be extremely busy up there.

[Hutcha]

Wow! I did not realize that it's been almost a week since my last post. My apologies.

 

Today's Dailies...

 

 

Tonight was Gala night. After a long nap, which I assure you was not alcohol induced, we got ready for dinner. The dress at the restaurant was definitely improved from the previous nights. No one overly formal and the worst I saw was a polo and jeans.

 

 

Great snails. Very buttery and a good amount of garlic. 5/5

 

Williams salad. We took most chances to get some greens in us. 5/5

 

 

Blue Cheese Souffle. You have to like the flavor of blue cheese, but I agree with the previous reviews that I've seen. Light, fluffy and flavorful. 5/5

 

 

Surf and turf. I did not have a bad steak all week. I'll give a 4.5/5 due to the Caribbean lobster tail. It just doesn't stand up to a main lobster tail.

 

 

Crepe Suzette. A very nice, light desert. 5/5

 

 

Petits Fours. I'm glad we got this one. A very nice selection. 5/5

 

 

We had a late dinner (see previous nap comment), so we did not do much afterwards. We got a few nightcaps, and caught up on some of the shows we were missing from our back home routine. A note on the internet. I was pretty impressed with it. We upgraded to the surf and stream internet. If you do it on day 1, it's $70 for your 2 devices, for the week. It you do it on later days, they prorate it. We had very little problem streaming shows. I'd give the internet a 5/5.

[Hutcha]

11 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

On Seaside, we had a B2B and reserved a cabana for one day of our first cruise. Then we reserved one each day of the second cruise before the new passengers boarded since we knew that we would not be leaving the ship at the ports (except for lunch on Ocean Cay). There were only 2 YC cabins doing a B2B and the concierge encouraged us to reserve for all days, just like the other B2B cabin had already done.

 

FCFS seems especially tough for the butlers. Our butler would see us each morning when we had a cabana reserved and let us know that he had set it up with towels and our preferred beverages. If FCFS leads to multiple people in a cabana each day, the butlers would be extremely busy up there.

I rarely saw a butler on the pool deck during the day. There was the occasional butler that was on bar waiter duty, but really no one attending to their guests personally. There were pool attendants and multiple bar waiters to take care of you. FCFS worked really well and there was usually at least one open cabana. Being able to reserve is a nice benefit, but I can see it being frustrating to look at multiple empty cabanas, because the people that reserved them decided to not show up or only show for a brief visit. 

[Best Cat Mom]

1 minute ago, Hutcha said:

I rarely saw a butler on the pool deck during the day.

We saw ours quite a bit, though he was not attired in the "regular" butler clothing. He was dressed appropriately for the 95+ degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. There may have been more butlers around than you realized.

[ajusaf]

4 hours ago, Best Cat Mom said:

We saw ours quite a bit, though he was not attired in the "regular" butler clothing. He was dressed appropriately for the 95+ degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. There may have been more butlers around than you realized.

any recommendations for new YClubber's?  Seems very similar to Haven but MSC is a different entity.   I'm in a good floor regarding access to Marketplace, Jungle pool and TOP sail (16th floor).

[Best Cat Mom]

1 hour ago, ajusaf said:

any recommendations for new YClubber's?  Seems very similar to Haven but MSC is a different entity.

After our first MSC YC cruise in 2018, we never went back to Haven. The food was the biggest improvement to us. We had only traveled on NCL ships with "mini" Havens (the ones with no dedicated Haven restaurant) so we had the same lunch menu every day and no Haven restaurant for dinner.  YC had different menus every day for lunch and dinner plus the ability to special order just about anything with a little advance notice. We've been hooked ever since. The other plus for us was the Italian aspect. We've spent over 150 nights in Italy on land-based vacations. Cruising in general is okay to us, but add the Italian aspect and it's perfect for us. NCL cannot match that at all.

 

You should search for other threads here that compare YC to Haven. I recall that there have been a few. Or you can start your own thread and let everyone share anew. 🙂

Edited September 28, 2023 by Best Cat Mom

[ajusaf]

24 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

After our first MSC YC cruise in 2018, we never went back to Haven. The food was the biggest improvement to us. We had only traveled on NCL ships with "mini" Havens (the ones with no dedicated Haven restaurant) so we had the same lunch menu every day and no Haven restaurant for dinner.  YC had different menus every day for lunch and dinner plus the ability to special order just about anything with a little advance notice. We've been hooked ever since.

 

Thanks for the response and I’m surprised to hear that. Even though this time last year I did Divina and Seashore for a total 17 days trips on Bella balcony I enjoyed the food and rooms minus Divina because it was half the size of the beer ship seashore but I didn’t enjoy the boat overall and food.

 

Haven was a better experience but this time around I’ll be able to compare it side by side with YC and will be able to judge it better.  Now the shower in Haven was way bigger and room seems to be wide maybe. I’ll try to post the video here 

[Best Cat Mom]

The Italian component won us over, though we did like the Haven bathroom with double sinks and separate tub/shower. But we were used to small bathrooms in Italy for our land vacations -- and those tub/shower combos that get the entire bathroom wet every time you use them. Lots of folks complain about the things we consider "usual" for an Italian holiday. For example, washcloths. We always packed them since you don't get them in Italy. We were pleasantly surprised to find them in YC.

[ajusaf]

37 minutes ago, Best Cat Mom said:

The Italian component won us over, though we did like the Haven bathroom with double sinks and separate tub/shower. But we were used to small bathrooms in Italy for our land vacations -- and those tub/shower combos that get the entire bathroom wet every time you use them. Lots of folks complain about the things we consider "usual" for an Italian holiday. For example, washcloths. We always packed them since you don't get them in Italy. We were pleasantly surprised to find them in YC.

Actually the size of the YC bathroom looks to be a lot bigger than the bella balcony room but  use to small showers since I have an RV also and sometimes I find them to be cozy so atleast in YC I’ll be enjoying every bit of the experience.  I’m looking forward to it and especially that it’s a 15 day cruise and blessed to have gotten the YC

 

 

have any of you don’t the Jamaica excursion with the dune buggy/waterfall?  Curious how far it is from the port that they drive you to get to the dune buggy

[Hutcha]

20 hours ago, ajusaf said:

Thanks for the response and I’m surprised to hear that. Even though this time last year I did Divina and Seashore for a total 17 days trips on Bella balcony I enjoyed the food and rooms minus Divina because it was half the size of the beer ship seashore but I didn’t enjoy the boat overall and food.

 

Haven was a better experience but this time around I’ll be able to compare it side by side with YC and will be able to judge it better.  Now the shower in Haven was way bigger and room seems to be wide maybe. I’ll try to post the video here 

Haven.MOV

Was that a forward facing accessible penthouse? Don't know if that's an apples to apples comparison to to the base YC balconies. The YC deluxe balcony was a really good size. It was about 50% wider and longer than a normal balcony. The bathroom was smaller than some Haven bathrooms (I had and Aft facing with a great bathroom), but it is still pretty big. The shower had a bench and plenty of room.

 

[ajusaf]

1 hour ago, Hutcha said:

Was that a forward facing accessible penthouse? Don't know if that's an apples to apples comparison to to the base YC balconies. The YC deluxe balcony was a really good size. It was about 50% wider and longer than a normal balcony. The bathroom was smaller than some Haven bathrooms (I had and Aft facing with a great bathroom), but it is still pretty big. The shower had a bench and plenty of

 

No the Haven room I had was not a penthouse.  As a matter of fact it was only a few on deck 13, 14 & 15 that faced forward and aft and the sealed area like yacht club was on the 16th floor and above. So 13-15 were only like a handful of rooms mixed with general population.  

 

I'm looking forward to yacht club.  
 

 

[Hutcha]

Today is Ocho Rios. We have breakfast up at the pool deck and kill a little time until our excursion meeting time. Today, we are doing the Dunn's river fall tour that has sightseeing and lunch attached to it. There was a lot of standing around before getting on the bus, but the tour was definitely worth it, though the sightseeing was a little lame. The climb up the falls was longer than I remembered (I was 30 years younger), but it was not strenuous at all. A photographer follows your group up, and takes video and individual pics along the way. You can pay $40 at the end, and they will email you the edited video of the group and your personal pictures. It was well worth the $40. On the way back, you stop at a beachside resort for lunch. It was a very good meal. On the way back to the ship there is a short stop for shopping. We didn't get off of the bus.

 

I don't know what it is about Ocho Rios, but I've seen pics of long lines to get back onboard before. The lines were definitely real. There was a long line, leading up to a choke point on the pier, before you could break loose from the crowd and find a YC rep. It took us about 30 mins to get back on the ship, and it would have been longer if we couldn't bypass the last part of the line. I think a part of the problem is that they only have one crew member per screening station. This person runs the x-ray, metal detector, and searches bags that they want to pull aside.

 

[Hutcha]

 

Assorted Dumplings. Very good and flavorful 5/5

 

 

Herbed Gravlax Salmon. Loved it. 5/5

 

 

On the first night, Arthur the Maître D ask if we had any special request. I asked if it was possible to get beef wellington one night. He gave me a side eye and smirk and said "I think I saw someone mention that on FB." I'm pretty sure that's where I got the idea. He said he would check with the chef, and the next night he said to let him know which day we would like it. All three of us had it tonight. I was a little worried how the chef would pull it off, not knowing exactly what time we'd come in. He ended up cooking the puff pastry and mushroom separately and then wrapping a perfectly cooked filet with it. It was really good.

 

[Hutcha]

A note on the elevators. They are frustrating. Wait times have been fairly long, but never more than 5 mins or so. My keycard and wristband never worked for priority, and I didn't want to go through the hassle of having them reprogramed. Carly's would occasionally work. When scanned the display would read "VIP - Select floor". Once selected, it would tell you what elevator to get on. We never noticed any "priority" with this service. Even when being escorted off of the ship by a butler, the elevator still stopped at all of the floors, on the way down. As @morpheusofthesea noted in a review, by the end of the cruise, frustrations showed. There were several busted call pads that I noticed on the last couple of days.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, Hutcha said:

I've seen pics of long lines to get back onboard before. The lines were definitely real. There was a long line, leading up to a choke point on the pier, before you could break loose from the crowd and find a YC rep. It took us about 30 mins to get back on the ship, and it would have been longer if we couldn't bypass the last part of the line

well, cr@p. Both my dad and I are screwed.

Were there any wheelchairs available at the peer? I wonder.

[Hutcha]

41 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, cr@p. Both my dad and I are screwed.

Were there any wheelchairs available at the peer? I wonder.

I don't remember if they had them in Ocho Rios. I'm sure they must have.