Nov 20th Seashore Live(ish) review - Retreater goes Yacht Clubbing for 1st time

[ashleyriley]

We are also fans of the Retreat on Celebrity and the Haven on NCL. We are booked to try MSC YC on the Seashore and now I am not so sure that's a good idea...Thank you for this review. I really hope the service and experience gets better for you. 

[1Virgo]

Thank you for such detailed reviews.  Giving us food for thought

we are Celebrity Elite, either Aqua or Retreat and disappointed with the changes being made, so we are looking at booking elsewhere.    Thanks for taking the time to post

[Cruzinforpeace***]

On 11/21/2023 at 8:19 AM, go.without.you said:

We left Port Canaveral about 8 last night and we were supposed to arrive in Ocean Cay at 7 but that's been delayed until 930.

I still cannot believe the horrible parents from last night. And I didn't even mention the baby at the other table that cried thru the entire dinner service.

A couple at the other table ordered the prime rib medium, said he couldn't even chew it and then got another option. Like I told them, I don't hate kids. I hate crappy parents. 

We have decided that yesterday was just a bad day for the crew and we are moving forward with positivity. 

 

How many kids do you have?

[Rickrick2020]

I am a sommelier (level 1) trained by the court of master sommeliers.  The wine in the YC is strictly grocery store offering.  I would say one step above barefoot wine.  The pinot grigio was good, mellow was meh.  $ were not spent by msc on wine. Cozumel Beach club was magnificent.

[go.without.you]

9 hours ago, Cruzinforpeace*** said:

How many kids do you have?

I don't have any kids by choice but if I did I would clean up after them in public like I do my dog. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by go.without.you

[go.without.you]

Today was a chill day. Breakfast and lunch at the YC buffet. Nothing to report here except that Celebrity makes a much better burger, hands down. 

 

We had facials today (nice) which caused us to be late for dinner so we weren't seated in Jesca's section. Boo.

 

Dinner tonight I had the spring rolls which were tasty and we shared the "Baltimore" crab cake. Ok, unless you've actually HAD a Baltimore crab cake then you cannot make any old crabcake and call it that. I lived there for over 10 years, when you know you know. A true Baltimore crab cake is made with lump crab meat, which was not what this was. I liked the panko breading which was nice and crispy, the crab part was very finely shredded and the crab flavor just wasn't there. We order the crab cake knowing it's not going to be what we expect so we aren't disappointed. For example imagine ordering a hamburger and you get a slice of baloney on white bread.

 

We both had the short ribs which was probably one of the best entrees so far. We shared the lobster ravioli and I would have been disappointed had that been my main entree. It was sitting on a red sauce, which is not normally not served with a red sauce. The filling was a bit mushy and had a fishy after taste, not a fan. 

 

I had the crispy tulip for dessert which was phillo dough filled with banana ice cream and strawberries. It was light and hit the spot. I'm not a fan of coffee and 3 of the desserts tonight included a coffee flavor. Gross. Can they please just have a chocolate cake without coffee? Or a chocolate anything without coffee? Please? Speaking of chocolate, last night Edi left us 4 chocolates that were amazing. I did save 2 for Janelle so I'm not a total monster. 

 

We went to the show "Gravity" which was "supposed to transport us to another planet". Here's what I got out of it. Glenda the good witch was trying to get the attention of Kazoo from the Flintstones. They sang a song then there was a guy that did a cool balancing act. More Kazoo and Glenda then 2 ladies being very flexible did their thing, which was amazing followed by a couple that did cool poses while being suspended from ropes. They were quite impressive. Kazoo kept touching a giant hula hoop but never actually did anything with it. They sung Titanium and it was over. You can see why I'm not a Broadway review writer. 

 

Tomorrow is our last full day and at sea. This cruise didn't start out that great but I'm not hating it. 

[go.without.you]

7 hours ago, Rickrick2020 said:

I am a sommelier (level 1) trained by the court of master sommeliers.  The wine in the YC is strictly grocery store offering.  I would say one step above barefoot wine.  The pinot grigio was good, mellow was meh.  $ were not spent by msc on wine. Cozumel Beach club was magnificent.

Totally agree! Sommelier is such a hard course, probably why there are so few that are certified. 

[PTC DAWG]

On 11/22/2023 at 4:58 PM, Cashsmoney said:

   I’m not a “buffet” person by any means. I normally avoid them opting for a sit down meals. (Person preference). I would say the YC pool buffet has been the most consistent, and decent quality food yet. Nothing super fancy, but perfect pool side food. 

Having recently sailed, Seaside, I totally agree…

 

My Wife and I a great YC experience in September of this year…totally different than OP for sure. 

[Cashsmoney]

On 11/23/2023 at 11:48 PM, ashleyriley said:

We are also fans of the Retreat on Celebrity and the Haven on NCL. We are booked to try MSC YC on the Seashore and now I am not so sure that's a good idea...Thank you for this review. I really hope the service and experience gets better for you. 

We have also sailed Haven on NCL, the suites on RC, and trying the Celebrity Retreat next month. This is my second MSC YC, they have been consistently the lowest in food, service and entertainment quality. However they normally are significantly cheaper. So if you cruise often and don’t need to “check all the boxes” on every cruise then sure MSC is fine. However if the price is similar to another line I would cancel and book on that. 
 

MSC is very inconsistent. Why risk getting a bad cruise from them. 

[Mediterranean_Honeymooner]

If you are still on board, would you mind to pop by the arcade/VR section and find out the height requirements for the simulators (Formula One car and Run the River rafting)?  I would greatly appreciate it as I’m trying to decide if I should pre-purchase the Fun Pass.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Mediterranean_Honeymooner

[go.without.you]

I wasn't able to get online at all yesterday. Every 30 minutes I would get a notification to connect to MSC wifi and then it still wouldn't work. If I had a dollar for every time I signed in yesterday it would have paid for my wifi. Not kidding, over 20 times.

[go.without.you]

So disembarkation was a hot mess. We chose to walk off with our bags so our butler takes us and 2 other passengers down the elevator to 6. Then we had to walk against traffic all the way to the middle of the ship like salmon swimming upstream. We went right up to the front of the line and gen pop was a little salty about it. So I get to the point where I have to scan my card to leave the ship and the guy says something about $19 and "go see the guy at the table". Oh for the love of all that is holy!!! I asked at the table why I was called there but he didn't speak English. Or pretended not to. So what was the purpose of me entering my credit card info on the app before I boarded the ship? All the guy did was pull up my account and then dismissed me.

 

MSC does some dumb crap. Seriously. But the elevator override worked great as well as the wristbands. No idea who the captain or any officers were because none of that info was provided. I'm used to the captain making a daily announcement but ours never did. There was a definite lack of communication on this ship that I have never experienced before. 

 

So overall I'm very disappointed about this trip but I still enjoyed it and had a good time. 

 

I'm doing Celebrity next month but in Aqua class because Retreat was double the price of aqua.  Their pricing is ridiculous. I did place a move up bid, so we'll see.

[Sundiego]

I sooo appreciate you taking the time to "document" your travels. We board Dec 3rd for 10 days. We have sailed the Haven and also have three previous YC experiences that were really enjoyable. We are prepared for the worst but hoping for the best. 

 

Denise

[Sundiego]

4 minutes ago, go.without.you said:

So disembarkation was a hot mess. We chose to walk off with our bags so our butler takes us and 2 other passengers down the elevator to 6. Then we had to walk against traffic all the way to the middle of the ship like salmon swimming upstream. We went right up to the front of the line and gen pop was a little salty about it.

I don't remember our experiences on YC (pre-Covid), but I know on Haven they use a service elevator and take you all the way to the gangplank area where they swipe your card. You never actually see the "gen pop" line. 

[Two Wheels Only]

On 11/25/2023 at 8:02 AM, PTC DAWG said:

My Wife and I a great YC experience in September of this year…totally different than OP for sure. 

My previous Yacht Club cruises (including Seashore) were great, too. I’ll be back on Seashore in a few weeks so I’ll see if my experience is like my previous experience or if it’s like the OP’s. 

[go.without.you]

3 hours ago, Sundiego said:

I don't remember our experiences on YC (pre-Covid), but I know on Haven they use a service elevator and take you all the way to the gangplank area where they swipe your card. You never actually see the "gen pop" line. 

That's how Celebrity does it too. It was just so awkward going against the current to get to the exit point.

[jcpc]

5 minutes ago, go.without.you said:

That's how Celebrity does it too. It was just so awkward going against the current to get to the exit point.

I've never taken a Celebrity cruise where they use a "service type elevator".....it's always been mixed in with the non-Retreat folks.  On Summit in Bayonne you definitely exit from a different ship door onto Deck 4 but at the point where you cross over the gangway you are mixing in with the other folks.  The Retreat Concierge escorts you to the point where you "mix in" and then you're on your own!

[DaKahuna]

5 hours ago, go.without.you said:

I wasn't able to get online at all yesterday. Every 30 minutes I would get a notification to connect to MSC wifi and then it still wouldn't work. If I had a dollar for every time I signed in yesterday it would have paid for my wifi. Not kidding, over 20 times.

 

 It was not on MSC but on one of our B2B's, we lost shipboard WiFi access the morning of TAD and was not able to connect until around noon when the IT department got WiFi set up for the new cruise. 

 

 Found it interesting.  Hopefully, I'll meet the officer in charge of IT on our upcoming cruise and have a nice discussion with him about various technical things. 

 

[BeeeJay]

Great report and totally appreciated---spent 5 weeks on Seascape 10/15-11/18, 2 in yacht club, 3 in gen pop. Now on Emerald Princess---a super old ship and the food, service, and overall experience, while certainly dated, is comparable quality to my MSC yacht club experience.  

 

I absolutely LOVE MSC Seascape, ship and staff are amazing, but its incredibly obvious the company puts their people in a bad position to deliver, especially at the top end.  It just reeks of corporate cost controls.  The liquor selection is absolute trash.  The food is just bad.  Yacht club restaurant dinner service is a travesty.   BUT it IS super cheap for what it is.  And that's a niche.  

 

I think you just need to go into MSC YC with proper expectations and do some CC research so you have the proper knowledge of a few tricks to improve your experience.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

45 minutes ago, BeeeJay said:

Great report and totally appreciated---spent 5 weeks on Seascape 10/15-11/18, 2 in yacht club, 3 in gen pop. Now on Emerald Princess---a super old ship and the food, service, and overall experience, while certainly dated, is comparable quality to my MSC yacht club experience.  

 

I absolutely LOVE MSC Seascape, ship and staff are amazing, but its incredibly obvious the company puts their people in a bad position to deliver, especially at the top end.  It just reeks of corporate cost controls.  The liquor selection is absolute trash.  The food is just bad.  Yacht club restaurant dinner service is a travesty.   BUT it IS super cheap for what it is.  And that's a niche.  

 

I think you just need to go into MSC YC with proper expectations and do some CC research so you have the proper knowledge of a few tricks to improve your experience.

I agree.   If you’re paying 1/2 the money you have to expect it’s not going to be a truly 5 star experience.  You will be pleasantly surprised when things occasionally exceed that expectation.  I do think MSC knows they’re in a really great position to capture those of us from other cruise lines tired of paying exhorbitant pricing with increasingly less service and quality.  They are “finding their way” in the American market.  Don’t be surprised if prices go up as quality goes up.

[JAGR]

I mentioned this earlier. I'm wondering if this sailing was an outlier for MSC YC.  It was the first sailing after a TA cruise. and I've seen posts before from people who were not pleased with new cruises after TA crossings, Typically, the crew are smaller for service during the sailing, and if MSC had delays or problems in ramping up or onboarding staff, that could be the reason for many of the service issues that @go.without.you experienced.

[go.without.you]

2 hours ago, jcpc said:

I've never taken a Celebrity cruise where they use a "service type elevator".....it's always been mixed in with the non-Retreat folks.  On Summit in Bayonne you definitely exit from a different ship door onto Deck 4 but at the point where you cross over the gangway you are mixing in with the other folks.  The Retreat Concierge escorts you to the point where you "mix in" and then you're on your own!

Never used a service elevator on Celebrity but they had a back door from retreat lounge that took you to the deck. 

[go.without.you]

51 minutes ago, JAGR said:

I mentioned this earlier. I'm wondering if this sailing was an outlier for MSC YC.  It was the first sailing after a TA cruise. and I've seen posts before from people who were not pleased with new cruises after TA crossings, Typically, the crew are smaller for service during the sailing, and if MSC had delays or problems in ramping up or onboarding staff, that could be the reason for many of the service issues that @go.without.you experienced.

This was the 2nd cruise after the TA, they had a 3 day before ours. It did seem like they were understaffed. 

[go.without.you]

2 hours ago, BeeeJay said:

I think you just need to go into MSC YC with proper expectations and do some CC research so you have the proper knowledge of a few tricks to improve your experience.

The whole reason I booked MSC was after reading all the wonderful reviews on here!! Every single review I read that compared YC to Retreat all said the same thing. "Better service, great food, exceeded our expectations, etc", the total opposite of what we had this past week. We spoke to several passengers in YC that had sailed MSC before and they were all disappointed too.

[jcpc]

19 hours ago, go.without.you said:

The whole reason I booked MSC was after reading all the wonderful reviews on here!! Every single review I read that compared YC to Retreat all said the same thing. "Better service, great food, exceeded our expectations, etc", the total opposite of what we had this past week. We spoke to several passengers in YC that had sailed MSC before and they were all disappointed too.

@go.without.you It's really too bad that you had such an awful experience.  Honestly, it was the complete opposite of what we experienced on Meraviglia in September.  But for all I know I may have your exact same experience on my next Meraviglia sailing in February.  I really do believe nowadays it's "hit and miss" with these cruise lines.......one week it's perfect and three weeks later it's awful. It does sound as if you tried to make the best of it, which is really all you can do.  Hopefully your next cruise will be better.