SeaScape YC Review: Nov 25th to Dec 2nd, a Retrospective

[Avatar345]

People like reviews and I'm here to deliver!

 

Some quick background: Used to cruise about once or twice a year for near a decade from 2013'ish and prior... took a breather from it as our vacation focus changed, but came back for the first time a few weeks ago ostensibly for the purpose of having my GF's mother take a cruise, which she'd never done and always wanted to. Previous experience is a bunch of Carnival cruises in the Caribbean, Princess in Alaska, Celebrity in the Med and also the Caribbean a few times, and NCL in Hawaii. 

 

Ok.

 

So... when originally looking to book in Jan of this year, my inclination was to go with Celebrity for her but... a) the prices at the time, and b) some of the reviews concerning downgrades in service, food, etc (across the entire industry) got me thinking outside of the box. After reading a bunch of reviews, and especially some of the Yacht Club v Celebrity reviews that were burning through this site at the time, ultimately it seemed like Yacht Club on Seascape was the play. And there were a lot of other reasons why that particular sailing made sense as well, but it just seemed to line up

 

I'm going to give a brief synopsis of the various ship aspects here and I'll try to go more in depth on each of them in follow-on posts, but just to get things started:

 

1) The ship itself. It's a good looking ship! And it's pretty straightforward to traverse as well. There are some strange areas where you *think* you should be able to walk straight through where you come to some sort of roadblock, but overall for its size it's really not bad. This is the largest ship we've ever been on, Equinox probably being second place. 

 

2) Embarkation in Yacht Club is beyond easy compared to even the well-organized efforts on cruises past. I think it was like 15m total for a party of 5? I don't know... it was fast. Embarkation outside of Yacht Club looked more... tense. And they do need to work on the logistics/pathways of the butler escorts to the Yacht Club, because as it stands now it's a lot of treading on the toes of others. Maybe with the new terminal come 2024 they'll be able to keep those lines separate to an extent, I don't know. But kind of being shuttled through existing crowds with a fear/panic of being cut off from the escort isn't exactly 100% there yet.

 

3) We were in two Grand Deluxe Staterooms and they are awesome. The closet rules, the layout is functional/intelligent, the finishes are great, and the balconies likewise feel very spacious. Certainly out happiest experience with a stateroom ever to date. One thing I want to comment on as well that I never see brought up - YES there is some sound transmission from the pool deck above from moving chairs around in the early morning, but the sound insulation *between* the rooms themselves is really, really good. I don't know if the sound insulation throughout the whole ship is on that level, but in Yacht Club at least, it was truly awesome. In my opinion. 

 

4) Yacht Club areas. Really truly special I think, the YC pool area and the lounge. The lounge is a huge winner, and honestly one could imagine just spending their entire cruise hanging out on deck 16 Forward. Loved the whole thing. 

 

5) Entertainment. I was prepared for terrible entertainment having read a bunch of MSC reviews previous to this trip, but... the entertainment was good! And for a cruise ship, I daresay great. Certainly on the level of cheaper Vegas productions (which is a win in my opinion). I think there were a few shows that with some fine tuning would be solid 'A's.' And the Yacht Club aspect of being able to always have a seat if we wanted one provided we got there before show commencement, was great. 

 

6) Food. There were a couple of 'glitches' I'd say with the cruise overall (but really very minor), but I'm going to linger on the food aspect for awhile. To start off by pulling no punches, I'll simply say that Carnival Valor for instance circa ~2010 in steerage blew this out of the water in terms of the dining room experience. I don't know what else to say on that... and whether to chalk it up to the industry writ large or what. I'm just focused on the YC dining room here, as the pool deck and the lounge were always very positive experiences, largely because they met/exceeded what the expectations would be there, respectively. There were winning dishes, to be sure, and I'll focus on them in my expanded thoughts, but there were just some lackluster items as well. And for us at least, service especially was totally exasperating at times. The main culprit here was that we had a heavy rotation of servers and such, everyone helping out, yes, but no one person fully in charge it seemed. Things that would make me crazy were we were traveling with a 2-yr old, and it goes best for everyone in the party, on the waitstaff, and in the dining room overall when there's just something presented immediately to grab a child's attention... but the child's item would *always* lag. And then situations where a drink and dessert order would be placed in tandem, and the desserts come out like 20m before the drinks/coffees do, and like... I'll still never know if they showed up because we simply left after a time. It's hard to coordinate a dining room staff of course not knowing how many tables will be active at once, but there needs to be better coordination there in that space, somehow. More broadly, I need to understand what is going on with food service/quality across the industry, because again, I'm comparing this to Carnival of 15 years ago and finding it wanting, not even to the Celebrity cruises I was on. 

 

7) Miscellaneous. The Kids Club features on MSC are great in my mind, and really worth taking advantage of wherever possible. Always nice to have an in-built daycare that doesn't cost anything additional. The ship itself had a *lot* going on, especially in the evening. Spent some time in one of the lounges a few nights, I forget the name, and we visited the white party on the aft of the ship and some of the other spaces. Didn't even think to explore some of this stuff until about halfway through the cruise, and next time we'll try to poke around more. But the reason why you wouldn't is just because really that YC lounge itself is so awesome.

 

8) In conclusion for the ~$2500/pp paid (child was free) I would definitely do it again, and I'm looking to get the next one on the books sometime soon. The prices *do* seem to be going up in YC generally, and some of the other cruises I was comparing it to last time before coming in favor of YC do themselves seem to be more reasonably priced these days than they were, so... some of that price motivation is melting away it seems. If it's Retreat or Haven vs Yacht Club though, Yacht Club is still winning. But the experience just really was a very positive one, and just the whole shielding from the madness provided a completely different type of vibe. Would I do MSC outside of Yacht Club? Hard to say... I think the value is absolutely there. The cruiser I was fifteen years ago would be a definite "yes." But I wouldn't do it outside of Yacht Club with my GF's mom and her aunt, for instance. You have to be prepared for frenetic activity and lines, and some people are better suited to that than others. 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Avatar345

[SeasideMemories]

Nice review!! Completely agree with your assessment of the need for some change to the embarkation process. We sailed Dec 9-16 and the process went very smoothly until we got to the line to ring our cards through to get on the ship. There was no separate line and the poor butler had to ask people to step aside to let us pass. At one point a couple of passengers waiting in line purposely stepped over and blocked half of us from getting through! They had to send someone back to get them to move and retrieve the rest of the group. It got resolved but that awkward situation could be avoided with a bit better procedure. We had some pretty wild weather but it was a really great cruise overall!

[bundtkate]

4 hours ago, Avatar345 said:

And they do need to work on the logistics/pathways of the butler escorts to the Yacht Club, because as it stands now it's a lot of treading on the toes of others. Maybe with the new terminal come 2024 they'll be able to keep those lines separate to an extent, I don't know. But kind of being shuttled through existing crowds with a fear/panic of being cut off from the escort isn't exactly 100% there yet.

I think the terminal matters a lot here. We sailed in the Haven about a year ago on NCL and had a similar experience, but this was out of PC where I don't think NCL has its own terminal. All the signage around the terminal was Carnival-branded so clearly borrowed space. Butlers were parading us past others with a Haven lollipop and the whole thing was a bit unsettling for me. I get you pay for that treatment and there are probably some that enjoy it, but it felt like being on display and I seriously might have rather just joined the line going up the ramp. 😅

[momofmab]

I was a first time YC guest on the December 2nd cruise and agree with your comments on embarkation.  Very awkward to have to keep up with the butler, who is cutting the line in a very confined space with a group of 12 people. The people we were budging past were not happy.  I felt a bit like Cersei from the Game of Thrones scene..."Shame!  Shame!..."  I know some will proudly hold their heads high (because they paid to cut the line), but its not my jam.  Thankfully, disembarkation was less awkward because we were going against the long line of non-YC passengers, so it didn't look like we were cutting.

 

YC food for us was hit or miss.  I stuck with the pasta dishes and found those to be very good.  My husband has simple food tastes and was not able to find much that he liked during the week other than the made-to-order items on the pool deck buffet.  We also had difficulty getting coffee after our dinner in a timely manner.  Unfortunately, even though we found the YC facilities and staff to be awesome during our cruise, the food issue will likely keep my husband from another MSC cruise.

 

We also missed taking advantage of the whole ship as the few times we ventured out of YC, we didn't enjoy the crowds.

[Avatar345]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:34 PM, SeasideMemories said:

Nice review!! Completely agree with your assessment of the need for some change to the embarkation process. We sailed Dec 9-16 and the process went very smoothly until we got to the line to ring our cards through to get on the ship. There was no separate line and the poor butler had to ask people to step aside to let us pass. At one point a couple of passengers waiting in line purposely stepped over and blocked half of us from getting through! They had to send someone back to get them to move and retrieve the rest of the group. It got resolved but that awkward situation could be avoided with a bit better procedure. We had some pretty wild weather but it was a really great cruise overall!

 

Yes definitely... it's awkward! One of the things you look forward to when paying up is the speed that's promised, and yes that's there, but you would also like "relaxing" to be part of the equation also, and the butler shuttling you through the embarkation lines can be generously described as frenetic and anxiety inducing. 

 

Hoping the new terminal makes it less stressful for everybody, because I don't envy either the butlers, the YC passengers, or the other guests whose toes are being tread on in this situation

[Avatar345]

On 12/19/2023 at 5:38 AM, momofmab said:

I was a first time YC guest on the December 2nd cruise and agree with your comments on embarkation.  Very awkward to have to keep up with the butler, who is cutting the line in a very confined space with a group of 12 people. The people we were budging past were not happy.  I felt a bit like Cersei from the Game of Thrones scene..."Shame!  Shame!..."  I know some will proudly hold their heads high (because they paid to cut the line), but its not my jam.  Thankfully, disembarkation was less awkward because we were going against the long line of non-YC passengers, so it didn't look like we were cutting.

 

YC food for us was hit or miss.  I stuck with the pasta dishes and found those to be very good.  My husband has simple food tastes and was not able to find much that he liked during the week other than the made-to-order items on the pool deck buffet.  We also had difficulty getting coffee after our dinner in a timely manner.  Unfortunately, even though we found the YC facilities and staff to be awesome during our cruise, the food issue will likely keep my husband from another MSC cruise.

 

We also missed taking advantage of the whole ship as the few times we ventured out of YC, we didn't enjoy the crowds.

 

LOL great reference with the Cersei thing there! 

 

Yeah I'd love to explore the food thing some more here because for me, the pasta was good at times but too heavy handed at others... thinking specifically about their clam-based dishes here. 

 

And the coffee at the end of the meal... that just really has to come together more cohesively, because it ends up leaving a sour taste in your mouth at the end of the meal, where it really should be the opposite. And the sour taste is not from the coffee, which I will say the actual beverages on the ship were excellent!

 

PS - BTW, with respect to the food issue and your husband, what cruise line and/or class would you be considering as an alternative? Always curious

Edited December 20, 2023 by Avatar345

[momofmab]

16 hours ago, Avatar345 said:

PS - BTW, with respect to the food issue and your husband, what cruise line and/or class would you be considering as an alternative? Always curious

He's always been happy with the food on NCL, RCCL and X.  He's not a foodie and doesn't like fancy ingredients.  A meat & potatoes guy who's also 100% Italian, so he's very critical of that cuisine in particular.

Edited December 21, 2023 by momofmab

[bucfan2]

22 minutes ago, momofmab said:

He's always been happy with the food on NCL, RCCL and X.  He's not a foodie and doesn't like fancy ingredients.  A meat & potatoes guy who's also 100% Italian, so he's very critical of that cuisine in particular.

Not a foodie, yet very critical of Italian cuisine...interesting.  I have no idea what to expect of our upcoming cruise, particularly regarding food.  I realize it's subjective, and we have yet to be disappointed w/ the food on any line, but some of these reviews have me wondering.

[momofmab]

21 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

Not a foodie, yet very critical of Italian cuisine...interesting.  I have no idea what to expect of our upcoming cruise, particularly regarding food.  I realize it's subjective, and we have yet to be disappointed w/ the food on any line, but some of these reviews have me wondering.

 

He doesn't like any fancy tweaks to his Italian food (but wouldn't be caught dead in an Olive Garden).  One night in YC, I had the pasta with duck bolognaise.  The duck threw him for a loop and he chose another entree.  After trying my dish, he ended up liking the duck 🤦‍♀️  He's an enigma for sure!

[psmarkle]

On 12/21/2023 at 6:44 AM, bucfan2 said:

Not a foodie, yet very critical of Italian cuisine...interesting.  I have no idea what to expect of our upcoming cruise, particularly regarding food.  I realize it's subjective, and we have yet to be disappointed w/ the food on any line, but some of these reviews have me wondering.

 

I am a foodie of sorts and I do the cooking at home, and I'm a pretty solid cook. Don't know if this helps any, but I go on a cruise with a vacation mindset, meaning as long as I'm not doing the cooking, cleaning, and there are plenty of cocktails, then I'm definitely going to have a good time!

 

I've posted on other threads here, I'm a carnivore, so there are some nights where I'm not thrilled with the menu, but in the YC you have the "everyday steak" option which is a filet mignon (ok, tech a beef tenderloin on the menu...same thing to me!). In the MDR, it's a NY strip and I have not seen great reviews on that one. You can also request another dish if you're not happy with what you ordered...I've done that about 1 night every cruise. And if all of that fails, there's the pizza! In fact, in the YC, you gotta order the free room service pizza at least once...it's not the same as the buffet. YUM-O!

 

So for me, I don't fret the food as I know there are so many options and no dishes to wash afterwards 😋

[George C]

We do two cruises a year always in suites, yacht club is the best bang for the buck , did one before Covid , had one cancelled during Covid and looking forward to returning next December. We did enjoy going to listen to a jazz group outside of YC and also a sports bar and some other entertainment.