Celebrity Retreat vs MSC Yacht Club

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

On 3/23/2024 at 8:17 AM, Shadow9612 said:

 

 

CC won't let me delete the quote box above (really annoying that it won't let you do this on Android if you accidentally click Quote), but what I really wanted to say was...

 

Thank you for sharing your experiences @RichYak, lots of great stuff in here that will no doubt help people in the future.

 

I'm currently in YC and we will be cruising in the Retreat on the Equinox across the Med in early June, so I look forward to being able to share my own soon!

[RichYak]

Retreat Lounge vs Top Sail Lounge

 

On most Celebrity ships, the Retreat Lounge is an afterthought. They took a space meant for something else and turned it into a suite lounge. The Top Sail lounge is the hub of Yacht Club. 
 

Some Retreat managers are better about entertainment in the lounge. Top Sail has live music each night—pretty good too. Like the Retreat, there’s a captain’s cocktail party. One day, there was a magician performing sleight of hand tricks. There was also high tea one afternoon. 
 

There are 3 key things that Top Sail has that the Retreat Lounge lacks:

 

1. Bar seating. This is how you meet people or chat with the bartender about different cocktails to try. Huge miss on Celebrity. Retreat lounges are so antisocial. On Summit, there are two seats that face a wall. What are they thinking?
 

2. Full espresso machine. That self serve coffee-pod machine in Celebrity’s lounges just isn’t the same. There’s no need to leave the YC lounge to get Cafe al Bacio style coffee drinks. 
 

3. Constant small bites of food refreshed all day. In Retreat, the area exists but is only used for breakfast and pre-dinner bites. 
 

YC lounge doesn’t have a self serve fridge but it’s not necessary. Your butler will stock your fridge with anything you want and refresh as often as needed. 
 

Unlike the Retreat, seating is comfortable in Top Sail lounge. It’s also more comfortable in the restaurant. No lumbar pillows necessary like in Luminae. 
 

Landslide win for YC’s lounge. No contest. 

Edited March 25 by RichYak

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

I will say we boarded the Seascape fully expecting the YC to win us over for MSC.

 

However, we're at the tail end of our first full day (a sea day) and I will say that Celebrity is definitely the superior experience so far (and we haven't even done the Retreat on Celebrity yet).

 

Celebrity's Retreat may not but the superior enclave experience, but if you don't plan to spend the majority of your time confined to a small YC area, Celebrity seems to have the better product.

 

On the Ascent over Christmas we never felt like we were just one of thousands being herded from place to place, they did a great job of providing everybody on the entire ship with a great experience.

 

We are still hopeful that MSC turns things around (they have 5 more days to do it), but after being turned away at the YC for lunch on embarkation day and them messing up the schedule for our couples massage (which I now don't even think we're going to get to do), MSC just seems woefully prepared to operate a premium experience, YC or not.

 

Hoping they correct things on the rest of our cruise.

Edited March 25 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[Shadow9612]

2 hours ago, RichYak said:

1. Bar seating. This is how you meet people or chat with the bartender about different cocktails to try. Huge miss on Celebrity. Retreat lounges are so antisocial. On Summit, there are two seats that face a wall. What are they thinking?

On Silhouette, in the retreat lounge, I thought there was bar seating (sort of a 'U' shaped bar)....

 

 

[cruisegal1970]

Celebrity's approach to safety is a joke, just lip-service.

[RichYak]

8 hours ago, Shadow9612 said:

On Silhouette, in the retreat lounge, I thought there was bar seating (sort of a 'U' shaped bar)....

 

 

The venue that Celebrity uses for the Retreat lounge on S-Class ships has a bar with seating. The designed-from-scratch Retreat lounges on E-class do not. The M-class venue also has no bar seating. 
 

it’s an unexplainable and huge miss IMO. 

[DaKahuna]

12 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We are still hopeful that MSC turns things around (they have 5 more days to do it), but after being turned away at the YC for lunch on embarkation day and them messing up the schedule for our couples massage (which I now don't even think we're going to get to do), MSC just seems woefully prepared to operate a premium experience, YC or not.

 

Sorry to hear you are not enjoying your YC experience thus far. 

 

Can you expand on being turned away at the YC fir lunch?  What was the reason that you were turned away?  I do know they are pretty strict about their hours of operation so maybe you showed up before or after they had closed?  

Did you speak with the concierge desk about your couples massage reservation?  

 

We were on Divina and although the public areas where crowded we did not have any issues getting drinks when we visited bars outside the YC.  Yes, the public areas of the ship were very crowded but that is not unique to MSC.  However, we did not find maximizing our time in the YC spaces as confining.  

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

5 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

Sorry to hear you are not enjoying your YC experience thus far. 

 

Can you expand on being turned away at the YC fir lunch?  What was the reason that you were turned away?  I do know they are pretty strict about their hours of operation so maybe you showed up before or after they had closed?  

Did you speak with the concierge desk about your couples massage reservation?  

 

We were on Divina and although the public areas where crowded we did not have any issues getting drinks when we visited bars outside the YC.  Yes, the public areas of the ship were very crowded but that is not unique to MSC.  However, we did not find maximizing our time in the YC spaces as confining.  

 

I have a live thread going where I've explained everything indepth... Give it a look!

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2999113-live-from-the-msc-seascape-a-familys-experience-in-the-yacht-club-–-7-night-western-caribbean-–-march-23-30-2024/

[RichYak]

13 hours ago, RichYak said:

Retreat lounges are so antisocial. On Summit, there are two seats that face a wall. What are they thinking?

FYI, here are the seats I was referring to in the quoted post.

 

And by the way, this photo is from Celebrity's own Summit fact sheet. They chose to use this photo--a conscious decision. Two stools facing a wall. They're actually highlighting the antisocial nature of this particular Retreat lounge. Make it make sense.

Edited March 25 by RichYak
Added link to fact sheet

[RichYak]

The last thing I think I need to touch on is Butler service in YC as it compares to the Retreat. At the Captain's cocktail party, all of the butlers were introduced. I didn't really count, but there had to be around 10 of them. There are 92 YC cabins on Meraviglia or 9 cabins for each butler. When you compare that to recent threads referring to one butler covering 20-30 sky suites on X, the difference is clear.

 

Our butler was fantastic. He made sure we had wine and cheese every night in our cabin. There was a fruit bowl, occasional macarons, more still and sparkling water than we could drink (not limited to the head-scratching 2 bottles like on my last Sky Suite sailing), whatever we wanted. My wife mentioned the dates she enjoyed as one of the small plates served in the lounge. The next day, there was a box of dates in our stateroom.

 

Butler service in YC blows away X Sky Suite butler service, or what's left of it, and is more on par with upper suite butler service.

 

I think overall, if you enjoy the comforts and perks of upper suites on Celebrity, MSC YC might not meet your needs. If you regularly sail in Sky Suites, you'll be very happy sailing YC with better facilities than Celebrity ships as a whole, and with better service, AND a lower price.

 

Thanks for following along.

 

[George C]

11 minutes ago, RichYak said:

FYI, here are the seats I was referring to in the quoted post.

 

And by the way, this photo is from Celebrity's own Summit fact sheet. They chose to use this photo--a conscious decision. Two stools facing a wall. They're actually highlighting the antisocial nature of this particular Retreat lounge. Make it make sense.

I don’t recall seeing that and we just got off Summit Thursday, there was a table for four right next to bar with a sea view that we sat at almost every day . Service was spectacular never had to wait for more than a minute to get a drink and no problem getting doubles (which we also got at yacht club) . One morning they opened a bottle of Mumm’s champagne for us for our after breakfast drinks. Concierge was very helpful , we are looking forward to returning to MSc seaside in early December in yacht club . Since we were in a royal suite we did get two liters of liquor of our choice, plus free specialty restaurants. 

[RichYak]

54 minutes ago, George C said:

I don’t recall seeing that and we just got off Summit Thursday

Maybe someone got smart and finally removed the stools. This YT video from March 2022 shows the stools on both sides of the center wall.

 

56 minutes ago, George C said:

Service was spectacular never had to wait for more than a minute to get a drink and no problem getting doubles (which we also got at yacht club)

Service has always been very good in the Retreat Lounge for me. In some cases, it's been spectacular.

[Texed]

Thanks to all that contributed to this thread.  😊

[jcpc]

@RichYak Thank you so much for posting your thoughts on your YC experience.  I enjoyed reading your posts and agree with just about everything you posted.

 

Re the 2 chairs on Summit facing the wall -- I was a frequent SM cruiser and, yes, they've been there in that position on every one of my sailings.  Plus, the chairs in the Retreat Lounge on SM are, as a rule, very uncomfortable in general!

 

I usually sailed in a Royal Suite on Summit (but have been in all suite categories from Sky Suite to Penthouse on various Celebrity ships) but I believe the attention to detail that was shown on my two Meraviglia sailings in YC far surpassed anything I've experienced recently on Celebrity.  I will, however, say that once outside the YC the MSC experience is not really for me.  Going to the shows in the Broadway Theater and Carousel Lounge was just the perfect amount of "exposure" to MSC cruising for me.  Other than YC, I much prefer the overall "ambience" of Celebrity ships vs MSC ships.

 

Again, thanks for your comments and I hope you're looking forward to your next cruise.

 

 

 

Edited March 25 by jcpc

[RichYak]

19 minutes ago, jcpc said:

Thank you so much for posting your thoughts on your YC experience.  I enjoyed reading your posts and agree with just about everything you posted... I will, however, say that once outside the YC the MSC experience is not really for me

Thanks for your kind words. I intentionally stayed pretty silent on the "outside the YC" experience for one main reason: this was a sailing out of NYC. It's just a different kind of crowd that sails out of the Big Apple and it comes with it's own madness, regardless of cruise line. Would I be evaluating non-YC MSC or just another NYC sailing? I couldn't be sure.

 

That being said, I didn't have too much of an issue outside YC. We went to one show, which is the typical amount for us, we shopped, visited a couple bars. We walked the promenade frequently, saw one of the dome shows. Some spots were crowded, but it was fine. There are spots on Celebrity that are crowded, but fine too. The big difference that I can see now is that I can do pretty much an entire cruise without leaving the YC other than for laps around the track. I can't possibly do that on Celebrity.

 

Again, that's just us and the way we sail. I just want to put it out there, describing it as best as I can, and let anyone reading this decide for themselves if it's right for them.

[boxkite]

@RichYak, thanks posting your experiences and comparisons between Celebrity suites and MSC YC!

 

And thanks to everyone who added their own experiences and comparisons, great discussion!

 

Much to think through for future cruises or maybe not?

[DaKahuna]

10 hours ago, RichYak said:

Butler service in YC blows away X Sky Suite butler service, or what's left of it, and is more on par with upper suite butler service.

 

 

 I believe this needs to be a qualified statement.  I agree 100% based on talking with other YC guest on our cruise but unfortunately we fell into the 10% category in the YC that had a butler that never stopped by our room or even came to the YC areas to see how we were doing.   Other butlers were very visible and always checking on their guest.  I am not sure what the story was on ours but he was not present or very helpful at all.  I had a feeling things would not go well with him when he said he made a lunch reservation for us at a venue that was not even open for lunch on the day he said he made the reservation.  

 

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

I believe this needs to be a qualified statement.

No, I'm sorry, it doesn't. I don't need to qualify my own experience. Others can and should feel free share their experience, as you have. But I'm not qualifying my statement because you had a bad butler.

[Liao]

I’ve enjoyed reading these live reviews, thank you for posting them!  YC sounds great and on par with many YT videos I’ve watched as well.  From what I’ve read and seen the experience ends there.  The ships seem very crowded and a bit chaotic at times and then there is the shiny chrome aesthetic.  I do stay in upper suites on Celebrity so perhaps my experience in the Retreat is different, I’d still not want to feel that I was confined to just one area of the ship and on Celebrity the vibe throughout the ship is IMO an elevated experience.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

36 minutes ago, Liao said:

I’ve enjoyed reading these live reviews, thank you for posting them!  YC sounds great and on par with many YT videos I’ve watched as well.  From what I’ve read and seen the experience ends there.  The ships seem very crowded and a bit chaotic at times and then there is the shiny chrome aesthetic.  I do stay in upper suites on Celebrity so perhaps my experience in the Retreat is different, I’d still not want to feel that I was confined to just one area of the ship and on Celebrity the vibe throughout the ship is IMO an elevated experience.

Many of the people I've seen compare Celebrity/Retreat vs MSC/Yacht Club have a clear bias (for one or the other), but we will be doing the Retreat on the Equinox for 9 days across the Med (Italy, France, and Spain) in June and I will do my best to give an objective comparison at that point.

 

I will share most of my thoughts at the conclusion of our cruise, but I will say that it is definitely a different world once you leave the YC.

 

With that said, the shows have been decent, we had a great dinner at Butcher's Cut, and we enjoyed the slides at the waterpark.

Edited March 26 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[mac_tlc]

On 3/25/2024 at 7:50 AM, RichYak said:

The venue that Celebrity uses for the Retreat lounge on S-Class ships has a bar with seating. The designed-from-scratch Retreat lounges on E-class do not. The M-class venue also has no bar seating. 
 

it’s an unexplainable and huge miss IMO. 

It is interesting how different people value different things. My wife and I have never sat at a bar on a cruise ship. Having one or not is zero impact for us. 
 

My guess is if X had one in Retreat they would need a full time stationary bartender. It could be done, at least on non-Edge E-class ships.

 

mac_tlc

Edited March 26 by mac_tlc

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

2 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

It is interesting how different people value different things. My wife and I have never sat at a bar on a cruise ship. Having one or not is zero impact for us. 
 

My guess is if X had one in Retreat they would need a full time stationary bartender. It could be done, at least on non-Edge W class ships.

 

mac_tlc

We feel the same about swimming pools.

 

People fight over the loungers and pile into the pools amidst a mass of bodies (and fluids), but we have no desire to ever use a pool on a cruise ship or lay on a lounger.

 

The good news is there's something for all of us on cruise ships, no matter what we're looking for.

[RichYak]

20 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

It is interesting how different people value different things. My wife and I have never sat at a bar on a cruise ship. Having one or not is zero impact for us. 

 

16 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We feel the same about swimming pools.

We feel the same about productions shows, and karaoke, and casinos, and bingo... the list goes on.

 

A bar is a gathering spot, a natural conversation starter. It's a way to meet people. If you walk into a lounge and there's only one person in there sitting on the right, you naturally sit way on the left so you don't invade their personal space. If you walk into a bar, you start a conversation with that one person. It's natural.

 

The 3 most fun evenings I can recall on any cruise ship were at the Sunset Bar on Edge, at the Martini Bar on Millennium, and standing at the no-seats bar in Summit's Retreat Lounge. There were 6 or 7 couples congregating at that small bar along with the best and most entertaining bartender ever. We were all whooping it up and having a great time.

 

All these great memories were started with meeting other couples at the bar.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

 

We feel the same about productions shows, and karaoke, and casinos, and bingo... the list goes on.

 

A bar is a gathering spot, a natural conversation starter. It's a way to meet people. If you walk into a lounge and there's only one person in there sitting on the right, you naturally sit way on the left so you don't invade their personal space. If you walk into a bar, you start a conversation with that one person. It's natural.

 

The 3 most fun evenings I can recall on any cruise ship were at the Sunset Bar on Edge, at the Martini Bar on Millennium, and standing at the no-seats bar in Summit's Retreat Lounge. There were 6 or 7 couples congregating at that small bar along with the best and most entertaining bartender ever. We were all whooping it up and having a great time.

 

All these great memories were started with meeting other couples at the bar.

Agreed - we aren't even big drinkers but appreciate the bars for making it easy to meet new people.

[mac_tlc]

16 minutes ago, RichYak said:

 

We feel the same about productions shows, and karaoke, and casinos, and bingo... the list goes on.

 

A bar is a gathering spot, a natural conversation starter. It's a way to meet people. If you walk into a lounge and there's only one person in there sitting on the right, you naturally sit way on the left so you don't invade their personal space. If you walk into a bar, you start a conversation with that one person. It's natural.

 

The 3 most fun evenings I can recall on any cruise ship were at the Sunset Bar on Edge, at the Martini Bar on Millennium, and standing at the no-seats bar in Summit's Retreat Lounge. There were 6 or 7 couples congregating at that small bar along with the best and most entertaining bartender ever. We were all whooping it up and having a great time.

 

All these great memories were started with meeting other couples at the bar.

To each his or her own. I’m sure others, including us, have had memorable times on a cruise ship outside a bar. 
 

Variety is good. Plenty for everyone. 
 

mac_tlc