Kudos to MSC (YC)

[chisoxfan]

A few random comments on MSC YC. We sailed on Seaside in 2019 in YC and were very pleased with it (3300 for YC Balcony!). After Covid we resumed with several X cruises (our previous favorite) and tried the suite Retreat cabins. These were very pleasant but pricing has exploded so that a typical Retreat balcony is now 9-12k for a Caribbean weekend (we paid much less). Moving forward and Princess introduced the Sun which has a dedicated suite area (pool, lounge, restaurant) which sounded desirable and we booked this for next Jan. It only took a few months for Princess to completely change their suites pricing and ammenities on this ship, the primary result being 25-30% increase in prices and potentially more crowding in dedicated pool and restaurant areas (since this just happened actual impact remains to be seen).

Bottom line and my point is that MSC YC has remained very consistent with their YC product and prices unlike the other guys. We subsequently just booked YC as part of a cruise trifecta next Jan. Sun, HAL Niuw Statendam, Seashore. It is kind of crazy perhaps but that is another story.

Just wanted to compliment the YC value- they offer mini bar, access to spa, dedicated YC space on private island, butler, etc. The other guys keep changing their ammenities to lower costs, etc. while pricing is raised.

We were also appreciative that MSC maintained a Black (now Diamond) matched level for us which went back to 2019 and I would have expected to have ended. Our only negatives are non refundable deposit and preference for FLL instead on Miami for Carib departure ports.

So kudos to MSC for staying mostly consistent in the YC product and looking forward to sailing again on them.

 

[LorraineP]

“We were also appreciative that MSC maintained a Black (now Diamond) matched level for us which went back to 2019 and I would have expected to have ended.”

 

I was also surprised that we maintained our Black (Diamond) status when recently booking a cruise in YC. Our last cruise was October 2018 in YC. 

[no1talks]

3 hours ago, chisoxfan said:

"We subsequently just booked YC as part of a cruise trifecta next Jan. Sun, HAL Niuw Statendam, Seashore."

 

Seaside-class ships can provide great YC experiences.

 

The jury is still out, however, for YC in the new World-class group. There have been reports of too many YC passengers for the available space and staff on World Europa. 

 

We shall all have to wait a bit for World America's YC report card.