Msc yacht club or msc explora journeys?

[steve thfc]

Has anyone done both and can compare?

 

Have been loyal to virgin voyages. Usually have rock star cabin. Foodie, like good wine. Don't mind kids but not kids unsupervised running around at midnight.

 

Virgin has doubled their prices for 25 and 26. If recieve butler, private dining, spa think this will appeal to us much more. 

 

Can anyone provide feedback?

[notley-cruise]

Neither MSC Yacht club nor Explora are adults only.  There's no predicting who might book the YC or Explora suites, I've certainly seen a fair number of children with Yacht Club cards. But there are adult only pools and bars on most MSC ships.

 

Explora are smaller ships with less activites on board, whereas MSC YC is on large to mega ships with a lot going on and lots of crowds beyond the enclave.

 

So it's horses for courses.

[Essiesmom]

I’m sure @morpheusoftheseawill be along to fill you in.  He has sailed Explora and just booked another.  EM

[morpheusofthesea]

I did a live from the Explora 1 this past Christmas / New Years.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2980301-yacht-club-vs-explora-journeys/

 

[steve thfc]

Perfect. I read his reviews. Will take his word for it that yacht club is better. Going to book Rome cruise sep 25 on seaview. Think you can't go wrong at 3200 per person compared to other luxury cruises

[morpheusofthesea]

Just now, steve thfc said:

Perfect. I read his reviews. Will take his word for it that yacht club is better. Going to book Rome cruise sep 25 on seaview. Think you can't go wrong at 3200 per person compared to other luxury cruises

Cannot speak about Seaview. Never been on. However read and heard from MSC staff that the European itineraries the ship acts more like a ferry than a true cruise with people booking just  a 1-7 day portion, getting on and off. Not your real Yacht Club experience. Hopefully someone will reply that has more experience than I on the present situation with Seaview. One indication I got from a staff member (he was just transferred from Seaview to Seascape) that the Seaview is not carrying upper class in the YC, is when I tipped him he was shocked beyond belief. I figure there are just too many stiffs on the European itineraries.

[steve thfc]

Will take care of the staff. I work in hotel industry..

Itinerary appeals because haven't done Cannes, Valencia before. 

Gonna try it. If food is good and relaxing will be fine. Not super fussy..

[morpheusofthesea]

16 minutes ago, steve thfc said:

Perfect. I read his reviews. Will take his word for it that yacht club is better. Going to book Rome cruise sep 25 on seaview. Think you can't go wrong at 3200 per person compared to other luxury cruises

Since Sept 25th is just 2 days away your goose is cooked. Now if you are considering 2025, I just booked and paid in full on Explora 1 again for Dec 12, 2024. Will do another live from comparing with our favorite Seascape.

P.S. I do not like the fact that it is double the price of our cancelled (lost $398 deposit because already booked  Jan, Feb, Mar) Christmas Seascape cruise and Seascape YC RS & OS are sold out this Dec. But our suite was available on Explora this late in the season.

Edited September 24 by morpheusofthesea

[Host Jazzbeau]

I have read all the posts in the Explora forum as I was considering booking it, and recently remembered how much we liked MSC Yacht Club so came here and have just read all the recent threads about YC.  The biggest difference I see:  lots of complaints about a wide range of issues on Explora, whereas YC sailors are a happy lot.  I just booked YC again.

[Host Jazzbeau]

34 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Cannot speak about Seaview. Never been on. However read and heard from MSC staff that the European itineraries the ship acts more like a ferry than a true cruise with people booking just  a 1-7 day portion, getting on and off. Not your real Yacht Club experience. Hopefully someone will reply that has more experience than I on the present situation with Seaview.

I think you may have misunderstood.  Seaview Med cruises are always 7 nights, but people can start at several ports on the loop.  [The ship does the same loop over and over.]  We got on in Barcelona and got off 7 days later when the ship returned to Barcelona.  Others joined in Genoa (and got off in Genoa) or Civitavecchia, etc.  So it did change the dynamic of the cruise because you met people who were about to leave.  Thankfully Barcelona was the most popular port for North Americans, so there was some stability.  But Europeans would board in whichever port was closest to where they live.

[steve thfc]

Sep 10th 2025. Thanks. 

Edited September 24 by steve thfc

[steve thfc]

Going to go to Rome day before and after cruise. Have been to Barcelona 20 times and Athens several.

[SirWolf]

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

One indication I got from a staff member (he was just transferred from Seaview to Seascape) that the Seaview is not carrying upper class in the YC, is when I tipped him he was shocked beyond belief. I figure there are just too many stiffs on the European itineraries.

 

Do you really think that a staff member is qualified to make such a (discriminatory) remark about passengers in the YC ?

What’s the definition of upper class anyway ? 🤔 ..

” A team of sociologists recently posited that there are six social classes in America. In this model, the upper class (3% of the population ) is divided into upper-upper class (1% of the U.S. population, earning hundreds of millions to billions per year) and the lower-upper class (2%, earning millions per year). “

 

Tipping is out of control in America.

In many countries in Europe it’s not expected to tip .. guests sometimes leave a small tip (often change in coins).

Many Asian countries have a non-tipping culture. Tipping a waiter can cause offense in Japan. The philosophy is that good service should be expected in the first place.

 

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, SirWolf said:

Do you really think that a staff member is qualified to make such a (discriminatory) remark about passengers in the YC ?

Where is it written that a staff member made the remark ? I am making the discriminatory conclusion about passengers in the YC, constantly.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, SirWolf said:

Tipping is out of control in America.

Popcorn time?

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, SirWolf said:

In many countries in Europe it’s not expected to tip

For those that fail to understand the academic's definition of tipping. Tipping is NOT your hotel service charges, forced or mandatory gratuities, or forced tips imposed. Tipping is voluntary and discretionary. "Discretionary comes from the word discretion, which can be used to mean “the right to decide something based on one's own judgment.” If you're given a task to complete at your discretion, you can decide how you want to do it — or whether you want to do it at all." For the truly inquisitive here is a university paper on tipping . https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/.../0309/0309002.pdf

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, SirWolf said:

Many Asian countries have a non-tipping culture

 We keep the gratuities in place as they go to paying the low salaries the cruise lines get away with paying. Sure the tipping custom is anathema to those cruisers coming from Australia and Japan where a high living wage is mandatory. But those educated Australians and Japanese also know that cruise lines are not subject to their countries laws and they still tip accordingly when out of their country. It's the miser, penny-pinching, tightwads that use their countries' customs as an excuse to stiff and/or remove the suggested 'mandatory' gratuity from their hotel bill.

 

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, SirWolf said:

The philosophy is that good service should be expected in the first place.

Philosophy does not put food on the table. Next one might suggest that tipping is "not recommended" on MSC. 

"TIPS: MSC does not recommend tipping individual members of staff."

 https://www.msccruisesusa.com/manage-booking/before-you-go/service-charges

 

4. “NOT RECOMMENDED” means that there may be valid reasons in certain circumstances when the particular behaviour is acceptable or even useful, but the full implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed before implementing any behaviour described with this label.

Conventions page 6 https://www.projectcounter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Release5_20171107.pdf

[morpheusofthesea]

The university study :

 

"Azar: The model suggests that if tipping were motivated only by the desire to conform to social norms, we would see tip percentages decreasing over time, but the historical evidence is the exact opposite, implying that people (at least some of them) tip not only because this is the norm but also due to other reasons, such as generosity, desire to impress others, willingness to show gratitude when receiving good service, and empathy for workers who work hard and earn low wages, such as waiters."

 

"Tipping experts, however, suggest that workers who get advance tips try very hard to justify the trust they received: Brenner (2001) claims, “The advance tip is the most effective method for assuring results… This strategy will insure that you’ll be taken care of with the highest degree of consideration,” and Star (1988) suggests about hotel concierge “If you want to be fawned over, tip the concierge upon arrival as you introduce yourself.”

https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/lab/papers/0309/0309002.pdf

[morpheusofthesea]

13 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

If you want to be fawned over, tip the concierge upon arrival as you introduce yourself.”

I like to be fawned over.

[Mommapadraig]

Getting back to the topic…we are booked on Explora 11 in January. Our first. We love the MSc yacht club and worry that we will be disappointed. @morpheusofthesea I’m currently reading your December review. I haven’t read the entire review yet but was surprised to read you had booked Explora 1 in December. Ok I continued reading and see you also enjoy the Explora. I was happy to read about the increase in entertainment.

Edited September 25 by Mommapadraig

[Two Wheels Only]

17 hours ago, SirWolf said:

Tipping is out of control in America.

 

What others tip or don't tip doesn't really have an impact on what you tip. 

 

If the people in the stateroom to my left tip $500 per day, I don't care.

If the people in the stateroom to my right don't tip at all, I don't care. 

 

I tip what I want to tip. 

[Mommapadraig]

Perhaps someone needs to start a tipping thread…………

[Essiesmom]

Perhaps there have been too many already…. EM

[Mommapadraig]

7 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Perhaps there have been too many already…. EM

You are probably right. I really wanted more opinions of the differences between the two cruises.