Stem to Stern

On board and seated in MSC Yacht Club Restaurant at 1:00. Thank God for butler escorts. Throngs of people everywhere. 14 in our escorted elevator ride. Yes, I realize I am not comparing apple varieties.😇 Restaurant is very chocolate brown. DH recognizes a boomerang theme in here. He like garbanzo octopus soup. i didn’t.🤣🤣🤣

Diamond 💎

John, How much will this cost for one device?

Oops!😬🤣🤣

Directed one block up to here… For public bathroom. 11:40 Still waiting to depart for port on the air-conditioned shuttle. It is 80 and partly cloudy. Art Basel is happening this week. Huge tourist draw for Miami. Jingle Bell Rock is playing.🤣🤣🤣

I guess it’s not that ghetto. Ana the manager was super nice.

Jumped out of shower at 8:08. DH jumped in at 8:09. on the road at 8:49. 11:18 now waiting for more passengers to join us on the shuttle. Got a coupon code for next time if we book firect next time.

Too much?!?🤣🤣🤣

Bye Ziggy!! Such a good boy!😿😻 Uncle Michael will take excellent care of you. The suitcases are on his “throne” aka the guest bed.

Rise and Shine!!☕️☕️☕️ it is 6:30 am on cruise day!!🌞 On my second cup of coffee and taking it slow and easy. Relax!😎 Getting to the Port I will drive DH’s Mazda CX-5. My MINI Cooper S Convertible would never accommodate all of our cruising necessities. Translation: We both lack the gift of cruise wardrobe editing. The MINI also lacks a spare tire. Yes, I sometimes stress about small stuff like trips across four-lane Alligator Alley that could involve road closures and detours as a result of forest fires, dense fog, and/or fatal traffic accidents. And we haven’t even hit I-95 yet. Now are you getting to know me a little bit better? 🤣🤣🤣 DH will navigate using Apple Maps app and/or Waze app. I’m allowing 2.5 hours travel time to Miami., but it will likely be faster. (Port Everglades travel is only 1:45, doesn’t involve I-95, and is soooo much easier.) We are traveling on a Saturday, so one might like to presume that traffic will not be as much of a concern. But it is Miami, in Florida, where many drivers have their own set of rules or were never properly schooled. I hope to be on the road by 8:30am at the very latest. I figure we should be on board Seascape by 11:30am. Parking This will be the third time we have parked our vehicle at POM Safe Cruise Parking. This seedy self-park garage is located at 189 NE Second Avenue. After you park your vehicle you schlep your own bags from your vehicle to the office where you check in. Then you schlep your own bags outside and down a couple steps to the shuttle bus. The suitcases get loaded into a trailer hitched to the back of the minibus. Doesn’t this sound luxurious?!? 🥂😂 They shuttle you from the garage to your terminal, but not before stopping at any other terminals that other shuttle passengers need to be dropped off at. The distance is only about two miles, but the estimated time en route can vary based on the process I just described. It sounds a bit tedious, but this is quickly overshadowed once you catch a glimpse of your ship. 🚢😍 I booked and paid for the parking through airportparkinginc.com at a rate of $10.00 per day plus 7% sales tax plus a non-refundable $5.00 customer service fee for a grand total of $159.08. In the past when we cruised out of Miami on a 4-night cruise, we sucked it up and paid the $22.00 a day for the convenience of parking at the port. This price has reportedly jumped. The port parking option makes for a much faster getaway after disembarkation, but you do have to schlep your own bags across the street to and from the terminal. One good thing about the shuttle option besides the price is the fact that they do drop you and your suitcases at or very near the terminal entrance and they retrieve you from there. See you in Miami!!☀️👍😎

CoCo!! How are you?!? Yes, boarding today!!! Woohoo!!! 6:15 ~ So just having my coffee. Meeting up with Rosie on turnaround day next Saturday. 😎 Did you ever get my email? If not I will try to find it and resend.

MSC Cruises Communication For the most part I have been fairly impressed with the communication I have received from MSC Cruises. There is an understated elegance about it. They don’t overfill the inbox with advertising. Email received 6 days before embarkation day Email received 5 days before embarkation day (almost time) Email received from Captain Michele 3 days before embarkation day Text received 2 days out

“GenPop” Neither one of us have ever been on such a populous ship as MSC Seascape. The ship has just south of 2,300 passenger staterooms capable of accommodating just south of 6,000 passengers. My sources indicate a crew of roughly 1,600. Those numbers sound a bit daunting, but it will be fun to try something new, right? 😀 We do plan on checking out the rest of the ship (aka GenPop) outside the confines of the key card-accessed Yacht Club. MSC reportedly knows how to throw a deck party to never be forgotten. Maybe we will catch a theater show or two, but this is not a do-or-die activity for us. I am particularly interested in visiting the water park. It is apparently the largest at sea. When I posed this proposal to DH he surprisingly expressed enthusiastic interest. 🤩 Who doesn’t love a good water slide?💦💦💦😉 Or will the rest of the ship just turn out to be a big, hot mess as some reports indicate? 😬 With the huge Yacht Club facilities dedicated to approximately 130 suites, we would like to think we have a comfortable less-peopley refuge from the “GenPop” that we can retreat to (pun intended😂) if needed. YC has its own restaurant, lounge with nightly entertainment, al fresco buffet, pool, and jacuzzis all together in one singularly secure enclave. 🔑🔓😉 Much has been written here and elsewhere about MSC from a very positive perspective. Much has also been written regarding the utter chaos (think pushing and shoving) that can ensue on board an MSC Cruises ship. Then there was the August news story reporting that two sisters allegedly smuggled $40,000 worth of cocaine in their suitcase while traveling on an MSC Seascape cruise. 😳 Many swear, “I will/would only sail MSC in the Yacht Club.” Or worse, “MSC - one and DONE!” Or worse yet, “Never again!” 😳 Let’s see how this goes.

MSC Voyagers Club & MSC Status Match Program During my research I conducted while I was being Charlacized, I learned a lot about MSC Voyagers Club, the benefits granted by membership, and MSC Cruises’ Status Match program. I submitted my status match application to MSC. Based on recommendations that I read over on the MSC boards, I used my Azamara Discoverer status rather than my Celebrity Captain’s Club Elite status to submit my MSC Status Match request. Azamara Discoverer loyalty level matches to the highest loyalty level, Diamond on MSC. Completing our first Azamara cruise in December 2022 ensured that our reciprocal Celebrity Captain’s Club Elite status would live on at the newly separated-from-RCCL Azamara. It is worth having a look at the sticky thread on the MSC boards titled MSC Current Status Match Tables to determine your best choice of loyalty status to be used to submit your status match application. Celebrity Captain’s Club Elite status only matches to Gold level on MSC. 🏆😉 Submitting the status match form on MSC’ s website is painless and their response is prompt and concise. MSC responded to my application in under 48 hours with the Welcome to MSC Voyagers Club email informing me that I was now at the Diamond membership level with 10,000 points. It also including my membership number. ✅🤓😉 I forwarded the welcome email to my TA. She completed the Seascape booking with the 5% diamond loyalty discount plus the 5% early booking discount with a $199 per person deposit. 🤓

Beautiful shot, Jim.

The Upgrade Scheme On 9/20 DH and I both received the MSC Upgrade email. The MSC email stated the options: -Yacht Club Deluxe Suite From $860 per person -Yacht Club Deluxe Grand Suite From $1,085 per person When I clicked on the various links to start the bidding, the range for YC Deluxe Suite was from $855 to $1,080. The range for YC Deluxe Grand Suite was $1,080 to $1,300. I did a dummy booking for our sailing on MSC Cruises’ website. There seemed to be north of a dozen unsold suites remaining in the Yacht Club. We decided to resist the temptation of the upgrade email since it would be another substantial chunk of change. Plus, we are both curious to learn how DH does in the interior suite since he does have a mild case of claustrophobia.😳 Since the initial upgrade email arrived MSC has proceeded to tempt us with four additional upgrade emails. We continue to resist. 💪💪💪 To my recollection we have never received an upgrade email from Celebrity for any of our previous sailings. I have wondered what determined this lack of upgrade offers. It’s an unsolved mystery to me.❓❓❓🤨 Lo and behold on 10/2 DH and I both received our first-ever Celebrity MoveUp emails. The per-person bid ranges went something like this: PH = $1,000 to $5,000 RS = $550 to $2,750 CS = $300 to $1,500 ASS = $100 to $500 On 10/18 we each received a second Celebrity MoveUp email. I did some dummy bookings on Celebrity’s site to investigate how much remaining unsold cabin inventory existed. There seemed to be quite a large number of staterooms remaining including suites. We resisted the temptation. 💪🤣🤣 For fun my new cruise buddy placed a weak MoveUp bid on the upgrade request for Aqua Sky Suite. She got the upgrade 11 days before sailing. One ASS and 2 CS remained available after this. After a couple more MoveUp emails, Celebrity sent yet two more. These featured a “promo” lowering the minimum bids by 20%. After further conversation about Celebrity’s MoveUp enticement attempts, DH divulged that if he were to seriously consider bidding it would be with MSC for no other reason than to vacate the YC Interior Suite. But we agreed the additional cash outflow for this would spoil the good deal we feel we have on the YC experience. We continue to resist the upgrade scheme. 🤣🤣🤣

The Bottom Line Here are the financials for the two segments: Summit 5-nt The Bahamas and Mexico S1 Sky Suite Deck 6 Starboard Total price $2,736.72 $273.67 per person per night $400 OBC The Retreat (Cruise planner for both couples showed $650, but neither my new cruise buddy or I were able to deduce where this amount came from.) $200 OBC from TA (This is what my new cruise buddy’s TA offered. My TA matched it, but her initial offer was less than this.) The Retreat: Free Gratuities Free Premium Beverage Pkg Free Stream Wi-Fi Seascape 7-nt Eastern Caribbean YIN Yacht Club Interior Suite Deck 18 Forward Total price $2,590.54 $185.04 per person per night $100 OBC MSC $50 OBC Voyagers Club $100 OBC TA Gratuities are additional and charged on board. But the OBC will cover those. On Black Friday I took a look at pricing for MSC Seascape for the same week in December 2024 just for a comparison. The same itinerary in the same YC Interior Suite next year is running about a grand more. Then for the next category up, a YC Deluxe Suite with balcony, one would need to tack on another couple grand. I have been reading a lot of comments indicating MSC YC pricing is not the bargain it used to be. Maybe this year’s booking will be a one and done. We’ll see. 🤔

A Tale of Two Influencers: My New Cruise Buddy and My Charlacization I booked both cruises through my regular TA. First I booked the Summit segment in June 2022. I added the Seascape segment in February 2023. I’ll get to the numbers in a minute. My new cruise buddy informed me that she booked herself and her DH on Summit. My new cruise buddy and I have learned over the course of our 2+ year friendship that we have a few things in common. Among them are: all things CRUISE, Celebrity, celebrations, food, booking cruises, and recognition of excellent value. Her DH also asks her when are we going and he shows up just like my DH. Both couples are also fortunate enough to reside within reasonable driving distance of all of the cruise ports in Florida. These little R&R cruises are logistically very easy. 😌 DH and I thought we moved away from these quick 4- or 5-night getaways since we find that it normally takes us a minimum of two days on board before we are settled into our cruising happy place. 🕊️☺️ But we have enjoyed a few quickies in the past and my new cruise buddy is very convincing. So, I booked it. However, upon further thought I realized that five nights just is not enough time on board to bring DH and myself to our cruising zen. Did I mention it has been nearly a year since we have been on a cruise ship? 😂 Long stretches of cruise withdrawal bring me to the Cruise Critic boards to live vicariously through the live threads of greats like Jim, GenerationX, Ken the Cruiser, Megan, Morpheus, GeorgiaPeaches, Norwaylady, ChicagoPaul (where did he disappear to? I loved how he always broke down the financials.) and the many others. 🙏🙏🙏 But it was ultimately my “Charlacization” that took place while I was following GenerationX’s January 2023 Silhouette LIVE Side by Side that led me to have a closer look at MSC Yacht Club. During my research I discovered that the Seascape sailing prior to the Summit sailing could create a copycat Side by Side very much like Charla facilitated for herself. I placed my $398 deposit on the booking in February, but my version is a bit more budget friendly than hers. 😂 Thank you GenerationX for Charlacizng me. 😂

Thank you for following along Mary. I appreciate your comments about Ocean Cay. We have our water shoes packed. We are excited to visit MSC’s private island. It is closing for a period of time next year for improvements. Hopefully any major changes do not spoil any tranquility that currently exists there.☺️

Me: “…I have always been able to come up with something interesting to do.”🤣🤣🤣 Aruba Trikes - our 2021 quarantine cruise. Us with our new cruise buddies on a break from the trikes at California Lighthouse in Aruba. My new cruise buddy’s DH takes amazing “ussies.”

Two Types of Cruises DH has adopted the philosophy that cruising can be divided into two distinct subcategories. The Port-Intensive Floating Hotel Cruise - Our two European cruises were busy. Every port day we were awake bright and early and off the ship to meet our guides for day-long excursions to new-to-us destinations. When we returned to the ship each afternoon there was a short window of time on board to relax a bit, unwind in the solarium, get presentable for the evening, have dinner, and make good use of that magic room card. Then it was off to bed before doing it all over again the next day. This type of trip is not so much about the ship as it is about the destinations. It’s Europe! Was it nice having a verandah to pull the curtains back upon awakening and see where we parked? Sure. Could I have walked up or down to one of the decks to catch a glimpse of the port we just arrived at? It can’t be too much of a detour from an inside stateroom to Cafe Al Bacio. So going forward when looking a port-intensive itineraries I will consider inside staterooms. Coincidentally on this trip DH will be facing his mild claustrophobia and uneasiness of interior staterooms by trying one out albeit in the Yacht Club. 😬 The R&R Cruise - We enjoy our lazy Caribbean cruise itineraries as they tend to be much less involved as far as planning. The ship is the destination. Miami is roughly a 2-hour drive from our home. Driving to the port versus flying requires less time off work and less money. The first two sea days involve us just unwinding and catching our groove. We do get off the ship in port as I have always been able to come up with something interesting for us to do. If I don’t at least have loosely scheduled plans in port, then we tend to wander briefly and return to the ship. This can sometimes leave me somewhat unfulfilled after our time in port. Back on board we enjoy engaging with crew members and fellow passengers and eating and drinking our way through the ship. 🍸😜

Thank Jeannette. I will try looking into it further if I find time today. Maybe John will offer some insight with his research. Morpheus has on occasion previously reported on his live threads that he upgraded his WiFi in the Yacht Club.

Thank you dear sweet Alexandra. I recently started following your travels and I will surely never miss another one of your and Jarle's fabulous trips. Stay warm!!!

Thanks Georgia. I have read a lot of passionate live threads and cruise reviews including yours, so I have plenty of inspiration. I have learned so many informative tips here, like when Jim suggested a food photo is better taken prior to putting a utensil in it or worse yet something already half-eaten. I am glad you brought up the positive feedback on the font. I am a bit OCD when it comes to this kind of thing. I can never find my readers either. And they are a necessity if I am trying to read Cruise Critic on my iPhone. My iPad Mini is not much better. The font is so tiny. So the long pre-cruise posts were prepared in the Notes app, so they could later be copied and pasted. I was not sure how large the font would turn out, but it sure is an improvement reading it on an iPhone in my opinion. Some of the other posts written in real time (including this one) are typed on my Mac desktop. Then I highlight the whole thing and hit the B at the top for bold. I am conflicted about bold. I do not want to shout. But I am really grateful to those posters on here that always use it. Bold is so much easier to read. On board I will only have my iPhone 15 Pro Max and my ancient iPad Mini 4. On MSC I believe I only have the basic WiFi package, so I will likely only use my iPhone to post. I am not sure about the whole switching between devices which has gotten pretty routine on Celebrity. I feel more confident about posting pics on board Summit. I will be sure to send out a Food Porn Alert prior to such posts.

Thanks Linda. It really was incredible. Very relaxing.