Toofarfromthesea

I never understood the extreme aversion that is expressed by so many towards agencies that charge any kind of fees. Even now, many are cringing that you paid a $30 change fee and would tell you to completely avoid any agency that charges a cancellation or change fee. Personally I´ve always considered that the fees are extremely modest vis a vis the size of the transaction. And, to be fair, they are for things not contemplated by the commission. Paying someone a very modest fee for expending time and effort on my behalf seems very reasonable to me.

For me, I am extremely unlikely to ever cruise again, very unlikely to fly to Europe again, and unlikely to visit a Mexican all-inclusive again. I'm flying domestically, for the first time since this all started, to Tampa this week to see Eric Clapton. We'll see how that goes before planning any other domestic flying trips. I may look into trains to see what their restrictions and protocols are. And I haven't seen much of AZ, where I now live, so there's lots of potential car trips to interesting places. But, IAC, no regrets. I never worry about things I don't get to do, I just enjoy the things I do get to do and the memories of the things I got to do. Life is too short to pine about not being able to do discretionary leisure activities. It helps that I live in a 55+ community that is like a resort. And have my 20 month-old grandbaby (and my daughter and son-in-law) less than 2 miles away, and my other daughter 15 minutes away.

Likewise, and if nothing else, by putting in bids the agencies that will work with MSC will have identified themselves.

YC pax ARE paying a higher rate. In the basic fare.

So you think the likelihood of getting struck by lightening is 50% because the only 2 possibilities are getting hit or not getting hit? Math is hard. As to the 3 day cruise risk vs. the longer cruise risk, obviously the risk is greater on the longer cruise because you are exposed to, e.g., 7 days of the risk rather than 3 days of the risk. The odds of not getting a heads in 3 tosses of a coin are 1/8. The odds of not getting a heads in 7 tosses of a coin are 1/128. Same principle.

When I was in the YC on a Divina Med Cruise in 2018 I got to chatting with my assistant Butler (who was better than my Butler) and he was really excited about the Divina relocating to the Carib. When I asked him if it was because they get more Americans and they do more extra tipping he just grinned nodded. It is rare that someone will get offended because you gave them money.

I'd bet that AGE outweighs all of those covid risk factors combined.

And again, this has NOTHING to do with the YC requiring men & boys to wear long pants at dinner. You seem to have a problem staying focused on the actual topic of conversation.

For dinner IN THE MSC YACHT CLUB RESTAURANT.

And yet strangely enough, what they do on RCCL and Carnival has nothing to do with what the YC Restaurant does.

On Divina in the Med in 2018, I think, my son-in-law was sent away to replace his shorts with long pants. This was the YC restaurant.

It has never happened to me, but I think if it did I'd have a word with the butler first to give him a chance to do better. It has to be a major black mark for the butler if a complaint is serious enough to up the chain. But i'd only do that once. If that didn't fix it my next step would be a chat with the Concierge.

Yeah, I figured something like that. I wonder if butlers sometimes do some unnecessary 'escort to the front of the line' stuff in an effort to stimulate tips. IAC, pax in the Yacht Club never have to go to Guest Services because that is what the YC Concierge is for.

This sounds fishy. Even if you didn't know you should go to the YC Concierge rather than Guest Services the butler would have,

OP, how did the price compare to a comparable Azamara cruise?