Best Cat Mom

2 hours ago, CityGrrl said:

MSC was super-committed to an on-time opening.

They missed it, though the pandemic was a contributing factor.

If you've been to Italy, you know that dates are very approximate there. I love MSC's products, so I'll deal with it! 🙂

Just now, Beamafar said:

there isn’t an Aurea area in The Green Wave MDR, which is the Brunch venue

I did not know this as we've never used the MDR on MSC. We had stopped into the NCL MDR whilst booked in Haven when a course caught our eye. We'd only have that one course and they were always very gracious and super attentive. I know that sleeping in would be a nice treat for us so we might give this a try on MSC. Do you think we would need to bring our own mimosas? I've seen that beverage service can be problematic at dinner, but have never seen mention of mimosas at breakfast. We always have at least one round of them. 😉

Thanks @Beamafar. Do you know if YC would use the Aurea dining area? Or would we need to ask our butler or the YC concierge to arrange our visit when we've overslept and follow their directions?

3 hours ago, no1talks said:

I suspect the typical YC maître d' would be mortified at the thought of losing breakfast traffic to the MDR. I'd wager an offer would be made to prepare a brunch menu item in the YC, if I mentioned we would be trying the MDR brunch the next day.

We might be inclined to try it based on the timing, not the menu. We choose not to sleep in many days because we hate to miss YC breakfast in the restaurant. We're not fond of dining on the pool deck so this could be a nice option timing-wise. Looking forward to some reports of the food and service as compared to Top Sail Restaurant by some of our YC peers!

I know from other postings that you and I both have Amex Plat. Just pointing out that both questions such as you have as well as monetary advantages can be gained by using a travel agent. I have had many weird website anomalies but my travel agent has made them a non-issue for us. Good luck to you.

We always use a travel agent because of the 10% to 15% of the fare we get back. The fact that they assist when anomalies occur is just a bonus for us. You might want to take advantage of the savings and get the added assistance. 🙂

What does your travel agent tell you about the sailing?

We cruise next in September. I was concerned that Ocean Cay would not be finished for our cruise even though it was scheduled to be finished in May. Italian time plus Island time? Not a guarantee, not even close. LOL

58 minutes ago, alserrod said:

Is still included you Drinks pack or is it expired after breakfast?

We had no issues with drinks or food in the YC restaurant, lounge and pool deck. Everything was still available to us until we disembarked.

In Europe, we have stayed on board until after lunch. They did have us pack and exit the cabin much earlier but stored our bags until we were ready to disembark. Enjoy!

I consider tips the same way that I used to evaluate giving raises in my business life (I'm retired now). There is always a "pool" of money at the beginning, not an unlimited supply to be given out. I start with a list of the team and then I rank the team members starting with who exceeded expectations the most, the ones who mostly exceeded expectations, who simply met expectations and who did not meet expectations at all. Then start assigning amounts to each group. If you have more left at the end, increase some. If you are short, decrease some. You need to work within your budget, but the percentage given to each is key -- and usually the toughest part to figure out.

I see that you asked this in another thread. If you booked in the US, you'll have the resort fees/gratuities added to your cabin charges. Nothing else if you don't charge anything to your cabin.

You may have to pay resort fees/gratuities if they were not included in your original fare, which depends on which website you used for your reservation.

Sometimes you can. Sometimes there is a barrier based on the ship design. 

Depends on your passport country and booking site.  Please share.

Never mind... I was getting off-topic.

7 hours ago, markwfpb said:

I ordered Rick's Med ports book today per your suggestion and saw the Scandinavia and North Europe books on offer. I had forgotten about Lonely Planet - I have a few of their guides somewhere, none for the Med tho.

When we need this type of guidance, we check the books out of the library and take pictures of all the pages we need. This is lots easier than carrying the books with us on holiday and everything is electronically available later to reference.

1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Same thing on our sailing of Seascape.The YC OnePool deck with the 10 up for grabs pergolas.

Are there 10 total or 10 after the OS/RS reserved pergolas? We're on Seascape in September so I'm focusing in on planning for that now...

Keep in mind that many non-Americans cruise on MSC and not many non-Americans are members of Cruise Critic. You're starting with a smaller universe of potential posters on the MSC board, unfortunately, so it makes sense that the actual number of MSC posters would be less than on other CC boards.

However, there is still a good amount of non-YC info here. You might want to search for specific information to find some older threads. The ones that are post-Covid should still have mostly current information.

When you cruise in a few days, please share your experiences. I've read other comments where people express the need for more non-YC threads.

Buon viaggio!

Saw that on Seascspe:

Mustafa is expected to remain YC Director until August.

Ercan is expected to remain maitre d' of the TSL restaurant until October.

8 hours ago, Harriet75C said:

Is there a piano bar?

YC (Yacht Club) has a piano in their YC-exclusive lounge (known as the Top Sail Lounge, TSL). There is live music every evening and many times it includes piano. We find it very nice. A warning though -- some have called it too "sleepy." The alcohol flows freely in YC so we've never considered it so.

Crew have told us that they'll "trade" amongst themselves if the currency is not their norm. This avoids the exchange fees for them. They said that there are always others ready to swap.

16 minutes ago, Mommapadraig said:

He made me the gluten free pizza today and it is absolutely delicious

I was so impressed with the crust! Other GF crusts that I've had have been pretty bad. I tell people that a GF crust is usually the same as eating the toppings using a pizza box top for the crust. But MSC's GF pizza is a winner to me!

We don't drink pinot grigio often, but have been served Santa Margherita in the YC restaurant a few times.

2 hours ago, Fogfog said:

Crew that have know us from previous sailings greet us like family. We enjoy hearing from them and seeing them again

We agree! The YC crew is a small family and I'm amazed at how many remember us. The interesting thing is that it doesn't matter if we had tipped them specifically or not -- they still greet us warmly.