voyagerL

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

I don't think Plan 2 would work because you'd have to cancel the initial booking and do a new booking.

 

 

I don’t think that’s the case as I’ve done a ‘conventional’ YC upgrade from a regular balcony before. Twice in fact. That is upgrading but not via plusgrade. Simply now, the discount stops applying thereafter. 

We've pretty much always done YC cruises for the last 2 years but the change to the casino system was a bit of a gut punch! I had a couple of legacy vouchers left to use but they're now done and I have 2 of the new ones. In my mind there's two options... but I'm keen to hear what others do / have done!

1 - book a minimum willing to sail in cabin ie. Fantastica Balcony and then attempt the plusgrade roulette 😄 

2 - book the highest available Non-YC cabin and then immediately upgrade to YC?

Any helps/hints appreciated 🙂 

On 11/14/2023 at 1:35 PM, FreeCasinoCruiser said:

Thanks Pizaz -

It's 5 days til the cruise. There are currently no interior YC available and only 3 YC balconies left. (there were 7 yesterday, I assume people are upgrading or buying late)

 

The cost for me would be the same for interior/balcony YC because the casino prices them out the same.  

Did you get a plusgrade offer in the end? 🙂 

On 11/14/2023 at 1:35 PM, FreeCasinoCruiser said:

Thanks Pizaz -

It's 5 days til the cruise. There are currently no interior YC available and only 3 YC balconies left. (there were 7 yesterday, I assume people are upgrading or buying late)

 

The cost for me would be the same for interior/balcony YC because the casino prices them out the same.  

Don't take the online inventory as golden information, we’ve been plus graded into a YC Deluxe when it had showed as sold out for 3 straight weeks prior! 
 

If you don’t land a plusgrade, you can always ask for an onboard upgrade price. 

7 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

So this was new to me - upcoming Seashore 4 night cruise.  Going solo but paid a reasonable single supplement for original cabin as the Yacht Club single supplements were 100% which was way too much per night per person (for just me!)  

 

First, received "standard" email to upgrade and I bid the maximum for a YIN (knowing full well that it would be x2).   But I also knew that there were no YINs available on the cruise.  

 

This morning received a COUNTER offer to bid for a Yacht Club Deluxe Balcony because there were no YINs available.  I accepted the counter and within 15 minutes my credit card was charged, and 30 minutes later a cabin assigned.  SOOOOOOOO excited. I thought this was super smart of them.  Hummm, someone is willing to go all in on the YIN, but I did not put in a minimum offer on the YCD, so they lowered their offer, leaving it within an acceptable range for me.

 

To note, this is not my first yacht club rodeo by any means, but last year (same week, same 4 nighter but on Meraviglia), the solo supplements were waived so I sailed much cheaper last year booking outright.  

This is certainly new on me but I’d rather get a counter offer than radio silence and a subsequent rejection email! Congrats and enjoy🥂 

48 minutes ago, Bettyboop66 said:

My DH tells me he’s looked to see if it can be accessed. But it is well and truly gone. I would think he was trying to save money, except he said he’d have liked to try the bid for the YC. Maybe I’ll get lucky and MSC will send another email. But I’m not holding my breath…..

We normally receive the email more than once before sailing, especially if we’ve not submitted a bid. 

9 hours ago, dexddd said:

News to us after eight trips about any free laundry.

We normally buy a package in any event before we cruise but the free pressing is useful for shirts! 👔 

3 hours ago, FreeCasinoCruiser said:

Thanks! Both me and my partner have that checked but sadly nothing yet. 😞 

Yes, they definitely sometimes leave it quite late. This will be my last casino comp cruise I think, the new points tariff is just terrible! 

We were on a casino cruise on our last sailing, we didn't get offered plusgrade until we'd checked in. Make sure you tick the 'accept emails from third parties' box. We got an upgrade to YC from comp'd balcony. 

We are always given 4 free items of pressing but any wash/dry laundry is chargeable. 

We’re embarking on Tuesday! Thanks for the updates 😊 can you let me know what theme nights they had during your cruise? Gala + White Night + ? 
 

Thanks in advance (helps with the luggage debacle) lol! 

5 hours ago, joeyancho said:

Just wanted to share my experience with bidding for the Yacht Club upgrade.  Originally we booked a standard balcony room, Fantastica Experience.   We received an email offering an opportunity to bid on upgrades.   We have only sailed MSC once before.  Enjoyed it.  Since I've read so much about Yacht Club, on these boards, I decided to put in a bid.  I bid on an Interior Yacht Club room.  I figured the trade off would be worth it.  The bid was for the suggested amount.  I upgraded the bid recently,  not by much.  This morning I received an email congratulating us that our bid was accepted.   The email contained the room number.  After an internet search I discovered that we have been assigned a Deluxe Balcony Suite!!  Believing it was too good to be true, I called MSC to confirm.  They confirmed the email.   Pinch me!  We would have been happy to get the YC interior.   But for some unknown reason good fortune has smiled on us.  Thank you MSC fairy.  

I just had the same thing myself! Couldn’t believe it! Enjoy!

I have to say that the casino process and service is nothing short of chaotic. Not only has the voucher degradation hit us, as we normally sail in the YC, but we find that now we have to do a lot of the work. We have to get the UK Contact Centre to raise an option for us and then forward the option to the Casino Team. We then have to keep an eye out and often call the UK centre to extend the option because the casino team don't apply the vouchers in time and the option expires, which means we have to do it all again. Friends who sail with NCL or RC showed us their casino programme online, pick your cruise, pay your taxes and off you go - a much much simpler affair! 

On 10/19/2023 at 4:00 PM, abbymac said:

We are booked on a Western Europe cruise in March and would love to hear how previous passengers felt about the Duplex suite.

 

THanks

I think the suites are undeniably beautiful, having the tub and terrace is amazing. Some friends were offered an upgrade into this suite from their YC1 on embarkation day by the concierge for £100 each which they accepted. Their only criticism was that the cabin is outside of YC itself but it didn't interfere with their experience all that much and they really loved the space. 

My understanding of the Bidgrade system is that they find chains of upgrades which generate revenue. So they'll identify a chain of successive upgrades and then approve them. We sail 31 Oct 23 but got our bidgrade bid which we submitted last night, approved this afternoon. We actually bid for a YC Int which we normally book direct but this was a casino discounted cruise and the rubbish vouchers don't extend to YC anymore. However, we were very pleased to have been upgraded to a YC1 instead of an interior. 

For full context, we booked an interior bella with premium extra drinks. We received a comp upgrade to a Deluxe Balcony and then got a bidgrade email. 

17 minutes ago, BertieRulesOK said:

Just got off of the Britannia today and I had booked the Retreat all week.  We had some gorgeous weather and so it was worth it to escape from the scrum on the main deck.  The Retreat also has 50% of the hot tubs on the ship - 2 of 4.  The two on main deck were always very busy.  So, if good weather it is 100% the best investment you can make with a panoramic view from the front of the ship.  Wet weather = unusable.

 

They served healthy lunch and breakfast consisting of prepared salads - a meat and veg option. Also an afternoon scone!

 

There was essentially a butler service for drinks from the bar (paid for) and an endless supply of tea, coffee and ice water (included).

 

I LOVED it.  Much assisted by the fact it was located by the adult pool for a swim and tge adult pool is actually a decent size.  Meaning it was possible to have a good swim!  No postage stamps here!

Thanks for the insight, that's really useful. Could I also ask... is it true that even if you have a drinks package, this can't  be used for drinks from The Retreat? 

Is there a nearby bar that you could acquire drinks from and just take them back into the Retreat (if you can't use your drinks package inside it)? 

I just posted a question about this actually, is it only on Arvia? My parents are sailing Britannia later this year and are planning to purchase Retreat access for the cruise. It seems odd they'd offer it on one ship but not on another? Any insights, greatly appreciated! 

Good evening fellow CC'ers! 🙂 

I've just booked my parents onto a 2 week Caribbean on Britannia and as we often sail Yacht Club, they were keen to know more about The Retreat. I've seen some posts stating that on Arvia there is now a selection of alcoholic drinks in The Retreat, is this the case across the fleet? It seems odd that they would offer this on one ship but not on another? 

Thanks in advance for your insights! :-) 

Hey Slyfox, there's no matching of Casino Status from other lines and the MSC Casino Programme isn't enduring, it essentially works on a per cruise basis. Players accrue points by playing and certain thresholds trigger rewards. The whole scheme has recently changed but I think you now need around 4500 points for a free 7 night interior cabin cruise. Accruing more points beyond this will increase the range of destinations and the type of cabin you receive complimentarily. 

There's a useful video on the scheme here: Breaking! MSC Casino completely changes casino comps! Good news and bad news.... - Bing video

Whilst you don't accrue a status which you retain for subsequent cruises per se, I have since received over 4 free cruises spontaneously owing to previous points accrual so they're definitely keeping tabs back in 'MSC Casino HQ' 😄!    

On 1/1/2023 at 1:06 PM, CruisingNole said:

My wife and I are thinking about taking one of the MSC 3 night cruises out of PC. What’s the age demographic like? We typically cruise RC but the prices have gotten too high so looking for alternatives. We are 30-39 y/o.

Whilst the majority of my sailing has been on MSC in Europe, I have done 2 x Caribbean itineraries. We always sail MSC because we love the diversity of passengers. We're 31 and 32 respectively and always find friends with ease 🙂

Hey cjdenman! 

I sailed Armonia in the USA in 2020. The ship isn't like the video, it looks a little better in real life, I had the same concerns! It's a rather small ship if you've sailed on more contemporary ships / lines but I actually quite liked that aspect of it. In essence, it's not glass and chrome but they do a good job of making it presentable for sailing. 

The bars were all open until midnight / 1am'ish save for the casino bar which stayed open until 2/3am. 

21 hours ago, GPPhilly said:

I have seen some posts and some posts on facebook and youtube about changes to the points need to earn free cruise certificates and percentages off.  I also saw that the discounts no longer apply to the YC.  Does anyone know if the possibility to upgrade from a free cruise cert has changed and is the dollar amounts still the same?  I plan to call but work is crazy and I don't know when I will get the chance.  I figured maybe someone here might know.  Thanks 

Useful video just uploaded on YouTube which covers this: 

This is a bit of a gutting change - headlines being:

- 5000 points for 20% off now or a 7 night interior free (which is a reduction from the original 9,999 threshold) 

- 1200 points for 1/3 off voucher is no longer

-  % discount vouchers cannot be used against YC fares 

11 hours ago, Bobbiegentry said:

First MSC cruise upcoming. 
On all other cruise lines we’ve been on there is ample room under the bed to store luggage. 
 

Can we , I hope, anticipate finding space for storage under the beds on MSC?

 

YCI on Seascape and later on Virtuosa.  

You can store cases under the bed but I've also given them to the Butler before to store out of the cabin, when we travelling a little heavy on the luggage front! 😄 

On 10/21/2022 at 2:07 AM, pcwoodwardflier said:

I understand there is provision for smokers.      Can anyone elaborate about the presence of a cigar lounge ?

There is indeed, as @Cruiseforever11 says, it's just near the staircase leading into the Sky Lounge. It's very small though, maybe 8 to 10 seats but floor to ceiling glass, makes it scenic. There are cigars for sale, you purchase them via the Sky Lounge staff. 

If you're sailing Yacht Club, you'll also be able to smoke on the One Deck. 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:13 AM, nikoo.s said:

Thank you both for the replies 🙂

 

I guess this isn't just an issue with MSC but rather all cruises generally, so I certainly don't want to sound like I'm being negative towards MSC! I'll probably wait until I'm onboard next time to book any excursions in that case even if it does cost more than doing it before the cruise (Unless there's an excursion I know I will do regardless of what time it is!)

Despite being a loyal MSC passenger, their excursion setup does annoy me. At least once on every cruise, we have an excursion cancelled, normally given notice at 9/10pm the night before, leaving you empty handed if there isn't another you fancy. If we want to change plans however, a full 24hrs notice or the cancellation fee is 100% 😮