KatRangoon

Which buffet? Deck 8 o deck 16?

Both were open I think, we went to 16.

FYI, during the cruise, both buffets offer several identical stations, but deck 8 buffet has stations of food that deck 16 doesn't have. Think of 16 more as an express, while 8 is more of a full.

The resolution seems fine to me, but I don't plan on blowing them up past maybe an 8x10. I posted this on another photo thread:

I just got off the Seaside, and I was very disappointed with the photo opportunities. We got an embarkation photo, and there was a photo opportunity in Cozumel and Ocho Rios, but that was it. There was no photo op at the Grand Caymans or Bahamas. We also never saw the "random" photo ops, even though my kids were in the kids club and as a family of 5, we were all over the ship at all times of the day. In the evenings, there were plenty of staged photos available with backdrops, but none of those were Caribbean or vacation themed, just the sort of backdrops you'd find at Department store photo booths. We got the unlimited digital package for $99, and I don't feel like I got my money's worth at all.

About the only thing open was the buffet and the bars. No food served at the bars by the way.

The buffets have pizza stations, but only 3 at a time, and most of those were variants on basic cheese. Room service has lots of topping options but you have to pay for the pizza. Buffets on 8 and 16 are open most of the time (16 I believe is closed during regular dinner hours), but at some points in the day there are limited options. We ordered room service a lot for snacks, they have great Club Sandwiches and Chocolate Chip Cookies!

The photo package works for everyone in the room. If you have family in another room, someone from the purchased room has to be in the photos for it to be included in the package.

We booked this for our June 2nd cruise. They are regular balcony rooms with connecting doors that lock. The middle room has a bath, the outside rooms have showers. The beds can be twin or pushed together for queen. All rooms have pull out couches (maybe even bunks, i'm not sure, we didn't use them). They require that an adult is in each room in their computer (but at night we just had the kids sleep in one and we slept in the other). The connecting door doesn't stay open on it's own, so we flipped the locks when they were open to make a doorstop of sorts so we'd have easy access between rooms without having to knock or anything.

Something to keep in mind if you get the Photo pass, it only counts for people in the room it's activated for. For example, we had room 14227 and 14229, the Photo account was for 14227, so only photos taken with people registered in the 14227 room got included on the account. As long as you are doing group photos, no big deal, but we had an issue where my husband (registered in 14229) used his keycard when pictures were being taken and we had to go down to the photo kiosk and manually get the photos added.

My only other tip about the rooms is that you don't have access to all rooms, only your assigned rooms. So we got the kids wristbands that worked as their room keys and we kept their key cards so that we would have access to both rooms at all times.

Our board time was around 3 as well and we got there about 2 and only had a 15 min wait to get processed.

Just got off Seaside. Casino is small, I was disappointed. There is 1 Texas Holdem table, but it is the table that you play against the dealer, not other players.

I just got off the Seaside, and I was very disappointed with the photo opportunities. We got an embarkation photo, and there was a photo opportunity in Cozumel and Ocho Rios, but that was it. There was no photo op at the Grand Caymans or Bahamas. We also never saw the "random" photo ops, even though my kids were in the kids club and as a family of 5, we were all over the ship at all times of the day. In the evenings, there were plenty of staged photos available with backdrops, but none of those were Caribbean or vacation themed, just the sort of backdrops you'd find at Department store photo booths. We got the unlimited digital package for $99, and I don't feel like I got my money's worth at all.

I think it was like 4 hours or so but it's hard to remember exactly. It seemed to be just enough time to see a lot of the stuff, take pics, do the full river swim and have a sit down lunch. It was go go go but it worked out fine and was good. The ferry ride was smooth both ways. You should have zero issues taking a stroller as the park isn't that crowded. It's not like Disney Land. Plenty of personal space and no real lines to speak of. The river swim is the highlight even if you had to swim with a toddler. You would have to walk back to the start after ending to retrieve your stroller.

Thank you! I feel much better about the trip now!

One last chance bump to my questions before we leave for the cruise!

My family of four just took it on the Seaside in April. It was awesome and worth it! 30 minute ferry, 10 minute walk to bus. 30 minute or less to Xcaret by bus.

Oh that's great to hear! Do you remember how long you had at the actual park before you had to come back? And we're planning on taking our toddler, do you think it'll be okay? Did you see anyone with strollers?

We've booked the Xcaret excursion on our Cozumel day, but now I'm worried it was a bad choice. Has anyone else taken the excursion from the Seaside? On other boards, people have said it wasn't worth it through the cruise ships because by the time you get there you only have a couple hours before you have to come back. Does anyone know if the excursion leaves early and how long you get in the park itself (I read it was about an hour each way by ferry and bus to the park)?

I just want to say that this is hilarious. Half the people are saying you can, and half are saying you can't.

I wonder if it's ship specific? The luggage tag picture for the Splendida looks like you CAN bring sealed bottles of water and soda on the ship. Maybe the Seaside has a different policy?

Thanks for the review! I hope you got your foot looked at once home. Having had a foot break myself, they are the _worst_ place to get hurt as you are always using it!

You said the employee contracts were about up. We're going on June 2nd, are they still going to be there then, or are we going to have a new crew by that point?

Do we even _HAVE_ to do the web checkin? Can we just check in in person? I've tried three different days to do the web check in and twice I've entered info only to have it say server error and die on me, then one time, I couldn't even get to the web check in page as the whole site was just "page unavailable" . MSC really needs to fix their website, I don't understand how 8 months after I booked my cruise, their website still hasn't been fixed!

Thank you so much for the pic of the back of the TV! My son and husband have been debating what cords to bring for the laptop/dvd player and Nintendo Switch, and I think they were planning to buy some European adapters because they didn't know what sort the TV would have. This makes it SO much easier for packing!

Also, what sort of $10 sale was it? That's a crazy long line!

Thank you for your awesome review, I've got you on a tab on my screen and I'll be cruising along with you this week!

It's not just you btw, cruisecritic.com keeps going down for me too, they must be having server problems or something.

Thank you for posting the room service menu, we're traveling in June with 3 kids and I was wondering if they'd have stuff they'd like. :)

Thanks everyone, I've got a better feel of the port now, and yeah, I think it would be best if I didn't try and walk to the park. We might just have to settle with a walk around the pier and maybe a mother daughter lunch at Margaritaville (she loves their sweet potato fries!).

No, it wasn't an April Fools question. I was being serious. The cruise ships have lots of games and events you don't have to pay for, I didn't know if Bingo was one of them. You don't have to pay when you play Trivia, or Pictionary, or Name that Tune on the ship do you? I know that some places have you pay for cards, but those are for cash prizes usually. I didn't know if the Bingo on the ship was just one of the fun activities they have, where maybe the winners get drink coupons or t-shirts or something else silly as prizes.

And if someone comes on here and tells me we have to pay to play trivia and the like I think I might cry. The closer we get to our cruise and the more I read these threads, the more things I'm finding out aren't included in our cruise that were never divulged to us on the website, and it's all getting a little ridiculous. *sigh* /end mini rant/

This is what the MSC for Me app shows r.e. service charges.

Hmm, okay, so I guess bar staff gets their tips from the drinks they sell probably, but yeah... seems like a big mystery. I guess I'll just hope everyone gets what they deserve. It's not how I usually like to do it (I definitely believe in tipping based on actual service, not on a flat fee), but since I don't know how it's actually doled out, it'll have to do.

We're travelling with 3 kids, so excursions need to be young children friendly, or we need to split up (which is always an option as we're doing that in Ocho Rios). We'll find something to do, I'm sure, like I said, nothing was just standing out as worth the time for the price, so I was hoping Seaside did last minute sales or something to make it more worth it. Thanks everyone for the info!

So, after reading a bunch of threads, I'm now confused about the MSC Service Charge policy. I _thought_ that the way MSC did their tipping was that you didn't tip and you were charged a Per Person Daily Service Charge that was evenly spread among the crew, even if they didn't serve you directly. But on several posts, I've read how 15% gratuity is being added to drink orders at the bars even if people have the free drink coupons/passes, As if the bartenders/waiters don't get the Service Charge tip.

I guess my question is, does the Service Charge for Seaside go to EVERYONE? or is it just for your Room Attendant? Or Room Attendant and Assigned Waiter in the MDR? I just want to make sure that if some people aren't getting tipped that I think deserve a tip, that they get one, and that I don't double tip unnecessarily.

I've already deleted the emailed warning so can't share the specifics, but it warned of going into various areas due to armed robbery and physical harm to tourists. If you go to the federal website for travel warnings and put in any location, you can see what they are advising.

Okay, thank you. :)

Yay! I love Bingo! Does it cost to play? Do you actually get to put the tokens on the spots, or is it one of those computer pads that does it all for you and you just sit there bored?